Sampa is Bringing Authentic Brazilian Dining to Santa Cruz Next Month

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Sampa is Bringing Authentic Brazilian Dining to Santa Cruz Next Month

Greater Santa Cruz enjoys a lot of international elements, as even the briefest romance with the downtown Wednesday Farmers Market can attest. (Give me all the Eritrean lamb from Nahna and Old England-style fish and chips from Scrumptious.) 

But nothing on the level of São Paolo. 

Admittedly, that’s not a fair fight. 

São Paolo, known as “Sampa” by locals, has more restaurants than Capitola does people.

Sampa, with a population of 23+ million, is considered South America’s culinary capital. 

That’s partly thanks to the massive amount of influences plying their flavor there, including more Portuguese, Spaniards, Japanese and Italians than any other city outside their native lands.

Three siblings from the largest city in the Southern Hemisphere open their epicurean tribute to São Paolo in Santa Cruz as soon as early May by way of Sampa Brazilian Food.

Natasha Reber, Ricardo Malia and Fernando Neto—named in order of their immigration here, prompted by Reber’s arrival to learn English and her talking her brothers into it—have gathered an enthusiastic following with street food-inspired stuff at Woodhouse Blending & Brewing. 

Their new full-service restaurant space sits at the corner of Water Street and North Branciforte Avenue, in a place that locals long knew as Joe’s Pizza (before his brother made it Robbie’s Pizza & Subs).

New floors, reimagined paint and a dog-friendly deck are already in place. 

On the menu will appear dishes that made Sampa an integral part of Woodhouse’s welcoming vibe. Think coxinha chicken croquettes and slow-cooked carne louca tri-tip, plus new dishes like savory hand-pie pasteles and traditional feijoada bean and pork stew.

Live music on weekends will accompany draft beers (anticipate Woodhouse specialties), local wines and satisfying flavors from a country underrated for its delicious pop.

It reminds me of something my world-traveling colleague Hanif Wondir told me when we visited São Paolo: “I had no idea Brazil does food this good.”

PENNY FOR YOUR PLOTS

A Penny Ice Creamery scoop: The local legend is opening new stores in Los Altos and Palo Alto, its first outposts away from home turf. Founders Kendra Baker and Zachary Davis are stoked to take the long-anticipated leap. “For years now, Bay Area guests have been asking for The Penny to open locations over the hill,” Baker says. The debuts are expected at the tail end of this spring. thepennyicecreamery.com

SLICE OF HEAVEN

Speaking of long-anticipated: The Pizza Series is open at 226 Mt. Hermon Road in Scotts Valley for lunch and dinner takeout Thursday-Saturday as it awaits its indoor space remodel completion. Five-star Detroit-style pies, hot honey and vegan options are all in play. thepizzaseries.com

SHOOT FOR THE STARS

UCSC astronomy and astrophysics department chair Puragra Guha Thakurta gets intergalactic gourmet with a star-gazing session and a three-course dinner on April 23 at Chaminade Resort & Spa. From the heavens descend gulf prawn ceviche, Petaluma Farm rack of lamb and Pinkberry opera cake, paired with peeks through Thakurta’s telescope. www.chaminade.com

The Complex and Wonderful M. Mathis 2020 Gruner Veltliner

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The Complex and Wonderful M. Mathis 2020 Gruner Veltliner

Marty Mathis is well known around these parts. He’s an excellent winemaker and has been involved in wine for most of his life, learning the trade from his mother, the late Kathryn Kennedy, whose namesake winery continues.

Kennedy was a pioneer winemaker. She established her vineyard “during the wine boom of the early 1970s” and began producing excellent wines. There were not many women making wine back then.

Mathis is the winemaker for Kathryn Kennedy wines, but he also established his label in 2021, M. Mathis Winegrower.

“The M. Mathis Winegrower is my new vehicle to show you what I learned,” Mathis says. “Come on for the ride.” Well, he’s off to a good start with the 2020 Gruner Veltliner (about $30), as the grapes are harvested from the esteemed Alfaro Vineyards in Corralitos. 

“Not a beginner white wine,” Mathis says. “It shows complex and alluring aromas derived from its coastal terroir. It will be more at home at the evening dinner table rather than an outdoor setting or casual picnic.”

Mathis ships out his wines—usually by the case—as he doesn’t have a tasting room. The Gruner Veltliner is sold in batches of three bottles ($72). kathryn-kennedy-winery.obtainwine.com

Santa Cruz Mountains Grand Wine Tasting

Join vintners of the Santa Cruz Mountains with more than 40 wineries in one location, including Marty Mathis pouring the wines of Kathryn Kennedy Winery. Food will be available for purchase or bring your own picnic. Bid on more than 50 exciting silent auction items and check on the bidding from the app on your phone.

Santa Cruz Mountains Grand Wine Tasting is Sunday, April 30, 12:30-4pm. Mountain Winery in Saratoga. $70-170. scmwa.com  

Woodies Café Delivers Retro Vibes, Fresh Seafood and Ocean Views

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Woodies Café Delivers Retro Vibes, Fresh Seafood and Ocean Views

Lance Haggard worked in aerospace sales until 9/11. After his position was cut, he followed a “traveling itch” and moved to Shanghai, where he helped open several restaurants, including his own. But Haggard missed home too much, so he returned to Santa Cruz, where he had lived as a young adult. He responded to a Craigslist ad seeking a GM for Woodies Café. That was five years ago.
Woodies has the feel of a 1950s diner. Of course, the ocean views are timeless. Haggard defines the menu as “elevated fast-casual American cuisine centered around classic seafood favorites.” The fresh calamari is a palette-awakening favorite, as is the award-winning clam chowder, served in the obligatory sourdough bread bowl. Other options include fish and chips, burgers and the nostalgia-flavored old-fashioned milkshakes.
Hours are 11am-9pm every day. Haggard dished to GT on the clam chowder and his passion for Woodies’ customers. 

What makes Woodies’ chowder so good?

LANCE HAGGARD: The recipe is over 50 years old; I think the owner actually sleeps with [the recipe] under his pillow. The secret is putting in the highest quality ingredients to get the highest quality product. It’s a thicker style with a lot of clams and fresh potatoes. And we serve it in a fresh-baked bread bowl that is over-proofed, so it gets just the right amount of sourdough tang with a crispy crust and a billowy, soft, cloud-like interior.

What do you love about working on the Wharf?

Working in Shanghai for so many years, I was used to meeting people from all over the world. Working here is similar. The breadth of the different clientele is very rich and diverse. Our guests come from down the street, Asia, Europe and everywhere in between. 

Woodies Café, 25 Municipal Wharf, Santa Cruz, 831-421-9410; woodiescafe.net

Two Members Leave Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds Board

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Two Members Leave Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds Board

Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds Board Chair Don Dietrich has resigned his post and interim Fairgrounds Manager Kelley Ferreira has announced his departure, Board Director Nick Calubaquib confirmed Monday.

Dietrich, who made the announcement to his fellow board members last week, did not return a call for comment. His final day is April 21. 

But in an email to the board, Dietrich said he hopes his departure “will help to heal the anger that everyone’s experiencing at every meeting.”

“And he apologizes,” Calubaquib said. “He believed that he’s lost his ability to consider public comment without bias because of all the emotions that have been involved in everything that has gone on over the past several months.”

Ferreira said his role as interim manager always had an expiration date. His last day is May 15.

The departures add yet another chapter in the saga of the Fairgrounds, which began Oct. 4, when the Board fired Manager Dave Kegebein.

That move came after an audit by the California Department of Food and Agriculture showed hundreds of expenditures on a state-issued credit card totaling more than $100,000 were for “various purchases that were personal in nature, unjustified and/or not supported with a receipt or a vendor invoice.”

Roughly $30,000 of these purchases were for fuel for Kegebein’s personal vehicle, the audit shows.

Kegebein handed the board a check for that amount at a later meeting. He says that the fuel was for the truck he used for his work at the Fairgrounds.

In the wake of his dismissal, Directors Jody Belgard and Loretta Estrada were fired without being given a reason about two weeks later in a phone call from the office of Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The board will discuss appointing a new member and hiring a new director at its April 25 meeting.

Board Vice-Chair Stephanie Fontana and Director Tony Campos did not return a call seeking comment.

Calubaquib said he was not surprised to hear the news.

“I mean, there has been so much turmoil with the leadership of the fairgrounds over the past several months,” he said. “With every change there is opportunity. This will hopefully give the opportunity to work on healing and to work on moving forward in a positive way.”

This story will be updated.

Lawmakers Push for Faster Pajaro River Levee Repairs

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Lawmakers Push for Faster Pajaro River Levee Repairs

A little more than a month after the Pajaro Levee broke and released waves of roiling river water that laid waste to homes, businesses and crops in Pajaro, a group of local, state and federal lawmakers gathered near the river in Monterey County to discuss what is being done to help ensure such a disaster does not happen again.

Tommy Williams, who manages the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ (ACOE) San Francisco office, told a gaggle of reporters that temporary fixes are expected to begin in the coming summer.

But Williams also says that a $400 million upgrade to the levee system to provide 100-year flood protection could begin as early as summer 2024. 

This is a significant departure from recent predictions that it would take at least two years—and possibly up to five years—to get started.

But the promise Wednesday from Sen. Alex Padilla and Rep. Jimmy Panetta—along with Pajaro River Flood Management Agency Director Mark Strudley—was clear: officials are working to cut through red tape and streamline the process.

Padilla pointed to the recent acquisition of $400 million in state and federal funds to upgrade the levee system, but says it comes too late for residents who are still out of their homes. Many of those are the same residents who have endured five floods over the past three decades.

“Unfortunately, tragically, mother nature didn’t wait,” he says. “Didn’t wait for the work to get started. It’s now our job to make sure that tragedy doesn’t strike again while funding is in the pipeline. We will continue to work together to ensure the Biden Administration expedites construction funding and protects this community the way it deserves.”

Panetta says he has made fixing the levee system a priority during his time in Congress by putting pressure on federal and state lawmakers and the ACOE.

“But boy, have we seen lately that more pressure is needed,” he says. “Pressure not just to start this project but to start it right now.”

Strudley says that he is taking action now to fast-track the temporary repairs, making sure the needed funding is secured and eliminating the regulatory and administrative burdens that could delay the project.

“We are ready, willing and able to start building new levees,” Strudley says.

The ‘What’s Home?’ Project Engenders Creative Connectivity

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The ‘What’s Home?’ Project Engenders Creative Connectivity

The San Lorenzo flows steadily behind the Tannery Arts Center, clear for the first time in months. Away from the river’s sycamores, the concrete holds the heat of the day. Artistic Director of What’s Home? Creative Listening Across Difference Andrew Purchin and Cynthia Strauss sit in the shade of the Tannery’s Radius Gallery. They lean towards one another, animated in conversation. Their postures anticipate the topic at hand: creative listening. 

At its core, What’s Home? is a community documentary project that puts housed and unhoused Santa Cruz residents in conversation. In the documentary, artists ask participants about their relationship to home and how housing scarcity has impacted them. During discussions, artists also facilitate creative activities—like music-making, drawing, or crocheting. The project has been years in the making. 

“This chapter started in 2020 when I brought my creative listening project to the Benchlands encampment here in Santa Cruz,” Purchin says. 

The San Lorenzo Park Benchlands encampment served as a city-sponsored camping place for people experiencing homelessness from 2020 to November of last year. Purchin would paint at the Benchlands and have conversations with passersby. These types of conversations—generative, meandering, curious—typify creative listening. 

Before 2020, Purchin practiced live painting and creative listening nationally, at the 2008 inauguration of President Obama and the 2012 Republican and Democratic National Conventions.

“I’d start a painting at the Republican National Convention, and then I’d bring it to the Democratic National Convention, and the people would go, ‘Oh, that’s us,’ and I’d say, ‘No, that’s the Republicans,’ and I’d finish the painting over there,” Purchin says. “I’d have conversations with the easel in front of me. It’s like having a puppy. It gets conversations going.”

Strauss—a dancer and interviewer in What’s Home? —emphasizes that other artists have swiftly and widely adopted creative listening. Strauss participated in Purchin’s project to bring 1000 artists to the 2012 presidential inauguration and perform site-specific, creative listening projects more locally. 

“Other artists jumped on it. For instance, I did a dance on a bridge [to San Lorenzo Park] where someone was beaten up. There have been many more artists who have brought this concept to other places,” Strauss says. 

Purchin proposed the What’s Home? project to the City Arts Recovery Design program in 2021, ran a successful pilot with musician Michael Levy and received a grant. Now, What’s Home? uses creative listening to understand the often heavy stories of Santa Cruz residents experiencing homelessness. 

“If you are deeply listening, people reveal what they wouldn’t necessarily be willing to reveal otherwise. You see the quality of listening through the person who is talking. That’s what I noticed when I was interviewing,” Strauss says. “I don’t need to do anything more than allow the space to grow for them to say what they need to say. I’m here to hear your story. I can hold it. They are heavy stories, some of them.”

Artists are uniquely poised to have these meaningful conversations because they have what Purchin calls “mixing boards.”

“On that mixing board, we might ask, [about someone’s experience] what is like from far away? What’s it like from up close? What’s it like in the middle? What would it be like in black and white? In color and what color? What colors do you see your childhood as?” Purchin explains.

Strauss finds these sorts of nuanced questions, particularly poignant for matters related to housing and homelessness. 

“I’m fascinated with that tipping point, that spectrum,” Strauss says. “For me, as a mover, we have all these pedestrian movements, and when do they become dance? When does rocking become a dance form? I realized that this applies to everything. Like when is a person considered housed or unhoused? Is it when you’re on your friend’s couch because you have nowhere to go? Or is it when you are definitely on the sidewalk? Those shades of grey are constant, and then, all of a sudden, it tips.”

In addition to the documentary, the What’s Home? project has engendered a suite of creative projects, set to premier this Saturday at The 418 Project. During the show, A Night of Creative Listening Across Difference, Strauss will dance to an original score by their husband and fellow artist Ken Bewick. The show will also include a thirty-minute, one-act play, musical acts, and clips from the What’s Home? documentary. 

Strauss and Purchin agree that art is vital to addressing issues like housing and homelessness. 

“We [artists] can explain it in ways that aren’t necessarily cognitive,” Strauss says. “People can access it in a different way. Because sometimes it is too painful, but maybe I can see something crocheted by someone housed and unhoused and have a different feeling.” 

Purchin adds, “Art is relationship building, and we need to make relationships across differences—between housed and unhoused people—so that people are enrolled in making a better community. Art brings us together.”

To those who might suggest that a more urgent, direct aid approach is appropriate in addressing the housing crisis and homelessness, Purchin says, “They’re not wrong. And, artists, as cultural workers, can shift the consciousness.”

Purchin’s painting from the San Lorenzo Benchlands encampment sits against the wall in the Radius Gallery, soon to hang with the work of other What’s Home? artists. The painting is a vibrant, layered amalgamation of tarps and tents. A sycamore leans in its corner. It looks familiar, like home. 

Night of Creative Listening Across Difference, Saturday, April 15 at 7pm. Sliding scale entrance fee. The 418 Project, 155 S. River St., Santa Cruz. 

What’s Home? Multimedia Exhibition, Sunday, April 16 at 2pm (opening reception). The exhibition runs through May 7. Free. Radius Gallery, Tannery Arts Center, 1050 River St., Unit 127, Santa Cruz. whatshome.org

Opinion: Writing on the Wall

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Opinion: Writing on the Wall

EDITOR’S NOTE

Over 45 years ago, Rob Brezsny came across a message scribed in a bathroom stall at a Roy Rogers in North Carolina: “I got Santa Cruzified and Californicated, and it felt like paradise,” it read. “You know you’ll never become the artist you were meant to be until you come live in Santa Cruz.” The unconventional sign inspired the younger Brezsny to go west and settle in Santa Cruz. Mark C. Anderson’s cover story is a window into Brezsny’s wisdom and those roads less traveled—many of which have led to good things—you’ll understand why sometimes the unconventional, unexpected or downright destitute route might be best.
Brezsny’s early years in Santa Cruz weren’t easy: He rotated between living in a room with a shared bathroom in the original St. George Hotel and a sleeping bag in San Lorenzo Park. He lived on food stamps, which never lasted a month, even when he stuck to a diet of mostly rice and veggies.

Brezsny’s rickety old bike was his means of transportation—it was a challenge to scrounge up enough for bus fare—so he was devastated when his one-speed jalopy was stolen. He now sees it as a blessing; it led him to the classified pages of Good Times, where he saw an ad that the paper was looking for a new horoscope writer. 

Before the horoscope column, Brezsny lived in “squalor and deprivation.” After his column launched on Jan. 26, 1978, life remained unchanged. Good Times paid him $15 per week. So, along with his guaranteed monthly resources, including food stamps, his total monthly earnings amounted to less than $150. Brezsny supplemented his income with temp jobs, which included weeding senior citizens’ gardens and volunteering for medical experiments.

Brezsny delves deeper into his early days in Santa Cruz in his forthcoming book, Astrology Is Real: Revelations from My Life as a Horoscope Columnist, (release date: TBD). Not including his books, his Free Will Astrology column has accounted for 70,000 words for each of the 45 years it’s run—it appears in 90-plus publications in North America, Italy, France, Japan, the Netherlands and beyond. That message in the North Carolina bathroom stall eventually led Brezsny to a comfortable life in Marin. More importantly, as Anderson relays in his story, it led to Brezsny’s understanding of how he’s constructed on a molecular level. “I’m made of Santa Cruz,” he says. “I’m Santa Cruz taken to the world at large.”

Adam Joseph | Editor

PHOTO CONTEST WINNER

budding talent
A 15-year-old photographer showcases the intricate beauty of a flower in Live Oak. Photograph by Daniel Floro.

Submit to ph****@*******es.sc. Include information (location, etc.) and your name. Photos may be cropped. Preferably, photos should be 4 inches by 4 inches and minimum 250dpi.

GOOD IDEA

This Saturday, the Resource Center for Nonviolence (RCNV) will hold a free discussion with two prominent Santa Cruz activists to inspire future activism. The “Stories of Resistance” event will feature Bella Bonner and Joy Flynn, local Black Lives Matter organizers. Flynn initiated the first Black Lives Matter protest in downtown Santa Cruz right after George Floyd was murdered. Bonner organized the largest Black Lives Matter march in Santa Cruz later that summer. rcnv.org

GOOD WORK

UCSC will host its first Land Acknowledgement event Wednesday, April 12. The event will recognize the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, the Indigenous people who originally inhabited the land, and discuss the tribe’s relationship with their homelands. The event aims to answer the community’s questions about land acknowledgments and will be hosted online and in-person, beginning at 3pm at Stevenson Event Center. Register at calendar.ucsc.edu/event

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“I don’t believe in astrology; I’m a Sagittarius and we’re skeptical.”

―Arthur C. Clarke

Letter to the Editor: Community Spirit

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Letter to the Editor: Community Spirit

Brookvale Terrace Mobile Home Park in Capitola marks 30 years of resident ownership this April, and more than 50 years as a mobile home park. A potluck with residents on April 15 will celebrate the small community, its memories and the success of privately owning and managing a mobile home park.

“As residents of Brookvale Terrace, we enjoy our natural surroundings, the community of nice neighbors and having private control of our land and mobile home park. It’s truly an honor to volunteer on the board and serve my community. Our celebration will be an old-fashioned potluck with plenty of time for remembrances and socializing,” the Board of Directors President Sheryl Colson says.

Brookvale Terrace was constructed in the early 1970s by John Minges of Scotts Valley and his partners, according to The History of Noble Gulch and Brookvale Terrace Mobile Home Park, written by resident Stephanie Kirby. The Gulch and surrounding land were initially inhabited by the Ohlone native people and given to Maria Matina Castro Lodge in 1833 by the Mexican government as part of the Rancho Soquel land grant, according to Kirby’s history.

Much of the land was later sold to Frederick Hihn, and the Castro-Lodge homestead area on top of Hill Street to Augustus Noble in 1856. Thus, Kirby writes that Peck Gulch, named for a Castro-Lodge heir, became Noble Gulch. Due to the extensive rose gardens fed by vast nearby springs, Gulch called his estate Rosedale.

In the intervening decades, increasing conflict over rent increases in Capitola led to rent stabilization ordinances and lawsuits with park owners. Abraham Keh bought the park in 1981, and battled with the residents and Capitola over rent and maintenance, as detailed by Kirby. In 1993, residents bought the 20-acre property for $6.8 million with the help of a bond established by Capitola and established the Brookvale Terrace Property Owners Association.

Today the park is overseen by a volunteer Board of Directors and is one of the county’s most desirable mobile home parks. brookvaleterrace.com

Stacey Vreeken | Capitola

These letters do not necessarily reflect the views of Good Times.To submit a letter to the editor of Good Times: Letters should be originals—not copies of letters sent to other publications. Please include your name and email address to help us verify your submission (email address will not be published). Please be brief. Letters may be edited for length, clarity and to correct factual inaccuracies known to us. Send letters to le*****@*******es.sc

Santa Cruz Shooting

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Santa Cruz Shooting

A man was shot while riding in a car just before 2pm in Santa Cruz at the heavily traveled intersection of Ocean Street and San Lorenzo Boulevard.

As Santa Cruz Police raced to the scene, the victim was rushed to Dominican Hospital in a private vehicle.

The suspect is still at large, and considered armed and dangerous.

This article will be updated.

Things to Do in Santa Cruz: April 12-18

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Things to Do in Santa Cruz: April 12-18

ARTS AND MUSIC

SYLVIE WTH CAREER WOMAN Ben Schwab juggles multiple projects simultaneously: In the duo Golden Daze, he and bandmate Jacob Loeb evoke flower-scented folk harmonies akin to Fleet Foxes. In Michael Collins’ L.A. outfit, Drugdealer, Schwab helps meld psych-pop yacht-rock. Sylvie, meanwhile, is Schwab’s baby. Working out of his garage studio, he’s in complete control as a songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist and engineer. Schwab’s heart-on-the-sleeve ballad “Falls On Me” delves into a breakup and, subsequently, a period of personal growth. An ensemble of piano, bass, drums and slide guitar yields a soft-rock vibe of Seals & Croft and a tempo resembling a dimly lit grand ballroom. 17-year-old Los Angeles singer-songwriter Melody Caudill’s project, Career Woman, has been in the works since she learned how to play piano at 4. Caudill picked up the ukulele at 13, then the guitar. With inspirations from artists like Priscilla Ahn, Phoebe Bridgers, and Elliott Smith, the prodigy pens tunes laced with writes with juxtaposition buoyancy and vulnerability. $18/$22 plus fees. Wednesday, April 12, 8pm. Moe’s Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz. folkyeah.com

JESSE DANIEL WITH TWO RUNNER “Make the kind of music you want to make, and do what’s true to yourself, and the right people will find it, and they will be into it,” Jesse Daniel told me about a year ago before he performed The Catalyst. That sold-out show turned out to be the Santa Cruz County native’s recently released My Kind Of Country Live at The Catalyst—fun fact: It’s the first album recorded at The Catalyst since Neil Young & Crazy Horse’s Touch The Night – Santa Cruz 1984. Don’t be fooled by Daniel’s aw-shucks sensibility; his sound, informed by various influences from Merle Haggard to X’s John Doe to traditional Texas two-step, adds up to high-energy live performances without a moment to breathe. Throughout the years, Daniel and his band have toured and shared stages with Tyler Childers, Sierra Ferrell, Charley Crockett, American Aquarium, Turnpike Troubadours and many others. In 2022, he clocked over 50,000 miles. He aims to surpass that in 2023. “The Catalyst was kind of as big as it gets in my world,” Daniel says. “To headline the main stage, let alone sell it out and make a record there, is a huge accomplishment for me, and I’m forever grateful to my Santa Cruz County friends, fans and family for supporting what we do.” $24/$27 plus fees. Friday, April 14, 8pm. The Catalyst, 1101 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. catalystclub.com

AJ LEE AND BLUE SUMMIT WITH WOLF JETT While AJ Lee grew up immersed in the bluegrass world, by the time she assembled AJ Lee and Blue Summit in 2015—based out of Santa Cruz at the time—she had expanded her influences to include folk-rock, soul, blues and even jazz. The evidence runs throughout their 2019 debut, Like I Used To. Two years later, I’ll Come Back jumps even further from traditional bluegrass, focusing more on the connection between the bandmembers. This connection might even be likened to what the Grateful Dead achieved. Lee is already considered a veteran of the bluegrass scene—she’s a nine-time winner of the Northern California Bluegrass Awards for best female vocalist. Her musical wisdom surpasses her 25 years on the planet. “Put Your Head Down,” one of Blue Summit’s newer tunes, is a testament to Lee’s songwriting talent. The band’s carefully crafted instrumentation, which conjures a frenzy of franticness, is described by the band’s violinist Jan Purat as “chill and fiery.” $15/$20 plus fees. Friday, April 14, 8pm. Moe’s Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz. moesalley.com

OBJECT COLLECTION: HOUSECONCERT – ‘PARANORMAL-DOMESTIC ACTIONS IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER’ Written and directed by Kara Feely, composed by Travis Just, performed by Catrin Lloyd-Bollard, Kara Feely, Travis Just, Daniel Allen Nelson, Nicolás Noreña, James Oldham and Timothy Scott, Object Collection’s history is intimately connected with house concerts. The ghosts of Jack Smith, Sam Rivers and all those who blended their art with their homes will be summoned, igniting the most basic form of a community: “A performance at the end of time, the last house concert of them all. Or the first, before everything. Casual, using whatever is at hand. After everything has been done, we do this anyway because this is what we do with our guests in our house. Getting amongst it.” $22/$16.50; $11/students. Friday, April 14 and Saturday. April 15, 8:30pm. Indexical, 1050 River St., #119, Santa Cruz. indexical.org

SMOKE CHASER The Bay Area sextet peddles madly catchy tunes fueled by towering vocals, spellbinding rhythms and psychedelic excursions. Malinda DeRouen, the Suborbitals’ Ryan Masters and members of a spectral East Bay digital collective, Smoke Chaser, erupted onto the scene in 2022 and are planning to release their full-length debut, Alazapul, this summer. The group’s first single, “Highway One,” is described as “a celebration of sex, Big Sur and Henry Miller,” and it’s already scored radio play in the Monterey Bay area. With lyrical moments like, “Henry Miller says he’s gonna live again if only to have a lot more sex,” it’s hard not to listen. Free. Saturday, April 15, 7pm. Brookdale Lodge, 11570 Hwy 9, Brookdale. brookdalelodge.com

DREAMING OF YOU: SELENA TRIBUTE 2023 “With a positive attitude, you can be anything you want to be,” the late great singer Selena said. It’s a perfect mantra to inspire the community and come together to pay tribute to the legend. DJ Moi will spin tunes spanning the iconic songstress’s career. Additionally, there will be live performances from local bands, a lookalike and lip-sync contest, various art activities for the kiddos and food and drink from over a dozen food trucks and vendors. Bring the whole family and celebrate Selena and the community—Courtesy of Arte del Corazon. Free (donations appreciated). Saturday, April 15, noon-5pm. Romo Park, 335 Main St., Watsonville. artedelcorazon.com

THE RESIDENTS Since the mid-1960s, Bob, Carlos, Randy, Chuck and Hardy Fox, aka the Residents, have released so many records no one is quite sure of the exact count—or, maybe, they simply stopped counting after 50. Anyway, the experimental avant-garde rockers, known for sporting large eyeball masks—or other unsettling disguises—during performances to shield their identities, take unsaid pride in creating some of the oddest music ever to claim to be pop. “The whole idea of identity when you’re dealing with the Residents is not quite normal,” Homer Flynn, a representative of the Cryptic Corporation and the band’s official spokesman, told The Brooklyn Rail. “There’s personal identity, and there’s personal identity. The Residents know who they are, and they’re comfortable with that.” Fair enough! $30/$45 plus fees. Saturday, April 15, 8pm. Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. folkyeah.com

VIVE OAXACA GUELAGUETZA Guelaguetza—a Zapotec word that means “a commitment of sharing and cooperation”—is a celebration that “honors the gods for sufficient rainfall and a bountiful harvest.” Senderos’ festival returns with a packed lineup of entertainment dedicated to showcasing the culture of Oaxaca. This year’s celebration features special guests from Mexico’s largest state. The roaster includes Danzantes from La Villa De Zaachila, Bailarines from Huajuapan de León y Tlaxiaco, Banda de Centro de Integración Social No. 8 and Banda Filarmónica Infantil Juvenil “Macedonio Alcalá.” $10; Free/kids 5 and under. Sunday, April 16, 10am-4pm. Branciforte Small Schools, 840 N. Branciforte Ave., Santa Cruz. scsenderos.org/events

WHISPERS FROM OTHER WORLDS Retired Director of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA, Thomas Zurbuchen, and science journalist Nadia Drake will discuss life beyond Earth. The lecture will first frame the discussion of looking for extraterrestrial life in the context of the famed 1961 Drake equation, a framework that connects physical, chemical and biological processes with the development of detectable civilizations within our galaxy. The speakers will then cover three ways in which NASA’s science program focuses on identifying signatures of life elsewhere in the universe. A moderated discussion and Q&A will follow the presentation. Free. Monday, April 17, 6:30pm. Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. astrobiology.science.ucsc.edu

REUNION! TRIO: BRUCE FORMAN, JOHN CLAYTON AND JEFF HAMILTON “I have been able to bring their instruments together again,” renowned guitarist Bruce Forman says. “And I’m doubly gratified that all of us involved—John Clayton, Jeff Hamilton, myself—have played together in myriad situations.” Forman elaborates: “I recently became caretaker of Barney Kessel’s guitar. Besides being a music icon, Kessel was my mentor and friend. Since his death, I’ve played the guitar when visiting his widow and did so until she was compelled to put it up for auction. Due to a recent occurrence—more like a paranormal intervention—I’ve gotten it back. Forman has long since dreamed of reuniting instruments played by Barney, Ray Brown and Shelly Manne (the Poll Winners) with their protégés. Besides being jazz giants, they were also studio stalwarts who played music on movies, TV and popular hits” by everyone from Elvis to the Beach Boys. $42/$47.25; $23.50/students. Monday, April 17, 7pm. Kuumbwa Jazz, 320-2 Cedar St., Santa Cruz. kuumbwajazz.org

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