Burrell School Vineyards’ Honor Roll Worthy 2020 Chardonnay

-

August 16, 2022

Burrell School Vineyards’ Honor Roll Worthy 2020 Chardonnay

Burrell School Vineyards is named after an old schoolhouse on the property that dates to 1854, when Lyman J. Burrell settled on the land that is now home to Burrell School Vineyards & Winery. David and Anne Moulton started living there when they began the development of their vineyards in 1973. Dave Moulton is still the winemaker and runs the property. Burrell School is well worth visiting, not only for its fine wines but also for the beautiful vistas, which look out over acres of vines.

Moulton has given many of his wines a school-theme name, such as Valedictorian, Honor Roll, Extra Credit—and Teacher’s Pet for the 2020 Chardonnay ($39), a prime example of excellent wine made from Moulton’s estate vineyards.

“This dry, medium-bodied wine has moderate acidity,” says Moulton. “The flavors range from apple and lemon to pineapple with notes of vanilla.” It’s simply an exquisite Chardonnay.

Burrell School Vineyards & Winery, 24060 Summit Road, Los Gatos. 408-353-6290; burrellschool.com.

Balanced Bubbly

A good Prosecco for under $15 is made by Bread & Butter Wines. This balanced bubbly is produced in a small town in Italy and comes with lively notes of ripe apple, pear and white peach.

Bread & Butter tasting room, 3105 Silverado Trail, Napa. 833-332-7323; breadandbutterwines.com.

Cantine Winepub

My husband and I met up with friends recently at Cantine for a little celebration, so we indulged in a bottle of incredible Lester Estate Syrah. Cantine is a cozy wine bar that carries many local wines, including a delicious Viognier by Bottle Jack. As well as wine on tap, Cantine also has beer on tap, including Corralitos Brewing and Seabright Brewery. Try their mouthwatering tapas—all delicious.

Cantine Winepub, Aptos Village, 8050 Soquel Drive, Aptos. 831-612-6191; cantinewinepub.com.

The Bagelry Scores Big with a Classic Breakfast Staple

Andrew Steingrube

-

August 16, 2022

0

The Bagelry Scores Big with a Classic Breakfast Staple

Santa Cruz native Sybil Morgan has worked in the restaurant industry her entire life. Her resumé is as well-rounded as the namesake of the Bagelry in Soquel Village, which she’s managed for over two years. Morgan originally started working part-time at the Seabright Bagelry before becoming manager at the Soquel locale (they have a downtown Santa Cruz location, too, of course), a position she happily took. She defines the Bagelry as a local favorite with friendly counter service. Also, local art, which changes monthly, adorns the walls. Bestsellers include the scram, a build-your-own breakfast sandwich, and the lox deluxe. Bagel varieties include jalapeño, salt, whole wheat and gluten-free. They are also known for vegan spreads like red pepper cashew, hummus and guacamole. A rotating scratch made-daily soup and homemade cookies round out the menu. Hours are every day, 7:30am-2pm. Morgan chatted with GT recently about all things bagels.

What makes the Bagelry a Santa Cruz institution?

SYBIL MORGAN: Our bagels come in fresh every morning from our downtown bakery. We utilize all fresh ingredients and have a good variety of options and flavors. We are also very well known for our huge variety of spreads that are all made in-house and have very diverse flavors and ingredients. We regularly have visitors, and even people who have moved out of town come back just for our spreads because they are so unique to us and really have a nostalgic flavor.

What’s the best bagel you ever had?

A darkly toasted everything bagel with cream cheese, freshly sliced tomato, salt and pepper. I love to toast both sides, the inner and outer, which makes it very crunchy and firm. And toasting both sides coax the flavors out of the seasonings. The first time I tried one this way was at a pop-up in Los Angeles; they called it a “burnt bagel.” It just adds an extra level of earthiness, flavor and deliciousness that take it over the top.

The Bagelry, 4763 Soquel Drive, Soquel, 831-462-9888; bagelrysantacruz.com.

Namaste India Bistro Brings Bold Flavors to the Westside

Christina Waters

-

August 16, 2022

0

Namaste India Bistro Brings Bold Flavors to the Westside

A golden statue of Shiva greeted us at the front door as we picked up our first dinner from Namaste India Bistro, the Santa Cruz sibling to the restaurant’s Los Gatos and Monterey outposts. Lovingly decorated, with a small wine bar at the back, the new restaurant is a very welcome addition to the Westside. We loved our take-out order of Jhol Momo ($12.50), a classic Nepali dish consisting of eight plump dumplings, pale green globes twisted into knots at the center. With the dumplings came a separate container of creamy, tomato-tinged sauce, thickened with spicy sesame with a lovely kick at the end. Dumplings in a curry sauce—what a treat.

The Namaste menu lists many different momos (such a fun word to say), some with more firepower, some with chicken filling, but we loved our vegetarian version. This was easily enough for 3-4 people to share as a start to a meal.

I have to admit, I was taking a chance ordering a tandoori dish for takeaway. But the entree showed off the expertise of Namaste’s cooking team. An order of Tandoori Salmon ($29.50) proved generous, moist and delicious. Four rectangles of salmon lay on a thick cushion of thinly sliced onions and cilantro, with wedges of lime. Classic presentation. And again, plenty for another meal—or to share at the table with friends. Marinated in a spice-infused yogurt—usually including cumin, paprika, coriander and garlic—the fish arrived moist and tender. A mild smokiness from the clay oven is the haunting signature of tandoori cooking. The rich spices ignite complex sensory sparks. These dishes awaken the palate.

One of the must-have classics of Northern India cuisine, palak paneer is a go-to dish for us ($16.50). It’s easy to like the bright green dish of fresh creamy spinach puree cooked with tomatoes and studded with spices and fat cubes of the fresh cheese called paneer. Easily one of the best vegetable dishes I know of, and the Namaste version did not disappoint.

To go with our dumplings, salmon and palak paneer courses, we took home an order of Jeera rice ($5.50), a fragrant basmati rice studded with cumin and often cloves. I certainly detected the cumin and coriander in ours. The rice helped soak up a side of sweetly mysterious, cola-flavored tamarind chutney ($4).

A small order of mixed pickle ($3) is absolutely required with these dishes, splendidly hot and addictive, a mix of peppers and cucumbers pickled in garlic and chiles. I let the spicy juices drench the rice, while my dining partner bravely bit into the pickles themselves. His brow grew moist and his eyebrows raised, but he kept eating. Spicy food is irresistible. We could feel ourselves getting high on these flavors.

One bite led to another, and by the end of my dinner I wanted to eat a whole second plateful.

Namaste India Bistro is a great new addition to the Westside neighborhood, filling the shoes of the former long-standing Vasili’s with a menu that roams the vastness of India’s many regions, from Goan vindaloos to Manchurian and Nepalese dumplings and kebabs to countless curry and biryani dishes. During lunch hours, Namaste also offers a full listing of thali platters, with chutneys, dal and naan. Even after a single week of being open, the India dining spot has already found many fans. And I’ll be personally working my way through this menu, week by week. Curries are next!

Namaste India Bistro, 1501 Mission St., Santa Cruz. Open 11:30am-2:30pm, 5-9pm (9:30pm Friday and Saturday). Closed Monday. namasteindiabistro.com.

SCPD Says Shooting is Likely Gang-motivated

Local News

GT Staff

-

August 16, 2022

0

SCPD Says Shooting is Likely Gang-motivated

The Santa Cruz Police Department is investigating a drive-by shooting that injured two victims on the 100 block of Raymond Street.

The incident, which occurred late Sunday, is believed to be gang-related, SCPD spokeswoman Joyce Blaschke said.

Police responded to a call of a shooting just after 11pm. Officers found two males in a nearby park, both suffering from single gunshot wounds in a nearby park.

The victims, 26 and 28, were taken to a Bay Area trauma center and are listed in serious but stable condition.

Investigators recovered several casings and confirmed that both victims belong to a criminal street gang.

The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information is asked to contact the SCPD Investigation Unit at 831-420-5820. Anonymous tipsters can call 831-420-5995.

California’s Climate Countdown

California News

Emily Hoevem

-

August 15, 2022

0

It’s climate crunch time in California.

Starting today and lasting through Thursday, generators and transmission-line operators should delay any scheduled maintenance to avoid possible power outages as Californians crank up their air conditioners to deal with an expected onslaught of 100-plus degree heat, the state’s electric grid operator said Friday.

The California Independent System Operator’s warning came on the heels of draft legislation Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office unveiled late Thursday to extend the life of Diablo Canyon, the state’s last nuclear power plant in San Luis Obispo, by as much as 10 years — and give its operator, PG&E, a forgivable loan of as much as $1.4 billion to do so.

Taken together, the two actions underscore the extent to which California is at risk of repeating the events of 2020, when the state was unable to supply enough energy to meet demand, triggering the first rolling blackouts in nearly two decades.

Newsom—no doubt eager to avoid power outages as he elevates his national profile in what some suspect is preparation for a future presidential run—has for months pushed the idea of temporarily extending Diablo Canyon’s lifespan past its planned 2025 closure to help shore up the state’s electricity supplies.

But the draft legislation makes explicit the urgency behind his proposal: It would exempt the Diablo Canyon extension from review under the California Environmental Quality Act and several other environmental laws, limiting the legal challenges that anti-nuclear advocates and other environmental justice groups could bring against it, according to the Los Angeles Times.

And, unless Newsom calls for a special legislative session, lawmakers will have to approve his plan before the regular session ends on Aug. 31 — giving them less than three weeks to reach an agreement on the complex issue. (That isn’t the only contentious environmental legislation they’re grappling with: Newsom on Friday sent them a list of last-minute climate proposals he wants enacted, including accelerated greenhouse gas cuts, new interim targets for reaching 100% clean energy and safety zones around new oil and gas wells.)

Assemblymember Jordan Cunningham, a San Luis Obispo Republican, told the Sacramento Bee: “I think (the Newsom administration is) pretty serious” about Diablo Canyon. “Serious enough to be briefing me about it, serious enough to be proposing some bill language in a trailer bill, serious enough to be expending some political capital to try to make the case and get the information to the voters and the public as to why we need it.”

But the draft bill has angered some environmental advocates: “Legislators should reject it out of hand,” Environment California, Friends of the Earth and the Natural Resources Defense Council said in a joint statement. “With Governor Newsom and the legislature working to appropriate climate budget funds and advance ambitious climate legislation in the waning days of the legislative session, this proposal is a dangerous and costly distraction.”

The swirl of proposals comes as California prepares to lose its top climate regulator. Newsom announced Friday that Jared Blumenfeld, secretary of California’s Environmental Protection Agency, will step down at the end of the month to lead the Waverley Street Foundation, a new $3.5 billion climate change nonprofit founded by Laurene Powell Jobs. Newsom appointed Amelia Yana Garcia Gonzalez, a California Department of Justice special assistant attorney general focused on environmental issues, to replace Blumenfeld, the latest high-ranking official to depart the governor’s administration.

Other Important Climate News:

Amid escalating drought, California and six other states are facing a Tuesday deadline to reach an agreement to drastically slash the amount of water they pull from the Colorado River.
As weekend flash floods pummeled San Diego County and the San Bernardino County mountains, a study published Friday in Science Advances found that California is at increasing risk of a megaflood that could unleash an average of nearly 16 inches of precipitation on the state in a month, submerging parts of the Central Valley, Los Angeles and Orange County; displacing as many as 10 million people; shutting down major freeways; and causing more than $1 trillion in damages.
Over the protests of environmental justice advocates, Los Angeles water regulators unanimously approved Thursday an agreement with Boeing to clean up toxic pollutants from the Santa Susana Field Lab in Ventura County where nuclear research and rocket engine tests were once conducted.
The U.S. Department of the Interior will have to conduct a new environmental review before restarting coal leasing on federal lands, according to a court decisionAttorney General Rob Bonta announced Friday.
Oh, and California’s increasingly dry and warm climate is resulting in more frequent sightings of Turkestan cockroaches.

Things to Do: Aug. 10-16

GT Staff

-

August 10, 2022

0

ARTS AND MUSIC

THEE SACRED SOULS Yet again, Daptone has its needle on the pulse of the soul revival: “Sweet Southern California Soul” pioneers, Thee Sacred Souls, will release their full-length self-titled debut on Aug. 26 to a cyclone of buzz. The San Diego trio—fueled by Josh Lane’s heart-melting falsetto vocals—has already racked up over ten million streams and made fans out of Gary Clark Jr., Timbaland and other notables following the release of their first singles. $29.40 plus fees. Wednesday, Aug. 10, 8pm. Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. folkyeah.com.

THE KINGSTON TRIO The self-proclaimed “longest running group in America” was the world’s most commercially popular folk group from 1957-1963. KT’s success led to folk music’s mainstream popularity and subsequently helped fuel Columbia Records to take a chance on signing an unknown singer-songwriter named Bob Dylan. While all three original members have passed away, the members of the current lineup—Mike Marvin, Tim Gorelangton and Don Marovich—have a direct link to the founders. $45/$60 plus fees. Thursday, Aug. 11, 7pm. Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. riotheatre.com.

ISAIAH SHARKEY The Chicago guitarist earned his first Grammy for his contributions to D’Angelo’s Black Messiah, which won the 2015 Grammy for “Best R&B Album.” Since, Sharkey’s worked, recorded and toured with John Mayer, Patti LaBelle, Chris Martin of Coldplay, Paul Simon and many others. The fusion of rock, gospel, jazz, R&B, blues and funk results in an innovative sound doused in loads of soul. Sharkey’s 2019 sophomore record, Love is the Key: The Cancerian Theme, has amassed widespread acclaim. Keyboardist Tim Tribitt, bassist Garrett Body and drummer Eric Johnson will join the Windy City phenom. $31.50-36.75; $18.50/students. Thursday, Aug. 11, 7pm. Kuumbwa Jazz, 320-2 Cedar St., Santa Cruz. kuumbwajazz.org.

THE JOINT CHIEFS Frontman Don Caruth is one of the hardest workers in Santa Cruz. Since the late 1980s, the R&B outfit has played about five nights per week throughout the Central Coast. All boardwalk concerts happen on the Colonnade Stage, on the beachside of Neptune’s Kingdom—the dance area is in front of the stage. Free. Thursday, Aug. 11, 7:30pm. Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, 400 Beach St., Santa Cruz. (Free Movie at the Beach presents Ferris Bueller’s Day Off on Friday, Aug. 12, 9pm). beachboardwalk.com.

THE BROTHERS COMATOSE The Americana quintet’s 2022 release, When It All Falls Apart, was inspired by unexpected endings and fresh starts; the songs capture the thrill of the band reuniting for the first time after months apart during the pandemic. During that period, singer-songwriter Ben Morrison became a father, adding another layer of inspiration to the music. The San Francisco group’s three-night run at Moe’s—featuring Wolf Jett, The Sam Chase and The Good Bad opening in that order—will be recorded and released as a live album. $30/$35 plus fees. Thursday, Aug. 11, 8pm; Friday, Aug. 12 and Saturday, Aug. 13, 9pm Moe’s Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz. moesalley.com.

LOST DOG STREET BAND WITH MATT HECKLER Husband-and-wife duo Benjamin Tod (guitarist/vocalist) and Ashley Mae (fiddle player) have been carrying the tradition of American troubadours as they deliver a distinctive repertoire of original songs. Self-described as “dark country [music] that never wavers from its roots and honors the traditions of its forbearers,” the duo finds inspiration in luminaries like Guy Clark. They weave melodies and lyrics together, offering unapologetically raw authenticity. Lost Dog Street Band is currently homesteading eleven acres of raw land in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky. $27/$29 plus fees. Saturday, Aug. 13, 8pm. Felton Music Hall, 6275 Hwy. 9, Felton. feltonmusichall.com.

‘THE FORMULA’ (WORLD PREMIERE) Local playwright Kathryn Chetkovich’s new work, a farce inspired by Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, centers around a young neuro-chemist experimenting with the science of attraction. He decides to bring the untested concoction to his brother’s wedding—the results are nothing short of disastrous. $22-70.40 plus fees. Saturday, Aug. 13, 8pm. The Grove at DeLaveaga Golf Course, 501 Upper Park Road, Santa Cruz. santacruzshakespeare.org.

COMMUNITY

FREAK POWER Special displays, film and unique perspectives are significant parts of the presentation focusing on the changes brought about by individual thinkers and trends born out of the ’60s and ’70s. Items from UCSC’s archives relating to the Grateful Dead will be a part of the exhibit. Tie-dye clothing of any kind is encouraged. Free. Thursday, Aug. 11, 7pm. Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History, 705 Front St., Santa Cruz. santacruzmah.org.

SANTA CRUZ CIDER CO 9TH ANNIVERSARY Time flies when the cider is flowing. August marks nine years for Santa Cruz Cider Co (six in Santa Cruz and three in Watsonville). The celebration will feature live music and library cider tastings with cidermaker Nicole Todd. Free. Saturday, Aug. 13, noon-8pm. Santa Cruz Cider Co., 65 Hangar Way, Watsonville. santacruzciderco.com.

INTERNATIONAL MUSICAL SAW FESTIVAL Prepare for many comments like, “it’s a cut above the rest” and “this is not heavy metal music.” Also, prepare to hear the world’s greatest saw players churning out bluegrass, country, folk, gospel, blues, classical and show tunes. There will be spontaneous acoustic jams, a Saw-Off competition and a Chorus of the Saws featuring up to 30 saw players trying to play in unison. Free. Sunday, August 14, 10am-4pm. Roaring Camp Railroads, 5401 Graham Hill Road, Felton. sawplayers.org.

GROUPS

WOMENCARE ARM-IN-ARM This cancer support group is for women with advanced, recurrent or metastatic cancer. The group meets every Monday and is led by Sally Jones and Shirley Marcus. Free (registration required). Monday, Aug. 15, 12:30pm. WomenCare, 2901 Park Ave., A1, Soquel. 831-457-2273. womencaresantacruz.org.

OUTDOORS

FAMILY FUN WITH SAND Join the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History for August’s Family Fun event: playing on the beach, learning about the science of sand and using recycled materials to recreate the historical Scholl Marr Castle that stood at the entrance of what is now Seabright Beach. Free (pre-registration required). Sunday, Saturday, Aug. 13, 10am-noon. Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History, 1305 E. Cliff Drive, Santa Cruz. santacruzmah.org.

Email upcoming events to Adam Joseph at least two weeks beforehand.

Or, submit events HERE.

New Film Honors Those Affected by the CZU Lightning Complex Fires

Christina Wise

-

August 10, 2022

0

New Film Honors Those Affected by the CZU Lightning Complex Fires

In honor of the second anniversary of the CZU Lightning Complex fires, Mountain Community Theater (MCT) Director Peter Gelblum did something extraordinary to commemorate the event: he made a film about it.

“Our idea was to create a living document about the fire and the effect it had on the Valley, as a gift to the community,” says Gelblum.

The result, The CZU Fire In Their Own Words: Fighting Fires, Losing Homes and Rebuilding Community, debuted last month at the Boulder Creek Recreation Center, with proceeds from the screening divided between Boulder Creek Fire Department and the Community Foundation’s Fire Recovery Fund. The film will be shown again on Tuesday, Aug. 16, at the Del Mar Theater in downtown Santa Cruz.

The film is done documentary-style, with members of MCT featured in the roles of fire survivors, resulting in a compendium of memories and local art, wrapped in music and presented to the community it reflects.

The script for the documentary is based on interviews Gelblum conducted with various community members, with members of MCT performing their testimonials.

Gelblum says the film is an emotional response to the CZU Fire’s wrath.

“The unprecedented destruction of both the forest and homes, the vast amount of emotional, material, and ecological suffering, and the enormous outpouring of love and support from neighbors and community,” he says. ”As a performing arts organization, we were in a unique position to create a document of this extraordinary event.”

When it came time to select the stories to share, Gelblum had many to choose from.

“I, and other people at MCT, knew people who had lost their homes, and who had interesting stories about their fire experiences,” he says.

MCT’s cast and crew found different messages and motivations in their roles. Actor Grace Peng—who plays Jenny Wu, owner of Boulder Creek restaurant the Red Pearl—says she felt honored to be a part of the project.

“I was touched that MCT was creating an homage to the victims of this tightly knit community to memorialize the devastating effects of the CZU fire and how the people of Boulder Creek came together to help one another,” she says

Wu, whose house was lost in the fire, returned to her restaurant as soon as she could after evacuation orders were lifted, and went to work feeding survivors at no charge.

“I met Jenny a few times, and she is so lovely, generous and kind,” says Peng. “In California, fire is a part of our new reality. While the fire destroyed so many homes and personal items, the power and generosity of community, of the human connection and love, is unwavering and endures. This film would be relevant to all, but may be particularly interesting to those who live in vulnerable regions that are prone to fire.”

Actor Sarah Marsh, who plays Mindy Lariz, found solace in the retelling of the survivors’ stories.

“There is power in sharing our stories,” she says. “I’m grateful to Peter Gelblum for leading, directing and editing this project, and I’m extremely thankful to those who shared.”

Cabrillo Stage and MCT are the home away from home for actor, singer and dancer Mindy Pedlar. In addition to promoting Cabrillo Stage’s various plays and musicals, she’s also a staple at MCT. She was given the role of Marj Young, wife of Steve Young, who is played by David Leach. She and Leach had the opportunity to meet the Young family, and visit their property.

“I wasn’t expecting to cry, but the sense of loss was overwhelming and tears flowed. The trees were trying to reassure me, telling me, ‘It’s OK, we’ll grow again,’” Pedlar says. “My heart ached for this couple that had lost so much, but I admired their desire to carry on, perhaps to rebuild, and their gratitude that their family was safe.”

Pedlar says the message of the film is one of resilience.

“To me, it’s an example of ordinary people going through a devastating experience, dealing with great loss yet somehow rising above the situation and coming together to help each other,” Pedlar says. “In these terrible pandemic and political times, it’s heartwarming to see the generosity of our community at large. For all of us, it’s important to be heard, particularly when trauma has been experienced. This film gives voice to the survivors.”

Gelblum said he is looking forward to sharing the film with audiences who were impacted by the fires.

“Mountain Community Theater funded the film as a gift to the community,” he says.

‘The CZU Fire In Their Own Words: Fighting Fires, Losing Homes and Rebuilding Community’ will be screened at 7:30pm on Tuesday, Aug. 16, at the Del Mar Theater in downtown Santa Cruz. More information at mctshows.org.

Santa Cruz Shakespeare Gives ‘The Tempest’ a Musical Makeover

Christina Waters

-

August 10, 2022

0

Santa Cruz Shakespeare Gives ‘The Tempest’ a Musical Makeover

An on-stage cello—sensitively played by Michal Palzewicz—is the secret weapon of this summer’s production of The Tempest. Conjuring a cascade of moods, even detailing the meaning of each scene, Palzewicz’s music and sound design injects crucial atmosphere and continuity into the production.

Drawing on the considerable musicomedic skills of her cast, director Miriam Laube has opted for a throwback lens of postmodern pastiche through which to consider the 400-year-old masterpiece. This strategy makes the challenging play accessible to young audiences raised on rap, hip-hop, Disney animation and lighter shades of RuPaul. Older audiences will instantly recognize other resources at play here, from cinema’s Forbidden Planet and Robinson Crusoe to television’s Gilligan’s Island.

Without a doubt, The Tempest has spawned countless offspring in the past four centuries, and the Santa Cruz Shakespeare version toggles among at least half a dozen of them. Indeed, many of the characters appear to be engaged in adjacent tellings of the tale, rather than a single vision. Part of this is due to the nature of what was considered populist fun and games in the Elizabethan era. Shakespeare himself seasons this odd play with crowd-pleasing stereotypes—power-hungry royals, invisible fairies with limitless powers, drunken fools and a young couple instantly falling in love. The play gives us three groupings of players: first, Prospero the magician and his daughter Miranda, shipwrecked on the island 12 years earlier, along with their attendant, the supernatural sprite Ariel, plus the misshapen monster Caliban. Next, thanks to a shipwreck caused by Prospero, we have a quartet of disoriented Italian nobles. Crude and comical servants of the nobility make up the third cast of characters.

Opting for entertainment rather than magic, this production keeps the action (much of it musical) moving right along with a riotous burlesque involving two bumbling shipwrecked servants, Trinculo (a nimble Patty Gallagher) and Stephano (Cedric Lamar, chewing the scenery with abandon), getting drunk with the island’s petulant monster Caliban (intriguingly interpreted by Jonathan Smoots). As they cavort, in another sector of the island, the grieving queen of Naples Alonso (Maggie Bofill, channeling Bette Davis), her sister Sebastian (Safiya Harris), Prospero’s nefarious brother Antonio (Charles Pasternak), and a trusted councilor Gonzalo (Ward Duffy) all appear to have stepped out of a Renaissance mural. Costumed in rich colors and gold braid, they swagger and preen and plot against each other.

Meanwhile, in Prospero’s laboratory, the island’s control center, Ariel (Jennie Greenberry, playing for laughs to the delight of the opening night’s audience) is enlisted in the plan to make a match between Miranda (Maya Mays) and Alonso’s son Ferdinand (Gustavo Flores).

Shakespeare has the blithe spirit Ariel sing light-hearted songs throughout the play, and this production utilizes the Broadway voice of Greenberry (clad in glittering teal) to help piece together scenes. This style of music-making will please audiences raised on Frozen and the Grammys.

As the action quickens, and Prospero is successful in drawing together Miranda and Ferdinand in a sweet, chaste engagement, Shakespeare’s play calls for an elaborate floor show, a lavish musical vignette in which gods and goddesses come forth to sing and dance in honor of the young couple. Updating this—abruptly—director Laube has her entire cast step out of character, which unfortunately is a spell-breaking jolt.

The Tempest is filled with memorable lines, from the oft-quoted “oh brave new world” speech to Prospero’s final, poignant statement that “we are such things as dreams are made on.”

At the play’s end, Laura Gordon as Prospero did rise to the occasion, performing with dignity and insight the rare and fine words the magus is given. So let’s just say that all’s well that ends well.

Despite some missteps, your experience of Santa Cruz Shakespeare’s current season won’t be complete without a viewing of The Tempest, with bewitching cello music and some smashing lighting-in-the-trees by Kent Dorsey.

‘The Tempest,’ a Santa Cruz Shakespeare production directed by Miriam Laube, runs through August 28 at the Audrey Stanley Grove. More info and tickets at santacruzshakespeare.org.

Letter to the Editor: Taxes and Tourism

Letters to the Editor

-

August 10, 2022

0

The recent defeat of a sales tax increase in the city of Santa Cruz (GT, 7/13) reminds this community of the importance of our tourist industry. Visitors pay the hotel tax and spend money in local shops and restaurants; then they leave! Hotels provide jobs and fund social services, as well as projects that benefit all of us. We’re also reminded of the 2011 decision to deny approval of the replacement of the La Bahia apartments with a new hotel. Tax revenue paid by tourists was estimated to be at least $1 million a year and another million in tourist spending in local shops and restaurants. If the hotel had been completed in 2015, the city would have already received $8 million in taxes and another $8 million for our local businesses. For many years, this project was a political football for self-serving politicians and others who should be ashamed of their selfish political shenanigans. Fortunately, work has now resumed, and we can finally look forward to a beautiful hotel—for both tourists and locals alike.

Robert deFreitas | Santa Cruz

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

Letter to the Editor: Put D in Context

Letters to the Editor

-

August 10, 2022

3

Re: “Rail Call” (GT, 8/3): What’s been missing from post-election discussions of Measure D is context. Here’s a little perspective, to offset all the specious gloating from the No on D crowd: If there are 167,659 registered voters in Santa Cruz County, and only 78,952 voted, then the “75%,” “landslide,” “tsunami,” “crushing defeat” really amounted to only 33.5% of registered voters. Lest one is tempted to extrapolate this to reflect what the vote might have been if more registered voters turned out, consider this: many if not most people I spoke to during the weeks and months prior to the election were confused and discouraged by the ruthlessly crafted misinformation from No on D. They felt overwhelmed and intimidated, and had decided to either vote no, or not vote on Measure D at all. Given the shamefully low voter turnout, the outcome for Measure D could hardly be called a mandate, regardless of which side won. When the torches and pitchforks show up, demanding obedience, I hope the RTC will keep this context in mind and have the backbone to do what they already know is the right thing, rather than being (excuse the expression) railroaded into a terrible boondoggle.

Dee Vogel | Santa Cruz

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

LATEST ARTICLES

LATEST ARTICLES

LATEST ARTICLES

LATEST ARTICLES

Balanced Bubbly

Cantine Winepub

What makes the Bagelry a Santa Cruz institution?

What’s the best bagel you ever had?

Other Important Climate News:

ARTS AND MUSIC

COMMUNITY

GROUPS

OUTDOORS