Now that the dust has settled after the holidays, it’s time to take a breather and relax with a nice glass of wine. And that would be Wargin Wines’ 2018 Sagrantino Reserve ($30). Wargin Wines owner and winemaker Mikael Wargin doesn’t just stick to favorite varietals such as Chardonnay and Zinfandel; he churns out exciting wines such as this vigorous 2018 Sagrantino. A fundraiser at El Vaquero Winery and adjoining Alladin Nursery in Corralitos introduced wine lovers to a bastion of local wineries pouring their elixirs—including Wargin Wines. The dry, inky-purple Sagrantino grape is high in tannin, twice the level of Cabernet Sauvignon or Nebbiolo, and has an almost-black center. Aromas of red currants, fennel, white pepper and rose hips delight the olfactory senses. Dried strawberry, rhubarb, dried thyme, dark caramel and light vanilla bean flavors add to the intrigue of this dry red wine. Grapes are from Siletto Family Vineyards in San Benito County—ideal for sun-seeking Sagrantino. “We make small-lot, handcrafted wines that speak to the palate and pair brilliantly with food, mood and maybe a little mayhem,” Wargin says. “Wines to pair with everyday meals and memories.” Wargin Wines’ Soquel tasting room is open Wednesday through Sunday.
The Seacliff Inn in Aptos, under the Best Western umbrella, is now part of the Tapestry Collection by Hilton. And it was all stops out for their grand opening in mid-fall. Food and beverages were comped—cocktails, beer and wine flowing all evening. Oak Ridge Winery from Lodi poured their flavorful Zinfandel—with the dulcet sounds of Santa Cruz band Soulwise in the background. Seacliff Inn’s rooms and dining areas have been beautifully renovated with an entirely new look.
Seacliff Inn, 7500 Old Dominion Ct., Aptos; 831-688-8987. seacliffinn.com.
Joshua Kochanek learned to cook at a young age from his mom and grandma in Providence, Rhode Island, where he was born and raised. Kochanek went on to cook everywhere from casinos to high-end restaurants. After shutting down his own catering company in New England due to the pandemic, he rented a small spot from his uncle in Capitola, where he opened LittleKoe’s, an homage to his childhood nickname. Kochanek uses shells made from radish, turnip or beet instead of a tortilla, which makes his root vegetable tacos the most unique in town—fillings include ahi, teriyaki chicken and kale citrus salad. His hand-mixed-to-order burgers, infused with spices and seasonings, are instant hits—customers must sign a waiver to eat the spicy Hell’s Burger. Kochanek recently detailed his culinary journey and the inspiration behind his distinctive tacos.
How did you end up becoming a chef?
JOSHUA KOCHANEK: When I was a kid watching my mom and grandma cook, I told them that one day I would open my own food shop. Being in fine dining on the East Coast, I excelled and was often told I was the top employee in the kitchen, but I was also told I would never be an executive chef because I didn’t have a college education. I was inspired to prove everybody wrong, and when my uncle gave me an opportunity to start LittleKoe’s, I jumped at it. It’s been a blessing to come out here, serve my food and not be told that I’ll never be an executive chef.
How were your taco shells conceived?
My wife and I used to love tacos, so when she developed a corn allergy, I was inspired to create a different kind of taco shell from shaved root vegetables. They ended up turning out really good, better in some ways in that they don’t fall apart like a traditional taco and retain their texture and crunch with every bite from start to finish. And they are also gluten-free and vegan.
A soft chorus of voices from the Santa Cruz Threshold Singers welcomes me as I walk into the Santa Cruz County Vets building where the annual Homeless Memorial takes place.
This year is the first since the start of the pandemic that the memorial, which honors those who died while experiencing homelessness, has taken place in person. The rows of chairs in the building fill up as Joey Crottogini, the health center manager for Homeless Persons Health Project, starts to speak. People continue wandering in, standing against the walls and in the back of the room, packing the space.
The mood is warm, with people embracing each other and holding hands. Colorful squares of paper with the names and ages of unhoused people who have passed away decorate the walls. I sit next to a bright orange paper with the name Yosef C., age 28, written in looping handwriting.
Meanwhile, outside, someone dips into a makeshift blue tent constructed from tarps.
This year, 91 people experiencing homelessness died on the streets of Santa Cruz County, along with another 45 housed individuals who previously experienced homelessness. An estimated 2,299 people are experiencing homelessness in the county, slightly more than the previous year, which counted 2,167 unhoused people. Last year, the memorial honored approximately 95 unhoused people who had died.
The average life expectancy for someone living without permanent housing is around 50 years old, almost 20 years lower than someone who is housed, says David Davis, Homeless Persons Health Project analyst.
“Struck down in the prime has never been truer,” Davis says. “Housing contributes years to our lifespans.”
He says there’s no shortage of theories as to why that age gap exists, though deaths from Fentanyl overdoses, which continue to climb countywide and countrywide, are common. According to the Santa Cruz County Sheriff-Coroner’s Office, from January to September this year, there were 64 deaths from overdoses in the county. Compared to the last four years, the county is set to outpace the number of overdose-related deaths.
Davis points out that 70% of people overdosing are housed.
“The issue of addiction goes well beyond people experiencing homelessness,” he says. “The only thing that separates people experiencing homelessness who are struggling with addiction, and people who are housed with these disorders, really comes down to money and support.”
Davis notes that there’s one certainty: these deaths are preventable.
“It is possible to house everyone,” he adds. “We literally have to see the forest for the trees, and decide it is worth giving up a few acres of land so that thousands of people can be in the house—it gets tiring standing up here year after year, talking about the number of people experiencing homelessness and how they end up dying.”
For 15 minutes, the names of those who died while experiencing homelessness, along with their age when they passed, were read aloud at the podium in front of the crowd.
Adrienne A, 19, the list begins.
After the last name is read, a moment of silence falls across the room.
“This memorial is most importantly about celebrating the lives of those who were lost,” says Davis. “It’s been said that the saddest day for anyone will be the last time someone alive thinks of them. We refuse to let this happen, this year and every year.”
For more information about the Homeless Persons Health Project, visit santacruzhealth.org.
Between June 1 and Aug. 15, law enforcement officers throughout Santa Cruz County responded to 577 calls involving mental health crises, according to a report released Dec. 14 by the Criminal Justice Council of Santa Cruz County (CJC).
The report delves into the way police agencies respond to such calls—which are increasing in number—and highlights a growing need for specialized training to help officers deal with people with mental health needs.
According to the CJC, the report is the county’s first look at how mental health policies played out in local law enforcement agencies.
As part of the study, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office and Watsonville, Capitola, Santa Cruz and Scotts Valley police departments aligned how they code mental health calls to streamline data analysis.
“If we want to have a data-informed policymaking process, we need to ensure that we invest the time and effort in setting up viable data collection structures,” CJC Chair and Santa Cruz County Supervisor Zach Friend said.
Launched more than three decades ago, the CJC focuses its discussions on prevention, intervention and reentry programs—rather than suppression models, including a conference on the role of women and girls in gangs, and work with school districts on reducing youth involvement in gangs.
According to the report, all law enforcement agencies participate in countywide Crisis Intervention Training and renew their training at least every three years. All agencies also undergo use-of-force training in dealing with mental health calls.
The report shows that only 40% of the agencies have written policies regarding arrestees’ medications, but the remaining 60% said they would consider implementing one.
The report also looked at the use of mental health professionals who pair with field officers in mental health calls. The three departments that use so-called mental health liaisons—Santa Cruz and Watsonville police departments and the Sheriff’s Office—say they want to increase their programs, which they describe as beneficial. The two that do not have such a program say they want to explore adding it.
Mental health liaisons stated they prefer responding to calls with law enforcement present.
“It was clear that there is strong support for law enforcement partnering with non-sworn mental health liaisons and that agencies are interested in finding ways to invest more resources into those roles, increasing hours and increasing access,” Friend said.
The report shows that 83% of people contacted during a mental health call were transported to the County’s Behavioral Health unit, while 12% went to Dominican Hospital. Just 1% were booked into jail. The remaining 4% were placed in Dominican Hospital’s overflow area, the report shows.
“These calls help highlight how few of the contacts led to jail, how many were addressed on the scene by the officers or mental health liaisons, and those who needed acute help that there is a significant need for more bed and treatment space in our county,” Friend said. “The County has begun to make these investments, but more will need to be done to ensure that families have treatment options available for loved ones when needed.”
The picture could soon look brighter for young people in mental health crises after the County Supervisors on Dec. 12 approved the creation of the first residential crisis program for youth.
Friend said that the report highlights several challenges for law enforcement, including often complex calls and the amount of time and resources spent dealing with them.
“We can assume that the report provides a baseline understanding but also most likely an undercount of the true issue, which highlights the growing need to focus additional resources at all stages from prevention to intervention and response,” he said.
Back in 1965, Bob Dylan ridiculed the eternal square in his song “Ballad of a Thin Man” on the Highway 61 Revisited album. (“Something is happening here and you don’t know what it is/Do you, Mr. Jones?”) In one verse, he singled out “the professors” and the “very well-read,” as if the highly educated elites couldn’t possibly have a clue about the counterculture.
That may have been true back then—although ironically mass student protests on campus would start just a year after Dylan wrote the song. But these are different times, with nearly half of all states legalizing weed, and dispensaries proliferating across the West Coast and the country. And the two authors who have stepped in to educate the world about the rapidly shifting realities of modern weed are, of all things, academics.
Yes, the new book published by the University of California Press and written by two professors who teach at the University of California at Davis is a sure sign that the world of weed is now taken seriously in a way it wasn’t even a few short years ago. And Can Legal Weed Win: The Blunt Realities of Cannabis Economics by Robin Goldstein and Daniel Sumner also shows that it’s now safe for academics to venture into territory once off limits to any writers except dyed-in-the-wool marijuana journalists and gonzo reporters unafraid to puff on a joint and write about it.
Then again, there’s not much that Sumner is afraid of; he’s not intimidated by anyone inside or outside academia. “The cotton industry tried to get me fired,” he tells me. “I also pissed off the dairy industry. I studied tobacco subsidies and that made me suspect, too.”
Rolling Off the Presses
Just a decade ago, an editor at UC Press rejected my own book, Marijuanaland: Dispatches from an American War, saying it was too hot to handle. Fortunately, High Times published it, along with a dozen color photos and a glossy cover that depicts a big fat bud of the kind that makes cannabis connoisseurs drool (or so the publisher told me).
A French paperback appeared in print in France soon after the American edition went on sale. “Everyone from Paris and the Riviera to Normandy and Brittany knows the word ‘marijuana,’” Virginie Giraud, the translator, explained. “There’s no need to find a French equivalent.”
On a book tour in France, I met French growers—many of them self-styled anarchists who weren’t mad bombers, but advocate for community control of everything, from power to wealth, in their communities. In Paris, I appeared on an anarchist radio show. The host met me at a stop on the Paris Metro and took me to a clandestine location.
A New Weed Reality
Sumner and Goldstein conceived their book in a new, very different era. Goldstein is the younger of the two authors; a native of Massachusetts who settled here more than a decade ago, he has reinvented himself as a Californian. (Although his hometown, Northampton, Massachusetts, is a tamer East Coast version of Santa Cruz.)
Sumner, who was born in 1950, has kids who have smoked weed. Back in the day, Sumner was once a wrangler who doubled as a hippie. He wore boots, a cowboy hat and long hair in a ponytail. “I straddled two worlds,” he says.
Goldstein focuses on sales and retailing issues, while Sumner looks at weed as a crop.
“I get excited about technical stuff like rice and drought in the Central Valley,” Sumner tells me.
The two professors explored the weed world in and around Santa Cruz, where they visited the Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana and met its founder, the legendary Valerie Corral. Unusual issues abound in this corner of the cannabis industry.
“In the Santa Cruz area, some people in the cut flower business were worried that weed farmers would monopolize greenhouses and put them out of business,” Sumner says. “That has not happened, and they’ve calmed down, though some of the best managers in the cut flower business have jumped ship and joined the weed industry, where salaries are heftier.”
Sumner and Goldstein also obtained valuable information from students on their own campus in Davis who say they don’t buy marijuana from dispensaries because it’s more expensive than the illegal product on the black market. In California, the law states that you have to be 21 years of age or older to purchase weed. That leaves preteens, teens and kids aged 20 with no choice but to spend millions of dollars on the black market. A legal grower in Santa Cruz County tells me that most students here buy on the black market.
“Everyone is doing the black market thing,” he says. “With the high price of gas, people have less disposable income, so the market for dispensary weed has narrowed.”
Yolo County, where Davis is located, has a double standard when it comes to weed, Sumner tells me. Farmers in Yolo don’t have a problem with the cultivation of weed. After all, it’s a crop. “But they don’t like the cannabiz,” he says. “In that regard, Yolo has a lot in common with the Central Valley.”
A large portion of Can Legal Weed Win? is devoted to predictions, but when I interviewed the authors, they backed away from their crystal ball. “The future is uncertain,” Goldstein says. “We’re not in the business of making industry forecasts.” That’s a wise choice. “The industry is evolving faster than books can keep up with it,” Sumner and Goldstein write in their book. Ain’t that the truth.
The Potency Myth
Goldstein also argues that consumers don’t know much about the marijuana they purchase. Sumner adds that the prohibition against weed, like the prohibition against booze, has prompted consumers to focus mistakenly on potency.
In the days of Al Capone and his fellow mobsters, they looked at the alcohol content of bootleg whiskey and gin. Now, for cannabis, it’s THC. But weed with high levels of THC isn’t necessarily better than weed with lower levels of THC, Sumner points out, much as whiskey with a high alcoholic content isn’t always superior to whiskey with a low alcoholic content.
Caveat emptor: buyer beware. That slogan made sense during the days when con artists sold snake oil as a miracle drug to unsuspecting consumers. Caveat emptor still makes sense today when the market is flooded with so many different weed products with different packaging that it’s challenging to separate the ordinary from the extraordinary.
Over half a century after Dylan wrote “Ballad of a Thin Man,” there are still plenty of Mr. Joneses, even if they’re harder to pigeonhole. But if they read Goldstein and Sumner, they’ll learn a thing or two—and so will the rest of us.
Santa Cruz County saw a decline in its cannabis industry in 2022, with tax revenues falling far short of projections for the 2021-22 fiscal year.
In February, county officials said that their revenues of $1.68 million were lagging behind projections by more than $1 million, and $1.6 million for the previous year.
The county currently has 12 licensed retail locations in its unincorporated area, along with 76 non-retail businesses.
A total of six cannabis businesses closed over the 2021-22 fiscal year, a trend industry professionals say could continue.
Colin Disheroon, who owns Santa Cruz Naturals in Aptos and its sister location in Pajaro, said that the reason for the problem starts with a public wary of spending in an economy shaken by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“People can’t afford to spend money on expensive cannabis,” he told GT earlier this year.
This problem is compounded, he added, by the taxes tacked on to legal weed by state and local officials that add roughly 40% to the total cost at the register.
“When you have 15% excise tax, you still have the cultivation tax, the manufacturing tax, the local 7% sales taxes; it’s all too much,” he said. “All of those need to come down.”
An issue statewide for the growing industry, Disheroon’s sentiments are gaining traction among cannabis business owners.
In a letter late last year to Gov. Gavin Newsom, Senate President pro-Tempore Toni Atkins, Speaker Anthony Rendon and 30 cannabis industry professionals demanded lawmakers work to reduce the taxes and to eliminate the cultivation tax.
“Four years after the start of legal sales, our industry is collapsing, and our global leadership and legacy is at the brink of disappearing forever,” the letter read. “It is critical to recognize that an unwillingness to effectively legislate, implement and oversee a functional regulated cannabis industry has brought us to our knees.”
The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors on Jan. 25 passed a resolution requesting that Newsom and the State Legislature work to reform the tax structure and regulatory framework for the legal cannabis industry.
In his budget proposal in January, Gov. Gavin Newsom said he is willing to consider changes to the state’s tax structure. But such changes to state taxes require support from two-thirds of the Legislature.
“The Administration supports cannabis tax reform and plans to work with the Legislature to make modifications to California’s cannabis tax policy to help stabilize the market, better support California’s small licensed operators and strengthen compliance with state law,” Newsom stated.
And state officials appear to be on board with these reforms, too. California Bureau of Cannabis Control Acting Deputy Director of External Affairs Christina Dempsey said the agency is “committed to ensuring meaningful pathways exist for California’s small, legacy and equity licensees to thrive in this legal market.”
In the last year, Dempsey said, the state consolidated three legacy programs into a new standalone cannabis department, combined three sets of state regulations governing commercial cannabis activity and awarded $100 million to support businesses’ transition to annual licensure through the Local Jurisdiction Assistance Grant Program.
The state has also distributed millions of dollars through the Cannabis Tax Fund for “equity and enforcement,” Dempsey said.
Disheroon said he supports “smart regulation and smart taxation.”
“But it’s got to be realistic, and the rates across the industry are unrealistic,” he said.
He added that the Covid-19 lockdown also contributed to the problem when the public was consuming more cannabis products.
As a result, the industry ramped up production, only to encounter a major slowdown, he said.
“They anticipated this growth was going to continue. Suddenly, the growers and manufacturers have way more product than they know what to do with, and they have to pay to have that product processed.”
Much of this excess product is being shunted into the black market, worsening a problem that Prop. 64 sought to address, Disheroon said.
County officials say that illegal cannabis operators also create unfair competition by being able to sell their products for less.
This is not a problem in Santa Cruz County, where operators are instead destroying their extra or plowing their fields under, said Cannabis Licensing Manager Samuel LoForti.
LoForti agreed that the oversupply problem is a statewide issue, but said it is also caused by more players entering the market as the industry slowly takes hold statewide.
Last year, he said, many jurisdictions added licensing operations, leading to significantly more canopy. Santa Barbara, for example, increased its canopy by more than 400 acres, he said.
“More and more people are entering the marketplace, and that has tipped the scales,” he said.
LoForti said that these economic problems are not surprising, and were predicted in industry forecasts when recreational marijuana was legalized, which also foretold of independently owned cannabis farms collapsing as market rates decrease.
Still, he said the problem will eventually improve.
“I see market stabilization as an inevitability,” he said.
On Oct. 6, President Joe Biden made history when he pardoned thousands of Americans convicted of marijuana possession under federal laws. The pardons will help people who have been barred from employment, federal grants and federal housing and those who have been denied admission to colleges.
Biden also said that the White House would decide whether or not to continue to classify marijuana as a heroin-type Schedule One drug, a legacy of Richard Nixon and the War on Drugs.
The current enforcement of anti-cannabis laws is unacceptable, he suggested. “While white and Black and brown people use marijuana at similar rates,” Biden said, “Black and brown people are arrested, prosecuted and convicted at disproportionately higher rates.”
That policy has been called the “New Jim Crow.” In California, Illinois and other states, tens of thousands of marijuana convictions have already been expunged. Still, on the federal level, a new day has finally dawned. I’m celebrating.
Every year for a couple of decades, I grew marijuana without a permit, and wondered why everyone didn’t grow it. Now that I live in an apartment with a small backyard, I understand why many Californians would rather buy weed from a dealer or a dispensary than cultivate and harvest themselves.
Still, there is the pleasure of growing your own. In four months, sun-stroked female plants can be six feet tall, beautiful to behold and aromatic, too.
But growing weed takes time, patience, passion and a green thumb. Plus, a thief might rip off the plants as they reach maturity. Also, unless you know the origin of the seeds, and the phenotypes and genotypes, you might find yourself with dope that doesn’t have the desired effect.
These days, sales folk at dispensaries are much savvier about THC, CBD, strains and terpenes than they were a short while ago. They can help buyers find the product that’s right for each individual body and mind.
As a weed reporter, I receive free samples. I try them and like some better than others, tinctures more than gummies. I recommend Care By Design’s potent, fast-acting Full Spectrum Drops, which have 100 mg of CBD and 100 mg of THC. One drop under the tongue will stone you.
Oaky Joe, as he’s known in the trade, gives me four or five joints at a time when he visits. He’s strictly black market. He got his start in the biz by selling joints on urban street corners. Joe tells me, “If someone, say in Santa Cruz or San Francisco, wants to score weed and doesn’t have a connection, they could go to a park or bar where hippies hang out, but that’s dicey. They might be ripped off.”
I know Oaky Joe grows without toxic chemicals, and while I’d rather not smoke weed, I’m an “OG,” and old habits die hard. So I go on smoking and not eating or using gummies.
The State of California aims to abolish the black market and liquidate criminal and outlaw growers, but that won’t happen soon. There’s too much money at stake and growers are unlikely to change soon.
Everyone should have an Oaky Joe in his/her/their life. Joe is a bit of a nutcase, but he genuinely means to help the sick. A loving husband with a Japanese-born wife and their two kids, he has grown weed for decades, and as a grower has practiced civil disobedience Henry David Thoreau style, which means he stood and still stands outside the law, which he thinks is unjust and immoral. I agree.
These days, year-round growers always need and want trimmers. As a trimmer, you have access to quality weed at fair prices. You also might get a contact high when you trim with other trimmers, like my two Mexican-born friends Rosa and Paula. I’d trim with them again and again and again.
Many if not most of the growers I’ve interviewed, from Santa Cruz to Santa Barbara and Santa Rosa, who have permits and who sell to licensed dispensaries in the Golden State, also sell on the black market, or as they call it, “out the back door.”
Growers and dealers like Joe don’t get out of the biz until they’re forced out by cops, judges or their own aging bodies. A thirty-something-year-old son of a friend is now doing time in a federal prison because he shipped tons of weed out of state and laundered millions of dollars. Crime doesn’t always pay. Pot farmers are still busted.
I didn’t grow in 2022. Last season’s weed didn’t look or smell good, and it didn’t get me stoned. I gave most of it away to a friend who helped me manicure the buds, so it was payment for services performed.
Joe grew in 2022, but he tells me, “It’s not fun anymore. This is my last year.” He has been saying that for years, so I don’t believe him. In a way, he’s addicted to growing weed. He adds, “If someone is really desperate for weed, they should get in touch with me, and I’ll hook them up.”
POI ROGERS Somewhere in between the tropical lounges of 1930s Los Angeles and the honky tonks of rural 1950s California, you’ll find Poi Rogers. The Santa Cruz duo—Gerard Egan and Carolyn Sills—performs vintage country-western swing, Hawaiian steel guitar ballads and cowboy tunes anchored by breathtaking harmonies. Both musicians are inductees into the Sacramento Western Swing Hall of Fame, and Sills is the Academy of Western Artists Western Swing Female Vocalist of the Year. Meanwhile, Egan doubles up on acoustic guitar and his 1954 Fender triple neck steel guitar. Free. Wednesday, Dec. 21, 5pm. The Crepe Place, 1134 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. thecrepeplace.com.
THE SERPENTINE SOLSTICE HAFLA After a three-year break, Serpentine Solstice Hafla returns to celebrate the year’s darkest night. The Middle Eastern celebration of life is an unforgettable dance showcase that features every type of body moving imaginable: belly dancing, burlesque, breakdancing, Samba, Ukrainian fusion, fire dancing and more. The booty shaking is just one piece of a giant puzzle that includes a DJ, MCs, local jewelry vendors and a tarot card reader—if you are in the mood for some soul searching. Formal attire is recommended, so come gussied up. The theme is “A Sparkling Soiree” to light up the night. Sequins and sparkles are recommended. The “Most Glittering” dressed will be awarded a prize. $25/$30 plus fees. Wednesday, Dec. 21, 7pm. Moe’s Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz. moesalley.com.
‘THE NUTCRACKER’ It’s the 10th anniversary of the 2022 Agape Dance Academy’s Nutcracker Ballet, a special holiday tradition. This season Agape Dance welcomes Yeva Ziniak, the newest company dancer who fled Ukraine with her family. A portion of the ticket sales will be donated to Nova Ukraine, an organization providing humanitarian aid to Ukrainians during the ongoing struggle. $35-50. Wednesday, Dec. 21, and Thursday, Dec. 22, 2:30pm and 6:30pm. Cabrillo College Crocker Theater, 6500 Perimeter Drive, Aptos. agapedance.com.
COMMUNITY
STANFORD CARDINAL VS. LOYOLA CHICAGO RAMBLERS Josue Gil-Silva played only two minutes during Stanford’s 85-40 Dec. 16 victory over Green Bay Phoenix. However, those two minutes might have been the best two minutes of his life. On Dec. 1, Stanford coach Jarod Haase added Gil-Silva to the roster after two years as team manager. He’s now teammates with his cousin Isa Silva, a star point guard from Sacramento. Gil-Silva remembers dreaming of wearing a Cardinal jersey as a kid. And now, his dream has come true. Time to see what he can do against the Ramblers. $12-175. Thursday, Dec. 22, 7pm. Kaiser Permanente Arena, 140 Front St., Santa Cruz. ticketmaster.com/event/1C005D0A97A119A1.
ROARING CAMP HOLIDAY LIGHTS TRAIN Vintage excursion cars adorned with thousands of colorful lights roll through Santa Cruz streets. Passengers lend their voices to holiday carols and sip spiced cider while Santa visits with the little ones and the young at heart. $44.95; $32.95/children. Thursday, Dec. 22, and Friday, Dec. 23, 4:30pm. Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, 400 Beach St., Santa Cruz. beachboardwalk.com/holiday-train-rides.
TOY TRAINS 2022 Get whisked away into the whimsical world of toy trains and enjoy the 17th year of this adored annual pop-up exhibit. From Lionel Pennsylvania Flyers and the Lionel Polar Express to the Lionel Union Pacific Flyer LionChief Train Set and the Hornby Flying Scotsman, it’s a magical miniature world where anything is possible. Free with MAH admission. Thursday, Dec. 22 through Saturday, Dec. 24, noon. Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History, 705 Front St., Santa Cruz. santacruzmah.org.
SANTA CRUZ CHANUKAH TRAIN Make sure you arrive early; the menorah will be lit 15 minutes before the train departs. Kosher refreshments will be provided throughout the ride. Play dreidel and enjoy Chanukah stories as the train travels through the streets of Santa Cruz. $44.95; $32.95/children. Monday, Dec. 26, 5:15pm. Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, 400 Beach St., Santa Cruz. beachboardwalk.com/holiday-train-rides.
[Warning: This story contains descriptions of of sexual violence. — Editor]
In 2004, Jody Geare was a 20-year-old second-year firefighter living in Santa Cruz in the Seacliff area. As she walked to a friend’s house before dawn along a frontage road running parallel to Highway 1, she heard the sound of footsteps behind her. She moved to the right, close to a guardrail, thinking it was just someone jogging, and they’d pass her. Instead, a man tackled her, knocking her over the guardrail into a ravine.
“I was in such shock I think I said, ‘This can’t be happening,’ out loud,” Geare recalls. “I remember getting punched in the face repeatedly. I told him he would have to kill me if he wanted to do what he wanted. Somehow, he got my belt wrapped around my neck, and once my air was cut off, I just stopped [fighting back]. He raped me. When he was done, I thought, ‘If I just lay here, he’ll think that I’m dead and leave me alone.’ He ran up the hill, and I waited until I didn’t hear his footsteps anymore. Then I got up and ran in the other direction.”
Geare ran as fast as she could, wearing only one shoe and a shirt. She climbed a chain link fence and sprinted across the freeway to the median so both sides of traffic would see her.
It wasn’t until she was in the hospital bathroom that she could see the damage to her face and body in the mirror.
“That’s what made it real,” Geare says. “I remember collapsing in the hospital bathroom.”
Geare said she was in a car accident, so she didn’t have to return to work until her face healed.
“I was quiet about it for many years,” she says. “And because [the assailant] wasn’t caught, it was almost like it didn’t happen. There was no justice; there was no closure. There was no safety—this guy wasn’t off the streets.”
Fourteen years after that horrid night, Geare’s rapist was convicted of the crime after he was arrested for a separate sexual assault case in Aptos, where he attempted to rape another woman
“We were living through the trial, as Jody was living through it,” Jody’s brother Jeff says. “We started having emotions like, ‘We want to kill the guy. We want him to suffer for what he did. Not just have his freedom stripped.’”
Moving On
Jeff and Jody’s other brother Darren felt they needed to do something. There was a burden of trauma they had been carrying around as if it was their own. They needed to do something creative. After all, they’d worked in the music industry and were aspiring screenwriters, so making a film seemed like a natural direction. But they didn’t know how to approach it.
“We never felt like we could tell Jody’s exact story,” Darren says. “Our story was as brothers trying to cope with it.”
But it changed from a brother coping with the experience to a father. Darren had watched his and Jody’s dad—Jeff is their half-brother—experience the trial, and he listened to his father describe his anger at the man who had inflicted such suffering on his daughter.
“It’s easy to be academic about it with a rational mind and say, ‘Well, that’s not the right thing to do,’” Darren says. “But when you’re in that moment, and you go, ‘That’s my daughter, my sister, my wife, whatever.’ There is pain and frustration that has nowhere to go. What if there was a service for family members of crime victims that offered one minute alone [with the assaulter]?”
Darren’s question became the genesis for the Geare Brothers’ feature-length debut The Retaliators. Part throwback to ’70s revenge horror flicks like I Spit on Your Grave and Wes Craven’s The Last House on the Left, the mashup of influences is also a gruesome homage to other exploitation movies of the same era, like Craven’s The Hills Have Eyes.
“Jeff and I grew up making films to amuse ourselves—and friends and family,” Darren says. “We were very passionate, crazy movie nerds.”
Darren went into acting when he was younger and worked a little bit professionally before his passion slowly morphed towards making music with Jeff, and he left acting behind.
“By the early 2000s, Jeff and I had a little record deal, put out a few records and we did well on a regional level and had a fan base and things like that,” he says.
Jeff went on to earn his master’s at Cal State Long Beach. From there, life moved forward: Darren got married and had kids. But Darren says writing was always a dream of his.
“Five years ago, out of the blue, I called Jeff and said, ‘Hey, you want to write a script? Not tell anybody and just do it?’” Darren says. “That’s how it all started. It’s a bizarre path that got us here.”
The movie’s plot follows a respected pastor and single father of two girls, John Bishop, who dives into the pitch-black underbelly of New Jersey’s Pine Barrens degenerates and meth dealers after a twisted sociopath brutally murders his daughter on Christmas Eve because she saw something incriminating.
“We wanted it to be Christmas, but not like Silent Night, Deadly Night,” Jeff says. “Christmas helps set the stage, but it’s not in every scene of the film.”
Christmas is a setting that brings a tone of happiness and joy that seems so painful alongside the tragedy. This juxtaposition flows through the protagonist, John Bishop, played by Rescue Me’s Michael Lombardi, who Jeff describes as an earnest “Jimmy Stewart type who has his flaws but is a good person.”
Making Connections
Darren first hooked up with Lombardi over a decade earlier. The actor had just finished the popular FX series Rescue Me with Dennis Leary, and was making music. He was looking for a songwriting partner.
“There was a lot of serendipity involved,” Darren says. “We hit it off immediately and worked together for a few months before [Lombardi] headed back east, where he lives.”
Years went by without seeing each other or talking. But the day Jeff and Darren were going to meet with producers interested in The Retaliators, Lombardi called.
“I told him we had written a script,” Darren says. “He goes, ‘Send me the script.’ Three days later, he was on a plane and said, ‘I’m going to get this movie made. I was born to play the John Bishop role.’”
The first person Lombardi took the script to was Allen Kovac, a 40-year entertainment industry veteran who managed Blondie, the Cranberries and Mötley Crüe. Kovac suggested that The Retaliators have a rock soundtrack in the vein of movies like The Lost Boys.
Kovac assisted with The Retaliators’ metal-fueled soundtrack featuring Mötley Crüe, Crossbone Skully and Papa Roach and helped navigate some lofty cameos, including Tommy Lee and Five Finger Death Punch’s Zoltan Bathory. It’s gory, gritty and loaded with scenes that are difficult to watch. But it’s not gratuitous without reason, and a lot of the splatter is campy a la Peter Jackson’s Bad Taste.
Since The Retaliators’ theatrical release on Sept. 14, the Geare Brothers say the reception has been incredible, especially the 88% score on Rotten Tomatoes. More importantly, it’s been cathartic for Jody.
Like the film itself, the poster for “The Retaliators” is a tribute to
exploitation films of the 1970s. PHOTO: Courtesy of Better Noise Films
“As heartbreaking as the situation is, it’s almost like [The Retaliators] gave me a voice,” she says. “I felt like I was hidden. I felt like it wasn’t real because there was no conclusion. There was a police investigation, but for 10 years, it was just like, ‘Okay, now I’m supposed to go and live my life.’”
Jody felt some closure after her assailant was thrown in prison for nearly 25 years, but she feels like the movie continues to give her more. She’s been able to move on with her life as the captain of a local fire department, and continue to tell her story..
“To have people that I love, trust and adore tell a version—maybe not necessarily of my story, but the experience of being in a family and having this happen to a family member—is powerful and empowering,” Jody says. “When I was going through this, I had no one to look up to; I had no other stories that I look at as a female firefighter, a young woman. I’m grateful to my brothers and Mike Lombardi for allowing me to come on press tours; they have embraced me with open, loving arms. If nothing else, this movie has allowed me to save anyone else from the unnecessary struggles that I went through. You never get over it, but you learn to live with it.
Wait, can it possibly be Year in Review time again? How is that possible? Oh, right, because a whole year’s worth of crazy crap happened. I forgot there for a second!
But you can experience it all again—or at least page through it between checking updates on whether or not Elon Musk has finally decided to just upload himself into Twitter so he can mainline the world’s attention around the clock—by reading our cover story this week. With pretty much the whole staff contributing, I always feel like Year in Review is one of our weirdest and wildest issues every year, and this one is no exception. It’s full of odd, unfortunate and even mysterious events; the things that gave us hope, the things that grossed us out and the things that made us cringe, facepalm or drop to our knees, tear our shirt in anguish and scream to the heavens “WHY?” (To be fair, only one of us did that last one, and it was only the one time.)Ultimately, it’s all in fun, and we hope it allows you to look back and laugh. If it also makes you say, “Gee, I wish there was a way to make things better for the people who had to go through all this in 2022”—well, what a coincidence, we are rounding into the home stretch of our Santa Cruz Givescampaign, and you can go to santacruzgives.org and help more than 60 local nonprofits in their work for our community. Happy Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa or whatever you may be celebrating over the next week!
PHOTO CONTEST WINNER
STOP WHAT YOU’RE DOING AND BREATHE Just a friendly reminder in the middle of the holiday season, brought to you by Seacliff Beach. Photograph by Elizabeth Good.
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GOOD IDEA
HOPE TO FIND A SPOT
For once, we can feel good about feeding the parking meter, instead of cursing the parking overlords while searching the car for another quarter. The city is hosting its Parking for Hope holiday parking program, where it will donate the proceeds from the street meters to Hope Services. Hope Services keeps downtown streets clean, and employs and trains adults with developmental disabilities. The program runs from Sunday, Dec. 18, through Sunday, Dec. 25.
GOOD WORK
NEWS NEWS
Last week, Community Bridges officially announced its hiring of Tony Nuñez, former Good Times News Editor, as their marketing and communications manager. We know he’s going to do amazing work at the nonprofit, but we’ll miss reading his unique and captivating reporting. We’re also excited to announce that our own tireless and talented reporter Aiyana Moya will be taking over as GT’s News Editor, and we can’t wait to see what she’ll do!
