Music means everything to Watsonville native Andy Vargas. It also became his career in 2000, when he started touring as Carlos Santana’s vocalist—a dream come true.
But Vargas understands that he had help achieving his goals. His father, Javier, always supportive, was a big part of that help. So, in 2015, Vargas started the Andy Vargas Foundation in San Bernardino, with the intention of helping under-privileged kids the way he was helped.
“Music, my whole life, has kept me focused on my dreams. I’ve been very lucky,” Vargas says. “I believe you have to give it to keep it. My dad gave me that love and that inspiration. He passed it on to me. I’m passing it on to my kids.”
The foundation helps kids by giving them access to equipment and mentorship, as well as providing an education in songwriting, and teaching them how they can find work in the music industry. It also provides financial support via scholarships to continue their higher education in the arts.
In 2018, the San Bernardino program ended, but he brought on his dad and expanded operations into Watsonville. In late 2019, he opened a new program in Southern California, and during the pandemic he and his dad started working with students on Zoom.
Vargas will be bringing several students to the Rio’s stage at his benefit show on Dec. 18, and he’ll perform with his band. Javier will also perform, along with other special guests like Ozomatli. This performance will not only showcase the skills Vargas’ students have acquired, but will raise awareness for his organization and raise much-needed funds for the Andy Vargas Foundation scholarship program. Fundraising efforts were down during the pandemic, so they have a lot to make up for.
Vargas has a vision for how he wants the academy to expand. He’s hoping next year to start a mariachi academy in Watsonville, led by his father. But for now, he’s trying to make sure that the normal operations are fully funded.
“I’m very grateful to be able to have one of my favorite groups, Ozomatli, on stage with us,” Vargas says. “I hope everyone comes and supports our students and sees a great show.”
The “Love is What We Need” Andy Vargas Foundation benefit concert starts at 6pm on Saturday, Dec. 18 at the Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. $40. (831) 423-8209.
I have solar panels on my home here in Ben Lomond, and I wouldn’t have been able to do it without a solar loan. The loan is dependent upon there being some type of ROI on the panels–mainly the ability to sell power back to the grid.
Why are CA utilities—led by PG&E—trying to kill this incentive?
PG&E is proposing a $90 per month “solar connection fee” and an 80% reduction in the amount they reimburse solar owners for their excess energy during the day. A vote is scheduled for this week with the CPUC. Please encourage your readers to visit savecaliforniasolar.com and sign the petition to save rooftop solar!
Reuben Ly
Ben Lomond
This letter does 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.
During my lifetime, I’ve lived in Mexico for three years and spent a month traveling in Spain, experiencing the value of a town square, a welcoming public space that brings community together. Like a living room, a central plaza is a place where people pause in their busy lives to relax, share ideas, celebrate special occasions, play and be entertained, together.
It is an established fact that well-designed and cared for public plazas bring life and vibrancy to a town center, providing a democratic meeting space—an outdoor community center. In this uncertain era of Covid and emerging variants, access to a public outdoor gathering space would be of exceptional value, as we are advised to socialize outdoors as much as possible.
The importance of an outdoor venue to bring people together in our downtown was understood by those who reconfigured the MAH, designing a relaxed outdoor gathering space that immediately filled with conversation, music, food—a joy to walk by, but not the large open public space that a downtown commons would provide.
Imagine walking through our downtown streets in the shadow of the slated-to-be-built many-storied concrete apartments, condos, and maybe a behemoth luxury hotel, blocking sun to meet friends or business associates or just sit on a bench in an open tree-lined park-like plaza with children playing. Imagine tourists (and locals!) looking over the town square weekly event calendar for ways to engage during their visit and perhaps finding outdoor movies, concerts and dances, a cultural festival, an antique fair, a farmer’s market or two!
I recall many years ago, walking from my home down Lincoln St, heading downtown on a weekend and encountering—to my great surprise and delight—a large gathering on the farmers market lot with a stage and food booths, music and speakers, all in Spanish—a joyful gathering of our Oaxacan community. A community commons would provide a permanent place to celebrate and know the rich cultures in our community, a place to gather for a rally after a march, a place for youth to speak out about their future.
Yes, we need to retain and restructure our library per our vote for Measure S in 2016, knowing we have the option to build an extension over the adjacent parking lot. Yes, we need bona fide low-income housing built on or over the many downtown city-owned lots. Yes, we must fill our (verified) unfilled parking lots while developing strategies to mitigate our dependence on cars. Yes, we are obliged to do our part to cut carbon emissions in recognition of the catastrophic threat of global warming.
Yes, yes we must create a welcoming, attractive outdoor community space on our one large open area in the heart of our downtown that will meet our human need to gather in community—to create, to celebrate, to advocate, to play—safely—in this uncertain age of climate catastrophe and pandemics.
With vision and wise leadership, we can have it all.
Sheila Carrillo
Santa Cruz
This letter does 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.
There’s so much interesting scientific work coming out of UCSC that it’s hard to keep track of it. What makes it even harder is that many of the people doing that work are doing so in partnership with other organizations, making the connection to the university less obvious.
What’s really strange is when the project is one of the most important scientific undertakings of the last 30 years, and yet even most people who live here don’t know about the connection to our area. That’s certainly the case with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, which is set to launch Dec. 22 as the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope that launched in 1990. What’s great about Erin Malsbury’s cover story this week is it goes beyond just explaining the role that UCSC scientists played in the creation of the telescope, and dives deep into the rather mind-bending uses they have planned for it.
Elsewhere in this issue, Tony Nuñez writes about some of the groups in this year’s Santa Cruz Gives that are dedicated to improving the lives of local youth, such as Barrios Unidos. Give it a read and then go to santacruzgives.org and donate! Incredibly, we just passed the $750,000 mark, and with 17 days to go I’m hopeful we can reach our goal of raising close to a million dollars for our 80 incredible nonprofits.
Lastly, the voting opens today for our Best of Santa Cruz County awards. Go to goodtimes.sc to vote for your favorite local people and businesses!
STEVE PALOPOLI | EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
GOOD IDEA
DOWNRIGHT NEIGH-BORLY
Looking for something different in a Christmas parade? The Horse and Hound parade started out as some friends getting together to do a festive neighborhood horseback ride, and turned into an annual caroling parade. It features horses decorated in lights and Santa playing piano out of the bed of a truck, and will be held this Sunday in Felton, starting at the post office at 4:30pm.
GOOD WORK
TOY STORY
Congrats to Santa Cruz METRO and Santa Cruz County Toys for Tots, who collected an entire busload of toy donations for local youth. Last Saturday, the two organizations hosted their first Stuff the Bus donation event, collecting toys for kids experiencing homelessness and financial hardship ahead of the holiday season.
When the Hubble Space Telescope launched in 1990, it produced mind-boggling images that changed the way we think about space.
But before the Hubble even lifted off, engineers were already planning its successor.
After decades of engineering, years of delays, $10 billion and a name controversy, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will finally launch on Dec. 22.
A collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency, JWST will help us understand how the earliest galaxies in the universe formed and bolster the search for life beyond Earth.
“JWST is, in a lot of ways, the most powerful scientific instrument that we’ve ever made as humans,” says UCSC professor Brant Robertson.
The Hubble Space Telescope orbits the Earth and captures images mostly in the visible light spectrum, but JWST will operate in the infrared.
Working in this wavelength of light, scientists will soon peer behind dust clouds and see some of the oldest galaxies in the universe.
Space is expanding, so as light travels through the universe, its wavelength stretches out. It becomes redder—and eventually infrared—in a phenomenon called redshift. This means the most distant galaxies from Earth appear redder to us, as the light has traveled billions of light years before reaching us.
To detect infrared light from these ancient galaxies, JWST needs to avoid as much heat and light-pollution as possible. Even a tiny amount of nearby infrared radiation would interfere with the sensitive camera.
The telescope will fly about a million miles away from Earth and deploy a sunshield to block heat and light from the Earth, Sun and Moon.
JWST will end its journey at a stable gravitational point called L2, where it will orbit the sun from behind Earth.
Far out of human reach, the telescope must operate on its own. If something goes wrong, the instrument is literally beyond repair.
A 21-foot primary mirror, made of beryllium and coated with an ultra-thin layer of gold, reflects infrared light and helps make JWST over 100 times more powerful than Hubble.
A tennis court-sized sunshield, made of five paper-thin aluminum and silicon-coated Kapton layers, keeps it a cool -370 degrees F.
But the enormous primary mirror and sunshield won’t fit on a rocket. So engineers began practicing their origami and came up with a solution: They folded it.
Before it begins revealing the secrets hidden in the stars, JWST must successfully unfold and arrange itself.
Over the course of 29 days, hundreds of pulleys and cables will move 18 hexagonal sections of mirror and the five sunshield layers into place.
“There’s a lot riding on all these mechanisms,” says UCSC distinguished emeritus professor Garth Illingworth. “There are hundreds of things where if one of them failed, we would probably lose a lot of capability or even lose the mission.”
After the first anxious month, the telescope will cool down and spend five months calibrating its four main scientific instruments: The near-infrared camera (NIRCam), the near-infrared spectrograph (NIRSpec), the mid-infrared instrument (MIRI) and the fine guidance system/near-infrared image and slitless spectrograph (FGS/NIRISS).
Each of these tools will help researchers learn about the origins of galaxies and planets. The telescope will open our eyes to the universe in ways we can’t yet imagine.
“I can tell you what science I think Webb is going to do and the questions that I’m excited to have answered. But really, at the end of the day, the most exciting things Webb will do are the things that I can’t tell you about: the surprises, because we’re looking at the universe in a different way,” says UCSC professor of astronomy and astrophysics Natalie Batalha.
JWST is an international effort, but Santa Cruz has made a huge impact. Several UCSC researchers will lead or participate in JWST programs, and a few were also instrumental in the telescope’s development.
This web of golden cables and cords is ground support equipment for the James Webb Space Telescope, including the Optical Telescope Simulator (OSIM). PHOTO: CHRIS GUNN
Life, the universe and everything
Garth Illingworth began working on the project in the 1980s, when it was called the Next Generation Space Telescope. Illingworth chaired the JWST Science Advisory Committee for eight years.
“That was a committee that was set up to look at how to maximize the science return from James Webb,” says Illingworth.
The committee would discuss everything from telescope operations to funding and data rights.
“One of the aspects of these missions, which I find to be not very good, is that people can keep the data to themselves for a year,” he says. “We felt that having a lot of data that wasn’t accessible to others was not only in a way unfair, but very unwise for a big, publicly funded facility.”
NASA opted not to reduce the one-year period of data exclusivity—called a discretionary period. So the committee came up with a compromise. They proposed an early-release science program, where data will immediately become public for certain projects.
Illingworth also helped save the telescope from extinction. As JWST’s price tag increased and delays pushed the launch date back, representatives considered scrapping the project all together.
“You don’t get congressional support just by having great ideas,” says Illingworth. “When you’re spending that much money, you’ve also got to work with politicians and staff to gain their support and interest.”
The director of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center at the time asked Illingworth and a few others to review the project.
“We were sort of a quiet little group,” he says. “We would sit and watch and talk amongst ourselves and then get back to people later with things that we were concerned about.”
By the end of it all, Illingworth felt optimistic.
“They really came together and produced what was a good telescope and overcame obstacles and kept the scientific capability,” he says. “So I think at this stage, we’re in great shape.”
After the launch, Illingworth’s roles will shift to, among other things, examining data from JWST as the U.S. lead for a program called PRIMER.
The project will help scientists understand the first galaxies of the universe and provide public data immediately.
UCSC astronomy and astrophysics professor Brant Robertson will also work as a co-investigator on PRIMER. He will play an even larger role on the steering committee of another first galaxies program called JADES.
JADES will use more of the telescope’s time during its first year than any other program—about 800 hours—as it takes deep images and spectra of the oldest galaxies in the universe.
In case that wasn’t enough telescope time, Robertson will also work as a lead theorist on COSMOS-Webb, another of the largest galaxy origins programs.
These research programs differ in what portions of the sky they focus on and how deep they look, but the overall goal remains similar.
“All of these surveys are geared toward trying to find extremely faint, very distant galaxies in the early universe,” says Robertson.
In some cases, scientists will be able to study how galaxies evolve over time. COSMOS-Webb will survey a large portion of sky. It will enable researchers to study the variations in density of the universe and how the surroundings of galaxies affect them.
The telescope will provide us with extremely detailed images and an overwhelming amount of data.
An interactive map of a COSMOS-Webb simulation shows just how deep into space the survey could go. It covers an area of sky equivalent to about three whole moons, and within that tiny sliver, it will image hundreds of thousands of galaxies.
To make things more manageable, Robertson worked with Ryan Hausen, a UCSC computer science graduate student, to develop and test an AI program called Morpheus. It will work pixel by pixel to classify different types of galaxies.
“I’m excited about applying AI to that survey,” says Robertson. “It’s difficult to do by eye—too many objects. And that will produce a beautiful picture,” he adds.
The gold-coated Engineering Design Unity (EDU) Primary Mirror Segment, and supporters. PHOTO: DREW NOEL
Planet Hunting
Several UCSC researchers will also study exoplanets, another major early goal of JWST.
Natalie Batalha began working in exoplanet research before it became a field. As a UCSC graduate student, she attended the conference where scientists first announced the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a normal star.
She ended up working on NASA’s Kepler mission in 2000, which revealed thousands of planets orbiting stars in the galaxy.
Now, Batalha serves as the presidential chair for the UCSC Astrobiology Initiative, an interdisciplinary group working to understand the formation of life and its prevalence in the universe.
“The diversity of planets in the galaxy far exceeds the diversity of planets in our own solar system,” says Batalha. “And in fact, one of the most common types of planets that we know about in the galaxy are a type of planet we don’t have in our solar system.”
These planets fit somewhere between gas giants and small terrestrial planets in size.
“We don’t even know what to call them,” says Batalha. “Are they scaled-up Earth-sized planets? Are they scaled-down Neptunes? We don’t know.”
Some of these terrestrial planets might have started out as gaseous and lost their atmospheres over time to radiation.
“Could a planet like that be potentially habitable? What are the implications for life?” asks Batalha.
Engineers practice “snow cleaning” on a test telescope mirror for the James Webb Space Telescope at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. By shooting carbon dioxide snow at the surface, engineers are able to clean large telescope mirrors without scratching them. PHOTO: CHRIS GUNN
Current methods allow exoplanet researchers to measure things like mass and radius. But JWST will allow scientists to go further and tease apart the chemical makeup of exoplanet atmospheres. The spectrographs aboard JWST help make this possible.
“It is largely going to be collecting light and spreading it out into a rainbow. And then looking in great detail at the amount of energy that we’re receiving at every single individual color,” says Batalha.
She will join her daughter, Natasha Batalha of the NASA Ames Research Center, to collaborate on the largest exoplanet program in the first phase of JWST research.
Other UCSC scientists, including Jonathan Fortney, Andrew Skemer and postdoctoral researcher Aarynn Carter, will lead different types of JWST exoplanet research programs, including direct imaging.
“We’re going to be James Webb exoplanet central here,” Skemer said in a press release.
In the coming years, UCSC scientists and researchers from around the world will change the way we see the universe and our place in it. Engineers designed the instruments with growth in mind.
“It’s quite a feat to achieve these new technological advances while at the same time maintaining flexibility to respond to new scientific discoveries,” says Batalha. “Webb did that beautifully.”
If successful, JWST could create entirely new fields of astronomy.
“We’re going to probably find more questions than answers,” says Illingworth. “But it’s also the case that we will reveal a hell of a lot with James Webb.”
When Daniel “Nane” Alejandrez returned home from the Vietnam War in the 1970s, he says that it was clear that his true fight had just begun.
“It seemed like I came from one war to another one,” Alejandrez says.
A son of migrant farmworkers from Texas who was born in a cotton field in Merigold, Mississippi, Alejandrez says violence and poverty among the Chicano population in his eventual hometown of Fresno had reached a dangerous tipping point. And after he arrived in Santa Cruz with hopes of earning a film degree at UCSC, Alejandrez says he remembers seeing the same violence around Santa Cruz County’s Chicanos.
It was clear then that if anything was going to improve in the community, he says, the change would need to come from within.
“We knew that no one was coming to our communities,” he says. “We had to rise ourselves.”
Alejandrez is the executive director of Barrios Unidos, a nonprofit he first started as a volunteer organization in 1977, and then officially incorporated in 1993. For more than 40 years, Barrios Unidos has helped tackle the social issues affecting Santa Cruz County’s Latinx youth, while also playing a key role in the move toward restorative justice in this area and beyond.
Barrios Unidos, which at a time had 27 chapters throughout the nation, does this through preventive programs offered at its headquarters in Santa Cruz, dubbed The Spot. There the organization offers afterschool programs, a food pantry and job training through its silkscreen business, recording studio and tiny-home project in which youth are taught how to construct the small houses.
It also does the work that many organizations would not: working with incarcerated individuals—both youth and adult offenders—that society has allowed to fall through the cracks. On top of steering youth in juvenile hall away from a life behind bars, Barrios Unidos offers an adult ReEntry program and Prison Project that addresses recidivism by dealing with one of the largest root causes of crime: a lacking support system.
Alejandrez says that at a recent visit to Soledad State Prison, Barrios Unidos had some 40 men graduate as “Peace Warriors,” taking an oath of nonviolence. The graduates, Alejandrez says, had been in prison for as long as 46 years.
“All those men at some point didn’t have someone in their lives as kids, and they made wrong decisions, or they were involved in the wrong things,” he says. “And they all said, ‘If we had somebody like you guys, it would’ve made a difference.’”
Participating in Santa Cruz Gives for the first time in the holiday crowdsourcing campaign’s seven-year run, Barrios Unidos aims to make a bigger difference in 2022. The organization’s “Big Idea” for the upcoming year is “Santa Cruz Cares for Kids,” an initiative that would build on the nonprofit’s popular after-school program for children ages 5-17.
Barrios Unidos’ youth offerings are unique. The organization not only provides a safe place for kids, but also emphasizes cultural teachings that are sometimes not passed down from the previous generation because of split households. Alejandrez says Barrios Unidos helps these young people, the majority of whom are Latinx, reconnect with their roots.
“You have to teach that, you have to keep that alive so they feel proud of who they are and they know who they are,” Alejandrez says.
It’s this pride in what Barrios Unidos calls the “authentic self,” Alejandrez argues, that will ultimately bring about change in the Latinx community. It’s not lost on him that the majority of kids in juvenile hall are Latinx residents from Watsonville, and that the county’s jail population is 58% Latinx. In contrast, he says, there are few Latinx people that hold key positions of power in the county.
“There’s an inequity there that needs to be addressed, and if we start educating our young kids in a safe place to look at that dream and say, ‘One of these days, I’m going to be the district attorney or the judge in this county,’ then we’ll start to see real change,” he says.
Alejandrez’s impact on the community and his impressive resume could serve as inspiration for young people, too. He’s been mentored by Harry Belafonte, Delores Huerta and Danny Glover. He’s also traveled to Columbia, El Salvador, Kenya and Tanzania to share his teachings. In addition, he’s spoken to the United Nations multiple times about Barrios Unidos’ work, and was most recently awarded the Chief Justice Earl Warren Civil Liberties Award, an honor that has gone to the likes of Thurgood Marshall and Rosa Parks.
Even more rewarding, Alejandrez says, is seeing some of Barrios Unidos’ alumni now leading organizations throughout the country.
“This community has given me and my family so much,” he says. “I have to give back.”
But his work is far from over, and in many ways, the battle he took up some 44 years ago has only become tougher because of the ongoing housing crisis and the economic downturn as a result of the pandemic.
“We have to give a way for our young people that were born and raised in this county, whether it be Watsonville or Santa Cruz, a way to be able to stay here,” he says. “In the long run, that’s what we’re trying to create in Barrios. We can have a place for kids, we can have teachings for the community and we can have housing. But we can’t do it alone. That’s why we need the community to step up.”
Creating Links
In today’s nonstop, now-now-now world, a stagnant list of potential jobs seems counterintuitive for an organization that prides itself on quickly linking young people to career opportunities and training. So when Yvette Brooks came aboard as Your Future Is Our Business’ (YFIOB) executive director just a few months ago, her goal was to fill the gaps still present in the nonprofit’s wide-ranging web connecting local schools with employers.
To do this, YFIOB, with the help of Santa Cruz Gives, plans to establish an online platform that would house vital information about prospective employers. Their “Big Idea” would connect schools and businesses, and give teachers access to career-based curriculum, business and community opportunities for students. It would also house virtual tours of companies and other tools for use in curriculum.
The idea is, Brooks says, to remove as many barriers as possible for teachers hoping to expose their students to the career possibilities available in their own backyard.
“We have to evolve with the times, and it’s so imperative to support students in providing workplace learning opportunities—and as many as possible,” she says. “For me, growing up I was taught that you go to college, you graduate and find a job for that career you went to college for and that was it. But, in reality, most of us have 10, 20, 30 jobs in our lifetime. It’s organizations like these who tell kids that there’s so much opportunity out there, explore them all, let me help you explore them all.”
Since 1993, YFIOB has worked to provide every Santa Cruz County student with opportunities to discover a fulfilling and successful career by partnering with local school districts and local employers. Through their countywide network of community leaders and businesses, they host monthly career panels and expos at various schools and give students real-world experience along with advice on career paths.
Future leaders
Peer pressure doesn’t have to be a bad thing. In fact, the local chapter of Girls Inc. hopes to harness it to address drug and alcohol abuse in young girls.
Their “Big Idea” for this year’s Santa Cruz Gives campaign is a “Friendly PEERsuasion program” in which they train seventh-grade girls (ages 11-14) to improve their decision-making, assertiveness and communication. They also practice walking away from situations where they feel pressured to use alcohol or drugs. Those girls, in turn, will work with fourth- and fifth-grade girls (ages 6-10) as role models and leaders, guiding activities that help avoid girls’ use of harmful substances, especially by giving them skills to refuse and walk away.
“It’s a beautiful way that we can build leaders amongst all different girls,” said Deanna Zachary, a donor relations officer with Girls Inc. of the Central Coast.
That organization has been around since 1999 and currently pairs some 1,700 young girls with mentors that inspire them to pursue secondary education, develop leadership and decision-making skills and serve their communities.
They do that in several ways, including the organization’s summer camp at UCSC, in which the girls stay in the dorms at the university. Zachary says it’s a life-changing experience for several girls, the vast majority of which are girls of color (some 90% Zachary says) who have grown up believing a college education is out of their reach.
“A lot of our girls are the first generation to go to college and the first generation to have a career,” Zachary says.
Safe future
As Santa Cruz County—and the greater state of California—continues to embrace the move toward pedestrian- and bike-friendly communities, it is essential that the next generation of commuters know how to properly navigate the roadways safely, says Kirsten Liske, vice president of community programs at Ecology Action.
That nonprofit’s “Big Idea” hopes to address that issue. Its initiative, “Youth Pedestrian + Bicycle Safety Education for All,” aims to bring its cutting-edge school-based bike and pedestrian safety skills programs to all second- and fifth-grade students in the county. The second-graders would undergo Ecology Action’s Walk Smart program while the older students would get the Bike Smart program.
“What that’s gonna do is reduce the disproportionately high youth fatality and injury rate that cities like Watsonville have for bike and pedestrian [collisions], and then … if kids are biking and walking more, even if it’s not to school, they’re in better health,” Liske says.
Ecology Action, established in 1970, has for years helped communities slowly transition away from car-centric commute patterns by helping them construct action plans that they, in turn, use to gather state and federal funding to implement road alterations promoting environmental sustainability.
Santa Cruz Gives is presented by Good Times in partnership with the Volunteer Center of Santa Cruz County and with support from the Community Foundation of Santa Cruz County, The Applewood Fund, the Bud & Rebecca Colligan Fund, The Joe Collins Fund, Driscoll’s, Inc., Santa Cruz County Bank, Wynn Capital Management, Oswald Restaurant, the Pajaronian and the Press Banner. For a list of all nonprofits and to donate, visit santacruzgives.org.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Key questions for you, beginning now and throughout 2022: 1. What do you need to say, but have not yet said? 2. What is crucial for you to do, but you have not yet done? 3. What dream have you neglected and shouldn’t neglect any longer? 4. What sanctuary is essential for you to visit, but you have not yet visited? 5. What “sin” is it important for you to forgive yourself for, but you have not yet forgiven yourself? 6. What promise have you not yet fulfilled, even though it’s getting late (but not too late!) to fulfill? 7. What secret have you hidden so well that you have mostly concealed it even from yourself?
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Taurus novelist Anthony Trollope (1815–1882) took one of his manuscripts to a publishing company, hoping it would be made into a book and sold to the public. A few weeks later, he got word by mail that his masterpiece had been rejected. He took a train to the publisher’s office and retrieved it. On the train ride home, he turned the manuscript over and began writing a new story on the back of each page. He spent no time moping. That’s the spirit I recommend you embody in the coming weeks, dear Taurus.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): “John Coltrane was an addict,” wrote author Cornel West about the renowned jazz saxophonist and composer. “Billie Holiday was an addict. [Nobel Prize-winning author] Eugene O’Neill was an addict. What would America be without addicts and post-addicts who make such grand contributions to our society?” I welcome West’s sympathetic views toward addicts. Many of us who aren’t addicts understand how lucky we are not to have the genetic predisposition or the traumatic experiences that addicts often struggle with. We unaddicted people may also have been spared the bigotry and abuse that have contributed to and aggravated some addicts’ addictions. Having acknowledged these truths, I nevertheless hope to do whatever I can to help you convert any addictive tendencies you might have into passionate obsessions. Now is an excellent time to launch a new phase of such work. Invitation: Make a list of three things you can do in the coming months to nurture the process.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Actor and model Kate Beckinsale unleashed a cryptic boast: “My best feature is unfortunately a private matter, although I’m told it is spectacular. But you can’t really walk it down the red carpet. What can I say?” Are you imagining what I’m imagining? I bring this oddity to your attention in the hope that I can convince you to be more forthright and expressive about your own wonderful qualities. It’s time to be less shy about your beauty, less secretive about your deep assets. Show the world why you’re so lovable.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Leo-born Edna Ferber (1885–1968) was a celebrated author who won a Pulitzer Prize. She was witty and outspoken. Her stories featured strong women and characters struggling against discrimination. “I never would just open a door and walk through,” she said about her career. “I had to bust it down for the hell of it. I just naturally liked doing things the hard way.” At least in the coming weeks, Leo, I urge you NOT to adopt Ferber’s attitude. In my view, you’ll be wise to do everything possible to open doors rather than bust them down. And the best way to do that is to solicit help. Cultivate your ability to ask for what you need. Refine your practice of the arts of collaboration, synergy, and interweaving.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): “No one has ever written, painted, sculpted, modeled, built or invented except literally to get out of hell,” wrote Virgo dramatist Antonin Artaud. That’s a ridiculous generalization, in my opinion. For example, I occasionally generate songs, stories, and horoscopes to help me escape from a momentary hell. But most of my creations are inspired by my love of life and a desire to inspire others. I’m very sure that in the coming weeks, your own motivations to produce good things will be far closer to mine than to Artaud’s. You’re in a phase when your quest for joy, generosity, blessings and fun could be fierce and productive.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Author Barbara Sher offered this wise counsel: “Imaginary obstacles are insurmountable. Real ones aren’t.” I bring this to your attention because I believe the coming weeks will be an excellent time to identify the imaginary obstacles you’ve erected in your inner world—and then smash them or burn them or dispose of them. Once you’re free of the illusory interference, I think you’ll find you have at least twice as much power to neutralize the real obstacles.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Prolific author Ray Bradbury liked to give advice to those with a strong need to express their imaginative originality. Since I expect you will be a person like that in 2022, I’ll convey to you one of his exhortations. He wrote, “If you want to create, you must be the most sublime fool that God ever turned out and sent rambling. I wish you a wrestling match with your Creative Muse that will last a lifetime. I wish craziness and foolishness and madness upon you.” Keep in mind that Bradbury was referring to constructive craziness, wise foolishness, and divine madness.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): The coming months will be a favorable time for you to redefine the meaning of the term “sacred” and to deepen your relationship with sacredness. To spur your imagination, I offer four quotes: 1. “Recognizing the sacred begins when we are interested in every detail of our lives.” —Buddhist teacher Chögyam Trungpa 2. “When you notice something clearly and see it vividly, it then becomes sacred.” —poet Allen Ginsberg 3. “Holiness begins in recognizing the face of the other.” —philosopher Marc-Alain Ouaknin 4. “Modern culture, in its advertising of sex, is in a misguided fashion advertising its longing for the sacred.” —teacher Sobonfu Somé
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Capricorn author E. M. Forster wrote, “The only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little further down our particular path than we have yet gone ourselves.” I propose we universalize that statement: “The only people, information, and experiences that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little further down our particular path than we have yet gone ourselves.” I believe this principle will be especially fruitful for you to embrace during the next three months. Prepare yourself for lessons that are vital for you to learn—and on the frontier of your understanding
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Among America’s Founding Fathers was Aquarian William Whipple (1730-1785). He was one of 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776, instigating war with Great Britain. Unlike many of his colleagues, however, Whipple believed it was hypocritical to enslave human beings while fighting for freedom. That’s why he emancipated the person who had been in bondage to him. The coming months will be a favorable time to make comparable corrections, Aquarius. If there are discrepancies between your ideals and your actions, fix the problem.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): According to Piscean author Ryunosuke Akutagawa, “People sometimes devote their lives to a desire that they are not sure will ever be fulfilled.” So true! I can personally attest to that behavior. Is such a quest misguided? Delusional? Naive? Not in my view. I see it as glorious, brave, and heroic. Akutagawa did too. He said that those who refrain from having inspirational desires are “no more than mere spectators of life.” In any case, I recommend you think big in 2022, Pisces. From an astrological angle, this could be the year you home in on and refine and upgrade the single most important desire you will ever have.
Martin Ranch Winery’s 2017 Santa Clara Valley Malbec is a rich and silky red wine that is made under their Thèrése Vineyards label, named after winery co-owner Thèrése Martin. She and her husband Dan are both winemakers and run Martin Ranch together. The Martins’ other trademark labels are J.D. Hurley and Soulmate—all well-made wines. And kudos to David Dockendorf, their right-hand man, who oversees winemaking and production “from harvest to bottle.”
Fruit for the Malbec comes from Dos Niñas Vineyard, which lies at the foot of the Santa Cruz Mountains, producing fruit reflecting true Malbec character.
“Blackberry, boysenberry and vanilla coat the palate,” say the winemakers, “while luscious plum tannins finish off this beautiful wine.” Full of lip-smacking ripe fruit flavors, this gorgeous ruby-red Malbec ($42) is well worth a visit to Martin Ranch to taste this and all their other wines. In September, the Malbec won a silver medal in the 2021 Sunset International Wine Competition and was awarded 90 points by Wine Enthusiast.
Martin Ranch is open for tasting reservations (for up to 75 minutes) 11:30am-4pm the first and third weekend of every month. Small snacks are available for purchase, but outside food is permitted, so pack a picnic and have a good time!
Martin Ranch Winery, 6675 Redwood Retreat Road, Gilroy. 408-842-9197; martinranchwinery.com.
Pacific Catch
Pacific Catch restaurants are now expanding throughout the Bay Area, where it started, and beyond—there’s a new location coming to San Diego. We stopped for lunch recently at their Campbell restaurant in the Prunedale Shopping Center and enjoyed some items from their new menu. Our Crab Melt, Spicy Cioppino and Pan-Seared Petrale Sole were simply delicious—all perfectly presented and served. Their Crab Mashed Potatoes are absolutely scrumptious—and available a-la-carte. The restaurant company focuses on Pacific Rim seafood—“a flavor journey brought to you straight from wave to table.” Visit pacificcatch.com for more information.
Following a 25-year stint working in the Santa Cruz restaurant scene, Jonathan Glass was ready to open his own spot. But it wasn’t that easy: It took the veteran chef five years to find the perfect place. When Glass first walked into Avanti, it just felt right. Beyond the “feeling,” it had everything on his checklist: it’s a stand-alone building with a parking lot, it has an open kitchen and a liquor license. Plus, it already had a built-in Westside customer base.
Three years in, that customer base has grown due to Glass’ revamped menu, which he describes as “seasonal farm-to-table California cuisine.” In addition to the fresh seafood and pasta dishes, his slew of small plates, including a pistachio steak, are widely popular. There’s also a full bar serving up a variety of craft cocktails. Avanti is open 5-9pm, Wednesday-Sunday. Glass recently spoke about his passion for local seafood and Avanti’s outdoor space, a pandemic must-have.
Tell me about your love for local seafood?
JONATHAN GLASS: Something that really gets me excited is to offer some local seafood items that aren’t as often seen on menus around town. When I have the opportunity, I like to offer a simple dish featuring some locally sourced seafood favorites such as fresh anchovies, whole pan-roasted sand dabs and even seared mackerel. And, of course, local calamari, both traditionally fried, and we also offer a unique grilled option. I just find these less often menued seafood items really fun and flavorful, and it gives me joy to eat them and to see them on the plate going out to guests.
How has your outdoor dining space evolved?
Our outdoor patio has been a work in progress that we’re now very happy with, and it keeps our guests comfortable. It’s fully covered, with new electric heaters that pump out a lot of warmth. We have strings of lights, lots of plants and hanging ferns to really provide a garden feel. It’s even comfortable in colder weather. We also have cushioned seats and outdoor speakers for music. I’m really happy with how it turned out. It’s a really beautiful place to have a meal.
1917 Mission St., Santa Cruz, 831-427-0135; avantisantacruz.com.
The Strawberry Patch Cafe is ready to welcome all its devoted regulars—the ones who loved it as Ella’s Café (not the same place as Ella’s at the Airport), as well as newcomers looking for delicious housemade breakfasts and lunches.
The handiwork of owners Jennifer DeVault and her twin sister Erika Conrad, the new Strawberry Patch will offer flavor invention amidst a whole new cafe look.
“It took us forever to decide on a name,” Jennifer admitted. “We’ve owned Ella’s for two-and-a-half years, the neighbors know and love the place, so we’re not making radical changes,” she told me. “Why change it?”
But there are in fact a few changes to the popular eatery on the way to downtown Watsonville. “We’re now staying open until 6pm, and we’re also open now on Sundays. That’s new,” DeVault says. “We’ve had so much business on Saturdays that we thought we should extend hours into Sunday.”
Also new: there’s now beer and wine, plus creative cocktails featuring low-alcohol spirits. DeVault said that while they do have a staff, the sisters pretty much have their hands on all aspects of the food service.
“We both do everything, the fresh soups and the specials. Yes it is a lot of work, but it’s so much fun,” she says. Both sisters have been involved in the food and beverage industry for many years. “But we always wanted to work together on a project—and now we can!”
The owner’s excitement is obvious. And the menu gives some insight as to why.
“We have pesto pasta salad, panini, soup and salad combos, fresh pastries, freshly squeezed juices, lemon mascarpone cake, red velvet cake, strawberry cheesecake and fresh soup everyday.”
And there’s more. New salads, new breakfast items like the Patch Burrito loaded with eggs, cheddar cheese, avocado, mushrooms, organic spinach, caramelized onions and choice of bacon, sausage or ham. Brie and blackened ham croissant, smoothies and espressos. I’m getting hungry just thinking about this menu! Bellinis, mimosa, bloody mary, micheladas.
Stop by and see what’s cooking at the vibrant redesigned cafe. The Strawberry Patch Cafe is located at 734 E. Lake Ave, #1 in Watsonville. Open 6:30am-6pm Mon-Sat., 7am-4pm on Sunday.
Breakfast by Candlelight
I’m not kidding. Early on, we found candlelight to start off the morning was a good way to take back the darkness from the pandemic shutdown. Eggs, toast and a pot of English breakfast tea tastes even cozier by candlelight. And now, approaching the winter solstice, mornings are so dark—and candlelight is as practical as it is soul-warming. Stop chuckling and try it for yourselves. You’re welcome.
Warm Rooms for Chilly Nights
The Rock Room at Shadowbrook comes to mind, for many reasons … sentimental dates, memorable occasions, lovely desserts … but especially during the cool weather, the room seems to glow with its own energy and romantic lighting. Shadowbrook at 1750 Wharf Rd., Capitola. 515 Kitchen & Cocktails, open Tuesday through Saturday, is one of those timeless interiors that might have been as perfect for your great-great grandfather as it is for you and your date. Love the deep plush couches and overstuffed armchairs. A vintage salon with complex Asian-fusion plates to share. An inviting outdoor patio, too, at 515 Cedar St. in downtown Santa Cruz.Mentone in Aptos Village offers a sophisticated welcome thanks to exceptional pizzas, amazing cocktails and a vivacious crowd. Warm, attentive service guarantees that you feel instantly in the right spot. 174 Aptos Village Way, Aptos.
