I’ve been editing Aaron Carnes’ music writing for more than a decade, so I feel qualified to say this: If anyone should be writing the book on ska, it’s him. Not just because he has such a passion for the music, which is evident in every page of his new book, In Defense of Ska, but also because he’s a skilled and thoughtful music writer who always brings a genuine understanding of the music he’s writing about to his work. And no genre needs some understanding right now quite like ska. That’s obvious from the title of his book, and he gets into why ska deserves to be defended—and why it needs defending in the first place—in the excerpt that is this week’s cover story.
Of particular interest to fans of the ’90s music scene in Santa Cruz will be his revisiting of the strange story of Slow Gherkin, one of my favorite Santa Cruz bands ever. I loved their crazy string of sold-out Catalyst shows in the late ’90s, and I wrote a lot of stories about them back then, but it definitely got to be bittersweet as they searched for an identity on 2002’s Run Screaming (a hugely underappreciated record), and finally broke up. I remember how uncomfortable the band seemed with the ska genre by the time I did my last cover story on them around that time, so it’s really interesting to read singer-guitarist James Rickman’s reflections on that era in this excerpt.
More than that, though, I think this week’s story will give you a sense of how much fun Carnes’ book is, and we’ll talk about its many quirks (and the great interviews he got) when I interview him about it for a virtual Bookshop Santa Cruz event on Monday, May 10, at 7pm. Hope you’ll join us!
I am not for or against the trail. However, it is imperative that you think extremely carefully about its location and the many habitats you destroy. We are blessed to have many animals and birds, rare and near-extinct, call this area home. Are we so arrogant as to think the trail is more important than nesting bald eagles, osprey, orioles, owls, hummingbirds? Not to mention all the varied bugs, fish, animals and the plants, trees, shrubs on which they depend?
Many of these trees and shrubs are also being destroyed by people using the limbs to find & fish, which is also destroying the habitat even further!
See for yourself—take a trip to the end of Harkins Slough past the dump, at the locked gate, where it flooded out back in the 1990s.
Please, do not sacrifice these spaces and habitats. Many species are living on the edge already. Would you want bikes, runners, screaming people walking through your yard dumping trash at all hours of the day and night? The climate crisis is a battle we may or may not win, what about this crisis? Planet Earth & Mother Nature exists based on a very delicate balance.
— Sharon
Well Connected
Re: “Signing On” (GT, 4/28): What a great story, and kudos to everyone who helped make it possible. As a teacher in PVUSD, I know connectivity issues are a thing and have worked with my students all year long to create workarounds and understandings so they can still participate. I am so stoked that people are doing something about this, and this will only benefit the community more and more as we look out for our friends and neighbors. Si se puede, folks.
Sandino Gomez | Santa Cruz
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GOOD IDEA
GREETINGS FROM CAMP SCOTTS VALLEY
The Boys and Girls Clubs of Santa Cruz County and the city of Scotts Valley are joining forces to offer “Camp Scotts Valley,” a summer camp program open to kids ages 6-18. It will be held at the Scotts Valley Community Center and run weekdays, June 14 through Aug. 6, from 9am-5pm. Camp registration will be open to families on May 10.
“We are excited to be partnering with the Boys and Girls Clubs to ensure that kids and families in our community have a fun and safe place to go during summer vacation,” says Scotts Valley Mayor Derek Timm.
GOOD WORK
RENTING REIMAGINED
Even in the pandemic, ReImagine Santa Cruz is moving forward the conversation on housing. In February, the group held a conference on affordable housing, and on May 12 and 13 from 5-7pm it will virtually host “A Conference For Renters.” Sessions with government officials, nonprofit representatives and advocates will explore how renting in Santa Cruz can be made more equitable and affordable. Registration for the Zoom sessions in both English and Spanish is available at the group’s website, reimaginesantacruz.com.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“About 50 percent of the songs on the radio are like, ‘Live like tomorrow doesn’t exist, like it’s my birthday, like it’s the last day of my life.’ Such a large percentage of pop music is really about party time.”
In this excerpt from the new book ‘In Defense of Ska,’ the author explains why ska needs defending, and how Santa Cruz’s most popular ’90s ska band, Slow Gherkin, lost its way.
Believe it or not, there was a time when being in a ska band was considered embarrassing. I know, crazy huh! You should’ve heard the wild accusations people made: Every song sounds the same!Out of tune marching band horns over pop-punk riffs! Nothing but silly songs about food!
OK, that last one is sort of true, at least for my band Flat Planet. We had a song that was an ode to cheese, but sung in Spanish. (“Queso en el dia, Queso en el Noche! Queso! Queso! Dame Mas!”)
We also had a song about Taco Bravo, our favorite late-night dive in San Jose. It was the go-to place for bands of every genre. And jocks. And just plain ol’ drunks. Many fights ensued alongside absurdly heaping Super Nachos and refried bean-stuffed Taco Delights. The Taco Bravo staff served everything with a superabundance of cheese and treated you like garbage, which was a major part of the appeal. Whenever Flat Planet showed up after a gig or band practice, the late-night manager would shake his head and say, “You guys again … don’t you have lives?” “No,” we’d proclaim, shoving crumpled dollar bills in the tip jar, asking for even more cheese, as the ashes from the staff’s cigarettes fell into the beans. We were so obsessed with Taco Bravo—and always talking about it—my mom decided to go there to see what all the hubbub was. She ordered a decaf coffee with her meal. When they handed it to her, she confirmed, “This is decaf, right?” The guy told her, “Yes … it’s coffee.” She couldn’t sleep that night, wired from having caffeine for the first time in a decade.
Our songs were influenced by the general silliness that defined a lot of the ’90s ska scene, which I know people hate. Let’s defend “ska silliness” for a minute and describe what it was like to be in a ’90s ska band.
In 1993, the San Jose music scene consisted of bands playing grunge, dreary alt-rock and, worse, rap-metal. There were maybe three ska bands in the whole city. This scene took itself seriously. Too seriously. I can’t tell you how many times some shitty rock band was on stage at the local 18-and-older venue, Cactus Club, acting like disaffected rock stars to a crowd of 20 people who cared more about their ice-cold beer than the cool poses of random local bands.
For us, getting on stage and giving our set a considerable dose of silliness was a fuck you to the self-indulgent, pretentious rock star bullshit we saw at the Cactus Club and on MTV. When we played in front of 20 people, we weren’t trying to be cool or get signed. We wanted to make everyone in the venue smile despite themselves. Yes, it was also an outlet for all our crazy, awkward energy, but we were trying to get people to join us and have a fun night, not admire our cool threads and perfectly disheveled hairdos.
Ashamed To Be a Ska
In the early ’90s, most ska bands weren’t riding the silly-train. The priority was to play danceable music with creative hooks and unique song structures that kept things interesting. People in this era liked the clothing, the dancing, and usually understood basic ska history, like how 2 Tone was born from British punks and Caribbean immigrants combining forces to make an exciting new musical style with a strong anti-racist message.
The Pacers formed in 1990 and built an impressive scene in Milwaukee, their hometown, and later Minneapolis, where they would relocate, as well as several nearby Midwest cities where they regularly gigged. They weren’t Milwaukee’s first ska band. Bands that predated them were International Jet Set, Invaders, Wild Kingdom, all of whom started in the late ’80s. These were popular local bands, but the Pacers applied some business smarts by pushing shows to be all-ages. They went to the Unicorn, a local 21-and-older club, and told the venue owner if they let them play an all-ages show, they would draw 300 kids. The club owner agreed to it reluctantly. It was a success, but due to some disagreements, the relationship didn’t last. The Pacers took the same deal over to Peter Jest at the Shank Hall, and that started a three-to-four year run of really packed, successful shows. It was a captive and consistent audience. The band was making a couple thousand dollars a show just because they recognized how eager kids were to go out and dance.
“We never wanted to be a group where everybody showed up in Fred Perrys. We also weren’t skate punks either. We wanted to be popular with kids our age,” Pacers bassist Andy Noble says. The Pacers didn’t play punky sounding ska songs or dress in wacky costumes. They were closer to a 2 Tone sound, with mid-tempo upbeats and Specials’ style grooves that were mixed with subtle rock and soul beats and some New Wave melodies influencing the group’s intricate sound.
By the mid-90s, the Pacers were witnessing a shift happen as younger bands joined the scene. It wasn’t a shift they liked.
“We were extremely ashamed to be a ska band,” Noble says. “When we started, we were really proud of it. We thought we were the only motherfuckers on to that stuff. We had this pride of ownership. By the time we were done, we perceived the music to be jazz band nerds wearing mismatched suits, recruited by one guy who realized he could have a popular group.”
They weren’t too stoked by the growing number of ska bands in the Midwest, either. Or how those bands were making the genre look like nothing but a bunch of kids spazzing out at Chuck E. Cheese on a permanent sugar high.
“The first time we saw Skankin’ Pickle, we all thought it was really funny. Two years later it was like every ska band was a joke novelty band. We were not proud to be part of that scene anymore. We thought it was nerdy,” Noble says. By 1994, because of this and some other internal band factors, the band lost steam and broke up.
Ska had a moment in the mainstream a few years later, which softened the “nerd” vibe temporarily. It also validated the wackiness. Suddenly, bands on TV were wearing colorful shirts, checkered shorts, and pork pie hats. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones showed off their plaid suits in Clueless; Reel Big Fish sported cabbie hats and colorful, tucked-in button-up shirts in BASEketball. Save Ferris represented the rainbow’s full spectrum with their members’ bold single-color t-shirts and laid-back skater shorts in their “Come On Eileen” video. When ska fell out of its short-lived favor, all those offbeat checkered V-neck sweaters and bowling suspenders were as mortifying as MC Hammer parachute pants.
Gherkin at the Catalyst in 1998, at the height of their fame in Santa Cruz. As they became known for their unpredictable live shows—which were high-energy even for ska—they sold out the venue time and again. PHOTO: DAVE TISDALE
Slow Gherkin Sheds Ska
James Rickman of Santa Cruz band Slow Gherkin tells me about his experience living through the peculiar era of ska during the late ’90s.
“We felt like we were just the lamest guys around all of a sudden,” he says.
Slow Gherkin formed in 1993 and were an underrated band that never reached a large audience outside of their hometown, where they would sell out the largest venues. On tour, they’d draw anywhere between 50-150 people. Not bad, but not enough to give them the satisfaction of quitting their day jobs. As they pushed forward, they were handicapped by ska’s rise and fall in the mainstream.
In 1998, they released their brilliant Squeeze-meets-Nick Lowe-infused, peppy, rock-ska sophomore album, Shed Some Skin. It still holds up as a unique record during a year when one-thousand ska records were released. They’d gone on multiple tours that year and were rehearsing daily to make something happen.
And then in late 1998, just after their record released, they were approached at a show in New York by John Avila, bassist for Oingo Boingo and producer of Reel Big Fish’s Turn The Radio Off. Gherkin was playing their final show on the Independent’s Day tour with the Toasters, Edna’s Goldfish, and Skoidats. (The band The Independents was unfortunately not on that tour. They were the answer to the question: What would the Misfits sound like if they played ska?). Avila asked the band to send him some new songs. One of Avila’s kids was a Gherkin fan who liked the band’s catchy, New Wave-y sound.
It seemed entirely possible Slow Gherkin could gain a wider audience if they had just the right push. They were great pop songwriters. But it took the band a good six months to demo two new songs (“Tap Dancing” and “Salsipuedes”). By then, now 1999, they’d lost a few members, which sucked momentum from the group, and Avila never got back to them. They grew frustrated with pushing hard and living life on the road, eating nothing but peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and unhealthy portions of Waffle House, all while still having to maintain shitty day jobs. Not to mention they were starting to feel their first few waves of ska-shame, which would only grow in the coming years.
Mike Park, who ran Asian Man Records—the label that released Gherkin’s first album and already agreed to release its second—was already feeling ska trepidation by early 1998 as Slow Gherkin was recording Shed Some Skin. It was clear to Park the ska boom was not going to last much longer. But the band was already set to record in the lovely 24-track studio SoundTek and had a thick 24-page booklet planned for the album release. Rickman tells me that Park would show up in the studio as they were recording, pace back and forth and say, “No one is going to buy this record,” and then leave.
Park’s nervous foresight turned out to be correct. The album sold less than the band’s debut record. The tides were changing in pop culture, and Slow Gherkin looked on, suffering a band identity crisis. By the end of the century, post-Shed Some Skin, they were writing songs deliberately lacking upbeats, as if to signal to the world they, too, were no longer part of that horrid ska scene. Other bands did the same. Orange County ska band the Hippos released their major label debut Heads Are Gonna Roll in 1999, now as a ska-free, synth-rock band, with an album cover fabricated to look like a hip ’60s rock ’n’ roll group, a la The Kinks. In subsequent years, the Hippos singer/guitarist Ariel Rechtshaid furthered his cold-hearted ska abandonment by carving out a hipster producer career, working with artists like Vampire Weekend, HAIM, Adele, and Charli XCX.
“We did what so many other ska bands did, which was suddenly get totally self-conscious. That was the real sell out moment, I think. All ska bands got mocked all of a sudden, and we were like, ‘Abandon ship!’” Rickman says. “I like Run Screaming [the band’s third album]. We wrote great songs, but it’s not a ska album. It’s a pretty chickenshit move. On one hand, we were getting to be a better band, but we were having a total identity meltdown right in the middle of that.”
Ska may have dropped in popularity, but trying to pretend you never were a ska band only brought on greater ridicule. 2002’s Run Screaming was Slow Gherkin’s lowest selling album. Only 2,000 copies were pressed, and not all of them sold.
The last Gherkin lineup in the early 2000s. Says singer and guitarist James Rickman (third from right), ‘We did what so many other ska bands did, which was suddenly get totally self-conscious.’ PHOTO: SARA SANGER
Ska’s Legacy
Ska’s never been as hated as it was in the early 2000s, but since then it’s never lost its stigma. Even now, if you tell people you like ska, you must do so with a big fat asterisk, acknowledging all the bad, bad ska bands out there before admitting to the ones you like. Ska seems more than any other genre to be defined by its worst bands and least creative tendencies.
The problem with ska in the ’90s is only a few bands reached mainstream audiences, so the general music loving population never received proper exposure to the genre. Trying to explain to the average music listener why ska is one of the most diverse musical styles out there requires a couple of pie charts, a lengthy powerpoint presentation and a history lesson that spans several decades. To most people, all ska sounds the same.
“I hope at our best we shined through that [third wave] and sounded different,” Noble says, reflecting on his time in the ska scene with the Pacers. “Now the huge bulk of what people think of as ’90s ska is background music for Food Network shows. We did not want to sound like that. That’s for sure. But we probably did sometimes.”
It’s so entrenched in culture to make fun of ska as wacky nerd music, no one questions why nerdy music is such a bad thing. Are we also throwing They Might Be Giants, Weird Al, and Devo under the bus, because last time I checked, they were some of the best artists to come out in the past 40 years. Besides, if I had to choose between some douchebag rock star flexing his muscles on stage while playing an uninspired guitar solo to woo groupies to his hotel room later that night, or some silly kids who spent hours discussing the pentatonic scale and all the tacos they want to eat after the show, I say long live band nerds, and pass me a taco.
Excerpted from Aaron Carnes’ new book ‘In Defense of Ska,’ published May 4 by Clash Books. Carnes will be signing copies of the book at Streetlight Records, 939 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz, on Friday, May 7, from 4pm-7pm. Bookshop Santa Cruz will be hosting a free virtual event featuring the author in conversation with Good Times Editor Steve Palopoli on May 10 at 7pm. For more information, go to bookshopsantacruz.com/ska.
After spending much of the past year tending to elderly patients, doctors are seeing a clear demographic shift: young and middle-aged adults make up a growing share of the patients in Covid-19 hospital wards.
It’s both a sign of the country’s success in protecting the elderly through vaccination and an urgent reminder that younger generations will pay a heavy price if the outbreak is allowed to simmer in communities across the country.
“We’re now seeing people in their 30s, 40s and 50s — young people who are really sick,” said Dr. Vishnu Chundi, a specialist in infectious diseases and chair of the Chicago Medical Society’s Covid-19 task force. “Most of them make it, but some do not. … I just lost a 32-year-old with two children, so it’s heartbreaking.”
Nationally, adults under 50 now account for the most hospitalized Covid patients in the country — about 36% of all hospital admissions. Those ages 50 to 64 account for the second-highest number of hospitalizations, or about 31%. Meanwhile, hospitalizations among adults 65 and older have fallen significantly.
About 32% of the U.S. population is now fully vaccinated, but the vast majority are people older than 65 — a group that was prioritized in the initial phase of the vaccine rollout.
Although new infections are gradually declining nationwide, some regions have contended with a resurgence of the coronavirus in recent months — what some have called a “fourth wave” — propelled by the B.1.1.7 variant, first identified in the United Kingdom, which is estimated to be somewhere between 40% and 70% more contagious.
As many states ditch pandemic precautions, this more virulent strain still has ample room to spread among the younger population, which remains broadly susceptible to the disease.
The emergence of more dangerous strains of the virus in the U.S. — including variants first discovered in South Africa and Brazil — has made the vaccination effort all the more urgent.
“We are in a whole different ballgame,” said Judith Malmgren, an epidemiologist at the University of Washington.
Rising infections among young adults create a “reservoir of disease” that eventually “spills over into the rest of society” — one that has yet to reach herd immunity — and portends a broader surge in cases, she said.
Fortunately, the chance of dying of Covid remains very small for people under 50, but this age group can become seriously ill or experience long-term symptoms after the initial infection. People with underlying conditions such as obesity and heart disease are also more likely to become seriously ill.
“B.1.1.7 doesn’t discriminate by age, and when it comes to young people, our messaging on this is still too soft,” Malmgren said.
Hospitals Filled With Younger, Sicker People
Across the country, the influx of younger patients with Covid has startled clinicians who describe hospital beds filled with patients, many of whom appear sicker than what was seen during previous waves of the pandemic.
“A lot of them are requiring ICU care,” said Dr. Michelle Barron, head of infection prevention and control at UCHealth, one of Colorado’s large hospital systems, as compared with earlier in the pandemic.
The median age of Covid patients at UCHealth hospitals has dropped by more than 10 years in the past few weeks, from 59 down to about 48 years old, Barron said.
“I think we will continue to see that, especially if there’s not a lot of vaccine uptake in these groups,” she said.
While most hospitals are far from the onslaught of illness seen during the winter, the explosion of cases in Michigan underscores the potential fallout of loosening restrictions when a large share of adults are not yet vaccinated.
There’s strong evidence that all three vaccines being used in the U.S. provide good protection against the U.K. variant.
One study suggests that the B.1.1.7 variant doesn’t lead to more severe illness, as was previously thought. However, patients infected with the variant appear more likely to have more of the virus in their bodies than those with the previously dominant strain, which may help explain why it spreads more easily.
“We think that this may be causing more of these hospitalizations in younger people,” said Dr. Rachael Lee at the University of Alabama-Birmingham hospital.
Lee’s hospital also has observed an uptick in younger patients. As in other Southern states, Alabama has a low rate of vaccine uptake.
But even in Washington state, where much of the population is opting to get the vaccine, hospitalizations have been rising steadily since early March, especially among young people. In the Seattle area, more people in their 20s are now being hospitalized for Covid than people in their 70s, according to Dr. Jeff Duchin, public health chief officer for Seattle and King County.
“We don’t yet have enough younger adults vaccinated to counteract the increased ease with which the variants spread,” said Duchin at a recent press briefing.
Nationwide, about 32% of people in their 40s are fully vaccinated, compared with 27% of people in their 30s. That share drops to about 18% for 18- to 29-year-olds.
“I’m hopeful that the death curve is not going to rise as fast, but it is putting a strain on the health system,” said Dr. Nathaniel Schlicher, an emergency physician and president of the Washington State Medical Association.
Schlicher, also in his late 30s, recalls with horror two of his recent patients — close to his age and previously healthy — who were admitted with new-onset heart failure caused by Covid.
“I’ve seen that up close and that’s what scares the hell out of me,” he said.
“I understand young people feeling invincible, but what I would just tell them is — don’t be afraid of dying, be afraid of heart failure, lung damage and not being able to do the things that you love to do.”
Will Younger Adults Get Vaccinated?
Doctors and public health experts hope that the troubling spike in hospitalizations among the younger demographic will be temporary — one that vaccines will soon counteract. It was only on April 19 that all adults became eligible for a Covid vaccine, although they were available in some states much sooner.
But some concerning national polls indicate a sizable portion of teens and adults in their 20s and 30s don’t necessarily have plans to get vaccinated.
“We just need to make it super easy — not inconvenient in any way,” said Malmgren, the Washington epidemiologist. “We have to put our minds to it and think a little differently.”
KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.
Nearly 11 months after a fire gutted the historic Seabreeze Tavern and severely weakened the structure, the building is being demolished, Santa Cruz County spokesman Jason Hoppin said.
The work is being conducted by a private contractor, Hoppin said. It is not clear what will happen with the property once the demolition is complete. Attempts to reach property owner Omar Billawala were not successful Monday.
The demolition follows a March 9 report by engineer Chuck Voong, who wrote that the fire severely damaged the entire structure and completely destroyed the roof. The lack of a roof, Voong added, weakened the walls.
“With the lack of lateral support from the roof and the exterior walls, it is my opinion that the building is not structurally safe and is not salvageable,” Voong wrote. “It is my recommendation that the building should be demolished.”
An April 5 report by the County Planning Department to the Historic Resources Commission concurred with those findings.
“Based upon the findings and analysis from the engineer and several site inspections, the County Building Official made the determination that the building posed a substantial and immediate threat to health and safety,” the report states.
The storied tavern began its life 93 years ago in Rio Del Mar as a real estate office working to develop the up-and-coming beach town.
Fire officials have not determined a cause for the June 14 fire, which began in a pile of rubble stored on the outside of the building at about 9:30pm.
But the blaze was a befitting bookend in the story of an establishment that has been home to a cast of equally unique characters.
This includes Georgia May Derber, who used an inheritance to purchase the bar, ran it into disrepair and then closed it in 1988, living as a hermit in the upper floor, where she was found dead in 2004. A decommissioned toilet on the building’s balcony was among Derber’s legacy.
Rich McInnis bought the tavern one year later for just over $1.3 million, but plans to restore the place to its former glory never materialized. Instead, it languished as an eyesore as discarded detritus piles accumulated outside.
Planners have identified five sites throughout downtown Watsonville that, if renovated, they believe could become economic catalysts for the historic but currently sleepy business corridor.
Those plans include the razing of the Old City Hall building and current Watsonville Police Department (WPD) headquarters between Main and Union streets so that mixed-use developments with high-density housing can be built in their place. In that scenario, WPD’s operations would be relocated to a new building next to the Watsonville Fire Department’s fire station at the corner of Second and Rodriguez streets.
But that, for now, is merely an idea discussed in the Downtown Specific Plan Advisory Committee’s April 28 workshop in which the group mulled over how the corridor could grow into a bustling city center over the next few years. The creation of the specific plan, the city has said, seeks to establish that long term vision, and streamline the planning, permitting and approval process for real estate developers eager to build in downtown Watsonville.
The other four “catalytic” sites identified in last month’s meeting include the following:
Mansion House Block: Planners suggest that the stretch of Union Street between East Lake Avenue and East Beach Street be removed so that the city-owned parking lot shared by Plaza Vigil and businesses on the 400 block of Main Street can be developed into mixed-use, high-density housing that would accommodate outdoor dining and entertainment in so-called “paseos,” or lively, walkable alleyways.
That would mean that Alexander street would once again be the through road for traffic coming from Union Street to Brennan Street as it was before the Loma Prieta Earthquake.
Hansen Plaza: Planners also say that the parking lot behind The Terrace apartment complex and the old Gottschalks building currently being used by CVS Pharmacy and other nearby businesses could instead be used for a “long term development opportunity” that would provide a multi-level shared parking structure.
That would also, planners say, make that block safer for the roughly 600 Watsonville Prep students that will eventually be housed in the renovated Gottschalks building.
Main & 5th: The site that houses Ramos Furniture next to Bank of America on the corner of Main and 5th streets, planners say, could be removed and replaced with a large mixed-use building that would bring housing and retail opportunities. That would allow, planners envision, the alleyway behind Radcliff Elementary to be extended out to Lake Avenue, so that pedestrians would not need to walk on Main Street.
Trucking Depot: Currently a trucking site between West Lake and West Beach streets across from Monterey Bay Caterers, planners say that location could be a natural landing spot for developers who embrace the industrial feel that surrounds that area of downtown.
It could also be a key location for housing if the proposed rail trail from Davenport to Pajaro does indeed come to fruition.
NEW STREETS
Planners also suggested several street layout changes. Perhaps the two largest changes would be making Main Street into a three-lane road to accommodate outdoor dining, and turning East Beach and East Lake streets into two-way roads.
Those changes, however, are subject to an environmental impact report and traffic study that will be conducted sometime in the next few months. They will also require approval from Caltrans.
FEEDBACK
Most members of the advisory committee said they liked the potential catalyst sites, and the walkability that they would encourage for downtown. Some, however, worried about displacement of businesses and residents already operating and living in the corridor.
The next advisory committee meeting sometime in the summer will focus on the plan’s “Affordable Housing and Anti-Displacement Strategy.”
GOING FORWARD
Planners will hold a virtual community workshop on May 6 at 5:30pm to receive feedback and on the advisory committee’s work to this point.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Created by Leonardo da Vinci in the 16th century, the Mona Lisa is one of the world’s most famous paintings. It’s hanging in the Louvre museum in Paris. In that same museum is a less-renowned version of the Mona Lisa. It depicts the same woman, but she’s unclothed. Made by da Vinci’s student, it was probably inspired by a now-lost nude Mona Lisa painted by the master himself. Renaissance artists commonly created “heavenly” and “vulgar” versions of the same subject. I suggest that in the coming weeks you opt for the “vulgar” Mona Lisa, not the “heavenly” one, as your metaphor of power. Favor what’s earthy, raw and unadorned over what’s spectacular, idealized and polished.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Taurus poet Vera Pavlova writes, “Why is the word yes so brief? It should be the longest, the hardest, so that you could not decide in an instant to say it, so that upon reflection you could stop in the middle of saying it.” I suppose it makes sense for her to express such an attitude, given the fact that she never had a happy experience until she was 20 years old, and that furthermore, this happiness was “unbearable.” (She confessed these sad truths in an interview.) But I hope you won’t adopt her hard-edged skepticism toward yes anytime soon, Taurus. In my view, it’s time for you to become a connoisseur of yes, a brave explorer of the bright mysteries of yes, an exuberant perpetrator of yes.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): In Indigenous cultures from West Africa to Finland to China, folklore describes foxes as crafty tricksters with magical powers. Sometimes they’re thought of as perpetrators of pranks, but more often they are considered helpful messengers or intelligent allies. I propose that you regard the fox as your spirit creature for the foreseeable future. I think you will benefit from the influence of your inner fox—the wild part of you that is ingenious, cunning and resourceful.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): “The universe conspires in your favor,” writes author Neale Donald Walsch. “It consistently places before you the right and perfect people, circumstances and situations with which to answer life’s only question: ‘Who are you?’” In my book Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings, I say much the same thing, although I mention two further questions that life regularly asks, which are: 1. What can you do next to liberate yourself from some of your suffering? 2. What can you do next to reduce the suffering of others, even by a little? As you enter a phase when you’ll get ample cosmic help in diminishing suffering and defining who you are, I hope you meditate on these questions every day.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): The poet Anne Sexton wrote a letter to a Benedictine monk whose real identity she kept secret from the rest of us. She told him, “There are a few great souls in my life. They are not many. They are few. You are one.” In this spirit, Leo, and in accordance with astrological omens, I invite you to take an inventory of the great souls in your life: The people you admire and respect and learn from and feel grateful for; people with high integrity and noble intentions; people who are generous with their precious gifts. When you’ve compiled your list, I encourage you to do as Sexton did: Express your appreciation; perhaps even send no-strings-attached gifts. Doing these things will have a profoundly healing effect on you.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): “It’s a temptation for any intelligent person to try to murder the primitive, emotive, appetitive self,” writes author Donna Tartt. “But that is a mistake. Because it is dangerous to ignore the existence of the irrational.” I’m sending this message out to you, Virgo, because in the coming weeks it will be crucial for you to honor the parts of your life that can’t be managed through rational thought alone. I suggest you have sacred fun as you exult in the mysterious, welcome the numinous, explore the wildness within you, unrepress big feelings you’ve buried and marvel adoringly about your deepest yearnings.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Science writer Sharman Apt Russell provides counsel that I think you should consider adopting in the coming days. The psychospiritual healing you require probably won’t be available through the normal means, so some version of her proposal may be useful: “We may need to be cured by flowers. We may need to strip naked and let the petals fall on our shoulders, down our bellies, against our thighs. We may need to lie naked in fields of wildflowers. We may need to walk naked through beauty. We may need to walk naked through color. We may need to walk naked through scent.”
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): As Scorpio author Margaret Atwood reminds us, “Water is not a solid wall; it will not stop you. But water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it.” According to my reading of the astrological omens, being like water will be an excellent strategy for you to embrace during the coming weeks. “Water is patient,” Atwood continues. “Dripping water wears away a stone. Remember you are half water. If you can’t go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does.”
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): In a letter to a friend in 1856, Sagittarian poet Emily Dickinson confessed she was feeling discombobulated because of a recent move to a new home. She hoped she would soon regain her bearings. “I am out with lanterns, looking for myself,” she quipped, adding that she couldn’t help laughing at her disorientation. She signed the letter “From your mad Emilie,” intentionally misspelling her own name. I’d love it if you approached your current doubt and uncertainty with a similar light-heartedness and poise. (P.S.: Soon after writing this letter, Dickinson began her career as a poet in earnest, reading extensively and finishing an average of one poem every day for many years.)
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Now is a favorable time to celebrate both life’s changeableness and your own. The way we are all constantly called on to adjust to unceasing transformations can sometimes be a wearying chore, but I suspect it could be at least interesting and possibly even exhilarating for you in the coming weeks. For inspiration, study this message from the “Welcome to Night Vale” podcast: “You are never the same twice, and much of your unhappiness comes from trying to pretend that you are. Accept that you are different each day, and do so joyfully, recognizing it for the gift it is. Work within the desires and goals of the person you are currently, until you aren’t that person anymore.”
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Aquarian author Toni Morrison described two varieties of loneliness. The first “is a loneliness that can be rocked. Arms crossed, knees drawn up; holding, holding on, this motion smooths and contains the rocker.” The second “is a loneliness that roams. No rocking can hold it down. It is alive, on its own.” Neither kind is better or worse, of course, and both are sometimes necessary as a strategy for self-renewal—as a means for deepening and fine-tuning one’s relationship with oneself. I recommend either or both for you in the coming weeks.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): England’s Prince Charles requires his valet to iron his shoelaces and put toothpaste on his toothbrush and wash all of his clothes by hand. I could conceivably interpret the current astrological omens to mean that you should pursue similar behavior in the coming weeks. I could, but I won’t. Instead, I will suggest that you solicit help about truly important matters, not meaningless trivia like shoelace ironing. For example, I urge you to ask for the support you need as you build bridges, seek harmony and make interesting connections.
Homework: The Dream of the Month Club wants to hear about your best nightly dreams. tr**********@***il.com.
I simply had to try Sones Cellars’ Rosé of Tannat. Tannat is largely grown in Uruguay, but it’s not so known here. Winemaker Michael Sones has made a wine that’s quite unique—and I love it! So if you like a well-made Rosé, do try Sones’ Rosé of Tannat—Silvaspoons Vineyard, Lodi ($22).
This dry and hearty Rosé has delightful hints of strawberry and pomegranate, leaving a full, round mouthfeel.
“Here at Sones Cellars we are pleased that pink wines are no longer scorned,” say Michael and his wife Lois. “We love to savor the pleasure of a beautiful, light, tasty Rosé.”
Michael suggests that this wine should be enjoyed soon—and with Mediterranean food, chicken, fish or appetizers. But if you’re drinking this Rosé at Sones Cellars’ tasting room, then it’s easy to order some tasty empanadas from Fonda Felix, which is just around the corner in the Kelly’s French Bakery store.
Michael Sones developed a refillable wine bottle program in 2010 “as a way to care for the planet.” Being British, he is into hedgehogs, the lovely spiny mammals found all over England and elsewhere, but they are not indigenous to North America. Naming the program Hedgehog Red and Hedgehog White—and now there’s a Hedgehog Pink, too—it resulted in customers bringing all kinds of hedgehogs to the tasting room: cloth, wool, ceramic, wood, glass, you name it. When I visited recently, there were even free doggie treats in a hedgehog bowl.
Sones Cellars, 334B Ingalls St., Santa Cruz. 831-420-1552, sonescellars.com.
Curves: Strength-Train Now, Wine Later
During the pandemic, it’s important to exercise and keep fit. It’s good for body, mind and spirit. Curves in Aptos offers all kinds of classes, including a six-week challenge, drop-in exercise regimens and one-on-one coaching. Owner Annette Hunt will be pleased to see you. Virtual and weight loss/management programs are available, too—and prices are reasonable. It’s all up to you. One of their mottos is “Strength-Train Now, Wine Later.” Yes to that!
Located in the heart of Midtown, Oyunaa’s specializes in authentic Mongolian cuisine.
Current hours are Wednesday-Saturday from 5-8pm (until 8:30pm on Friday and Saturday). Open since 2012, it is casual and family friendly, and a good intimate date night spot with colorful décor and an inviting ambiance. Chef and owner Oyunaa Sophie moved to Santa Cruz from Mongolia in 2005. She says she loves the local culture and considers it a pleasure and honor to bring Mongolian food to the community. She sources all the ingredients herself from local grocers and butchers, and talked to GT recently about her native cuisine.
How would you characterize your Mongolian cuisine?
OYUNAA SOPHIE: It’s all about handmade items that are fresh-to-order, including handmade pasta and handmade dumplings. A lot of people hear Mongolian food and think Mongolian barbecue, but it’s not that. It’s a very simple cuisine. It’s a cold climate in Mongolia, and we use similar ingredients and spices as Russian cuisine. It’s mostly meat-based, with a lot of red meat and homemade pasta and rice. We utilize a lot of root vegetables like beets, potatoes, carrots and cabbage and basic seasonings like onion, garlic and ginger. The food not only has a Russian influence, but also a strong Eastern European influence with a little Chinese influence as well.
What are the house specialties?
I would say our seasoned beef dumplings [buuz] are the most popular; they are steamed, and we also have a pan-fried version of the same dish [khuushuur]. Another traditional dish that people really like is our lamb riblets, which come with rice and our popular carrot and garlic salad. Lamb is very traditional to Mongolian cuisine; we eat it year-round. The riblets are simmered first, then pan-fried with garlic. Our chicken dumpling soup (bansh) is also enjoyed by people of all ages. It’s a very nurturing dish that is savory and satisfying and really just makes people feel good. Mongolians also eat a lot of borscht, which is a root vegetable soup loaded with vitamin C that is very hearty and nutritious. It has beets, carrots, celery, beef and Mongolian seasonings all slow-simmered and finished with a top of sour cream and fresh dill. We do a traditional Russian-style preparation that you won’t find anywhere else; it’s served hot and comes with rye bread.
1209 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. 831-469-9900, oyunaas.com.
Finally, a chance to sit indoors in downtown’s most charming dining room—Gabriella Cafe—and enjoy a colossal lunch.
Listening to the divine songstress Astrid Gilberto’s lilting voice and sipping a rare mid-day Prosecco with a splash of creme de cassis (Kir Royale, $9.75), we enjoyed a table by one of the windows and view of the lively sidewalk seating outside. It felt like forever since we’d said hello to owner Paul Cocking, a man who knows how to make everyone feel pampered. As did the skillful watercolors by David Pfost adorning the cafe walls.
The menu was also reassuringly familiar. Salads, pastas, a petrale sole special, succulent gnocchi. I had my eye on the house tagliatelle bolognese ($28), while my lunch partner went for a glass of mint ice tea ($3) and fish tacos with chef Gema Cruz’s amazing salsa ($15).
And we were not disappointed. Our lunches were gorgeous and abundant. On large, heavy plates my steaming hot pasta came topped with Parmigiano-Reggiano and a dice of fresh parsley. Just as it would in Italy. The sauce contained plenty of beef, carrots, celery, onions, and gorgeously blended flavors that bathed every strand of fresh pasta. I’d been waiting for this plate of pasta for a long time.
My companion had stopped talking the minute he started on the first of his tacos. Topped with a filigree of shredded cabbage and slices of avocado, the tacos were both rich and light, and provided a reason for using liberal applications of the excellent salsa provided on the side. A salad of baby greens and ribbons of carrots sat on the side, bathed in a sprightly balsamic vinaigrette. We enjoyed the house fresh focaccia during our meal, and consequently had no room for the seasonal strawberry hazelnut bread pudding dreamed up by pastry chef Krista Pollack. Next time.
Gabriella Cafe, 910 Cedar St., Santa Cruz. Lunch Tuesday-Friday, 11:30am-2:30pm; dinner Tuesday-Saturday, 5-9pm; weekend brunch, 10am-3pm. gabriellacafe.com.
Olive Oil Synergy
Aptos’ attractive Persephone is offering something a little different in the way of prix fixe tastings. This one pairs housemade special dishes with Wild Poppies Olive Oils. The local company’s owner/producers Kim Null and Jamie de Sieyes will be on hand Sunday, May 9, from 3-4:30pm to talk about the various olive oils and their distinctive properties, and Persephone’s chef/owner Cori Goudge-Ayer has created three dishes to compliment the oils.
Included in the afternoon event will be chilled asparagus soup with Taggiasca olive oil, crostini with favetta and tonno topped with lemon olive oil, and burrata with pea puree and Orchard Blend olive oil. The local/seasonal tasting event requires advance ticket purchase. Outdoor setting and socially distanced seating. $35 per person. Make reservations at persephonerestaurant.com.
Shopper’s Corner Designer T-shirts
Local entrepreneur and UCSC graduate Claire McKinney has done a spectacular job designing two new T-shirts that show off the iconic logo of Shopper’s vintage 1930s gourmet grocery. McKinney’s designs incorporate the vintage neon sign that greets patrons at the front of the store. The shirts are exactly what every collector of only-in-Santa Cruz imagery needs. Instagram-ready with eye-popping colors on dark backgrounds. Next time you’re cruising the store for your favorite bottle of wine or a box of flake sea salt, ask about the new T-shirts. You need one.
Wine Dinner Series
Plan ahead for the upcoming Summer/Fall Taste of Terroir Wine Dinner Series in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Starting on June 27, four dinners will feature a top chef cooking to pair with a selection of growing regions and their representative wineries. Tickets are $125-$160 per seat. Learn more at scmwa.com/tasteofterroir.
Nearly every living thing has an internal clock. Known as the circadian rhythm, it keeps track of time within our bodies, affecting biological processes and behaviors in relation to day and night. Disruptions to this clock, however, can have significant health consequences.
Now, Congressman Jimmy Panetta (D-Carmel Valley) has announced that UCSC will receive a $730,000 grant via the National Institute of General Medical Sciences for its ongoing research on circadian rhythms.
“We know that sleep is paramount to good health, but we should know more about the internal systems that drive it,” Panetta said in a press release.
UCSC’s lead researcher, Carrie Partch, is a professor of biochemistry whose lab focuses on biological timekeeping.
“It’s this beautiful alignment of most forms of life on Earth with this day and night change,” says Partch. “We are not the same people at 10am as we are at 10pm. Almost everything in our body changes throughout the course of the day, from metabolism to release of hormones to behavior like sleep cycles.”
Partch’s research explores how changes we inherit from our parents translate to changes in clock timing and sleep patterns. Through identifying changes humans can inherit, her lab seeks to understand the basic mechanism of how our clocks work. She is especially interested in a prevalent “night owl mutation” that impacts as many as 1 out of 75 people of European descent. The mutation leads to changes in the internal clock and the release of melatonin, making it difficult for people who inherit it to go to sleep before 2 or 3 in the morning.
“If you’re sitting in a large amphitheater, there is almost a guarantee that there are a few folks with this inherited change,” she says.
The affected gene associated with this disorder is known as CRY-1. Last year, her lab published a paper identifying a model for how the inherited mutation disrupted the gene. Her research exemplifies how a tiny change in the genome affects the way we interact with the world on a daily basis.
Partch says that the new National Institute of General Medical Sciences grant will allow her lab to expand her research outside of humans to fungi, insects and even microscopic bacteria.
“By learning more about how all clocks function, it will help us even better understand how they work in humans so that we can develop therapies to help people,” she explains.
Disrupted clocks can be linked to comorbidities including diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer. The World Health Organization, for example, has declared shift work that alters our day and night schedule as a probable carcinogen. Partch hopes her research will lead to strategies for “keeping the clock ticking” in those with disrupted circadian rhythms.
