Page 519 | Good Times

Santa Cruz’s Comedy Guru Reflects on Closing His Comedy Lab

DNA

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December 29, 2020

Santa Cruz’s Comedy Guru Reflects on Closing His Comedy Lab

I’ve spent more one-on-one time with my wife (and dog) in the last nine months than I had in the last 17 years.

And like everyone in Santa Cruz, America and the world, because of Covid-19, I’ve had to redefine my relationship to my job, my family, my hopes, my dreams and my community. Whether you are living with your grandparents, parents, extended family, friends, enemies, lovers or others, or are making it through this strange time alone, quarantine has called into question, blown apart and mutated all our notions about relationships. How are you getting through? Are you OK? What does the future look like? Who or what do you turn to for inspiration?

No time for dancing, or lovey-dovey

I ain’t got time for that now

Give me some dystopic end-of-the world movies and I will have a perfect night. I consider The Day After Tomorrow and 12 Monkeys to be classics. After watching John Cusack drive a limo through a disintegrating Los Angeles in 2012, I feel empowered. I feel like I’ve upgraded my skill set and honed my affinity for dealing with apocalyptic, shit-is-going-down scenarios. After every viewing of The Road, I feel like I just took a master class on how to survive in a grim, treacherous future. But in reality, before this summer, I have only had to deal with a blockbuster catastrophe, one time.

Lived in a brownstone, lived in a ghetto

I’ve lived all over this town

In March 2011, there was 9.0 earthquake in Japan. This caused a tsunami that threatened the coastline of Santa Cruz. At the time I was living in La Bahia, that Spanish-Italian building with the bell tower on Beach Street, whose wrought iron gate and, surprisingly, my old apartment still stand, though the other 40 apartments have been bulldozed. But in the early part of the 21st Century, La Bahia was a vibrant structure filled with international students during the summer and bohemians and weirdos in the off season. It was spring, it was morning, I waked and baked, as it was 8am and that was my routine. I heard a knock on my door. I opened it up, it was a cop. He said, “Tsunami warning, mandatory evacuation.” I said, “When?” He said, looking at his wristwatch, “Five minutes.” It was then that I said something that I never had said to a cop before, I said, “Are you high, because I am and that sounds like something I would say.” He said, “Did you say you’re high?” I slammed the door. I only had four minutes to evacuate the premises, and I had no time to argue about semantics.

The tsunami ended up terrorizing a bunch of boats and yachts, but it was certainly nothing I couldn’t handle. I felt like my decades of watching The Poseidon Adventure had paid off. I’m not going to end up like Shelley Winters. I’m a survivor and I’m ready for any situation.

And then came the pandemic of 2020.

I got three passports, a couple of visas

You don’t even know my real name

Before quarantine, I worked an easy 70 hours a week at my fledgling comedy club in downtown Santa Cruz, DNA’s Comedy Lab. I’m not special in doing that. Many people were working at their self-owned business at the beginning of this year. The Lab was about to celebrate its one-year anniversary when the week of lockdowns began. We had just hired a new chef and were ready to launch our updated menu. We had just come off the busiest weekend we had all year, and I remember thinking that we had turned the corner, we could finally have a month where we broke even. The hard work was about to pay off.

The sound of gunfire, off in the distance

I’m getting used to it now

I had been reading the headlines about a virus that was devastating China and Italy. It sounded very serious. I knew something wicked this way comes. How did I know? Did I mention Contagion? I had already vicariously lived through a worldwide pandemic and watched in horror as Gwyneth Paltrow died. I was self-taught on recognizing a plague. I told my business partners that we needed to close, and like a slow-motion version of the train crash in Super 8, they agreed. We closed and, according to the governor of California, it is still illegal for us to reopen.

By the end of this year it is estimated the rate of business bankruptcies will be up 158% from 2019 levels, according to one estimate. Will we ever be allowed to open again? What’s the baseline for reacting to all this? Calm terror?

A place where nobody knows

Remember back in January 2018 at 8:07am, when the citizens of Hawaii got an alert on their phone that said a nuclear bomb was heading their way and its arrival was imminent? It was an islandwide Defcon One. Nuclear war is an absolutely terrible way to start your morning, worse than having a cop knocking on your door. So how did people respond? Well, some people panicked. One man put his kids in a manhole. I remember one couple took one last selfie and tweeted, “Worst honeymoon ever.”

With the Covid-19 pandemic we never all received a singular text. We learned about it and it’s seriousness at different times. The news of Covid-19 was in the headlines for months before most realized what it meant.

Heard of a van that is loaded with weapons

There’s no escaping seeing downtown Santa Cruz change its character and nature. It is evolving and transforming in the face of lockdowns and new protocols. The very essence of downtown, the vibrant stores and staff that made Santa Cruz unique, is vanishing before our eyes. Like in the movie The Neverending Story, the Nothing is slowly eroding and erasing the very things we loved about our town. Compound this with summer’s CZU fire and the extremist Boogaloo who murdered Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller, as well as the swelling number of people without homes who have inundated San Lorenzo Park, and it can be quite overwhelming. In fact, it’s shocking.

Hope for an answer some day

Shock. Where were you when you first realized that Covid-19 was going to change everything? Do you recall the second you knew things were not going to be the same? How could we not be in shock? I dare say that if you never recognized you were in shock, you might well still be in it.

Look at the Great Toilet Paper Rush of March 2020. You might think those people had gone mad, reacting to the news of a pandemic by crazily buying hordes of toilet paper. But they were just the canaries in the emotional coal mine of our national psyche. They were an indicator species that showed that our nation was undergoing an imbalance.

I sleep in the daytime, I work in the night time

Like all small businesses going through this crisis, April was particularly brutal as the reality set in. We were getting daily phone calls and emails at the Lab from renters who wanted to cancel their events and get refunded their deposits. What seemed like a short-term crisis began to have long-term ramifications. Would we be able to open our business legally in spring, summer or winter? The shifting landscape made it impossible to plan ahead. By the time Easter rolled around, we had cancelled 100 upcoming events.

I didn’t sleep a lot. I was up every night, mostly deadening my brain, but also researching grants, loans and trying to find an emergency exit. Would live events, comedy, music, theatre ever bounce back? It would have to, right?

I might not ever get home

Depression is where I find almost all my family and friends and myself. Most put on a good face (on Zoom). But in private, everyone is floundering on some level.

The mental health consequences of disasters have been written about, but we’ve never been in a worldwide pandemic of this magnitude in recent history. One study out of Boston University concluded that depression is three times higher than it was before Covid-19. In my comedy world, I have friends that were so close to “making it” and just on the edge of a career. Now, an entire generation is on pause. It is life interrupted on a grand scale, and nine months isn’t a long time to adjust. Heroically, I know a lot of friends and family doing their best, digging deep into their personal reservoir of strength and boldly plowing forward. And yet, no matter how busy we keep ourselves, depression seeps in like rainwater.

Packed up and ready to go

No epic story ends happily, and this story is no different. The weight of running a small business when it’s illegal to be open has become crushing and impossible to maintain. We are leaving the Riverfront Twin space we had called home. DNA’s Comedy Lab will survive with our weekly online shows and an outdoor comedy series starting in the spring. And when it’s safe, after the alien invasion has been thwarted, and coming together to laugh indoors seems sane, we will reopen in a new location. As Bill Pullman said at the end of Independence Day, “We will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight!”

Lyrics: “Life During Wartime” by Talking Heads.

Watch Blind Tiger Open Mic on Wednesdays and Sloth Storytelling on Thursdays at 8pm at DNA’s Comedy Lab on Facebook. For the Spring Comedy Series and specialty shows, join the mailing list at dnascomedylab.com.

Claire Braz-Valentine Honored for Work with Writers in California Prisons

Georgia Johnson

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December 29, 2020

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Claire Braz-Valentine Honored for Work with Writers in California Prisons

After more than three decades of teaching in California state prisons, Claire Braz-Valentine has had her share of surprises. A prison arts Betty Friedan or sorts, Braz-Valentine has helped thousands of prisoners find their literary voices in her writing classes.

“Once there was a new guy in the class, and one of the other guys whispered to him, ‘She’s a feminist, but you are going to grow to love her the way we do,’” Braz-Valentine recalls.

And they did. She’s gotten a marriage proposal and rose bouquets made of toothpaste to prove it.

Now, longtime Santa Cruz local Braz-Valentine is ready for some well-earned downtime. Yet the surprises just keep coming. In October, Senior Arts mentor and longtime colleague Jack Bowers called Braz-Valentine to tell her that she is the recipient of the very first William James Association (WJA) Lifetime Achievement Award.

“I thought, “Oh my god, he is going to ask me to teach someplace, and I can’t say no,” Braz-Valentine recalls. “I felt so terrible. He was calling to tell me about the award.”

The Lifetime Achievement Award was created after Braz-Valentine decided to retire in July. She received a diorama of images and words representing her work in the prison system, complete with a symbolic prison key.

“It’s a fake key—it only unlocks hearts and minds,” Bowers says.

The award will be given again next year, and the nonprofit already has a couple of potential recipients in mind.

“There is a cadre of people who have spent the better part of their lives working in California prison arts since the ’80s who’ve been through the ups and downs and made the program the success it is,” Bowers says. “We want to honor them and their work, as well as people from outside who have made significant contributions.”

With support from the California Arts Council and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the WJA has provided Prison Arts Project classes in California prisons for more than 40 years. The classes are taught by professional artists like Braz-Valentine and include writing, music, visual and performing arts. The idea is that through the arts, prisoners can listen and be heard, develop skills that they may not have known before, and have a space to express themselves.

Braz-Valentine initially met with two groups of writers each week in Soledad Prison in the ’80s and ’90s, and went on to teach men, women, and youth prisoners at nearly every California prison. As she became part of the Soledad community, she welcomed the prisoners with open arms—many of whom had not experienced that kind of kindness in a long time, if ever.

“You feel the suffering when walking into a prison. It’s there and it’s heavy. It’s such a blessing to walk into the classroom knowing that you can bring them joy and laughter and art,” Braz-Valentine says. “It’s little miracles like that that help the places that hurt, and what a blessing it’s been to help do that.”

Braz-Valentine co-wrote the play “Women Behind Walls” with her students from the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla, and it has been performed for audiences throughout California and internationally. On a local level, Braz-Valentine has led writing workshops at Santa Cruz Juvenile Hall and worked at Watsonville’s Lakeview Middle School as a playwright in residence for four years, while simultaneously teaching at Soledad.

Braz-Valentine received the WJA Lifetime Achievement Award via Zoom in November with several friends and former students present. Among the attendees was James Wood, a former Solano Prison prisoner and one of Braz-Valentine’s very first students.

“Arts and corrections gave us a venue in which we could be more ourselves; we could be vulnerable,” Wood said at the ceremony. “When you’re in prison, you have to walk around with this persona like you’re a real tough guy and nothing bothers you. But in Arts and Corrections, you become vulnerable, because you have to listen to other people critiquing your work. That vulnerability helped me to become more emotionally mature.”

Braz-Valentine says that the fewer rules you abide by, the better your writing often is. When she began working in the prisons, she didn’t know what a sonnet was—and she didn’t need to. But it was the sense of community and sense of generosity within the prisons that she came to value above all.

The riot at Solano is particularly memorable for Braz-Valentine since she was holding a workshop when it began and her students immediately wanted to make sure she was safe.

“The guys stood there and made a human barricade around me,” she recalls. “I felt like I had nothing to worry about, no one was going to get through that circle. That was one of the most moving things that happened to me. I felt so loved and so respected, and you don’t find that easily behind the walls of a level-four prison.”

Outside of her work, Braz-Valentine has had her own obstacles. As a single mom of three, she says she often pinched pennies to make ends meet, and has lost her family home twice in her life: once when she was in her twenties, and again during the 2018 Camp Fire when she lived in Paradise, California. She lost all of her original works, including many plays and poems that she wrote while leading the prison workshops. But once she set foot in the prison, she says she would leave her outside life at the door and request that the prisoners do the same when they came into the classroom.

“When a guy with a life sentence stands up to read a poem and starts crying, he has hit his own truth,” Braz-Valentine says. “For me to do that for someone, to open the door for them to come through, that is my truth.”

Braz-Valentine wants to set an example for young women and all women that age is not a weakness. Though she is no longer teaching in prisons, she will continue to write with her writing group and write poetry.

“Working on the inside has brought me closer to my own truth than anything else in my life,” she says. “In those workshops, the men and women get closer to their own truth as they write their way out of their darkness. I help them find themselves, and that’s the greatest gift of all.”

For more information on the project, visit williamjamesassociation.org/prison_arts

Rob Brezsny’s Astrology: Dec. 30 – Jan. 5

Rob Brezsny

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December 29, 2020

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Rob Brezsny’s Astrology: Dec. 30 – Jan. 5

Free will astrology for the week of Dec. 30

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Author Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) carried on a long love affair with books. He read thousands of them, wrote more than 20 of them, and further postulated the existence of numerous imaginary books that were never actually written. Of all the writers who roused his adoration, a certain Russian novelist was among the most beloved. Borges wrote, “Like the discovery of love, like the discovery of the sea, the discovery of Fyodor Dostoevsky marks an important date in one’s life.” I’m wondering if you will experience one of these pivotal discoveries in 2021. I strongly suspect so. It may not be the work of Dostoevsky, but I bet it will have an impact close to those of your original discoveries of love and the sea.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Vietnamese-American novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen has won numerous awards for his work, including the Pulitzer Prize. Here are his views about the nature of accomplishment: “We don’t succeed or fail because of fortune or luck. We succeed because we understand the way the world works and what we have to do. We fail because others understand this better than we do.” I bring these thoughts to your attention, Taurus, because I think that in 2021 you will have an extraordinary potential to enhance your understanding of how the world works and what you must do to take advantage of that. This could be the year you become both smarter and wiser.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Modern civilization has not spread to every corner of the planet. There are at least 100 tribes that inhabit their own private realms, isolated from the invasive sprawl of our manic, frantic influence. Among these enclaves, many are in the Amazon rainforests, West Papua and the Andaman Islands. I have a theory that many of us civilized people would love to nurture inner qualities akin to those expressed by indigenous people: hidden away from the mad world; content to be free of the noise and frenzy; and living in attunement with natural rhythms. In 2021, I hope you will give special care and attention to cultivating this part of you.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Hurricane Maria struck the Caribbean island of Dominica in 2016. Scientists studied two local species of anole lizards both before and after the natural disaster. They were amazed to find that the lizards after the hurricane had super-strong grips compared to their predecessors. The creatures were better able to hold on to rocks and perches so as to avoid being swept away by high winds. The researchers’ conclusion? It’s an example of one of the most rapid rates of evolutionary change ever recorded. I bring this to your attention, Cancerian, because I suspect that you, too, will have the power to evolve and transform at an expedited pace in 2021—in response to positive events as much as to challenging events.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): I hope that in 2021 you will spend a lot of time meditating on your strongest longings. Are they in harmony with your highest ideals, or not? Do they energize you or drain you? Are they healthy and holy, or are they unhealthy or unholy—or somewhere in between those two extremes? You’ll be wise to reevaluate all your burning, churning yearnings, Leo—and decide which ones are in most righteous service to your life goals. And as for those that are in fact noble and liberating and invigorating: Nurture them with all your tender ingenuity!

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): “You can’t move mountains by whispering at them,” says singer-songwriter Pink. Strictly speaking, you can’t move mountains by shouting at them, either. But in a metaphorical sense, Pink is exactly right. Mild-mannered, low-key requests are not likely to precipitate movement in obstacles that resemble solid rock. And that’s my oracle for you in the coming months, Virgo. As you carry out the project of relocating or crumbling a certain mountain, be robust and spirited—and, if necessary, very loud.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): In his masterpiece the Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci applied 30 layers of paint that were no thicker than a single human hair. Can you imagine the patience and concentration that required? I’m going to propose that you be inspired by his approach as you carry out your big projects in the coming year. I think you will have the potential to create at least one labor of love that’s monumentally subtle and soulful.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Climate change is proceeding with such speed in central Mexico that entire forests are in danger of perishing. In the hills near Ejido La Mesa, for instance, the weather is getting too hot for the fir trees that shelter millions of monarch butterflies every fall. In response, local people have joined with scientists to physically move the fir forest to a higher, cooler elevation. What might be your personal equivalent, Scorpio: an ambitious plan to carry out an idealistic yet practical project? According to my analysis of your astrological potentials, you’ll have a lot of energy to work on such a scheme in 2021.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Author Gérard de Nerval (1808–1855) made the following observation: “I do not ask of God that he should change anything in events themselves, but that he should change me in regard to things, so that I might have the power to create my own universe, to govern my dreams, instead of enduring them.” If you have a relationship with the Divine Wow, that will be a perfect prayer for you to say on a regular basis in 2021. If you don’t have a connection to the Supreme Intelligence, I suggest you address the same prayer to your Higher Self or Future Beauty or whatever source of sublime inspiration you hold most dear.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): The mathematically oriented website waitbutwhy.com says that the odds of winning a mega lottery can be compared to this scenario: You know that a certain hedgehog will sneeze just one time in the next six years, and you place a big bet that this sneeze will take place at exactly the 36th second of 12:05 pm next January 20. In other words, waitbutwhy.com declares, your chances of winning that lottery are very small. But while their analysis is true in general, it may not be completely applicable to you in 2021. The likelihood of you choosing the precise moment for the hedgehog’s sneeze will be higher than usual. More realistically and importantly, your chances for generating positive financial luck through hard work and foresight will be much higher than usual.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Author Anais Nin was supremely adaptable, eager to keep growing, and receptive when life nudged her to leave the past behind and expand her understanding. At the same time, she was clear about what she wanted and determined to get what she wanted. Her complex attitude is summed up in the following quote: “If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all that is left is compromise.” I hope you will heed her counsel throughout 2021. (Here’s another quote from Nin: “Had I not created my whole world, I would certainly have died in other people’s.”)

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): In 2013, workers at a clothing manufacturing plant in Gazipur, Bangladesh staged a mass protest. Did they demand a pay raise or better health benefits? Were they lobbying for air conditioning or longer lunch breaks? None of the above. In fact, they had just one urgent stipulation: to dispel the ghost that was haunting the factory. I’ve got a similar entreaty for you in 2021, Pisces. I request that you exorcise any and all ghosts that have been preventing you from fully welcoming in and embracing the future. These ghosts may be purely metaphorical in nature, but you still need to be forceful in banishing them.

Homework: Has anything in your life changed for the better during the pandemic? What? freewillastrology.com.

Eat the Sun Releases New Instrumental Album with Santa Cruz Inspiration

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December 29, 2020

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Eat the Sun Releases New Instrumental Album with Santa Cruz Inspiration

In 2014, local guitarist Kevin Ray was hanging out on Pacific Avenue, hoping to stumble on some inspiration for a tune. As he often did, he went into Bookshop Santa Cruz and flipped through the poetry books.

He grabbed local poet Gary Young’s Even So and read an untitled poem on page 153. It resonated with him, so he asked each member of his band Eat The Sun to read it and write their own motif—without hearing each other’s creations. He assembled all of the parts to create the instrumental 23:20 minute song, “The Eclipse Suite.”

The song’s sunny vibes mixed with chaotic, jazzy jams very much evokes the sound of Santa Cruz.

“I immediately envision Steamer Lane,” Ray says. “I’ve been surfing all my life. And that coastline has always been a huge influence for my music. That song makes me think of that whole stretch of West Cliff right there.”

Eat The Sun formed in 2007 when Ray met drummer Zack Feigenbaum. They’d jam and listen to jazz, but they believed all of the music they created needed to be rooted in the experience of living deeply, and what creativity that inspired. Eat The Sun played its first show in 2011. A year later, friend and bassist Kai Kopecky joined the group.

Daydreams // Memories, the 2015 record that had “The Eclipse Suite” on it, was their final recording as a three-piece band. After that, Feigenbaum moved out of state to be with his now-wife, who was going to school at the Rhode Island School of Design. A few years later, Ray recorded Field of Dahlias by himself under the name Eat The Sun, then moved to Ventura. He took a break from music, but started back up again when the beaches were closed during the 2020 lockdowns. Recording music was necessary for his mental health.

The process of recording his new album Always // All Ways felt like one of his most profound creative endeavors. He processed his personal growth since leaving Santa Cruz and starting a new life in Southern California.

“I sat down and started recording one day, and it just snowballed into an album. It still took me quite a few months to get through it because I was also working crazy hours at a restaurant in Ventura,” Ray says. “This album is about growing, being better, being a more complete person, loving deeply, and letting go of past traumas. Making a piece of art again.”

The music on the record is eclectic, pulling from jazz, jam music, Americana, and rock. But this time, with just Ray working on it—and with nothing but time during the lockdown—it’s an even more nuanced and meticulous product, as he slowly added layers to each song over time.

“I don’t think too much about stylistic elements,” Ray says. “I have a wide variety of music that I enjoy. It tends to come out naturally in that eclectic feel. I like to combine everything I’m listening to and excited about.”

Like all Eat The Sun releases, this album is entirely instrumental. It’s the way that Ray feels comfortable communicating. Many of the melodies he plays have “secret lyrics” which are usually woven into the song titles.

“They’re like little poems. They have words associated with them. I’ve never been that great of a singer to want to put those words into a melody into the song,” Ray says. “I used to want to convey a certain feeling, to inspire words in people. But on this one, I let go of that. Everyone brings their own life to the table when they listen to something. Conveying feeling without words is more about not being in the way of someone’s experience and letting them have a moment.”

Given the circumstances, recording the album was very isolating and personal. Ray would be humming the songs even when he wasn’t working on them. He dug deep, and his feeling filled every moment of the songs.

“It was the first time where I felt the album had its own life outside of what I wanted,” Ray says. “I feel like this album was a huge benchmark in my life about being more the person I want to be in a grand esoteric sort of way.”

For more information, check out eatthesun.bandcamp.com.

Recalling the Best Santa Cruz Takeout Meals of a Hard Year

Christina Waters

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December 29, 2020

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Recalling the Best Santa Cruz Takeout Meals of a Hard Year

Twas the year that gave new meaning to the whole idea of dining out. Yet there were wonderful dishes and good memories shared in this year of dining in.

Starting with the most vivid—a dinner consumed in the rambling Victorian of our friends Tom and Rita. Not only did we endure the insults of Covid-19 quarantine, but wildfire evacuation as well. Under these conditions there was nonetheless a remarkable dinner picked up from La Posta, of brined pork chop with braised napa cabbage and a complex peach and nectarine mostarda. Freshly-baked sourdough bread, little gem salad, and amaretti cookies for dessert.

Paired with the Birichino Grenache, which had evacuated along with us, it was both comforting and expert. Me and Jack in the dining room, Rita and Tom in the kitchen, thereby assuring social distance with a big dose of camaraderie.

From India Joze came the first of many outstanding meals ordered, picked up, and then inhaled at our own dining table. A sensational Persian chicken filled with mushrooms and pomegranate was kept company by outrageous sumac-dusted potatoes with a side of soy and jalapeño ketchup.

From Gabriella Cafe came a sumptuous curbside delivery of rack of lamb in chimichurri sauce with astonishing smashed potatoes—the ultimate comfort food—and sauteed market veggies. An order of never-better house focaccia and a treasured vintage of Le Cigare Volant made it a festive occasion.

One of the sexiest dinners I had all year was carryout from Steamer Lane Supply. All the ingredients for killer carnitas tacos were there, from cabbage, cilantro, tortillas and two salsas to a slab of slow-cooked pork with instructions for whipping it up in my own cast iron frying pan. Ab fab!

Laili came through with a kaleidoscope of chutneys and sensuous baba ghanoush to accompany grilled lamb on a bed of aromatic saffron basmati rice. All the dishes from Laili were robust but the lamb kebabs especially.

Avanti wowed me with an appetizer of grilled calamari followed by another starter of intensely flavored lamb meatballs on polenta draped with red bell peppers.

A twilight meal at Venus Spirits Kitchen provided a terrific plate of cornbread topped with jalapeño honey butter and bourbon bacon jam. The double Venus Burger gooey with melting cheese, aioli and smoked onion was positively sinful as was the lemon, basil and Venus Gin No.1-intensive cocktail “Beach, Don’t Kill My Vibe.” The pleasure of seeing my great friend Melody across the table was the best dessert.

In the top tier of meals this year was Barceloneta’s fantastic carryout involving succulent short ribs and the amazing Ibiza Hippie salad of shredded kale with preserved lemons, spiced yams, and a vinaigrette of carrots and ginger. Authentic flavor excitement.

From Bad Animal came cauliflower a la Polonaise involving micro cubes of cauliflower, romanesco, egg, infant croutons, and yellowfoot mushrooms in a pool of brown butter.

Dungeness crab and avocado from Oswald, oh my.

The Buttery came through this year, over and over with bracingly good coffee to match its zucchini muffins (ultimate comfort food) and decadent chocolate croissants.

An order of Julia Child-worthy tiramisu from Vim soothed our souls. Dreamy, elegant, and filled with mascarpone, tea-soaked cake and unsweetened cocoa powder.

The dumplings from Sawasdee knocked me out with garlic, ginger, pork and shrimp in a sweet and spicy mystery sauce. Compelling and earthy.

Our local food makers, chefs, flavor artisans, and winemakers were true heroes during this terrible year. I wish them, and us all, a far better New Year! Here’s to 2021.

Santa Cruz Retreats from Homeless Sweep as Protesters Push Back

Jacob Pierce

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December 28, 2020

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Santa Cruz Retreats from Homeless Sweep as Protesters Push Back

The Santa Cruz Police Department has been clearing out an unsanctioned encampment at San Lorenzo Park as part of an organized homeless sweep. But officers pumped the brakes on the second phase of the sweep Monday—after meeting resistance.

Santa Cruz City Manager Martín Bernal issued an executive order Dec. 17 explaining that the city would clear out the camp by Jan. 6.

Activist Brent Adams says Bernal’s order troubled him, given the lack of available shelter beds and the Covid-19 pandemic, which is surging in California.

“We were blindsided as a community that the city would want to remove that encampment,” says Adams, who runs the Warming Center Program and the Footbridge Services Center.

Santa Cruz city spokesperson Elizabeth Smith says the first phase of evictions began Dec. 21, with sweeps in the southern end of San Lorenzo Park and the adjacent Benchlands. The initial evacuation area stretched from Branciforte Creek to the path that connects the Chinatown Bridge over the San Lorenzo River to Dakota Avenue.

Monday marked the start of the second phase, when officers were set to start clearing out the area around the park’s duck pond. But protesters showed up with signs bearing written messages like “Stop the Sweep,” as they argued with officers.

Smith says via email that police chose to postpone the second phase of the park sweeps, “given the number of protesters who were there this morning and the aggressive nature of their conflict with staff.”

Adams, who was at the park this morning, says he saw protesters surround officers from both sides and pin them near the park stage. He credits Santa Cruz Police for not taking out their batons and starting a fight. Instead, they walked to the street and left. He expects them to come back in larger numbers next time.

Adams says he understands that San Lorenzo Park is not in an ideal location for a camp, given its proximity to Hotel Paradox, downtown shops, retirement communities and a playground. Adams has been helping campers relocate to a Harvey West area he calls an “agreement camp,” as it isn’t near any homes, retail or playgrounds. He also hopes that—if the city does not like the blighted look of an unmanaged encampment—that it will support the creation of more managed transitional encampments run by nonprofits.

According to the city of Santa Cruz’s website, phase three of the evictions is scheduled to begin around the lawn bowling green on Jan. 4, and the closure period will end on Jan. 31, unless extended.

Bernal’s executive order cited fire and public safety reasons for clearing out the San Lorenzo Park camp. It also added that residents of the camp hadn’t been following social distancing rules in accordance with best practices meant to curb the Covid-19 pandemic. But ever since the state and county health leaders laid out shelter-in-place orders in March, officials made clear that the regulations did not apply to the homeless population.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) went so far over the summer as to advise against breaking up encampments.

“Clearing encampments can cause people to disperse throughout the community and break connections with service providers,” the CDC’s website states. “This increases the potential for infectious disease spread.”

Additional reporting by Mat Weir.

Miches and Ceviches Grows From Humble, Online Beginnings

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December 28, 2020

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Miches and Ceviches Grows From Humble, Online Beginnings

A little more than a year ago, Perla Pineda said she had a thought in the back of her mind that would not let her get a good night’s rest.

“I felt like something else was calling me,” she said.

She remembers waking up in the middle of the night and telling her fiance, Sergio Ferreira, that they needed to start selling food.

That was the start of a passion project that set its roots through social media and blossomed into Miches and Ceviches, a mobile food operation that has become a much sought after Watsonville dining experience.

Inspired by their families’ culinary traditions, Pineda and Ferreira’s food trailer, as the name would suggest, prides itself on its various Mexican seafood dishes and unique michelada mix—a michelada is a drink made with beer, lime juice, assorted sauces, spices, tomato juice and chile peppers.

Pineda says that people from all over the Central Coast visit Miches and Ceviches at their location on the 1400 block of Freedom Boulevard and that the word about their operation continues to spread.

“The response has been insane,” she said.

Pineda’s biggest sellers, she says, are their ceviches and aguachiles. They also make tacos and empanadas. She says she took her family’s recipes and put her own twist on them, making them fresher, spicier or sweeter—whatever was needed to make them to Pineda’s liking.

“It’s all the same concept but I changed it up a bit to make it my own,” she said.

Miches and Ceviches officially opened its physical location in November, but Pineda and Ferreira say the idea began with a social media account dubbed Meals in Heels, in which the former would share photos and recipes over Instagram. The account grew to just more than 700 followers over the course of six years.

But late last year, Pineda held her first online sale through Instagram, offering ceviche, aguachile and michelada mix. The response, she says, was overwhelmingly positive. A few weeks later, Miches and Ceviche was born.

“And it blew up,” Ferreira said.

They sold 10 plates of food for their first online sale, but the whiz-bang world of social media helped spread the word about the small start up. They more than doubled their orders the second time around, and their third sale, around New Year’s Day, created a snaking line out the door of their apartment. The business has continued to grow since then, Pineda says.

The Miches and Ceviches Instagram account now has more than 4,400 followers.

“Social media, it’s crazy,” Pineda said. “The word spread so fast.”

Despite that success, the couple says it was reluctant to make Miches and Ceviches its top priority and primary source of income, as both had full-time jobs. It wasn’t until Pineda was laid off from Girls Inc. at the beginning of the pandemic that she finally decided to make the leap.

“Initially, I wanted to juggle both things but I’m really thankful that I got laid off,” she said. “It was a blessing in disguise.”

It took an arduous 10 months to receive all the approvals they needed from the County Health Department and finally get their trailer on the road, Pineda says, but that process taught her the ins and outs of becoming a business owner, such as how to balance overhead costs and hire employees.

“It was a lot of late nights but we’ve had a lot of help from family and friends,” Pineda said. “We’ve been very blessed to have a great support system.”

Included in that support system, Pineda and Ferreira say, are their parents, who inspired the food they serve today. Pineda’s brothers helped design the business’ logo and the colorful yellow and red strikers on the outside of the trailer, which feature images of tacos, shrimps, pineapples and the late Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.

Also depicted on the trailer: Pineda’s grandfather and Ferreira’s father, the patriarchs of their family.

“I love what food does,” Pineda said. “It brings people together, whether it’s at home with your family or festivities. It’s just a time when people can gather and laugh and enjoy life.”

Donors Large and Small Support Second Harvest As Need Surges

Johanna Miller

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December 28, 2020

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Donors Large and Small Support Second Harvest As Need Surges

Second Harvest Food Bank has been facing an unprecedented amount of need throughout the county since the Covid-19 pandemic broke out in March. They have more than doubled their weekly donations, averaging about 1.2 million pounds per month in distribution.

The Holiday Food and Fund Drive kicked off in November, albeit virtually to stop the spread of the virus. No longer are there donation barrels at various locations; instead, monetary donations are being taken in via the organization’s website.

And the community has stepped up. Everyone from individual residents to large companies are doing their part to make sure those most in need are fed this holiday season.

This includes 12-year-old Andrew Trowbridge, who took it upon himself to raise $2,175 for the food bank. The funds will help generate roughly 8,700 meals for people throughout the county.

This is the third year Andrew has worked on fundraising for Second Harvest. The first time he ran a lemonade stand and earned several hundred dollars. The second, he sold baked goods made by his church congregation, raising even more. This year he simply reached out to family, friends and the greater community.

Todd Trowbridge, Andrew’s father and a vice president at Palace Business Solutions, gave him the entirety of credit. He says his son had seen Palace donating to Second Harvest and asked if there was a way he could help.

“He wanted to help people who were on the side of the road holding signs, asking for food,” he said. “He has a deep desire to help people and has always been like that. He has always wanted to … make sure they were comfortable and taken care of.”

Suzanne Willis, chief development officer for Second Harvest, praised Andrew for his efforts.

“Andrew is such an inspiration to us here at the food bank,” she said. “Knowing that he’s so committed to making sure people in his community are fed energizes us all.”

Large companies have also been helping out Second Harvest recently. Last week, health care company Kaiser Permanente introduced a $95,000 grant to the organization to fund improvement and help increase enrollment in CalFresh, California’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Since the pandemic began, the program has seen a surge in applications.

With the grant, Second Harvest will offer application and enrollment assistance to 1,000 former CalFresh clients who are no longer enrolled. It will also work with staff in the community nonprofit’s Watsonville offices, enabling them to hold a forum with partnering agencies and use cell phone technology to encourage new and existing CalFresh clients to apply.

“Kaiser Permanente’s grant is making a difference in this community that is experiencing high rates of poverty and food insecurity,” Willis said.

Nominations are now open for Second Harvest’s Hunger Fighter of the Year, which recognizes people who have gone “above and beyond” to fight hunger in the community. Nominate online at bit.ly/3mEbA2h through Jan. 6.

“You can clearly see we have a community in need,” said Jan Kamman, Second Harvest’s corporate and community relations director. “And people are responding with their generosity in so many wonderful ways.”

For more information and to donate, visit thefoodbank.org.

Nonprofit Gives Hope to People with Disabilities in Pandemic

Geoff Drake

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December 24, 2020

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Nonprofit Gives Hope to People with Disabilities in Pandemic

Anyone suffering from Zoom-induced ennui in their work and personal life might benefit from a glimpse inside Hope Services’ Hope to Home program. The virtual classes serve more than 140 developmentally disabled clients in Santa Cruz and in neighboring areas.

For three-and-a-half hours every weekday, clients learn about things like Covid-19 safety. They practice knitting and other crafts. They tell jokes, make videos and have a good time. There’s even a regular dance party. If everyone approached Zoom with this degree of enthusiasm, the pandemic would be a lot easier to endure.

Hope Services is one of 40 nonprofits participating in the Santa Cruz Gives campaign, which raises money for charities during the holiday season. Hope’s mission is to improve quality of life for people with developmental disabilities and mental health needs, serving adults and teens in Santa Cruz County and neighboring areas. Donations benefit the Hope to Home program, the organization’s “Big Idea” for 2021. Funds will help equip 50 clients with laptops and tablets, and allow them to access live, interactive, daily online programming, providing a lifeline that allows this vulnerable population to continue learning and social interaction in trying times.

“Normally, we have a variety of programs for clients here at the Santa Cruz facility,” says Sheryl Hagemann, program manager in the Hope Services’ Santa Cruz office. “Now that we’re contending with the pandemic, none of our traditional day programs are able to function. So we had to devise another program to serve their needs. We started this effort after the first shelter-in-place and rolled it out on a larger scale in June. The level of response and participation has been amazing—not only in the Santa Cruz district, but in San Jose, Hollister, Half Moon Bay, and elsewhere in northern California.”

The three Hope to Home clients I spoke with via Zoom were all eager to express their enthusiasm for the program.

Toby Ames, 35, of Boulder Creek, has a developmental disability and has participated in Hope Services programs for 13 years. When I ask him about Hope to Home, he gets so excited that he quickly bounces out of the frame before returning an instant later.

“It’s really important to me,” he says of his daily Zoom meetings. “You know, we do a dance program every Friday.” With that, he busts out a few moves on screen, singing a tune from Justin Bieber’s “Under the Mistletoe” album.

He has also been telling jokes.

“Do you know the one about the cow crossing the road?” he asks. Answer: to get to the “udder side.” It’s one of his favorites, he says.

While employees around the country and the world are talking about “Zoom fatigue,” Ames has never even considered such a notion. For him, teleconferencing is a gift, not a chore. He’s also the Zoom expert in the group, helping others learn how to use the platform.

Greg Jones of Santa Cruz, 39, has been a Hope client for more than 30 years. He wears a floppy Santa hat and irrepressible grin. His favorite Hope to Home activity is playing bingo.

“Sometimes I win!” he exclaims. “The first day using an iPad was hard, but I’m getting the hang of it now. I can’t go out, and I don’t like that, but at least I can visit my friends on the iPad. It’s really important to me, and in some ways it’s easier.”

Amy Colendich, 30, of Santa Cruz, has participated in Hope Services programs for eight years. As part of the new Hope to Home program, she’s done art collages, made videos, and learned about Covid-19 best practices. Her next goal: learn sign language.

“In some ways, I like Zoom better,” she says of the change to Hope Service’s approach. “I really look forward to it.”

Hagemann, the Hope Services manager, says the Hope to Home program’s success has blown her away. It’s been a case study in people using their resilience and creativity to make the best of unexpected circumstances.

It hasn’t always been easy. The change to Zoom created a shift in programming style, the need for a different mindset and financial challenges. “It’s novel for us to use Zoom, so there has been a lot of staff training,” Hagemann says. “Clients face challenges, too; many don’t have access to an iPad, computer, or even home internet. Grants and community efforts like Santa Cruz Gives really help.”

Even after the pandemic subsides, Hagemann predicts the Hope to Home distance learning program will continue in some form.

While it isn’t for everyone, the webinar format fits with some personalities and learning styles, she explains.

Pandemic or not, Ames, the Zoom expert, will be ready. He says he won’t grow tired of showing others how to use iPads or how Zoom works. Maybe he can even demonstrate some new dance moves.

“I want to teach people,” he says.

Visit santacruzgives.org for information on how to donate to Hope Services or any of the other nonprofits participating in Santa Cruz Gives by Dec. 31.

Veterans’ Centers Struggling Under Covid-19 Restrictions

Todd Guild

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December 24, 2020

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Veterans’ Centers Struggling Under Covid-19 Restrictions

At their core, Veterans of Foreign Wars halls and American Legion centers are places where former military members can gather and find the camaraderie and a shared bond unique to their life experiences.

“It’s a big part of what they consider their mental health treatment,” said State VFW Adjutant/Quartermaster Rodger Meier.

But the halls are much more than that.

Many also offer services such as helping with Veterans Affairs claims and survivor benefits, in addition to serving as a staging area for volunteer efforts.

According to Meier, members gave more than 90,000 volunteer hours in 2019, the equivalent to nearly $2.8 million in time and money.

Funds raised by the centers also go to scholarships and to emergency funds for military families.

But thanks to Covid-19 restrictions—and a set of rules imposed by Gov. Gavin Newsom that classifies the centers as bars and therefore requires them to close—many have spent the past nine months shuttered.

That has left veterans without their community gathering places, and the centers without the revenue needed to pay their bills.

“It’s pretty bad right now. We just don’t have the funds,” said Rick Sanchez, Commander of American Legion Post 121, located in Watsonville.

In a normal year unmarred by pandemic, Sanchez says the center is home to breakfasts on Sunday, hamburger night on Monday and pool tournaments on Friday and Saturday. All of these generate revenue that help pay the estimated $2,300 in monthly bills, in addition to annual property tax.

In a Sept. 21 letter, VFW State Commander John Lowe asked Newsom to reconsider the classification, thus allowing VFW centers to resume activities that benefit veterans, even if it means adhering to social-distancing rules.

“What is not being considered is that many of our posts are not just halls with bars, but rather hubs within our communities providing a wide range of essential programs and services to help veterans of every generation,” Lowe says.

VFW Post 1716 Commander David Ambriz says that the facility depends entirely on revenue from hosting events such as weddings, baptisms and quinciñeras.

The last event, Ambris says, was in February, just before the Covid-19 closures began.

Ambriz says that a $2,000 grant from the national VFW organization has helped, and he is hoping a second grant comes soon. But with bills for water, electricity, sewer, garbage and phone due every month, Ambriz and leaders like him across the U.S. are hoping that relaxing the rules will allow revenue-generating activities to commence.

U.S. Army veteran and former Watsonville City Councilman Felipe Hernandez says that a wedding can bring in as much as $3,000 in a single night.

“It’s an important place for veterans in the community because it’s a place where they can find someone with like minds,” Ambriz says. “They just want to socialize, and now that’s all gone. We just want to see our place opened up again.”

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Santa Cruz’s Comedy Guru Reflects on Closing His Comedy Lab

Claire Braz-Valentine Honored for Work with Writers in California Prisons

Rob Brezsny’s Astrology: Dec. 30 – Jan. 5

Eat the Sun Releases New Instrumental Album with Santa Cruz Inspiration

Recalling the Best Santa Cruz Takeout Meals of a Hard Year

Santa Cruz Retreats from Homeless Sweep as Protesters Push Back

Miches and Ceviches Grows From Humble, Online Beginnings

Donors Large and Small Support Second Harvest As Need Surges

Nonprofit Gives Hope to People with Disabilities in Pandemic

Veterans’ Centers Struggling Under Covid-19 Restrictions

Santa Cruz’s Comedy Guru Reflects on Closing His Comedy Lab

Claire Braz-Valentine Honored for Work with Writers in California Prisons

Rob Brezsny’s Astrology: Dec. 30 – Jan. 5

Eat the Sun Releases New Instrumental Album with Santa Cruz Inspiration

Recalling the Best Santa Cruz Takeout Meals of a Hard Year

Santa Cruz Retreats from Homeless Sweep as Protesters Push Back

Miches and Ceviches Grows From Humble, Online Beginnings

Donors Large and Small Support Second Harvest As Need Surges

Nonprofit Gives Hope to People with Disabilities in Pandemic

Veterans’ Centers Struggling Under Covid-19 Restrictions