Rob Brezsny’s Astrology: March 4-10

Rob Brezsny

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March 3, 2020

Free will astrology for the week of March 4, 2020

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Progress rarely unfolds in a glorious, ever-rising upward arc. The more usual pattern is gradual and uneven. Each modest ascent is followed by a phase of retrenchment and integration. In the best-case scenario, the most recent ascent reaches a higher level than the previous ascent. By my estimate, you’re in one of those periods of retrenchment and integration right now, Aries. It’s understandable if you feel a bit unenthusiastic about it. But I’m here to tell you that it’s crucial to your next ascent. Let it work its subtle magic.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): You are most likely to be in sweet alignment with cosmic rhythms if you regard the next three weeks as a time of graduation. I encourage you to take inventory of the lessons you’ve been studying since your birthday in 2019. How have you done in your efforts to foster interesting, synergistic intimacy? Are you more passionately devoted to what you love? Have you responded brightly as life has pushed you to upgrade the vigor and rigor of your commitments? Just for fun, give yourself a grade for those “classes,” as well as any others that have been important. Then—again, just for fun—draw up a homemade diploma for yourself to commemorate and honor your work.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Are you ready to seize a more proactive role in shaping what happens in the environments you share with cohorts? Do you have any interest in exerting leadership to enhance the well-being of the groups that are important to you? Now is an excellent time to take brave actions that will raise the spirits and boost the fortunes of allies whose fates are intermingled with yours. I hope you’ll be a role model for the art of pleasing oneself while being of service to others.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Cancerian author Lionel Trilling (1905–1975) was an influential intellectual and literary critic. One of his heroes was another influential intellectual and literary critic, Edmund Wilson. On one occasion, Trilling was using a urinal in a men’s room at the New School for Social Research in New York. Imagine how excited he was when Wilson, whom he had never met, arrived to use the urinal right next to his. Now imagine his further buoyancy when Wilson not only spoke to Trilling but also expressed familiarity with his work. I foresee similar luck or serendipity coming your way soon: seemingly unlikely encounters with interesting resources and happy accidents that inspire your self-confidence.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Poet Conee Berdera delivered a poignant message to her most valuable possession: the flesh and blood vehicle that serves as sanctuary for all her yearnings, powers, and actions. “My beloved body,” she writes, “I am so sorry I did not love you enough.” Near the poem’s end she vows “to love and cherish” her body. I wish she would have been even more forceful, saying something like, “From now on, dear body, I promise to always know exactly what you need and give it to you with all my ingenuity and panache.” Would you consider making such a vow to your own most valuable possession, Leo? It’s a favorable time to do so.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Luckily, the turning point you have arrived at doesn’t present you with 20 different possible futures. You don’t have to choose from among a welter of paths headed in disparate directions. There are only a few viable options to study and think about. Still, I’d like to see you further narrow down the alternatives. I hope you’ll use the process of elimination as you get even clearer about what you don’t want. Let your fine mind gather a wealth of detailed information and objective evidence, then hand over the final decision to your intuition.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Certain artists are beyond my full comprehension. Maybe I’m not smart enough to understand their creations or I’m not deep enough to fathom why their work is considered important. For example, I don’t enjoy or admire the operas of Wagner or the art of Mark Rothko. Same with the music of Drake or the novels of Raymond Carter or the art of Andy Warhol. The problem is with me, not them. I don’t try to claim they’re overrated or mediocre. Now I urge you to do what I just did, Libra, only on a broader scale. Acknowledge that some of the people and ideas and art and situations you can’t appreciate are not necessarily faulty or wrong or inadequate. Their value may simply be impossible for you to recognize. It’s a perfect time for you to undertake this humble work. I suspect it will be liberating.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Scorpio-born Ralph Bakshi has made animated films and TV shows for over 60 years. His work has been influential. “I’m the biggest ripped-off cartoonist in the history of the world,” he says. Milder versions of his experience are not uncommon for many Scorpios. People are prone to copying you and borrowing from you and even stealing from you. They don’t always consciously know they’re doing it, and they may not offer you proper appreciation. I’m guessing that something like this phenomenon may be happening for you right now. My advice? First, be pleased about how much clout you’re wielding. Second, if anyone is borrowing from you without making the proper acknowledgment, speak up about it.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): “Vainly I sought nourishment in shadows and errors,” wrote author Jorge Luis Borges. We have all been guilty of miscalculations like those. Each of us has sometimes put our faith in people and ideas that weren’t worthy of us. None of us is so wise that we always choose influences that provide the healthiest fuel. That’s the bad news, Sagittarius. The good news is that you now have excellent instincts about where to find the best long-term nourishment.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Poet Adrienne Rich wrote, “When a woman tells the truth she is creating the possibility for more truth around her.” I believe this same assertion is true about people of all genders. I also suspect that right now you are in a particularly pivotal position to be a candid revealer: to enhance and refine everyone’s truth-telling by being a paragon of honesty yourself. To achieve the best results, I encourage you to think creatively about what exactly it means for you to tell the deep and entire truth.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Through some odd Aquarian-like quirk, astrologers have come to harbor the apparently paradoxical view that your sign is ruled by both Saturn and Uranus. At first glance, that’s crazy! Saturn is the planet of discipline, responsibility, conservatism, diligence, and order. Uranus is the planet of awakening, surprise, rebellion, barrier-breaking, and liberation. How can you Aquarians incorporate the energies of both? Well, that would require a lengthy explanation beyond the scope of this horoscope. But I will tell you this: During the rest of the year 2020, you will have more potential to successfully coordinate your inner Saturn and your inner Uranus than you have had in years. Homework: Meditate on how you will do just that.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): In 1637, renowned English poet John Milton wrote “Lycidas,” a poetic elegy in honor of a friend. Reading it today, almost four centuries later, we are struck by how archaic and obscure the language is, with phrases like “O ye laurels” and “Ah! who hath reft my dearest pledge?” A famous 20th-century Piscean poet named Robert Lowell was well-educated enough to understand Milton’s meaning, but also decided to “translate” all of “Lycidas” into plainspoken modern English. I’d love to see you engage in comparable activities during the coming weeks, Pisces: updating the past; reshaping and reinterpreting your old stories; revising the ways you talk about and think about key memories.

Homework: Don’t tolerate bullying from critical voices in your head or from supposedly “nice” people who are trying to guilt-trip you. freewillastrology.com.

Alt-Rock Band Local H Collaborates With Fellow ‘Lifers’

Aaron Carnes

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March 3, 2020

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Alt-Rock Band Local H Collaborates With Fellow ‘Lifers’

Scott Lucas, singer/guitarist for the two-piece alt-rock band Local H, couldn’t wait for the group’s third album Pack Up The Cats to turn 20 in 2018. Long before the landmark anniversary, he had big plans to hit the road and play the album in its entirety.

It’s a special record, though only modestly successful at the time. Hot off their second album As Good As Dead, with its grunge-rock hit “Bound For The Floor,” their label Island Records gave them complete creative control and anything they needed. They wanted to make a tongue-in-cheek concept album about the rise and fall of a rock star.

“I was a big Pink Floyd kid,” Lucas says. “The thing about concept records is, for a long time, if you were going to do one, it had to be sci-fi based. I never wanted to do anything like that. We tried to go a different way with it.”

The record barely cracked the charts, despite rave critical reviews. While Local H has managed to maintain their position as a touring mid-level rock ‘n’ roll band, there hasn’t exactly been a resurgence in interest in Pack Up The Cats, despite the fact that concept-based heavy rock albums are no longer an anomaly. Green Day’s American Idiot did a lot to normalize it—six years after Pack Up The Cats.

“That is the exact record we set out to make. Whether or not it was successful, that’s beside the point,” Lucas says. “We had all the resources we needed. We were left alone to do what we wanted. No one was trying to make us write another ‘Bound for the Floor.’”

In addition to celebrating Pack Up The Cats with a 2018 tour and album reissue, they did the same thing in 2016 for the As Good As Dead record. These album anniversaries dominated much of their past five years—their last new album was 2015’s Hey, Killer. After diving deep into their heyday years, the group got inspired to make a new LP that would be exciting and timely. The new record Lifers releases in April.

The record meant so much to them, they took a year-and-a-half off from touring to make this album, not an easy task for a band that makes the bulk of its income from shows.

“There was definitely a sense of purpose, like, ‘We’ve got something here,’” Lucas says. “It wasn’t an easy record to write.”

True to form, the album is a concept record. Sort of—Lucas can’t decide. So perhaps it occupies a middle ground between elaborate concept album and standard 10-song rock LP.

“I wanted it to feel like a concept record, but not be a concept record,” Lucas says. “A big reference was The White Album. There are certain songs that feel like overtly political. You sort of scratch the surface, and they’re not. ‘Helter Skelter,’ you almost feel like it’s reflecting the late 60s, but it’s really not.”

It was important to Lucas that the record reflect this era: the polarization, the divisive politics, the chaos. But that also means Trump, and he didn’t it want it to be about Trump.

“We’re just inundated with Trump every day. I don’t want to give him any more air than he deserves,” Lucas says. “It’s that kind of thing. He seeks attention. Not everything in our lives has to revolve around that guy. Fuck that guy.”

But the record somehow is also about people, like them, that have devoted their lives to art, even if they never became superstars. The lifers, if you will. They roped in several lifers to collaborate on the record, like Steve Albini, Juliana Hatfield, John McCauley (Deer Tick), and John Haggerty (Naked Raygun)

“That’s kind of the concept of this record. Making this record with these people that we look up to and that have made music of their lives. That is definitely a theme to this record,” Scott says. “We just kept asking friends of ours to be on the record. It was one of those ideas that just popped up.”

Local H performs at 8pm on Monday, March 9, at Felton Music Hall, 6275 Hwy 9, Felton. $20/adv, $25/door. 704-7113.

UPDATED March 10, 2020: This article was updated to correct the title of the band’s album Pack Up The Cats.

Be Our Guest: Marc E. Bassy

GT Staff

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March 3, 2020

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Former UCSC student Marc E. Bassy showed off his pop chops with his former group 2AM Club.

That was nothing compared to his solo career, which focused much more on R&B with elements of hip-hop. As a solo artist he would collaborate with the industry’s best—Wiz Khalifa, G-Eazy, Ty Dolla Sign, CeeLo Green, and Sean Kingston. His tunes mix low-key hip-hop beats, R&B grooves, and sweet soulful vocals. It’s the kind of music to relax at home to, or to get a nice stress-free night of dancing at the club.

INFO: 9pm. Thursday, March 12, Catalyst, 1011 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $25/adv, $30/door. catalystclub.com.

WANT TO GO?

Go to santacruz.com/giveaways before 11am on Thursday, March 5 to find out how you could win a pair of tickets to the show.

Living in Sunlight: Risa’s Stars March 4-10

Risa D’Angeles

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March 3, 2020

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Living in Sunlight: Risa’s Stars March 4-10

Esoteric astrology as news for the week of March 4, 2020

We are presently in the midst of a respiratory virus (Neptune in Pisces, sign of endings) sweeping the world, the consequences of which will shift and change the way humanity lives, breathes, moves and has its being. Taking precautions in order to maintain health and well-being at this time is essential. The physical body needs methods of purification to respond appropriately to the present health crisis.

In Letters on Occult Meditation, Alice A. Bailey recommends ways to maintain health, vitality and well-being. A purifying and refining of the physical body, emotions and lower mind is needed in times of crisis. This purification allows the soul to do the work of protection and of healing.

The refinement of the physical body can be done in practical, reasonable and utilitarian ways: pure food (raw milk, honey, organic grains, vegetables that contact the sun, fresh juices, things fermented, oranges, apples, bananas, raisins, nuts, sweet potatoes), cleanliness and water (wash hands often, shower daily, drink half one’s weight in ounces daily), sleep (between the hours of 10pm-5am), sunshine (contact with the sun and clean air), and Om. Disciples use the sound Om often—it tones the Vagus nerve, which tones the heart, which tones the body into a state of balance and harmony (Libra).

ARIES: You’re different these days, more motivated, focused and purposeful than other signs (except Capricorn). You can therefore be misunderstood by peers, associates, colleagues and groups. Your capacity for leadership is extraordinary. However, often you cannot work with others, needing to create your own systems. One day you will stumble into the field of subtle energies—the etheric field. Here everyone and everything is connected. Pisces and Gemini live here. You can too.

TAURUS: Although most don’t realize this, you seek to subtly and quietly prove your value and self-worth. So often you stand in shadows and behind the curtains. However, you must realize the great need in the world for the information you possess. Young aspirants, minds not yet restructured, with the desire to learn seek your advice. You were once in their place. Remember?

GEMINI: So, what is the primary emotional wound experienced as a young child? It dominates you at times. This is good—impelling you to move in a new direction, allowing the crisis spiritual teachings bring forth. The result is an inner balance, harmony and entrance into the Ashram (for which you need preparation). Then you relax into a class you’ve secretly longed for. Everyone’s waiting.

CANCER: Do you experience separation from something or someone? Do you feel a lessening of your energy, betrayed by your desires, hopes and aspirations? It’s important to realize you have the ability to see the many different subtle worlds. Give yourself adequate respect or recognition for these gifts. They are a force for goodwill. They provide direction. Stand closer to these worlds.

LEO: Did something occur when you were little in relation to your parents? Were they absent, unavailable, hurting you or themselves? And did these experiences create a hard shell around you? Your heart constantly seeks understanding and healing. With others, so often, you’re disappointed. No one seems to understand your needs. So you draw boundaries around yourself for safety. Wisdom says to simply and always give your heart away.

VIRGO: You’re very aware of the mind-body connection, of working with your health so that diet and nutrition are most important. You realize that you must, each day, keep yourself emotionally balanced, be able to concentrate on the needs of others, be able to discriminate between what others need and what you need. They are different. This is a learning curve. Connect with others not through pain but through how they serve.

LIBRA: It’s important to recognize the many ways you’re creative, how you communicate and what makes you feel healthy, wealthy and wise. It’s important also to know the difference between happiness, joy and bliss. Happiness is an everyday, personality feeling. Joy is a soul experience when we make contact and love is released. Bliss is otherworldly. It comes from spirit. Which do you experience?

SCORPIO: It would be good to learn your family lineage, history and heritage. You are sensitive to everything. However, you hide it. When we know our roots, where we came from, who our relatives were, and their history, we are able to understand ourselves better and accept our family’s behaviors. We also realize what changes we might initiate within ourselves. So many of us don’t know who we are. Studying our family, less and less do we feel abandoned.

SAGITTARIUS: Are you feeling in control, on a journey, completely at home, calm, kind and wise? Or do you feel alienated, misguided, separate and without adequate foundation? Perhaps you feel eccentric or so spiritual you sense others no longer understand you. Perhaps you will want to write about this. Is there difficulty in making yourself understood? Or perhaps you’re not understanding yourself? Someone’s not listening. Is it you? The soul is always listening.

CAPRICORN: Notice how much pleasure you receive from resources offered everywhere and all around. There is a difference between money, possessions, resources and wealth. If you define each one, you see the subject here is one of values. Note what is of value to you? What do you value the most? Are you of value? What is value? Everything comes down to self-worth and self-value. You are worthy.

AQUARIUS: Tend to all aspects of your life and do not neglect yourselves on any level or in any manner. Seek your fullest potential in all that you do, in everyone you encounter, wherever you go. Always do your best. In daily life, make sure all rules are adhered to, all structures in place. Leave nothing to chance. Each day help others to achieve their goals and dreams and recognize themselves. You are an Aquarian teacher.

PISCES: You must keep yourself healthy. Be aware of not absorbing other people’s thoughts, emotions and difficulties. You are empathic. To use this gift effectively one must be spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically strong. Allow no nervous tension or worries. You are bringing secrets out into the open for the benefit of humanity. You are a teacher and healer. Protect yourself. Happy birthday.

Music Picks: March 4-10

Aaron Carnes

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March 3, 2020

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Santa Cruz County live entertainment picks for March 4-10

WEDNESDAY 3/4

FOLK

VISHTEN

French settlers in Eastern Canada evolved the traditional music of their native land into something new and distinct—a smooth, breezy sound somewhere between Celtic sing-alongs and down-home Appalachian fiddle tunes. If there’s a modern day ambassador of this genre, it’s Canada’s Vishten. The three members all grew up in a home on the eastern Canadian Islands where this music was a part of everyday life. They modernize it with a mix of instruments—keys, accordion and electric guitar, as well as the acoustic guitar, fiddle and flute. But at its heart, it’s a window into 17th century French-Canadian home life. AC

INFO: 7:30pm. Michaels On Main, 2591 Main St., Soquel. $20/adv, $22/door. 479-9777.

COUNTRY

HAILEY WHITTERS

Native Iowan turned Nashville singer Hailey Whitters has steadily built her career and fanbase since her 2015 debut, Black Sheep. More recently, she made country waves with last year’s introspective “Ten Year Town.” Now Whitters is turning heads with “Janice at the Hotel Bar,” the first single off her new album, The Dream, which Rolling Stone recently chose for their “Song You Need To Know” column. MAT WEIR

INFO: 8pm. Felton Music Hall, 6275 Hwy. 9, Felton. $15/adv. $18/door. 704-7113.

FRIDAY 3/6

ROCK

THE GROGGS

Someone better check on ol’ Lucifer, because hell just froze over—the Groggs are playing a reunion show! During the late 2000s and early 2010s, the Groggs (named for the band’s once-local liquor store off Ocean Street) were a staple in the local rock scene with their barebones beats that dredged up garage rock and psych but kept a hardline punk vibe. Songs like “Lies & Alibis” and “You’re Gonna Leave Me” were punches to the face, relieved only by killer covers of classic tunes like The Animals’ “Misunderstood.” They’ll have a five-dollar deal at this show featuring their classic seven-inch plus download codes to their entire catalogue. MW

INFO: 7pm. Blue Lagoon, 923 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz, $7. 423-7117.

SATURDAY 3/7

FOLK

JOHN CRAIGIE

It’s not often a folk musician gets compared to comedian Mitch Hedberg, but a playful, offbeat streak cuts across John Craigie’s dusty folk tunes. “I been singing to these hipsters, but they ain’t singing back,” he intones on the rollicking “Bucket List Grandmas,” a song about scraping by as a relative unknown in the music industry. While he may not be a household name yet, Craigie’s one-of-a-kind folk sense has won him many high-profile fans, including Jack Johnson, Todd Snider, and human-roundhouse-kick Chuck Norris. MIKE HUGUENOR

INFO: 7:30pm. Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave, Santa Cruz. $27. 423-8209.

FOLK

LINDA MCRAE

Linda McRae is a national treasure. She performs the kind of folk music that unfolds before your ears as honest, sincere stories that have the wisdom of the ages buried within her simple chords. A master at the banjo, guitar and accordion, she’s traversed the country for three decades with three chords and the truth. Her music harkens to a time before technology controlled the musical landscape, and yet the raw emotionality of her songs are timeless just like the beauty of a sunset or the taste of a fresh loaf of bread just out of the oven. AC

INFO: 8pm. Lille Aeske, 13160 Hwy 9, Boulder Creek. $20. 703-4183.

COUNTRY

JERRY DOUGLAS

For the amount of work he’s done, it’s almost hard to believe there’s only one Jerry Douglas. The undisputed master of the Dobro (or “resonator guitar”), Douglas’s blazing slide guitar work has appeared on a jaw-dropping 1,600 albums, including those of Alison Krauss, Paul Simon, and Ray Charles. As a solo artist, his deft blend of Americana and Celtic music has won him CMA awards and Grammy’s alike (14 of them, in fact), and the sheer speed with which he plays has won over countless audiences. You better believe it: there’s only one Jerry Douglas. MH

INFO: 8pm. Felton Music Hall, 6275 Highway 9, Felton. $35/adv, $40 door. 704-7113.

SUNDAY 3/8

ELECTRONIC

GONE GONE BEYOND

What is “electro-folk?” On Things Are Changing by NY collective Gone Gone Beyond, electro-folk is the subtle beat underlying the acoustics in sultry single “By the Sea.” It’s the sampled bass drum that pulses beneath the spooky western folk of “You Can’t Go Wrong,” the faint glimmer of effects on (Santa Cruz based!) singer Kat Factor’s voice. The brainchild of electronic producer David Block, Gone Gone Beyond delights in crossing boundaries, blurring lines, and just generally going (going) beyond things. MH

INFO: 9pm. Moe’s Alley, 1535 Commercial Dr., Santa Cruz. $20/adv, $25/door. 479-1854.

TUESDAY 3/10

MELISSA ALDANA

After her groundbreaking triumph at the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition, Chilean tenor player Melissa Aldana spent several years touring and recording with a stripped down trio. Following in the footsteps of her tenor hero Sonny Rollins, she mastered the harmonically unfettered realms opened up with the backing of only bass and drums. But with last year’s acclaimed Visions, she started painting with a more subtle palette. Inspired by the life and work of Frida Kahlo, Aldana composed a suite, an extended work that’s often the centerpiece of performances with her Vision Quartet. ANDREW GILBERT

INFO: 7pm. Kuumbwa Jazz, 320-2 Cedar St., Santa Cruz. $31.50/adv, $36.75/door. 427-2227.

Love Your Local Band: Khan

Aaron Carnes

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March 3, 2020

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In 2009, when rapper Khan moved to Santa Cruz, he found a vibrant underground scene with cyphers, house parties, and well-attended shows. But it didn’t last, so he applied his skill with organizing events in the activist scene to help rebuild Santa Cruz underground hip-hop.

“I wasn’t seeing it growing. It was shrinking almost. That’s one of the reasons why I jumped into that game,” Khan says.

He’s put on shows at the Blue Lagoon and Moe’s Alley. But his bread and butter is his regular underground hip-hop showcase at the Crepe Place, “Diggin’ In The Crepe,” where he brings together the fractured scenes from Salinas, Hollister, Gilroy and Santa Cruz.

Meanwhile, he’s been working on his own music. He released his debut Strike Anywhere Mixtape in 2016. Last year, he released The Dead Kennedy Tape. It features a cover reminiscent of the iconic punk band, but the record is actually an ode to activist co-op Casa de Kennedy, where he and emcee Nexus (who collaborates on the record) used to live.

“It was a big influence on me and Nexus, learning how to spin turntables and things like that,” Khan says. “Then we all had to leave the house because it was getting sold underneath us—gentrification. That’s what inspired that album.”

On March 4, Khan releases his debut full length, Code Switching. It’s his most personal and diverse record—he works with multiple producers on this record instead of just one like on previous records.

“Code switching is basically when you change the way you communicate based on who you’re talking to. It’s been a huge part of my experience growing up. I’m a child of immigrant folks from Fiji,” Khan says.

He releases the record to a vibrant underground scene he had a big part in revitalizing.

“Things are growing here in Santa Cruz,” Khan says. “We’re starting to see it come back.”

INFO: 9pm. Friday, March 6, Crepe Place, 1134 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. $8. 429-6994.

Sante Adairius Scores Top Slot for Its Brews

Christina Waters

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March 3, 2020

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Sante Adairius Scores Top Slot for Its Brews

Congratulations to Sante Adairius Rustic Ales, a cozy brewery and tasting room just north of Gayle’s Bakery. The diminutive craft brewery (online at rusticales.com) specializing in highly-curated seasonal brews has been voted (again!) among the top 10 best breweries in the world by the annual RateBeer ranking site and app.

Founded by Adair Paterno and Tim Clifford, the brewery won its slot from a field of over half a million beers made by over 30,000 brewers all over the world. The renowned beer ranking site uses multiple categories, but prominent among those is the 100 Best Brewers in the World, a category in play for 20 years. Sante Adairius received the ranking from thousands of annual users.

Coffee: The Continuing Saga

When tracking the DNA of fine coffee jump-started by Kelly’s on the Westside, I neglected to mention the outstanding “big bang in a small package” that is Lulu Carpenter’s kiosk, situated at 930 Almar Ave., in the old Fotomat booth (a reference intended for the enjoyment of Santa Cruz old-timers). Yes, indeed you can grab a quick cup of joe from this charmingly reinvented drive-up space, thanks to the fresh roasted beans and exceptional entrepreneurial savvy of Manthri Sinath and team.

Also, I’m told there’s single drip coffee plus the beans to match available at 2712 Mission Street’s Alta Organics. So essentially you could trip over great coffee places on the Westside, should you choose to do so.

And for those of us wondering why we couldn’t enjoy the new Cat & Cloud Westside on Monday or Tuesdays, it’s because the Westside’s newest basecamp of caffeine is in the midst of a soft opening. So Cat & Cloud, perched at 719 Swift St., is currently open Wednesday-Sunday, 7am-2pm, until further notice. Now you know.

Wine & Music PreParty

Grab a glass of wine at Vinocruz to toast Cabrillo’s mighty Considering Matthew Shepard music theater production. On Thursday, March 12, the Santa Cruz Diversity Center is planning a no-host pre-concert meetup at Vinocruz Wine Bar + Kitchen from 5:30-7pm. Have an appetizer and fine locally-made wine, and meet up with your friends and fellow concertgoers before you head down to the Crocker Theater at Cabrillo College—a mere seven-minute drive.

Vino Cruz, 4901 Soquel Drive, Soquel. vinocruz.com.

Only for Serious Oenophiles

Get in training for the next phase of your wine savvy with Wine & Spirit Education Trust Level 2 classes at Soif Wine Bar & Merchants four Sundays in a row starting Sunday, March 29. Classes run from 10am-2pm at Soif. Register at soifwine.com. For more about the WSET and what a Level 2 Award means, go to wsetglobal.com.

Product of the Week

Popchips potato puffs with sea salt, around $4, are addictive in a good way. Like a slightly super-sized non-greasy potato chip, these chips are totally gluten-free and totally delicious. No frying. Here’s the deal, as one of those democratic candidates likes to say: the Popchip is a slice of potato that has been heated in a pressurized chamber, then released very quickly. That, so they say, is what makes them “pop.” So they are light, slightly puffy and the kind I love has been enhanced by sea salt, the mother mineral of all of us. If you want other flavors, fine. They’ve got Popchips with sour cream and onion flavor, sea salt and vinegar, and barbeque. Purists, like me, will stand by the sea salt variety. Try them at New Leaf and Shopper’s Corner.

Film Review: ‘Seberg’

Lisa Jensen

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March 3, 2020

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Fact and fiction make uneasy bedfellows in Seberg. The basic facts in the case of chic young American actress Jean Seberg and her support of the Black Power movement in the turbulent 1960s are presented with reasonable accuracy by filmmaker Benedict Andrews. That she was targeted in a reprehensible smear campaign by J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI that ultimately hounded her to her (probable) suicide also has the distressing and thoroughly documented ring of truth.

But the entirely fictionalized character of a stalwart young FBI recruit assigned to her case who begins to question the Bureau’s tactics loosens the movie’s grip on reality. Not only do Andrews and scriptwriters Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse give equal dramatic weight to this fictional counterpoint inserted into the middle of Seberg’s story, the time and energy spent on it might have been better used in exploring the complexities of Seberg herself—whose actions and motives are never made quite comprehensible.

And that’s not the only fudging of facts that doesn’t quite work in this movie. The Black Power leader with whom Seberg has an affair with in the movie seems to be a fusion of two different men in the movement that the real-life Seberg knew at the time, Raymond Hewitt and Hakim Jamal. Actor Anthony Mackie most resembles the scholarly, bespectacled Hewitt in the role, although he is identified throughout as Jamal. That the filmmakers seem to think one composite character is sufficient to stand in for black rage in general suggests how superficial their approach can be.

Kristen Stewart stars as Jean, first glimpsed on screen being burned at the stake in a recreation of Seberg’s first movie role in Otto Preminger’s Saint Joan. Which, for better or worse, cements in the viewer’s mind that this will be a story about a victim. Having worked mostly in France since then (most notably in Jean-Luc Goddard’s seminal New Wave film Breathless), Jean leaves her French husband, novelist Romain Gary (Yvan Attal), and their young son in Paris in 1968 to fly back to the states with her agent for a film role.

When their mostly empty first-class cabin is invaded by Black Power activist Hakim Jamal (Mackie), demanding better accommodations for the widow of Malcolm X he is escorting, Jean offers up their seats. When they land in Los Angeles, and Jamal and his fellows greet the camera-snapping press corps with the Black Power salute, Jean scurries over to raise her fist in solidarity. No one thinks to accuse her of co-opting their tarmac event for what looks like a publicity stunt.

Nor do the filmmakers bother to explore what motivates her, beyond a few vague pronouncements that she wants “to make a difference.” Jamal takes it as evidence of her credibility when she drives her fancy convertible to his house in Compton late at night; they plunge immediately into an affair, and she’s soon writing checks for the school he runs with his wife, Dorothy (Zazie Beetz). Are her motives purely carnal? Is it white guilt? Is she just really empathetic? Rather than answer those questions, the movie moves on to the story it’s most interested in: Jean’s victimization by the FBI.

Fresh young recruit Jack (Jack O’Connell) is assigned by his new boss (Colm Meany) to assist lowlife veteran Carl (Vince Vaughn) in persecuting Jean with constant surveillance, wiretaps, home invasion, and a campaign to defame her in the press and undermine her career. The doubts that Jack finally begins to have about their methods, as Jean becomes increasingly paranoid and unstable, is not really the story we are here to see. Ultimately, it’s only so much window-dressing that can’t quite disguise the fact that this movie doesn’t actually know what makes its nominal heroine tick.

SEBERG

** (out of four)

With Kristen Stewart, Jack O’Connell, Margaret Qualley, Anthony Mackie and Vince Vaughn. Written by Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse. Directed by Benedict Andrews. An Amazon Studios release. Rated R. 102 minutes.

Santa Cruz City Council: Circle Church Is Not Historic

Todd Guild

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February 27, 2020

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Santa Cruz City Council: Circle Church Is Not Historic

The Santa Cruz City Council on Tuesday voted unanimously to accept a recommendation by the city’s Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) not to declare the Garfield Park Church—and the property surrounding it at 111 Errett Circle—as a historic site.

That means the Circle of Friends—a group that purchased the property in 2017 for $3.3 million to build their homes—can now bring their project for approval to the city’s Planning Department.

If approved, the plan would move to the City Council for final approval.

Looking back on Tuesday’s meeting, Circle of Friends member Brett Packer says the decision came as a relief to the group, which bought the land to build a co-housing development for themselves and their families.

On Tuesday evening, Packer told the council that the group bought the property after confirming that it was not considered a historic resource, and they paid for an independent study which confirmed that.

“We feel for the first time like our project can move forward with confidence,” he says.

The group’s plans were cast into uncertainty late last year when the City Council asked the HPC to take another look at the issue. But the commission voted 5-0 on Jan. 31 against the historic designation.

In making its recommendation, the HPC determined that the property does not meet a list of seven criteria for historic designation, including that is not a “significant example” of cultural, natural or archeological heritage, Santa Cruz Senior Planner Ryan Bane said.

Additionally, it is tied to neither historic events nor people, and was not designed by a significant builder or architect, he said.

The council’s motion includes requirements that the property owners preserve open space as the focal point on Woodrow Avenue, that they install interpretive historic signs, and that the circle pattern of the neighborhood be preserved.

The issue brought dozens of neighbors to the nearly two-hour meeting, who spoke both for and against the historic designation.

HPC member Russ Gibson, who was recused from the issue, spoke in favor of preserving the site. His comments echoed those of many neighbors, who say that the buildings have long been used as a community center and should be kept as such.

“It’s always been the heartbeat of Westside,” he said, adding that the property serves as the de facto backyard for residents in a neighborhood comprised of small lots.

Neighbor Barbara Bennish agreed.

“What we’re trying to save is not a building for a particular religious group or the building itself,” she said. “What we are talking about is the site and the place and the community.”

Matt Amman thinks the site will keep its eclectic feel under the plan proposed by the Circle of Friends.

Those plans include a garden to replace the cracked and aged parking lot with a garden.

“I think that that significance will be maintained under the new usage that has been proposed,” he said.

Willa Reckart said she played sports in the gym and hung out on the lawn with friends when she was attending school. As such, she acknowledges that the site is a sentimental place. Still, she says the church is not what makes the neighborhood significant.

“On the contrary, [the church] is pretty run down and under-utilized,” she said. “I’ve always wondered how the center point of such a beautiful place had to be something so forlorn.”

Packer stresses that the image painted of the group as unscrupulous developers is simply inaccurate.

“It’s important to keep reminding people that we are grassroots people,” he says. “We’re all working full-time and we’re stretched. We can barely pull this off.”

The group wants to create a co-housing community in which day-to-day duties such as gardening, childcare and cooking are shared.

He says he wants neighbors to bring their concerns to the Circle of Friends.

“We’re hopeful that they will come to us and we can find a way to resolve the issues,” he says.

Jennifer Smith, a resident of the circles neighborhood who opposes the plans and who wants to see the community center used and expanded, disagrees with the decision that the church lacks historical significance.

“There are countless families that for decades have benefitted from the collective community use,” she said. “My vision of that space is that it would best serve the community operating in a similar fashion.”

The Planning Commission is expected to consider Circle of Friends’ plans within one month. The City Council could consider those recommendations about a month after that, Packer says.

Ghostwriter’s Vigorous 2016 Pinot Noir

Josie Cowden

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February 26, 2020

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Purchased by the Maser family in 2011, Amaya Ridge Vineyards is the peaceful haven the family dreamed of.

Looking for a slower pace of life, the Masers sold their Palo Alto home and moved to the Soquel hills in order to grow luscious grapes—which are tended and harvested by Kenny Likitprakong and sold under his boutique Ghostwriter label.

Likitprakong, who is pretty famous for his winemaking skills, says, “Ghostwriter is a way of saying that the wine and the winemaker are in a sense telling a story that is not entirely their own.”

Complete with vintage typewriter, the fascinating label offers several poetic sentences starting with “small black keys depress under long fingers,” and ending with “the carriage returns to begin again as do we.” We get the message!

Dark, vigorous and chock-full of ripe red fruit, the 2016 Pinot Noir ($55) is a full-bodied wine you won’t want to miss. Caramel, smoke and Earth aromas leap out of the bottle followed by an abundance of bold flavors—game, spice, cherry, vanilla—rounded out with velvety tannins.

Ghostwriter Pinot Noir can be found in many local wine shops such as Deer Park Wine and Spirits and in fine restaurants in the Bay Area.

Amaya Ridge doesn’t have a tasting room, but you can contact them regarding a visit.

Amaya Ridge Vineyards, 1100 Amaya Ridge Road, Soquel. 650-380-2406, amayaridge.com.

Broken Hearts Revue

Head to the historic Palomar Ballroom in downtown Santa Cruz for a Bourbon and Burlesque show with Lulu and the Lushes. You will be highly entertained with an un-Valentine’s Day-themed show—promising a night of dark, funny and always-seductive entertainment. VIP tickets include a guided bourbon-tasting experience taught by bourbon expert extraordinaire Lulu L’Amour (aka Lindsay Eshleman). Specialty cocktails are available for purchase (at the cash-only on-site bar). VIP tickets are $30, and general admission is $15. The event is from 7-11pm. Saturday, Feb. 29.

For more info visit B&B Productions at bourbonandburlesque.ticketleap.com.

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