Tick Bait: The Secret History of Lyme Disease

KRIS NEWBY THOUGHT she was done with Lyme disease. The Palo Alto resident had spent years battling the infection and its complications, all while dealing with condescending medical professionals. Some told her she was imagining her symptoms; others recommended she see a shrink.

Ultimately, Newby—who traces her case back to a 2002 tick bite near Martha’s Vineyard—was diagnosed with Lyme. She then devoted more than three years to co-producing a well-received 2014 documentary, Under Our Skin, which shed light on the United States’ largely hidden Lyme epidemic, the plight of Lyme patients and the intense medico-political controversies surrounding nearly every aspect of the disease.

An engineer by trade, Newby was ready to move on. She had accepted a job as a science writer for the Stanford School of Medicine. But then came the fateful video—sent to her home by a filmmaker she knew. It was then that she learned about Willy Burgdorfer, the famed medical entomologist credited with uncovering the cause of Lyme.

Here he was, on camera, insisting that the epidemic was likely directly linked to a secret offensive biological weapons program—a program which he worked on for the U.S. government during the Cold War.

Newby tried to peddle the story to some well-known journalists, but they declined to pursue it for a number of reasons. Newby says she was told it would be too difficult and time-consuming to report, and that it might not even pan out. And so, with extreme reluctance, Newby says she decided to pursue the story on her own.

“If somebody didn’t look into this,” she writes in her new book, “the secret would die with Willy. The better angel in me wouldn’t let that happen.”

Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons was published in May. While plenty in the medical community have dismissed its claims, Newby’s work has caught the attention of at least one lawmaker, and she hopes the book will lead to a greater understanding of Lyme and other tick-borne diseases, including anaplasmosis/ehrlichiosis, spotted fever rickettsiosis (including Rocky Mountain spotted fever), babesiosis, and tularemia. Any insights that come from her reporting could result in better diagnosis, treatment and prevention of Lyme and other tick-associated infections currently on the rise in California—a region not commonly associated with such diseases.

SPIRAL OUT

Californians account for only a minute slice of the roughly 1,000 Americans estimated to contract Lyme on average every day (300,000 to 400,000 will get the disease this year).

Official disease surveillance statistics—confirmed and probable cases reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)—tell us that in a typical year, about 110 Californians contract Lyme. But experts on all sides agree that Lyme is, like most infectious diseases, vastly underreported, perhaps by a factor of 10 or more. 

Lyme symptoms sometimes don’t show up for months after an initial exposure. When they do, the cause is commonly not recognized by local doctors—both because the disease remains relatively rare in this region and because it can be notoriously difficult to diagnose, even for experts. Meanwhile, infected individuals face debilitating physical and emotional pain. Once the disease is accurately diagnosed, it still often takes years to effectively treat.

Although prominent medical academics have dismissed Newby’s assertion that ticks were deliberately weaponized and wound up getting into the wild as patently absurd, her book set off alarm bells on Capitol Hill. Congress is considering ordering the Pentagon to conduct an investigation into what Newby calls “an American Chernobyl.”

While to some it sounds like a plotline from The X-Files, Newby trusts her primary source, American scientist Willy Burgdorfer. One of the world’s preeminent experts on Lyme until his death in 2014, Burgdorfer claimed he was part of a secret program that sought to turn ticks into bioweapons. He detailed his involvement in the program to Newby only months before he died.

Lyme Disease book
WRITING BUG Kris Newby, author of ‘Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons.’

In 1982, Burgdorfer was credited with identifying the bacterial cause of Lyme disease, about six years after the malady burst into public consciousness. In 1976, the New York Times ran a front-page report on a mysterious outbreak of unusual arthritic conditions among children and a few adults in and around Lyme, Connecticut. Health officials eventually confirmed their own suspicions that the condition was infectious and spread by deer ticks.

The town of Lyme sits 20 miles north of the Plum Island Animal Disease Center of New York—home to the secretive Lab 257, where the U.S. Army Chemical Corps conducted biological weapons research in the early 1950s.

Bitten asserts that the United States military deliberately engineered ticks to carry debilitating but non-lethal diseases. Newby’s book—along with other published works on the subject—led one U.S. congressman, Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, to take legislative action. Over the summer, Smith called upon the Defense Department’s inspector general to look into any government efforts to weaponize ticks between 1950 and 1975.

Over the course of four interviews with Burgdorfer, Newby says he confessed to her (and separately, to independent filmmaker Tim Grey) that he spent two decades working for the U.S. government to weaponize ticks and other insects in an apparent attempt to keep America on a level playing field with the Soviets in the arena of biological warfare.

Despite his revelations to Newby and Grey, who tipped her off to his interview, Newby says she never felt the scientist was completely forthcoming. And her reporting bore that out when a second tipster gave her access to a collection of Bergdorfer’s lab notes on early Lyme patients’ blood tests. These notes contain findings that he never included in official reports to the U.S. government, or in the scientific literature he published—namely that the blood samples from the earliest Lyme cases contained other dangerous pathogens. In addition to the Lyme spirochete (a spiral-shaped bacterium responsible for the disease), Bergdorfer’s records include references to researchers feeding ticks agents designed “for spreading anti-personnel bioweapons.” 

In his final discussion with Newby in early 2013, Burgdorfer, then 88, was in the latter stages of Parkinson’s disease and suffering from diabetes. The writer concedes that Burgdorfer’s speech wasn’t very clear at that point. But she believes he confirmed what he had told Grey on film: The spread of Lyme disease resulted from the release of biologically enhanced ticks developed during the Cold War.

NATURAL HISTORY

Central Coast denizens are no strangers to ticks. But most locals know the parasitic arachnids more for their creepy habit of growing fat off the blood of their hosts than as carriers of Borrelia burgdorferi—the spirochete that causes Lyme. 

California’s first reported case of Lyme came out of Sonoma County in 1978, just a few years after the nation’s first known case sprang up in New England.

Annual maps prepared by the CDC show new Lyme cases spreading steadily across the Northeast and the Upper Midwest. This is due in part to climate change and human encroachment on tick habitat, but the California Department of Public Health says the incidence of infection has remained fairly constant in California for the past 10 years. The same is true in Santa Cruz.

Santa Cruz County is a bit of “sweet spot” for the spread of Lyme disease, says Amanda Poulsen, a vector-control specialist who regards Lyme as the greatest vector-borne disease threat in the county. That’s due in part to the region’s habitat, which is quite hospitable to the western blacklegged tick (Ixodes pacificus). The abundance of outdoor-loving humans is also a factor.

In Santa Cruz County, the incidence of reported Lyme cases is 10 times higher than in the state as a whole—2.1 cases per 100,000 residents per year, versus 0.2 across California. (Compare this with a rate of more than 100 per 100,000 people in Northern New England.)

First, the cool coastal fog keeps the forest floor moist so the ticks don’t dry out. And the abundance of day hikers, backpackers, mountain bikers, campers and gardeners creates a veritable smorgasbord for the diminutive eight-legged parasites.

The western blacklegged tick—a close relative of the species that spreads Lyme in the East—thrives in regions with relatively warm, wet winters along California’s northern coast. That’s why parts of Mendocino, Trinity and Humboldt counties have the highest incidence of reported Lyme cases in the state. 

Although Santa Cruz has an elevated risk of Lyme on a per-capita basis, in terms of sheer numbers, Santa Clara County counts more confirmed Lyme cases than any other in the state. That’s on account of its large population of nearly 2 million people and, one might suspect, residents’ tendency to recreate in nearby Santa Cruz.

CHRONIC PROBLEM

Unlike in the Northeast and Upper Midwest, where Lyme disease has been on the mind of every community physician for decades, its relatively low incidence on the West Coast means most local doctors have little relevant experience. 

This a problem here because Lyme disease is a complex affliction that can take months or years to properly identify. If not caught early, it can leave the hardest hit suffering from a litany of debilitating symptoms, including extreme fatigue, severely arthritic joints, a frightening “brain fog” and speech problems. 

For the average person who has had a brush with Lyme disease, it matters little whether the pathogen as we know it was loosed upon us by government bioweapons. Lyme patients are far more concerned with simply getting their lives back.

There are two warring factions within the medical community as it relates to Lyme. One side sees the other as seeking to overdiagnose and overtreat the disease, while the other sees their rivals as under-diagnosing and under-treating it.

This plays out in a fiery dispute over what Lyme advocates and allied so-called “Lyme-literate” doctors call “chronic Lyme disease” and medical academics call “post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome.”

It’s more than an argument over semantics; it is an attempt to accurately characterize the cause of symptoms that return or persist even after patients have been treated with a standard two- to four-week course of antibiotics. These symptoms include fatigue, low fever and hot flashes, night sweats, sore throat, swollen glands, joint stiffness and pain, depression, headaches, dizziness, chest pain, sleep disturbances and more.

The Infectious Diseases Society of America, which wrote and approved the federally accepted Lyme diagnosis and treatment guidelines, insists that “chronic” Lyme is a misnomer. IDSA and its followers prefer the “post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome” terminology and advocate for limited use of antibiotics when treating Lyme.

On the other side, where Newby’s sympathies clearly lie, is the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society. ILADS, composed of a community of doctors and backed by Lyme patient advocates, contends the criteria for confirming Lyme are much too rigid, and that the medically accepted blood test is wildly inaccurate. 

ILADS, which has a set of Lyme treatment guidelines divergent from the IDSA, argues that given the lack of reliable diagnostic tools and the clinical complexity of Lyme, doctors need more leeway. Physicians, they say, should use their own judgment and experience as they consider the totality of patients’ circumstances and treatment desires.

They point out that the Lyme spirochete has a range of properties that make it devilishly difficult to detect in the blood after it has been in the body for some time. 

According to ILADS, the spirochete dons a disguise so that the antibodies sent out by the immune system to destroy it do not recognize it. It can drill into various tissues, as well, and hide out in the heart (Lyme carditis), the joints (Lyme arthritis) and even the brain, causing serious neurocognitive problems. 

Just because the standard blood-based tests do not detect the germ, they say, doesn’t mean it’s not there, embedded out of sight. Those who take this view argue that the risk of long-term antibiotic use, under the guidance of a competent doctor, is outweighed by the improvement in patients’ quality of life. Some studies have shown that chronic Lyme sufferers are at heightened risk of depression, suicide and job loss than the population as a whole.

NOT BITING

Newby’s assertion that the government weaponized ticks has been met with deep skepticism and borderline derision. The accusation has been dismissed as a kooky, scientifically ungrounded theory pushed by people who simply won’t listen to facts.

Many doctors in academic medicine reject the notion that Burgdorfer would have helped create offensive biological weapons. After all, he spent his entire career working for the U.S. Public Health Service, which is now known as National Institutes of Health; that agency’s stated mission is to “enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce illness and disability.”

cover-BittenCover-1943“There’s just no credible evidence” to support the assertion, or that the prominent scientist at the heart of the book was involved in any weapons research, Michael T. Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, told the Washington Post

“This is again another one of those unfortunate situations where the science fiction of these issues” obscures the truth, Osterholm says.

Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease expert and senior scholar with the Johns Hopkins Center for Biosecurity, strongly backs the IDSA’s conservative guidance on the use of antibiotics—and rejects Newby’s claim that the scourge of Lyme disease is the result of a bioweapons program.

“I don’t believe any Pentagon investigation is warranted or would change the facts surrounding the epidemiology of Lyme disease in the U.S,” Adalja says. “It is well established that the Lyme bacterium’s proliferation in ticks and reservoir species predates any alleged military experiments by considerable time.”

When it comes to patients with chronic Lyme disease, he adds, “many of them … have no evidence of inflammation, meaning their body doesn’t show any kind of reaction when subjected to objective, evidence-based tests. The tests don’t show any evidence of infection.”

In addition, Adalja says, “Multiple large clinical trials have shown that prolonged antibiotic therapy just isn’t effective.” That includes the largest such trial ever, the results of which were published in the journal Neurology earlier this year.

TRUE BELIEVER

Forensic studies show that Lyme disease existed long before Newby says the U.S. began experimenting with weaponizing ticks; this fact is often put forward by skeptics who doubt Newby’s claims.

Newby, however, has no doubt. In fact, she says, Burgdorfer’s involvement with weaponizing ticks is just the tip of the iceberg.

“It’s a complicated story,” she says. “It not just that the Lyme spirochete was weaponized. It was this other stuff (other, undisclosed potential Lyme agents) that was covered up. … As a journalist, you get a whistleblower and you have to say, ‘Why is he telling me this?’ This would destroy his career. It would be like Buzz Aldrin saying, ‘I faked the moon landing.’ That’s how outrageous it is in the biology world.”

The answer to the question—why now?—she surmises: Burgdorfer felt guilty.

Newby acknowledges that there’s room for interpretation in some of her conclusions about Burgdorfer and his motivations. For example, in an interview with her, Bergdorfer made cryptic references to “the Russians” getting their hands on a dangerous pathogen he had worked on. Was he vulnerable, she asks, to the influence of foreign agents seeking information about U.S. bio-weapons research? She suggests it’s possible that the financially struggling Burgdorfer may have been tempted into taking a payoff from nefarious actors. 

Despite her insinuations and conclusions, Newby’s book appears to be the work of a careful researcher. She is frank about what she knows or intuits based on the breadth of her reporting, what she can’t confirm, and other ways her evidence might be reasonably interpreted. 

For instance, she didn’t take Burgdorfer’s claims of government-created weaponized ticks on faith. She sought corroboration, digging through 33 boxes of freshly processed material Burgdorfer donated to the National Archives. She examined reams of documents, including letters, drafts of his published articles and supporting lab notes that Burgdorfer collected over many years.

Newby says it is suspicious that the boxes contained none of Burgdorfer’s lab notes on his greatest achievement, the discovery of the spirochete bacterium that causes Lyme. He and co-authors published his discovery in Science in 1982, and the bacteria, Borrelia burgdorferi, was later named for him.

After he died, an acquaintance of Bergdorfer’s asked Newby if she was interested in reviewing documents Bergdorfer had kept in his garage and later turned over to the person. In those documents, Newby found her “smoking gun”—the blood test lab notes Berdorfer had kept secret for decades, along with information about a previously secret Swiss bank account.

Using the federal Freedom of Information Act, Newby also discovered conflicts of interest among academic researchers and federal health officials. In addition, she unearthed military documents that she contends prove the CIA released ticks in Cuba, and even tracked down an agent who confirmed in a hair-raising account that he was involved.

SEARCH FOR ANSWERS

Knowing that investigators are subject to confirmation bias, Newby vetted her findings by tapping people with deep knowledge of biochemical and germ warfare. None of them waved her off the story or found her interpretations of the new evidence ridiculous. More than one advised her to watch her back if she published.

On a long table in her sunlit Palo Alto home office sit neat, tidy piles of labeled files and other artifacts from her research. Asked for a certain photo, Newby digs it out of a filing cabinet in seconds.

She seems surprised when one of an interviewer’s first questions is what kind of post-publication blowback she’s received, given the sensitive subject of Bitten and the dire warnings she received while researching it.

Her answer: Nothing has had made her feel unsafe or threatened. This was about six weeks after publication. But things began heating up days later, after U.S. Rep. Smith read the book. 

Alarmed, the longtime-co-chair of the congressional Lyme caucus wrote an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Bill calling on the Pentagon’s independent investigative arm, the inspector general, to look into the allegations made in the book.

Bitten includes interviews with the researcher Burgdorfer, Smith said during floor debate. “The book reveals that Dr. Burgdorfer was a bioweapons specialist,” he added. “Those interviews combined with access to Dr. Burgdorfer’s lab files suggest that he and other bioweapons specialists stuffed ticks with pathogens to cause severe disability, disease—even death—to potential enemies.

“With Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases exploding in the United States—with an estimated 300,000 to 437,000 new cases diagnosed each year and 10-20% of all patients suffering from chronic Lyme disease—Americans have a right to know whether any of this is true. And have these experiments caused Lyme disease and other tick-borne disease to mutate and to spread?” Smith asked.

For those struggling to attain an accurate diagnosis of Lyme—and for those suffering with persistent symptoms long after they have been treated for the disease—discovering the origin story of this disease might provide some comfort. However, for those afflicted with Lyme, the primary objective moving forward has to be a better understanding of this condition.

HIV/AIDS and Lyme emerged at roughly the same time. Yet over the years, there have been 11,000 clinical trials involving HIV/AIDS, compared to 60 for Lyme, according to investigative journalist Mary Beth Pfeiffer. Research into Lyme disease is woefully inadequate.

HIV, of course, is fatal if left untreated, so some disparity is warranted. But last year, newly reported cases of Lyme easily surpassed the number of new HIV infections, according to the CDC.

Newby hopes Bitten can help raise the profile and lead to more funding for research into tick-borne diseases.

“My hope is that this book will widen the lens on our view of this problem and inspire people to more aggressively pursue solutions,” she writes. Among other research needs, she says, “We need epidemiologists to analyze the ongoing spread of these diseases, incorporating the possibility that they were spread in an unnatural way.” 

If the Senate goes along with the House’s call for an investigation into the allegations in Bitten, perhaps those suffering from Lyme and its fallout will get the answers they so desperately seek.

‘Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons.’  Harper Wave. Out Now. harperwave.com.

The Real Battle Over Downtown Santa Cruz Parking

[This is part one of a series on the future of downtown. Part two runs next week. — Editor]

A familiar cliché unfolds whenever the topic of a city proposal to build a new downtown parking garage comes up.

The discussion, at first glance, appears to represent a typical split in Santa Cruz’s liberal politics. This culture-war framing has Santa Cruz’s leftier progressives fighting against the garage, painting it as a vestige of outdated, car-centric thinking. Meanwhile, Democratic moderates and centrists support the garage, as they see it as an important piece of infrastructure to support downtown retail and events. While there may be truth to both sides of this dichotomy, it isn’t a great way to actually think about the project. There’s more nuance to it. 

Supporters, for instance, love the project in large part for its potential affordable housing benefits, and also because it would have a state-of-the-art library on the first floor. They believe that a 21st-century library would pay dividends for students and for the county’s most in-need residents. “This is really about creating a safe environment for families to go to and feel good about,” says Martín Gómez, president of Friends of the Santa Cruz Public Libraries.

On the other side, opponents have argued that—in addition to environmental considerations—they have the benefit of fiscal responsibility on their side. 

Activists says that city public works staffers have not been sufficiently transparent in explaining how they arrived at their parking calculations for downtown. Also, Santa Cruz is hiking its parking revenues in order to pay for the 600-car garage. Activists like Rick Longinotti warn that public works officials could be underestimating the impact that the increased price of parking will have on demand. All the while, the public’s transportation preferences are shifting. It’s unclear, for example, how common car ownership will be in the future.

Longinotti says he’s told the City Council, “You’re making a decision about an enormous investment here. Don’t you want to get the best information you can?”

In that spirit, here are four things to consider:

1. THERE’S A LOT OF PIECES

Santa Cruz has been redeveloping old surface lots and losing parking spaces—and city planners expect it will lose hundreds more downtown, given the housing projects in the pipeline. Some new parking supply in the proposed garage would offset the spaces lost. Spaces in the six-story garage would also support the new retail associated with the expected developments, according to Transportation Manager Jim Burr. Some of the new spaces would even support nearby future housing developments, allowing the complexes to provide parking offsite. 

Last year, the Downtown Library Advisory Committee unanimously approved the concept of a first-floor library as part of a mixed-use project, out of four possible options for the downtown branch. After that, plans for the parking, library and housing structure worked their way through the approval processes, earning the blessing of the City Council. The site of the garage would be on the corner of Cedar and Cathcart streets. There’s been discussion about the farmers market moving one block away to Front Street, and also about building a permanent pavilion at its new home. Another option for the library would be that, instead of building a new facility from the ground up, Santa Cruz could refurbish the existing library, but the committee found that option would provide far less bang for the buck. 

One complicating factor is that, after many delays around the project, Santa Cruz can’t kick the can down the road much farther as it weighs how to proceed. Regardless of what it does on parking, the City Council will need to make a decision on the library. Construction costs are escalating, and the library will need to finish building before the funds expire.

The parking aspect is a separate component. In 2015, transportation experts encouraged the city to find ways to reduce parking demand before building a new structure. After more than a year of lobbying from activists, the City Council expanded sustainable transportation options for downtown employees this year—offering free transit passes, free bike locker cards, discounted e-bike memberships, and carpool incentives.

Also this year, a new City Council majority put the mixed-use garage on hold. The council formed a Downtown Library Subcommittee to learn more about the project. The subcommittee hasn’t yet released its recommendations.

2. A NEW GARAGE WILL SUPPORT AFFORDABLE HOUSING—MAYBE

The amount of housing units slated for the possible garage is a moving target.

City staff never laid out exactly how many units of housing would be in the project before a new Santa Cruz City Council majority pumped the brakes on the effort this past March. And now that Gov. Gavin Newsom has vetoed a bill that would have freed up $16 million in local money for affordable housing, it isn’t entirely clear how the city would fund the affordable units, although Santa Cruz does have affordable housing money in its coffers and it could compete for grants. 

Moving the library to a new site would also allow the city to put new affordable housing on the site of the current library. Additionally, supporters from the pro-garage group Downtown Forward argue that by providing off-site parking, the structure would cut the costs of a possible plan to revamp Santa Cruz’s bus station, which would sit a few blocks away and also have affordable housing in it.

There’s a new wrinkle, however, and one that could adjust the city’s parking calculus. That’s thanks to a housing and zoning bill that Newsom signed into law earlier this month. The new law prohibits cities from mandating parking requirements for affordable housing developments within a half-mile of a major transit stop. 

When it comes to the downtown garage, affordable housing entrepreneur Sibley Simon hasn’t taken a position. He can’t help but feel a little skeptical of the city’s math, as well as the way the city has pitched the project from the start. 

“It would have been much smarter,” Simon says, “for the city to pursue a library and housing project that, by the way, needs some parking.”

Instead of having the city pay for new parking spaces, environmental activists have been pushing for Santa Cruz to use its increased parking revenue to fund other services like affordable housing. 

Santa Cruz County Business Council Executive Director Robert Singleton has predicted that such a vote could result in a legal challenge. However, City Attorney Tony Condotti said in March that it would, in fact, be legal for the council to spend excess parking revenues however it sees fit.

 3. COMPARISONS ARE DICEY

One of the Campaign for Sensible Transportation’s preferred stats is that Boulder, Colorado, has 58% less parking per commercial space than Santa Cruz does. In the beginning, this contrast jumped out at me as a compelling fact bolstering critiques of the garage. The reality is more complex.

A flier from the Campaign for Sensible Transportation says that the city of Boulder has about one parking space per 1,000 square feet of commercial space, while stating that the city of Santa Cruz has about 1.8 parking spaces per 1,000 feet of commercial square feet.

Activists found some of the figures behind these ratios on Powerpoint slides for a Boulder presentation. The slides state that the Colorado city’s downtown has 3.2 million square feet of commercial space. When I fact-checked the numbers with Boulder’s Department of Community Vitality, Deputy Director Cris Jones sent me a report showing just 2.4 million square feet of commercial space. That total may have omitted some small properties, but Jones and his colleagues don’t know the origin of the bigger estimate, so they aren’t sure of its veracity.

I also contacted Santa Cruz’s Economic Development Office, which ran the numbers and actually came back with a higher total for downtown commercial space than what the Campaign for Sustainable Transportation had in its formula. Longinotti says he got the numbers from city Transportation Manager Jim Burr. It isn’t clear where the discrepancy at the city stems from.

There are a lot of reasons for Santa Cruz to compare itself to Boulder. The community is a college town, like Santa Cruz, and it may be the only city in the country with more downtown employees who walk and bike to work than Santa Cruz. Its bus ridership, though, is much higher. Regardless, Santa Cruz’s parking-per-commercial-space ratio is much closer to Boulder’s than some of the anti-garage pamphlets would have you believe.

And while I can follow the criticisms Longinotti and his group raise about the city’s lack of explanation on its parking calculations, I’ve also found charts from activists to be misleading.

Chip, the former executive director of the Santa Cruz Downtown Association, now lives in Boulder. He took a similar position there this year and now leads the Downtown Boulder Partnership. Chip, who has no last name, says Santa Cruz should move forward with the mixed-use project, if not because of the parking, then because of the library. “The library serves the whole community,” he says. “But Santa Cruz can’t serve the whole community when it isn’t designed to.”

He notes that Boulder does, in fact, have more sustainable transportation options than Santa Cruz. He adds, however, that it took decades for the town’s local leaders to build those programs. He fears that if Santa Cruz set its sights on reaching the same goals overnight, instead of taking a more balanced transportation approach, it would deal a serious blow to downtown businesses, some of which wouldn’t survive such a shock.

4. TOO MUCH PARKING MAY NOT BE SUCH A BAD THING

There’s an obvious solution for the city to bridge the gulf in opinions for how much parking to build downtown.

The city could hedge its bets and explore building the structure while putting in significantly less parking and more housing. So far, few Santa Cruzans have publicly expressed much interest in going down that route.

Library Director Susan Nemitz does note that staff was looking at different possible mixes of housing and parking on the site until the City Council put the project on hold.

But Burr, the city’s transportation manager, says his projections are actually rather conservative—that, if anything, his mathematical findings call for more parking than the city plans to include. And members of Downtown Forward express confidence in Burr’s findings.

When I ask Longinotti about the possibility of compromise, he stresses that the city and local environmentalists are still awfully far apart in their views. Longinotti does believes people would love the idea of library combined with affordable housing. “That’s not what’s been offered,” he says. “The affordable housing has been just a token. The parking’s still 600 spaces. Nobody’s talked about any less than that.”

This all begs a question: What happens if the city does build the garage and the parking projections are off—leaving downtown Santa Cruz with way too much parking? Well, such a situation could simply let the city to eliminate parking in other parts of downtown.

Public works officials say that Santa Cruz could take the River and Front garage offline. It’s already past the end of its expected lifespan. Last year, the city put $1 million into refurbishments for the parking structure, which is generally the garage with the most vacant space.

The city could do the same with its remaining surface lots, a potentially promising idea given that urban planners view such parking lots as inefficient uses of space. Redeveloping these lots could pave the way for even more new housing, much of it affordable. 

But even if Santa Cruz can build a new parking structure, that doesn’t mean that it should, according to Adam Millard-Ball, an associate environmental studies professor at UCSC.

Although he’s given presentations locally about parking management, he says he hasn’t followed this debate closely. That, he feels, gives him something of an outside perspective on the garage issue. As he sees it, the City Council could make downtown Santa Cruz a hub for those who choose to lead a car-free lifestyle, instead of proceeding with the garage. That way, those who don’t want a parking spot or permit won’t have to pay for one, making the cost of living more affordable.

This approach of putting the garage on hold would almost certainly involve forgoing the Downtown Library Advisory Committee’s suggestions. 

But Millard-Ball’s general philosophy is that, if a city is thinking about spending tens of millions of dollars on a new garage, its leaders might want to start by reconsidering their options and priorities—and look at spending excess parking revenue elsewhere. 

“Let’s exhaust all the alternatives first,” he says. “Let’s not jump to that decision.”

Why Cabrillo’s Eyeing Another Bond Four Years After Failed Effort

With an aging campus aspiring to be state-of-the-art, Cabrillo College is preparing again to ask voters to approve a bond measure—this time for $274 million targeted at renovations and new developments. 

“We’ve got to have 21st-century facilities to train people for 21st-century careers,” Cabrillo Superintendent and President Matthew Wetstein says.

The Board of Trustees unanimously approved the amount, and will vote in December on whether to put the measure on the ballot in March 2020. That would give the measure a short runway of just a few months. Wetstein’s betting that an especially liberal electorate turning out for the California Primary will lean in their favor.

If successful, the bond would levy a district-wide, 30-year property tax of $19 per $100,000 of assessed value. 

Wetstein says that since the community college’s failed attempt at the $310 million Measure Q in 2016, the facilities planning committee has been hard at work redesigning a campus that fits the needs of the students.

“We’re one of the key workforce trainers in the county, and we have a track record of being very successful with our students moving on and getting four-year degrees,” he says. “But we’re now at a stage where the facilities and the infrastructure of the campus need to be upgraded and modernized.”

During a meeting at Cabrillo’s Aptos campus on Thursday, Oct. 10, Wetstein said the school’s favorable “curb appeal” belies its outdated plumbing, electrical, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems, all of which need replacing. He cites a sewer pipe that broke underneath the cafeteria over the summer, a “six-figure project” that has strained the annual state maintenance budget of $240,000.

“All across campus, those issues are waiting to happen,” says Wetstein. 

Wetstein outlines several ambitious developments and renovations to help students compete in modern universities and jobs. Proposed projects include the construction of an $84 million science center and a $73 million renovation of the campus library.

Measure Q narrowly lost in 2016, facing opposition led from within by Cabrillo professor Ray Kaupp. Kaupp, a business teacher, wrote in the official argument against Measure Q that at the time, the facilities master plan called for only $65 million worth of projects, but that a bond firm advised the board that the community would support it for nearly five times that amount. The measure lost by 1,274 votes, in part due to a project list that many remember as poorly defined.

That defeat still stings, and Wetstein says that campaign leaders do not plan to make the same mistakes again.

“There was public perception within the community that the college was asking for too much in that bond measure, with not enough detailed explanation of what the dollars were going to cover,” says Wetstein, who joined the administration in 2017. 

This time around, the campaign is likely to include more outreach to help voters understand why the bond is needed. Wetstein also said that the campus community is on board with the current bond measure.

Kaupp, no longer at Cabrillo, likes what he’s seen of the current measure, adding that Wetstein’s leadership has made a big difference. “They started with the needs of the community, which is very different than starting with a dollar amount,” he says.

The last successful bond measure was for $118 million in 2004; it built the Student Activities Center, the Visual, Applied and Performing Arts Complex and the Allied Health Complex, among other projects.

Despite getting those flagship facilities built, the narrative that emerged from various faculty and staff members at the recent meeting was that the money wasn’t handled well. Planning errors and the recession led to higher-than-anticipated bids. 

Property owners are still paying that off, as well as previous bond loans, but Cabrillo recently refinanced them at a much lower interest rate, saving an estimated $29.5 million in taxes.

Wetstein says that most California community colleges attempt to issue smaller bonds much more frequently. As a single-college district, Cabrillo can’t afford the resources to be constantly planning and campaigning, and leaders don’t want to risk voter fatigue by asking too often.

Instead, he hopes that this time voters will see the need. He says the upgrades “will have significant positive impacts on large numbers of students, and are designed to promote high-quality education.”

Dancing Away Día de los Muertos

On an otherwise quiet and serene Sunday afternoon, an assertive and rapid-fire polyrhythm spills out onto Watsonville’s City Plaza.

Too explosive to be drumming, the sound is coming from the plaza’s northeast side. There, inside the open doors of a dance studio on Cabrillo College’s small Watsonville campus, about two dozen people are stomping in staccato precision on a hardwood floor with their chunky-heeled folklorico dance shoes.

This is the unmistakable and distinctive sound of Esperanza del Valle.

For close to 40 years, Esperanza has been giving audiences in the Monterey Bay area the kind of tradition-grounded ethnic dance performances usually only found in major cities like Los Angeles or Mexico City.

On this particular Sunday, the troupe—even in numbers of men and women—is taking instruction from Daniel del Valle Hernandez, who traveled to Watsonville from his home in Veracruz, Mexico, where he is the artistic director of the Ballet Folklorico of Puerto Veracruz. The dancers stomp in unison, the women holding their arms out parallel to the floor but bent at the elbow, ready to hold up their voluminous skirts during the performance.

On Friday, Nov. 1—All Saints Day—Esperanza Del Valle will host a free performance outdoors at the Watsonville Plaza, followed by a five-performance, three-day engagement at El Teatro Campesino’s Playhouse in San Juan Bautista.

The weekend slate of performances will celebrate the Mexican observance of Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). But Esperanza del Valle is also using the occasion to take a deep dive into the remarkably rich dance subculture of the state of Veracruz and the region of Huasteca on the Caribbean coast of Mexico.

The traditional dance of the region is known as son jarocho, and if that sounds unfamiliar and distant, consider the case of “La Bamba.” Long before Los Lobos recorded it—long before even Ritchie Valens sang it—“La Bamba” was a prime example of the son jarocho style, and is still considered one of the classics of the tradition.

The El Teatro shows will feature Esperanza’s take on the traditional “La Bamba,” as well as the Day of the Dead performance Danza de los Viejos.

“That one is about disguising ourselves as people who have passed on,” says Esperanza’s co-founder and artistic director Janet Johns. “We’re wearing these masks made in the Huasteca region, all hand carved and made of cedar. The idea is to dress like people who have died and dance as they would have danced.”

Esperanza del Valle has maintained a relationship with the dance masters of Veracruz for years. In years past, the group has hosted choreographer Mario Cabrera, a widely admired popularizer of son jarocho. “I think of him as the Mexican Fred Astaire,” Johns says. “There are bronze statues of him in Veracruz. He’s like an arts treasure in Mexico. He couldn’t come this year; he’s been ill. But Daniel (del Valle Hernandez) is carrying on the legacy.”

The Día de los Muertos performances will feature other styles from Veracruz, which has a particularly rich cultural legacy thanks to the melding of indigenous, Cuban and Spanish influences. Perhaps most central to the show’s theme is Esperanza’s own original “choreo-drama” called Macaria, based on a traditional Mexican story about a poor woman who is visited by angels and devils after she takes a turkey from a Día de los Muertos altar.

Locally, Esperanza is known for its dress as much as its dancing—most notably, the brightly colored full skirts worn by female dancers. The new performance will feature no less than eight costume changes.

Formed in 1980 with six couples, Esperanza del Valle has survived on a shoestring. Staffed with volunteers, it spends what little money it raises on bringing in dance professionals from Mexico and researching folklórico traditions. Johns, who teaches folklórico dance at Cabrillo, says her dance company is kept alive by new generations.

“Right now, we span from 20 to 60 (years old),” she says. “My son is in his twenties, and now his generation is coming into the group. It’s wonderful to have the older, veteran dancers. But luckily, we keep having these new generations of dancers coming up, too.”

Johns points to 2020 as a watershed year for Esperanza del Valle. For its 40th anniversary season, the dance troupe hopes to be more visible than ever on the local performance calendar.

“I want to bring in three master teachers, from three different states in Mexico, and have three different open studios so that the community can come in, maybe for a lecture, some photographs, to learn about the dance,” says Johns. “And, of course, we’ll have some gala performances too.”

Día de los Muertos with Esperanza del Valle will be performed on Friday, Nov. 1, at 8pm; Saturday, Nov. 2, at 2 and 8pm; Sunday, Nov. 3, at noon and 5pm. All shows are at El Teatro Campesino Playhouse, 705 Fourth St., San Juan Bautista. $22 adults/$17 military, students, seniors 55+/$12 children under 12. esperanzadelvalle.org.

Kali Yuga—We Hear the Hissing of Cobras: Risa’s Stars Oct. 23-29

Esoteric astrology as news for the week of Oct. 23

Sun entered Scorpio Wednesday, a sign of things hidden, dark, mysterious and underwater. And so we continue the study of the cycle of the Kali Yuga, a winter of darkness in our world today. Its manifestation—unconcealed, deliberate and brazen—can clearly be seen in the havoc, chaos, destruction, and decay of values, and continual loss of the “rule of law.” Rulers no longer promote morals, ethics or a spiritual way of life.

As virtues cease to flourish, humanity becomes exhausted, unstable and vulnerable. An ocean of darkness, an ocean of space descends. Even valor can’t seem to stop the darkness. We hear in the shadows the rustling and hissing of cobras.

In Kali Yuga, life has granted permission for darkness to fall. Many ask, “How can all this happen, and what hope is there?” Libra tells us, “Let choice be made between the darkness (Kali Yuga) and the light of the new world. Align with the Will to Good and Right Choice will be made.” The meditative keynote of Libra during this dark time is, “I choose to stand with the forces of light. And in the midst of this darkness, I will be one light shining brightly. I light my lamp.”

When we invoke the Will to Good, we are aligned with Right Choice. We are Arjuna, under Krishna’s tutelage, choosing which side to battle on. Do we choose the personality ways (Kali) or the ways of the soul (light)? Either choice is correct. When the latter is chosen, the Dweller on the Threshold becomes the Angel of the Presence. Our lamps, filled with starlight, shine brightly in the darkness. A light of hope for humanity.

ARIES: For many weeks, all things mysterious, secret and deeply psychological catch your attention. You develop strategies and a specific philosophy that influences your choices, profession, finances, health, relationships, and way of life. It’s important to research and investigate everything with integrity. No shortcuts. For Halloween, your best costume would be Dr. Freud or Jung, dressed in symbols.

TAURUS: You see both sides of a discussion, listening carefully so right decisions can be made. You need lots of time to think before making definite decisions. Sometimes, you take the other side, and this can frustrate the one attempting to be listened to and understood. Try to stand on the side of the speaker. You’re able to bring new ideas to all conversations. For Halloween, be the two Mercury brothers, Castor and Pollux.

GEMINI: Your life becomes a list of detailed agendas and how to make plans come true. This is different for you; usually you have quick thoughts that fly away in the wind. Now those ideas seek order and organization, making you feel useful and practical. Careful with health. Focus on anti-inflammatory foods and herbs (turmeric). For Halloween, be your favorite author, book, flower, herb or root.

CANCER: I don’t think you know this about yourself, but your friends do. You’re creative, humorous, engaging, funny and trustworthy. You’re intelligent, clever and keep promises. You’re curious, can tend to gossip (a form of communication), very strong in your beliefs, and proud of your children (cats, dogs, fish, goats, etc.). You’re a good teacher, too, with a green thumb. For Halloween, be a kale or parsley deva.

LEO: In the coming weeks, great imagination takes hold, and big dreams, too. Maintain a journal of these ideas, ideals, visions and dreams, unusual and important for your future. How is your home? Does it emanate an aura of intelligent living with psychology, history and religious books all around? What is traditional in your home? For Halloween, channel an ancient relative. We are our relatives.

VIRGO: You are very curious and interested in things in print, in exchanging ideas, reading news articles, and perhaps talking with others, either in a salon-type setting or over fences and berry bushes. Everything in your life is varied and variable. So you find yourself with a shorter attention span—useful at times. But after a while, you get nervous. For Halloween, the butterfly suits you best.

LIBRA: How was your birthday? Did angels appear? Did you receive secret unexpected messages? You often realize things before they are apparent to others. Tell everyone not to ask what your plans are. You cannot be pushed into any situations, ideas or agendas. All must be done within your own timing, one step at a time. For Halloween, be Venus, humanity’s next stop in the cosmic ladder evolutionary arc.

SCORPIO: Father Saturn and Pluto are in Capricorn. They are joined together, creating a feeling both restrictive yet freeing, a discipline and an opportunity. Everyone needs discipline and structure, and everyone needs freedom and liberty for growth. You feel restless, changeable, smart and versatile. You may talk more than most—and add a bit of mischief, too. For Halloween, be Pluto, bringing about mysterious transformations for everyone just by your presence.

SAGITTARIUS: You’re redeveloping trust in yourself and your communication. Many place their trust in you due to your virtues of discretion and confidentiality. Stop analyzing motives, dreams or hunches, making you think incoherently. Instead focus on the fact that life’s a paradox, everything’s a symbol, and most ideas challenge us into a state of unknowing. You will communicate more clearly soon. For Halloween, dress as a question mark.

CAPRICORN: You’re endlessly curious about others and how they interact, why they group together, all things community, new ideas and new books. You need to be with forward-thinking, equanimity-minded people. Where are they, you ask, as you go about seeking companionship and friendship. Call them to you from your heart and soul. They will come on little cats’ feet. For Halloween, the underworld your playground, Pluto’s your man. Be Persephone.

AQUARIUS: Language is your gift, and you use it in various ways. It’s a talent to communicate with the multitudes on different levels. You have talent writing, speaking, negotiating and interacting with authority. Often you have two or more jobs in different areas of life always on the move. You need freedom, challenges and stimulation. You bring a fresh breeze to all situations. For Halloween, be anything from the future. Starlight or cold fusion are good.

PISCES: You’re skilled at seeing into people, the depth of all situations, the causal reality behind appearances. Always curious, you’re always learning. You want to exchange ideas, celebrate different philosophies, share, teach and present different cultures to the world. The time is almost here for those dreams to come true. For Halloween, be one of the Magi astrologer kings bearing gifts.

Mannequin Pussy Pushes the Boundaries of Punk

When Philadelphia punk rockers Mannequin Pussy were getting ready to record their third full-length record, they were excited that Epitaph was interested in releasing it. The only problem was that old label Tiny Engines was holding up the process. The negotiations were long and brutal, and ended up stalling the release for a couple of years.

When the record was finally released in June, it was a huge leap forward for the band, stretching its previously dissonant, confrontational punk sound to include more pop, emotive ballads and mid-tempo New Wave rockers, as well as a bit of discordant punk still in the mix. It’s a hodgepodge record that flows surprisingly well and pushes the boundary of what a punk band can be.

“I don’t want to live in a world where punk is only one very particular thing,” says singer/guitarist Marisa Dabice. It’s punk “as long as there’s anger there, or really intense emotions.” 

During the long two-year delay, the band came up with the perfect name for the album: Patience—as in, what they needed a lot of to not go crazy during the wait to release it.

“Every time we expressed what we were going through with someone, all anyone could say was, ‘You have to have patience.’ Which is an infuriating thing to say,” says Dabice. That became the inside joke that we would say in that dumb valley girl voice to each other.”

The band made the record a few years ago, then scrapped it and later re-recorded it. The first version was recorded with the same producers that handled their sophomore record, 2016’s Romantic

Like that album, the first stab at Patience was washed out and compressed, which worked brilliantly with the noisy and pissed-off songs on Romantic. But these new songs were different. At times, Dabice found herself singing yearning pop melodies over almost-rock ballads. They wanted a more polished sound, and to have the vocals elevated above the instruments—not buried within them.

“We knew we wanted to push these songs into a new place,” Dabice says. “I didn’t want to hide behind anything. I wanted to be clear what was trying to be communicated on this record.”

The album benefited from this type of care. Dabice covers some vulnerable topics, including abuse she’s suffered in previous relationships, as well as poor decision-making in her twenties that led to some unhealthy patterns. As she processed these experiences, she felt more than just anger. She wanted to present the full gamut of her emotional state and have the music reflect that.

“It’s important to find a way to transform those painful experiences. If you don’t, it eats away at you, and then you find yourself releasing that anger in ways that are usually to the detriment of yourself and people around you,” Dabice says. “It really helped me to understand myself as the person I am after that experience.”

The pain and honesty in the lyrics can be a challenging listen. And with the polished recording, the lyrics do jump out unlike on the band’s prior two albums. But she does close on the positive “Love Again,” which is about self-love, which she’s hoping to leave people with.

“When you have an album that’s full of emotional storms and torment and anger, to end an album on something that feels more optimistic is important,” Dabice says. “Everything that led up to this point, and now you can begin those processes of learning to love yourself and allow love into your life again.”

INFO: 9pm. Thursday, Oct. 24, Catalyst, 1011 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $12 adv/$14 door. 423-1338.

Rob Brezsny’s Astrology Oct. 23-29

Free will astrology for the week of Oct. 23, 2019

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Singapore has one of the world’s lowest fertility rates. A few years ago, this state of affairs prompted the government to urge Singaporeans to have sex on an annual holiday known as National Day. A new rap song was released in hopes of pumping up everyone’s libidos and instigating a baby boom. It included the lyrics, “Let’s make fireworks ignite / Let’s make Singapore’s birth rate spike.” I have a different reason for encouraging you to seek abundant high-quality sex, Aries. According to my analysis, tender orgasmic experiences will profoundly enhance your emotional intelligence in the coming weeks—and make you an excellent decision-maker just in time for your big decisions. (P.S. You don’t necessarily need a partner.)

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): In the 1530s, explorer Jacques Cartier led expeditions from France to the New World. As Europeans often did back then, he and his team were rude and brutish to the indigenous folks who lived there, stealing their land, kidnapping some of them, and slaughtering herds of great auks in a bird sanctuary. Yet there was one winter when Cartier’s marauders got crucial help from their victims, who gave them vitamin C-rich pine needle tea that cured their scurvy. I suspect you Tauruses will embark on quests and journeys in the coming months, and I’m hoping your behavior will be different from Cartier’s. When you arrive in unfamiliar places, be humble, curious and respectful. Be hesitant to impose your concepts of what’s true, and be eager to learn from the locals. If you do, you’re likely to get rich teachings and benefits equivalent to the pine needle tea.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Many software engineers have enjoyed The Pragmatic Programmer, a book that helps them develop and refine their code. One popular technique the book offers is “rubber duck deprogramming.” Programmers place a toy rubber duck in front of them, and describe to it the problems they’re having. As they explain each line of code to their very good listener, they may discover what’s amiss. I recommend a similar approach to you as you embark on metaphorically debugging your own program, Gemini. If a rubber duck isn’t available, call on your favorite statue or stuffed animal, or even a photo of a catalytic teacher or relative or spirit.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Read the following passage from Gabriel García Márquez’s novel One Hundred Years of Solitude. “Gaston was not only a fierce lover, with endless wisdom and imagination, but he was also, perhaps, the first man in the history of the species who had made an emergency landing and had come close to killing himself and his sweetheart simply to make love in a field of violets.” I admire the romantic artistry of Gaston’s dramatic gesture. I applaud his imaginative desire to express his love in a carefully chosen sanctuary filled with beauty. I praise his intense devotion to playful extravagance. But I don’t recommend you do anything quite so extreme in behalf of love during the coming weeks. Being 20% as extreme might be just right, though.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): In his song “Diplomatic Immunity,” rapper Drake disparages tranquility and harmony. “I listen to heavy metal for meditation, no silence,” he brags. “My body isn’t much of a sacred temple, with vodka and wine, and sleep at the opposite times,” he declares. Is there a method in his madness? It’s revealed in these lyrics: “All that peace and that unity: all that weak shit will ruin me.” In the coming weeks, Leo, I urge you to practice the exact opposite of Drake’s approach. It’s time to treat yourself to an intense and extended phase of self-care.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): It’s a favorable time to refresh your relationships with your basic sources and to make connections with new basic sources. To spur your creative thought on these matters, I offer the following questions to meditate on: 1. If you weren’t living where you do now, what other place might you like to call home? 2. If you didn’t have the name you actually go by, what other name would you choose? 3. If you had an urge to expand the circle of allies that supports and stimulates you, whom would you seek out? 4. If you wanted to add new foods and herbs that would nurture your physical health and new experiences that would nurture your mental health, what would they be?

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Mushrooms have spores, not seeds. They’re tiny. If you could stack 2,500 of them, they’d be an inch high. On the other hand, they are numerous. A ripe mushroom may release up to 16 million spores. And each spore is so lightweight, the wind can pick it up and fling it long distances. I’ll encourage you to express your power and influence like a mushroom in the coming days: subtle and airy, but abundant; light and fine, but relentless and bountiful.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): “Sometimes the easiest way to get something done is to be a little naive about it,” writes computer engineer Bill Joy. I invite you to consider the value of that perspective, Scorpio—even though you’re the least likely sign in all the zodiac to do so. Being naive just doesn’t come naturally to you; you often know more than everyone else around you. Maybe you’ll be more receptive to my suggestion if I reframe the task. Are you familiar with the Zen Buddhist concept of “beginner’s mind?” You wipe away your assumptions and see everything, as if it were the first time you were in its presence.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Is it always a bad thing to be lost? To wander in the unknown without a map? I’d like to propose a good version of being lost. It requires you to be willing to give up your certainties, to relinquish your grip on the comforting dogmas that have structured your world—but to do so gladly, with a spirit of cheerful expectancy and curiosity. It doesn’t require you to be a macho hero who feels no fear or confusion. Rather, you have faith that life will provide blessings that weren’t possible until you got lost.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): “Worrying is the most natural and spontaneous of all human functions,” wrote science educator Lewis Thomas. “Let’s acknowledge this, perhaps even learn to do it better.” I agree with him! And I think it’s an ideal time for you to learn how to worry more effectively, more potently, and with greater artistry. What might that look like? First, you wouldn’t feel shame or guilt about worrying. You wouldn’t regard it as a failing. Rather, you would raise your worrying to a higher power. You’d wield it as a savvy tool to discern which situations truly need your concerned energy and which don’t.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): “Some wounds go so deep that you don’t even feel them until months, maybe years, later,” wrote Aquarian author Julius Lester. Pay attention to that thought, Aquarius. The bad news is that you are just now beginning to feel a wound that was inflicted some time ago. But that’s also the good news, because it means the wound will no longer be hidden and unknowable. And because you’ll be fully aware of it, you’ll be empowered to launch the healing process. I suggest you follow your early intuitions about how best to proceed with the cure.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): If you’ve been having dreams or fantasies that the roof is sinking or the walls are closing in, you should interpret it as a sign that you should consider moving into a more spacious situation. If you have been trapped within the narrow confines of limited possibilities, it’s time to break free and flee to a wide open frontier. In general, Pisces, I urge you to insist on more expansiveness in everything you do, even if that requires you to demolish cute little mental blocks that have tricked you into thinking small.

Homework: You don’t have to feel emotions that others try to manipulate you into feeling. You are free to be who you want to be. freewillastrology.com.

Music Picks: Oct. 23-29

Santa Cruz County live entertainment picks for the week of Oct. 23

WEDNESDAY 10/23

HIP-HOP

KOOL KEITH

No one knows the exact moment alt-rap became an official subgenre, but whenever it was, Kool Keith had already been cranking out some of the weirdest rap music that existed, and will likely ever exist. He’s created countless bizarro hip-hop personas: Dr. Octagon, Black Elvis, Dr. Dooom, Papa Large, and … well, way too many more to list here. He practically invented the surreal sci-fi-infused hip-hop beat, and spits surreal non-sequiturs that casually drift into the sexually explicit zone. Even in 2019, releasing his 17th solo album, Keith, he still sounds as weird and out of step with mainstream hip-hop as ever. AC

9pm. Catalyst, 1011 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $16 adv/$18 door. 423-1338. 

WORLD

VIEUX FARKA TOURÉ

Known as “the Hendrix of the Saraha,” Vieux Farka Touré is a serious force on the guitar. His is a sort of cosmic, kaleidoscopic Afrobeat, led by his blazing fretwork and keen songwriting. On “Bonheur,” the opener from 2017’s Samba, Touré kicks things off with a scorching trip across the fretboard, tearing through melodic passages like so much wet tissue. Then, when the band comes in behind him, “Bonheur” takes off at a gallop, conveying listeners across a landscape of stars, sand and the gentle lick of hot wind. MIKE HUGUENOR

8pm. Felton Music Hall, 6275 Hwy. 9, Felton. $27 adv/$29 door. 335-2800.

 

THURSDAY 10/24

INDIE

LOUIZA

Indie band Louiza’s blend of ’70s-pop-melody dramatics and theatre-nerd arrangements are reminiscent of cinematic soundtracks of yore and Broadway showtunes. Just picture a grainy image of a young woman in a tan trench coat, new to the Big Apple, throwing her beret into the air and twirling around joyously. Now picture a stage set of the Big Apple, where earnest young artists dance their way through life’s struggles and lack of rent control. Now put them all in cat costumes and have them break the glass ceiling before breaking out into song. Congratulations! You’ve now correctly imagined the music of Louiza. AMY BEE

9pm. Crepe Place, 1134 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. $6. 429-6994.  

FOLK

TODD SNIDER & JACK ELLIOTT

Todd Snider is no stranger to Santa Cruz. His infamous song “Beer Run” was written in town at a Robert Earl Keen concert and features cameos by native fauna like hippies, college kids and radio station KPIG’s “Sleepy” John Sandidge. Another local institution joins him: kindred tale-teller and road dog “Ramblin” Jack Elliott, a historic monument to modern folk tunes. As Halloween quickly approaches, let the dusty spirits of America come alive when these two stalwarts cast their haunted spells on your hungry ears. MAT WEIR

8pm. Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. $25. 423-8209.

JAZZ

NICOLAS BEARDE

Describing San Francisco vocalist Nicolas Bearde as a journeyman isn’t inaccurate—it doesn’t capture the spectacular nature of his journey. At Kuumbwa alone, he’s performed as a member of three groundbreaking a cappella ensembles: Linda Tillery’s field-hollers-to-hip-hop Cultural Heritage Choir, Bobby McFerrin’s improvisation-laced Voicestra and Bay Area spin-off SoVoSo. Bearde earned an avid following as a solo act crooning sophisticated R&B, but he’s evolved into a captivating jazz singer. Celebrating the release of his confidently swinging new album I Remember You: The Music of Nat King Cole, Bearde makes his Kuumbwa debut under his own name. ANDREW GILBERT

7pm. Kuumbwa Jazz, 320-2 Cedar St., Santa Cruz. $21 adv/$26.25 door. 427-2227.

 

SATURDAY 10/26

COMEDY

BRENT WEINBACH

Brent Weinbach is an awkward guy. So much so that in his ironically titled Appealing To The Mainstream special, he proposed that he could be for reals creepy, and did a couple minutes of jokes as a blood-thirsty Igor-type monster. As stiff and alien as his normal voice is, he switches naturally into oddly cool characters, focusing his humor on the sound of words and phrases. On the same special, he pondered the phrase “Hell nah” and did his impression of R&B Lazy Eyelids, which actually makes sense if you follow his logic. AC

7 & 8:30pm. DNA’s Comedy Lab, 155 S River St., Santa Cruz. $20 adv/$25 door. 900-5123. 

POST-PUNK

THE GARDEN

Proving the phrase “when you’re here, you’re family” applies to more than one Garden, Orange County duo the Garden are, in fact, twins. Since at least 2015, when the duo signed to Epitaph, the Garden has mixed a kind of nervous, artsy post-punk with a humorous, absurdly empty lyrical approach (their second album begins: “Take your sunglasses off, and then put them on again”). What, if anything, are the songs about? Search me. Nonetheless, last year’s Mirror Might Steal Your Charm is a truly weird punk-pop outlier worth experiencing. MH

9 p.m. Catalyst, 1011 Pacific Ave, Santa Cruz. $16/adv, $20/door. 423-1338.

AMERICANA

MATT THE ELECTRICIAN

Hard work and blue-collar jobs are romanticized in Americana music, and it’s easy to fall under the spell of such sentiments when someone like Matt the Electrician pulls out his acoustic guitar and begins to croon in a sweetly earnest, delicate voice. His vocals soothe the weary soul, gently offering plaintive perspectives and promises of a better life found within the trials of the day to day, rather than the illusions of material ease. Maybe success is measured best by effort. Maybe the struggle is the goal. Maybe it’s all about the little things. AB

8pm. Lille Aeske, 13160 Hwy. 9, Boulder Creek. $25. 703-4183. 

 

SUNDAY 10/27

REGGAE

LEE ‘SCRATCH’ PERRY

Some musicians never seem to age. Even as fans watch the wrinkles form, the hair frost over from salt and pepper to snow, the artist’s spirit burns just as brightly as it always has. Living legend Lee “Scratch” Perry is one of those artists, and not just because he actually has a burning candle lit during performances. At 83, the reggae artist and world-renowned producer continues his prolific career, releasing mounds of music and somehow finding time to tour. This year, Perry has already released two albums, Rootz Reggae Dub and Rainford, and just dropped a new song, “Magik,” this month. MW

9pm. Moe’s Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz. $25 adv/$30 door. 479-1854.

Far West Fungi Plants Santa Cruz Roots

Far West Fungi’s new downtown Santa Cruz outpost isn’t just an intriguing retail and restaurant hybrid, or the latest example of the culinary migration underway from San Francisco to the Central Coast.

It is both of those things, but it’s more about stepping into a devoted subculture of fungi aficionados.

The family-owned mushroom company’s Laurel Street storefront, which opened on Oct. 12., is full of jarred specimens and scientific posters reminiscent of an apothecary. On one wall, tinctures of Cordyceps and Turkey Tail that promise to boost energy or the immune system are neatly arranged alongside mini-fungus-farm kits.  

The centerpiece is a deli-style counter that showcases the dozens of mushrooms Far West sources from around the world or grows at its farms in Moss Landing and San Martin. They range from $3-a-basket Wood Ears to Black Pearl Oysters, Shiitakes and King Trumpets, all the way up to imported $31-an-ounce Burgundy Truffles. 

“Let me show you something crazy,” says Ian Garrone, who owns Far West Fungi along with his parents and three brothers. He reaches behind the glass and pulls out a model of a brain made from white mycelium, or the base element of fungus. “Our farm did this for Halloween.”

SHROOM TO GROW Ian Garrone and his family are expanding mushroom business Far West Fungi. PHOTO: ANDREW FAIR
SHROOM TO GROW Ian Garrone and his family are expanding mushroom business Far West Fungi. PHOTO: ANDREW FAIR

The decor is just one of many eccentric touches in the store, where the cash register is flanked by candy cap cookies ($2) and Shiitake jerky ($8)—two examples of a bid to creatively counteract phobias of slimy or otherwise alienating textures.

“It’s the gateway mushroom,” Garrone says of the jerky, which is peppery, smokey and only slightly chewier than meat alternatives like turkey jerky. “All these great things that mushrooms have to offer, we’re kind of hoping to facilitate that.”

Santa Cruz may seem like an unlikely expansion market after Far West’s flagship store in San Francisco’s Ferry Building. But Garrone says there was good reason to move here instead of bigger cities like L.A., New York or Seattle. For starters, he’s a long-time participant in the annual Fungus Fair put on by the Fungus Federation of Santa Cruz.

“This community is so into mushrooms,” Garrone says. “We really would like to be a resource for others.”

One expanded offering at Far West’s Santa Cruz location is cultivation supplies, like spawn plugs for aspiring home growers. There are also mushroom knives, mushroom tea towels and a shelf full of foraging guides.

At the end of the shop’s sleek counter, a few visitors last Friday afternoon sampled a café menu of prepared items that range in umami intensity, from entry-level mushroom avocado toast ($7) to a seafood-less Lion’s Mane lobster roll with enough funk to make up for the missing crustacean ($10). 

PHOTO: ANDREW FAIR
PHOTO: ANDREW FAIR

The recipes have been developed over more than 30 years, since Garrone’s parents—his father a retired police officer and mother a former school teacher—started growing mushrooms as a hobby with a business partner in Moss Landing during the ’80s. 

Through Bay Area farmers’ markets, deals with specialty grocers and online sales, the operation has grown significantly in recent years. Far West Fungi now has 60 employees and produces 40,000 pounds of mushrooms per week, Garrone says, but there are still plenty of cousins and other family members involved.

“My grandmother was still doing farmers markets like a year ago,” Garrone says. “My parents still do a couple of markets a week. They’re in Japan right now at a mushroom conference.”

With the Santa Cruz store, he also sees an opportunity to supply new and existing restaurant clients, such as the San Francisco transplants behind new local tapas restaurant Barceloneta.

“We’ll do pop-ups and other events,” Garrone says, in part to showcase fungi as a sustainable alternative to meat. “A big part of it is really kind of trying to raise the level of the mushroom scene around here.”

Far West Fungi, 224 Laurel St. Suite A101, Santa Cruz. farwestfungi.com.

Love Your Local Band: Harbor Patrol

Two years ago, guitarist Dan Vosko saw local group Wooster play a reunion show at Moe’s Alley. Vosko was always a fan, and he loved the performance. What really got him was the sense of community at the show. 

“Everybody was dancing and grooving,” Vosko says. “We were in the same room at the same time with a lot of friends. That led to a really fun evening.” 

When he bumped into old bandmate and drummer Ben K at the gym the next day, they agreed it was time to play together again. They assembled a group that included vocalist Chris Huff, guitarist Zach Nutty and bassist Rob Atkinson. They had played in local bands like Epicure, Fire Peach—and yes, Wooster. 

There was no goal in mind for the project, other than to enjoy music and feel that sense of community. The group naturally took the primary components of Epicure (reggae, hip-hop, rock) and fine-tuned them a bit.

“What came out was a return to those three core genres,” says Huff. “At the same time, there’s some maturity that’s happened with everybody since then.”

The friends called the band Earthquake Weather initially, but changed it to Harbor Patrol when they saw a patrol boat cruise past during a mid-practice break.

“Most of us actually live in the harbor. It identifies a feeling and a vibe, definitely a location. It creates a brand recognition that people connect to pretty easily,” Atkinson says. “On our Instagram, we’ve even gotten tagged by a couple law enforcement agencies. Without a shadow of a doubt, it has a sense of authority to it.”

9pm. Friday, Oct. 25. Moe’s Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz. $10 adv/$15 door. 479-1854. 

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