While working on this week’s issue, I noticed a couple of interesting parallels between my cover story on Malcolm Gladwell and Wallace Baine’s feature on Tatiana Schlossberg. Both Gladwell and Schlossberg have new books out on topics that are unsettling, to say the least—in Talking With Strangers: What We Should Know About People We Don’t Know, Gladwell examines how our inability to judge other people can lead to disaster, while in Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don’t Know You Have, Schlossberg looks at how we are worsening climate change in all kinds of ways we haven’t even considered.
But underneath the more anxiety-inducing elements of these works, there’s a strong humanistic undercurrent. Both books are calls to actions, yes, but both authors also make a point to not try to shame the very people who care enough about these topics to be reading their books. There are things we can do, and important changes we can make, they say, but we also have to make our approach about understanding and reason, not blame and anger. Those messages seem all too rare—and more important than ever—in these difficult times.
Re: “Paint Staking” (GT, 9/11): The art world has always been obsessed with tradition and prestige. What I find ironic is not that some MAH board members want more works of “real art,” but that they are blindly overlooking the cultural treasure the MAH as an institution has become over the last 8 years. Nina Simon literally wrote the book on revolutionizing museum culture to be participatory, inclusive, and full of community. The live, pulsating, reinvented MAH is the artwork, and it’s a masterpiece.
Jake Orlowitz
Santa Cruz
Look at the Results
The trouble with your article “Claims of Bullying and Misbehavior in Santa Cruz’s City Hall” (GT, 8/28) is its focus on unproven and difficult-to-measure allegations of misconduct. Verbal interactions in which one person alleges misconduct can be used as a way to diminish one’s political opponent—used as a cover for political differences. It serves as a distraction from focusing on the real issues. I fear this is what might be the case in the campaign against Glover and Krohn.
Your article seems designed to help the efforts of those who want to recall Glover and Krohn. The four-month investigation did not substantiate 11 of the accusations, including any intimations of gender bias. It did conclude that Councilmember Krohn made an audible sarcastic laugh that offended a staff person and that Councilmember Glover did have an uncomfortable interchange with another councilmember over the scheduling of a room.
The investigator’s most potent finding led to his recommendation that “Councilmembers should avoid making public accusations of misconduct or bad faith against one another and against city staff without first privately and internally addressing these concerns and attempting conflict resolution and rectification when possible.” This advice was directed squarely at the mayor, whose public accusations in February touched off the investigation that cost the City $18,000 and set a divisive tone for future council relations.
At the same time, it is heartening to look at the council accomplishments since the new council formed in January: Our new council has continued to make steady progress on a range of issues, large and small, with most actions requiring split votes.
Environment: endorsed the Green New Deal. This resolution got a 7-0 vote, but no teeth.
Transportation: Bus passes and Jump Bike credit will be provided for all downtown workers. Also, new city vehicles will be electric.
Homelessness: Secured funding for a future 24/7 homeless facility and day center. Also, City Hall bathrooms are to be reopened to the public during business hours.
Tenant Protection: Increased funding for tenant legal aid and protection.
Labor: Significant gains toward comparable pay for city workers in SEIU contract.
Land Use: Killed the corridors plan, a development boondoggle abhorred by Eastside residents.
Open Government: Oral communication put back on the 7 p.m. agenda so working people can be present. Also, funding secured to televise Planning Commission meetings.
Our city is better for our Progressive council majority!
Allan Fisher
Santa Cruz
What Will You Do Then?
Reading the letters supporting the recall, and the severe malignment of our homeless population, one can only surmise that the once loving, free-spirited Santa Cruz has become a bastion of haters. Well, hold onto your hats: The entire world is in accelerated migration, and your next beach annoyances will speak, look different, perhaps be less tolerant. What will you do then?
Gloria Sams
Santa Cruz
PHOTO CONTEST WINNER
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GOOD IDEA
After a year-long search, the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History has appointed one of its own as its next executive director. Felicia Van Stolk, who grew up locally, graduated from UCLA with a major in Marine Biology and a minor in Conservation Ecology. As the museum’s first woman of color to serve as education director, Van Stolk expanded programs and partnerships. Her first event as executive director will be “California on Fire” at the Rio Theatre on Thursday, Sept. 19.
GOOD WORK
From Año Nuevo State Beach to Rio Del Mar, Save Our Shores volunteer crews will be picking up trash this weekend as part of the 2019 Coastal Cleanup Day on Saturday, Sept. 21. In the San Lorenzo Valley from 9 a.m. to noon, the Tobacco Education Coalition will be at Felton Covered Bridge Park, with a focus on collecting cigarette butts. During last year’s cleanup, 2,412,151 butts were collected worldwide, making them the most littered item in the world. For more information on local cleanups, visit saveourshores.org.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Our very lives depend on the ethics of strangers, and most of us are always strangers to other people.”
Sure, I’ve read a few of his books—The Tipping Point, Outliers, Blink, and his latest, Talking to Strangers—and listened to most of the four seasons of his podcast Revisionist History. We talked over the phone, recently, and had a very enlightening conversation about his work. Most of the gatekeepers in the modern media world would now consider me eminently qualified to write a profile of Malcolm Gladwell.
Gladwell himself, however, would not. Because the truth is I don’t know him at all, really. I can tell you what point he argued in which episode of his podcast. I can definitely remember when I most emphatically agreed or disagreed with his conclusions. I can also do an impression of his voice that makes my co-workers crack up.
But that doesn’t equip me to profile Gladwell as a person; all I’m really qualified to do is profile his ideas. Unfortunately, journalists often feel that’s not enough. They want to believe they understand something deeper about their subjects, which can lead them to overreach.
“I’ve always had a baseline skepticism about journalistic profiles,” Gladwell tells me. “I always feel they’re overly ambitious. The idea that you can sit down with a stranger and come to a reckoning of who they are, and what motivates them, in a short period of time is just nonsense. It’s just not true.”
Gladwell isn’t singling out journalists here. The conceptual through-line of his new Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About People We Don’t Know is that we’re all downright terrible at reading people we don’t know—gleaning their true feelings, motives or intentions.
“Journalists are not immune from the mistakes that all of us make, and maybe we ought to be a lot more cautious,” says Gladwell. “I think the best journalists do that. The best work, the most successful profiles, are modest in their aspiration. They aim to focus on a very specific part of the person being profiled, as opposed to a global assessment.”
Misreading and Writing
Throughout his new book, Gladwell lays out example after example of times that the misreading of strangers has had historically catastrophic consequences. And in the chapter on Jerry Sandusky and the sex abuse scandal at Penn State, we see a couple of examples of profiles that writers would probably like to take back, including one from the Philadelphia Inquirer that lays it on thick about a pre-disgraced Sandusky’s “ennobling” qualities.
But even here, Gladwell’s point is not to shame the writers. On the contrary, the Sandusky section of the book attempts to build a complex case for why the people around Sandusky didn’t understand what was going on at the time. He argues that the fallout from the case led to a lot of misinformed scapegoating, including of Joe Paterno.
“I think Joe Paterno was treated abominably. It was completely wrong to blame him,” says Gladwell. “Having read hundreds of pages of the court transcripts, I don’t think a plausible case could be made that Joe Paterno had any inkling whatsoever of Jerry Sandusky’s activities. He did exactly what he was supposed to do—he notified his superiors immediately and turned the matter over to them. That is what he was supposed to do. I’m quite sympathetic to some of the Penn State people who feel that case was mishandled.”
The Sandusky part of the book is perhaps the toughest to analyze, and the easiest to criticize, partially because it’s a very limited discussion of a sprawling topic. Entire books could be written about who knew what, and when, in the Penn State story—and, of course, they have. The titles of these books alone make their vastly different conclusions apparent: Game Over: Jerry Sandusky, Penn State and the Culture of Silence will never be confused for The Most Hated Man in America: Jerry Sandusky and the Rush to Judgment. The latter goes even further than Gladwell, arguing that Sandusky may very well be innocent, and that the same “repressed memory therapy” that spurred the fraudulent “Satanic Panic” in the 1980s played a huge role in the case—but he takes 400 pages to explore this argument, compared to Gladwell’s 35-page chapter.
Campus Conundrum
The Penn State case is far from the only controversial topic Gladwell takes on in Talking With Strangers. In a chapter called “Transparency Case Study: The Fraternity Party,” he uses the 2015 case in which Stanford University student Brock Turner was convicted of three counts of felony sexual assault to examine the problem of alcohol abuse on college campuses. This would be a dicey proposition by any measure: Turner’s assault of Chanel Miller (who was known at the time as “Emily Doe”; she revealed her real name earlier this month) made national headlines when Santa Clara County judge Aaron Persky ignored prosecutors’ recommendation of a six-year sentence and gave Turner six months in county jail (he ended up serving three months), plus three years probation. Perksy’s assertion that Turner’s lack of a criminal record and upstanding character warranted a reduced sentence led to a successful recall of the judge in 2018. The case led to changes in California state law about the definition of rape and the mandatory minimum-sentencing for sexual assault of an unconscious or intoxicated person.
“The People vs. Brock Turner is a case about alcohol,” writes Gladwell. He then proceeds to walk a very fine line in defining what his argument is about (a salient point about a lack of education for young people about the dangers of blackout drinking) and what it is not (a denial of the seriousness of Turner’s crime).
Gladwell knows that with both the Sandusky and Turner cases, he is venturing into territory that can be not only difficult to write, but also difficult to read.
“I have, after 30 years, an enormous amount of faith in my readers. I know who my readers are, and I know my readers read things carefully. Those chapters both require careful reading,” he says. “I am not blaming the victim in the Brock Turner case. I am making an argument about how we prevent these kinds of things in the future. That’s a subtle point, but I think people who listen to my podcast or read my books are totally fine with subtle points.”
Indeed, fans of Revisionist History will be familiar with other times Gladwell has taken on topics that other writers might consider taboo; for instance, the Brown v. Board of Education episode “Miss Buchanan’s Period Of Adjustment” (possibly the best episode he has produced), in which he attempted to lay out the problems black teachers faced in the wake of the landmark desegregation ruling without undermining the importance of the decision itself.
Gladwell says it’s not so much that he’s drawn to controversial topics as he feels like he should be taking them on at this point in his career.
“I would say that I feel I have an obligation to write about those kinds of things because I can. I’m now in a position—having been a journalist for a long time, and having established a reputation for myself and having a readership—to have the freedom to write about those things. I can take the blow,” he says. “Sure, people will get upset, but it’s fine. I mean, I can handle that. A 25-year-old journalist starting out would be taking a real risk for their career if they were to approach some of these topics. I think when you’re an established journalist, you have an obligation to go where others can’t or don’t want to.”
‘History’ Lessons
The type of material Gladwell takes on in Talking to Strangers is not the only parallel with his podcast—in fact, the whole book’s layout is not unlike an episode of Revisionist History, or perhaps a whole season packed into one book. It starts out with one character—Sandra Bland, an African-American woman from Chicago who was famously the victim of a bizarre and frankly terrifying traffic stop by a white cop in Houston, Texas, in 2015—and then threads through other case studies before returning to Bland’s story, and a fierce indictment of the policing system responsible for it.
This is a classic setup for a Revisionist History episode—the aforementioned Brown v. Board of Education episode, for instance, employed the same structure. And the way Talking to Strangers is so thoroughly character-driven seems like a lesson Gladwell picked up from doing the podcast as well. Though Revisionist History is perhaps most famous for episodes like 2016’s “Blame Game,” which smashed popular misconceptions about the “unintended acceleration” recalls of Toyota vehicles in 2009, 2010 and 2011, I’ve always found the best episodes to be the ones solidly built around characters first, and Gladwell’s trademark data analysis second.
Gladwell says it’s no accident that his latest book is so reminiscent of the podcast, and that Revisionist History has had a “profound impact” on the way he writes books.
“The podcast has been the dominant thing in my life now for four years, and it’s the thing I’m most excited about. It’s been a way to kind of—not re-invent, that’s too strong a word, but learn a whole new skill, and think about storytelling in a whole new way. It absolutely influenced Talking to Strangers,” he says.
The most definitive sign of that influence is the fact that instead of the traditional audiobook, in which he reads the text, he actually created—well, basically a podcast. It includes the audio from his interviews for the book, as well as archival tape that he discusses in the book, and music. And he’s more excited about it than the print version.
“It’s like a six-hour episode of Revisionist History,” he says. “This is an emotional book, and I feel like in some ways the audio book is better than the print book, because you get more. You hear Sandra Bland at the beginning talking about ‘my beautiful kings and queens,’ and she stays with you. And at the end, the whole thing, about the cop and the deposition, [State Trooper Brian] Enciniaexplaining himself, I have that tape. So you hear him, and it becomes really, really visceral and real.
And then you’re hearing this Janelle Monae song; she wrote a song about all the police shootings where she names all the victims. So it’s a whole overwhelming experience when you listen to it. I really encourage people to experience the book that way.”
‘Blink’ Again
Gladwell cites a number of examples in his new book about how our own misplaced confidence in our ability to read other people has had disastrous consequences throughout history.
He discusses Neville Chamberlain’s famous failure to judge Adolf Hitler’s intentions, leading him to foolishly return from Munich waving a piece of paper signed by Hitler, and promising “peace in our time.” He examines how the CIA went for years thinking they had faithful spies throughout Cuba, only to discover later that almost all of them were double agents working for Castro. He explains how truly astonishing the con job that Bernie Madoff pulled on his victims really was—all because he managed to create a false aura of sincerity and good intentions. On the flip side, in one of the best chapters for explaining our inability to read the people around us, he deconstructs how Amanda Knox was convicted of murder not because she was guilty, but because she unintentionally acted guilty.
If all of this about perception and the length of time it takes to accurately parse information sounds a lot like Gladwell’s 2005 book Blink, that’s because it is. In fact, Talking to Strangers came out of Gladwell’s belief that his book about snap judgement had been widely misunderstood and misinterpreted in the media.
“Blink was a fascinating and frustrating experience for me,” he says. “Because Blink was really a cautionary tale about our first impressions. It was a story that began with all the ways they work, and then the latter half of the book was about all the ways that we’re misled by our intuition. That didn’t quite come across. So this book first of all zeroes in on a particular kind of first impression, which is the relationship with a stranger. But I really wanted to squarely address what can go wrong, and the consequences of that. Just as David and Goliath grew out of Outliers, this book grows out of Blink. With a lot of my books, I write it once, then I sit with it, then I come back and tackle the issue again.”
Ultimately, Talking to Strangers looks at the problem of how we misunderstand strangers from both a macro and micro perspective. In the way it suggests the need for reform in our institutions—like policing, the justice system and military-intelligence interrogation policies (the section on the biological reasons for the ineffectiveness of torture is a stunner)—it argues that action is needed to bring the systems of society in line with how our brains really work. But on another, individual level, it also suggests that the “default to truth” principle most of us use in everyday dealings with each other isn’t such a bad thing—even if it can be wrong. The alternative, he suggests, can be much worse.
“Let’s make sure that our institutions and practices conform to who we are,” says Gladwell. “But let’s accept ourselves for who we are, and stop pretending otherwise. We should stop beating ourselves up over our fundamental tendency to trust each other, and instead intelligently adapt to it.”
Bookshop Santa Cruz and the Humanities Institute at UCSC present Malcolm Gladwell talking about his new book ‘Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About People We Don’t Know’ at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 21, at the San Mateo Performing Arts Center, 600 N. Delaware St., San Mateo. The $40 ticket package includes entry to the event and one copy of ‘Talking to Strangers’ with signed bookplate, to be picked up at the event. bookshopsantacruz.com.
For the two years before she moved into a quiet house with a garden on the Westside of Santa Cruz, Jennifer Chaplin’s life was anything but calm.
A long struggle with addiction and an abusive relationship had finally come to a head, leaving the now-34-year-old Chaplin to pick up the pieces with her infant daughter, Quin. Earlier this year, the pair found stability in the Jesus Mary Joseph Home, a long-term shelter where Quin soon took her first steps in a living room filled with board games, rocking horses and tributes to the house’s namesake religious trio.
But there was another, even more fundamental benefit, which Chaplin and other local mothers on a tight budget say is often overlooked on the high-cost Central Coast: free compostable diapers.
“It’s, like, the biggest concern,” says Chaplin, who herself grew up in nearby Corralitos. “You have to have diapers.”
Chaplin and 14-month-old Quin were among the first beneficiaries of Earth Diaper, a nascent local nonprofit that fuses the social goal of direct public health services for low-income families with the environmental goal of cutting down on the number of non-biodegradable disposable diapers in area landfills.
The idea for Earth Diaper was planted when Santa Cruz County public health nurse Lily Broberg Strong noticed more local residents trying to stretch how long diapers could last, sometimes resulting in health complications like rashes or skin irritation. There were some 228 reported cases of health conditions caused by diapers in Santa Cruz during 2017, Broberg Strong says, with 80% of those cases treated at emergency rooms.
Nurse Lily Broberg Strong (right) co-founded Earth Diaper with Hayden Lilien (left) and tested the nonprofit’s model at the Jesus Mary Joseph Home with Executive Director Pat Gorman (center).
“Really our mission is to change the culture of diapers,” says Broberg Strong, who co-founded Earth Diaper with lawyer, nonprofit strategist and Bay Area mom Hayden Lilien. “The need is just so great.”
Broberg Strong says she’s seen local mothers try to put off diaper changes for 6-8 hours instead of every few hours, or in desperate circumstances, steal diapers before their next paychecks. Nationwide, one in three moms will experience “diaper need,” or trouble paying for enough diapers to “keep an infant dry, comfortable and healthy,” according to a 2017 study by Jennifer Randles, a sociology professor at Cal State University Fresno.
Earth Diaper, which recently completed a six-month pilot program at Jesus Mary Joseph Home, is now fundraising to expand access to its free bamboo diapers, which are picked up and taken to a composting facility able to process them in Gilroy. In addition to alleviating average costs of $100 a month or more for parents, Earth Diaper aims to make a dent in the more than 7 billion tons of waste generated by disposable diapers each year, according to the most recent EPA estimates.
“This is a health problem in addition to a huge environmental problem,” Broberg Strong says. “The disposable model isn’t sustainable.”
HOUSING SIDE EFFECTS
Juana Flores had lived in Watsonville for two decades when the worst happened. It was this past spring when the single mother of then-4-month-old twins Leo and Zoe was told that only one person was allowed to live in the room she was renting outside of town.
The few landlords renting other places she could afford on her tight budget from cleaning work said the same thing, so Flores and her young twins moved to a homeless shelter.
“It was like we were in jail,” says Flores, 42, since the facility had strict rules about everything from cell phone use to the milk she was allowed to bring in for her children. “I think the babies felt the environment.”
At the first shelter, Flores says she was on her own when it came to buying diapers, and her kids began suffering from skin irritation. Since the twins switched to the higher-quality bamboo diapers supplied by Earth Diaper at Jesus Mary Joseph Home, they haven’t had the same issues that they had before.
Juana Flores with twins Leo and Zoe. PHOTO: TARMO HANNULA
Flores and Chaplin are just two of many local moms, Broberg Strong says, for whom housing struggles and diaper struggles have gone hand in hand as rents have risen sharply.
“Everything has gotten tighter,” Broberg Strong says. “People are spending all their money on housing.”
For Flores and her twins, the combination of a reliable place to live and a steady supply of diapers has been life changing.
“Te da paz (it gives you peace),” says Flores, who moved to the Central Coast from the Northern Mexico city of León more than 20 years ago.
PAY IT FORWARD
While the demand for Earth Diaper is clear, finding long-term funding is another issue. Leadership for both Earth Diaper and Jesus Mary Joseph Home are currently fundraising to keep the program going, and to expand to more locations. (Tagline for Earth Diaper’s fundraiser: “These women want your poop.”)
“We don’t want to drop the ball now. We know what a difference it made,” says Pat Gorman, executive director of Jesus Mary Joseph Home, which is affiliated with the Catholic St. Francis Soup Kitchen but does not require residents to practice religion. “We were seeing a lot less rashes. The moms and babies were getting a lot more sleep.”
One key to Earth Diaper’s early traction has been coordination with higher-end green diaper providers. EarthBaby, which was started by two Bay Area dads and charges retail prices and service fees to its customers, helps Earth Diaper collect their diapers for composting.
For Lindsey Nelson, house manager of Jesus Mary Joseph Home, the system is a big shift from many moms’ reliance on big-box retailers like Costco.
“You try to shop around and find the cheapest,” says Nelson, who helped track diaper use at the house and found that five families went through about 1,200 diapers per month.
Still, Broberg Strong says, the group’s environmental objective has to be tailored to its clients. While some supporters have suggested that Earth Diaper use cloth diapers, for instance, that type of sustainable choice may not be practical for households where parents work multiple jobs or don’t have easy access to laundry.
“That’s not really the first thing on their priority list,” she says. “You have to be sensitive.”
Broberg Strong hopes to expand the service to three shelters in the coming months, then partner with other community hubs to distribute diapers to larger numbers of families than would be possible with home delivery.
“We’re chipping away at reducing our costs,” she says. “We have big aspirations.”
Chaplin, who recently started sign language classes at Cabrillo, says she hopes the program is able to keep serving other mothers in search of support.
“It took some worry out of my life,” she says, “which was really, really nice.”
We’ve heard a lot of supposed reasons floating around to recall Santa Cruz city councilmembers Drew Glover and Chris Krohn.
Some of those reasons are dumber than others.
One rationalization that signature collectors have been peddling is that Glover and Krohn are planning to bring Ross camp-esque transitional encampments to every neighborhood in the next six months. Not only is that an exaggeration, but even if it were 100% factual, that reason would still suck.
The hard truth is that, yes, the City Council supports studying transitional encampments in the coming months. However, in the realm of local government, it takes at least two to tango. And as a matter of fact, all seven city councilmembers have voted, in one form or another, in favor of studying the concept, because that’s how you make good policy.
Transitional encampments deserve a fair shake. Ever since the Ross camp closed, the impacts of homelessness have gotten spread out across the city, with unregulated camps popping up around town, includingat the beach. Better to have the encampments be at least somewhat managed, and give campers structure to help get their lives back on track. As it is, homelessness bears extraordinary costs, both to those experiencing its struggle and to the wider community surrounding those individuals.
KITCHEN CABINET
Eager to think through solutions to homelessness, Gabriella Cafe owner Paul Cocking decided to hold a conversation, and invite Assemblymember Mark Stone (D-Scotts Valley) to meet with Police Chief Andy Mills and architect Mark Primack, a housing advocate. Also in attendance was Claudia Brown, board president for Homeless Services Center, which just changed its name to Housing Matters on Tuesday, Sept. 17. (The center hopes to stimulate discussions about resolving homelessness.)
In conversation, Cocking learned that although the state is providing more money, there’s not much cooperation between various agencies and local governments on how to spend it, and it’s almost impossible to get local governments and neighborhoods to accept badly needed housing and other facilities. Over two-thirds of our police and fire resources are devoted to homelessness issues, Cocking says. Also, many homeless people refuse help and current legislation allows them to continue to endanger themselves and the community, and it costs the community three times as much to help people living in the street as it does to give them supportive housing, he says. He believes most California politicians haven’t bought in on the need for statewide solutions, like Stone has.
Here are some of Cocking’s suggestions for those who care and think about these issues:
Send an email to every member of the Assembly demanding action.
Buy a copy of Sam Davis’ book Designing for the Homeless: Architecture that Works.
Visit downtown San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles, and San Diego.
“Remember we all said during the Vietnam War that things might have to get worse before they got better?” Cocking tells Nuz in an email. “They got a lot worse.”
Jerry Garcia had filled so many hearts with happiness for so many decades that it was inconceivable it would ever end. So, after Garcia passed in 1995, the musical and economic world of the Grateful Dead and affiliated projects fell into disarray—until Melvin Seals, longtime Hammond B3 player in the Jerry Garcia Band, bravely stepped forward. The rest is history.
Headlining the Mountain Sol Festival at Roaring Camp on Sept. 16 is Melvin Seals and JGB. The origins of the band, post-Jerry, started off innocently enough at Santa Cruz’s legendary music venue Palookaville. It was less than a year after Garcia had passed, and his bass player and loyal confidante John Kahn called the band members and asked if they wanted to do one gig at the downtown Santa Cruz venus. The show sold out so fast, a second night was added.
“It was going to be called The John Kahn Band,” says Seals. “Kahn added some additional singers and musicians that were not in the Jerry Garcia Band, like Larry Batiste and a few other people. Kahn didn’t want to play JGB songs, but songs in the style that Jerry Garcia would definitely have played. At that time, people were hurting, and Kahn wanted to stay away from [Garcia’s] signature songs. So we played a lot of Motown songs like ‘Beechwood 4-5789,’ songs Jerry would have easily said yes to.”
What Seals picked up was that fans were hurting, but at the same time wanting to see the members of the Jerry Garcia Band playing the songs they loved. “All night long, they were hollering out JGB songs like ‘Stop that Train’ and ‘Knocking on Heaven’s Door.’ I remember walking out the first night of Palookaville. Fans were wanting to hang out and take pictures, and they asked me, ‘Melvin are you guys going to do any Jerry Garcia songs tomorrow night?’”
On the second night at Palookaville, the John Kahn Band played four Garcia Band songs. “Folks still wanted to hear this music in spite of the king not being on guitar,” Seals concluded.
With two successful nights under their belt, the surviving members got ready to go on the road as the John Kahn Band, but within a few months, Kahn passed. The promoter (and Jefferson Starship manger) Michael Gaiman, who had previously worked with Kahn, contacted Seals. “He said I was the next-longest-surviving member, and he wanted to know if we wanted to put something together. Based on what I saw at Palookaville, I decided to do what Jerry would have done.” Seals wanted to call the band Tribute, but Gaiman wanted to brand them JGB.
There were lawsuits over the Garcia estate, and it was believed that Bill Graham Presents owned the name JGB. Seals didn’t want to get caught up in possible litigation. He ran a title search and found that only one business in New York used the acronym, and it was available to name a band. “So I registered the name as a musical organization in California,” Seals says.
When asked what inspired him to carry the torch, he says, “I saw an interview where Jerry was asked what he would like to think would happen after he was no longer here. And Jerry said, ‘I believe the music is much bigger than me, and I hope it will live on.’” And that stuck with Seals.
More than two decades later, the ice has totally broken, and there are seemingly more Dead-related projects touring than ever before. On the road most of the year, Seals often has different guitar players filling Garcia’s shoes. At the Mountain Sol Festival this weekend, and for the next month or so, John Kadlecik is in the role. Having been the leader of Dark Star Orchestra, and being the first guitarist to tour with Bob Weir and Phil Lesh after Garcia, Kadlecik has the credentials. “John is number one at sitting in that seat of simulation. Most players have a few licks that sound like Garcia, but John is full force,” says Seals.
Being on the road most of the year makes it hard to find time for solo projects, but Seals has plans for the future. “I’ve set dates three times bringing in studio musicians to start tracking some things, and my [touring] agency calls and makes an offer,” says Seals. “With the exception of a couple of gigs, I have most of November through February off, with the whole idea of getting something going.”
Seals has two projects in 2020—a Christmas album and a Melvin Seals project. “I have some new ideas. It won’t be implemented in JGB,” he says. “Like Garcia, I have some different projects going.”
Melvin Seals and JGB perform at the Mountain Sol Festival at Roaring Camp in Felton, which runs Sept. 20-22. Also on the bill are Bob Weir and Wolf Bros, Dispatch, Chicano Batman, Beats Antique, and many more. For a full lineup, schedule and tickets, go to santacruzmountainsol.com.
Free will astrology for the week of Sept. 18, 2019
ARIES (March 21-April 19): We’re in the equinoctial season. During this pregnant pause, the sun seems to hover directly over the equator; the lengths of night and day are equal. For all of us, but especially for you, it’s a favorable phase to conjure and cultivate more sweet symmetry, calming balance and healing harmony. In that spirit, I encourage you to temporarily suspend any rough, tough approaches you might have in regard to those themes. Resist the temptation to slam two opposites together simply to see what happens. Avoid engaging in the pseudo-fun of purging by day and bingeing by night. And don’t you dare get swept up in hating what you love or loving what you hate.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): “I tell you what freedom is to me: no fear.” So said singer and activist Nina Simone. But it’s doubtful there ever came a time when she reached the perfect embodiment of that idyllic state. How can any of us empty out our anxiety so completely as to be utterly emancipated? It’s not possible. That’s the bad news, Taurus. The good news is that in the coming weeks, you will have the potential to be as unafraid as you have ever been. For best results, try to ensure that love is your primary motivation in everything you do and say and think.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Some things don’t change much. The beautiful marine animal species known as the pearly nautilus, which lives in the South Pacific, is mostly the same as it was 150 million years ago. Then there’s Fuggerei, a walled enclave within the German city of Augsburg. The rent is cheap, about $1 per year, and that fee hasn’t increased in almost 500 years. While I am in awe of these bastions of stability, and wish we had more such symbolic anchors, I advise you to head in a different direction. During the coming weeks, you’ll be wise to be a maestro of mutability, a connoisseur of transformation, an adept of novelty.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Granny Smith apples are widely available. But before 1868, the tart, crispy, juicy fruit never existed on planet Earth. Around that time, an Australian mother of eight named Maria Ann Smith threw the cores of French crab apples out her window while she was cooking. The seeds were fertilized by the pollen from a different, unknown variety of apple, and a new type was born: Granny Smith. I foresee the possibility of a metaphorically comparable event in your future—a lucky accident that enables you to weave together two interesting threads into a fascinating third thread.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): “Every masterpiece is just dirt and ash put together in some perfect way,” writes storyteller Chuck Palahniuk, who has completed several novelistic masterpieces. According to my analysis of the astrological omens, you Leos have assembled much of the dirt and ash necessary to create your next masterpiece, and are now ready to move on to the next phase. And what is that phase? Identifying the help and support you’ll need for the rest of the process.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): In 1959, scandal erupted among Americans who loved to eat peanut butter. Studies revealed that manufacturers had added so much hydrogenated vegetable oil and glycerin to their product that only 75% of it could truly be called peanut butter. So began a long legal process to restore high standards. Finally there was a new law specifying that no company could sell a product called “peanut butter” unless it contained at least 90% peanuts. I hope this fight for purity inspires you to conduct a metaphorically comparable campaign. It’s time to ensure that all the important resources and influences in your life are at peak intensity and efficiency. Say no to dilution and adulteration.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): In 1936, the city of Cleveland, Ohio, staged the Great Lakes Exposition, a 135-acre fair with thrill rides, art galleries, gardens, and sideshows. One of its fun features was The Golden Book of Cleveland, a 2.5-ton, 6,000-page text the size of a mattress. After the expo closed down, the “biggest book in the world” went missing. If it still exists today, no one knows where it is. I’m going to speculate that there’s a metaphorical version of The Golden Book of Cleveland in your life. You, too, have lost track of a major Something that would seem hard to misplace. Here’s the good news: If you intensify your search now, I bet you’ll find it before the end of 2019.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): In 1990, the New Zealand government appointed educator, magician and comedian Ian Brackenbury Channell to be the official Wizard of New Zealand. His jobs include protecting the government, blessing new enterprises, casting out evil spirits, upsetting fanatics and cheering people up. The coming weeks will be an excellent time to find your personal equivalents of an inspirational force like that. There’s really no need to scrimp. According to my reading of the cosmic energies, you have license to be extravagant in getting what you need to thrive.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): “Do silly things,” advised playwright Anton Chekhov. “Foolishness is a great deal more vital and healthy than our straining and striving after a meaningful life.” I think that’s a perspective worth adopting now and then. Most of us go through phases when we take things too seriously and too personally and too literally. Bouts of fun absurdity can be healing agents for that affliction. But now is not one of those times for you, in my opinion. Just the reverse is true, in fact. I encourage you to cultivate majestic moods and seek out awe-inspiring experiences and induce sublime perspectives. Your serious and noble quest for a meaningful life can be especially rewarding in the coming weeks.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Before comedian Jack Benny died in 1974, he arranged to have a florist deliver a single red rose to his wife every day for the rest of her life. She lived another nine years, and received more than 3,000 of these gifts. Even though you’ll be around on this Earth for a long time, I think the coming weeks would be an excellent time to establish a comparable custom: a commitment to providing regular blessings to a person or persons for whom you care deeply. This bold decision would be in alignment with astrological omens, which suggest that you can generate substantial benefits for yourself by being creative with your generosity.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Actress and author Ruby Dee formulated an unusual prayer. “God,” she wrote, “Make me so uncomfortable that I will do the very thing I fear.” As you might imagine, she was a brave activist who risked her reputation and career working for the Civil Rights Movement and other idealistic causes. I think her exceptional request to a Higher Power makes good sense for you right now. You’re in a phase when you can generate practical blessings by doing the very things that intimidate you or make you nervous. And maybe the best way to motivate and mobilize yourself is by getting at least a bit flustered or unsettled.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Syndicated cartoon strip Calvin and Hobbes appeared for 10 years in 2,400 newspapers in 50 countries. It wielded a sizable cultural influence. For example, in 1992, six-year-old Calvin decided “The Big Bang” was a boring term for how the universe began, and instead proposed we call it the “Horrendous Space Kablooie.” A number of real scientists subsequently adopted Calvin’s innovation, and it has been invoked playfully but seriously in university courses and textbooks. In that spirit, I encourage you to give fun new names to anything and everything you feel like spicing up. You now have substantial power to reshape and revamp the components of your world. It’s identify-shifting time.
Homework: Say these words in front of a mirror: “It’s bad luck to be superstitious.” freewillastrology.com.
On Wednesday, Saturn (dweller, teacher, disciplinarian), after four months of being retrograde, turns stationary direct. Saturn offers us lesson after lesson concerning the “rules of the road” governing the cosmos as well as Earth (a Mystery school, our classroom).
Saturn is Ray 3 of Divine Intelligence. Earth is also Ray 3. Which means that humanity, living on the Earth, is to develop intelligence and the ability to think, discern and discriminate. Saturn brings us lessons in daily life so that we integrate the rules, live by them and become responsible citizens.
Saturn retrograded April 29in Capricorn. Saturn is at home in Capricorn. Both teach responsibility, discipline and hard work, ensuring that we understand the Rule of Law. When a planet is retrograde, we return to the past, assessing and integrating what we have learned. When a planet turns direct, we begin a new cycle, and a new order of things comes forth.
Let us consider the past four-and-a-half months. What hard work, achievements and responsibilities did we assume? What did we create? What direction did we take? What were the strains, stresses and conflicts encountered? Most of all, what did we learn? Did we feel restrained and limited these past months? Has the past been present?
Next week, Saturn joins the South Node (our past presenting itself to us). For two weeks, and then until Jan. 12, our Dweller on the Threshold seeks the Angel of the Presence. And Karma seeks release.
ARIES: The dweller is at the top of your astrology chart—teaching you limitations, knowing that at times everyone is limited and restricted is a freedom. Knowledge frees us. There has been an assessment and analysis of personal achievements, abilities, success, and standing in the world, creating a set of questions. What are my ambitions? What do I want to achieve in the world? Am I working hard enough? Do I have adequate discipline? How am I rewarded? Do I have Divine Discontent?
TAURUS: Deep learning and study have taken place, and now integration will occur. Perhaps you traveled to a mountain, over hill and dale to places far away. At first this didn’t make sense. In coming months, the purpose of the travel will be clear. You begin to know where you are headed, where the arrow of life is pointing, and once again life is an adventure, a stage upon which one courageously “plays their part.” There’s more to come.
GEMINI: What are you seeking, and what are you sensitive to? These questions are posed by Saturn, helping us to know and realize our deepest needs. What isn’t working these days with relationships, finances and resources? Are frustration and power issues building? And do you feel a sense of mortality? It’s wise to write down all that is needed. And then visualize that it all comes true. This isn’t superstition. It’s creativity. Especially for a Gemini.
CANCER: Cancers may feel quite withdrawn, unable to compromise, be flexible or adaptable. This will pass. Is there a sense of lonesomeness, solitude, as if in seclusion? Only real relationships that offer truth and friendship will weather these times. You define and then redefine the differences between casual, superficial, real, and unsatisfying relationships. And make choices. Only a few golden ones remain.
LEO: Everyday realities—work, habits, health, tending to the self—are most important. Assessing your values, you carefully bring them into practical use in and around the home and the environments you work in. Small animals and gardens, health and well-being, exercise, organization, and your productive use of time are to be the focus. It’s vital that everything is simple, uncomplicated and manageable. Let nothing be neglected.
VIRGO: For many months perhaps, there’s been a sense that the fire within was extinguished. There has been less and less get up and go. You now seek a new sense of purpose, a stronger sense of self-identity and creativity. When we create something, our self-identity is strengthened and brought to light. You seek to express yourself in useful ways and eventually a deep and essential recognition and love of self begins to dawn. It’s subtle. Watch for it.
LIBRA: This is a time of inner re-working of what family means to you; past, present and future. You will recognize the critical stage in which you made a life decision which created certain psychological events in your life and that of the family. Now you are to rework this decision. Differentiate yourself from childhood difficulties; re-organize mind and heart so that the feeling of being unsupported shifts to a sense of understanding, seeing your childhood through the lens of kindness and compassion.
SCORPIO: It’s important to network with those around you, gathering and sharing intelligence information, which allows everyone to feel more useful and effective in the world. Perhaps it’s time to gather a group of friends, create a seminar, a study group, or even a garden. It’s good to include siblings. Let any doubts fall away as to your communication skills. Often, Scorpios don’t feel able to communicate. However, when their heart is touched, their golden expertise in all things emerges.
SAGITTARIUS: Saturn calls you to assess your personal values and standards and determine what constitutes ease, pleasure and well-being. You will want to put down real roots. There’s a drive and willingness to sacrifice and to persevere. You seek to know what is of real importance, especially in terms of land and real estate. Investing in land at this time is suggested. Wanting real substance, you become, for the first time, the true architect and designer of your life. You thus accomplish much.
CAPRICORN: Have you felt sober and serious these past months? Have you experienced insecurities, rejection, criticisms, and disappointment concerning certain people’s actions and words towards you? Has this created a deep introspection? You always attempt to rise above difficulties, focusing on your own dreams and visions and guarding your emotions and expressions so as not to feel judged. Saturn says to see yourself as a jewel in the lotus. A rich inner life develops along with wisdom.
AQUARIUS: The changes you have experienced these past years will continue. Change often brings about states of insecurity, sometimes depression. Do not let change affect you in this way. Know that change helps us adapt, forcing us to seek a new state of comfort, security and well-being. Remove yourself immediately from any dangerous “ordeals.” Do not resist or fight; simply face a new direction. Eliminate all things no longer used or needed. Release seven times seven times seven. Then you are free.
PISCES: You are both a private and a public person. You are both out in the world, yet a hermit. You have visions of community and each day through consistent effort and authentic power you create foundations for the new world order. This is at times quite a challenge. You are a scout for the future, a messenger leading humanity to a new home again. You are alone amidst society, sometimes looking out, sometimes looking in. Nothing eclipses your vision, no matter how many lifetimes it takes.
Punk music doesn’t get much more high concept than Titus Andronicus. By the time the New Jersey upstart released its second record in 2010, there were already album-length metaphors, recordings of abolitionist speeches and 14-plus-minute odes to naval warfare—all to chart the tumultuous interior of the soul.
The band’s career has been defined by unexpected choices that few else would dare (or want) to make. In 2015, there was a double-album about manic depression, which was meant to be listened to out of order. Last year came a cover of “Like a Rolling Stone” (by, you know, Bob Dylan), with key lyrics replaced: “I know what it’s like to be a rolling stone,” and: “I’m feeling like Mick Jagger!”
But with the release of An Obelisk, the group’s sixth album, Titus’ boldest move is grammatical.
“I used to be very fond of using the definite article ‘the,’” says lead singer Patrick Stickles, from his home in Queens. “We have albums called The Monitor, The Most Lamentable Tragedy. But as I got older, I started to think, ‘Gee, I got a lot of nerve. Here I am using this definite article. Maybe people are taking that as me trying to present my experiences as somehow definitive.’”
Stickles says he’s a normal guy, someone whose career just so happens to involve music.
“The only real difference between me and the common person is that I’m externalizing my experiences by way of art,” he says.
Taking his own indefiniteness a step further, throughout An Obelisk, Stickles sings from the perspective of a vague narrator, an angry loner called Troubleman who “used to be a problem child” and now rages against society, insincere rock music, and (Stickles’s most constant target) himself.
“The narrator is a singular individual,” he says. “Very average. He is a dude, rather than the dude. Even though he’s not special, he has his own understanding of the conflict between the individual and society, which is the central conflict of the narrative.”
Narrator Troubleman tells us, “I’m not sick, it’s the world that is” on (aptly-named) single “(I Blame) Society.” “They think that we are spineless, I think they are all cheats/It seems the Earth is speeding swiftly towards a grave catastrophe.”
If that sounds like Stickles himself, he says that’s intentional.
“All the feelings expressed by my character, those are my real feelings,” he admits. “I’m presenting them in an exaggerated way. I like to create art that exists in a heightened reality.”
Musically, An Obelisk definitely feels heightened. From the opening chord to the final drum fill, itis a white-knuckle ride. Stickles and company keep the energy high as Troubleman relentlessly spits and stumbles towards his awakening on the Clash-like finale “Tumult Around the World.” The opening trio of “Just Like Ringing a Bell,” “Troubleman Unlimited,” and “(I Blame) Society” fly off with particularly thrilling ease—the best possible ravings of a madman.
And while reviewers have roundly declared it a more concise record than the band’s previous gargantuan statements, An Obelisk still finds plenty of room to spread out. On shuffling pub rocker “Hey Ma,” the band vamps on chords for a solid minute and a half, building pressure until the whole thing explodes into bagpipes (another Titus favorite). On emotional eye-of-the-storm “Within the Gravitron,” they take a lengthy side quest through a sludgy passage of minor chords, queasily toiling in the muck until the narrator finally catches a clear glimpse of himself, declaring once and for all: “If you’re looking for Troubleman, nothing can show you like a mirror can.”
Once again, if that sounds like Stickles himself, so be it.
“Even if I tried to put a certain amount of distance between myself and my art, I still recognize that I’m only equipped to speak about my own experiences,” he says. “To try and create a whole new narrator that has a wholly different perspective would be disingenuous and probably foolish. Furthermore, I contend that objective reality is illusory.”
Titus Andronicus performs at 9 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 22, at Felton Music Hall, 6275 Hwy. 9, Felton. $15 adv/$18 door. 335-2800, feltonmusichall.com.
Santa Cruz live entertainment picks for the week of Sept. 18
WEDNESDAY 9/18
CELTIC
THE TANNAHILL WEAVERS
When Scottish group the Tannahill Weavers formed in the late ’60s, the idea of playing traditional music was uncool. The band not only paved a path for hundreds of other Scottish bands wanting to embrace their roots, it was also the first to take the sounds of the highlands bagpipe and put it in the context of a popular ensemble. In sustaining a healthy career with 18 albums and plenty of tours all over the world, the group has watched as the rest of the world realized that playing traditional Scottish music was a very cool thing. AARON CARNES
7:30 p.m. Michael’s On Main, 2591 Main St., Soquel. $18 adv/$20 door. 479-9777.
THURSDAY 9/19
PUNK
MIKE WATT
Even if you’ve never heard of Mike Watt, you’ve probably heard the beginning of the song “Corona,” which was used as the theme for Jackass. As bassist and unofficial leader of the Minutemen, Watt and crew wrote some of the most influential punk music of the early ’80s by straying from the “short/fast/loud” model and incorporating elements of funk and jazz into the mix. For the past 13 years, he has been on-and-off touring with the Missingmen, with indie veterans Tom Watson and Raul Morales, a return to his punk-rock-trio roots. MAT WEIR
Sheng Wang has great delivery. Even as he talks about the time he “probably” pissed his pants (he was drunk), or when he might have accidentally started a new racial stereotype (“Everybody put that online and tag … Asia”) he is consistently understated, his face weirdly stern as he slowly shuffles around the stage. A writer on ABC’s Fresh Off the Boat, Wang recently appeared on HBO’s 2 Dope Queens, where he riffed on the stresses of avocados and his passion for not getting hurt. MIKE HUGUENOR
7 & 9:30 p.m. DNA’s Comedy Lab, 155 S River St., Santa Cruz. $20 adv/$25 door. 900-5123.
INDIE
MATTHEW AND THE ATLAS
Matthew and the Atlas is known to dabble in all types of music, from soft, acoustic contemplations to synth-driven rock dramas. The band has a slight eccentric edge to it, like if Sufjan Stevens, Tracy Chapman and Beirut started a super band, and Neil Young wrote all the lyrics. Founder Matt Hegarty is often dubbed the “British Bon Iver.” I don’t really see it, but Hegarty does have quite a unique voice, somehow low and throaty yet high and birdlike at the same time. It’s those peculiar vocals that tie it together, creating a sound full of dark, preening vitality. AMY BEE
It’s hard to think of another rapper with the verbal dexterity, wit and emotional vulnerability of Gift Of Gab. But he doesn’t deserve sole credit for his group Blackalicious’ rabid cult fanbase. He and DJ Chief Xcel have a unique relationship, where they riff off of each other like jazz musicians or a two-piece White Stripes-style rock duo. It creates a flexible, vibrant dynamic. In 20 years, the group has only released four albums. They’re all meticulously crafted, vibrant hip-hop masterpieces. The group comes to Moe’s to celebrate 20 years of top-notch underground hip-hop with zero compromises. AC
Thief is the brainchild of D. Neal, dulcimer player for black metal outfit Botanist. It’s a nightmare of industrial sounds mixed with surprisingly danceable beats—for fans of Sisters of Mercy, early NIN, My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult, or basically anything fierce, electronic and spooky. They will be joined in the dungeons of the Blue Lagoon by local, heavy space surf rockers Cosmic Reef Temple and Oakland’s surreal post-punk group Silence in the Snow (featuring members of Wolves in the Throne Room and Lycus!) MW
8:30 p.m. Blue Lagoon, 923 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $10. 423-7117.
SUNDAY 9/22
PUNK
LILACS
The three members in art-punk project Lilacs seem to be inhabiting their own spheres. They pluck and pound on their instruments, eliciting high-pitched growls and guttural roars in three separate microphones, vocals jumbling over each other and fusing into dissonant white noise. Emotive on a gut level like the Slits, but stripped down to the nitty-gritty, Lilac’s lyrics are indecipherable—except to the lizard brain, which completely understands. AB
Bobby McFerrin is back. The vocalist extraordinaire cancelled a slew of concerts in 2016 with his management, citing ill health. As several years passed, worries grew about his condition. But the crisis seems to have passed, and he’s on the road with more than two dozen dates booked through the winter. McFerrin returns to Santa Cruz with some of his most trusty vocal companions, including Joey Blake, David Worm and Rhiannon, who were all founding members of his innovative Voicestra. With later Voicestra addition Judi Vinar, McFerrin is performing with a lineup similar to his recent a cappella group Gimme 5 Circlesongs. ANDREW GILBERT
7:30 p.m. Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. $52.50. 427-2227.
TUESDAY 9/24
SYNTH-POP
HOT CHIP
Hot Chip has never sounded as smooth as it does on this year’s A Bath Full of Ecstacy. Sure, the group has been fusing indie rock with big, dancey, synth-pop hooks for decades now, but this time around, it seems to have fully embraced the dance and left almost all the angularity of indie rock behind. Lead single “Hungry Child” channels ’90s New Order with a pulsing dance beat, swirling synths and those oh-so-sensitive vocals. The heavily autotuned title track is likewise smooth as velvet as it promises “the cure, the pure remedy.” MH
9 p.m. Catalyst, 1011 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $35. 429-4135.
With a robust California-Mediterranean menu and buffed interior, Avanti is settling into its 21st-century identity.
New owners Jonathan and Tatiana Glass have made some attractive decisions. The side patio is now fully enclosed, lined with ferns and holds its own as a separate party room. An emerald moss sculpture stretches across the far back wall, overlooking curved wood seating, grey upholstery and white walls free of artwork. Slight-but-significant changes give the new Avanti (note, no more “Ristorante” in the name) a breezy, coastal-modern feel. And, as we discovered at lunch last week, the food has never been better,
We started with one of the special drink options, a Cucumber Cooler ($8), utterly refreshing with cucumber, elderflower and lime muddled with Seedlip n/a gin and soda. A mocktail for late summer sophisticates. With it, we shared an appetizer special of plump salmon fritters, a crunchy trio perched on house marinara with a freshly made mayonnaise dipping sauce and a wedge of lime ($13). My companion was busy taking in the details of the stonework around the windows and alcoves that give the interior distinction. Skylights keep the room suffused with soft light.
Our entrees were excellent. I always have loved one of the house classics, the confit of Liberty Duck ($19), served with roasted potatoes and a sauté of baby carrots, onions and fresh green beans, the market vegetables of the day. This dish has it all, with the sensory contrasts I expect of a classic: the intensity of duck fat and crisp, salty skin; the earthiness of potatoes; the sweetness of the beans and carrots. Terrifically satisfying.
Jack went for a gorgeous plate of lamb meatballs with red pepper-laced marinara arranged atop a trio of grilled polenta cakes ($13). A generous grating of parmigiano reggiano and chopped parsley dusted every item on the long, rectangular stoneware plate. Trying not to grin while he ate, my companion inhaled a third of this dish before he came up for air. My fork reached over and gave it a try. I started grinning, too. The sensitivity to design of the new interior was echoed by the sensitivity to textures and design of the food. The marinara sauce, pungent with fresh herbs and the depth of slow-cooked tomatoes, was almost addictive. The kind of thing you might happily put on corn flakes.
Jack approved. This is the perfect place to meet for lunch, he agreed. There are still plenty of Italianate entrées—lasagne, ravioli, pappardelle, gnocchi, even clams and linguine—to keep the old-school regulars content. Appetizers are getting creative. Lots of calamari specials and market garden salads. Checking out the dessert menu, I noted with pleasure that the insanely decadent butterscotch budino with salted caramel sauce was still available. No matter how full you are, once you’ve had a single bite of this semi-legal dessert, you cannot stop eating. So I made sure to try something new. I almost caved at the very idea of mascarpone mousse cake with nectarine glaze, or (upon the high approval rating by savvy hostess Christi Caviglia) the chocolate olive oil cake. But I decided on homemade peach pie with almond crumble and vanilla gelato ($10). Two spoons. A luxurious, pampering pie, it was plump with fresh peaches and festooned with almondy bits of crumbled butter, brown sugar and more almonds. At the side, providing contrast, was an austere, barely sweet scoop of vanilla gelato. I kicked myself that I hadn’t ordered an espresso to pair with this lavish made-for-two dessert. But of course, there’s next time…
Avanti Restaurant, 1917 Mission St., Santa Cruz. Lunch Monday-Friday 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m.; dinner nightly from 5 p.m. 427-0135, avantisantacruz.squarespace.com.
“I think Joe Paterno was treated abominably. It was completely wrong to blame him,” says Gladwell. “Having read hundreds of pages of the court transcripts, I don’t think a plausible case could be made that Joe Paterno had any inkling whatsoever of Jerry Sandusky’s activities. He did exactly what he was supposed to do—he notified his superiors immediately and turned the matter over to them. That is what he was supposed to do. I’m quite sympathetic to some of the Penn State people who feel that case was mishandled.”
