The day after Trump got elected, L.A. electronic musician Robert Delong wrote “The Beginning of the End.” It’s a triumphant, spine-tingling electronic song with layers of synths and guitar and vocal processors, and a foreboding tone to the lyrics. (“Guess I should’ve seen the signs, but I didn’t.”)
The song’s not intended to be explicitly political, or even provide commentary on Trump—Delong just felt compelled to capture the dark emotion of the moment.
“That day was intense. You could definitely sense the tension in the air, especially here in Los Angeles,” Delong explains.
There aren’t even any obvious references to Trump, or the day after the election.
“You can also interpret it to be about relationships,” Delong says. “If any song is too specific, I’m not interested in it. I’m always interested in subtext in songwriting.”
“The Beginning of the End” was the first song Delong wrote for his most recent EP, See You In The Future, released in October of last year. He wrote the rest of songs several months after “The Beginning of the End,” but they capture a similar tone. These are large-scale, emotive electronic songs—bigger sounding than anything he’s released thus far—with apocalyptic lyrics that are “written out of the anxieties of modern life,” as he puts it.
The song “Revolutionary” comments on how technology and social media affects our lives. “First Person on Earth” is a love song that takes place in the apocalypse, with romantic lyrics like “If I’m the last one standing, I would wanna watch it burn with you.”
Probably the weirdest of all is “Favorite Color is Blue,” a collaboration he did with alt-rapper K.Flay. The song is a somber, almost robotic expression of watching the world crumble all around you, and has a bizarre, menacing chant in the chorus. The two artists wrote the song as a collaboration, a byproduct of their friendship. Delong says the song could not have been written by either of them without the other, and likely without the circumstances—a hot L.A. day with no air conditioning.
“It was like a hundred degrees in my studio,” Delong says. “Maybe that oppression is what came through the weird frenetic lines that sound like a fucked-up circus.”
Earlier in his career, Delong was making more lo-fi, experimental electronic music that was driven structurally by his past as a drummer. He started out playing drums in various punk and indie bands, but later transitioned to production and got hooked on creating music via computer software.
“The music I make tends to rely on my sense of rhythm,” Delong says. “It’s the way I approach music. I’m always thinking about it as a drummer. I don’t know how else I could at this point.”
As a younger musician, he did write songs on his acoustic guitar, but he felt a strong draw to the possibilities of electronic music.
“The sense of scale is not really possible in a traditional rock setup. And really, just the amount of sonic information that you can fit into a song,” Delong says. “You can have a thousand different sounds from a thousand different places. It all feels like it’s part of the same thing. As opposed to just being limited to guitars, bass, drums, which I love as well.”
He also surprised himself as an electronic musician by becoming a solo performer. As he’s developed a career over the past decade, he’s become known as a one-man-band with some pretty out-there electronic gear; for instance, he’ll play a solo using light beams as the notes. This past year, as his latest EP shows, he’s really focused on making larger productions. And his live show is quickly becoming, oddly enough, a full-on band showcase.
“It’s fun because I can do my crazy looping. It has a really interactive performance part,” Delong says. “But I can just be a singer. Let the band take care of all the other stuff.”
Robert Delong performs at 9 p.m. on Wednesday, July 17, at the Catalyst, 1011 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $18/adv, $20/door. 423-1338.
“Ah Fook was born to fish…For Santa Cruzans not to know him is comparable to a mountaineer spending a lifetime within five miles of Yosemite Valley and never taking the trouble to view the wonders of its waterfalls.”
— Warren “Skip” Littlefield, Santa Cruz Evening-News, 1941
Ah Fook may be the biggest, most badass ghost in Santa Cruz County history. A hungry ghost? Maybe. Angry? He could be—maybe even should be—but I don’t think so. He seems to have a perennially beatific smile on his face, as though he’s got a big cosmic secret hidden somewhere in his soul, and one of these days he’s going to let us all in on the joke.
One thing’s for certain: Ah Fook’s ghost is tenacious as hell. He’s got pure neon tenacity running through his phantasmal veins.
Raised during a time in local history when immigrants of Chinese descent were branded as subhuman or worse, the person—or more accurately the character—who today we call Ah Fook, or Cheung Ah Fook, witnessed an ugly brew of hatred, racism, violence and xenophobia that cast him and others in his community to the shadowy margins of 19th-century Santa Cruz society. Let’s not pull any punches: the xenophobic Yankee power structure in Santa Cruz did everything it could to drive the Chinese out of town.
In one legendary editorial appearing in the Santa Cruz Sentinel in 1879, close to the year that Ah Fook was born, Chinese immigrants were described as “half-human, half-devil, rat-eating, rag-wearing, law-ignoring, Christian civilization-hating, opium-smoking, labor-degrading, entrail-sucking Celestials.”
So much for subtleties. The anti-Chinese movement in Santa Cruz was as racist and vicious as it was anywhere in the West.
And while the Chinese played an absolutely critical role in the economic development of Santa Cruz County (and the rest of California for that matter), their roles in the region’s expansive mythology have often been relegated to faceless stereotypes as railroad workers and laundrymen, their lives tossed carelessly (and ceaselessly) on the ash heap of history.
As Cabrillo College historian emeritus Sandy Lydon wrote in his definitive Chinese Gold: The Chinese in the Monterey Region: “Though the Chinese are not explicitly mentioned in the local and regional histories, if you hold each page to the light you can make out a faint pattern. The longer you look, the stronger the pattern becomes. The Chinese are in the very paper; they are the watermark.”
Ah Fook’s lined, weathered face surely appears in the patterns on those pages.
In the 1940s, when most of his elder American Chinese compatriots were left lurking in the shadows of Santa Cruz’s final Chinatown, Ah Fook became something of a local celebrity, appearing on the front pages of newspapers and calendars, promotional brochures and advertising billboards. For the next decade and more, even into the sanitized 1950s, he appeared regularly as a character in newspaper columns, with various details of his life recorded on a weekly, if not daily, basis.
And then he mysteriously disappeared. His death went unnoticed, and more surprisingly, seemingly unrecorded. After being a media darling and public figure here for the better part of two decades, his passing, rather shockingly, went unreported. His spirit vanished. His memory became an apparition.
Then, two generations later, he returned again. As interest in local Chinese history experienced a resurgence with the publication of Lydon’s work in the 1980s, he appeared in movies and later on the cover of the book Chinatown Dreams: The Life and Photographs of George Lee, which I edited and co-wrote with my friends Lisa Liu Grady, Tony Hill, James D. Houston, Morton Marcus, George Ow Jr., and Lydon. In the cover image, Ah Fook is holding the 7-year-old Ow with his weathered hands as though he is hanging onto the future.
Just this past spring, Ah Fook returned again. He had a cameo in Tessa Hulls’ fascinating exhibit at the MAH, Chasing Ghosts, which chronicled her own family’s migration to the U.S. along with the history of Santa Cruz’s various Chinese communities.
Ow, who spent the first seven years of his life raised in the final Santa Cruz Chinatown, has gone so far to suggest, at least casually, that a footbridge crossing the San Lorenzo River, in a project spearheaded by Greg Pepping of the Coastal Watershed Council, be renamed in his honor.
“Ah Fook is not letting Santa Cruz forget about its Chinese history,” says Ow. “I can feel his positive energy. He wants the spirits of the old Chinese men and women who never got their due to be remembered, honored and recognized. He won’t be denied.”
Ah Fook’s ghost is tenacious indeed.
Most Santa Cruzans give you a long, blank stare when you talk about the city’s Chinatown and its myriad Chinese historical roots. There’s good reason for that. There are few remnants of this history to be found anywhere in the community, save for a relatively hidden plaque on the Galleria Building downtown and the recently constructed and colorful memorial Chinese gate located in the Evergreen Cemetery, which is overseen by MAH. Not much else.
But in the 1800s, Santa Cruz County claimed major Chinatowns in both Santa Cruz and Watsonville, along with several smaller Chinese communities scattered from Davenport up the San Lorenzo Valley and the California Powder Works (today Paradise Park), and south to Capitola (New Brighton Beach) and the Pajaro River.
The City of Santa Cruz actually had four distinct Chinatowns in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, all of which were located on the periphery of the city’s downtown economic center. The first was located on what was then known as Willow St. (today Pacific Ave.), between Walnut Ave. and Lincoln St. The second stretched along Front St., from just below the current site of the Post Office down along what is now the Comerica Bank property. The third, Blackburn’s Chinatown, was located along the west side of Chestnut St., just south of Laurel, above what is today Depot Park.
These so-called Chinatowns were largely bachelor communities (Santa Cruz had the lowest percentage of Chinese women in the region) and many of the men worked as servants for upper-middle class families residing in the city’s stately Victorian homes. Others worked in laundries and in vegetable gardens scattered around the city; still others developed the region’s commercial fishing and agricultural industries; while a handful operated small businesses and retail stores, importing mercantile items from China.
It would be a bit of an overstatement to describe the Santa Cruz County Chinese immigrant economy as thriving, but it was as industrious as it was persistent. At its peak in the 1890s, U.S. Census figures indicate that nearly five percent of the county’s population was composed of Chinese immigrants.
In Santa Cruz, the city’s final Chinese community—known as “Birkenseer’s Chinatown” on Bellvue Place and, later, China Lane—was nestled between the San Lorenzo River and the city’s downtown business district, just east of Front St. (running into Cooper St.), and sloping into the San Lorenzo River.
During the 1920s and 1930s, Birkenseer’s Chinatown was known largely for its underground activities—gambling and prostitution, rum running (during Prohibition) and drug dealing, with opium and heroin being the drugs of choice. References in the local newspapers were almost exclusively from arrests and police raids. Graft was omnipresent and bribes the currency du jour. Scandal was always lurking in the shadows. Chinatown had a hard edge.
The 1940 Federal Census of downtown Santa Cruz indicates that there were still more than 60 residents of Chinese descent living in Chinatown on the eve of World War II. Nearly all were men, though George Ow’s maternal grandmother, Gue She Lee, lived there along with her husband, Sung Si Lee, and several children, including Ow’s mother, Emily. His father, George Ow Sr., lived there as well.
Living next door to the Lee family, at what was commonly known as the Joss House—which was operated by the Gee Chong Tong (Chinese Freemasons), along the edge of the San Lorenzo River—was a handful of elderly men. One of them, according to everyone I’ve interviewed over the last 40 years, was Ah Fook. And that is the name by which residents of Chinatown referenced him in the 1940s and beyond. It is how Ow and his uncle Jun Lee, now 83, reference him to this day.
But in the 1940 census, there is no one listed by that name living in the Joss House—or anywhere else in Chinatown, for that matter. This presents one of the great problems in tracking down Chinese biographies and personal historical details of American Chinese in the 19th and early 20th centuries: individuals often went by different names—sometimes a dozen or more.
Chinese emigrating to the U.S. often did so as “paper sons” or “paper daughters,” purchasing fraudulent documents claiming blood relations to those legally living in the U.S. They changed their names to match the documents, often more than once. This was a common practice until well into the 20th century. And it’s a secret still held closely by many Chinese American families living in the U.S. for more than a century. Add to that the racist ignorance of U.S. immigration officials, census takers, court officials, peace officers, journalists and others who butchered Chinese names.
Then there was the matter of protecting one’s identity and sowing confusion among those who maintained power. The novelist Maxine Hong Kingston once told me the story of how her father, who ran a gambling house in Stockton’s Chinatown not unlike those located in Santa Cruz, changed his name on each occasion that he was arrested, which was often. He never got a record, she said, because he changed his name every time. Sometimes the name came to him in the back of the police car; sometimes when he was getting booked. “I got away with all those aliases,” her father told her, “because the white demons can’t tell one Chinese name from another, or one face from another.”
George Ow told me that his own father went by at least a half-dozen different names during his lifetime. “For many,” he said, “it was simply a matter of expediency, convenience, or survival.”
The three men listed in the 1940 Census as living in the Joss House were Yee Chin, Mon L. Chin, and Lam Lee. An article appearing in the Santa Cruz Sentinel in November of the following year noted that two men had just left the structure—Un Hay and Lee Lem—and that three remained—Ah Jim, Lem Bach, and Ah Fook, the latter of whom was identified as a “chair repairer and fisherman.”
Earlier that year, Ah Fook had caught the literary imagination of one of Santa Cruz’s most colorful promotional figures of that or any era, Warren “Skip” Littlefield, who then served as the publicity director of the Santa Cruz Beach Company, better known as the Boardwalk. I knew Littlefield well as a young adult (he died in 1985), and discussed local history with him as often as I could, but I don’t remember him ever talking about Ah Fook.
That said, on the first day of spring, 1941, Littlefield turned Ah Fook into a full-blown character (and perhaps a bit of a caricature, too) in Santa Cruz media, and even in publications outside the community. In a front-page story appearing in the Santa Cruz Sentinel entitled “Fishing Comes First, Work Comes Last With Ah Fook, Venerable Angler on S.C. Municipal Pier,” Littlefield introduced Ah Fook to the community.
Accompanied by a large photograph of Ah Fook fishing from the end of the wharf, the article described its subject as a “peppery little Chinaman,” his face “weathered to the color of driftwood” with “piercing brown eyes, fanned with wrinkles from squinting over sunny waters” that “will suddenly sparkle like diamonds when a 12-inch jack smelt whips line and pole into agitated motion.”
Ah Fook, Littlefield assured readers, “has never been known to allow business to stand in the way of pleasure.”
Littlefield had obviously done some homework. He described Ah Fook’s living quarters in Chinatown—“an old wood cooking stove and a mid-Victorian bed provide help in the simple operations of sleeping and eating”—and Ah Fook’s complementary employment of repairing reed and rattan chairs in some detail, pointing out that he had learned his trade from “an American woman in Oakland,” and that he purchased his materials through a “Chinese concern” in San Francisco that he “paid every Chinese New Year.”
Littlefield’s portrait certainly catered to Chinese American stereotypes typical of the times. But Littlefield also conducted an interview with Ah Fook with a formal interpreter present that elicited some fascinating information about his familial roots in Santa Cruz. It also underscored the fact that the often nameless, faceless elderly men who lived in the shadows of Chinatown had fully rendered and complex lives of their own.
According to Littlefield’s interview, Ah Fook’s father arrived in Santa Cruz on the sailing ship Alexander in February of 1857, and later worked for railroad baron Leland Stanford as a foreman on the Union Pacific Railroad. In 1876, Littlefield asserted, “the elder Fook… procured Chinese labor gangs to build [Frederick Augustus] Hihn’s railroad from Santa Cruz to Watsonville.”
I wasn’t able to verify any of these precise details, but in respect to Littlefield’s assertion about Hihn, I asked my friend Stan Stevens—a librarian emeritus at UCSC, and an expert on all things related to Hihn—if he was in possession of any such records, and he sent me back the transcript of an agreement from 1881 between Hihn and an “Ah Kay,” in which the latter agreed to supply Hihn with a “gang of [C]hinamen of about twenty eight (28) men for five months” for the purpose of “building roads and grubbing land.”
Eight months later, in November of 1941, Littlefield reworked his Ah Fook story, this time for the Santa Cruz Evening News, with banner headlines in the Sunday paper declaring “$1200-a-ton Soup Fin Sharks Tempt Ah Fook.” The subhead proclaimed: “Ancient Fisherman In Tiny Skiff Promises ‘Me Catch ’Im Big One.’”
Once again, a large portrait of Littlefield’s smiling subject accompanied the story —this time with him mending chairs—and there were similar references to his father, his history with Hihn and his love of fishing. This time, he was aiming to make big money by landing the prized shark.
From that point on, Ah Fook was a local media maven. Littlefield promoted him yet a third time, in September of 1942, with headlines proclaiming “Now He Can Fish Once More.” In the early months of World War II, with anti-Japanese (and anti-Asian) sentiment in the region at a fevered pitch, Ah Fook had been prohibited from fishing in local waters (or even off the local pier).
Fred Castagnola of the General Fish Corporation took him down to Monterey to meet with the regional military commander, who cleared Ah Fook for fishing—making him, according to Littlefield, “the only Celestial fisherman in California coastal waters” thus permitted.
The second Santa Cruz scribe to pick up Ah Fook’s cause was Ernest Otto, the dean of not only Santa Cruz journalists, but of all California newspaper reporters. Born in Santa Cruz in 1871, Otto started his career as a 10-year-old delivery boy at the Santa Cruz Surf in 1881, advanced to a reporter while still in his teens, then continued with the Sentinel in 1919, where he remained until his death in 1955.
Otto’s regular “Waterfront” column kept close tabs of Ah Fook’s activities. He reported his catches regularly—mostly jack smelt, perch, mackerel, king fish, gopher cod and lingcod—and also on his health. If he didn’t fish, Otto reported that as well. On July 31, 1952, after a hiatus of nearly three years, Otto reported: “Ah Fook, the well-known Chinese fisherman, was at the end of the wharf yet again yesterday—his first visit there for a long time.”
Three months later, in October of 1952, Otto noted: “Some jack smelt were caught. The high catch was by Ah Fook, the Chinese, who had a pail of jack smelt as usual.”
That was the last time Otto, or anyone else, reported on Ah Fook while he was still alive. There was never an obituary under his name, nor a death notice.
Ah Fook vanished without a trace.
Ah Fook, circa 1941, as photographed by legendary Santa Cruz photographer George Lee. Courtesy Chinatown Dreams.
More than a decade later, on July 21, 1963, a familiar face reappeared in the pages of the Sentinel, this time in an article on the history of Chinese fishing in the region by Mildred Ann Smith. Smith mentioned the varied accounts of Ah Fook fishing on the Santa Cruz waterfront, and in the last line of her story mentioned that he had “died a few years ago at the county hospital.”
That was the only reference to his death I ever found.
For several decades now, I have been trying to figure out what happened to Ah Fook. None of the old residents of Chinatown could remember. “I don’t have a last memory of him,” Ow recalled. “The memory of him just faded away.”
Finally, out of a sense of final desperation in putting together this story, I went to search the County Recorder’s archive of vital records. The Death Index had been upgraded significantly since I had last been there in the early 2000s, and I decided to broaden my search to include any Chinese men older than 70 who had died within five years of the 1963 date referenced by Smith. I also added the last name of Cheung—or a close facsimile thereof—to my search.
I came across several possibilities, and one that initially seemed a good shot named Ying Chong Chin, but he was only 65 when he died and had lived in Santa Cruz County only 35 years. Just when I was about to give up, I discovered the name of Chung Git, who had died in Santa Cruz in September of 1958.
The information about his life corresponded in general terms with the outline established by Littlefield two decades earlier. I then recalled another brief newspaper clipping from 1942, in which Otto referenced Ah Fook by a slightly different name: “Gin Chet Ah Fook, the Chinese character who spends much time about the wharf and also mends chairs, is the proud possessor of his commercial license and proudly shows the card with his picture and finger prints.”
“Gin Chet” and “Chung Git” were close enough in the Chinese name game. I was all but certain this was him.
His listed cause of death also explained why his demise might have gone unnoted and the details of his life unexplained: he died of heart disease caused by “generalized artereosclerosis with senile dementia.” Emphasis added. Ah Fook had outlived all of his generation, and he had lost his memory. He could not tell his story. Ernest Otto had died. And there was nobody else to tell it.
The death certificate listed the burial site of the person identified as Chung Git (and I believe Ah Fook) as Oakwood Memorial Park, on Paul Sweet Road, just west of Dominican Hospital. I have many friends and a handful of family buried there, so I am fairly familiar with the terrain.
On Monday of last week, I went out to visit Oakwood, where memorial counselor Leonard Robideaux kindly checked to see if there were any records listed under Chung Git’s name. He returned with “both good news and bad news.” The good news was that he had found the decedent’s burial record, but that he was buried in a large, unmarked area of the cemetery where the indigent had been laid to rest without grave markers. The site was listed as “Block#6, Division B, Grave #318 (County).”
A couple of oak trees cast shade over portions of the site, but other than a trio of scattered markers, the site is unimproved. The weeds that grow there are mowed occasionally throughout the year to abate fire hazards.
I walked the entire grounds, looking for ghosts, and somewhere beneath my steps rested the grave of Ah Fook. His site may be unmarked, but his spirit remains strong and tenacious. Someday soon, I sense, he and the other forgotten Chinese men and women of his generation are going to receive their due. The prized soup fin shark may have eluded him, but respect and recognition will not.
Cora X. Crux is moving out. And she’s looking for a new crash pad.
If you have a room to rent, there are a few things you should know about Cora—she won’t be around much, amenities like a bed or a shower aren’t really necessary, she has some weird stuff and she expects to have lots of visitors.
Oh, and she’s also entirely fictional.
Cora is an explorer/adventurer and crypto-zoologist. She’s also the unseen presence at the Chamber of Heart and Mystery, the beguiling, 350-square-foot room of delights at Santa Cruz’s Museum of Art & History. The Chamber is a product of the Young Writers Program, in which visitors of all ages can come and inspect Dr. Crux’s study, a kind of Lemony Snicket-esque closet of antiquated technologies, including old telephones and typewriters—all in the service of inspiring the imaginations of young writers.
This month, after three years at the MAH, the Chamber is packing up and leaving, without a new permanent spot. To mark the occasion, the Young Writers Program will be holding a farewell party on Thursday, July 11 at the MAH, that will also act as a fundraiser to help the Chamber find a new home. The event will feature live music by Coffee Zombie Collective, plus refreshments.
“We are going to have a celebration for the de-installation of the Chamber,” said YWP director Julia Chiapella. “That’s how we’re looking at it: a celebration. Our plan has always been to have a space like 826 Valencia.”
That is a reference to the famous “Pirate Supply Store” retail storefront in San Francisco that serves as the portal for the writing program founded by novelist Dave Eggers and teacher Ninive Calegari. Ideally, Chiapella would love to find a retail space that can serve the same purpose. In the meantime, the artifacts of Dr. Crux will be placed in a new space at Branciforte Middle School.
For the past three years, the Chamber has served as a portal for the Word Lab, the on-site after-school literary program operated by the YWP. The Word Lab will continue on at the MAH without the Chamber. That program has served about 145 students from Mission Hill and Branciforte middle schools, and Harbor and Santa Cruz high schools every year in three separate, nine-week sessions. Also continuing will be the YWP’s in-classroom projects that inspire middle- and high-school students to write poetry, fiction and nonfiction.
“We couldn’t be there forever,” said Chiapella on the Chamber’s exit from the MAH. “Real estate being what it is in Santa Cruz, it’s hard to find a place for a non-profit. So the (July 11 event) will be both a celebration and a call to the community on how we can keep this going, or if we want to keep this going.”
The Chamber has many interactive features and old-school technologies, including story cubes, a magic lantern and a cabinet of curiosities. They are designed to work as writing prompts or otherwise stoke young imaginations, all presented in a rich Edwardian-era aesthetic with no trace of the digital, push-button world that surrounds kids today.
“The kids that come in are absolutely enchanted,” said Chiapella, “and the adults are as well. We have this telephone—we call it a ‘heart phone’—where people pick it up and several things are recorded on it. Some of the things are odd, or zany, or tender, or surreal. It’s been a lovely thing.”
Chiapella worked with Santa Cruz children’s author David Zeltser to establish a place like 826 Valencia in Santa Cruz. And project designers Rebecca Goldman and Carmen Clark conceived of the idea after a visit to the San Francisco site.
“We do get those kids who look around and say, ‘This is stupid,’ and move on. But they are really few and far between,” said Chiapella. “There is an enchanting element to the analog nature of it, at this point. It engages you in a way that’s not directing you necessarily. It doesn’t have that instant gratification quality to it. It demands that you think, slow down, and tell your own story.”
A celebration of the Chamber of Heart and Mystery will be held Thursday, July 11, 7 to 9 p.m. at the Museum of Art and History, 705 Front St., Santa Cruz. $15 general admission. youngwriterssc.org.
Ed Muns showcased his wines at Vino Locale on the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf recently, an opportunity for my husband and I to check out the sea lions and try the new-ish wine bar on the water. The best part was tasting the superb wines of Muns Vineyard, including the 2014 Syrah ($30) from Muns’ estate vineyard.
Muns and partner Mary Lindsay not only make wine under their own Muns Vineyard label, but also grow an abundance of grapes for regular customers. Out of several wines I tried at their pop-up tasting, the 2014 Syrah is my favorite. Its stewed plum and blackberry aromas, with notes of pepper, jam and spices, add enormous depth and complexity.
Vino Locale is owned by Debra Szecsei and offers small plates of food and tapas to pair with their ample inventory of wines, many of them local. I recommend the quiche ($9) from Kelly’s French Bakery or the mini chicken empanadas ($10).
Muns Vineyard doesn’t have a tasting room, but their wines are available at various stores in the Santa Cruz area. Muns is a sponsor of the Jazz on the Plazz free summer concerts in downtown Los Gatos, a chance to imbibe good wine while listening to cool vibes.
Muns Vineyard. 408-234-2079, munsvineyard.com; Vino Locale Wine Bar & Bistro, 55 Municipal Wharf, Santa Cruz. 426-0750, vinolocale.com.
CHOCOLATE…AND COCKTAILS
The hot downtown Santa Cruz restaurant Chocolate will be serving up some fabulous cocktails starting July 12. Owner David Jackman is showcasing a dry chocolate martini with an unsweetened cacao-nib-vodka infusion and “a delicious chocolate taste, not bitter and not sweet,” says Jackman. Another nib infusion is the Chocolate-Mint Mojito—just delish! And try the Lilikoi Margarita with passion fruit puree. Jackman also has added burgers to his menu, either vegan or free-range pork on house-made buns and served with organic roasted steak papas (thick-cut potato wedges). And don’t miss Jackman’s ambrosial hot cocoas, perfect for cool Santa Cruz weather.
Years ago, Nightmare on Elm Street director Wes Craven told me that a horror movie can only really work if the audience doesn’t trust its director. One way or another, he said, the movie has to create the feeling that it was made by someone unwilling or unable to control his or her own worst impulses.
He had that experience for the first time himself when he went to see The Texas Chainsaw Massacre as a young man in the ’70s. The movie was so straight-up insane that he thought it might have been made by some deranged satanic cult, and he actually felt unsafe sitting in the theater, worrying about what these imagined fiends might force him to see. He spent most of his career trying to create that same fear in the audiences that went to his own films.
No one is going to confuse writer-director Ari Aster’s new film Midsommar with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It doesn’t have a single jump scare, or even suspenseful sequence, really. It isn’t scary, in the traditional sense. And yet the oppressive, constant sense of dread, punctuated by a string of increasingly extreme shocks, creates one of the most effective feats of true cinematic horror to come along in quite some time. As the grotesqueries of the story begin to evolve from disturbing to downright absurd, Aster revels in forcing the audience to look at their absurdity. He is Craven’s untrustworthy director to the nth degree, willing to slam his audience from gorgeous, pristine art-movie landscapes one moment to twisted dives into the darkest human impulses the next. Midsommar does not play fair with us, because Aster has no interest in playing fair. And yet, I doubt he would agree with anyone who calls the movie cynical; there’s a pitch-black earnestness to the whole thing that suggests Aster is interested not in creating pointless shocks, but in revealing some unpleasant truths about life, the universe and everything.
The film is set in a small Swedish community, to which a group of Americans have traveled to observe a midsummer festival. The first thing worth noting about this group is that they clearly have not seen the 1973 cult-horror classic The Wicker Man, in which a foreigner gets suckered into being a human sacrifice for a pagan ritual. Not even the terrible Nic Cage remake, apparently! Obviously, Midsommar owes a huge debt to the original Wicker Man—sometimes a bit too much, even. But this film is even darker.
The second thing about the group—and in fact, everyone in the film—is that they are remarkably unlikable, even the main visiting couple, Dani (Florence Pugh) and Christian (Jack Reymor). If you’re one of those people who simply can’t watch a film where there’s no one to root for, this is probably not for you. But if you can get over it, the characterizations here are both audacious and effective, the interpersonal tensions realistic and relatable. As Aster slowly, purposefully takes Midsommar completely off the rails, the believability established by the cast is of the utmost importance. We stay on board because we’re invested in their tragic, awful and tragically awful relationships, and in their fates.
There will no doubt be many a future college thesis theorizing about what Aster is saying here, and they will make for some bleak reading. This film rejects the popular notion that anything dubbed “ancient” or “natural” is healthy and good, but it also hates the jittery, self-obsessed modern world. It is anti-religion, anti-organization, anti-individual, anti-relationship, and anti-culture. It is anti-life, and hell, it may even be pro-suicide, I can’t even tell. If you think that sounds dangerous, than you’re starting to understand why Wes Craven was right, and why Midsommar is such a powerful horror film.
MIDSOMMAR
Written and directed by Ari Aster. Starring Florence Pugh and Jack Reymor. (R) 147 minutes.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): You’re in the Land of Green Magic. That’s potentially very good news, but you must also be cautious. Why? Because in the Land of Green Magic, the seeds of extraneous follies and the seeds of important necessities both grow extra-fast. Unless you are a careful weeder, useless stuff will spring up and occupy too much space. So be firm in rooting out the blooms that won’t do you any good. Be aggressive in nurturing only the very best and brightest.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Eight years ago, researchers in Kerala, India went to the Padmanabhaswamy Temple and climbed down into centuries-old vaults deep beneath the main floor. They found a disorganized mess of treasure in the form of gold and precious gems. There were hundreds of chairs made from gold, baskets full of gold coins from the ancient Roman Empire, and a four-foot-high solid statue of a god, among multitudinous other valuables. I like bringing these images to your attention, Taurus, because I have a theory that if you keep them in your awareness, you’ll be more alert than usual to undiscovered riches in your own life and in your own psyche. I suspect you are closer than ever before to unearthing those riches.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Children need to learn certain aptitudes at certain times. If they don’t, they may not be able to master those aptitudes later in life. For example, if infants don’t get the experience of being protected and cared for by adults, it will be hard for them to develop that capacity as toddlers. This is a good metaphor for a developmental phase that you Geminis are going through. In my astrological opinion, 2019 and 2020 are critical years for you to become more skilled at the arts of togetherness and collaboration; to upgrade your abilities so as to get the most out of your intimate relationships. How are you doing with this work so far?
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Vantablack is a material made of carbon nanotubes. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, it is the darkest stuff on the planet. No black is blacker than Vantablack. It reflects a mere 0.036% of the light that shines upon it. Because of its unusual quality, it’s ideal for use in the manufacture of certain sensors, cameras, and scientific instruments. Unfortunately, an artist named Anish Kapoor owns exclusive rights to use it in the art world. No other artists are allowed to incorporate Vantablack into their creations. I trust you will NOT follow Kapoor’s selfish example in the coming weeks. In my astrological opinion, it’s crucial that you share your prime gifts, your special skills, and your unique blessings with the whole world. Do not hoard!
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Hi, my name is Rob Brezsny, and I confess that I am addicted to breathing air, eating food, drinking water, indulging in sleep, and getting high on organic, free-trade, slavery-free dark chocolate. I also confess that I am powerless over these addictions. Now I invite you to be inspired by my silly example and undertake a playful but serious effort to face up to your own fixations. The astrological omens suggest it’s a perfect moment to do so. What are you addicted to? What habits are you entranced by? What conditioned responses are you enslaved to? What traps have you agreed to be snared by? The time is right to identify these compulsions, then make an audacious break for freedom.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): When cherries are nearing the end of their ripening process, they are especially vulnerable. If rain falls on them during those last few weeks, they can rot or split, rendering them unmarketable. So, cherry-growers hire helicopter pilots to hover over their trees right after it rains, using the downdraft from the blades to dry the valuable little fruits. It may seem like overkill, but it’s the method that works best. I advise you to be on the lookout for similar protective measures during the climactic phase of your personal ripening process. Your motto should be to take care of your valuables by any means necessary.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Please don’t try to relax. Don’t shy away from challenges. Don’t apologize for your holy quest or tone down your ambition or stop pushing to get better. Not now, anyway, Libra. Just the opposite, in fact. I urge you to pump up the volume on your desires. Be even bigger and bolder and braver. Take maximum advantage of the opportunities that are arising, and cash in on the benevolent conspiracies that are swirling in your vicinity. Now is one of those exceptional moments when tough competition is actually healthy for you, when the pressure to outdo your previous efforts can be tonic and inspiring.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): I can’t decide whether to compare your imminent future to a platypus, kaleidoscope, patchwork quilt, or Swiss Army knife. From what I can tell, your adventures could bring you random jumbles or melodic mélanges—or a blend of both. So I’m expecting provocative teases, pure flukes, and multiple options. There’ll be crazy wisdom, alluring messes, and unclassifiable opportunities. To ensure that your life is more of an intriguing riddle than a confusing maze, I suggest that you stay closely attuned to what you’re really feeling and thinking, and communicate that information with tactful precision.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Every year, thousands of people all over the world go to hospital emergency rooms seeking relief from kidney stones. Many of the treatments are invasive and painful. But in recent years, a benign alternative has emerged. A peer-reviewed article in a scientific journal presented evidence that many patients spontaneously pass their kidney stones simply by riding on roller coasters. I doubt that you’ll have a literal problem like kidney stones in the coming weeks, Sagittarius. But I do suspect that any psychological difficulties you encounter can be solved by embarking on thrilling adventures akin to riding on roller coasters.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): In his book The Histories, ancient Greek historian Herodotus told the story of a six-year war between the armies of the Medes and the Lydians in an area that today corresponds to Turkey. The conflict ended suddenly on a day when a solar eclipse occurred. Everyone on the battlefield got spooked as the light unexpectedly dimmed, and commanders sought an immediate cease to the hostilities. In the spirit of cosmic portents precipitating practical truces, I suggest you respond to the upcoming lunar eclipse on July 16-17 with overtures of peace and healing and amnesty. It’ll be a good time to reach out to any worthwhile person or group from whom you have been alienated.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): My astrological colleague Guru Gwen believes that right now Aquarians should get scolded and penalized unless they agree to add more rigor and discipline to their rhythms. On the other hand, my astrological colleague Maestro Madelyn feels that Aquarians need to have their backs massaged, their hands held, and their problems listened to with grace and empathy. I suppose that both Gwen and Madelyn want to accomplish the same thing, which is to get you back on track. But personally, I’m more in favor of Madelyn’s approach than Gwen’s.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): As a self-taught rebel poet with few formal credentials, I may not have much credibility when I urge you to get yourself better licensed and certified and sanctioned. But according to my analysis of the astrological omens, the coming months will be a favorable time for you to make plans to get the education or training you’re lacking; to find out what it would mean to become more professional, and then become more professional; to begin pursuing the credentials that will earn you more power to fulfill your dreams.
Homework: What symbol best represents your deepest desire? Testify by going to FreeWillAstrology.com and clicking on “Email Rob.”
We are now in the second Mercury retrograde of the year. Mercury retrograded Sunday in Leo, and will make a return visit to Cancer for several weeks. We all know Mercury retro is a time of communication difficulties, unexpected events and interruptions. However, Mercury retrograde has very positive traits: it creates innovative ways of thinking, inspired insights, offering new wisdom and understanding.
Mercury retrograde is a magical time, the trickster energy is playing with us. Mercury is retrograde till July’s end, and in it’s retrograde shadow ’til August 17. In the retrograde, begun at 5 degrees Leo (our creative selves), Mercury returns to Cancer. We contemplate family, tribe, ancestors, and our origins, seeking nourishment from them. Later, Mercury re-enters Leo and our focus shifts to our creative self-identity. In Leo, we must leave the family in order to discover our free and independent selves.
Under Leo, the Sun, bright and golden, rules—our hearts, too. Under Cancer, the Moon, Neptune and the past rule. We seek emotional security. Mind merges with devotion. Leaving the family to discover our independent selves can be very difficult.
Mercury retrograde has its own logic. We also know it is a time of bad drivers; of things upside down and inside out, internal focus and contemplation on things past, clearing our minds of unnecessary thoughts since the last Mercury retrograde (March). It is a time of review, reassessment, reworking, rethinking, redoing. It’s a magical mystery tour of days and nights when we remember things, then quietly set them aside so new realities can then come forth. Revelations occur. Things are lost, then found again. And we all become Virgos, sign of quietude and contemplation.
ARIES: It’s a time of playfulness for Aries, of creativity, which may take many detours into unusual ways of thinking. You may be distracted often, go off predicted pathways, find alternatives that at first feel confusing, but later shine with golden light. All confusions along the way are guideposts letting you know nothing’s lost or wasted. All have a purpose, and you are led in the right directions. Play more, sing, dance and find your way on a different path entirely.
TAURUS: House, home, family, parents, lineage and all environments that both nurture and don’t nurture come into your mind. It’s a perfect time to look around the home to discover what work and repairs are needed. Much can be done during retrogrades that has previously been put aside. Don’t let inertia rule your days and nights. Allow your imagination to fill with unusual plans and ideas. Remain at home as much as possible. It’s interesting there!
GEMINI: Geminis born with Mercury retrograde experience an expanded state of communication and understanding, going out and about in the world with ease and confidence. Geminis not born under Mercury retrograde find themselves in a state of recollection, unable to speak much (unusual for them), becoming more of a listener for the purpose of inner learning. Do not allow stress around delays. Everything in Mercury retrograde is in the right timing.
CANCER: The focus is on money, finances, resources and most of all, values. Unexpected monetary issues may arise. Something overlooked comes into view. It’s important to take this retrograde time to list what your values are in all areas of life. It’s also a good time to set money aside for a time in the future when it’s needed. You have a practical and logical intelligence, which may go awry during the retrograde. It’s telling you something important and essential.
LEO: During the retrograde, you may become more mercurial, which means changeable, distracted, restless and frustrated, while also more adaptable and versatile in conversations. Be sure to listen more. Try not to be too mischievous. Mercury retro is the trickster, and very precocious. You will be thinking of your self-identity. Are you who you think you are? Do people understand you? Are you communicating clearly, from the heart of the matter?
VIRGO: Perhaps there will be subtle power struggles occurring in or around your life. People may feel you’re too intense or too spiritual. You may want to research religions, learn to speak a silent language (perhaps in tongues, which mimics the sound of life in nature). You become an excellent listener and friend, one who keeps secrets. Don’t get too complex trying to understand others. Just know they are doing their best, always. You are, too.
LIBRA: You are endlessly interested in others, in group and social and community interactions, things trending (and about to trend) and teamwork. New ideas enter your life, contributing to your being future-oriented and fair-minded. Your keen interest in friends helps them understand their own wishes, dreams, hopes, plans and ideals. Don’t doubt your own dreams, reconnect with them. They wait for your love and reconnection.
SCORPIO: What is occurring with your work in the world? This is a good time to create clear plans of action, to consider past, present and future goals, your aspirations around them and their purpose. During the retrograde, you can feel a lack discipline. But that is not reality. Retrogrades call us not to action, but to inner reflection. You have a talent of communication that helps negotiate fragile situations. This Scorpio skill brings freshness and vitality to all conversations.
SAGITTARIUS: Is there a hunger for new ways of learning, the exchange of new ideas, new philosophies and new ways to communicate? You are skilled in seeing the big picture, of inspiring others while traveling in different communities and cultures. During the retrograde, do not lean into pessimism—the opposite of your usual optimism. Know that travel may be more difficult, plans changed, flights cancelled. Tend to any legal issues immediately. Consider returning to school.
CAPRICORN: You may be feeling an undue emotionality, a depth of desire for something needed, but not quite known yet. It is a good time to reconnect with those you love, even if they are far away. This gives you something real to do in this retrograde, especially when Mercury returns to Cancer. You are curious about motivation, the mysterious something in others that drives them. Your mind becomes penetrating and able to strategize. When you speak, you stand in authority. People listen. You study your lineage.
AQUARIUS: Mercury is transiting your house of relationships. Be careful in all communications so that misunderstandings don’t arise. Especially with loved ones, those close to you, partners in both love and work. Remain in quiet, in stillness as much as possible. This balances the energies when everything seems confusing and in chaos. Share ideas, but don’t expect specific outcomes. Look at both sides of the coin. It creates stimulating conversations and new perspectives.
PISCES: There seems to be work, work and more work to be done, with many details in tow. Things needs to be sorted, ordered and organized in your personal environment. Attention to this will be helpful in the weeks and months to come. Health is most important at this time. Each morning begin the day with the words, “Everyday in every way I am getting healthier and healthier” (from Dr. Coue) and “Help me to do my very best today.” These set the course of the day for excellence.
It’s always been important to us to help you have the best possible Santa Cruz experience, but this year we’ve drilled down even deeper into the particulars of what this area has to offer in order to help you craft your best Santa Cruz.
Are you a hiker or biker looking for the best trails? A parent looking for a place to take the family? Are you obsessed with free tours, skate parks, apple picking, or mani-pedis? Look no further. Our Visitor’s Guide has all the visitor guiding you could want, and we’ve even gone beyond the borders of Santa Cruz County with our “Mountains and Valleys” insert that will thrill daytrippers looking for excursions into surrounding areas.
If you’re looking for what to do in Santa Cruz, check out our features on the exploding local comedy and theater scenes, or discover when you can find a food truck on Pacific Avenue, or where to zipline in the Santa Cruz Mountains. And be sure to pick up Good Times newspaper every week for more of the best in local culture, dining and events!
Rockford Gallery Contemporary Ceramics is a new art venture opening in Boulder Creek. Featuring the art of Rydell Award-winner and local artist Rocky Lewycky, the gallery will rotate exhibits monthly during the summer season from July through September. Lewycky’s ceramics exhibit I Found Mino No Kuni is based on the Shino glaze from the 1500s in the Mino province of Japan.
INFO: Show runs Friday, July 5-Sunday, July 28. Reception Friday, July 5, 6-9:30 p.m. 125B Forest St., Boulder Creek. rockfordgallery.com. Free.
Green Fix
Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf Experience
Learn more about Monterey Bay from oceanic vantage point—no sailing or swimming necessary. The Santa Cruz Wharf extends a half-mile out to sea in a dynamic marine environment, and scientists from UCSC utilize this easy access to ocean ecosystems to conduct research on sustainable energy, biological oceanography and more. Seymour Marine Discovery Center volunteers are available to answer marine science questions all summer long; look for them at the end of the wharf. Volunteers will be wearing uniforms of khaki pants and navy blue Seymour Center shirts.
INFO: Noon-3 p.m., Saturdays through August 24. Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf, 21 Municipal Wharf, Santa Cruz. 420-5725. Free.
Thursday 7/4
Free Swimming at Simpkins
It’s looking like the weather will be sunnyish and warmish this Fourth of July, which means locals and out-of-towners alike will be trying to beat the heat. The Simpkins Family and the Santa Cruz County Parks Department are sponsoring a free swim day at Simpkins Family Swim Center, with the water slide, climbing wall, inner tubes, pools, and spray zone all fair game and free of charge. Get there early; it’s first-come, first-served, and the good lounge spots will be gone early.
INFO: Noon-4 p.m. Simpkins Family Swim Center, 979 17th Ave., Santa Cruz. 454-7946. Free.
Friday 7/5
Sun and Sea: First Friday Show with Anastasiya Bachmanova
Sun and Sea is a collection of original acrylic paintings celebrating the magic of coastal life, featuring beach scenes, sunsets and marine life in bright, cheerful acrylics. Anastasiya Bachmanova is a local artist who has a passion for the outdoors, with a unique blend of realism and abstraction that utilizes bright colors and flowing lines. Though she primarily works with acrylic on canvas or wood panels, she’s recently begun incorporating resin and other modern techniques in her new work.
INFO: Opening reception 5-7 p.m. Friday, July 5. Capitola Wine Bar, 115 San Jose Ave., Capitola. followthesunart.com. Free.
Thursday 7/4
Boulder Creek Pancake Breakfast and Fourth of July Parade
Firefighters do so much for the community already, but now they want to feed us, too. Bless their hearts. So start the day off right with the Boulder Creek Fire Department’s pancake breakfast, where firefighters will be serving up all-you-can-eat pancakes (original, blueberry and chocolate chip), eggs, sausage, fruit, coffee, and juice. Following breakfast, the downtown Boulder Creek Fourth of July Parade starts at 10 a.m. and is an annual tradition, but the food and fun doesn’t stop there. After the parade ends, check out Boulder Creek Park and Rec’s Fourth of July BBQ at Junction Park for live music, food and drinks, swimming, plus art and craft booths.
INFO: 7 a.m. Pancake breakfast with the Boulder Creek Fire Department, 13230 Hwy. 9, Boulder Creek. bcba.net. $10 adult/$5 child.
The big news this week is that Good Times has purchased the Register-Pajaronian and its sister publication Aptos Life. You can read the details in the story on page 12, but on a personal note, I want to say that I’m really proud to see GT taking over stewardship of one of the oldest and most storied papers in this area. The R-P was the first place to give me a job as a professional journalist, back in 1995, when then-Features-Editor Stacey Vreeken took a chance on hiring me as her assistant and music writer—because, she claimed, I knew what the punk band X was. James O’Brien, who was so completely identified by his nickname Bud that I didn’t even know he had another name until he passed away in 2009 and I read it in his obit, was in his last year before he retired as the Pajaronian’s editor. He was the very model of a Golden Age newspaperman, and in general the R-P (then owned by Scripps, it was bought by News Media Corp. while I was there) was the ideal place to learn the beats and the business of journalism. No one who worked there ever forgot the paper had once won a Pulitzer Prize, and there was a standard of excellence we strove for. Obviously times have changed, and the industry is almost unrecognizable now compared to what it was then, but even after the R-P went from a daily paper to a weekly paper last year, I felt like the crew there was striving for that same standard. Welcome to the family, guys, keep up the good work.
Did I mention this is our Green Issue? You’ll definitely want to read Lauren Hepler’s cover story on UCSC’s Barry Sinervo, and how his work to create a universal formula that predicts extinctions could transform the way we think about climate change. And Mat Weir takes a look in our news section at how much waste the new legal cannabis industry is producing, plus what’s being done to make the industry more sustainable.
I consider myself passionate about politics; opinionated, and outspoken, watching City Council meetings with a keen fascination. But uncharacteristically, I’m writing not to express opinions or sway allegiance, but to share some facts about recalls in general and the proposed recall in particular (Nuz, June 19).
Recall elections are expensive, distracting, and divisive, and our city is making hard choices due to a very large budget deficit. The fact that the recall petitions are directed at one council member elected six months ago and another up for re-election in a year and a half, causes me to question the wisdom and intent of pursuing a costly special election at this time.
In terms of what qualifies as a recall petition, I learned, incredulously, that any statement of justification—accurate or not—with 20 signatures, qualifies as a petition to recall, and can be circulated for signatures! I’m also all-too-aware that when there is money backing a recall, signature gatherers are hired on a pay by signature basis to attain the required 20% of registered voters’ signatures.
Examining the statements in the current petitions, I found false, unsubstantiated and misleading accusations. For example, one petition states that Drew Glover said that there was “no health and safety risk” involved in keeping Ross Camp open. What he actually said was the risks were not imminent and unmanageable, and could be corrected without the camp closure, which he felt would displace many back into our doorways and bushes. I live near downtown and have seen evidence of this having occurred.
Another claim is that the councilperson “demonstrated through actions and temperament that he is not fit to serve as a city council member”—clearly an unverifiable judgment. Past council meetings can be watched on Community TV, and I encourage our city voters to watch them in their entirety. I personally have never seen anything of the gravity to merit a special election—essentially an invalidation of our election results.
I urge City residents to refuse to sign, rejecting this assault on democracy.
Sheila Carrillo
Santa Cruz
Policy and Priorities
Thank you Good Times for spot-on coverage regarding all things cannabis and healthy food!
Also you published a very well-written editorial on our homeless brothers and sisters recently (Nuz, May 1). Thank you for keeping them on our radar; we need to remember that it is not only a public health issue; homelessness measures our effectiveness in local government, our level of compassion as a citizen and our priorities as human beings.
Please keep the dialogue alive.
A. Anderson
Nevada City, Ca.
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GOOD IDEA
Across most of Santa Cruz County, it’s illegal to set off fireworks, and law enforcement will be out looking for violators around the county on Thursday, July 4. The rules may be the strictest in the city of Santa Cruz, which has a citywide “safety enhancement zone” on July 4 and 5. The one exception to the local ban is the city of Watsonville, which allows residents to set off “safe and sane” fireworks only for the first four days of July.
GOOD WORK
Now that the Golden State Warriors have re-signed Klay Thompson to a five-year, $190-million deal, maybe we’ll see him get some playing time in Santa Cruz after rehabbing his torn ACL. The last NBA season ended in devastating fashion for Golden State fans, after crushing injuries for Thompson—who’s been with the team since the Warriors drafted him in 2011—and Kevin Durant, who the Warriors just traded at his request. But at least inaugural Santa Cruz Warriors Coach Nate Bjorkgren, now an assistant for the Toronto Raptors, got a championship ring.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception.”
