Two local photographers have teamed up in a joint photography show at Centro Artistico de Watsonville, also called Watsonville Center for the Arts.
“Amigos: Cerca y Lejos,” or “Friends: Near and Far,” is an exhibit of two dozen photographs that spans the Watsonville agricultural scene, Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) events at Watsonville Plaza and street scenes of Cuba.
Huve Rivas and Samuel Torres Jr. were both born to Puerto Rican parents who moved to New York City seeking greater opportunity for their families.
Rivas’ passion for photography was sparked in 1973, when he received his first Nikon. The gift of the 35mm led him to enroll in a course at the City College of New York.
In 1979, Rivas moved to Santa Cruz, where he turned his passion into a profession. By 1980 he had opened his first studio, Fantasy Photography, in the Capitola Mercantile Building. From 1980 to 1985, his skills and interest in photography flourished under the mentorship of Master Photographer Trini Contreras, the official photographer for the Miss California Pageant.
LOCAL ART ‘Berry Bowl’ by Samuel Torres is on view at Centro Artistico de Watsonville. PHOTO: Contributed
“I documented these events in the plaza; they are from a couple years ago,” Rivas said. “I really focus on the eyes. That, for me, is what makes the images pop. They’re all about the eyes and they are all doing something different.”
For 10 years Rivas was a member of the Professional Photographers of the Monterey Bay Area. He also taught a photography program at Watsonville High School from 1983 to 2002 and served as the photography teacher and director of the Video Academy at the school until 2010.
Torres said it’s exciting to be able to display his art “in an environment where they will be appreciated. I discovered my passion for photography later in life, after retiring from a fulfilling career as an attorney. With the guidance and encouragement of the talented photography instructors at Cabrillo College, I honed my skills in photography and visual storytelling. My work is a unique blend of photojournalism and abstract images, capturing everyday scenes that tell compelling stories without the need for many words.”
Amigos: Cerca y Lejos runs through Sept. 6 at Centro Artistico de Watsonville, 375 Main St., Watsonville.
Please review and accept my application on the Customs and Border Patrol app for self-deportation. I want to engage in your new self-deportation offer. I am ready and grateful to accept the $1,000 stipend and a plane ticket to London, England. My family has been a conclave of illegal aliens with criminal ties for 356 years and by any measure of good conscience, it is time that I self-deport to my ultimate country of origin.
In 1656, three of my relatives, one named Richard Stockton, broke out of a London debtors’ prison to escape the Royal Crown’s justice and illegally enter the American colonies by sailing to New York. As described in The Stockton Family of New Jersey: And Other Stocktons, that Richard Stockton immediately fell in with the criminal element: “Richard Stockton arrived at Flushing from England in 1656, when his name appears in a petition requesting the release of William Wickenden, who had been fined and imprisoned for preaching without a license.”
Associations with felonious groups by Richard Stockton’s descendants continued when, in 1776, one Richard Stockton signed the Declaration of Independence, a treasonous act against the King of England. For this crime, punishable by death, Richard Stockton was thankfully apprehended and jailed by British troops. By subterfuge, outlaws like Benjamin Franklin and his cronies managed to spring Richard Stockton of New Jersey from his jail cell. Never expressing remorse, he ultimately expired from the British peacekeepers’ advanced interrogation techniques.
Our family conclave of criminals has continued operating through the centuries and by any sense of right and wrong, it is time for us to self-deport. If those three early Stockton brothers, no doubt bad hombres, had done the right thing and stayed in debtors’ prison in London, my family would not have borne the stain of 369 years of hiding from the law. Perhaps with Department of Homeland Security guidance, I can return to my native land of origin to deal with the consequences that we must have brought on ourselves.
I will accept your $1,000 offer for my self-deportation and look forward to your free commercial airline ticket—first class would be nice—nonstop from San Francisco to London.
Patriotically yours,
Richard Stockton
Good Times writer Richard Stockton has just launched his first Substack, titled Weekend Sedition. NOTE: Street Talk is on summer hiatus, but fear not. It will return soon.
For the first time in 52 years, the annual Wharf to Wharf Race will not begin at the traditional starting line in front of The Grove, aka the Coconut Grove, at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.
Instead, the 16,000 expected participants will wait for the starting pistol to go off on Portola Drive in Capitola due to ongoing construction on the Murray Street Bridge in Santa Cruz.
Wharf to Wharf Race Director Scott McConville said it was one of those situations where the entire county needed to be on the same page in order to make the longtime running event happen.
“We wanted this to be a good experience for the runners, that’s another element,” McConville said. “But at the end of the day, with 16,000 people running throughout Santa Cruz County, we had to first and foremost make sure that this wasn’t going to be a massive disruption to the entire community.”
McConville added, “Nor could we make this something where we felt the community wasn’t going to be safe because of the event we were producing.”
The race will begin on Portola Drive near 30th Avenue starting with the elite corral, followed by corrals 1-4. They will run for what should be a flat and fast mile through the East Side of Santa Cruz.
Participants will then zoom downhill past Twin Lakes Beach and onto 7th Avenue where they’ll zip through the Santa Cruz Small Craft Harbor neighborhoods on Eaton Street, Lago Lane and 5th Avenue before reaching the second mile marker.
After wrapping around the Harbor onto Lake Avenue, the race will make its way back onto the traditional course along the Pacific Ocean for the remaining four miles. The rest of the route features iconic surf spots such as “The Hook” and Pleasure Point, and a semi-steep downhill to the finish line at the corner of Cliff Drive and Wharf Road in Capitola.
It’s been a whirlwind of adjustments for McConville and his team of organizers, who didn’t get notification the race was still happening until about five weeks in mid-June.
In the end, some difficult choices were made.
“There’s some things that are a pretty big lift for this event that take a lot of energy and time,” he said.
At one point, McConville was tying up loose ends on operations tasks in the beginning of July that should have normally been done in May.
“Just trying to make the event very, very enjoyable for participants, but how do I also simplify it at the same time so I can make it so it’s a good experience,” he said.
Other big changes include pushing the start time back a half hour to 8am, which is another first in the event’s history. And the prize purse is vastly smaller compared to previous years.
Winners of the men’s and women’s race each will receive the Mayor’s Cup and a $1,200 cash prize, while second and third place finishers will take home $600 and $300, respectively.
“We had to make some budget cuts early on in the planning phase because we didn’t know how costly a new route would be, and didn’t want to risk not being able to make our full donations that we do every year,” McConville said.
Fresno native and defending champion Evert Silva earned a $4,000 paycheck for winning the men’s race and an extra $1,000 for being the top American finisher in 2024. Fellow American Aidan Reed and Matt Baxter of New Zealand each earned $3,000 and $2,000 for second and third, respectively.
Silva is set to return, along with fellow American long-distance runner Galen Rupp. However, a majority of the elite field for both men and women have yet to confirm whether or not they’ll show up come Sunday morning.
“A lot of people were committing under the assumption that the prize money would be the same as it’s always been,” Wharf to Wharf Race organizer Scott Smith said. “When I reached back out to a lot of people, they still said they’re gonna come okay, but I don’t really have a way to know at this point if they’ve changed their plans or not.”
The top local and wheelchair winners in this year’s race will receive distinctive plaques, and the top 100 finishers—male or female—will be awarded elite Wharf to Wharf apparel.
Also set is a drawing for the gold bib, which is randomly given to participants who have a chance to win a $1,000 cash prize. The number is drawn at the conclusion of the awards ceremony scheduled for 10:20am at the Capitola Beach Bandstand Pavilion.
“I’m looking forward to just the event starting and happening, and getting through,” McConville said. “Not having to juggle logistics anymore.”
Forming almost 50 years ago, during the first wave of British punk, The Mekons have traveled a twisty musical path winding through punk, folk, alt country, electronic music and stranger places, including the bawdy, musical companion piece to experimental novelist Kathy Acker’s Pussy, King of the Pirates.
From his home in southwest England, founding member Tom Greenhalgh explains The Mekons’ restless musical journey. “The next time we do something we want to do something totally different,” he says. “We are completely not interested in just honing a sound down at all.”
The 2013 documentary Revenge of the Mekons traces the band’s history and has fans, including Santa Cruz-based author Jonathan Franzen and musicians Will Oldham and Craig Finn, explaining the unique appeal of the group. The entertaining film also tells the stories behind their classic albums, such as 1985’s Fear and Whiskey and 1989’s The Mekons Rock and Roll. Though the latter was a major label flop, it is home to some of their finest songs, from the muscular rocker “Memphis Egypt” to the woozy “Cocaine Lil.”
The Mekons Rock and Roll found the band on A&M Records and making music videos that got some play on MTV yet the release never really broke through. Part of the reason was that the A&M employee who signed them had suddenly quit. “We ended up on the label with people who basically didn’t have a clue what we were about,” Greenhalgh says.
It’s a typical story in The Mekons’ career. There was also that time that A&M refused to release their album The Curse of The Mekons for being “not up to sufficient technical standards.”
“Needless to say, this is what we call complete and utter bollocks,” Greenhalgh says.
The Mekons have persevered despite these setbacks and recorded 25 albums since their inception. Greenhalgh believes that part of the band’s longevity is because, at this point, it’s a part-time project. “Basically, especially these days, we are not a full-time band, so everyone is spread all over the world doing different stuff,” he says. “We get together to record and to play, then we disperse again.”
Released on April 4 of this year, their latest, titled Horror, was written and recorded in 2022, after the band met up in Valencia, Spain. When their previous label, Bloodshot Records, went under, they found they no longer had an outlet for the release. It eventually came out on the British indie label Fire Records. “We weren’t under pressure to finish it, but it doesn’t normally take that long,” Greenhalgh says.
While Horror might not rise to the heights of the band’s best works, a few of the songs are among the best that the band has written. “Mudcrawlers” is a jangle rock gem about Irish refugees that sounds as if it was beamed in from a 1980s-college rock station, while “War Economy,” with shouted lyrics including “physical coercion will not achieve dominance,” is straight from the Clash’s school of rhythmic political rock.
Many of the songs reflect a world in crisis. One of the slower numbers, “Fallen Leaves,” poetically references climate change with its lyrics: “Cold sweats through late summer/Blood traces on the ground/The dry earth cracks and shadows grow/A dying sun sinks down.”
Unfortunately, the problems the album addresses have gotten worse in the three years since it was written. “The whole idea of calling it [the album] Horror was basically a view of the state of the world then,” Greenhalgh says. “Since then, it’s gotten a thousand times worse.”
Following the Mekons’ tour of the United States—where they will play 30 dates in 30 days including a stop in Santa Cruz—the band will release a remix of Horror done by Tony Maimone of Pere Ubu that will draw even more of the album’s darkness to the surface. “The idea is to make it more horrible, or more horror,” Greenhalgh says. “Make it really scary.”
The Mekons with special guest Kendall Jane Meade perform at 8pm on July 29 at Moe’s Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz. $32.37. moesalley.com and folkyeah.com.
More Arts & Entertainment in this issue: Conspiratorial Futurist Author: Robert Anton Wilson Sondheim Magic in the Grove: Into the Woods
For more on Streetlight Records’ big anniversary, read Gary Singh’s story on its roots in San Francisco and San Jose.
I remember the first time I walked into Streetlight Records. It was July 2002 (exactly 23 years and one day to the date of this publishing), I was 18 years old and had recently graduated from high school in Southern California.
My then girlfriend and I were on a statewide road trip following the punk band The Distillers, with one of the shows at the Vets Hall. I had already been accepted to UC Santa Cruz and took the trip as an opportunity to explore the city where I was going to live for the next four years.
Walking into the store was like coming home.
By that time I was already a record collector—with my passion for music and records passed down from my dad—but my bland suburban hometown didn’t have any stores. When Amoeba Hollywood opened at the end of 2001 it was like walking through the pearly gates of St. Peter.
But Streetlight was different.
It wasn’t nearly as large as the Amoeba—which took up half a block at the original location—but still big enough to boast an impressive collection of every genre along with DVDs. It was homey in the best sense of the word and I knew right then and there I wanted to work at Streetlight, even if for just a little while.
In the words of John Lennon, “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans,” and my journey to working at our local record store took a few twists until I landed the gig in 2007. Little did I know not only would I still be working there 18 years later, but it would be the longest job I’ve ever had (with journalism as a close second).
FAMILY ALBUM Photos of past employees adorn the back room of Streetlight Records in Santa Cruz. PHOTO: Mat Weir
Reflecting on what it means to work at a company that’s lasted 50 years (the golden anniversary), which seems like hundreds in our constantly changing, everything-must-be-new society, a few things have come up.
First, Streetlight is an institution. After all, what would downtown Santa Cruz be without Streetlight Records? Because beyond being just a store, it’s a community.
“Record stores function as gathering places for like-minded people to meet and hang out with one another,” explains Rob “Z” Zvaleko. Since 1997 Z has been the store’s classical music guru and before Streetlight he worked at HMV on 72nd and Broadway in New York.
“It’s a community thing. Bookstores and record stores have always been a Mecca for people to come and share their thoughts and tastes. Texting and online [conversations] isn’t the same as getting into a debate with someone in person.”
Streetlight Records Santa Cruz manager Roger Weiss agrees. He originally started with the company in Noe Valley and moved to the Santa Cruz store when it opened.
“[It’s about] spreading the gospel of music,” he says. “Sharing my tastes and being exposed to new music from customers and employees.”
Which brings us to a second point about Streetlight Records and why so many of us have been here so long: it’s a family atmosphere.
Ok, normally when a company says, “We’re a family here” it’s a good time to go the opposite way. And sure, there are some past employees who would argue otherwise. However, it’s been my experience for almost 20 years.
At the end of the day we’re coworkers, but there’s a deeper bond that connects us. We care for each other. We celebrate our wins, family members’ successes, and come together when tragedy strikes one of us. And just like any family, we bicker often as well, but if anyone tries to cross one of us, we back each other up wholeheartedly. Working here, I’ve made lifelong friends out of current—and ex—employees and customers.
For Emily Farris—one of Streetlight’s newer, younger employees, who’s been with the company for two and a half years—it’s the connection that interests her the most.
“I really appreciate it,” she explains. “Hearing everyone talk about the history of them working here for over 25 years. They are talking about a time before I was even born, but they say it like it wasn’t that long ago. It makes me feel small but also a part of something so much bigger because of all the history.”
KEEPING UP TRADITION A relatively new employee, Emily Farris enjoys being ‘part of something so much bigger because of all the history.’ PHOTO: Mat Weir
Which brings us to the third and final point that sums up the first two.
Streetlight is bigger than any of us and a staple in the heart of Santa Cruz and Santa Cruzans. How many bands wouldn’t exist if they hadn’t put a flier up looking for members on one of the two bulletin boards? Think of all the movie nights that never would have happened without the rows of DVDS. One of my beloved friend’s sisters was even married in the store (which, coincidentally, I was there for years before I ever knew them).
While today’s algorithms suggest what we listen to, there’s something magical about taking a chance on buying a record based just on the cover, because something about it just calls to you. And when it’s a dud, hey, at least you were brave enough to take the chance.
That’s why record stores are still so important and why they’ve seen a resurgence in the last several years. Long after the media declared physical copies dead, people are still buying LPs, CDs and even cassettes. A record store allows us the freedom to pause, breathe and reflect while digging through the dusty bins of lifelong companions and possible new friends.
And hey, who knows? You might just discover something you love—or hate—and will be able to share it with those around you, impacting someone else’s life in ways you never knew you could.
So happy birthday, Streetlight Records. Thank you for the long, strange trip it’s been, working in your concrete and metal walls. In the immortal words of the alien himself, David Bowie, “Nothing’s gonna touch you in these golden years.”
Streetlight Records celebrates its 50th anniversary at 3pm on July 27 with a show by the band Cohesion at the store, 939 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. Free. 408-429-9200.
I was born in the deep south, Bakersfield. On April 19 I drive to the reddest of red California, to cover a Kern County Hands Off rally in my hometown. Most of them have never protested before.
“What are you protesting for?”
David Wescott, 41, puts his hands on his children’s heads and says, “For them.” He stands with his wife and kids and holds a Veterans Against Trump sign. His hair is cut in a high fade, muscles fill out his green U.S. Marine T-shirt. He deployed to Kuwait in 2003 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and is now finishing law school with a specialty in constitutional law.
“So, David, how is our constitution holding up?”
He exhales, his shoulders slump. “I feel bad for my professors in constitutional law because right now our constitution is going through significant challenges.”
He looks into the distance. “You know, these laws are things that have precedence over hundreds of years. These are the pillars of our democracy.”
I’m glad one of our best will keep track of our constitution, because all I see is a Supreme Court that has voted itself out of existence.
SERVICE MAN David Wescott, U.S. Marine, protesting at the April 19 Hands Off! rally in Bakersfield. PHOTO: Richard Stockton
I ask David, “If Trump tries to use the military to take over, what would the Marines do?”
He tells me that active military members are having that conversation now. “Our oath is to the constitution, not the president. Seventy-five percent of the Marine Corps are 22 and younger, most haven’t formed much of a world view yet, so they will be looking to their immediate superiors for what to do. They would start with their lieutenant, who has direct access to upper leadership. Leadership in the field will decide how it will go.”
“OK, but what if the commander in chief orders them to round up journalists or Mexicans or gays, to shoot us?” I ask.
“I think if it becomes that blatant, that we’re rounding up marginalized groups of people, I think there would be a huge problem in the military for that.”
Jon, 42, an Oildale schoolteacher, started protesting because of his students whose parents are not citizens.
“The kids are citizens. But their parents get deported and then there’s no one to care for these children.”
“This happens in your class? To your students?”
“Yes.”
I ask Jon, “What does protesting do for you?”
“It makes me feel better. To some degree it keeps me sane. And maybe this gets us in gear for the midterm election. I believe we still have a chance to save democracy.”
APTOSIA Protestors gathered on major intersections along Soquel Drive July 17, including this one at State Park Drive. PHOTO: Brad Kava
Community of Resistance
Why a person decides to protest can be intensely personal. Bakersfield Hands Off volunteer Lindsay, 42, is the mother of two autistic children. She had never protested before but felt piqued when Robert F. Kennedy, Trump’s secretary of Health and Human Services, said that autistic children put a burden on their families that will destroy them. Lindsay’s eyes well up as she says, “Regardless if you’ll ever pay taxes or if you’ll ever have a job or if you’ll ever get married or write poetry, all the things that Kennedy said autistic kids will never do, a lot of them will. But even if they can’t, it does not mean that they don’t have value. That just breaks my heart.”
The New York Times reports that poet Marianne Eloise, 32, who is autistic, responded to Kennedy’s comment about autistic people being unable to write a poem. Author of many published poems and books, Eloise says, “I would love to read R.F.K.’s poetry. I’m not familiar with his work.”
Those who compare the Trump administration playbook to 1933 Nazi Germany may find traction with Marianne and Lindsay’s stories. Nazi eugenicists argued that there was a direct link between diminished capacity and societal worthiness. Eugenics provided underpinning for the murder of the institutionalized disabled in the Nazi “euthanasia” program.
“So, Lindsay, what does protesting accomplish?”
“We’re building a community of resistance to this dictatorship that is based on cruelty. The more people join us, the more we will turn Trump’s constant drumbeat of fear to empathy. We keep growing and I dream about the 2026 election.”
SAVE SOCIAL SECURITY Linnette, 39, advocates for expanding Social Security at the Bakersfield Hands Off rally on April 19. PHOTO: Richard Stockton
Linnette, 39, stands next to her son and husband with a sign that says, “Expand Social Security.” I ask her why a young person would march for Social Security. Linnette says she had never thought about protesting before but is scared that DOGE will cut her father’s payments. “He’s 98 and lives off this security. If they took it away, it would fall on us and we’re barely making it now. Why would anyone do this? Why?”
Her husband, Paul, 42, is a manager at Human Services of Kern County.
Paul says, “The guy who’s running Health and Human Services. We have an outbreak of measles going on and the best way to prevent a measles epidemic is a vaccine. This is insane!” Paul says he works to defend the health of the most vulnerable, but the Trump administration does not care about medical care for vulnerable people.
Many claim they protest to retain their sanity. At the April 15 Bernie/AOC “Fighting Oligarchy” rally in Folsom, I meet Carl Matranga, a grizzled, white-pony-tailed vet. His grin shows one gold and two missing teeth. Carl opens his Army jacket to reveal the words on his T-shirt, a quote from poet William Shenstone:
A liar begins with making falsehood appear like truth,
and ends with making truth itself appear like falsehood.
Matranga believes Donald Trump’s superpower is his shamelessness. He explains how Trump’s endless lying bent his head until it seemed normal.
“He lies about absolutely everything, from eggs to immigrants eating pets. It blew my mind. I started telling myself, ‘OK, politics is a dirty game. Who knows what’s true or not true? I better just stay home.’ Hearing myself say, ‘I better just stay home’ scared the shit out of me. Now, I go to every protest I can.”
SIGN OF THE TIMES A protester at the July 17 rally in Aptos. PHOTO: Brad Kava
As the Folsom crowd of 30,000 starts chanting “Bernie! Bernie!” Carl shouts in my ear, “George Washington could not tell a lie. Richard Nixon could not tell the truth. Donald Trump can’t tell the difference.” He grins, fist bumps my shoulder and turns to chant with the crowd.
The generations start listening…to each other
Almost all the protesters I’d seen before June 14 were old people and their parents. It’s hardly surprising: Despair is the reality of many young folks these days. The June 14 No Kings rally, organized by IndivisibleSantaCruz.com, was the first time I saw Gen Z (ages 13 to 28) show up in mass.
A young man with long, black hair says he’s concerned about the impact of climate change on his generation, and sees older generations wage a war on youth. “We are castaways on the older generation’s unrelenting march toward greed.” He says there is nothing to do but take to the streets. “At least older people here pay attention. What will protesting change? Maybe us. Maybe galvanize us to stand up for a future we can live in.”
I point out to a young, red-haired man named Kyle that, until today, most protesters have been geezers like me. Kyle says, “Yeah, I’ve noticed that. It might simply be experience. The older generations have seen the kind of movement that is necessary to push back against political tyranny.”
Caroline Bliss-Isberg, 85-year-old Indivisible volunteer and lifelong activist, agrees with Kyle about seniors bringing experience to the anti-Trump resistance.
“We have watched America’s better angels in action when attacked and we are willing to do what we are still able to do to keep them aloft.”
At the Bernie/AOC rally in Folsom I meet an effervescent Sacramento State University student who formerly worked in the Santa Cruz planning department, where he saw people who weren’t able to afford housing.
Lizzy Sterling of Santa Cruz, 20, says she feels that it’s important to not judge those who haven’t gotten involved, but rather to encourage them to. Sterling says, “Personally, I have been involved in the local music scene, which is rooted in a lot of progressive thinking, community involvement and fund raising for issues we believe in.”
An anonymous 20-year-old says, “How am I supposed to go out and be the face of the movement when I feel like old people are constantly saying we’re stupid and don’t know anything?” She says that the worst for her is to see young people who are behind the dictatorship. “That’s what makes me feel bleak about the future. Some young people are going really, really conservative in a scary way.”
Seniors, still protesting after all these years
Many protesters at anti-Trump rallies are seniors, often the same people who protested the Vietnam War in the ’60s. My son teases me that I could get my Vietnam war signs out of the attic and recycle them.
Bliss-Isberg, the 85-year-old Indivisible volunteer, agrees that it[2] feels recycled. “But this time feels worse. Chief among our reasons to be here is the sense of urgency we elders feel. This is the first time in my life that our national values are under existential threat. The only way to stop this is for people to stand up.” She thinks hanging the flag upside down is defeatist, it means danger. She wants to reclaim the flag.
“Protesting works. If three percent of the people show up, something happens. The Tesla takedown worked. My biggest fear is not being courageous enough to stand up for what I believe in.”
Indivisible volunteer Sandy Silver, 86, says, “I got started protesting when I was pregnant. Sitting in my gynecologist’s office, I read a poster on the wall that said nuclear testing has produced radioactivity that is found in breastmilk. My breastmilk. I started protesting and never quit.”
She is encouraged by young folks joining the protests. “Young people have so much to do, trying to start a family, so much going. They are doing what they can.”
I ask what she would say to someone who is thinking about protesting.
“I would say, DO IT! My grandchildren range from 15 to 25 and they do it. You’re building community to fight back.”
At the Bernie/AOC rally in Folsom, I ask a white-haired man wearing fit-over sunglasses, “Do protests matter?”
“Oh, absolutely. You get to see your neighbors and friends, and people in the community come together for a common goal, which you wouldn’t normally see if you just lived in your own house and watch it on TV. It makes us feel united.”
Donald Trump: ‘Can’t you just shoot them?’
When I ask longtime activist Marla Gomez, 72, if protests give Trump cover to intensify a crackdown, Marla laughs.
“He hardly needs an excuse. He will lie about the need to crack down and just do it anyway. His unpredictable reactions really are so predictable.”
Every protester I meet agrees that protests must be nonviolent. New York Times columnist David Brooks pointed out on the PBS NewsHour’s April 25 broadcast, “One of the ways that authoritarians lose control is when their opponents protest in a nonviolent way, and the authoritarians crack down violently. That’s the way you delegitimize an authoritarian regime.”
Indivisible Santa Cruz County, organizer of the June 14 No Kings rally in downtown Santa Cruz and the July 17 Good Trouble protests at multiple locations from Santa Cruz to Aptos, is clear that protests must be nonviolent and asks everyone to make sure no one is goaded into physical confrontation. “We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.”
A protesting undergrad political science major at UCSC agrees: “That’s how we win. We don’t fight back, we video them when they attack us, the event goes viral, and we win the day.”
Lifetime activist June Eggers, 62, talks about sustainability of protest pressure: “You won’t be able to take on every fight. They want us to wear out; that’s why Trump ‘floods the zone’ with executive orders. Don’t take the bait, but do what you can and live your life.” She reminds me that after the Grinch had stolen all the Christmas trappings from Whoville, the Whos joined hands in a circle and sang songs. June says, “Joy is essential. Join hands and sing every day. It drives them crazy.”
10,000-plus in Santa Cruz
It’s June 14, and joining the Santa Cruz No Kings protest feels like coming home. I get lucky and find a parking space near McDonald’s and jog down Ocean Street. People pour onto Ocean from cross streets, and I’m swept along in a current of military uniforms, tie-dyed hippie garb, pride flags, expensive designer clothes, costumes from Santa to Satan, patched jean wear, rumpled cowboy hats, bowler hats, dreadlocks, mohawks, motorcycle helmets, hard hats, red-white-and-blue colored hair, thousands of signs. Everyone reads everyone’s sign and laughter rolls.
A young man plays marching rolls on a snare drum, another balances on top of a fire hydrant, urging on the crowd, “Hey, ho, Trump has got to go!” Skateboarders pump fists and flash peace signs, young women with clipboards enroll women for feminist activism. The very old walk with intention, each step of their ancient foot is like they are planting a statement. Cars crawl by, drivers join the protest with a cacophony of honking as marchers yell back to the drivers, and 18-wheelers and cement trucks thrill the crowds with long, bellowing air-horn blasts. Teens and twenty-somethings push skateboards and bikes, seniors push walkers, and moms and dads push baby carriages. There are thousands and thousands of signs.
Signs of comedy relief
There are simple signs, elaborate signs, hilarious signs. A young man skateboards down the sidewalk with a sign over his head: “Congressional Republicans, save yourselves with stem-cell research. It may be your last chance to grow a spine.”
“President Trump, how are you going to deal with Hurricane Maria?”
“Pay her what I paid Stormy Daniels.”
Two women notice they had made the same sign; they touch their signs together like clinking glasses of wine: “Free Melania!”
A child holds a sign: “Trump has a mug shot. My parents don’t.”
A man in an orange fright wig and a red clown nose wears a sandwich board depicting a cleaning product called “Voter Detergent” that “whitens” elections. I ask him what makes him worry about voter suppression. He says, “After Trump’s sycophant Robert Kennedy removes vaccinations that protect us from contagion, Trump will require mail-in ballots to have envelopes that have been licked by six people.”
We flow across the county government parking lot toward San Lorenzo Park, until we stop. Young people climb trees to make videos. I can’t see much of the Duck Pond stage, but we listen to speakers sling slogans over the crowd and the crowd roar back in call-and-response. I ask a man pressed against my shoulder how he feels. He shouts back, “I feel like we’re coal miners sent down to rescue survivors of a cave-in.”
I’m having a 1967 flashback; 58 years ago, it was LBJ and Vietnam, today it’s Dubious Caesar and his Lady of Justice Pussy Grab. I half expect County Joe and the Fish to appear to play the Vietnam Rag. “Whoopie, we’re all gonna die!”
As for my wife, Julie, it was her first protest. She says, “I did not know how hopeless I was feeling until I came here and felt hope.”
Walking back up Ocean Street, I stop at the Jury Room for a beer. I reflect that people had so much fun today, there is no doubt the protests against Trump will grow. It’ll be refreshing to hear Trump lie by downplaying crowd size. If Trump’s superpower is shamelessness, the protesters’ superpowers appear to be size and joy.
On the restroom wall above the urinal someone had written:
Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un are in a boat in the middle of the ocean. The boat capsizes. Who survives?
Mankind.
Watch Richard Stockton’s video interviews at the April 19 Hands Off rally in Bakersfield and the April 15 Bernie/AOC “Fighting Oligarchy” rally in Folsom at YouTube.com/@HiFiToWiFi.
For more about Indivisible Santa Cruz, their beliefs, strategy and information on future demonstrations—including weekly events—visit indivisiblesantacruzcounty.com.
About 150 people gathered on July 17 in Santa Cruz at the third in a series of meetings about proposed Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) in Watsonville, Aptos and Santa Cruz. The intent for many was to refine and strengthen a message that these systems are not welcome.
“These folks are pursuing these systems at the expense of human health and we all pay the price,” said Brian Roeder of Never Again Moss Landing (NAML). “Until we organize—and that is what tonight is all about—we need to tell our elected officials to stop this madness; this technology is too dangerous.”
The three proposed battery sites are 90 Minto Road in Watsonville, in Santa Cruz behind Dominican Hospital, and near the Aptos High School campus in Aptos.
Much of the revolt stems from the fallout of the fire that tore through the Vistra Battery Energy Storage System at the Moss Landing Power Plant on Jan. 16. According to NAML, the fire emitted hazardous gases from upwards of 5,000 tons of cobalt, nickel, lithium and manganese. NAML and citizens were stunned to learn that firefighters did not have proper training and equipment to combat the fire.
NAML further added that toxins were emitted in a plume that spread over thousands of acres in the Monterey Bay and were inhaled by tens of thousands of residents, pets and livestock. Their group formed after the blaze and has hosted roundtable events and town hall meetings in hopes of gathering input from the community and experts, from science and environmental agencies to area fire departments and toxic clean-up crews.
Numerous people who live on or near Minto Road were present, including longtime Watsonville resident Bob Lyons.
“I live within a half-mile of the Minto Road site, on Meidel Avenue, and I walk past this area every day,” Lyons said. “It’s a beautiful agricultural area with existing 100-year-old apple trees that will be taken out. I talked with my neighbor, who said, ‘I’m going to move away.’ So the big question is—what’s this going to do with property values; are we all going to lose our insurance in this area?”
The evening also included reference to Central Coast Community Energy (3CE), a local source of clean and renewable electricity that local communities established for customers throughout Monterey, San Benito, San Luis Obispo, Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara counties. 3CE is locally controlled and governed by board members who represent each community served by the agency. 3CE has already approved a new GridScale lithium ion battery energy storage system facility in Monterey County.
“Many of us have been attending the 3CE board meetings and the community advisory meetings,” said Becky Steinbruner, who helped emcee the evening. “I urge you all to make your voices heard—that we do not want lithium battery energy storage systems here in Santa Cruz County.” She was assisted by Nina and Greg Audino and JR Rosella in leading the evening’s agenda.
The Minto Road spot is a site called the Green Valley Substation, which is 14 to 16 acres in size and would house as many as 300 battery storage units the size of shipping containers.
Skylar Sacoolas of Environmental Justice, an organizer with Greenaction, shared a slide show about unequal access to clean and healthy environments and increased exposure to harmful pollution and contamination from heavy industry, dumps, incinerators and pesticides in low-income and affordable housing sites.
Retired Los Angeles Battalion Chief Ron Cabrera offered a slide show on fire suppression at BESS facilities. Among the key points:
Large-scale fire testing is vital;
Fire spreading from one unit to another or to the entire facility is likely;
Lithium ion smoke is dangerous;
Storage batteries can become more dangerous as they age.
The next meeting will be announced soon. For information, contact numbers and emails, visit stoplithiumbessinsantacruz.org.
Dolly Creamer made a stop at the Crepe Place on July 17 as part of its Rough Girls tour, marking the Los Angeles band’s first time playing in Santa Cruz. “Grungtry” is how Sarah Rebecca Harris, lead singer and founder of Dolly Creamer, describes their sound: a fusion of experimental folk and Americana mixed with punk and rock & roll.
Harris, who grew up in Pennsylvania, played piano as a child but didn’t start singing or learning guitar until about six years ago. While she had always held an infatuation for music, she never envisioned herself becoming a musician. Harris moved to LA in 2012 to pursue costume design. She then enrolled in a San Francisco clown school and began MCing events, backup dancing, and participating in improv shows.
Throughout this time, Harris had been writing little pieces in her notes. They were never songs but fragments of words and ideas that played nicely together. Harris moved to Joshua Tree, and it was there she realized music was calling.
She was writing and performing skits and slowly incorporating musical melodies and bits of singing. Harris recalls performing a skit that didn’t land with the audience and suddenly “waking up” and realizing, “I need to make music.” She looked back at those fragments in her notes and tried to form songs.
In the beginning, Harris was “mystified” by songwriting; she struggled but kept tinkering. A guitarist friend of hers put those first songs to music and an album was released in 2020 under her stage name, Lucky Baby Daddy. Harris then “cracked the code” to song writing. “Once you start writing songs, it’s like a curse—you can’t stop thinking of it,” Harris says. Dolly Creamer was born years later and released a single titled “She’s a 10” in 2024.
Harris says she is “a music fan before anything.” She describes music as an alternate way of communicating: “a different language and unexplainable.” She has always been a “lyrical person” who craves the emotions that song writing evokes. Those first few years of playing music for crowds were surreal for Harris. “Playing with a band is a transcendent experience,” she says.
Harris also emphasized that being a musician is the hardest thing she has ever done. When pursuing music professionally was just a dream, Harris thought of the lifestyle as one of world travel while creating and playing music. Now, as the dream has begun to materialize, the work is undeniable.
A musician has to be “good at so many things,” Harris explains: communicating, marketing, planning, juggling ideas, scheduling, budgeting—and then producing a product that people will support.
Harris is not a full-time musician, although she would like to be. She also makes clothes, works at a brewery, and schedules shows for other bands. Although her newfound lifestyle is “more work than I could have ever imagined,” Harris emphasizes the music is “worth it.”
Dolly Creamer’s most recent single, “Rose Neck Tat,” came out May 13. While its release is recent, the song was the first one Harris wrote for Dolly Creamer. They have been performing “Rose Neck Tat” for years but only recently produced a recording that felt just, according to Harris. A “grungtry” twang twists throughout the piece. Her voice is strong and soft and filled with the emotion that Harris chases in the music she consumes.
Dolly Creamer will release an EP titled Green Gardens for Really Rough Girlfriends on June 20.
Guitarist Jerad Fox, 43, could not have been more surprised to get the call that day.
It was from Matthew Swinnerton, owner of Event Santa Cruz, letting Fox know he’d been hand-picked by Jane Wiedlin for a “super group” that will perform with the Go-Go’s guitarist at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History July 17 as part of a new event series called “Legends Live & Local.”
“I wasn’t aware it was even happening. And I didn’t know I was in the running,” says Fox, who is also a guitar teacher. “It was a big surprise.”
That same happy surprise reverberated throughout Santa Cruz County as five more musicians also learned they’d been selected.
Two of the musicians are just teenagers: Marek Fulo-Furlano, 18, on guitar and Dylan Von Elgg, 15, who plays drums. They both attend Be Natural Music School and were nominated by owner and music director Matthew Pinck. “I’m so proud of these kids,” Pinck says. “They work their tails off. And this super group is such a great opportunity to build a generational bridge…across all ages…with music.”
Fulo-Furlano was blown away when he got the text letting him know he was in the group. He started playing the guitar at 8 years old, but “got serious” at 10 and has been playing ever since. “It’s very fun—never a chore to practice,” he says. “I always do it.” During Covid, he says, he played “all day.”
Von Elgg—who has already performed live with Fulo-Furlano and others at Abbott Square, Felton Music Hall, Woodstock’s Pizza and Woodhouse Blending & Brewing—says it “feels awesome” to perform. “It’s an adrenaline rush.” He adds that “you have to work really hard.” Asked if he envisions a future playing large shows and stadiums, he doesn’t miss a beat. “I would love to rock out!” he offers enthusiastically.
MEETING A LEGEND Guitarist Marek Fulo-Furlano and drummer Dylan Von Elgg, both students at Be Natural Music School, will play with Jane Wiedlin. PHOTO: Contributed
The Legends Live & Local event series is the brainchild of Swinnerton and Live Oak native Jennifer Otter Bickerdike, Ph.D, a rock ’n’ roll cultural historian and author. “We wanted to create a series of events that can help make Santa Cruz a hub for media and creativity on the Central Coast,” Otter Bickerdike says. “It’s about creating an ecosystem of talent, from musicians to sound engineers, videographers, and content creators. If you need it, we want to have it here in Santa Cruz.”
Gabi Bravo, 34, from Watsonville, who will be on vocals, expressed her deep gratitude for being included. Earning the title of Musician of the Year at the NEXTies earlier this year, Bravo is considered a “rising star with a cinematic, soul-stirring sound that fuses Latin influence and indie pop.” Bravo says, “I’m proud to represent women in music because it can be hard out there for us. Especially as a solo artist. There are extra barriers. I am so down…so stoked to be highlighted and to have this opportunity.”
Rounding out the super group are Swan Porter, 28, on keyboards and David De Silva, 42, who plays bass.
Porter, an independent singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Santa Cruz native, says, “Music is my religion, my therapy and my meditation. Being invited by Jane is a huge honor. I respect her fierce dedication to music and her fearless ability to uphold her values in the music industry.”
De Silva adds: “I think it’s great that this event celebrates new generations of musicians.” A veteran on the Santa Cruz music circuit, De Silva is fresh off of playing at the Crow’s Nest Thursday Beach BBQ partyJuly 3 with the Ripatti Rose Band. For more than 20 years, De Silva has done whatever it takes to make a living as a working musician. “I played with a traditional Bolivian band for a year. I’ve played Bollywood, cumbia, merengue. I would not understand life without playing music. It just would make no sense to me.”
The day before the big show at the MAH, the musicians will meet up to practice three songs chosen by Wiedlin in an intimate rehearsal session, offering an opportunity for each performer to receive one-on-one mentoring and meaningful collaboration with a rock ’n’ roll legend.
“Event Santa Cruz is proud to launch Legends Live & Local as a groundbreaking new series that brings legendary creatives to town to inspire, collaborate and uplift our vibrant local community,” says Swinnerton.
The evening will begin with an on-stage conversation with Wiedlin; the group will then perform three songs. The event concludes with “New Wave Rave,” a 90-minute DJ set featuring dance classics from the 1980s.
An Evening with Jane Wiedlin takes place July 17, 6:30–10pm, at the MAH, 705 Front St., Santa Cruz. $38.09. EventSantaCruz.com.
A group of state lawmakers and local medical providers gathered July 8 at the Santa Cruz Community Health Center in Live Oak to sound the alarm on President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBBA).
Despite its name, the bill will remove millions of people across the U.S. from their health insurance plans and pauperize plans for millions more.
That was the message from Congressman Jimmy Panetta and a cadre of medical professionals, who stressed that the bill will not deter them from their primary mission.
“We’re not going anywhere,” said Donaldo Hernandez, a doctor who serves as vice-chair to the California delegation of the American Medical Association. “We’re going to be right here making sure that we keep doing the thing we have sworn to do, the thing we love, and that’s taking care of people in our communities.”
According to Panetta, OBBBA is a “a self-inflicted wound that will hurt working families throughout this country, that will decrease health coverage in the 19th Congressional District and could lead to closures of rural hospitals in our communities.”
The bill, he said, will provide $4 trillion in tax breaks for billionaires and corporations, which will be paid for by adding $3.8 trillion to the national debt, and $3.4 trillion to the deficit over the next 10 years, and slashing $1 trillion in Medicaid services, leading to 17 million people losing health care.
In addition, the bill cuts $191 billion in federal contributions to state Medicaid programs, with zero expansions in coverage, and imposes state-directed cuts of $149 billion in reimbursements to Medicare rates.
OBBBA also adds co-payments for certain economic levels for people on Medicare, denies transgender youth care, and prevents care for legal immigrants except those with green cards.
Moreover, the legislation implements work requirements that will kick 12 million people off Medicaid, and requires able-bodied adults 18-64 to show proof of 80 hours per month of work, school or volunteer time.
But while such a proposition might seem simple, it doesn’t mention that two-thirds of the people receiving benefits are in nursing homes and unable to work, Panetta said.
“There is a reason why there are no work requirements at the federal level,” he said. “Because it prevents people from getting Medicaid.”
Some 37,000 people in Santa Cruz County could lose Medicaid or coverage under the Affordable Care Act.
That could be devastating in Santa Cruz County, where roughly 71,000 people are enrolled in Medi-Cal and 93% have health insurance, said Health Officer Lisa Hernandez.
Local clinics, she added, serve 14,000 patients through 100,000 appointments annually.
Community Bridges CEO Ray Cancino said he is “utterly devastated” by passage of the bill, and the fact that “not even four Republicans in the House had the courage to stand up and stop the ‘Big Disastrous Bill’ from passing.”
The reality, he said, is that an estimated 17 million Americans will lose their healthcare coverage, and that devastating cuts—totaling nearly $300 billion over the next decade—will gut SNAP, the nation’s most vital food assistance program.
Worse, Cancino said, is that lawmakers knew the harm this bill would cause.
The cuts will mean that many people will face longer wait times and fewer providers, and millions of people will go without regular care, flooding emergency rooms with preventable crises.
In addition, healthcare costs will rise for everyone, Cancino said.
‘We should all be clear-eyed about what this moment represents,” he said. “It is the cost of apathy. It is a painful reminder that when we fail to vote with our values—not just in California, but across the country—we leave our most vulnerable neighbors exposed to decisions made without compassion or foresight.”
I am ready and grateful to accept the $1,000 stipend and a plane ticket to London, England. My family has been a conclave of illegal aliens with criminal ties for 356 years
I was born in the deep south, Bakersfield. On April 19 I drive to the reddest of red California, to cover a Kern County "Hands Off!" rally in my hometown. Most of them have never protested before.
“Grungtry” is how Sarah Rebecca Harris, lead singer and founder of Dolly Creamer, describes their sound: a fusion of experimental folk and Americana mixed with punk and rock & roll.
Go-Go’s guitarist Jane Wiedlin performs at the Museum of Art & History July 17 with a "super-group" of local musicians. An Evening with Jane Wiedlin TONIGHT at MAH! 6:30–10pm
