NUZ: Two Resignations, a Retirement and Plenty Bad-Faith Blogging

Nuz

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November 12, 2019

NUZ: Two Resignations, a Retirement and Plenty Bad-Faith Blogging

COMMISSION TO SPEAK

The Commission for the Prevention of Violence Against Women has recently had two resignations. Chair Kevin Grossman and Vice Chair Leila Kramer both left the body, after it was pointed out that the commission strayed from its bylaws when requesting the Santa Cruz City Council reconsider a tabled censure against councilmembers Drew Glover and Chris Krohn, who each violated the city’s conduct policy, according to a city-funded investigation.

There will be many takes on this news, some of them warmer than a political hot potato in the microwave. But it’s refreshing to see that sometimes—even in the year 2019—when people get caught doing a wrong thing, they really do resign.

Also, Nuz bets its last five bucks that Krohn and Glover will look for a way to use all this opportunity to grandstand about how they—and not the women who brought forward complaints—are the real victims.

BLOG WHISTLES

Bruce Bratton, a longtime gossip columnist who’s run his own site for years, has taken a break lately from ranting about Abbott Square. Instead, he’s spent the past two installments arguing with himself about whether Vice Mayor Justin Cummings is “conscientious” or not. (Bratton’s verdict is that no, Cummings isn’t.)

Both Bratton and fellow Bratton Online writer Gillian Greensite, a local environmentalist, are disappointed that Cummings voted in favor of a new West Cliff Drive housing development. Nevermind that the council was legally required to approve the project. Or that it will provide 10 low-income condominiums, including two housing units of the very low-income variety that’s been so difficult to build in Santa Cruz.

They just don’t want to see a new tall-ish building at Bay and West Cliff.

If you’ll forgive the following tangent, all the rancorous opposition to the project frankly represents a moment of hypocrisy among many activists. Environmentalists have relentlessly opposed building a new downtown parking structure with housing and a library mixed in, because they say that, as a society, we need to move away from driving. “House people, not cars!” they often chant. OK, fine. But what about when the opportunity comes to re-develop a parking lot to build new homes at the edge of a job center, a short walk from downtown? Then, many of these same folks start tossing around vague complaints about protecting neighborhoods and how the Santa Cruz City Council needs to start standing up to money-hungry developers.

Whatever you think about developers, there’s nothing corrupt about a construction company making money for building a decent project. Seriously, it’s called the economy, people! It’s normal for someone to make money for doing a good job.

Anyway, the point is that blogging works best when writers show a willingness to think critically and the courage to stand up to the powers that be. Bratton and Greensite have no problem calling out developers. The same goes for Becky Steinbruner, Councilmember Krohn and former county Supervisor Gary Patton—all of whom also blog on the site, sharing similar viewpoints. And there’s something to be said for their perspective.

But don’t simultaneously undersell the power of influential green-washing activists who seek to block common-sense housing construction and act like they’re saving the planet in the process. Spoiler: They aren’t.

ARI DONE HERE?

Embattled Judge Ari Symons has announced that she’s canceling her re-election bid—after raising $100,000.

Dodging a bullet on this one are all the establishment Democrats who had supported Symons in one form or another, while also being complicit in the recall of Glover and Krohn. Had Symons’ bid dragged on, those same politicos might have looked like hypocrites. If you’re going to oppose poor conduct, do it across the board. Don’t just pick your spots based on personal or political allegiances.

FrankenCon Descends on Santa Cruz

Wallace Baine

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November 12, 2019

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Most 200-year-old literature has long faded into obscurity or irrelevance. (Anyone reading much Washington Irving these days?) But Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, first published in 1818, has never really gone away.

Whether on page, stage or screen, Frankenstein has proven to be the eternal story, largely because of its brilliant alchemy to be both timeless and timely. It offers themes of universal human experience that art has been wrestling with since antiquity, and of how to grapple with the ethical dimensions of science and technology that refresh the story for every generation.

A handful of writers, artists, scientists, and Frankenstein true believers will be gathering on the campus of UCSC this month for a remarkable celebration of a remarkable story. FrankenCon is a three-day conference on the rich legacy of Frankenstein, which kicks off with a double-feature of the classic James Whale films from the 1930s, Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein, at DNA’s Comedy Lounge on Nov. 21. That will be followed by two days of on-stage discussions on campus with a number of people in fields as diverse as the arts, media, astrophysics, genomics, and academia.

FrankenCon also coincides with a two-weekend run of Kirsten Brandt’s original adaptation The Frankenstein Project at Theater Arts Mainstage at UCSC, playing for seven performances Nov. 15-24. The play is a reinvigoration of Shelley’s tale recast with female leads as Dr. Frankenstein and the Creature.

UCSC theatre-arts professor Michael Chemers, well-known on campus for his popular course titled “Monsters,” is the moderator and one of the chief organizers of the event. “What we’re really trying to do with this conference is investigate how the myth of Frankenstein, the legend of Frankenstein, the story of Frankenstein, is imbricated deeply into many different aspects of our culture,” he says, “and how we think about big ideas like, ‘What is the role of ethics in science? What is the responsibility of the creator to the created? What is the responsibility of the strong to the weak?’ It’s about parenthood. It’s about the relationships of gods to the things they create, and the responsibility of leaders to their followers.”

After the showing of the Whale films at the Comedy Lounge, Chemers will lead a post-screening discussion of the films with GT editor Steve Palopoli, UCSC literature professor Renee Fox and Digital Arts and New Media lecturer Tad Leckman.

The next day, Chemers will have separate one-on-one discussions with YA novelist Kiersten White (The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein) and playwright and screenwriter Jennifer Haley (Mindhunter). Nov. 22 and 23 will also feature more roundtable discussions: One on the artistic legacy of Frankenstein with UCSC faculty, including Fox, game designer Micha Cardenas, literature prof Marshall Leicester, and historian Nathaniel Deutsch. The second discussion focuses on science and ethics with Genomics Institute professor David Haussler, sociologist Jenny Reardon, and astrophysicist (and former UCSC chancellor) George Blumenthal.

Chemers says that Frankenstein merits particular attention because of its broad influences in everything from folk myth to science fiction. For instance, the portrayal of robots in the popular imagination owes a thematic debt to Frankenstein. “All the dramas about A.I. beings running amok, the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, Bladerunner,” he says. “These are all Frankenstein stories.”

Kirsten Brandt, long-time faculty member in UCSC’s theatre-arts department who recently joined San Jose State’s faculty, has been interested in the Frankenstein story since she was a teen (“It was during my goth period,” she says). In 1998, while working at San Diego’s avant-garde theater company Sledgehammer, Brandt wrote The Frankenstein Project, which was produced at Sledgehammer and then twice more, most recently in 2005.

The play, says Brandt, has some nods to the horror-movie Frankenstein of popular imagination, but mostly, it’s drawn from the Shelley novel. Making the main characters female has added new dimensions to the relationship between the creator and the creation. The feminist themes run deep, not only because the novel touches on the life-giving power of women, but because it was one of the rare classics in 19th-century literature written by a woman, who herself was the daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft, one of the most important proto-figures in contemporary feminist thought.

“Shelley was able to zone in on something inherent in who we are as humans,” says Brandt, “in terms of our ability to seek out knowledge. She says at one point [in the play], ‘Study has become more necessary to me than the air I breathe.’ That’s actually straight from the novel.”

The play delves deep into science, from period obsessions like alchemy and anatomy to modern-day technologies like stem-cell research, biotechnology and transplant surgery. Brandt says the play is 90 minutes packed with Black Mirror-style themes of technology’s ethical gray areas.

“It’s scary, it’s freaky, it’s beautiful,” she says. “I don’t want it to haunt anybody, necessarily, but I do want (audiences) to process it. It’s not, ‘I get to see a monster movie.’ It’s more asking you to think about right now, about what we create. As parents, or creators, what’s our responsibility?”

FRANKENCON

The Frankenstein Project, written and directed by Kirsten Brandt will be performed Nov. 15-17 and 21-24. Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7:30pm and Sunday at 3pm at Mainstage Theater Arts, UCSC. ucsctickets.com.

James Whale’s Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein will be screened Thursday, Nov. 21 at DNA’s Comedy Lab, 155 S. River St. Santa Cruz. 7pm. $10.

Conference roundtable discussions take place Friday and Saturday, Nov. 22 and 23, at Digital Arts Research Center and Second Stage Theater Arts, UCSC. Free.

For full schedule, go to frankencon.com.

Rob Brezsny’s Astrology Nov. 13-19

Rob Brezsny

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November 12, 2019

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ARIES (March 21-April 19): If there are any potential Aries heroes or leaders or saviors out there, the coming weeks will be a favorable time for you to fully bloom and assert your practical magnificence. The lessons you have learned while improvising workable solutions for yourself are ripe to be applied to the riddles that are puzzling your tribe or group or gang. I want to let you know, however, that to achieve maximum effectiveness, you should be willing to do good deeds for people who may not be able to pay you back.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): You’re entering a phase of your astrological cycle when it’s crucial that your receptivity be as robust as possible. To guide you in this delightful but perhaps challenging work, here are good questions for you to pose: 1. Do you know what help and support you need most, and are you brave and forthright enough to ask for it? 2. Is there any part of you, perhaps unconscious, that believes you don’t deserve gifts and blessings? 3. Do you diligently cultivate your capacity to be refreshed and restored? 4. Are you eagerly responsive when life surprises you with learning experiences and inspirations?

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): “Many people will not be honest because they fear loss of intimacy and togetherness,” writes self-help author Henry Cloud. But the truth, he adds, is that “honesty brings people closer together,” because it “strengthens their identities.” Therein lies the tender paradox: “The more you realize your separate identities, the closer you can become.” Living according to this principle may not be as easy or convenient as being deceptive and covert, but it’s ultimately more gratifying. Henry Cloud concludes, “Telling loved ones what is really on your mind and telling others what you really think is the foundation of love.”

CANCER (June 21-July 22): “Maturity is having the ability to escape categorization,” said poet Kenneth Rexroth. That’s the opposite of the conventional wisdom. For many people, the process of growing up and becoming a seasoned adult means trying to fit in, to find one’s category, to be serious and steady and stable. Rexroth, on the other hand, suggested that when you fully ripen into your potentials, you transcend standard definitions: you don’t adhere to others’ expectations; you are uniquely yourself, outside and beyond all pigeonholes and classifications. The coming weeks will be an excellent time for you to practice and cultivate this sacred art.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Is there an event from your past that would be empowering for you to remember in detail? Is there a neglected but still viable dream you could resurrect, thereby energizing your enthusiasm for the future? Are there old allies you’ve lost touch with but who, if you called on them, could provide you with just the boost you need? Is there a familiar pleasure you’ve grown numb to but could reinvigorate by visualizing the original reasons you loved it? The coming weeks will be a favorable time to meditate on these questions.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Catholic St. Francis (1181–1226) loved animals and the natural world. According to one folkloric tale, he was once traveling on foot with several companions when they came upon a place where the trees were filled with birds. Francis said, “Wait for me while I go preach to my sisters the birds.” He proceeded to do just that. The birds were an attentive audience for the duration of his sermon, apparently captivated by his tender tones. Seven centuries later, author Rebecca West offered a critique of the bird-whisperer. “Did St. Francis preach to the birds?” she asked. “Whatever for? If he really liked birds he would have done better to preach to the cats.” In the coming weeks, Virgo, I encourage you to do the metaphorical equivalent of preaching to both the birds and the cats.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Every now and then, I authorize you Libras to shed your polite, tactful personas and express the angst you sometimes feel but usually hide. That’s now! To egg you on, read this mischievous rant by Libran blogger Clary Gay (claryfightwood.tumblr.com): “We Libras are constantly thinking about how to make everyone else comfortable and happy. There’s not a minute going by when we’re not worrying about radiating a soothing and comforting aura so everyone can have a good time. If a Libra is cranky, it’s because they snapped! Because of some non-Libra who doesn’t appreciate them! If a Libra is mean to people, it’s their own damn fault!”

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Poet Robert Bly tells us that the door to the soul is unlocked. You don’t have to struggle through any special machinations to open it or go through it. Furthermore, the realm of the soul is always ready for you. Always! It harbors the precise treasure you need in order to be replenished and empowered. I bring this to your attention, Scorpio, because I think that during the next two weeks, you should abide as much as possible in the soul’s realm—the cornucopia of holy truths and ever-fresh riches.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): In my estimation, what you’ve experienced lately has been akin to a fermentation process. It’s as if you’re undergoing a transformation with resemblances to the way that grapes turn into wine or milk becomes yogurt or dough rises before being baked into bread. You may have had to endure some discomfort, which is the case for anything in the midst of substantial change. But I think you’ll ultimately be quite pleased with the results, which I expect will be ready no later than ten days after your birthday—and quite possibly sooner.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Many books have been written about Joan of Arc, a 15th-century teenage peasant girl whose improbable ascent to military leadership, under the guidance of her divine visions, was crucial in France’s victory over the English. Among the many miraculous elements of her story was the fact that less than a year before she led troops into battle on horseback, she didn’t know how to ride a horse. She learned by riding around her father’s farm astride his cows. I foresee an equivalent marvel in your future, Capricorn. By this time next year, you will have developed an aptitude that might seem unimaginable now. (P.S. There’s evidence Joan was a Capricorn.)

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): The Divine Comedy is one of history’s greatest literary works. Its author, Dante Alighieri, was 43 when he began writing the Inferno, the first part of his three-part masterpiece. Up until that time, he had published just one book and a few poems, and had also abandoned work on two unfinished books. Early on in the Inferno, the not-yet-renowned author presents a fictional scene in which he meets with the spirits of antiquity’s most famous authors: Virgil, Homer, Horace, Ovid, and Lucan. Those illustrious five tell Dante he is such an important writer that he ranks sixth, after them, in his excellence. I’m going to encourage you to dare indulging in behavior like Dante’s: to visualize and extol—and yes, even brag about—the virtues and skills that will ultimately be your signature contribution to this world.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): The Latin word for sea is mare. Flustra is the calm sea. Undisonus means “resounding with waves.” Caeruleus is the sea’s deep shade of blue, aestus is the tide, and aequoreus means “connected with the sea.” My hope is that as you meditate on these lyrical terms, you’ll be moved to remember the first lakes, rivers and oceans you ever swam in. You’ll recall your time floating in your mother’s womb and your most joyous immersions in warm baths and hot springs. Why? It’s a favorable time to seek the healing and rejuvenating powers of primal waters—both metaphorically and literally.

Homework: “How easy it is to make people happy when you don’t want or need anything from them,” said Gail Godwin. Give an example. freewillastrology.com.

Steel House and the Trouble With All-Star Ensembles

Andrew Gilbert

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November 12, 2019

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Steel House and the Trouble With All-Star Ensembles

While Steel House’s 2017 debut album was quickly deemed an artistic triumph that expanded the possibilities of jazz, the trio’s greatest accomplishment may have been the sheer feat of logistics it required to get the musicians in the same place at the same time.

Featuring Venezuelan-born pianist Ed Simon, bassist Scott Colley and drummer Brian Blade, Steel House brings together three of jazz’s most sought-after accompanists. The trio performs Thursday at Kuumbwa, part of a rare spate of gigs before they hit the studio to record their second album.

It’s not that they don’t get to play together often. Over the past 25 years, they’ve all worked and recorded together in various combinations, both on their own projects and with other storied bandleaders’. A superlative rhythm section tandem, Blade and Colley are founding members of Joshua Redman’s Still Dreaming, and Simon and Colley have performed widely with guitarist Adam Rogers and saxophonist David Binney. But the three musicians all together, with time to focus, therein lies the logistical feat.

After a brief series of gigs led to the first Steel House recording session in Sonoma, “We just haven’t toured much since then,” says Simon. “We would love to be playing together more often, but everyone is so busy. We have to plan way in advance in order to get together for two weeks.”

The creative groundwork led Simon, Blade and Colley to seek out a new context for their collaboration where they could cultivate “a certain aesthetic, a sensitivity and melodic sense the three of us gravitate toward,” Colley says. “We’ve played so much as a rhythm section for other musicians and composers. We wanted to get together to explore the different textures and things that we gravitate towards instinctively. One of the things for sure is a real melodic sense, and a degree of patience that I see in Edward and Brian.”

Rather than adding another piano, bass and drums trio into the jazz mix, Steel House has turned into a home for lyrical compositions that often feel like fleshed-out songs more than jazz tunes. Simon artfully contributes keyboard textures, subtle production touches that accentuate the music’s lithe lyricism without weighing it down.

“We’ve played at the Village Vanguard and did it completely acoustic, so we can go in that direction,” Simon says. “But when you hear the record, you can hear we’re writing songs, a little more produced. Not pop production, but definitely that element. I think we’ll continue that direction on the next record.”

Steel House is the latest destination for Simon, whose epic musical journey started in 1984 at the age of 15, when he left his home in Punta Cardón, Venezuela, and moved by himself to Pennsylvania. His father, philosopher Hadsy Simon, thought his music-loving middle son’s best chance to thrive was in the U.S. Enrolled at the Philadelphia Performing Arts School, he discovered jazz, and eventually connected with Philly masters bassist Charles Fambrough and guitarist Kevin Eubanks, who encouraged the young pianist’s move to New York.

Landing in Manhattan in 1988, Simon quickly established himself as an essential new voice through touring and recording with altoist Bobby Watson and trumpeter Terence Blanchard. At the center of a wave of brilliant Latin American musicians who transformed the New York scene in the 1990s with influences beyond Cuba and Brazil, Simon recorded a series of acclaimed albums documenting his ambition as a composer.

Named one of the best releases of the year in the NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll, Simon’s latest album, 2018’s Sorrows & Triumphs, features his quartet Afinidad with Blade and Colley, and the Imani Winds, an exploratory quintet known for collaborations with jazz masters Wayne Shorter, Paquito D’Rivera, and Jason Moran. Steel House offers a very different path, avoiding the tropes and forms that define so many jazz trios. Rather than focusing on accompaniment, Colley often takes the lead. And instead of a theme followed by a string of solos, the music unfolds via extended ensemble passages that barely require solos at all.

“You start to feel confined by those roles and categories,” Simon says. “After a while you outgrow them. You want to be free to do something completely different. There should be space for all of that.”

Steel House performs at 7pm on Thursday, Nov. 14, at Kuumbwa Jazz, 320-2 Cedar St., Santa Cruz. $31.50 adv/$36.75 door. 427-2227.

Scorpio—Test, Trial, Struggle, and Triumph: Risa’s Stars Nov. 13-19

Risa D’Angeles

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November 12, 2019

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Scorpio—Test, Trial, Struggle, and Triumph: Risa’s Stars Nov. 13-19

This is our last week of Mercury retrograde in Scorpio. Mercury retrograde turns direct next Wednesday. However, Mercury’s retrograde shadow remains with us until Sunday, Dec. 8. We are to slowly move forward with plans, proceeding with caution.

This is also our last week of Scorpio. Sun enters Sagittarius Friday, Nov. 22. A new moon occurs on the 26th, the day before Neptune turns direct and two days before Thanksgiving (harmonious transits this year for families gathering together). Good and practical and harmonious all day and evening (Thanksgiving).

Scorpio deeply influences and transforms all lives on Earth. Scorpio’s keynotes (influences)—test, trial, struggle, strength, and triumph–describe the Scorpio’s impact on humanity. The great fear during the depths of Scorpio is death. The great hope is that we remain intact and alive. Scorpio transforms all that it touches. The disciple, toiling within Scorpio’s nine tests, must rise phoenix-like out of the ashes of the past. While we are laboring within the Scorpio depths, it’s easy to lose sight of Scorpio’s eventual triumph. Scorpio asks us to cultivate patience, poise, strength, aspiration, and vision even while in the very midst of the battle. The teachers tell us when in difficulty to act as if we were already released into the harmonious, flowing stream of life itself.

ARIES: A sense of regeneration is transforming your intimate relationships, also all shared finances and resources. You could experience intense feelings of love or passion, anger or resentment, loss or bereavement. It’s best to be aware of these so that you can choose how best to respond (not react). Investigate the merging of your resources with another. Be sure to build a groundwork of trust first. And maintain it carefully.

TAURUS: The original foundations (purpose) of your relationship come forth, like a surprising fragrant winter bloom. Patterns that have become embedded in the relationship are slowly disintegrating, calling forth new levels of relating, listening, communication, and then love. This includes intimates, family, friends, and partnerships. A new level of vulnerability and sensitivity has emerged for you. This is good. We learn compassion that way.

GEMINI: What changes are occurring in your daily life, work interactions and health? What new areas are you interested in? What events and disciplines align with your needs? What habits do you wish to eliminate? What new habits do you want to cultivate? Is something draining your vital energy? Whatever it is must be eliminated. Oh, dear. That can be difficult. However, new vitality is seeking to come forth.

CANCER: You’ve been so serious for so long. A little lightness and ease are needed in your life. It’s good to assess what joy means, when you last experienced joy and how you could bring it forth now. Sometimes joy leaves us when a life change occurs. We feel we can no longer feel joy, only endless sorrow. However, joy is a quality of the Soul. Write, paint, garden, dance, sing. These bring joy.

LEO: It’s most important to consider the things that nourish you. Family patterns nourish until they’re no longer useful for growth. Then we must create new life patterns that sustain and vitalize. It’s important to cultivate financial stability and careful assessment of resources. Create a physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual foundation that is strong and solid for the times to come. You will be depended upon by many when times are difficult. You are a leader.

VIRGO: Light from the stars is streaming into your mental (thinking, learning) realm. You can feel more anxious than usual. Anxieties, fears or worries can be eliminated through the reciting of mantras and by the use of words that praise all beings and experiences in your life. Praise fills our cells with light, helps us connect heart to heart with others, and allows hidden realities to come forth. Something about home is wanting to expand. What is it?

LIBRA: Something new in your life is allowing you to feel ardent, enthusiastic, filled with love. Perhaps it’s the season. Something else in your life is bringing you out of the shadows. A new level of assessment about life shifts your values. One thing is still missing though. It’s forgiveness with another that keeps you seeking and never finding. What needs forgiving? Your self-worth soars when this forgiveness is offered. So much of your life’s vitality depends on it.

SCORPIO: Your new year began/begins with your birthday. Our self-identity shifts each year to newer and greater expansiveness on our birthday. Each year, things that hurt, disappoint, confuse, and distract us are released. Each year, a change appears that brings forth new trust, compassion and the deeper mysteries of life. We look to you for valuable and illuminating information from your discoveries into the darkest corners of life. Only you can enter there. You are the phoenix for everyone.

SAGITTARIUS: It’s good if you’re considering a time of retreat and contemplation. You will not have much time for this opportunity, as the Sun will soon illuminate your sign (enter Sagittarius) and your life, talents and gifts will be in the spotlight. No more doors to hide behind. It’s important to be aware of dreams, both waking and sleeping dreams and visions. They provide ease from the past and a picture of the future.

CAPRICORN: It’s good to list—in a journal, quilt or mural—your hopes, wishes and dreams for the future. Talking about them, pondering and brooding over them, clarifies for you their value and brings them into the first level of manifestation, and they anchor on Earth. Who shares these dreams with you? Who understands you? Who listens to you? Know you have the ability to transform everyone with your knowledge, ideas, art, and words. Words are magic.

AQUARIUS: Align your actions, friends, work, thoughts, feelings, desires, aspirations with your deepest hopes and wishes. Then everything comes forth successfully. We find you very responsible with those who depend upon you. We also see you share all that you have. What you provide to others, returns to you tenfold. You’re on a mission with humanity. Whether its cooking, travel, fun, writing, making music, publishing, or caring for the animal kingdom, what you do makes a great difference in everyone’s life.

PISCES: You continue to wonder about your world, your future, your work, and the tasks you are to perform. Sometimes your faith is tested so that you assess and get to the root of your beliefs. You find yourself in different realities, different worlds, often your destination unknown. This applies to outer and inner realities. Only your intuition is intact. It guides, directs and leads you far afield, then brings you home again. Rely on it.

Music Picks: Nov. 13-19

Aaron Carnes

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November 12, 2019

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Santa Cruz County live entertainment picks for the week of Nov. 13

WEDNESDAY 11/13

METAL

HELMET

As we come to the end of 2019, Helmet wraps up their 30th anniversary spreading the gospel of metal on this glorious rock we call Earth. Throughout the ’90s, Helmet continued to defy genres, breaking onto MTV and the radio while influencing the musicians who would form System of a Down, Mastodon and others. While the band has continued to change, with founder Page Hamilton as the only constant, it still pulls no punches when it comes to the drop-D chords. MAT WEIR

9pm. Catalyst, 1011 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $20. 423-1338.

FRIDAY 11/15

HIP-HOP

JAZE EARL

Jaze Earl used to rap under the name Juba Zaki. He also used to rap in Rue Des Pêcheres, a nine-piece bilingual hip-hop group out of Belgium that alternately spat in English and French and mixed musical genres like an experimental, international stew. These days, Jaze may be on his own, but he sounds as nimble and confident as he did back in Brussels atop a bed of bass, brass and percussion. In either situation, he stays on the top of the beat, his flow weighty, well-knit and pouring forth like a tapestry unfurled. MIKE HUGUENOR

9pm. Crepe Place, 1134 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. $5. 429-6994.

POST-PUNK

THUMPASAURUS

When Devo hit Middle America with jerky New Wave hit “Whip it,” the band explained in interviews that the song provided life advice for anyone dealing with problems. Weirdo funk-punkers Thumpasaurus have their own life-advice song with the crunchy “Mental Karate.” (“Mental karate, choppin’ all the bad thoughts.”) Who knows, maybe it’s operating on a deeper level of social satire. The robotic “Evil” likens society’s obsession with news to porn addiction. And brutally New Wave track “You Are So Pretty” is just weird, with nothing but Jennifer Lawrence memes in the video. They’re probably just messing with us. AC

9pm. Catalyst, 1011 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $12 adv/$15 door. 423-1338.

SATURDAY 11/16

COMEDY

THE NEW NEGROES

A few years back, alternative rapper Open Mike Eagle and comedian Baron Vaughn started doing live shows in L.A., showcasing the best comedians in the black community. The idea was to discuss nuances in social issues, demonstrate a wide range of opinions and show that “black entertainment” isn’t a monolith. Then this year, they landed a half-hour show on Comedy Central. They’re back to the live format, but this time as a touring act. AC

7 & 9:30pm. DNA’s Comedy Lab, 155 S. River St., Santa Cruz. $20 adv/$25 door. 900-5123.

FUNK

LOS AMIGOS INVISIBLES

In Venezuela, if you want to par-tay, chances are you’d pop on one of Los Amigos Invisibles’ 11 explosively danceable albums. Or better yet, you’d go check out the band live and get immersed in the funky, disco-infused electro-pop grooves. The group, which started in 1991, quickly gained an international audience when signed by David Byrne to his eclectic Luaka Bop record label. The group plays the best kind of dance music. Not only does it have wide-ranging influences, but it sneaks in some sophisticated lyrics, which you may not fully hear since you’ll be dancing so hard. AC

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

SUNDAY 11/17

DANCEHALL

SISTER CAROL

The hip-hop oriented Dancehall sound that emerged from Jamaica in the ’80s has often been criticized for glorifying violence and for generally being misogynist. There’s some truth there, but it’s painting the music with too broad of a brush. You have to look at each individual artist. One of the best—and one of the few women dancehall artists from this era—is Sister Carol. Her music is uplifting, and her ability to spit out verses at lighting speed will put a smile on your face, no matter how much you claim to like dancehall or not. AC

9pm. Moe’s Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz. $15 adv/$20 door. 479-1854.

LATIN

INCENDIO

Incendio are, in a word, caliente. Virtuosic and infectious, the quartet plays world-fusion with a distinctly Latin flavor, filled with pyrotechnic acoustic guitar work and galloping Cumbia rhythms. Though almost entirely Californian (and extremely well trained in classical guitar), you’d be forgiven for thinking the band formed naturally, dust made into flesh in a swirl of hot breeze off the Chihuahuan Desert. On Sunday, they play Michael’s in the height of the afternoon heat, a perfect time to come inside, cool off with a beer and sweat it out on the dancefloor. MH

2pm. Michael’s On Main, 2591 Main St., Soquel. $12 adv/$15 door. 479-9777

MONDAY 11/18

MIGUEL ZENON

Alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón possesses a radiant sound with a molten core that never loses its beautiful sheen. While he interpreted the music of Monk and Coltrane, Ornette Coleman and Joe Henderson as a founding member of the SFJAZZ Collective, Zenón has defined himself as a composer and bandleader by delving deep into the music of Puerto Rico, where he was born and raised. He returns to Kuumbwa celebrating the release of his recent album Sonero: The Music of Ismael Rivera, which pays tribute to the legendary Puerto Rican vocalist. Zenón’s instrumental arrangements explore an array of Rivera’s best known songs, evoking his rhythmic inventiveness and powerful presence. ANDREW GILBERT

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

Tanuki Cider’s Booze Philosophy

Lauren Hepler

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November 12, 2019

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When Robby Honda lived in Japan, he really started to grasp the cultural phenomenon that is the tanuki.

The real-life animals, which look like a cross between a fox and a raccoon, are idolized in Japanese mythology as shapeshifters that keep the human ego in check with their mischief—a dynamic immortalized in tanuki cartoons, statues and even towns dedicated to the “raccoon dog.”

“We’re Japanese-American, and these little figures were always around,” says Honda, the owner of Santa Cruz’s Tanuki Cider, who grew up in Orange County and lived in Japan before he moved to the Central Coast a decade ago. “Through the mythology, they’ve evolved into these prankster archetypes.”

The inside joke (see if you can spot the tanuki’s famous anatomical quirk, which Honda doesn’t like to spoil for the uninitiated) seemed perfect when he and his brother started dreaming up a craft cider company. In the five years since, Tanuki Cider has become a local cult sensation stocked at restaurants including Gabriella Cafe, Home and Oswald, plus retailers like New Leaf and Whole Foods.

But it almost all came crashing down when Honda’s brother Brad, the artist who designed the Tanuki Cider label, died suddenly at age 33 in 2016.

“I quit. It was pretty heavy,” Honda says. “That’s a bigger part of the project. It’s more than a business. It’s more than cider and all this stuff. It’s a connection to my brother.”

That’s especially true, he says, since apples have always been part of the family. Honda spent much of his childhood at a family orchard in Sebastopol.

Still, he didn’t set out to get into hard cider, not least because of its reputation as a sweeter, weaker alternative for drinkers who can’t handle beer or wine. The idea of doing something more refined with the region’s wealth of apples emerged when Honda was working at Fogline Farm in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

“I was interested in agriculture, apples specifically, and just kind of got lucky with the cider thing taking off,” Honda says. “When I moved to town, there were zero cider commercial businesses. Now there’s like seven.”

Tanuki’s niche is dry, acidic, farmhouse-style ciders inspired by those Honda tasted in his wife’s native England. With an expanding lineup of “terroir-driven” ciders featuring Gravenstein, Newtown Pippin, Bellflower, Mutsu and other apples, Honda now has his sights set on a Santa Cruz County tasting room and retail outpost.

“It’s been over a year now where I’ve been trying to figure out how to find a home,” Honda says. “That’s our goal.”

He’s gotten creative in the meantime, partnering with Santa Cruz Cider Company to buy equipment to press apple juice, and leaning on wineries like Equinox and Sones Cellars for access to fermentation tanks and a production license.

“I’m like a gypsy,” Honda says, though he’s not alone. Other local food and drink purveyors have followed a similarly nomadic path, like Effigy Brewing or 11th Hour coffee, which both contracted with other producers in their industries while starting up in increasingly cost-prohibitive Santa Cruz County.

Part of the challenge with cider, Honda says, is that the category is still a stepchild of the wine industry. Tanuki Cider has experimented with different can and bottle formats, which usually sell for $7-10, and in recent seasons has released variations like a Blue Pippin combination of blueberries and Newtown Pippin apples, plus wild-fermented ciders produced without yeast.

“It’s the same thing as grapes. We’re looking for sugar, acid and tannin,” Honda says. “Those things are going to give a wine or a cider the body, the texture, something interesting.”

While the philosophy is ambitious, all it takes is the tanuki on the bottle to keep things in perspective.

“You can go as deep or as shallow as you want,” Honda says. “At the end of the day, it’s a bottle with some booze in it. Nothing more, nothing less.”

Instagram: @tanukicider.

Love Your Local Band: The Poor Carters

Aaron Carnes

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November 12, 2019

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Singer/mandolin player RT Bob Carter has played in 17 bands over the past 50 years, mostly in Santa Cruz County. One of his biggest was the Woodshed Bluegrass Band in the ’80s, and three years ago, he formed yet another string ensemble, the Poor Carters.

“I put this group together so we could play our old-timey music. It’s not the most commercially viable sound, but it’s a fun sound,” Carter says. “My background is traditional and old-time music. I just love to play fiddle songs. Nobody plays fiddle songs.”

By fiddle tunes, he means dust bowl-era Appalachian music. Other than a few standards from this period, most of the Poor Carters’ songs are originals written by him and guitarist/banjo player Bob Peters. They also throw in some western swing and contemporary honky-tonk.

The group, which also features Tricia Muren on standup bass and daughter Ariel Carter on the fiddle, aims to capture the upbeat, and fast-paced feel good music of Appalachia. The band is named after one of the one of the genre’s most famous groups, the Carter Family.

“The Carter family is very big and traditional,” he says. “We are the Poor Carters, the ones that didn’t make it big.”

The group plays frequent community events, plus monthly shows at Lulu Carpenters and Carter’s songwriter showcases at the Santa Cruz Food Lounge.

9pm. Friday, Nov. 15, Blue Lagoon, 923 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $5. 423-7117.

Film Review: ‘Harriet’

Lisa Jensen

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November 12, 2019

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She didn’t wear spandex tights or bullet-repelling bracelets. But Harriet Tubman was a real-life superhero, fighting for justice and winning major victories against impossible odds in her lifelong battle to end slavery in the American South.

An escaped slave herself, she made many perilous trips back below the Mason-Dixon Line to lead other enslaved people to freedom in the North, via the Underground Railroad, armed with little more than raw courage, relentless determination and the occasional flintlock pistol.

It’s incredible that such an inspirational story has never been made into a movie—until now. In Harriet, filmmaker Kasi Lemmons (Eve’s Bayou; Talk To Me) examines the woman behind the legend, exploring the outrage, grit and compassion that shaped her, a tribute that feels long overdue. Maybe now that we’re all so woke, the times have finally caught up to the amazing life of Harriet Tubman.

The story, co-written by Lemmons and Gregory Allen Howard, begins in 1849 with the young slave woman, Minty (Cynthia Erivo), who lives with her parents and grown siblings on the Ross family farm in Maryland. After their master tears up their legal petition to free the family in honor of his late mother’s will, Minty prays for his death, overheard by the master’s odious son, Gideon (Joe Alwyn). When he plans to sell her off, she runs away; pursued by men and dogs and nearly drowned, she makes it all the way to Philadelphia.

There, she’s taken in by William Still (Leslie Odom Jr.), a dapper abolitionist, and Marie (Janelle Monáe), who runs a refuge for single women and finds her paid employment working in a hotel. Marie teaches Minty to shoot a pistol. William encourages her to give up her slave name; she chooses her mother’s given name with the surname of the husband she had to leave behind—Harriet Tubman.

Her new friends are horrified when Harriet risks recapture to return south and bring back her family. But once she’s made the journey a couple more times, bringing out strangers as well as family, William introduces her to the Underground Railroad, a covert network of operators and vehicles by which runaway slaves are spirited north to freedom, of which the fearless Harriet becomes one of the most intrepid “conductors.”

Erivo plays Harriet with bristly moral conviction; it’s unthinkable to her to sit by, protecting her own freedom, when others are still enslaved. The real-life Tubman was prone to seizures, which she claimed were visions from God guiding her on her journeys, which Lemmons recreates in sepia glimpses. These, along with the fact that she never loses one of her “passengers”—despite fierce pursuit—adds to her mythos among slaves, abolitionists and slaveowners.

Evocative music also plays a key role. Spirituals underline fervent faith in a better life ahead, but when sung by slaves in the field, they also communicate a kind of code under the overseer’s notice. Many are delivered with wistful, calibrated emotion by Erivo, a Tony-winning musical theater actress.

Erivo also sings the powerful anthem “Stand Up” over the closing credits, a song she wrote with Joshuah Campbell that sends the viewer off on a stirring note. And a brief glimpse of foot-stompin’ revival music in the slaves’ little church on the farm is delivered by a boisterous Vondie Curtis-Hall as the preacher. If my grandfather the Methodist minister had held services like that, maybe I would have become a churchgoer.

Lemmons’ melodramatic flourishes can be overdone. Gideon is written as dastardly, insinuating evil incarnate without any shading, and the orchestral soundtrack tends to swell and crest overmuch to express emotion. But Harriet’s story is so important, it rises in triumph over all obstacles—like the woman herself.

HARRIET

*** (out of four)

With Cynthia Erivo, Leslie Odom Jr., Janelle Monáe, and Joe Alwyn. Written by Gregory Allen Howard and Kasi Lemmons. Directed by Kasi Lemmons. A Focus Features release. Rated PG-13. 125 minutes.

Soquel Vineyards Superior 2018 Chardonnay

Josie Cowden

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November 6, 2019

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There are Chardonnays, and then there are Chardonnays!

Soquel Vineyards’ superior 2018 Chardonnay ($35) has a head start on others because of its high-quality fruit. Grapes are harvested from Lester Family Vineyard in Aptos, where oenophiles in the know are aware of how carefully grapes are tended.

Fresh and enticing aromas of pineapple and flavors of melt-in-the-mouth crème brûlée are prominent in this well-made Chardonnay. With its rich concentration of pure fruit, followed by sweet, creamy French oak, it was awarded a well-deserved 91 points by Wine Enthusiast. Aged in French oak for 10 months, the end result is a wine to delight any lover of Chardonnay.

On a recent visit to Soquel Vineyards’ tasting room, I admired co-owner Peter Bargetto’s shirt. He told me that his mother-in-law in Italy bought it for him, and he’d love for me to mention it—so, I’m doing that! Peter’s wife of three decades, Irene, hails from Italy, and they go there often.

Soquel Vineyards has a lovely tasting room and a beautiful patio overlooking their vineyards and the Monterey Bay.

Soquel Vineyards, 8063 Glen Haven Rd., Soquel. 462-9045, soquelvineyards.com.

Santa Cruz Wine Walk

The popular downtown Santa Cruz Wine Walk is an opportunity to try wines from the Santa Cruz Mountains and Northern California. Retailers act as tasting rooms and host winemakers pouring their fine wines. With your ticket you receive a map, a wristband and wine glass, which guides you from business to business to sample offerings. The event will run 2-5pm on Sunday, Nov. 10, and the starting point is Soif on Walnut Avenue. downtownsantacruz.com/winewalk.

Persephone Dinner Featuring Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard

If you have never tasted the wonderful wines made by Jeff Emery of Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard, then your opportunity is coming up on Thursday, Nov. 21. Persephone Restaurant in Aptos will be featuring this winery in a five-course wine-pairing dinner, starting at 6pm. persephonerestaurant.com.

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FRANKENCON

WEDNESDAY 11/13

METAL

HELMET

9pm. Catalyst, 1011 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $20. 423-1338.

FRIDAY 11/15

HIP-HOP

JAZE EARL

9pm. Crepe Place, 1134 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. $5. 429-6994.

THUMPASAURUS

9pm. Catalyst, 1011 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $12 adv/$15 door. 423-1338.

SATURDAY 11/16

COMEDY

THE NEW NEGROES

7 & 9:30pm. DNA’s Comedy Lab, 155 S. River St., Santa Cruz. $20 adv/$25 door. 900-5123.

FUNK

LOS AMIGOS INVISIBLES

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

SUNDAY 11/17

DANCEHALL

SISTER CAROL

9pm. Moe’s Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz. $15 adv/$20 door. 479-1854.

INCENDIO

2pm. Michael’s On Main, 2591 Main St., Soquel. $12 adv/$15 door. 479-9777

MONDAY 11/18

MIGUEL ZENON

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

Soquel Vineyards, 8063 Glen Haven Rd., Soquel. 462-9045, soquelvineyards.com.

Santa Cruz Wine Walk

Persephone Dinner Featuring Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard