NUZ Pro-Tip: Don’t Defend Racism on Social Media

Nuz

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October 29, 2019

NUZ Pro-Tip: Don’t Defend Racism on Social Media

OK, everyone. Former Santa Cruz City Council candidate Ashley Scontriano has an important message about Chinese food.

Last week, she posted on her public Facebook page to let everyone know the food at O’mei—which closed two years ago due to protests over the owner’s horrible racism—was actually really good. “Who else misses the BEST Chinese food in the city of Santa Cruz?” she wrote, with a bunch of hashtags including #runoutoftown and #freespeech. Yikes. O’Mei owner Roger Grigsby’s public bigotry included his support for former KKK leader David Duke’s U.S. Senate campaign in Louisiana—prompting a community boycott. The establishment quickly closed in 2017. The Facebook page, Ashley Scontriano for City Council 2018, was the same one that Scontriano used for her unsuccessful campaign last year. In what appeared to be an edit of the original post, she made sure to let everyone know that she isn’t interested in running for office again.

Phew, that’s a relief, but you might also say that it’s common sense (which coincidentally is the title of Scontriano’s weekly radio show on KSCO, a station that’s itself no stranger to bigotry). Seriously, someone who did want to run for the council again would surely make sure to denounce racism as unequivocally and succinctly as possible. Not only that, but such an individual with ongoing political ambitions would go the extra mile, making sure to also proudly defend the boycott against O’Mei, right on cue.

And it would be so easy!

“Voting with one’s dollars to not frequent an establishment where the owner is donating to a former KKK grand wizard is as American as apple pie,” former Councilmember Richelle Noroyan wrote, commenting on Scontriano’s post. “I would be concerned if this establishment was able to stay open after knowing about his contributions. I am proud of my community who voted with their dollars to not support this restaurant.”

Cabrillo Theater Gets Spooky with ‘Carrie: The Musical’

Steve Palopoli

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October 29, 2019

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Cabrillo Theater Gets Spooky with ‘Carrie: The Musical’

When people talk about “splatter” in horror, they’re usually referring to the subgenre of stabby psycho-killers and their gory antics. But Kathryn Adkins, the director of Cabrillo’s new Halloween production, quickly discovered that she’d have to learn a whole new meaning of it for Carrie: The Musical, if she wanted to pull off the most famous scene in Stephen King’s iconic terror tale.

Everybody knows that when high school misfit Carrie White goes to the prom, she gets a bucket of blood dumped on her in a cruel prank by her high school classmates that sets off her telekinetic rage. That might have been easy to pull off in Brian DePalma’s 1976 film adaptation, but every night on stage? It’s a bit trickier.

“With the blood drop, you have to find the splatter zone. That’s the most important thing. You have to figure out how to catch it so it doesn’t go into the stage itself and make it hazardous for the actors,” says Adkins. “Everything was tried out first with water. Water, of course, isn’t quite the same viscosity, but you get a sense of where it’s going to go and how you can control it—and what you need to do to avoid it hitting and destroying your microphones. That takes practice and attention to detail, like how much liquid to pour. All of those things are part of the rehearsal process.”

If it sounds like she’s overstating the hazards—well, the blood drop shorting out microphones is exactly the kind of problem that plagued the notorious 1988 Broadway run of Carrie: The Musical. (They almost decapitated an actor, too, but that’s another story.)

But the technical disasters during the show’s U.S. opening three decades ago didn’t intimidate Adkins.

“I really wouldn’t have even entertained doing the show if I didn’t have full confidence in the technical designers and masterminds over at Cabrillo College,” she says. “Skip Epperson is brilliant in his designs, and Marcel Tjioe, our technical director, is a wizard at figuring out how to make it all happen. It has been challenging. For me, there’s a joy in the challenge. I don’t know whether they could all say that, but I find always pushing myself a little bit is where the passion comes out. It’s been fun.”

She’s also thankful for the actor getting the blood dropped on her, Marina Hallin.

“I’m so, so lucky that we have a very strong Carrie. She’s not only a fabulous actor who has a tremendous voice, but she’s fearless,” says Adkins. “It’s not every actress who’s willing to have liquid poured on her in front of an audience. She just embraces the challenges all the way through.”

Carrie: The Musical was famously a flop on Broadway; the book about Broadway flops is even called Not Since Carrie. But in the last decade, it has experienced a Renaissance, with a number of revivals featuring a heavily reworked songbook and story. Adkins is not surprised.

“You have to remember that back in the ’80s, the other shows that were being produced at the time were the big extravaganza musicals—Cats, Phantom of the Opera, Les Mis. Huge productions—for Miss Saigon, they were dropping helicopters! So Carrie came along, and it couldn’t really compete on the same level. Plus, the story is pretty dark. So it wasn’t one of what we lovingly call the ‘happy-clappy’ musicals. But musicals have really changed; we’ve had a big resurgence of social issues.”

And Carrie certainly has a strong social issue at its core; it’s about as anti-bullying as you can get, and way ahead of its time in that way. That message was what drew Adkins to the material the most, and she’s added several elements to the production to emphasize it, like text messages to incorporate cyberbullying, and letting the audience see pages in Carrie’s sketchbook as a window into her emotions.

In the #timesup era, Carrie White may have found her cultural moment. Abused by both her deranged mother and her peers, she finally gets to the point of no return, retaliating with a supernatural weapon that has taken on more and more symbolic resonance over the years.

“When Stephen King was writing his novel, telekinesis was being studied as a weapon or a counter-weapon during the Cold War,” says Adkins. “It’s her weapon, and it’s an explosive response, an emotional response that being young she doesn’t have control over yet. I think that’s part of the message, too—that we have to see behaviors and change them, and you can’t ignore them.”

‘Carrie: The Musical’ runs through Nov. 10 at Crocker Theater in Aptos. Performances are Saturday at 7:30pm and Sunday at 2pm. There will also be a Halloween performance at 7:30pm on Thursday, Oct. 31. Tickets $19/$17 students and seniors/$9 with Cabrillo student activities card. Go to cabrillovapa.com for more info and tickets.

Rob Brezsny’s Astrology Oct. 30-Nov. 5

Rob Brezsny

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October 29, 2019

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Free will astrology for the week of Oct. 30

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Do you have any skill in fulfilling the wishes and answering the prayers of your allies? Have you developed a capacity to tune into what people want, even when they themselves aren’t sure of what they want? Do you sometimes have a knack for offering just the right gesture at the right time to help people do what they haven’t been able to do under their own power? If you possess any of those aptitudes, now is an excellent time to put them in play. More than usual, you are needed as a catalyst, a transformer, an inspirational influence. Halloween costume suggestion: angel, fairy godmother, genie, benefactor.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Author Amy Tan describes the magic moment when her muse appears and takes command: “I sense a subtle shift, a nudge to move over, and everything cracks open, the writing is freed, the language is full, resources are plentiful, ideas pour forth, and to be frank, some of these ideas surprise me. It seems as though the universe is my friend and is helping me write, its hand over mine.” Even if you’re not a creative artist, Taurus, I suspect you’ll be offered intense visitations from a muse in the coming days. If you make yourself alert for and receptive to these potential blessings, you’ll feel like you’re being guided and fueled by a higher power. Halloween costume suggestion: your muse.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): More than a century ago, author Anton Chekhov wrote, “If many remedies are prescribed for an illness, you may be certain that the illness has no cure.” Decades later, I wrote, “If you’re frantically trying to heal yourself with a random flurry of half-assed remedies, you’ll never cure what ails you. But if you sit still in a safe place and ask your inner genius to identify the one or two things you need to do to heal, you will find the cure.” Halloween costume suggestion: physician, nurse, shaman, healer.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Cancerian artist Marc Chagall (1887–1985) was a playful visionary and a pioneer of modernism. He appealed to sophisticates despite being described as a dreamy, eccentric outsider who invented his own visual language. In the 1950s, Picasso observed that Chagall was one of the only painters who “understood what color really is.” In 2017, one of Chagall’s paintings sold for $28.5 million. What was the secret to his success? “If I create from the heart, nearly everything works,” he testified. “If from the head, almost nothing.” Your current assignment, Cancerian, is to authorize your heart to rule everything you do. Halloween costume suggestion: a heart.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): The Dead Sea, on the border of Jordan and Israel, is far saltier than the ocean. No fish or frogs live in it. But here and there on the lake’s bottom are springs that exude fresh water. They support large, diverse communities of microbes. It’s hard for divers to get down there and study the life forms, though. The water’s so saline, they tend to float. So they carry 90 pounds of ballast that enables them to sink to the sea floor. I urge you to get inspired by all this, Leo. What would be the metaphorical equivalent for you of descending into the lower depths, so as to research unexplored sources of vitality and excitement? Halloween costume suggestions: diver, spelunker, archaeologist.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): “We have stripped all things of their mystery and luminosity,” lamented psychologist Carl Jung. “Nothing is holy any longer.” In accordance with current astrological omens, Virgo, your assignment is to rebel against that mournful state of affairs. I hope you will devote some of your fine intelligence to restoring mystery and luminosity to the world in which you dwell. I hope you will find and create holiness that’s worthy of your reverence and awe. Halloween costume suggestion: mage, priestess, poet, enchantrix, witch, alchemist, sacramentalist.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): “One language is never enough,” says a Pashto proverb. How could it be, right? Each language has a specific structure and a finite vocabulary that limit its power to describe and understand the world. I think the same is true for religion: one is never enough. Why confine yourself to a single set of theories about spiritual matters when more will enable you to enlarge and deepen your perspective? With this in mind, Libra, I invite you to regard November as “One Is Never Enough Month.” Assume you need more of everything. Halloween costume suggestion: a bilingual Jewish Santa Claus; a pagan Sufi Buddha who intones prayers in three different languages.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): In his novel Zone One, Scorpio author Colson Whitehead writes, “A monster is a person who has stopped pretending.” He means it in the worst sense possible: the emergence of the ugly beast who had been hiding behind social niceties. But I’m going to twist his meme for my own purposes. I propose that when you stop pretending and shed fake politeness, you may indeed resemble an ugly monster—but only temporarily. After the suppressed stuff gets free rein to yammer, it will relax and recede—and you will feel so cleansed and relieved that you’ll naturally be able to express more of your monumental beauty. Halloween costume suggestion: your beautiful, fully exorcised monster.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): “I am glad that I paid so little attention to good advice,” testified poet Edna St. Vincent Millay. “Had I abided by it, I might have been saved from some of my most valuable mistakes.” This is excellent advice for you. I suspect you’re in the midst of either committing or learning from a valuable mistake. It’s best if you don’t interrupt yourself! Halloween costume suggestion: the personification or embodiment of your valuable mistake.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Cleopatra was an ancient Egyptian queen who ruled for 21 years. She was probably a Capricorn. All you need to know about her modern reputation is that Kim Kardashian portrayed her as a sultry seductress in a photo spread in a fashion magazine. But the facts are that Cleopatra was a well-educated, multilingual political leader with strategic cunning. Among her many skills were poetry, philosophy, and mathematics. I propose we make the real Cleopatra your role model. Now is an excellent time to correct people’s misunderstandings about you—and show people who you truly are. Halloween costume suggestion: your actual, authentic self.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Around the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, the 11th sign of the zodiac, Aquarius, will be capable of strenuous feats, will have the power to achieve a success that surpasses past successes, will be authorized to attempt a brave act of transcendence that renders a long-standing limitation irrelevant. As for the 11 days and 11 hours before that magic hour, the 11th sign of the zodiac will be smart to engage in fierce meditation and thorough preparation for the magic hour. And as for the 11 days and 11 hours afterward, the 11th sign should expend all possible effort to capitalize on the semi-miraculous breakthrough. Halloween costume suggestion: 11.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Author Robert Musil made a surprising declaration: “A number of flawed individuals can often add up to a brilliant social unit.” I propose we make that one of your mottos for the coming months. I think you have the potential to be a flawed but inspiring individual who’ll serve as a dynamic force in assembling and nurturing a brilliant social unit. So let me ask you: what would be your dream-come-true of a brilliant social unit that is a fertile influence on you and everyone else in the unit? Halloween costume suggestion: ringleader, mastermind, orchestrator, or general.

Homework: “Be homesick for wild knowing,” wrote Clarissa Pinkola Estés. Try that out. Report results to freewillastrology.com.

Preview: Mellow Fellow at Catalyst

Aaron Carnes

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October 29, 2019

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Last year, Ralph Lawrence “Polo” Reyes played his first show ever under his washed-out, downer-pop moniker Mellow Fellow. That first show was at a dive bar in his native Philippines. Once word got out that Mellow Fellow was playing live shows, he got offered a gig in Hong Kong—his second-ever show—which led to some tours in Asia, and now his first ever U.S. tour, which kicks off on Nov. 6 in Santa Cruz.

“I never had plans of performing my songs,” Reyes says. “I always told my friends that I’m never going to be satisfied with how it sounds live. I get meticulous when I’m in the studio, and I have trust issues, like, will my band be able to sound the way I want it?”

When Reyes started uploading instrumental tracks to his SoundCloud six years ago, he never included his real name or a photo of himself, hoping to keep a healthy distance between his musical expressions and his personal life. That became even more important when he started adding vocals. The chilled-out, dreamy, jangle-pop songs that came pouring out of him were sad, many of them dealing with a failed relationship he had with a girl he dated for four years.

“I started this project as an outlet for sadness, for anger, for exhaustion,” Reyes explains. “The whole purpose was to hide away from my life. I’m a different person when I’m not making my music. I don’t want people to associate me with the music I make when they see me at school or at work. It was a hobby I wanted to keep for myself.”

As his songs got better, the handful of friends he told about it shared his tracks on their Soundcloud pages. A few songs caught a surprising amount of online attention, like “My World,” “Dancing” and “How Was Your Day,” a collaboration with the artist Clairo. Some of his tracks have gone into the millions of views on YouTube, with fans fawning over his ability to produce such solitary bittersweetness in his music.

Magazines reached out to Reyes, and he had to decide if he wanted to keep the project as his private, anonymous emotional outlet, or transform it into a career.

“I had no choice but to reveal, inch by inch, who I really am,” Reyes says. “They would finally see the face behind the music. I wasn’t very comfortable with the idea—not because I have a problem with how I look, but I’m generally an introvert by heart.”

In the last year-and-a-half, he’s taken the project a step further, as a full-on functioning live project. He’s had to grapple with how to translate this infinitely layered, nostalgic bedroom indie project into an actual band. He comes to the U.S. with a drummer, a bassist, three guitarists, and a keyboardist. He had a saxophone player in mind, as well, but didn’t have the budget this time.

“There’s never enough members in the band. Not everything is going to sound like the record, especially if it’s not meant to be played live,” Reyes says. “I told my bandmates, ‘I don’t want to go for a 100% likeness when it comes to the tracks.’ We were literally rearranging the songs to make them sound proper live instead of trying to copy the tracks, riff by riff.”

He’s not completely unfamiliar with performing live. Before Mellow Fellow, he used to play in a surf-punk band whose members would throw stuff around, stage-dive and “probably play naked.”

“I don’t want everyone to fall asleep when I sing my music. I think it’s important to keep that chill vibe, but at the same time to still feed off the crowd’s energy,” Reyes says. “If the crowd’s energy is very high and very energetic, we have some very cool moments on stage.”

9pm. Wednesday, Nov. 6. Catalyst, 1011 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $13 adv/$15 door. 423-1338.

Mercury Retrogrades in Scorpio: Risa’s Stars Oct. 30-Nov. 5

Risa D’Angeles

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October 29, 2019

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Mercury Retrogrades in Scorpio: Risa’s Stars Oct. 30-Nov. 5

Esoteric astrology as news for the week of Oct. 30, 2019

Halloween this year brings us our old friend, shaman, coyote, heyoka (Lakota word for sacred clown, jester): Mercury retrograde, this time in Scorpio. That means it’s a more intense Mercury retrograde. Not light like Gemini, or quick like Aries, or on a journey like Sag, or in the future like Aquarius. Mercury in Scorpio is the deep, dark waters of the unconscious calling us to discipleship; it’s the Scorpio sting, eye of the eagle and the heart of the phoenix reorienting in the fires of transformation.

Mercury in Scorpio (retrograde) is feeling everyone’s thoughts and emotions, and it’s the Soul reminding us to have Right Communication, Goodwill and kindness (or else!). Mercury retrograde is a magical time, while Scorpio is a transformative testing time. In this Scorpio Mercury retrograde time, it’s good to review the Nine Tests given to all of us, to see if we are strong enough to be Disciples and World Servers.

The Nine Tests focus on the three aspects of the personality (physical, emotional and mental). Physical tests: sexuality, physical comfort over service to others, and the right use of money. Emotional tests: fear (inhibiting activities), hate (which destroys relationships), and excessive and obsessive ambition and desire for power (which can destroy entire nations). Mental tests: pride (creates a barrier to the soul), belief in separateness and isolation (create barriers to Right Human Relations), and cruelty (outcome of inappropriate use of power).

ARIES: How to more fully secure finances and resources held in common, and also stabilize relationships? You ponder these questions over the next several months. Some answers: Maintain necessary boundaries and confidentiality, yet be very truthful with those you trust. Pay bills, organize and safeguard important papers, tend to long forgotten needs (and deeds), and allow no alienation to occur. Share and safeguard more.

TAURUS: Important tasks, set aside for months, now need tending and completing. These include cleaning, clearing, home repair, organization, ordering supplies, licensing, day-to-day living needs, commitments, and something concerning marriage. Deep emotions emerge from the tests. They will appear in all relationships. Partnerships need deep, mindful listening. Sit down together. Communicate heart to heart, soul to soul.

GEMINI: The nine tests reveal themselves in daily life events, such as scheduling, tending to self, health, animals, and serving others. Mercury retrograde asks: are you taking care of yourself? Ask others to assist you if needed. It’s important that you tend to daily health tasks, set high standards, floss more carefully, act as if you are beloved, be respectful, and communicate as if the maintenance of the world depended upon it. You can do it all with grace and beauty.

CANCER: You might feel restricted, lost and alone, and far away from others, especially if family is not around. You may be stretched in four directions, experience financial fears with dreams intruding upon reality. “What’s real?” you ask. This question is all about the tests. You remember to step back and observe, to nurture yourself, and to dream more about what you really desire. And to plant some winter seeds.

LEO: You may be concerned about money—lack or loss of it, or not receiving your share in a family legacy or will. You may be concerned with having resources to purchase something quite large like a home. You remember nothing large is purchased in a retrograde. Sometimes you hide away enfolded in shadows. If there is persistent grief, take Ignatia Amara (homeopath). Death could be on your mind. Death is our great adventure, a liberation. We’ve experienced it thousands of times.

VIRGO: A quiet frame of mind may be what you’re experiencing. Mercury retrograde in Scorpio influences your thinking and communication. Careful that you don’t allow a critical nature or separative judgments to take hold. Have the intention to pass the Nine Tests with loving care. Then assist others in their tests. Hold a light up for them in their darkness.

LIBRA: Review all monetary situations—loans, bills, and tithes—in order to carefully assess finances in the next three months. This is a good exercise. You’ll find life is generous. In turn, you are to be generous, too. Give to (tithe) those in need. Do this scientifically; a bit each month. Financial differences occur within relationships. Stand your ground by sharing. Then share more. We are given more and more so we can give again and again.

SCORPIO: The tests for Scorpio center on one’s self-identity. You will observe your many selves through the lens of who you think you are, who you used to be, and who you really are, now and in the future. This is complex, but not confusing. It’s clarifying, especially since the tests are made especially for you. Watch your communication. Mercury will be watching and listening. Always practice Ahimsa (doing no harm). Karma is neutralized.

SAGITTARIUS: How you observe and tend to the Nine Tests will determine what your next opportunities will be. So, ponder upon, tend carefully to, and every moment complete the tests. They will appear even in dreams, at odd times day or night, when you’re about to fall asleep and in between thoughts, ideas and words on a page. People will appear offering you the tests. Information is available through this experience. Remember, eyes wide open, heart petals unfolded.

CAPRICORN: Dear Capricorn, always moving upward and onward. The tests, none of which deter you, will occur in teams, groups, with those around you and in your community. The tests, subtle and behind the scenes, will transform and reorient your values. The Nine Tests will ask what are your hopes, wishes and dreams for the future? For yourself and your family? What are your deepest goals? What do you love? What future do you envision?

AQUARIUS: Your home and work life are in states of change. If you are a writer, photographer or artist, notice the nine tests appearing in your life. Attempt to portray them through the medium of your art. This is new esoteric art. Wherever you are, make it feel like home. Host a party. Use your creativity to write about, describe and film everything about home. This allows you to look homeward, like an angel.

PISCES: The world listens and sees you as a teacher. Make sure all that you say are words concerning the beloved. Everything is the beloved. Write and speak as if you hold the world in your hands and every movement shifts humanity into states of greater Goodwill. What am I saying? That every action we make affects humanity and all the kingdoms.

Music Picks: Oct. 30-Nov. 5

Mike Huguenor

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October 29, 2019

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Santa Cruz County live entertainment picks for the week of Oct. 30

WEDNESDAY 10/30

INDIE

PILE

If you like your indie rock angular, sharp and a little menacing, then Pile is what you have been looking for. On this year’s Green and Gray, the Boston band sounds almost classically indie rock, like a transmission from the year 1992 that got lost somehow en route. There’s a bit of Archers of Loaf in the murky melodicism, some Jawbox in singer Rick Maguire’s croon/scream dynamics. And while this might sound like a throwback, Pile excels at finding new pressure points, and then proceeds to hammer the heck out of them. MIKE HUGUENOR

8pm. Catalyst, 1011 Pacific Ave, Santa Cruz. $13 adv/$15 door. 423-1338.

THURSDAY 10/31

BRAZILIAN

SAMBADA

The Monterey Jazz Festival last month featured some of the world’s greatest Brazilian musicians, from percussionist Luciana Souza and pianist Eliane Elias to guitarists Chico Pinheiro and Ian Faquini. Right there also was Santa Cruz’s own SambaDá, delivering an uproarious wave of Afro-Brazilian funk. Led by capoeira expert Papiba Godinho and Dandha da Hora, SambaDá has been spreading the gospel of Afro-Brazilian grooves for over two decades. Given the amazing costume traditions of Salvador’s carnival and Lavagem do Bonfim (think Sun Ra meets P-Funk), Moe’s might be the best Halloween dance party in these parts. ANDREW GILBERT

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

FRIDAY 11/1

ROCK

BODEANS

If you were an angsty ’90s teenager, chance are you flipped on the TV every week to see what the gang on Party of Five was up to. Inevitably, that alt-rock theme song “Closer To Free” got you all emo-pumped for the show. The group that penned this song, longtime college rock band BoDeans, scored a legitimate hit with the placement during the Party of Five’s opening credits. But there are several decades of tunes in these guys’ catalog that bring the breathy, alt-rock vibe for hardcore fans. AC

8pm. Moe’s Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz. $25 adv/$30 door. 479-1854.

POST-PUNK

GUERILLA TOSS

Guerilla Toss vocalist Kassie Carlson shouts and sing-songs her way through rhythmic incantations and odd time signatures, often sounding like there are 20 of her on stage at once. Sometimes evoking a twisted Gina X vibe, and other times emanating the best of any Brian Eno era, Guerilla Toss is continually diving into the depths of experimental music and bringing forth shiny, enigmatic treasures. The result is manic, high-energy no-wave punk tunes with a dash of noise rock and distorted synths. Yet an apparent love of addictive pop melodies also winds its way throughout their puzzlelike art-rock cacophonies. AMY BEE

9pm. Crepe Place, 1134 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. $12. 429-6994.

COMEDY

BUTCH ESCOBAR

It’s hard not to be just a little intimidated by a big man with a big beard who throws big rants and, appropriately, has one of the toughest sounding names in show business. But after just a few minutes of listening to one of Escobar’s hilarious tirades, the intimidation turns to agreement, laughter and applause. This Berkeley resident is a frequent flyer throughout the Bay Area and can often be seen anywhere from the Sacramento Punchline to the Sunset Strips’ Comedy Store. But Escobar reps Santa Cruz with a Blue Lagoonies shirt in his head shots. MAT WEIR

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

SATURDAY 11/2

PUNK

THE PARANOYDS

Feminists fought so women could find worth on their own, and not just because of which man they attached themselves to. Unfortunately, this isn’t a fight that’s over, as LA garage-punk band the Paranoyds note on new single “Girlfriend Degree.” “I’m not just a shadow of myself/Looking good for somebody else.” The song, like most of the catalog, is a little bit grunge, a little bubble-gum pop and heavy on the feel-good garage-rock vibes. They know just how to deliver important messages without making you feel like you’re being lectured to. AC

9pm. Crepe Place, 1134 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. $10 adv/$12 door. 429-6994.

HORROR-PUNK

ARGYLE GOOLSBY

Blitzkid may be a done deal, but Argyle Goolsby is still out there frightening fans and looky-loos with slashy, trashy horror-punk backed-up by the Roving Midnight, a merry band of horror misfits. Fast, relentless guitar licks and infectious drumbeats underlie ghoulish, gothic storytelling, while Goolsby’s dark persona thrashes on stage with his rich voice yelping and purring at the audience. In between songs, Goolsby is warm, friendly, and inviting, which is precisely what a beast of the night would want an unsuspecting person to think. AB

8pm. Catalyst, 1011 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $10 adv/$12 door. 423-1338.

PUNK

MDRN HSTRY

Tell me if you’ve heard this one before: “Surf disco punk art core gone questionably appropriate.” Yeah, me neither. That’s because there’s never been another band quite like San Diego’s MDRN HSTRY. After all, they have a song about San Jose. Who does that? (Aside from, you know, Burt Bacharach.) Adding to the confusion is the band’s incredibly smooth-yet-tight jazz sound. Underneath is an ocean of surf rock that ebbs and flows subtly, crashing in your face before crawling back under for the next song. Floating on top is a polished radio sound worthy of the Growlers, Interpol and the Strokes. MW

8:30 p.m. Blue Lagoon, 923 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $5. 423-7117.

TUESDAY 11/5

ALT-COUNTRY

RHETT MILLER

On his new solo album, Rhett Miller says the truth is he’s a “total disaster.” Yeah, well, guess what buddy, me too! The only difference is I didn’t front the influential alt-country band Old 97s, pen eight critically acclaimed solo albums, or write a book of verse for kids. Miller did, and after all these years, he still has the classic cool, lacerating tongue and pervasive self-deprecation that made the Old 97s a favorite of lovers and reprobates alike. Looks like even when it comes to being a disaster, this guy is a disaster. MH

8pm. Moe’s Alley, 1535 Commercial Dr., Santa Cruz. $20 adv/$25 door. 479-1854.

Next-gen Veggie Burgers Capitalize on Climate Guilt

Jordy Hyman

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October 29, 2019

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Next-gen Veggie Burgers Capitalize on Climate Guilt

Guilt is a powerful emotion. It turns us against ourselves, quietly judging and punishing even our most negligible misdeeds. Which makes it an equally powerful market force, because in the quest for perpetual growth, businesses must constantly plumb the depths of human psychology.

Organic, fair trade, cage free, non-GMO—a rainbow of certification schemes have sprung up to comfort consumers as we learn new ways our purchases contribute to the suffering of others.

Enter a new wave of fake meat products seeking to capitalize on our fears of climate change. Also known as meat substitutes, replacements, analogues, or even the oxymoronic “meatless meat,” these lab-engineered products are designed to look, taste, feel, and in some capacity replace popular animal products like ground beef and shredded chicken.

These aren’t your weird aunt’s veggie burgers—these fake meats are aimed directly at carnivores. They’re made of strange proteins isolated from soy, potatoes, coconuts, wherever they can be found, and reverse-engineered to mimic a juicy burger. In the case of the Impossible Burger, they famously even “bleed” when you cut into them.

Beyond Meats, Before the Butcher, Field Roast, Gardein, Lifelite, Quorn: alternative meat producers have proliferated rapidly in the last year or two, with investors pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into the industry. Nestle even acquired Moss Landing plant-based food company Sweet Earth.

In Santa Cruz, you can find varieties at most grocery stores, as well as menus all over town. There’s Saturn Cafe, the Parish, Michael’s On Main, Veg On The Edge, Malone’s, Dharma’s—and even fast food chains. At the county’s six Burger King franchises, it took less than two months for sales of Impossible Whoppers to surpass the original, says District Manager Christina Montenegro, and total sales are up across the region.

“People love them,” Montenegro says. “Now I eat only Impossible. The flavor is great—it’s more of meat than the real meat, but it’s not meat… I don’t know how.”

But the rapid growth in demand has sometimes made it harder for local businesses to get their hands on the products.

“The Impossible Burger, for a couple months, was impossible to get,” says Chef Jon Dickinson of Michael’s on Main. He says beef burgers still outsell substitutes at the restaurant, and there remains a debate about home-made veggie patties vs. newer engineered varieties. “I like the garden burgers better, myself,” Dickinson says.

But beyond imitating a real burger, some new meat producers seek to replace the old entirely, especially for those who find themselves adrift in the rising sea of doomsday climate change scenarios but can’t get themselves to kick their dietary habits.

Last March, an independent analysis of the environmental impact of the Impossible Burger 2.0 found that its production uses 96% less land and 87% less water than burgers made from cows. It also causes 89% less greenhouse gas emissions and 92% less nutrient runoff, which can cause aquatic eutrophication.

But there are skeptics critical of these new products’ ability to replace animal agriculture, as well as their real health impacts. There have been plenty of unsubstantiated claims about the dangers posed by imitation meats, especially about heme, the key ingredient of Impossible Foods that’s fermented in blood-red vats of genetically modified yeast. But heme is an essential and nearly ubiquitous protein, there is broad scientific consensus that GMOs don’t pose any major risks, and these products have been ruled completely safe.

The only accusation leveled against them that might stick is that they’re imitating foods that are unhealthy to begin with. The Harvard Health Blog published a side-by-side nutritional comparison of Impossible, Beyond and beef burgers, which showed all three to have similar calories, protein and fat content. Impossible actually has a higher amount of saturated fat than the other two, but the plant-based burgers have zero cholesterol.

“These products are not healthy, they are not something that I would choose to eat myself, they’re highly processed… they’re certainly not in and of themselves going to help us make the shift that we need to make,” says Beth Love, a Santa Cruz-based plant-rich diet activist, chef, coach, reverend, and author of cookbooks like Sensational Salads to Cool the Earth. She says that while meat substitutes are a step in the direction of health and sustainability, ultimately they are only a stop-gap measure or a gateway to a plant-rich diet.

The upshot: If you’re eating fake meat because you feel guilty about animals and the environment, why not go all in and eat your vegetables instead?

Love Your Local Band: Louie The 1st

Aaron Carnes

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October 29, 2019

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In 2015, Everett Louie started DJing alone in his dorm room at UCSC. As a fan of EDM shows, he thought it would be cool to make some trap, hip-hop, EDM, house, dubstep, and bass mixes, and upload them to his Soundcloud. Just like that, his DJ moniker Louie The 1st was born.

Then something unexpected happened: his mixes found an audience online far beyond what he had imagined.

“I started getting bigger and bigger,” Louie says. “At one point I was like, ‘Wow, this is blowing up in my face right now. I need to do something about it.”

His first show as Louie The 1st was in June 2018. Later that year, he would play his first Santa Cruz show at the Catalyst, opening for ARMNHMR. On Nov. 2, he’ll play his fourth show at the Catalyst, opening for Elephante. As much as it’s an honor, he recognizes he has a tough role as a local opener.

“You have to be the person to get people engaged. Get them ready for the headliner,” Louie says. “You have to play music that’s entertaining enough the audience doesn’t get bored out of their minds, but you’re not playing songs that would take away from the headliner.”

He’s already got a great feel for the arc of his sets. He opens with songs that invite people to join in, then segways into infectious dance songs and closes with some slower, emotive songs to leave a strong impression.

“Essentially to be a DJ, you really have to tell a story,” Louie says. “How I play my music in my sets, I tell the story.”

8pm. Saturday, Nov. 2. Catalyst, 1011 Pacific Ave. Santa Cruz. $20 adv/$25 door. 423-1338.

Film Review: ‘The Current War’

Lisa Jensen

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October 29, 2019

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No, it’s not about the latest international outrage launched by our so-called president. But The Current War concerns a subject every bit as cutthroat and high-stakes as any of the recent shenanigans out of D.C.: the clash of titans Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse as they race against time and each other to bring the magic of electrical power to America.

The movie is powered by a few titans of its own. Benedict Cumberbatch stars as Edison (another brusque, eccentric genius in the Sherlock/Alan Turing mode). Michael Shannon plays Westinghouse, peeking out over a formidable handlebar moustache (the era is around the turn of the last century). Nicholas Hoult pops up as Nikola Tesla, the unsung hero of the conflict, and Matthew MacFadyen (the smoldering Mr. Darcy in Pride And Prejudice, once upon a time) plays J. P. Morgan, the fickle financier for whose funding the others compete.

The subject may be electricity, but director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon doesn’t go in for a lot of flash and dazzle. His focus is on the hard work and endless trial-and-error that goes into producing a miracle like the electric light bulb—as well as its unexpected uses and sometimes grim consequences—and the dueling egos and private agendas of the miracle-workers who make it happen. Gomez-Rejon and scriptwriter Michael Mitnick rely on effective storytelling, interesting characterizations and period opulence to give the movie its charge.

Edison, a brilliant tinkerer, has invented the light bulb, and is feverishly working to build a power grid that will deliver electricity to private homes and entire cities. Industrialist Westinghouse is not an inventor himself, but he has a nose for profit and employs a research team to do what Edison is trying to do—but faster. (Also cheaper: a bottom-line mentality that echoes into our own era of lawsuits and random shut-offs.)

Edison lights up his first model town using Direct Current (DC), which requires the cables to be laid underground. There’s a wonderful shot of laborers at work on two levels of these underground tunnels, in cross-section; it looks like an ant farm, with tiny little humans scurrying around, one of many stirring and atmospheric compositions from cinematographer Chung-Hoo Chung. But Westinghouse is putting his money on the Alternating Current (AC), which is cheaper to produce—but far more dangerous, should any unlucky life form make contact with its volatile cables, which have to be strung up on poles above ground.

Already famed as an inventor, Edison doesn’t care about celebrity or money; he just wants to see his ideas come to life, and will organize press junkets and oblige autograph-seekers to do it. Westinghouse covets such fame and desperately wants to build his legacy. Serbian immigrant Tesla is more of a visionary than either of them. He works for Edison’s team for a while, where his engineering skills are not appreciated, but when he designs a motor that runs on AC, Westinghouse brings him on.

Their rivalry plays out in the press, especially when both men submit bids to light up the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893. Dueling lawsuits and court appearances ensue. An animal is sacrificed to demonstrate how lethal electrocution can be—leading to the development of the “humane” electric chair, soon to be given a test drive on a convicted murderer. Such ghoulish fallout irks Edison, who has staunchly refused to allow his designs to be weaponized against other humans.

Katherine Waterston and especially Tuppence Middleton have small but key roles as Westinghouse and Edison’s wives. Tom Holland co-stars as Samuel Insull, Edison’s right-hand man and moral conscience. (He voices one of the movie’s main themes, challenging Edison as to whether he’d rather be remembered as P. T. Barnum or Isaac Newton.) And Chung’s often stunning cinematography (including a breathtaking aerial shot of the World’s Fair) and canny use of split-screen techniques remind us what the movie only hints at in its later scenes—that Edison’s most enduring legacy may be the development of motion picture technology.

THE CURRENT WAR

*** (out of four)

With Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael Shannon, Tom Holland, and Nicholas Hoult. Written by Michael Mitnick. Directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon. A 101 Studios release. Rated PG-13. 107 minutes.

Dilated Pupil 2019

Students

Jordy Hyman

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October 28, 2019

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All the bad news in recent years about statewide budget cuts at community colleges has led to a creeping sense that perhaps they don’t offer the same possibilities for personal growth and transformation that they once did.

While there is undoubtedly a crisis in higher education in California, the truth is that the chance to discover a new direction for one’s life is still the core of what makes community colleges so appealing. That’s why Jordy Hyman’s piece in this issue of Dilated Pupil is so inspiring. When he went on a search for a new path, I mean, he really went on a search for a new path. And what he found at Cabrillo changed his life. (It also brought him to us, so good job, Cabrillo!)

Elsewhere in these pages, you’ll find a guide to everything student. If you want to discover the wide world of Santa Cruz cannabis, you’ve come to the right place. If you’d like to know how to get started in comedy around here, same. If you don’t know the wild counterculture history of the trailer park at UCSC, you really need to read our article by Susan Landry. And if you want to smoke out while pursuing a new career with a comedy performance at the trailer park at UCSC, whoa—by finding this magazine, you have just broken the universe. So be sure to read it cover to cover!

STEVE PALOPOLI | EDITOR

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9pm. Wednesday, Nov. 6. Catalyst, 1011 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $13 adv/$15 door. 423-1338.

WEDNESDAY 10/30

INDIE

PILE

8pm. Catalyst, 1011 Pacific Ave, Santa Cruz. $13 adv/$15 door. 423-1338.

THURSDAY 10/31

BRAZILIAN

SAMBADA

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

FRIDAY 11/1

ROCK

BODEANS

8pm. Moe’s Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz. $25 adv/$30 door. 479-1854.

GUERILLA TOSS

9pm. Crepe Place, 1134 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. $12. 429-6994.

COMEDY

BUTCH ESCOBAR

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

SATURDAY 11/2

PUNK

THE PARANOYDS

9pm. Crepe Place, 1134 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. $10 adv/$12 door. 429-6994.

HORROR-PUNK

ARGYLE GOOLSBY

8pm. Catalyst, 1011 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $10 adv/$12 door. 423-1338.

PUNK

MDRN HSTRY

8:30 p.m. Blue Lagoon, 923 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $5. 423-7117.

TUESDAY 11/5

ALT-COUNTRY

RHETT MILLER

8pm. Moe’s Alley, 1535 Commercial Dr., Santa Cruz. $20 adv/$25 door. 479-1854.

THE CURRENT WAR

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