Page 629 – Good Times

After Touring With Metallica, Joe Sib Comes Home for New Comedy Venue

Steve Palopoli

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March 12, 2019

After Touring With Metallica, Joe Sib Comes Home for New Comedy Venue

For most of his life, Joe Sib has made his own way. The Santa Cruz native—who grew up in the Olive Springs Road outlands of Soquel before moving to San Jose in his teens—had a major-label contract with his pop-punk band Wax by his early 20s. In the mid-90s, he co-founded SideOneDummy Records, the indie label that launched the careers of bands as diverse as Flogging Molly, the Gaslight Anthem and Gogol Bordello. In 2009, he toured a one-man show called California Calling, based on his memories of the 1980s South Bay punk-skate scene that produced Steve Caballero, Corey O’Brien and many others. Not long after, he started touring as a stand-up comedian.

But for maybe his biggest break ever, he needed some help. From his dad.

“The whole reason I’m on tour with Metallica is because of my dad,” Sib admits on a phone call from the road, where he’s finishing up the last of 35 shows he will have done with the Bay Area metal legends by the end of the tour.

The story—and with Sib, there is always a story—goes like this: his extremely OCD nature inspired a habit of calling around to the camps of various big-name comedians when the L.A.-based Sib saw they were coming to Southern California, to ask if they needed an opener. Usually, they did not, but he developed some good relationships over time. One of those paid off in a big way when the publicist for Jim Breuer asked if he wanted to open a San Diego show for Breuer in 2017. He jumped at the chance, and gave his dad a call.

“My dad is retired, he lives in San Diego, and I said, ‘Hey dad, I got a show tonight in San Diego. I’ll swing by, let’s go. It’s with this guy Jim Breuer who used to be on Saturday Night Live, you’re gonna dig him,’” Sib remembers. “So I bring my dad to the show, we’re cruising around, it’s this big theater. And my dad being my dad, when he meets Jim in Jim’s dressing room, they’re immediately talking baseball, and I’m pretty sure my dad made a sandwich out of Jim Breuer’s food. They’re just hanging, dude.”

The show went well, and about a week later, Sib got a call from Breuer, asking if he wanted to open for him in Seattle. And then after that, Canada. That led to what Sib calls “a really great friendship,” and early last year, Breuer asked him to tour with him as his featured opening act. For Sib, it seemed like an important next step—a chance to hone his craft with regular touring, opening for a big-name comic—but the weird thing was, he didn’t even think Breuer had watched his set that first night in San Diego. So what had inspired Breuer to give him the second shot that set him on this path? Yup, his dad.

“That’s what started everything,” says Breuer. “He showed up with his dad. His dad walks in the room, and Joe’s like, ‘Dad, dad, don’t come in,’ and I said, ‘No, it’s all right, come on in. What do you want?’ ‘Well! I’ll have a banana!’ ‘OK, have a banana. You want some coffee?’ ‘Oh, I’d love coffee!’ And Joe’s like, ‘Dad, we’ve got our own room.’ I said, ‘No, he’s all right, it’s okay.’ I didn’t even watch Joe’s act. I could care less at that point. I just thought, ‘Wow, the guy brings his father. Of all the choices, he brings his father.’ He’s already ahead of the game for me. So I just listened to make sure they weren’t booing him or saying he was terrible. And he’s in. The dad got him in.”

“I always tell my dad, ‘Jim was more stoked on you than me,’” says Sib.

WHAT IF THIS WORKS? Sib and Jim Breuer on stage opening for Metallica. PHOTO: BRETT MURRAY — **WHAT IF THIS WORKS?** Sib and Jim Breuer on stage opening for Metallica. PHOTO: BRETT MURRAY

Things got a lot crazier later in 2018, when Metallica vocalist and guitarist James Hetfield told Breuer the band wanted to try something radically different for the opening act of their upcoming tour. Specifically, they wanted Breuer—a famously big fan and friend of the band featured in the VH1 documentary When Metallica Ruled the World and the MTV Icon special dedicated to Metallica—to put together a sort of opening show to entertain crowds before they hit the stage every night.

“I had a radio show where we did a game show with the band,” says Breuer. “That started, ‘Hey, you know that thing you did with us on the radio? Will you do that for our fans?’ Then they saw me a year or two ago at Rock on the Range, and I just remember James going, ‘God, man, you should be touring with us. Our fans would eat you up.’ And then out of nowhere about a year ago he texts, ‘Hey we’re thinking about doing something for the fans. We’re not sure what.’”

Not long after, Metallica officially asked Breuer to open their tour. And when drummer Lars Ulrich asked him if he wanted to take anyone along, he mentioned Sib.

“So Lars immediately pops open the computer and says, ‘All right, let me check this out. Joe Sib… OK, SideOneDummy Records, fucking cool,’” says Sib, doing an eerily dead-on Ulrich impression. Luckily, whatever stand-up clip Ulrich saw, he liked. “Lars watches it, he laughs, and goes, ‘All right, I’m down. This guy’s cool with me, talk to James.’ And Jim was like, ‘James will be down.’”

Indeed, by July, everything was set for the September start of the tour. “Jim said, ‘Check it out, I spoke to the band, I spoke to everyone. You’re going,’” says Sib. “And I was like, ‘How does this even happen?’”

CHARGED UP

One person who is not surprised at all that this happened is Santa Cruz comedian DNA, who first met Sib six years ago at a comedy show where they both performed.

“He told me he was opening for Metallica with Jim Breuer, and I was like, ‘Of course you are,’” says DNA (who is also a GT contributor).

He’s been impressed not only with Sib’s material, but also his presence on stage. “He’s got this infectious energy,” says DNA. “You just feel yourself getting charged up when you’re around Joe Sib.”

That, combined with Sib’s roots in the area, is why DNA chose him to be the inaugural headliner at the opening of DNA’s Comedy Lab and Experimental Theatre on March 22. The first comedy theater to ever open in Santa Cruz, DNA’s Comedy Lab is opening in the space where the Riverfront Twin theater closed last June. For DNA and his three partners—his wife, Jessica Abramson, who’s also the events manager for UCSC’s Arts Division, plus Mike and Susan Pappas, who own True Olive Connection in downtown Santa Cruz—it’s been a 16-month process of screening possible venues around the city: the old Sentinel building, the former Radio Shack location on Soquel, and so on. But this was the only true theater that was available, which was really what they wanted.

“It was meant to be, I think,” says DNA. “If we’d gotten the Radio Shack, it would have to have been a club. That’s not me. I’m this. I’m a theater person.”

In the venue’s two spaces, a 340-seat “Comedy Lab” and a 164-seat “Experimental Theatre,” he wants to do a lot of things besides comedy shows—everything from theatrical productions to movie-riffing nights, improv sketch comedy to classes, live podcasts to puppet shows.

Of course, he has to get the space ready first, and when DNA opens the front door to let me take a look at the progress a week-and-a-half before opening, he’s a little bleary-eyed. He hasn’t been sleeping, and can’t exactly remember what kind of hours he’s been keeping.

“I live here, basically, at this point,” he says. “I’m like Jack Torrance in The Shining, I just kind of wander the halls. But it’s 15,000 square feet, so I’m getting in my steps. My Fitbit is blowing up.”

Mike Pappas, who’s been overseeing the construction aspect of the project, drops in with some supplies and updates. He was the one who originally approached DNA after one of DNA’s annual comedy festivals, asking him what he wanted to do next. When DNA told the Pappases about his dream of opening a comedy venue here, they said they wanted to be involved. They’ve seen DNA throw himself into building the comedy scene in Santa Cruz, from his years of hosting underground shows at the Blue Lagoon to the comedy festivals, and now this.

“This is a whole other level he’s bringing it to,” says Mike. “I’m excited that we stumbled across this space. This is a no-brainer. Very little upgrade—more clean-up than anything.”

That said, they had to build stages, and they’ve given the place quite a bit more polish than it had when it was the Regal theater chain’s dumping ground for B-to-Z grade movies. And there is still the green room to do …

“I woke up at 5 a.m. this morning because I was really freaked out about the green room,” says DNA. “How’s it going to get done in time?”

But he cycles back around to his trademark calm, which fits in much better with the Grateful Dead song floating through the background. “It’s coming together, man. Piece by piece.”

Before things all got quite so crazy, DNA and Abramson did have time to go see Breuer and Sib at the Sacramento stop of Metallica’s tour. He came back impressed.

“They do this whole show for 20,000 people,” says DNA. “It’s incredible.”

LIGHT ME ON FIRE

However incredible the show may be now, Sib is brutally honest about the fact that it started out as a work in progress. There was really no way for him and Breuer to practice what they had planned for the shows, and the first gig didn’t go too well.

“After the first night in Madison, Wisconsin, there were people straight-up telling me on Instagram, ‘If you ever come back to Madison, I will light you on fire,’” he says. “People were not stoked.”

But the next morning, he was at Breuer’s room at 7 a.m. with a bunch of new ideas.

“Honestly, he could have been like, ‘No offense, but they hired me,’” says Sib. “Instead, he just starts laughing and was like, ‘Let’s do this. Let’s build this thing together.’ He was so open to ideas, and he came with so many ideas. We sat down and took our pieces of paper out, and wrote down the things that worked and wrote down the things we didn’t want to do, and there was just no ego involved. It was such a collaboration. That’s when I knew we were going to be friends for life.”

The duo managed to turn things completely around by the next show, and that’s when they figured out what has become their template. It’s certainly not like any opening act Metallica—or anybody else—has ever seen. And they’re playing to much larger crowds than they expected.

“Lars told us, ‘Do whatever you guys want to do, but don’t be bummed, because there will probably only be five people in the arena when you’re there.’ So I was like, ‘OK, that’s not a lot of pressure.’ But I go on at 7, and Jim comes on at 7:30, and every night when I come on it’s already half-full, and by the time Jim hits the stage, it’s at capacity,” says Sib. “The show that we do is literally a two-hour show. It reminds me of being a kid when I was living in San Jose, and my dad would go away for the weekend, and I would throw a rager at my house. You get a keg, you’re playing music, and after you get done playing music, a band would play. Except in this case, it’s Metallica.”

CROWD WORK Joe Sib throws himself into his duties on tour with Metallica. PHOTO: BRETT MURRAY — **CROWD WORK** Joe Sib throws himself into his duties on tour with Metallica. PHOTO: BRETT MURRAY

Sib opens by going out with a laptop and pumping up the crowd, telling them he’s going to be their DJ, and inviting them to make requests as his Instagram pops up on the screen behind him. Generally it’s a barrage of Slayer, Anthrax, Motorhead, etc., and Sib plays the metal hits until it’s time to introduce Breuer.

“I say, ‘Here’s your host, your emcee and die-hard Metallica fan, Jim Breuer.’ Jim drops into a combination of storytelling-slash-crowdwork-slash-emcee-slash-Metallica-fan for like 40 minutes. He’s telling stories about when he met Ozzy Osbourne. He’s telling stories about when he went to James’ house for the first time for dinner with his wife, and his wife tells James that her favorite band she ever saw was Bon Jovi. Like that. Good stories, and he’s also interacting with the crowd.”

After that, it’s a mix of music and crowd work, but Sib does have a special bit he does toward the end of their show.

“I tell a story about seeing the … And Justice For All tour at the Cow Palace, and how I had to sit up in the nosebleeds, and I was bummed because I saw everyone on the floor. I told that story to Lars, and he said, ‘Well, why don’t you go up there and bring some people down, then? You can do whatever you want.’ So every night I go to some section and bring down like 10 people onto the floor,” he says. “And dude, people get emotional.”

As the tour nears an end, Sib can’t believe the response they’ve gotten. “You can genuinely feel the energy from the audience,” he says. “Metallica’s smart, they’re friends with Jim, they knew Jim would bring the right show. He didn’t have to bring me, but he did, and I’m so proud of the show we put on. It’s been such a game-changer for me.”

“Joe is a huge motivator,” says Breuer of why he chose Sib. “He’s funny. If I bring up a premise or joke, he knows how to help me elaborate on it, and I do the same with him. He just had a great energy, and it was a perfect storm when Lars asked me, ‘Is there someone you want to bring along?’ I went, ‘Well, Joe’s a big music guy, we need a DJ. I think I got a guy.’”

Breuer says he was never nervous about how the tour would go, but he’s enjoyed learning what works and what doesn’t, gradually perfecting it. “No one’s done this,” he says. “I think we definitely pulled it off. I think the fans really liked it for the most part. The band loves it. It’s been nothing but an extremely positive experience. If we do it again, I’ll be ready to make it even bigger and better.”

Hell, even that first night of the tour isn’t looking so bad, in retrospect. “Jim Breuer and I hold the record for the longest opening act on stage ever for Metallica,” says Sib. “That night in Madison, we were on stage for two hours and 40 minutes. And we survived, dude. Two guys, two microphones, one laptop, and we survived.”

MINDS EXPANDING

Back at the Comedy Lab, Abramson and Susan Pappas have come to check in before they go get a couch for the green room, hopefully easing DNA’s future early mornings.

“Everybody has 100 things to do. And if everybody is doing their 100 things, we’ll be great,” says Susan cheerily.

“We’ve got so many checklists,” says Abramson. In charge of HR and the process-related side of the project, she’s trying to get up to speed quickly on things like employment law. But she’s always been at home in theaters. In fact, she and DNA met on stage, playing a married couple in a production at the Blue Room Theater in Chico 17 years ago.

“The joke was that we were such bad actors that we actually fell in love,” she says.

DNA says their skill sets have always complemented each other well. Right now he’s on a learning curve too, as he navigates the business of comedy on a larger level.

“I’ve grown up with the guerilla, anti-corporate model, and I need to expand,” he says. Like dealing with more agencies for comedy’s big names, for instance. “I’ve spent the last 12 years making personal relationships with the comedians, so I go straight to the comedians.”

He wants to do it all without losing the essential Santa Cruz-ness of the project. “Our motto is ‘building community through laughter,’” he says. “I think it’s the antidote to the malaise and social isolation that people are facing right now.”

Beyond just the comedy aspect, debuting with someone like Sib is part of that. “Joe walks the walk,” says DNA. “He treats people like human beings. He’s a good soul.”

The feeling is mutual. “I couldn’t be happier for DNA,” says Sib. “DNA does the work of 30 people. Santa Cruz has such a jewel in DNA. This guy loves the comedy scene, he is a comic, he knows talent, he works with young comedians. What I love about him is that he’s not only an entrepreneur—he also cares so much about the comedians. He cares about everybody from the kid that just got up on the mic for the first time ever to the international comic that’s done every festival.”

For Sib, being invited to perform on the opening night of the first comedy club in his hometown takes him back to where his love of comedy came from in the first place. “When I think of stand-up comedy, I think of living with my parents out on Olive Springs Road, out in the middle of nowhere. I think about growing up on that ranch, listening to Richard Pryor and George Carlin, and having my dad keep me up late to watch Saturday Night Live,” he says. “To be the guy from Santa Cruz who gets to kind of light the torch—like, ‘OK, this is happening, there’s a comedy club in Santa Cruz’—I know it might sound cheesy to say I feel honored, but I do. I just feel super, super honored that he would ask me.”

UPCOMING EVENTS AT DNA’S COMEDY LAB AND EXPERIMENTAL THEATRE

March 22 – Joe Sib, 8 p.m.

March 23 – Matt Lieb (UCSC alum), 7:30 and 10 p.m.

March 29 – CSI: Santa Cruz (Comedy, Sketch and Improv), 7:30

‘Movie Riffing Night: Night of the Living Dead’ with comics from Comedy Central, 10 p.m.

March 30 — Caitlin Gill, 7:30 and 10 p.m.

April 6th — Laurie Kilmartin, 7:30 and 10pm

April 11 — Amy Miller (Last Comic Standing) and Kellen Erskine (Netflix), 8 p.m.

April 20 — Myq Kaplan (recording his album), 7:30 p.m. and 10 p.m.

April 27 — Shane Mauss, 7:30 p.m. and 10 p.m.

More info: dnascomedylab.com.

From ‘Passivist’ to Santa Cruz Resistance Warrior

Wallace Baine

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March 12, 2019

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From ‘Passivist’ to Santa Cruz Resistance Warrior

Until 2016, Carson Kelly was a lot like most people he knew in Santa Cruz. He had a family, a full-time job, a life that didn’t allow much time for boredom or idleness. He thought of himself as politically engaged, if you count bookmarking FiveThirtyEight.com being “engaged.” But he was less a political activist than he was a political “passivist,” to coin a term.

That changed dramatically with the election of Donald Trump to the presidency. In short order, Kelly and his wife Shannon founded Santa Cruz Indivisible, the local chapter of an activist group inspired by the Indivisible Guide, a 26-page Google doc created by a handful of congressional staffers shortly after the election that outlined practical advice for a progressive resistance movement against Trump and the Republican Party.

Back in the days following the Trump inauguration, Kelly was upfront about his inexperience and his uncertainty in the political arena. “You go blindly into the fog swinging your sword hoping you’ll hit something,” he said at the time.

Fast-forward two years later, to the winter of 2019 and the arrival of the 116th U.S. Congress. Kelly watched in wonder as the newly elected congressional representatives were sworn in, but he felt particular satisfaction when he saw Democrat T.J. Cox walk down the aisle.

Cox was the challenger against Republican incumbent David Valadao for the seat representing California’s 21st district, which covers a vast area of the San Joaquin Valley, just to the east of the 20th district that includes the communities of the Monterey Bay. Santa Cruz Indivisible was among several progressive activist groups that sent volunteers to the neighboring 21st district to canvas door-to-door in hopes of flipping the seat from red to blue.

On election night, media outlets called the race in favor of the incumbent Valadao. But in the following weeks, the vote tally tightened, and when the last ballot was counted, Cox came out ahead by a little more than 800 votes—less than 1 percent of the total vote count.

“It was pretty amazing,” says Kelly, “We made a real difference. If Santa Cruz Indivisible had not done our work, and other groups had not done their work, it probably would not have happened the way it did.”

The outcome of the other targeted district, the 22nd, wasn’t as satisfying for Santa Cruz Indivisible. In that race, Republican incumbent Devin Nunes, who rose to national fame as the Trump-friendly chair of House Intelligence Committee, won decisively over his Democratic challenger. “We didn’t get that one,” says Kelly of the Nunes seat. “But we’ll get him in 2020.”

Seven seats flipped in California from Republican to Democrat. Nunes is now one of only seven Republicans left in California’s 53 congressional districts.

Of the wins that allowed the Democratic Party to take control of the House, Kelly says, “My opinion of it, it was not the Democratic Party that did that. It was progressive grassroots organizations who did that. In some cases, it happened despite the Democratic Party.”

Post-2018, Kelly is a passivist no longer. As a sudden local political leader, he is now reflecting on the lessons the past two years have taught him about how political change happens. When Santa Cruz Indivisible first formed, he says, the group “was just fighting, resisting the craziness that was coming from Donald Trump.” But the former UCSC philosophy student began to see broader themes that went beyond the day’s headlines. He began to understand that the group’s first order of business was to make people aware of their own power as citizens. Only then could they exercise that power in the midterm elections. Now that that power has been established in Congress, Indivisible’s next step is to effectively advocate for change.

Progressive movements, however, have always been vulnerable to factionalism and division, and Kelly has given a lot of thought to how to stay united in the face of unified opposition. “I’m trying my best as part of the core leadership to avoid an environment where schisms are going to arise.”

How is he doing that? By making distinctions between “values” and “issues,” he says. “We have to be in the business of being unified on the values front, though not necessarily on the issues front,” he says. “We’ve lost the discussion about values.”

Santa Cruz Indivisible has a mailing list of about 2,500. It engages another 1,500 people through social media. The group operates in a non-centralized manner to maximize effective action and to minimize conflict about priorities. “We don’t have a meeting every week where we expect everyone to come,” says Kelly. “We don’t require everyone to agree or believe in everything. That’s impossible anyway. So we have activities that are not dependent on each other.”

Kelly says that Indivisible will partner with other community groups, including TEDx Santa Cruz and Bookshop Santa Cruz, on an initiative called “Citizenship 2.0,” a series of events to explore the meaning of citizenship in a complex modern and technological world. At the same time, he says, SCI will seek to model effective political activism.

“People come to us motivated to do something,” he says. “We want to capture that energy. We want to allow them to do what they’re passionate about, and then get the hell out of the way—as long as they are not doing something that is harmful to someone or is going to get us in trouble. We don’t need to second-guess them. They should be able to tell us what we can do to help them. We share the same values.”

Debate Over Highway 9 Fixes Revived After Tragic Death

Jacob Pierce

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March 12, 2019

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Debate Over Highway 9 Fixes Revived After Tragic Death

Kelley Howard remembers her son Josh as “just so full of life.”

Josh was killed on Highway 9 on the night of Thursday, Feb. 21, while walking along the narrow shoulder after working a shift at Castelli’s Deli Café. He was heading to his mom’s home in Henry Cowell Redwood State Park. That’s where Kelley, a park ranger who thought of Josh as her “best friend,” was eagerly awaiting his company. “He’s the happiest person I know. I’m not that happy. In his 22 years, he was happier than I’ve been in 40,” Kelley says.

The collision, which is under investigation, happened on a stretch of highway slated for future improvements outlined in the county transportation commission’s “Draft Highway 9 San Lorenzo Valley Complete Streets Corridor Plan.”

Residents of the surrounding San Lorenzo Valley want to see those improvements as soon as possible. A petition in Josh’s honor urging action on this ribbon of road has garnered more than 1,200 signatures.

Assemblymember Mark Stone says in a statement that Caltrans, the state’s transportation office, argues too often that safety improvements must be justified by sufficient accident statistics. “One death is too many,” he states. “Caltrans should prioritize bike and pedestrian safety on Highway 9 and on other state highways that serve as surface streets for a community.”

Stone says his office is working with stakeholders and Caltrans to identify funding sources to improve safety on the highway, which serves as the main street through the San Lorenzo Valley.

Congressmember Anna Eshoo says, in a statement, that she met with county officials last week to talk about road improvements in light of the county’s infrastructure needs after winter storms, and about Highway 9 improvements.

Caltrans spokesperson Susana Cruz says that the department takes highway safety very seriously and is funding the Highway 9 plan, which is expected to be finished by the summer and could offer an initial roadmap for spending. “Once this report is complete, it should shine a light on what the community priorities are,” she says.

In December, Caltrans approved Highway Safety Improvement Program funds for pedestrian crossings on Highway 9, including flashing lights to increase visibility for existing crossings.

The California Highway Patrol is still investigating the cause of the collision and death, although Kelley says that an officer told her they believed that the driver crossed over the white line into the narrow shoulder area where pedestrians walk.

The Highway 9 plan identifies 28 projects, and the Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) prioritized four projects as most important—all of them on the stretch of highway between downtown Ben Lomond and downtown Felton, including the area around San Lorenzo Valley’s three public schools and the road near the intersection of Graham Hill Road, where Josh was struck.

Earlier in February, the Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) discussed the Highway 9 plan, and Felton transportation advocate Brian Largay mentioned the stretch where Josh would die two weeks later. Largay asked commissioners to picture themselves walking along a retaining wall, their shoulders brushing against it, as cars rushed past at arm’s length. “A child making that walk every day will get the impression that this system doesn’t value them very much,” Largay said.

STEERING COMMITTEE

Josh’s full legal name was Josh Jaumouille-Howard, although Kelley says that everyone knew him as simply Josh Howard. The petition in his honor, started by another San Lorenzo Valley resident, calls for the highway where Josh died to be dedicated to him. Kelley says that specific detail isn’t important to her, although she would be open to the idea, especially if it reminds other young pedestrians to be extremely careful when they’re walking on the shoulder. The main thing she wants is to know is when projects will break ground.

“I want actual dates,” she says. “This could take years. How many people are going to get hurt or die?”

RTC Senior Transportation Planner Rachel Moriconi says the first step is securing money.

The $10 million from Measure D, approved by voters in 2016, is a start, but a primary source of funding for bicycle and pedestrian projects is the state’s Active Transportation Program. The program is popular, and fuel-efficient vehicles have eroded the gas-tax revenue that pays for it. Last year, requests for the funding were five times higher than available funds, Moriconi explains. The state’s 2017 S.B. 1 provided some additional funding to address some of the backlog of transportation need, she says. But the state, she says, needs a longer-term fix to replace the gas tax with more stable funding.

The county Department of Public Works, Moriconi notes, would be the lead agency in constructing any improvements to Highway 9.

PASSENGER SIZED

Pedestrian safety is more than just a Felton issue.

A new study has found that pedestrian deaths are approaching a 30-year high. Some of that increase can be attributed to population growth. Other contributing problems include alcohol use, speeding, unsafe infrastructure, the prevalence of SUVs, and distractions on behalf of both pedestrians and drivers.

In the city of Watsonville, leaders are so troubled by the trend that they’ve signed onto a Vision Zero initiative to aim for eliminating pedestrian deaths by 2030.

Joni Martin, who started the petition for Josh, says that after the accident, she couldn’t get Josh and Kelley off her mind. Her kids have walked that same stretch of Highway 9 many times, and she remembers being involved in efforts 11 years ago to try and start momentum to build badly needed bike and pedestrian infrastructure in the San Lorenzo Valley.

“It’s so devastating that it took this for 1,200 people to say, ‘Yes, let’s do this now,’” says Martin, whose daughter went to school with Josh. “Let’s get this done for real.”

NUZ: Cruzio’s Fiber Fumble; Local Twitter Gets #Lame

Nuz

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March 12, 2019

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NUZ: Cruzio’s Fiber Fumble; Local Twitter Gets #Lame

Most of what Nuz knows about tech, we learned in 2006 from former U.S. Senator Ted “the internet is a series of tubes” Stevens. In the intervening years, Nuz discovered that the worldwide web wasn’t made up of “tubes” so much as it was “modems” and “routers” and “networks” and a bunch of other stuff, which is around the the time we fell asleep in digital literacy class.

Now there are even more terms to keep up with.

Not long ago, installation of Cruzio’s privately funded local gigabit fiber network, which GT has covered (“The Gig Is Up,” 12/26/19), sounded like it was soaring through to completion. Even the El Rio Mobile Home Park has high-speed internet, we reported! And in a local-oriented town like Santa Cruz, why wouldn’t potential customers be tripping over one another to sign up for a service that sticks it to corporate giants and is offered by a local company—especially if it also means having faster internet?

The full picture on the plan’s progress, we’ve learned, isn’t bleak, but it might not be the stuff of utopian science fiction, either. The latest word from James Hackett, Cruzio’s business operations and development director, is that the company has about 350 customers signed up. About half of those customers currently have fiber, he says, and the rest are scheduled to be connected by this summer. The signups amount to less than 30 percent of the 1,200 properties that have access to the faster internet speeds. It takes a 30-50 percent sign-up rate of people in a fiber area for it to really start paying off from a business standpoint, given the high up-front costs of laying fiber lines underground. Maybe there will be a domino effect in signups as word gets out about upload and download speeds taking a leap forward. The original plan, three years ago, was to build a much bigger fiber network via a public-private partnership with the city of Santa Cruz that would have extended service to every resident by 2018, but talks fell apart.

Given the somewhat lackluster response so far, Cruzio has a few options for its next strategic steps, including using wireless technology to extend the geographic area where they offer gigabit speeds. And the company’s exploring an extension of crazy-fast internet to other mobile home parks.

For all the talk about fiber’s speed, though, the actual installation process may be anything but.

TWITTERED AWAY

Local Santa Cruz Twitter isn’t doing so well, and there isn’t much local about it anymore.

There was a time when Nuz could check Twitter to find out what was happening on the Central Coast. It would tell us what our followees had tweeted over the last few minutes, filling our noggins with up-to-date new information. But after Twitter’s algorithmic changes in recent years, Nuz’s feed is now a deluge of the week’s most popular mini-screeds nationwide—hot takes on jaded statistical analysis about basketball, lukewarm takes on President Trump and cold, calculated dispatches of self-promotion. Gone are the days when the most recent tweets would be waiting for us in chronological order to fill our brain with the latest intel. Instead, here is a funny joke about Republican hypocrisy from three days ago!

Don’t get us wrong: Social media has long been something of a dumpster fire, depending on what lens you’re looking through. In Nuz’s thorough online research (most of it conducted after 3 a.m.), we found that Facebook made us hate ourselves; Twitter made us hate the world. We preferred Twitter.

But these days, with few exceptions, the local Twitter users who were once worth following are now tweeting less—presumably because their insights seldom gain traction under the algorithms. And as if trying to fill that void, the tweeters who can never get anyone to listen to them in real life are tweeting more than ever. #lame

P.S. follow us on Twitter!

A Week of Many Festivals: Risa’s Stars March 13-20

Risa D’Angeles

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March 12, 2019

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A Week of Many Festivals: Risa’s Stars March 13-20

Multiple festivals occur simultaneously this coming week. Spring equinox, International Astrology Day and the Aries solar festival (at the full moon) are Wednesday, March 20. Persian New Year, Holi (Indian spring festival) and Purim (Jewish Festival) are Thursday, March 21.

Spring equinox (sun at the equator, zero degrees Aries) begins the new spiritual and solar year. In Aries, “all things new” begin. New life emerges in our northern hemisphere. Aries is the “fire of the mind,” bringing forth new ideas that become new ideals within humanity. Aries is “electric fire,” the fire in lightning storms usually experienced in spring.

During spring equinox, the Solar Angel streams into the Earth a fresh impulse (the plan for the coming year). And at the full moon during Aries, the Forces of Restoration and the Spirit of Resurrection flow into the Earth (the Mother). These forces offer humanity a new “livingness” by restoring our moral, ethical and psychological health. Their presence supports the new Aquarian culture and civilization and the emergence of the new Spiritual Materialism (sharing society). They offer a new hope and vision for the new world to unfold.

Archangel Raphael (the Christian name for Mercury or Hermes), the Healing Angel, begins to preside over the Earth at the equinox, bringing healing and protection. He carries the Caduceus, staff of Mercury. It is written that each evening, Raphael gathers up all of humanity’s requests for healing, carrying them to heaven where he presents them before the throne of God. Here they are transformed into fragrant blossoms, which are then borne down to Earth by Raphael’s serving angels. The flowers, scattered about where there is pain and sorrow, bring solace, care, beauty, and comfort to those in need.

ARIES: You feel “in alignment” this month as fiery ideas, revelations and many new ideals are impressed upon your mind. Pay attention to them. They are important and will stabilize your actions and self-identity in the coming challenging times. View and interact in groups with discernment and discrimination. Stand tall and with courage and remember that fear only means you need more information. Research.

TAURUS: You are ceaselessly serving others every day of your life. You work behind the scenes, which allows you to ponder, think, research, read, and study undisturbed. Sometimes you’re far away from home, tending to life and death situations or medical emergencies. You must turn toward yourself now and begin to heal, using different healing modalities–enough protein, vitamins, minerals, homeopathics, and a special purifying healing diet.

GEMINI: How has the Mercury retrograde affected you? No matter what your present situation is, know that you’re being prepared for future work. For now, you’re to dispel the illusions that you are not strong or capable. Dispel the illusion that keeps you hiding away. During the retrograde, reflect upon the nurturing quality offered from loved ones and friends. Be grateful every moment of the day and night. Listen to Gregorian chants.

CANCER: Opportunities are being offered within groups and people you affiliate with. Perhaps a recognition or call to leadership or a future wish and hope will be fulfilled. New people from far away enter your inner circle through community interaction. In these interactions, maintain discrimination, ethics and ideals. You’re called to help someone in the garden. You know more than most. Share what you do know with kindness.

LEO: Work continues to be a place where revelations and changes occur, and these expand your influence. You develop new ways of relating to everyone professionally, creating a potent leadership ability. Your power is greater than you recognize and more than most comprehend. Careful with the authority you have become. Intentionally balance discipline, structure and will with kindness. Let love rule.

VIRGO: Things religious, spiritual and adventuresome, along with places far away, play upon your mind. You create intentions to be better organized; you prefer plans and agendas if they have travel and philosophy included. It’s important to know how to handle other people’s resources. You seek to learn what is of value about and within each person first. Then you learn how to honor them.

LIBRA: Your heart is filled with love for another (new, present or past relationship). Love changes and balances your past. You think about money in terms of legacies, inheritances, stocks, investments, taxes, or savings. Bring all thoughts, fears, interests and information into the light for discussion. Tend to debts and become very thrifty. And consider what would sustain you (food, people, items, etc.) if the world changes in the blink of an eye.

SCORPIO: As you remain with your present work situation, consider creating new methods of well-being through communication and trainings, creating a caring work environment for everyone. Tend to your physical health, eliminating all sugars, dairy and gluten during Lent. Make sure to care for your financial health as well. In the meantime, remember to have fun, play a lot, and seek the artistic and the beautiful. Then creativity expands exponentially.

SAGITTARIUS: In your daily life, be willing to listen carefully to others; be curious about, agree with, and participate in their thoughts and ideas. This creates a loving emotional connection and balance in your life. Should you do this you will be seen as one who is wise, intelligent and caring—a new persona. Begin to intentionally cooperate, share and offer praise. These create right relations within, right relations without.

CAPRICORN: The energy of Aries influences your home and family, how you nurture and are given nurturance. Your constant care and nourishment given to family and tradition lead to a depth of unexpected love, for you are to family the “love that underlies all things.” Sometimes our families are far away. If this is the situation, radiate Goodwill from your heart to those both near and far. Then people walking into your radiant light feel you are their family.

AQUARIUS: Watch with care all resources, finances, money. Be very aware of what your values are. Maintain communication with family and siblings. Are you moving about a lot, does your present environment need improvement in order for you to feel safe and secure? Communicate to everyone what your needs are. A new opportunity reveals itself in terms of recognition of your talents and your work in the world.

PISCES: Neptune, Mercury retrograde and Vesta are in Pisces. At times you feel captive and betrayed. Choices must be made. A home found. Neptune is dropping the veils between kingdoms. Mercury retrograde helps you remember things from the past. You ask forgiveness. Vesta has you making small sacrifices and tending the hearth. You miss so many things which are dissolving away. Find your place in the garden. Remain there. Especially at dawn and dusk. The devas join you then.

‘Disposable Man:’ Author Michael Levitin’s Updated Male Manifesto

Christina Waters

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March 12, 2019

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‘Disposable Man:’ Author Michael Levitin’s Updated Male Manifesto

Franz Kafka and Philip Roth walk into a bar … that could be the beginning of a terrific joke. Or it could be the beginning of a remarkable post-millennial novel by Berkeley journalist Michael Levitin, in which the author and protagonist of Disposable Man retraces the steps of his Russian Jewish ancestors in a circuitous journey to the east. From the book’s spectacular opening pages to the raw bittersweet ending, Levitin’s novella bristles with restless speculation about male identity in the #MeToo milieu.

Max Krumm is a disaffected American journalist living in today’s Berlin, or rather he is killing time in Berlin until he figures out a way to comprehend his identity, and/or retrace the steps his family took on their flight from the Nazis during the second war. Even better, Levitin’s protagonist does both in this odyssey that weaves back and forth in time, tracking a mysterious postcard from Aunt Josephine before she was shipped off to Siberia.

After much hilarious drinking, smoking and kvetching with three equally disaffected artist buddies, Krumm—along with Alan the occasional journalist, handsome Easy Wayne and Robert the ex-pat Brit—pack weed, beer and bicycles onto a train for Poland and a long weekend of debauched soul searching.

Levitin knows his territory. Five years as a journalist in Berlin before returning to his native Bay Area, plus his vantage point at the edge of the millennial generation, gives him an astringent perspective on post-feminism, late capitalism, global unemployment, and the overall ennui of males who have yet to find traction in a chaotic Zeitgeist.

The voice of Disposable Man is intimate and vivid as Levitin spins the saga of one man’s journey to set the family record straight. With his tongue firmly in his cheek, the author probes the irony of being Jewish in Berlin.

“It’s still too shocking that a Jew should just turn up and put down roots in this capital of capitals—in this inferno of his past,” the author writes. “A Jew cannot just simply come to Berlin: he needs an alibi.” Levitin goes on to explain that, “Jews are now coming to and staying and living in Berlin: because Berlin has had the madness boiled out of it. Berlin is exhausted.” And so are the ex-pats, careers temporarily comatose, who meet at their favorite bar to take shots, smoke weed and complain about women.

Krumm and co.’s long weekend of talking, fishing, swimming, drinking, smoking, and laughing magically morphs into a moment of Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake. (And yes, this is a daring and courageous gamble on the author’s part.) It ends with a bonfire, at which the quartet, now gone completely wild and feral, howl at the flames until dawn. The bonfire on the Polish riverbank is simultaneously a Viking funeral pyre, a rite of passage and a cremation of four men’s impossible dreams. It is also a ritual grieving for their entire generation, the men who’ve become satellites to a world controlled by women. The Golden Age of bad old masculinity has ended, broken into submission by ascendant Others.

Disposable Man is a compelling male manifesto, an elegy to lost purpose and grip—stunning, angry, smart, funny, and uncomfortably precise. Most remarkable, perhaps, is the fact that this young man’s tale of angst is capable of resonating so richly with a female Baby Boomer. Tears filled my eyes as I read the last pages. A tour de force, crackling with humor and defiance. Continuous shots of vodka without a hangover.

Michael Levitin will discuss ‘Disposable Man’ with poet and essayist Stephen Kessler on March 15 from 7-9 p.m. Felix Kulpa Gallery, 107 Elm St., Santa Cruz.

Rob Brezny’s Astrology March 13-20

Rob Brezsny

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March 12, 2019

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Free will astrology for the week of March 13, 2019

ARIES (March 21-April 19): The coming weeks might be a good time to acquire a flamethrower. It would come in handy if you felt the urge to go to a beach and incinerate mementos from an ex-ally. It would also be useful if you wanted to burn stuff that reminds you of who you used to be and don’t want to be any more; or if you got in the mood to set ablaze symbols of questionable ideas you used to believe in but can’t afford to believe in any more. If you don’t want to spend $1,600-plus on a flamethrower, just close your eyes for 10 minutes and visualize yourself performing acts of creative destruction like those I mentioned.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Taurus aphorist Olivia Dresher writes that she would like to be “a force of nature,” but “not causing any suffering.” The way I interpret her longing is that she wants to be wild, elemental, uninhibited, primal, raw, pure—all the while without inflicting any hurt or damage on herself or anyone else. In accordance with your astrological omens, Taurus, that’s a state I encourage you to embody in the coming weeks. If you’re feeling extra smart—which I suspect you will—you could go even further. You may be able to heal yourself and others with your wild, elemental, uninhibited, primal, raw, pure energy.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): In some major cities, the buttons you push at a crosswalk don’t actually work to make the traffic light turn green faster. The same is true about the “Close Door” buttons in many elevators. Pushing them doesn’t have any effect on the door. Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer says these buttons are like placebos that give you “the illusion of control.” I bring this phenomenon to your attention, Gemini, in hope of inspiring you to scout around for comparable things in your life. Is there any situation where you imagine you have power or influence, but probably don’t? If so, now is an excellent time to find out—and remedy that problem.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Philip Boit was born and raised in Kenya, where it never snows except on the very top of Mount Kenya. Yet he represented his country in the cross-country skiing events at the Winter Olympics in 2002 and 2006. How did he do it? He trained up north in snowy Finland. Meanwhile, Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong competed for Ghana in the slalom in the 2010 Winter Olympics. Since there was no snow in his homeland, he practiced his skills in the French Alps. These two are your role models for the coming months, Cancerian. According to my analysis of the astrological omens, you’ll have the potential to achieve success in tasks and activities that may not seem like a natural fit.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): In the process of casting for his movie The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, director David Fincher considered selecting A-list actress Scarlett Johansson to play the heroine. But ultimately he decided she was too sexy and radiant. He wanted a pale, thin, tougher-looking actress, whom he found in Rooney Mara. I suspect that in a somewhat similar way, you may be perceived as being too much something for a role you would actually perform quite well. But in my astrological opinion, you’re not at all too much. In fact, you’re just right. Is there anything you can do—with full integrity—to adjust how people see you and understand you without diluting your brightness and strength?

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): In 1993, an English gardener named Eric Lawes used his metal detector to look for a hammer that his farmer friend had lost in a field. Instead of the hammer, he found the unexpected: a buried box containing 15,234 old Roman silver and gold worth more than $4 million today. I bring this to your attention, Virgo, because I suspect that you, too, will soon discover something different from what you’re searching for. Like the treasure Lawes located, it might even be more valuable than what you thought you wanted.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): “The role of the artist is exactly the same as the role of the lover,” wrote author James Baldwin. “If I love you, I have to make you conscious of the things you don’t see.” To fully endorse that statement, I’d need to add two adverbs. My version would be, “The role of the artist is exactly the same as the role of the lover. If I love you, I have to kindly and compassionately make you conscious of the things you don’t see.” In accordance with current astrological omens, I recommend that you Libras enthusiastically adopt that mission during the coming weeks. With tenderness and care, help those you care about become aware of what they’ve been missing—and ask for the same from them toward you.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): For thousands of generations, our early ancestors were able to get some of the food they needed through a practice known as persistence hunting. They usually couldn’t run as fast as the animals they chased. But they had a distinct advantage: they could keep moving relentlessly until their prey grew exhausted. In part, that’s because they had far less hair than the animals, and thus could cool off better. I propose that we adopt this theme as a metaphor for your life in the coming weeks and months. You won’t need to be extra fast or super ferocious or impossibly clever to get what you want. All you have to do is be persistent and dogged and disciplined.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Wompsi’kuk Skeesucks Brooke is a Native American woman of the Mohegan tribe. According to her description of Mohegan naming traditions, and reported by author Elisabeth Pearson Waugaman, “Children receive names that are descriptive. They may be given new names at adolescence, and again as they go through life according to what their life experiences and accomplishments are.” She concludes that names “change as the individual changes.” If you have been thinking about transforming the way you express and present yourself, you might want to consider such a shift. This year will be a favorable time to at least add a new nickname or title. And I suspect you’ll have maximum inspiration to do so in the coming weeks.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): For many of us, smell is our most neglected sense. We see, hear, taste, and feel with vividness and eagerness, but allow our olfactory powers to go underused. In accordance with astrological omens, I hope you will compensate for that dearth in the coming weeks. There is subtle information you can obtain—and in my opinion, need quite strongly—that will come your way only with the help of your nose. Trust the guidance provided by scent.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Essayist Nassim Nicholas Taleb says humans come in three types: fragile, robust or antifragile. Those who are fragile work hard to shield themselves from life’s messiness. The downside? They are deprived of experiences that might spur them to grow smarter. As for robust people, Taleb believes they are firm in the face of messiness. They remain who they are even when they’re disrupted. The potential problem? They may be too strong to surrender to necessary transformations. If you’re the third type, antifragile, you engage with the messiness and use it as motivation to become more creative and resilient. The downside? None. In accordance with the astrological omens, Aquarius, I urge you to adopt the antifragile approach in the coming weeks.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): In 2014, NASA managed to place its Maven spacecraft into orbit around Mars. The cost of the mission was $671 million. Soon thereafter, the Indian government put its own vehicle, the Mangalyaan, into orbit around the Red Planet, spending just $74 million. As you plan your own big project, Pisces, I recommend you emulate the Mangalyaan rather than the Maven. I suspect you can do great things—maybe even your personal equivalent of sending a spacecraft to Mars—on a relatively modest budget.

Homework: Upon waking up for the next seven mornings, sing a song that fills you with feisty, glorious hope.

Santa Cruz’s Tess Dunn Returns As Alter-Ego T3TRA

Wallace Baine

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March 12, 2019

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Santa Cruz’s Tess Dunn Returns As Alter-Ego T3TRA

Oscar Wilde didn’t know a thing about electro-pop music. But if he were around today, the 19th-century playwright and legendary wit would totally get Tess Dunn. It was Wilde, remember, who once said, “Give a man a mask, and he’ll tell you the truth.”

That applies to Dunn, a 24-year-old singer-songwriter who has been performing and recording since the age of 13. Not because she wears a mask on stage, but because she has taken to recording under an alter ego named T3TRA (pronounced “Tetra”). And it’s through T3TRA that she’s telling her truth.

The Santa Cruz native returns to her hometown for a performance as T3TRA at Kuumbwa Jazz Center on March 16. She’ll be showcasing a new album of original material called Lightswitch.

“It’s one of the best ideas I ever had,” she says of her on-stage persona.

Throughout her adolescence, Dunn performed and recorded under her given name. That changed once she reached her twenties. Lightswitch is now her second effort as T3TRA.

Beginning with 2009’s Darling Just Walk, the artistic persona Dunn presented under her real name was a specific thing. “She was always optimistic. She had a zest for life, wouldn’t let anything get her down,” says Dunn. “And all that was true when I was teenager.”

That changed, she says, when she began experiencing exhausting mood swings, from manic episodes of activity and creativity to shut-down periods of depression. Eventually, she was diagnosed with bipolar-1 disorder. “I wanted to write about it,” she says, “but it felt weird doing so as Tess Dunn, because I already had a reputation under that name. It didn’t feel right to write about how depressed I was. Also, at that age—19, 20—I was experiencing adult things like lust and love that I didn’t really understand at 15 or 16.” On top of that, she was wary of disappointing an audience who had come to expect a certain spirit in her music, a spirit that suddenly felt confining.

It was time for an artistic reset.

“It was really refreshing, and it’s given me a huge dose of freedom,” she says of her decision to become T3TRA. At the same time, she was beginning to be seduced by the beats and textures of electronica, and a break into a new alter ego allowed her to change up her fundamental sound from bright and buoyant power-pop to a darker, synthetic vibe.

As a result, in a Wilde-ian sense, Dunn is now telling her truth in a way that she had not dared before. The title track of new album Lightswitch is a particularly emotionally naked stab at grappling with the disorienting mood swings of bipolar. “It’s probably the most honest song I’ve ever written in my 10 years of songwriting,” she says.

Facing a bipolar disorder is burden enough for anyone, but Dunn has also been dealing with other serious health issues her entire life. Namely, cystic fibrosis (CF), a devastating chronic disease that primarily affects the lungs and demands intense day-to-day treatment. Mostly as a result of her CF condition, she’s also had to face epilepsy and diabetes. Life expectancy for those with CF is somewhere in the mid-40s, but that number has been steadily moving northward thanks to improvements in treatment.

Because she’s lived with CF her entire life, Dunn is intimately familiar with a certain live-for-today impulse. Last year, she graduated from Sonoma State University and shortly thereafter began work as a writer where she now lives in Marin County. A severe flare-up of CF symptoms sidelined her and forced her into freelancing.

“In that case, getting sick was definitely a blessing for me, because it pushed me to turn back to my music and say to myself, ‘Yeah, that’s really what I want to do with my life,” she says. “If I had continued to work as I was doing, I would have let my music sit on the back burner.”

Cystic fibrosis has given Dunn a considerable headwind in her life and career, and she’s always felt that she’s had to cram a lot in what she believes will be an abbreviated lifespan. But being involved in the CF community has allowed her to keep a valuable perspective.

“I have this weird sense of guilt,” she says. “I mean, I have friends with CF who are in the hospital every other month. And though I’m feeling bad a lot, numbers-wise I can’t complain because I’m doing so well.”

Tess Dunn performs as T3TRA at the album-release concert for ‘Lightswitch’ at 8 p.m. on Saturday, March 16, at Kuumbwa Jazz Center, 320-2 Cedar St., Santa Cruz. $10 advance/$15 door. iamt3tra.com.

Soquel’s Pretty Good Advice Off To Pretty Great Start

Christina Waters

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March 12, 2019

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Soquel’s Pretty Good Advice Off To Pretty Great Start

Warm and casual is the vibe at Soquel’s new breakfast and lunch spot, Pretty Good Advice, the brainchild of former SF chef Matt McNamara. A short menu of morning and noontime items is well stocked with outstanding breads and pastries created by Jen Jackson, while McNamara’s charcuterie recipes round out the house entrée offerings.

A recent morning visit rewarded us with outstanding Cat & Cloud coffee, plus a textbook cinnamon babka ($4), a tangy honey-thyme scone ($3.50) and ricotta toast with quince butter ($4.50)—all baked on the premisses in the exhibition kitchen that takes up half the tiny interior. Indoor picnic seating establishes the tone of PGA, while the café’s outdoor seating will be an obvious summer magnet for those who crave conversation and sunshine.

The ricotta toast was intriguing. The thick slab of bread—served, as is everything at PGA, in a coated paper basket—wasn’t actually toasted, but it was as warm and delicious any pain de campagne I’ve ever tasted. The thyme-scented scone exploded with flavor and texture, and we look forward to sampling more sweet and savory creations from this experimental baker.

Counter service rules here at Pretty Good Advice: you order, pay, take a number, gather your utensils, and pour your coffee into paper carry-out cups. No glass, ceramic, cloth, or metal in the place. At lunch we had a chance to sample the sophisticated entrée plates, which arrive partnered with toasted housemade bread, baby carrots, some pretty lettuces, and fresh pickles. The small portions are very attractive, though it’s difficult to cut through the ham and bread with the black plastic utensils provided.

Our favorite lunch item was the pork paté with grilled ham ($9.50). Paired with crunchy toast points, mustard (some mayo would also be welcome), and little pickles, this was the most substantial lunch by far. The small portion of green goddess salad ($6) was indeed small, but intensely flavored and liberally tossed with parmesan and avocado. The roasted garlic croutons were very thin. Tiny, crunchy and delicious. The classic though mild chicken terrine ($9) came with little carrots and pickled kumquat, plus toast and greens. It was a pretty grouping of ingredients, but a small portion. LeBron would need two orders. A dessert of griddled Meyer lemon loaf ($6) was delicious topped with whipped cream, fresh mint and bits of mandarin. I hope the menu expands.

Pretty Good Advice is open 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday, closed Monday and Tuesday. 3070 Porter St., Soquel. 226-2805, prettygoodadvicesoquel.com.

Catch of the Day

Deciding that seafood is misunderstood and needs to be cast in a sustainable light, the folks from One Fish Foundation (onefishfoundation.org) are hosting a KNOW FISH dinner next Sunday, March 17, at 5 p.m. at the Santa Cruz Food Lounge.

Expect a show-and-tell dinner, where you’ll dine on fresh, delicious and responsibly harvested seafood while you learn more about what “responsibly harvested” really means. The hardest-working act in the the local fish biz, Ocean2table entrepreneurs Ian Cole and Charlie Lambert, will be on hand to tell stories about how they caught and processed the seafood you’ll be eating.

Chef Diego Felix of Colectivo Felix will fill participants in on the importance of sourcing locally harvested seafood, and you’ll learn about the changing “seascape” for domestic and global seafood. Tickets: $60 (plus tax and gratuity). eventbrite.com.

A California Michelin

The first ever statewide Michelin Guide California will launch this summer. In addition to the previously covered San Francisco Bay Area and wine country, the new all-California Michelin Guide will include restaurants in greater Los Angeles, Monterey, Orange County, Sacramento, San Diego, and Santa Barbara.

Film Review: ‘Captain Marvel’

Richard von Busack

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March 12, 2019

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Expert script-flippage gives texture to the heartfelt female empowerment message within Captain Marvel. It starts as a war-on-terror movie, with the shape-shifting Skrulls as an insurgent enemy, hiding among the locals on a planet that looks like Afghanistan. We arrive at our more current malaise when the film’s true villain starts talking of foreigners who “threaten our borders.” When Captain Marvel is over, one notes that a conventional romantic lead wasn’t here, and also wasn’t missed. Directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, and the five credited writers, give this heroine’s journey the same attractive solitude that male heroes—super and otherwise—have enjoyed in the movies forever.

Brie Larson’s appealing underplaying sells this material, which isn’t the freshest. Her character Carol Danvers has the same last name as Supergirl. In honor of copyrights, Stan Lee glommed onto the name of an established red-clad, magically powered superhero who predated the Marvel Universe. (That previous Captain Marvel is going to be back in the movies for the first time in decades under his new name, Shazam.) The creation of this Captain Marvel is as much a tribute to Lee’s relentless branding as is his mandatory cameo and the posthumous thanks to him before the titles.

Marvel is called “Vers,” an amnesiac soldier of the outer space Kree empire, with the ability to blast photon rays from her fists. The power is a gift from the Empire’s all-highest, an artificial intelligence simulation that appears to her in the shape of Annette Benning. Vers has a rep for being too unfocused and emotional, as she’s always reminded by her superior officer and sparring partner (Jude Law). After a skirmish, Vers is captured by the pointed-eared Skrulls. Her dormant memories are stirred up during an interrogation by their diabolical leader, the Cockney-accented Taros (an amusing Ben Mendelsohn).

After blasting her way off the ship, Vers falls to earth into 1990s North Hollywood. The ruckus summons America’s top secret agent Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson, digitized to a younger form, wearing a plastic-y wig, and still possessing both eyes). The corpse of a dead Skrull convinces Fury of Vers’ story. As they try to round up the aliens, the jagged bits of Vers’ past keep flashing back. She recalls her past life as a fighter pilot and her lifelong friendship with her fellow pilot Marie Rambeau (Lashana Lynch).

It’s possible that the lamentation of fanboys has been exaggerated publicity to make a blockbuster sound like an underdog. But there has been some public wailing by fans emasculated by a strong heroine. Hope they’ll save some tears for the scenes where Jackson does some things he may never have done in a movie: helping to wash the dishes and going gooey for a orange kitty called “Goose,” in honor of Top Gun.

Larson and Jackson have a smooth rapport. She brings in a great deal of feeling, but also some playfulness. In the patronization-free partnership with Fury, our heroine can be slightly bratty, pestering him at a bar about why he thinks everyone should call him by his last name. “And what will your kids call you?” “Fury.”

There was a Blue Angels flyby over Hollywood to promote Captain Marvel—the military-industrial-entertainment complex at work. Future historians could note this show of military might occurred during a week of public speculation about drafting women into the military.

But Captain Marvel’s exhilaration isn’t as supermacha as G.I. Jane or Starship Troopers (satire or otherwise, that Verhoeven film was what it was). The movie is not about Vers becoming a good, disciplined soldier. She finds her independence at last. The 1990s setting—used for grunge needle drops and jokes about the slowness of old-time computers—may have been there to remind us of that other intrepid blonde heroine of the era, Buffy Summers, the Slayer.

Despite some starchy Louisiana heartland sequences, this is an effective fantasy of power used with grace and without arrogance, featuring a constantly underestimated figure rising up again after being knocked down. Fully charged up and blazing in the heavens, this Captain Marvel is as fine an embodiment of the Superman figure as there has been in the movies. Hopefully, six weeks from now in Avengers: Endgame, this flying light goddess is going to barbecue Thanos and his conservative austerity program.

CAPTAIN MARVEL

Directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck. Starring Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson and Jude Law. (PG-13) 123 minutes.

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