Valentine’s Day Pairings From Pelican Ranch

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, a sensuous Zin is a perfect pick to share with your sweetie—or keep for yourself. Either way, Pelican Ranch Winery’s Capitola tasting room is the place to go.

Their 2015 Zinfandel ($24) is made with fruit from the Rinaldi Family Vineyard in Fiddletown, Amador County, and loaded with pepper, spice, herbs, and smoke. “It’s good alone and wonderful with full-bodied foods,” likely a hearty pizza packed with meat toppings, says winemaker Phil Crews, who co-owns Pelican Ranch Winery with his wife, Peggy. And Crews should know; the tasting room has a pizza oven that he often fires up for customers.

A professor of chemistry at UCSC, Crews says Pelican’s classic, big-style Zin has a powerful structure of berry and jam, which unite in a symphony of sustained flavors (a 2016 batch was also just released).

Another hot buy for your Valentine would be Pelican Ranch’s Raspberry Dessert Wine. “Its incredible structure and jammy wild berries demand chocolate accompaniment,” Crews says.

When it comes to advice for wine lovers, Peggy Crews also recently sent out some amusing words of wisdom for 2019:

“Throw out the rulebook and do the following: Drink rose this winter—and reds this summer. Sip from a stemless glass, both at home and at the movies. Serve a Chardonnay with a steak and a Pinot Noir with fish. Open a special bottle of Pelican Ranch this Tuesday.”

Pelican Ranch Winery, 102 Kennedy Drive, Capitola. 426-6911, pelicanranch.com.

Valentine’s Day Dinner at Burrell

Burrell School Vineyards is putting on a sumptuous feast for Valentine’s Day, Thursday, Feb. 14. This special dinner features an elegant, five-course feast with unique wine pairings.

Two seating times are available: a 5:30 p.m. sunset seating in the intimate tasting room overlooking the vineyard, or a 7 p.m. slot in the historic schoolhouse. Each ticket ($190) includes dinner for two, wine pairings and tax. Gratuity not included. Can’t make it on the holiday? Burrell is doing it all again on Feb. 16.

Burrell School Vineyards & Winery, 24060 Summit Rd., Los Gatos. 408-353-6290, ky**@bu***********.com.

In ‘Red Velvet,’ Politics of Race Take Center Stage

London was the center of the theater world in the 19th century, and Edmund Kean was one of its most celebrated Shakespeareans. So when Kean collapsed during an 1833 performance of Othello, the part was offered to another celebrated actor, Ira Aldridge. What could go wrong?

Well, for one thing, Aldridge was an American. And for another, he was black. Such is the tantalizing setup for the Jewel Theater’s new production of Red Velvet by British playwright Lolita Chakrabarti.

Using the past to explore the present cultural conversation, Chakrabarti probes a suite of issues and situations, from acting styles and gender roles to the lingering racism that dogged England even after the country abolished slavery in 1831.

If that sounds like a full plate for a single play, it is. But the consummate cast, stylish set and ingenious ensemble direction power Red Velvet to an absorbing two hours of theater. The drama begins and ends in Poland, but we also travel to London with Aldridge (played here by Aldo Billingslea).

The play plunges directly into the heart of the action, where Kean’s acting company learns of the new Othello. There is much storming by Kean’s son Charles (Jeremy Kahn) when he’s told by company manager Pierre Laporte (Jeffrey Fiorito) that Aldridge will play Othello.

The ensemble—celebrated actress Ellen Tree (Jennifer LeBlanc), young Henry Forrester (Teddy Spenser), veteran actor Bernard Warde (Jesse Caldwell), and a histrionic Betty Lovell (Shannon Warrick)—have all heard of Aldridge, but no one has actually seen him. So when the actor strides into rehearsal full of energy and ideas, they are stunned.

The linchpin of Chakrabarti’s plot—a black man daring to play a black man—unleashes melodrama aplenty. “This isn’t a circus,” snarls Charles Kean, who refuses to step on the same stage as Aldridge. Oh, the irony.

It’s a sense of irony that reverberates throughout the play. If Aldridge is worthy of playing the Moor merely because he is in fact a black man, argues Kean, then any fat drunk could be scooped up from the alleys and cast as Falstaff. Not only is a black man unwelcome on the London stage—as scathing reviews from that first night prove—but as an American, Aldridge is deemed unskilled, unprofessional and unworthy to perform Shakespeare.

Theater exists to reflect who we are, says one character in Red Velvet. It’s always political. Yet another character insists, “actors should never ask questions—just play.” Given sophisticated dialogue about theatrical styles and the intent of Shakespeare’s characters, the Jewel production’s actors polish each line into gem-like precision.

Red Velvet delivers a mesmerizing display of the oration style of 19th-century acting. As they rehearse, the six principal cast members of “Othello” adopt arcane, almost sculptural poses, freeze in place, and then deliver their lines directly to the audience. Aldridge suggests the actress playing Desdemona look at him when she speaks. She is astounded. He invites her to explore the character’s passion, rather than simply striking a pose. Playing what you feel? “How avant garde!” she exclaims with delight. As you might imagine, Aldridge is excoriated for daring to shake up highly stylized English acting.

So much is surprising, crisp and even illuminating about Red Velvet that a few false steps at the end feel all the more disappointing. As Aldridge’s career in London ends, the stalwart Billingslea is required to burst into histrionics. The play is largely at fault here, and Chakrabarti feels compelled to take on women’s rights, health care injustice and educational disparities in addition to the weighty issues already explored. That’s too much to ask a two-hour drama to juggle. But Red Velvet is so inventive and so well acted that one can squint at the playwright’s fervor.

When the actors are all together on stage, this production moves beautifully. And while each performance shines, Jennifer LeBlanc’s vocal clarity and physical presence stand out. When she and Billingslea enact one key, hair-raising scene from Othello, the stage becomes electric.

Briskly entertaining, Red Velvet invites the audience to think about some complex issues. I was hooked throughout and occasionally transported. Not much can surpass live theater in delivering so much.

‘Red Velvet’ by Lolita Chakrabarti runs at the Jewel Theater through Feb. 17. jeweltheatre.net.

Music Picks: February 6-12

Live music highlights for the week of Feb. 6, 2019

 

WEDNESDAY 2/6

HIP HOP

J. LATELY

There are so many things to love about rapper, J. Lately. His laid back flow that hides years of writing and practice, his 10-year hip-hop career, culminating in last year’s Be Fucking Happy, his 15th album. Then there is his name, a take on his belief that humans should be constantly seeking change for the better. But far be it for us to tell anyone how to think. Go see this Sebastopol artist upfront and personal at the Blue Lagoon and start your own list of reasons to love him. MAT WEIR

INFO: 8:30 p.m. Blue Lagoon, 923 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $5 adv/$10 door. 423-7117.

 

THURSDAY 2/7

INDIE

PARKER GISPERT

Whigs frontman Parker Gispert is stretching his wings as a solo artist. After 20 years in a band, he’s enjoying the freedom of following his musical flights of fancy without having to check in with bandmates. Gispert as captain and pilot means songs less grounded in southern garage rock and more atmospheric, with introspective meanderings, acoustic elaborations and a voluminous vocal range. He wrote Sunlight Tonight completely outside, while living on a plot of farmland. His songs dizzy with self-determination and giddy with the realization of a never-ending horizon, Gispert may never return to the world of collaborators and compromise. AMY BEE

INFO: 9 p.m. Crepe Place, 1134 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. $10. 429-6994.

JAZZ

LEYLA McCALLA

Watching the evolution of Leyla McCalla has been one of American music’s great pleasures in recent years. The Haitian-American singer-songwriter has come into her own as a band leader who soaks up all the vibrations around her, transmuting sounds and experiences into strikingly beautiful music. Since moving to New Orleans in 2010, she’s had two children, and both experiences shape the music on her gorgeous new album The Capitalist Blues. She’s touring with a band plucked from the New Orleans jazz scene. At 33, she continues to explore the Creole cultural currents running between Port-au-Prince and New Orleans while extending her purview to the horizons. ANDREW GILBERT

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

 

FRIDAY 2/8

BLUEGRASS

HOT BUTTERED RUM

Hot Buttered Rum will get you drunk with just a couple quick listens to their sweet and smooth tunes. The band returns to Santa Cruz for another night of no-holds-barred debauchery. This five-piece bluegrass band has been quenching their audiences’ thirst for music for 17 years, with their sixth studio full-length album, Lonesome Panoramic, released last year. Their traditional style of mountain music is so addicting it will have you moving and shaking long past last call and begging for more when the lights go out. MW

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

 

SATURDAY 2/9

ELECTRO-FUNK

SUNSQUABI

Is there a place where jam bands collide with EDM? The answer is yes, and apparently that place is Colorado, the state where electro-funk trio Sunsquabi lay their gyrating heads at night. It’s nothing new for electronic groups to incorporate non-electronic instruments in their music these days, but Sunsquabi takes it a step further and gives the music the meandering, low-key groove that has made stoners follow Phish and the Dead around for decades. And yet somehow it fits entirely in the electronic pill-popping realm. Ponder that contradiction while you are lost in the funk. AARON CARNES

INFO: 9 p.m. Catalyst, 1011 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $14 adv/$16 door. 423-1338.

LATIN

LA MISA NEGRA

If you want to dance—and I know you do—but don’t want to commit to any one dance genre, La Misa Negra, a seven-piece cumbia band from Oakland, is calling your name. Driven by fierce horn riffs and kick-ass accordion antics, Afro-Latin music has never sounded so punk. Or heavy metal. Or hip-hop. Or disco. Okay, maybe not disco for more than a second or two. La Misa Negra combines the traditional, like currulao, tambora and salsa, with whatever contemporary inspiration tickles their fancy, creating a sound they call, “retro-future cumbia.” It’s high-voltage dance music for all cultures, backgrounds and generations. AB

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

 

MONDAY 2/11

ART-ROCK

ON DRUGS

Weirdly psychedelic (and also just plain weird), Portland’s On Drugs promises a set of songs that will “make grandma cry” and “leave dad sweating like a hooker in church.” So in case you were planning on bringing three generations of family to this Monday’s show, be warned. Playful and assaulting in equal measure, On Drugs have a bit of the Unicorns in their DNA, blended up with the hard-partying trash rock of FIDLAR. Before you know it, they’ll have you singing in a falsetto about slamming 40s and smoking out your cat. MIKE HUGUENOR

INFO: 9 p.m. Crepe Place, 1134 Soquel Ave, Santa Cruz. $7. 429-6994.

ROCK

THE RAD TRADS

Traditionalism isn’t exactly Santa Cruz’s main squeeze. Luckily, the Rad Trads aren’t exactly traditional in a Leviticus sense. It’s more of a “get down and dance to rock ’n’ roll” traditionalism, a la the Rolling Stones. The Stones themselves get a name drop on 2016’s “Keith Richards & I,” a song with the same tightly wound energy and loose morals of it’s title hero. Dirty trumpets, trebled-out guitars and a howling beast on the mic. Call it traditional, call it a classic. It’s all rock ’n’ roll to me. MH

INFO: 7 p.m. Kuumbwa, 320-2 Cedar St., Santa Cruz. $26.25 adv/$31.50 door. 427-2227.

 

TUESDAY 2/12

REGGAE

J BOOG

Some of the best reggae comes from people of mixed cultures. J Boog, a celebrity in Hawaii’s vibrant reggae scene, was raised in Compton and comes from Samoan descent. His music brings the bread and butter of easy grooves and a smooth vocal delivery with plenty of peace, love and romance. There are moments where you can feel his breezy island vibe collide with the harsh reality of his Compton upbringing. It creates some really interesting music that will tug at your heart and brain. AC

INFO: 8 p.m. Catalyst, 1011 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $32 adv/$25 door. 423-1338.

Love Your Local Band: 12 Decembers

Melody Egbert was writing dubstep songs when they met Myles Stevens, who was also doing their own dubstep music. The two together decided to collaborate and went in a completely different direction, creating highly emotional, shoegaze-influenced pop music.

“I always felt that my life was the end of some sort of teen movie, and I wanted to write those songs because it was what I was feeling,” Egbert says. “I’m glad I moved away from it (dubstep) because it was a little unrewarding to listen back to.”

The progressions in the songs are all at their core pretty basic song structures, but with the layers of instruments and vocals, it creates an ethereal sound that is immediately stirring, setting an intense mood that transcends any single part.

“Everyone involved with the project has been going through some shit in our lives that we wanted to get out,” Egbert says. “I know I personally really wanted to arrange songs that created something emotional out of something very simple.”

There are two other members in the band, Azuria Sky and Luna Moon, who both live in L.A., and haven’t yet played live with the group. There are some other local players that will accompany the group at their shows, depending on who’s available. Some of these people even make appearances on the recordings.

It therefore makes sense that most of the band’s album covers and images have been blurry—though it also fits the band’s sound.

“We like to make very dreamy music, A little shoegaze-y. We want the imagery to reflect that,” Egberts says. “I think over time if our sound matures we might change the art style. But for the foreseeable future it is going to be blurry images and the rip-off My Bloody Valentine font.” 

INFO: 9 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 10. Crepe Place, 1134 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. $8. 429-6994.

Saying Yes To The (Divorce) Dress

A decade ago, Kay Hansen found her husband’s ex-wife’s wedding dress in her closet, and she didn’t know what to do with it. It hung there for two years—rather annoyingly in the way, considering that she saw it each time she needed a shirt or pair of shoes. The ex-wife didn’t want it back, so her fiancé suggested eBay, since it was, after all, very expensive. But they were about to find a more practical use.

It only took a few drinks and a round of pool at the westside Parish Publick House before Hansen and her best friend Georgia Cantando had the worst idea. After popping a bottle of champagne, the two decided to break out the dress for a photo shoot.

“It was so wrong, but so right,” Cantando says with a laugh. By the time Hansen’s husband got home, they had put the dress on Cantando—complete with a scarf and coconut bra—while Hansen wore her own wedding dress and a black corset.

“We just had the best night,” says Hansen. “Georgia was making speeches to the ex-wife.”

What started as a joke turned into a bigger project. In the years since, Cantando and Hansen have gotten hundreds of people from across North and Central America into the ex’s dress. It’s opened a door to a larger project called “The Divorce Dress,” for which the women travel around and get other people try the dress on—married or not—take photos, and talk about their own breakups in a safe, comfortable space.

“When people get in the dress, they automatically feel like they have to be a bride and act a certain way, but it’s not until they become more comfortable in the dress that automatically they start talking about divorce,” Cantando says. “We wanted to know why that was. Why people felt that they had to act a certain way, and why they always started talking about divorce.”

Although Hansen has never been in the dress for herself, men and women from all walks of life have worn the divorce dress, from the Parish pub co-owner and a Steamer Lane surfer to a celebrity divorce attorney. The more interviews and photoshoots the women did, the more they realized that their idea was more than just a funny side project. Now they are creating a coffee table book showcasing stories, images and haikus about relationship endings. They hope to take the dress on a trip to France and England next month, and will show their work at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History (MAH) in May.

“Sometimes there is such a thick line of similarity when it comes to finding yourself, shedding your skin and starting fresh,” Cantando says. “Everyone focuses on relationship beginnings, but when it gets sticky at the end, no one focuses on what’s going on there.”

SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING DRESS Cantando and Hansen have been best friends for years, so it was only fitting that when they decided to turn their wedding dress shenanigans into an art project.
SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING DRESS Cantando and Hansen have been best friends for years, so it was only fitting that when they decided to turn their wedding dress shenanigans into an art project.

Cantando and Hansen are both happily married to their husbands—and even to each other. The best friends got married at Burning Man around 10 years ago while Hansen was wearing her wedding dress. She was standing in line at the Porta-Potties wondering how she was going to navigate the dress inside the little toilet space when a man introduced himself as a minister and asked if he could officiate her wedding.

“I married my best friend,” Hansen says. “Georgia’s husband gave her away!”

Thanks to social media, Hansen and Cantado no longer have to reach out to candidates to include—people come to them to put the dress on and tell their own stories. More recently, they partnered with celebrity family attorney Laura Wasser to write articles on divorce and relationship endings. They hope that through their writing and project they can help normalize divorce and show that everyone has a story worth telling.

Both women’s lives included some aspect of divorce long before the project started. Hansen’s first marriage ended in divorce, and Cantando’s parents were divorced when she was younger.

“We get more people laughing in the dress than crying in the dress, that’s for sure,” Cantando says.

The dress itself was originally a size 2, so it had to be modified with a corset-style lace back to fit all ages and sizes. Last week, the women came by the GT office and brought the dress with them. Though they didn’t make anyone try it on, they brought their images and plenty of crazy stories from divorcées, including a possible murder, domestic abuse and stalking. People who have never been divorced have also worn the dress, and the pair also want to take it to places where divorce is frowned upon, like parts of the Middle East.

“We need to make this not taboo anymore. Everyone needs to be able to have a conversation about it and be themselves,” Hansen says.

POWER POSE The Divorce Dress project has featured subjects from all over North and Central America, like columnist Laura Cathcart Robbins.
POWER POSE The Divorce Dress project has featured subjects from all over North and Central America, like columnist Laura Cathcart Robbins.

“Divorce does not end with the paperwork,” Cantando adds. “It does not end when you move out of the house or everyone says, ‘Oh I’m sorry that happened.’ It continues to shape who you are.”

Cantando and Hansen currently meet with three or four subjects a month, depending on their schedules. They say that they’ve interviewed five or six people a day on project trips. With the help of an assistant, they interview and photograph the person on site. There is plenty of champagne, and the women sit and just listen to other people’s relationships, expectations and feelings about their exes. Afterword, they will often write haikus based on phrases and words that were particularly memorable.

“Usually Georgia will go up to people on the street and say we are working on an art project, or she will spark a conversation at a bar or restaurant and it happens pretty organically,” Hansen says.

So far, talking to people has been relatively easy and painless. They say they expect a few more roadblocks and differing opinions on divorce when they travel outside of California.

“At first, we got an awful lot of 40-something white women in the dress, but it’s always been important for us to include people from all ages, ethnicities, sexual and religious orientations,” Cantando says. “That’s why we want to travel around and meet people who have different views and experiences around divorce.”

With the debut of their book coming just in time for Valentine’s Day next year, Hansen and Cantando hope to raise enough money through their GoFundMe to travel to Europe next month. On May 4, their exhibit at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History will likely include confessional-style anonymous storytelling in the spirit of conversations around breakups.

“If anyone wants to share their story we take written stories and are around locally,” the women say. “We keep the dress in a suitcase. It lives there, so she’s ready to go at all times.”

thedivorcedress.com

Wi-Fi Wars: Cruzio, Comcast and Local Internet Choice

The internet service arrangement for the 94 new apartments at Five55 Pacific caught the team at Cruzio by surprise, they say.

In late 2017, the Santa Cruz-based internet service provider paid the building developer, Swenson, to have a subcontractor build more than $15,000 worth of infrastructure and a telecommunications vault for the building, which would have allowed Cruzio to offer residents their services.

Swenson officials told Cruzio to work with the telecommunications consultant on next steps, says Cruzio CEO Peggy Dolgenos. The consultant was RealtyCom Partners, a San Rafael-based telecommunications consulting firm that specializes in “identifying, negotiating and maximizing new telecom revenue opportunities for real estate owners,” according to its website. The company negotiated terms, but Swenson made the final decision on which proposals to move forward with.

Dolgenos says Cruzio never got to discuss or negotiate terms with RealtyCom. When the business received an update, Cruzio had been cut out of the deal, despite Swenson’s assurances, Dolgenos says. AT&T and Comcast, which each agreed to pay for parts of their own infrastructure in the building, would be the two companies offering internet services to tenants. It rendered Cruzio’s $15,000 investment little more than a sunk cost, Dolgenos says.

“We wasted that money just planning to serve all the apartments in there,” she says.

Cruzio or any other service provider can still pay for its own infrastructure if it wants to serve residents at Five55, says Jeff Huff, project manager at Swenson. Cruzio would need building-owner approval to carry that out and introduce its service. Reached via email for follow-up, Huff says Swenson probably wouldn’t approve the change “at this point, as it would be too disruptive.”

These kinds of arrangements are not uncommon in the wider telecommunications landscape, experts say. San Francisco passed a law in 2016 that says building owners cannot prevent internet service providers from accessing existing wiring in a building or installing their own wiring so they can offer service to occupants who’ve requested it.

When large telecom players started offering deals to developers in Santa Cruz in recent years, Cruzio staff began a conversation about how something like San Francisco’s law could help ensure consumer choice and a more level playing field for internet service competition. It brought the topic to the attention of city officials including Bonnie Lipscomb, economic development director for the city of Santa Cruz, and Lee Butler, the city’s director of planning and community development. Both are recommending the City Council consider a policy discussion on internet service provider competition.

“When the City Council meets to develop priorities for a new work plan, which should occur in the first half of this year, we expect such an ordinance will be one item that the Council may consider as part of that prioritization exercise,” Butler told Good Times in an emailed statement.  

The arrangement at Five55 also prompted discussions between Cruzio and Swenson about how to work together going forward so Cruzio could offer service in new developments, like the one at Park Pacific downtown. In that building, Cruzio, AT&T and Comcast can all provide internet service, and they are each “providing some portion if not all of the infrastructure from the street to the units,” Huff says.

Jesse Nickell III, senior vice president of construction and development for Swenson, says Swenson decided to ensure Cruzio is in the mix on future projects.  

“We respect them,” he says. “We want them not to get hurt.”

The offers from internet service providers to cover costs in new developments are just what is happening in the marketplace right now, Nickell says.

“They are bringing a lot of sugar to the developers,” he says.

Though federal and state laws prohibit access agreements that are explicitly exclusive, as San Francisco noted in its legislation, the amount of money poured into setting up internet connectivity in buildings and stipulations around ownership can create essentially the same result.

“They are doing these package deals to try to get exclusives on the market, and they are giving a bunch of freebies away to get it,” Nickell says. “And by virtue of doing that you push out the small mom and pop like Cruzio.”

COMPETITION CRUNCH

It wasn’t always like this. Typically—at least locally—developers would pay for the infrastructure that brings internet connections to each apartment, condo or office in a multi-unit building. Lately, though, large internet service providers like Comcast and AT&T have offered to pay for that infrastructure themselves. That can amount to tens of thousands of dollars in cost savings for developers trying to add housing stock at a time when there’s already a significant shortage.

When internet service providers pay for the internet connectivity in a building, they might then stipulate that they own the rights to it for a set period of time or in perpetuity. That means they don’t have to let another internet company use those connections even if a tenant would prefer another provider. It also means that smaller internet service providers find themselves competing with what can be high-cost deals from the large players. If they can’t or won’t pay upfront for the infrastructure that provides internet throughout an entire building, they lose out on those potential customers.

“Some developers may get their palms greased in the middle, but we all lose in the end,” says Robert Singleton, executive director of the Santa Cruz County Business Council. Singleton was a marketing consultant for Cruzio and the company’s Santa Cruz Fiber project until early last year.

James Hackett, director of business operations and development at Cruzio, knows that developers feel a lot of financial pressures. Cruzio, he says, supports the growth that developers enable, because new residents and businesses could be future Cruzio customers.

“The last thing we want to do is put barriers in the way of our developer colleagues and friends and say, ‘We see this is something you can take advantage of and can help you with your projects, but here is why you shouldn’t do it,’” Hackett says. “But those are exactly the types of conversations we do have with them.”

Those conversations happen because he says he believes the costs are ultimately passed on to tenants.

“In so many areas affecting the internet, we think competition is critical and it all comes back to that, really,” Hackett says. “Anything that is going to negatively impact competition is going to ultimately lead to poorer service, higher prices and continued monopolies of those big, national incumbents.”

It’s nothing new for those incumbents to use their weight to try to edge smaller competitors out of a growing market, says Steve Blum, owner and president of Tellus Venture Associates, a Marina-based consultancy specializing in broadband. Blum consults on broadband topics for cities across the state, with local clients including Santa Cruz, Salinas and Watsonville.

Both AT&T and Comcast “have a history of focusing their firepower on small, competitive threats,” Blum says, and he’s “seen this in community after community.”

“That is the way it should work,” he adds, “but when you have the level of market control they have, it is not truly a competitive marketplace.”

AT&T and Comcast might be keeping a closer eye on their competitive edge and market share in Santa Cruz since Cruzio began building its own fiber network, on which the city has considered becoming a partner.

Lipscomb wrote in an emailed statement that “other providers began investing in builds and greater access as a result” of those talks.

Representatives for AT&T did not respond to multiple requests for comment about their approach to working with developers on service for new buildings in Santa Cruz.

Joan Hammel, senior director of external communications for the California Region at Comcast, wrote in an emailed statement that “Comcast is always pleased and proud to provide innovative products and services to property owners who choose to have us serve their tenants.”  

WIRE TO WIRE

For now, Santa Cruz offers a two-page document to developers with guidance on “broadband best practices for new construction.” The document is not backed by an ordinance, so the city cannot require that developers follow it.

Hackett says the ideal situation for Cruzio is that developers would own the internet infrastructure inside a building and make it accessible to any provider who wants to use it. If that’s not a cost developers want to shoulder, the next-best scenario might be an arrangement where the infrastructure is jointly built by providers that want to offer internet service in a building, Hackett says. Then they could each serve any tenants who want their services.

He’s optimistic that there’s at least a conversation around internet competition.   

“The local stakeholders all want the same thing,” Hackett says. “It’s just a question of how to get there.”

NUZ: The Alt-Right’s Local Return; Jump Bike Backlash

4

Two weeks ago, hundreds of Santa Cruz residents gathered on Pacific Avenue for a Martin Luther King Jr. Day march, united under the slogan “Justice. Equality. Love.” It was just a few days later that a very different type of sign started to show up around town again—the ones saying “It’s Okay to Be White.”

If the phrase at first sounds truly bland, that’s on purpose. Like grown adults flashing the “OK” hand symbol in photos and the online cult of “Pepe the Frog,” the “It’s OK to Be White” (IOTBY) meme was spawned by message board site 4chan last year as an alt-right dogwhistle campaign to convince people irritated by identity politics “that leftists and journalists hate white people, so they turn on them,” as 4chaners put it.

IOTBW signs were first reported on a Martin Luther King Jr. statue at Cabrillo College last year, after which the school sent a message to students saying the signs had been removed to “tamp down this act of micro-aggression against our students… another disturbing example of the divisive climate that our culture faces right now.” Three months ago, Reddit commenters on a UCSC thread wrote that they had also received an email from the school after seeing “It’s OK to be White” drawn in chalk on campus, along with posters saying, “We Built This Country … Don’t Apologize for Your Heritage” and “Be Proud of Who You Are.”

In the meantime, similar IOTBW signs have been photographed at high schools and colleges in several other states across the country. The slogan, which the Anti-Defamation League reports has a long history of use among U.S. white supremacy groups, has also gained global political traction. Last fall, the Australian Senate almost passed a motion to affirm that “it’s OK to be white,” before quickly reversing course. (Here’s where we pause to pour one out for the Internet-literate interns, upon which democracy’s institutions now somehow rest.)

In Santa Cruz, the late January re-emergence of IOTBW signs, which were photographed near the wharf and the downtown library, sent to GT and posted on social media, serve as a timely reminder. Even in a place where pussy hats and “Resist” paraphernalia have become the post-Trump norm, you never know where the next front line will emerge in an increasingly bizarre culture war.

BIKE SAFETY FIRST

News that Santa Cruz’s crime rate had dropped was not news to Nuz.

Violent crime was down 4 percent last year, and property crime decreased 21 percent compared to 2017, which is great. Those numbers are from the Santa Cruz Police Department’s annual Unified Crime Report submitted to the FBI—though the data did include blemish: arson was up 77 percent. Still, overall crime in Santa Cruz dropped 5 percent.

It’s a start for our relatively high-crime area. But the original clue that crime was ticking down came earlier last month. That’s when the Sentinel reported that safety-oriented advocacy group Santa Cruz Neighbors was setting off the alarm bells about the latest threat to our town: the wildly popular electric shared Jump bikes that are available for rent around the city, of course.

Um, OK. We have some questions for these “neighbors.” First of all, you wheelie spoke out on this? What’s the cycle-ology behind this stance?

Seriously, though, let’s be clear: Nuz takes no pleasure in seeing helmet-less 17-year-olds ride against the flow of traffic with friends on the handlebars like second-rate bozos ready to flunk out of clown school. But lousy bike riding was already at pandemic proportions, regardless of what some kids with their first credit cards have started doing when they get out of class.

Consider this a call to action, people of Santa Cruz: Together we can find more pressing items to complain about. Like, maybe, the surge in people setting buildings on fire?

Rob Brezny’s Astrology Feb. 6-12

Free will astrology for the week of Feb. 6, 2019.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Climbing mountains has been a popular adventure since the 19th century, but there are still many peaks around the world that no one has ever ascended. They include the 24,591-foot-high Muchu Chhish in Pakistan, 23,691-foot Karjiang South in Tibet, and 12,600-foot Sauyr Zhotasy on the border of China and Kazakhstan. If there are any Aries mountaineers reading this horoscope who have been dreaming about conquering an unclimbed peak, 2019 will be a great time to do it, and now would be a perfect moment to plan or launch your quest. As for the rest of you Aries, what’s your personal equivalent of reaching the top of an unclimbed peak?

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Eminem’s song “Lose Yourself” was a featured track in the movie 8 Mile, and it won an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2003. The creator himself was not present at the Oscar ceremony to accept his award, however. He was so convinced his song would lose that he stayed home. At the moment that presenter Barbra Streisand announced Eminem’s triumph, he was asleep in front of the TV with his daughter, who was watching cartoons. In contrast to him, I hope you will be fully available and on the scene for the recognition or acknowledgment that should be coming your way sometime soon.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): While enjoying its leisure time, the peregrine falcon glides around at 50 miles per hour. But when it’s motivated by the desire to eat, it may swoop and dart at a velocity of 220 miles per hour. Amazing! In accordance with your astrological omens, Gemini, I propose that we make the peregrine falcon your spirit creature for the next three weeks. I suspect you will have extraordinary speed and agility and focus whenever you’re hunting for exactly what you want. So here’s a crucial question: what exactly do you want?

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Now and then, the sun shines and rain falls at the same time. The meteorological name for the phenomenon is “sunshower,” but folklore provides other terms. Hawaiians may call it “liquid sunshine” or “ghost rain.” Speakers of the Tangkhul language in India imagine it as “the wedding of a human and spirit.” Some Russians refer to it as “mushroom rain,” since it’s thought to encourage the growth of mushrooms. Whatever you might prefer to call it, Cancerian, I suspect that the foreseeable future will bring you delightful paradoxes in a similar vein. And in my opinion, that will be very lucky for you, since you’ll be in the right frame of mind and spirit to thrive amid just such situations.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): A study by the Fidelity financial services company revealed that in 43 percent of all couples, neither partner has an accurate knowledge of how much money the other partner earns. Meanwhile, research by the National Institute of Health concludes that among heterosexual couples, 36 percent of husbands misperceive how frequently their wives have orgasms. I bring this to your attention in order to sharpen your focus on how crucial it is to communicate clearly with your closest allies. I mean, it’s rarely a good idea to be ignorant about what’s going on with those close to you, but it’ll be an especially bad idea during the next six weeks.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Torre Mayor is one of the tallest skyscrapers in Mexico City. When workers finished its construction in 2003, it was one of the world’s most earthquake-proof buildings, designed to hold steady during an 8.5-level temblor. Over the course of 2019, Virgo, I’d love to see you erect the metaphorical equivalent of that unshakable structure in your own life. The astrological omens suggest that doing so is quite possible. And the coming weeks will be an excellent time to launch that project or intensify your efforts to manifest it.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Multitalented Libran singer and actor Donald Glover uses the name Childish Gambino when he performs his music. How did he select that alias? He used an online random name generator created by the rap group Wu-Tang Clan. I tried the same generator and got “Fearless Warlock” as my new moniker. You might want to try it yourself, Libra. The coming weeks will be an excellent time to add layers to your identity and expand your persona and mutate your self-image. The generator is here: tinyurl.com/yournewname. (P.S.: If you don’t like the first one you’re offered, keep trying until you get one you like.)

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Leonardo da Vinci’s painting Salvator Mundi sold for $450 million in 2017. Just 12 years earlier, an art collector had bought it for $10,000. Why did its value increase so extravagantly? Because in 2005, no one was sure it was an authentic da Vinci painting. It was damaged and had been covered with other layers of paint that hid the original image. After extensive efforts at restoration, the truth about it emerged. I foresee the possibility of a comparable, if less dramatic, development in your life during the next 10 months, Scorpio. Your work to rehabilitate or renovate an underestimated resource could bring big dividends.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): We can behold colors because of specialized cells in our eyes called cones. Most of us have three types of cones, but a few rare people have four. This enables them to see far more hues than the rest of us. Are you a tetrachromat, a person with super-vision? Whether you are or not, I suspect you will have extra powerful perceptual capacities in the coming weeks. According to my analysis of the astrological omens, you will be able to see more than you usually do. The world will seem brighter and deeper and more vivid. I urge you to deploy your temporary superpower to maximum advantage.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): There are two kinds of minor, boring little tasks. One is when you’re attending to a detail that’s not in service to a higher purpose; the other is when you’re attending to a detail that is a crucial step in the process of fulfilling an important goal. An example of the first might be when you try in vain to scour a permanent stain on a part of the kitchen counter that no one ever sees. An example of the second is when you download an update for an existing piece of software so your computer works better and you can raise your efficiency levels as you pursue a pet project. The coming weeks will be an excellent time to keep this distinction in mind as you focus on the minor, boring little tasks that are crucial steps in the process of eventually fulfilling an important goal.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Can you sit on your own head? Not many people can. It requires great flexibility. Before comedian Robin Williams was famous, he spontaneously did just that when he auditioned for the role of the extraterrestrial immigrant Mork, the hero of the TV sitcom Mork and Mindy. The casting director was impressed with Williams’ odd-but-amusing gesture, and hired him immediately. If you’re presented with an opportunity sometime soon, I encourage you to be inspired by the comedian’s ingenuity. What might you do to cinch your audition, to make a splashy first impression, to convince interested parties that you’re the right person?

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Twitter wit Notorious Debi Hope advises us, “Before you diagnose yourself with depression or low self-esteem, first make sure that you are not, in fact, just surrounded by assholes.” That’s wise counsel for you to keep in mind during the next three weeks. Let me add a few corollaries. First, stave off any temptation you might have to believe that others know what’s good for you better than you do. Second, figure out what everyone thinks of you and aggressively liberate yourself from their opinions. Third, if anyone even hints at not giving you the respect you deserve, banish them for at least three weeks.

Homework: What is the best gift you could give your best ally right now? Testify at freewillastrology.com.

Tabby Cat Cafe Keeps Quirky Coffee Alive

If you felt at home in the retro living room ambience of Cafe Bene for all those years, then you’ll love the coffee house’s reincarnation as Tabby Cat Cafe, which was opened a few weeks ago by former Bene barista Lisa Curran and Jeb Purucker.

The ambience is matchless, the coffee is exceptional, and I might even be willing to say that the macchiato I had at T-Cat this week was the best I’ve had in Santa Cruz. Strong, smooth, without bitterness, and served in a beautiful miniature coffee mug.

Light floods the vintage space, lending the front alcoves and main reading room a welcoming vibe. I once wrote film reviews in an office above Tabby Cat, and have fond memories of this location, close to downtown yet tucked away from the crowds.

We ordered a macchiato and a regular house blend coffee, plus one of those cranberry scones from Black China Bakery that I always loved when I visited in the past, then took a seat at a corner table marked “Reserved” for the Santa Cruz French club. We would be gone before their meeting time.

We glanced at the newspapers and watched the large-scale industrial action across the street while awaiting our coffees. As regulars came in—and it seems that Tabby has inherited a full roster of fans from the previous administration—they were personally greeted. It feels like you’ve entered the front parlor of a private home, calm and mellow. The atmosphere is a welcome alternative to the hipster frenzy of many other downtown coffee spots. Conversations are possible, and so is reading and writing—those arts from the pre-iPhone era.

The new owners are clearly at home behind the eclectic front counter. Posters still cover the cabinet wall beside the condiment table. And regulars still stash their favorite mugs on a high shelf. In the larger room, mismatched couches offer old-school coziness for interviews, meetings and just hunkering down for a morning coffee. Not designer, but not generic, the old footprint—brick floors, wainscotted walls—provides a funky elegance that is pure, 100 percent Santa Cruz.

A large assortment of bagels and toppings, plus an array of inviting quiches and soups, make it a great lunch option, as well as a morning caffeine mainstay. A good Wi-Fi connection, too.

Tabby Cat Cafe, 1101 Cedar St., Santa Cruz. Soft opening hours 7 a.m.-4 p.m. weekdays, 9 a.m.-6 p.m. weekends.

New Avanti

I met new Ristorante Avanti co-owner Jonathan Glass last week at my first lunch since a change in the ownership lineup.

Now we can look forward to a special sandwich and a burger added to the lunch menu. Last week, it was a robust version of the East Coast Italian meatball sandwich. Rita and I loved our beautiful plate (new plates, too!) of seared scallops with crisp roast potatoes and arugula salad. The lunch scene looks, and tastes, familiar. Updates are already underway, with ergonomic new chairs and patio dining enhancements. Wishing Jonathan and Tatiana Glass good luck with their Westside venture.

Ristorante Avanti, 1917 Mission St., Santa Cruz, ristoranteavanti.com.

New Leaf

If you’ve got a product for the shelves of the new Aptos location of New Leaf Community Market, make sure you hit the vendor fair planned for next Wednesday.

New Leaf plans to join the Aptos community this spring with a store in Aptos Village. Interested vendors will want to come to New Leaf’s corporate office.

Feb. 13, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. New Leaf office, 1101 Pacific Ave., Suite 333, Santa Cruz. newleaf.com/vendorfair.

The Festival of Losar: Risa’s Stars Feb. 6-12

Losar (the Tibetan word for “new year”) is an ancient new year’s festival predating Buddhism and celebrated in Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal, and India. It begins on the first day of the lunisolar Tibetan calendar (Feb. 5) and lasts for 15 days. Like Chinese New Year, 2019 is the year of the yin (female) earth pig or boar. Losar is a fragment of the winter-incense-burning custom of the ancient Bon religion (8th century), when the people of Tibet gathered at a spring and made offerings to Naga (water spirits), a ritual of gratitude to the water element/spirits.

At Dharamshala (Dalai Lama’s palace in India) during Losar, the Dalai Lama consults the Oracle, a trained medium able to communicate with spirits and see the past, present and future. The Oracle is responsible for the health, healing and protection of the Dalai Lama.

The rite of the Oracle, mediating between two worlds, is ancient, and involves detailed preparation of evocative (calling in) invocations (responses), fanfare, dance, sounds, drums, horns, mudras and mantras to invoke the Oracle (non-physical spiritual being in the Buddhic field). The sounds and movements allow a spiritual being to temporarily enter the physical mind/body of the medium, providing wise and insightful counsel, prophetic predictions and precognition of the future—a form of divination.

In Tibetan homes during Losar, flowers decorate the rooms, walls are painted with sun, moon and the wheel of life symbols. Cedar and juniper branches burn for incense. Debts are settled, quarrels resolved, new clothes acquired, and special foods (kapse—sweet bread, shaped into twists) and drink (chang—barley beer) are offered. In the fields, peach trees are beginning to bloom. Before the measurement of time, the people knew it was Losar when the peach trees budded. Tashi Delek (Tibetan for happy new year) everyone.

ARIES: Recognizing the vital and initiating work you are to bring forth, it’s time to learn how to participate in groups with intelligent and heartfelt cooperation. You are to help fashion part of the new era, culture and civilization. Are you aware of this? Are you conscious of the needs of humanity? You’re called to awaken again for the time when those who plan and lead boldly, take risks and see into the future. Working with both heart and mind, you will be summoned. Prepare.

TAURUS: The architecture of your participation in life is changing. Previously you dreamed big dreams and pondered many realities, not concerned if anything took shape. Now you’re competently leading boards and groups, preparing the components of the new world era. Taurus has an enlightened mind that can see humanity’s present/future needs. You know that in a breakdown phase, seeds of the new must be sowed. You’re synthesizing all realities so others can understand.

GEMINI: Many forces are at work in your life. As a Gemini, you always attempt to resolve polarities—higher/lower, here/there, light/dark, self/others, soul/personality. This is a vital and difficult task accomplished by the proper cultivation of the mind principle (calming the emotions) and the right course of study that allows no illusions, distortions, confusions or maya. So you can walk the Path with others. Aquarius calls you to develop all seven levels of your mind. The Soul is on the mental plane.

CANCER: Always we feel some form of conflict. Know that conflict and chaos are useful. They give us the ability to observe tensions and to express hurts, needs and fears. For some, there is a great battle going on between the soul and personality. The soul calls us to right relations, right action and right service. Many times, we don’t know what these words mean. Ask the soul. The answers will be released into your mind. When asking, we always receive.

LEO: Relationships are vitally important at this time, so often you feel disconnected to anything or anyone. You’re in a place of balancing and choosing, an interlude state. Your inner beliefs about relationships and how you function in them are being modified so that you can display right relationships while still expressing your unique creativity. Allow opposing forces to flow through you. A greater awareness then emerges. Love flows unobstructed once more. Love is your gift.

VIRGO: New revelations stream into your mind concerning how to order and organize daily life. How we function in daily life prepares us for the new dimensions and structures slowly emerging in the new Aquarian era. Receive with devotion and acceptance all new ideas impressed upon your mind. Be aware if pain or remembrances or weariness occur. As you ponder upon these things, your perspectives shift, change and are uplifted.  

LIBRA: Although, under the veil of Libra’s charm, you are a strong and powerful force, a greater level of love/wisdom must begin expressing itself through you. It begins with acceptance and gratitude for everyone and everything (small and great, childhood to present) that has occurred in your life. Here is your new mantra to recite unceasingly: “Love expresses itself through me always, and wisdom follows.” Then your life and relationships proceed with protective love and healing care.

SCORPIO: Notice times of solitude when you think things great and small. Create an environment that nurtures in all ways the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual aspects of yourself. Be in touch with the kingdoms—mineral, plant, animal, human, Soul. Love must be combined with your great intelligence. This will form a foundation for the new life emerging all around you. It begins where you live. Later you’ll be asked to explain this time to others.

SAGITTARIUS: You should have a very good year. Especially if you blend two realities—your personality and soul.  This produces harmony for a time. Then the soul leaves and divine will enters, and your personality harmonizes with will. Not easy. Will is a fire. Your career rises and falls and sometimes makes a big splash. In these ups and downs, always be thoughtful, or you will lose much. Remember each day that “wisdom is knowledge gained through experience and implemented by love.”

CAPRICORN: Whatever it is you hope for, radiate it with love from your Ajna (third eye) center. This is where a diamond light of direction streams forth. Then new life takes root expressed as harmony, beauty and peace (a process). Your love eases any disharmony and conflict whenever it arises. You remember that harmony always attempts to emerge through conflict and chaos, yes? Harmony is the shadow of the object.

AQUARIUS: This year, you have great energy and potential. As new sources of income and ways of living are sought, be sure to control impatience. If you’re not aware, you could be thought of as thoughtless toward others. Remember to be courteous and kind, and show sympathy to those who have less than you. A new self-identity continues to emerge. Be sure it includes goodness, generosity and love. We experience that which we offer others.

PISCES: You have begun the arduous task of observing, noting and understanding feelings, thoughts, aspirations, actions, and vulnerabilities. Much of your life has been treading the pathway of service and sacrifice. A new beneficent cycle has begun, expanding your courage and strength of character. This may not be acceptable to some. Maintain privacy, walk away from disharmony, don’t believe criticism. The stars protect you.

Valentine’s Day Pairings From Pelican Ranch

Pelican Ranch
A professor of chemistry serves up a sensuous Zinfandel

In ‘Red Velvet,’ Politics of Race Take Center Stage

Red Velvet
Jewel Theatre brings Shakespearean rivalry to the Black Lives Matter era

Music Picks: February 6-12

Leyla McCalla
Live music highlights for the week of Feb. 6, 2019

Love Your Local Band: 12 Decembers

12 Decembers
12 Decembers play Sunday, Feb. 10. at the Crepe Place.

Saying Yes To The (Divorce) Dress

divorce dress
A local photo project encourages subjects to slip into a cursed gown and open up about their breakups

Wi-Fi Wars: Cruzio, Comcast and Local Internet Choice

Cruzio Wi-Fi Local Internet
How large internet providers and developers squeeze out smaller competitors—and what might change

NUZ: The Alt-Right’s Local Return; Jump Bike Backlash

Nuz
A slogan spawned by 4chan resurfaces in Santa Cruz, plus a confusing crusade against Jump bikes

Rob Brezny’s Astrology Feb. 6-12

Astrology, Horoscope, Stars, Zodiac Signs
Free will astrology for the week of Feb. 6, 2019

Tabby Cat Cafe Keeps Quirky Coffee Alive

Tabby Cat Cafe
Downtown Santa Cruz’s former Cafe Bene gets new life

The Festival of Losar: Risa’s Stars Feb. 6-12

risa's stars
Esoteric Astrology as news for week Feb. 6, 2019
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