Page 641 – Good Times

On the Road with Fans of the League-Best Santa Cruz Warriors

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January 29, 2019

On the Road with Fans of the League-Best Santa Cruz Warriors

Before Jeff Horan closed the hissing doors of his charter bus filled with basketball fans, Santa Cruz Warriors employees began throwing out shiny blue-and-gold, Mardi Gras-inspired beads to passengers. Even 62-year-old Horan got in on the action, wearing his new bling proudly as he drove fans to a development league game in Stockton on Friday, Jan. 25.

The Santa Cruz Warriors, the development league (now called G League) team for reigning back-to-back NBA champions the Golden State Warriors, were getting ready to take on the Stockton Kings, an affiliate of the Sacramento Kings.

“I’m definitely a Warriors fan,” Horan said proudly, referring to both the Santa Cruz and Golden State teams. “I mean, who isn’t? I drive a lot of pro teams—the Sharks and Washington Wizards—on this bus, but the Warriors are definitely my favorite. These trips are just plain fun.”

The Santa Cruz Warriors are clinging to the development league’s best record, while Golden State is widely favored to win another NBA championship. So the energy on the fan bus was palpable from the start—but it hit a whole new level when Santa Cruz Warriors President Chris Murphy climbed aboard carrying the team’s 2015-16 championship belt over his head.

Through snarling traffic, Santa Cruz basketball fanatics endured a three-and-a-half-hour bus ride that was made more lively by games of trivia and bingo. Many of the traveling fans were early converts—season ticket holders obsessed since the moment the original squad arrived in Santa Cruz in 2012—and experts on the club’s ever-changing roster, as well as who might get called up to the NBA.

Retired and in their late 60s, Gail and Robert Suhr have been to more Santa Cruz Warriors games than they can count. They chatted each other up on the trip back, dissecting the game and commenting on individual performances.

The Suhrs were sporting Warriors T-shirts from the team’s earliest days in Surf City. “We were so excited about having pro basketball in Santa Cruz,” Gail said. “We were like, ‘Let’s do it. Let’s go to all the games.’ We have great seats. It’s been such a great decision.”

This was the second time that the Suhrs travelled with their team to an away game. They told me that the Santa Cruz Warriors’ charity, leadership and generosity makes them want to support the team that much more. “The players go to schools and talk to kids who need role models, and do hundreds of hours volunteering and helping people,” Robert said.

Warriors games have become a family affair. Gail told me that her 37-year-old son Matt, who plays on a basketball team with the Special Olympics, is the biggest fan of them all. Matt, who was also on the trip, could hardly stop smiling or talking about the team.

He’s been able to get autographs and take pictures with all of his favorite athletes. “I get high fives from all the players,” he said. “I see my friends at all the games. I have a lot of fun and feel like I’m part of a community.”

Arriving to Stockton just in time for warm-ups, Sea Dub nation, as it’s sometimes known, wasted no time double-fisting $1 Bud Lights, buckets of popcorn and $2 hotdogs strategically balanced under arms. When their team came out for warm ups, the four-row block of Santa Cruz fans—who were sporting bright yellow “Road Warriors” T-shirts—erupted, sending popcorn flying and drinks splattering.

The game was tense. In the match’s final minute, the 40-plus diehard fans rose as one, filling the cavernous Stockton Arena with their unmistakable fear-inducing chant: “Warrrriors … Warrrriors.”

Despite a career night from guards Kendrick Nunn and Jacob Evans III, Santa Cruz fans watched their team fall just short in the final minutes, losing 105-104 to the resilient Kings. In the first half, the Kings went on a tear behind the arc, hitting half of their 18 three-point attempts. The Warriors kept it close until the final minute, when a three-point dagger from Kings guard Reggie Hearn with 53 seconds left gave Stockton the lead for good.

Even after the rare loss, Santa Cruz held a league-best record. The team got right back on track with a win Sunday over the South Bay Lakers in Santa Cruz during the Warriors’ first-ever Latinx Heritage Night. After the home game, Digital Nest’s Jacob Martinez led a discussion with Warriors forward Juan Toscano about race and being a role model.

On Friday night, the drive home was quiet—the travelers feeling the effects of either the roller coaster loss or the $1 brewskies. Or perhaps it was the $4 buckets of bottomless popcorn. Every few minutes, though, a fan would to chirp up to remind the others on the bus that “We’re still in first place!”

The Warriors play the Oklahoma City Blue, the league’s second best team, at Kaiser Permanente arena on Friday, Feb. 1. For tickets visit santacruz.gleague.nba.com, call 713-4400 or visit the team office at 903 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. To watch, visit live.fb.com.

Pasta Mike’s Turns 30

Christina Waters

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January 29, 2019

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Filmmaker Federico Fellini once said that life was “a combination of magic and pasta.” Mike Ruymen took that to heart 30 years ago, whipped up some handmade fettuccine with pesto and never looked back.

Now you can’t miss his ever-expanding lineup of Pasta Mike’s products, with their colorful labels created by James Aschbacher, in deli cases all over the region.

GT caught up with Ruymen to talk three decades of honing fan favorites, inventions gone awry and how often he eats his own pasta.

Did you ever think it would go on this long?

Mike Ruymen: I love food, which is why I became a cook at the age of 17. I left New York for California and missed my mom’s home cooking. After the first few years the business was going good, and that gave me confidence. I had some obstacles along the way, but in my heart I knew this was my destiny. Now as I look back I’m just like, ‘Wow.’ I really accomplished my vision to bring an honest quality product to the community.

What products have worked best for you in terms of consumer demand?

Ruymen: I have definitely streamlined my products to what people like. My fresh fettuccine with my classic alfredo sauce is a classic combo. Raviolis such as portabella mushroom, eggplant parmesan, and the spinach, feta and olive also sell well, catering to the more eclectic taste buds. There is also a following for my vegan raviolis. One has cashew and roasted red peppers, and the other has pesto with almonds and tofu.

Were there some false starts? Some experiments that didn’t make the cut?

Ruymen: Well, where do I start (laughs)? Somewhere into my third year of business, I was a crazed creative pastaman. I was coming up with some unusual ravioli fillings. There was the New Mex-style ravioli with goat cheese, black beans, chipotle, and mint. I had curried yam ravioli called “Yamosa,” and a Cajun-seasoned filling with smoked tofu.

I created an unusual sauce using caramelized red onions sautéed in a huge amount of butter, then mixed with honey, mustard and gorgonzola cheese. I loved it on fettuccine, although not everyone was on board.

What are the latest innovations?

Ruymen: My seasonal raviolis are my most recent. The sweet potato ones spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg and a dash of cayenne are really good with browned butter and sage on a rainy winter day. The roasted asparagus with Jarlsberg cheese used to be seasonal. Now I can find organic asparagus throughout the year. I added my traditional cheese ravioli a few years back, which was my grandmother’s recipe told to me by my elderly aunt 25 years ago. She said so sweet and simply, ‘Ricotta, egg, parsley, and pepper. That’s all.’

Do you eat your own pasta? or do you find yourself fantasizing about other food, for example sushi?

Ruymen: I absolutely eat my own pasta, on average one or two times a week. How could I not after a long day of work and a fridge full of fresh pasta? So easy, so delicious. Having so many varieties keeps it fresh for me. I’ll crave cheese ravioli with marinara to satisfy my childhood memories of my mom’s cooking. Sometimes I need the comfort of carbs with cream and have a bowl of pappardelle with alfredo sauce. My personal favorite is my pesto tossed with al dente angel hair, boiled for one minute only. I’ll also add vegetables or Italian sausage to turn it up.

I’d like to thank all the Santa Cruz pasta lovers for their support. Thank you!

Congratulations Mike on 30 delicious years. And FYI—my personal favorite Pasta Mike’s product is the eggplant and cheese ravioli. Light, easy to fix and loaded with flavor!

February Festivals and Chinese New Year: Risa’s Stars Jan. 30-Feb. 5

Risa D’Angeles

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January 29, 2019

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February Festivals and Chinese New Year: Risa’s Stars Jan. 30-Feb. 5

St. Brigid’s Day, Candlemas, Groundhog Day, Imbolc, Aquarius new moon—these are the beginning of February’s festivals. All of them have to do with uplifting humanity from the darkness of winter to the new light of spring. These are mid-winter festivals and rituals. Rituals build the rainbow bridge between heaven and earth. Rituals balance us. Monday is the new moon festival, 16 degrees Aquarius. At new moon times, we support and uphold all the unified endeavors (10 seed groups serving humanity) of the New Group of World Servers (NGWS).

Tuesday is Chinese Lunar New Year of the Yin Earth Pig (1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007, 2019), a scrupulous sort of character and the 12th (final) of the zodiac animals. Pig is a symbol of wealth and prosperity. Pigs enjoy themselves, while also being very practical and realistic. They work hard and seek security, are energetic and very enthusiastic, and often in positions of power. Earth pigs are friends with everyone. They are happy, fortunate, not very romantic, gentle, focused, trusting and optimistic. Though very knowledgeable, they don’t talk much. Their homes are orderly and organized. Pig loves healthy and harmonious living. Children bring them great joy. So do those born in tiger, rabbit and goat years. Chinese Earth element years are like a pause in the seasons.

This Earth Yin Year of the Pig is an ending year, completing a 12-year cycle. It’s good this year to be yielding, soft and receptive, have fun and be playful, replenishing one’s energy. It is also a time to complete things, finish projects. Look around, gather what is not needed and give it away. Next year, a new cycle begins.

ARIES: Are you dreaming more, feeling more intuitive, sensitive, perhaps hurting and remembering more? Are you inspired and insightful? Prayer, meditation, study, and retreats are good for you at this time, allowing more gentleness to emerge, providing you with compassionate care. These help you integrate when placed within an Aquarian group, when asked to be the leader and invited to visit the future. The world is reflected within you.

TAURUS: You have one important task: to focus on health, tend to your bones, take more calcium and magnesium, and not let yourself get cold. You must use your pragmatism to care for yourself with greater concern. As your life becomes more demanding, you will also have to discern and choose what’s best—to be out and about, leading everyone into the future, or remaining at home nurturing your physical body back to perfect health. Use homeopathic tinctures.

GEMINI: Something beneficent, benevolent and bountiful happens between you and the world, you and your inner life, and those around you. If you allow it, your soul inspires, encourages and guides you from within. With careful study, years of preparation, and viewing the past in terms of your great and wonderful gifts, pathways open, choices and commitments are made, and abundance settles into your heart. Important times for you.

CANCER: A new and different level of life has been given to you, and it’s quite fascinating. It makes you feel generous, and for the first time in a long time, you feel gratitude to be alive. There’s a new exploration into a time or a reality that was unknown to you. Now it’s presenting itself and you in turn want to participate fully. This changes your inner life. You are happy. You share revelations and understandings with others.

LEO: Observe yourself becoming more kind, perceptive and wise, more intuitive and enlightened in terms of others, especially those you work with and care for. Someone or something or some words will assist you in a shift into greater and deeper awareness of spiritual realities. This comes through intimacy, money, resources, art and/or dreams. Love is good. Bring it into the light. The animal kingdom calls.

VIRGO: You will relate better and better with others—especially those close to you—if you allow your creativity to come forth. You will then bloom and flourish, increase, thrive and prosper. Then you will find yourself a greater support to others, giving true and clear guidance where needed. Challenge nothing and no one. Offer compassionate understanding instead. It nourishes your heart.

LIBRA: Think about what you want to be doing daily—what job, career, occupation, work, artistry and vocation your life truly needs to pursue. If you don’t know, ask yourself, and then the information subtly appears. Share with everyone your hopes, dreams and wishes. In the coming year, your health greatly improves, you become stronger and more resilient. For vitality, have a salad with each meal. And for companionship, have a bird, a cat or a fish for a pet.

SCORPIO: Don’t go down the road of regular investments thinking you’re lucky and the economy will improve soon. Don’t take risks with your money and resources. Instead begin serious preparation for a new economy to unfold looking much different than what we’re used to. Don’t speculate. Instead study books on greenhouses and bio shelters, gold and silver, and use your resources to create new era environments that sustain you. Scorpio knows these things. Follow them.

SAGITTARIUS: So many different ideas flow through your mind. Perhaps you’re thinking of moving again. Perhaps it’s to return home. It’s always good to live near a body of water. There is a benevolence occurring in your home and family life. Interest in genealogy, family tree, relatives and loved ones, the place of early nurturance. These nourish you until the next phase of personal development appears. Things are happening quickly. Take heart. You’re at the center.

CAPRICORN: In the next months, your thinking becomes deep, serious and practical. Questions occur about previous lives regarding the behaviors of others. You shift from vague criticism and unknowingness to intentions for goodwill, which brings grace and goodness to all interactions. You realize you are always doing your best. And others are, too. You help others who’ve lost their way. Begin writing what you do each day. You have many important things to say.

AQUARIUS: This coming year you will seek to have abundant money and resources for the important things in your life. That means being more attentive to the well-being of your finances. Use resources to help others. Pay off all debts, including credit cards. There is something you really want and need—write it down daily. Talk to the angels and devas around you. Tell them of your needs. Ask them to help you. That’s their job. Have faith that what you need will appear in right timing.

PISCES: They say that good fortune, sunshine, blessings, grace and beauty will follow you this year. And that self-confidence and a new sense of self-identity will flourish. These are all good things. In the meantime, maintain and fulfill all responsibilities and obligations, tithe generously and consistently, and be careful with diet. Eat lightly, drink celery juice, raw beets with lemon, and make tea with lemongrass and nettles. This is Pisces preparing for springtime.

Rob Brezny’s Astrology Jan. 30-Feb.5

Rob Brezsny

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January 29, 2019

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Free will astrology for the week of Jan. 30, 2019.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Here are your fortune cookie-style horoscopes for the next five months. February: You’ll be invited to make a pivotal transition in the history of your relationship with your most important life goals. It should be both fun and daunting! March: Don’t waste time and energy trying to coax others to haul away the junk and the clutter. Do it yourself. April: The growing pains should feel pretty good. Enjoy the uncanny stretching sensations. May: It’ll be a favorable phase to upgrade your personal finances. Think richer thoughts. Experiment with new ideas about money. June: Build two strong bridges for every rickety bridge you burn. Create two vital connections for every stale connection you leave behind.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Here are your fortune cookie-style horoscopes for the next five months. February: You have access to a semi-awkward magic that will serve you well if you don’t complain about its semi-awkwardness. March: To increase your clout and influence, your crucial first step is to formulate a strong intention to do just that. The universe will then work on your behalf. April: Are you ready to clean messes and dispose of irrelevancies left over from the past? Yes! May:You can have almost anything you want if you resolve to use it for the greatest good. June: Maintain rigorous standards, but don’t be a fanatic. Strive for excellence without getting bogged down in a counterproductive quest for perfection.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Here are your fortune cookie-style horoscopes for the next five months. February: Be alert for vivid glimpses of your best possible future. The power of self-fulfilling prophecy is even stronger than usual. March: High integrity and ethical rigor are crucial to your success — and so is a longing for sacred adventure. April: How can you make the best use of your likability? May: Cheerfully dismantle an old system or structure to make way for a sparkling new system or structure. June: Beginner’s luck will be yours if you choose the right place to begin. What’s a bit intimidating but very exciting?

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Here are your fortune cookie-style horoscopes for the next five months. February: Your sensual magnetism peaks at the same time as your spiritual clarity. March: You want toasted ice? Succulent fire? Earthy marvels? Homey strangeness? All of that is within reach. April: Sow the seeds of the most interesting success you can envision. Your fantasy of what’s possible should thrill your imagination, not merely satisfy your sense of duty. May: Deadline time. Be as decisive and forthright as an Aries, as bold as a Sagittarius, as systematic as a Capricorn. June: Go wading in the womb-temperature ocean of emotion, but be mindful of the undertow.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Here are your fortune cookie-style horoscopes for the next five months. February: There’s a general amnesty in all matters regarding your relationships. Cultivate truces and forgiveness. March: Drop fixed ideas you might have about what’s possible and what’s not. Be keenly open to unexpected healings. April: Wander out into the frontiers. Pluck goodies that have been off-limits. Consider the value of ignoring certain taboos. May: Sacrifice a small comfort so as to energize your ambitions. June: Take a stand in behalf of your beautiful ideals and sacred truths.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Here are your fortune cookie-style horoscopes for the next five months. February: Master the zen of constructive anger. Express your complaints in a holy cause. March: You finally get a message you’ve been waiting to receive for a long time. Hallelujah! April: Renew your most useful vows. Sign a better contract. Come to a more complete agreement. May: Don’t let your preconceptions inhibit you from having a wildly good time. June: Start your own club, band, organization, or business. Or reinvent and reinvigorate your current one.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Here are your fortune cookie-style horoscopes for the next five months. February: Be open to romantic or erotic adventures that are different from how love has worked in the past. March: You’ll be offered interesting, productive problems. Welcome them! April: Can you explore what’s experimental and fraught with interesting uncertainty even as you stay well-grounded? Yes! May: You can increase your power by not hiding your weakness. People will trust you most if you show your vulnerability. A key to this season’s model of success is the ability to calmly express profound emotion. June: Wild cards and x-factors and loopholes will be more available than usual. Don’t be shy about using them.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Here are your fortune cookie-style horoscopes for the next five months. February: The world may finally be ready to respond favorably to the power you’ve been storing up. March: Everything you thought you knew about love and lust turns out to be too limited. So expand your expectations and capacities! April: Extremism and obsession can be useful in moderation. May: Invisible means of support will become visible. Be alert for half-hidden help. June: Good questions: What do other people find valuable about you? How can you enhance what’s valuable about you?

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Here are your fortune cookie-style horoscopes for the next five months. February: You’ll have the need and opportunity to accomplish some benevolent hocus-pocus. For best results, upgrade your magical powers. March: Make sure the turning point happens in your power spot or on your home turf. April: You should be willing to go anywhere, ask any question, and even risk your pride if necessary to coax your most important relationships into living up to their potentials. May: If at first you don’t succeed, change the definition of success. June: You can achieve more through negotiation and compromise than you could by pushing heedlessly ahead in service to your single-minded vision.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Here are your fortune cookie-style horoscopes for the next five months. February: A new phase of your education will begin when you acknowledge how much you have to learn. March: Initiate diplomatic discussions about the Things That Never Get Talked About. April: Revise your ideas about your dream home and your dream community. May: You have the power to find healing for your oldest lovesickness. If you do find it, intimacy will enter a new golden age. June: Solicit an ally’s ingenuity to help you improvise a partial solution to a complex problem.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Here are your fortune cookie-style horoscopes for the next five months. February: Start a new trend that will serve your noble goals for years to come. March: Passion comes back into fashion with a tickle and a shiver and a whoosh. April: As you expand and deepen your explorations, call on the metaphorical equivalents of both a telescope and a microscope. May: This is the beginning of the end of what you love to complain about. Hooray! JUNE: You’ll have an abundance of good reasons to celebrate the fact that you are the least normal sign in the zodiac. Celebrate your idiosyncrasies!

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Here are your fortune cookie-style horoscopes for the next five months. February: You’ll have a knack for enhancing the way you express yourself and present yourself. The inner you and the outer you will become more unified. March: You’ll discover two original, new ways to get excited. April: Be bold as you make yourself available for a deeper commitment that will spawn more freedom. May: What are the gaps in your education? Make plans to mitigate your most pressing area of ignorance. JUNE: Your body’s ready to tell you secrets that your mind has not yet figured out. Listen well.

Homework: What’s the kind of joy you’re not getting enough of? How could you get more of it? FreeWillAstrology.com

Preview: Larry and His Flask at Moe’s Alley

Aaron Carnes

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January 29, 2019

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Preview: Larry and His Flask at Moe’s Alley

Larry and his Flask came up in a time when punk rockers were grabbing banjos to find the common ground between the sweat and fury of punk and the raw, heart-on-the-sleeve emotion of folk music.

They got lumped in with the folk-punk movement, but there’s much more to them than tattooed fiddle players and moshing hoedowns. It’s a manic hodgepodge of every style they can possibly cram into a song.

“We used to try to use all of our influences,” says mandolin and trumpet player Kirk Skatvold. “Like a few of us love metal—just shreddy guitars, upside down beats, whatever. We would try to incorporate that into our music.”

That’s what makes last year’s This Remedy, the band’s first album in five years, so unique. It’s a diverse album with probably as many influences as anything the group has ever put out. But not only do they try to keep each song to just a few styles, they have some downright sane-sounding tracks in there too, like the almost traditional rock ’n’ roll vibe of the title track.

“We were always trying to one-up what we did last, like, ‘Did we really need to squeeze that stompy section in there? Most of the time it didn’t come across well,” Skatvold says. “This time the thought was to push it more straightforward and get something that’s easy listening.”

The members had some time to reflect on This Remedy before recording it. Most of the five years between the release of previous album By The Lamplight and recording This Remedy were spent on hiatus as the members dealt with other areas in their personal life that needed to be prioritized.

They originally came together 20 years ago as a straight-up punk band, but then reformed about a decade ago as a wild sort-of-bluegrass, sort-of-Mr. Bungle 12-piece ensemble that would busk streets as though they were basement hardcore shows. In no time they became road dogs, playing 200 shows a year and releasing several albums. The energy never let up, and the music only got more out there.

“We jumped in and tried to play where we could play. We just kind of chased the party the whole time and went for it,” Skatvold says.

The goal with the records was always to try to capture the energy of their live show. This time around they approached it differently, and even took their time recording it, giving themselves as long as they needed.

“It gave everyone time to step back,” says Skatvold. “I think if we had tried to put out an album when we were in the depth of the grind, we might have taken the easy route, and made the songs that were kind of like the last one.”

While the band was on a hiatus, the group did play the occasional show, but nothing beyond that. It was an offer in 2016 to play on the Salty Dog Cruise (Flogging Molly’s annual cruise) that kickstarted the group again. While on that cruise, members started writing new material, which eventually led to writing this new record.

It came out sounding different in another way, too—like it’s busting at the seams with joy.

“Looking back on it [By the Lamplight], we thought it was kind of dark. We were hitting it so hard at the time, just kind of tired. You start to feel a grind. Maybe that’s a reflection of it,” Skatvold says. “The happy-joy stuff that we got out this time could just be a reflection of our attitudes coming into this time.”

Emotionally, the record is still all over the place. Closing song “Three Manhattans” is about singer Ian Cook’s parents’ divorce. But even within that, the overall tone is one of sheer happiness to play and a cathartic release of feelings.

It’s not a complete departure for the band. And at their shows, fans can expect a lot of spazzy folk-punk, genre-smashing chaos. But maybe a few of the slower songs will find their way into the set.

“We definitely try to hold ourselves back and make sure that our performance is on. Take it more serious than we used to,” Skatvold says. “But we felt the obligation to play the ones that have that energy, and we go for it. We still try to make our lives show come at it hard.”

Larry and his Flask performs at 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 31 at Moe’s Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz. $15 adv/$20 door. 479-1854.

Baroque Festival Brings Back Bach

Wallace Baine

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January 29, 2019

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We tend to think of a genius like Johann Sebastian Bach as having emerged from his mother’s womb already fully formed and throwing lightning bolts of blinding musical creativity from day one.

In fact, like the rest of us, Bach was once young, impressionable and subject to the cultural influences of his time. He was but a mortal human and, even as an artist, a product of the musical environment in which he matured.

You could even imagine Bach as a fanboy. In 1705, at the age of 20, he left his post as a church organist in the German town of Arnstadt to go see a performance of the famed German organist Dietrich Buxtehude in Lubeck, 235 miles to the north—on foot. Then, he walked back (and faced a reckoning from his cheesed-off superiors at work). If anyone builds a Fanboy Hall of Fame, J.S. Bach has to be in the inaugural class.

This year, the Santa Cruz Baroque Festival (SCBF) turns its gaze to the cultural milieu that made Bach into Bach. Under the guidance of Artistic Director Linda Burman-Hall, the festival tackles its 46th season with The Roots of Bach—a series of five concerts, beginning Feb. 9, that seeks to bring to life the world Bach came to know, love and draw upon to create music.

From the instruments widely used in performances during Bach’s youth to musical rituals of the age and the thriving coffeehouse culture that spawned Europe’s Enlightenment, this year’s Baroque Fest attempts to paint the color of the era that would inspire Bach to, for instance, walk almost 500 miles to see live music.

Bach has, of course, been a preoccupation for the SCBF before in its nearly half-century history. But Burman-Hall, a celebrated harpsichordist and faculty member at UCSC, says that the festival has never focused exactly on this aspect of Bach’s career. She credits the idea to a recent interest in the Asian art of bonsai, cultivating tiny trees that mimic full-grown trees.

“I have not deliberately focused on the roots of Bach,” she says. “But, you might say, since I’ve been a bonsai-ist for three years now, I’ve looked closer at trees in general, looking at big trees and thinking about small ones, looking at leaves and thinking about roots.”

The season looks at many of the older composers that fired Bach’s imagination, including Italians Arcangelo Corelli and Giralamo Frescobaldi, and Frenchman Francois Couperin. The festival’s first concert (Feb. 9, UCSC Recital Hall) explores the lute, the dominant string instrument of the Baroque period, with lutenist John Schneiderman, whom Burman-Hall unabashedly refers to as one of “the best lutenists in North America.”

In a later concert, the Baroque Festival will take on the organ music of Buxtehude to show audiences exactly what young J.S. Bach walked across Germany to hear. That concert focuses on the tradition of “Abendmusik,” popular in the 17th century, which featured evening performances of organ music. The March 23 concert at Santa Cruz’s Peace United Church will be lit, as it was in Bach’s day, by candle.

In May, the festival will dive into the coffeehouse culture of the era, specifically Zimmerman’s Coffeehouse in Leipzig, known for its free-wheeling informal concerts and its fertile literary scene. Among the pieces to be performed will be Bach’s Coffee Cantata, a comic operetta about a caffeine-addicted young woman and her battles with her father, who insists she give up coffee.

From fanboy obsession to coffee addiction, this year’s Baroque Festival is presenting a convincing illustration that the world in which J.S. Bach came of age 300 years ago is not so different from the one we all inhabit today.

“I saw something in an archaeology magazine just the other day,” says Burman-Hall, “where they were exploring the ruins of an old English coffeehouse and found all these mismatched cups and saucers. That caused them to realize that people were individuating themselves by their coffee drinks, just as we do today.”

‘The King of Instruments in the Age of Bach,’ the opening concert of the Santa Cruz Baroque Festival’s ‘The Roots of Bach,’ will be performed at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 9, at the UC Santa Cruz Recital Hall. $25 general/$22 senior/$10 students. scbaroque.org.

Film Review: ‘Cold War’

Richard von Busack

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January 29, 2019

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Every shot is thrilling in Cold War, Pawel Pawlikowski’s follow up to Ida. Like Roma, Cold War is a testimony to the power of black and white cinema.

This lean, fast film concerns the paradox of mid-20th century discontentment. Example: At great cost to yourself, you escape the workers’ paradise of the Soviet empire, an Eden where they tie your hands. You then arrive in capitalist heaven to face what Joni Mitchell termed “the crazy you get from too much choice.” It’s the perplexity summed up by that famous shot of the mile-long supermarket aisle in The Hurt Locker. Trauma makes it hard to appreciate bounty.

The protagonist, Joanna Kulig’s lovely and infuriating Zula, is one of those Slavic types who can never really get comfortable with the frivolousness of the West. The easy morals of Paris disgust her; this movie is sort of an anti-Ninotchka. Cold War is also a study of the problem of authenticity in art—whether something pure can survive when it’s touched, either as propaganda in the East, or as material to be bought and sold in the West.

Most of all, Cold War is a lustrous romance between a Michael Fassbinder-ish pianist, Wiktor (Tomasz Kot), and the younger singer Zula, whose life is clouded by a crime she committed when she was a girl.

In 1949 Poland, Wiktor and his team are out in a tin-sided van—song-hunting in the muddy snows, searching for authentic folkloric sounds. They put up a mic in front of a toothless shouter, a woman pumping a foot-powered accordion, and a grubby little girl in a patched sweater. (His driver grumbles, “In my village, every drunk sings like this.”) After this, Wiktor’s newest job is turning a mansion the Communists seized into a music school. He decides to accept one potential rural student, a blonde girl with a big if aimless voice. It’s not the voice that interests him, it’s her look of self-amused sullenness.

Wiktor starts seeing Zula, but there’s trouble from the beginning. On her back in the summer grass, she tells Wiktor, “I’ll be with you until the end of the world.” Beat. “I’m ratting on you.”

Zula’s forced tattling to the Communist higher-ups is the first sign of trouble in an affair that lasts more than a decade. There’s one missed chance for them after another, all over Europe. First, there’s an attempted defection in Berlin, and then, years later, an encounter in the walled medieval town of Split. This seaside city is in the allegedly unaligned nation of Yugoslavia, but Wiktor finds out he’s still within the grasp of the political goons.

With every passing year, Zula is more worn away by vodka and the mediocrity of the music she has to perform, not to mention the company of the oaf infatuated with her—the commissar Kaczmarek (Borys Szyc). She’s not moving like a young girl anymore.

The true lovers get a bit of freedom in Paris, but there Zula seeks out hurt, proof of love and evidence of betrayal. It should be annoying to watch her acting out, but the excellent Kulig makes you understand Zula’s fury, and her loathing of any compromise.

As in Ida, Pawlikowski excels at summing up the Communist empire. He shows us the way that “the lever of love”—to borrow a phrase from Nabokov—was used to manipulate rebels into compliance, as well as the Soviets’ kitschy diversions and vicious punishments. Here he contrasts it with the nocturnal Paris of the existentialist days. Certainly this Paris is alluring, but it also looks dirty. (Considering the bugs, Henry Miller had asked decades before, “How can you get lousy in a beautiful place like this?”) Cold War has the heart of an epic, a smart one, burrowing into its settings and describing the bitter flavor of two different brands of moral crumble.

It’s ironic that we perceive something romantic in that Iron Curtain—as romantic as the wall in the legend of Pyramus and Thisbe. Here’s something that’s been making people tear up since Bowie’s Heroes or The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. (Some people love walls on their own, hence our current “national emergency.”)

In Cold War there’s everything the best spy films had of cynical distrust, and of love that’s a matter of life and death. On a level of entertainment alone, it’s the smart version of A Star is Born.

Cold War

Written and directed by Pawel Pawlikowski. Starring Joanna Kulig, Tomasz Kot and Borys Szyc. R; 88 minutes.

Opinion: January 29, 2019

Steve Palopoli

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January 29, 2019

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EDITOR’S NOTE

Back when I was editor of Metro Santa Cruz in the early-to-mid 2000s, we had a columnist called Nuz. No one outside of the office knew the real identity of Nuz—not even Nuz’s gender. (Which, weirdly enough, people used to ask me about fairly often. I’ll use the “they” pronoun here to avoid giving anything away.) No one was even totally sure how to pronounce Nuz’s name—when it started out, it was supposed to be pronounced “Nooz” (to rhyme with “Cruz,” obviously), and there was even a helpful little line over the “u” to make that clear. But popular opinion that it was actually pronounced like “Nuhz” eventually won out. Nuz was known for sometimes sharp, sometimes extremely blunt insights into local politics, and they sunk their teeth into that watchdog role.

Nuz quit writing sometime after I left the paper, and I never did hear what happened. But recently our news editor Jacob Pierce heard through the grapevine that Nuz had had it up to here with the state of local politics and was chomping at the bit to come out of retirement. I thought it was probably like all those other rumors we’ve heard about Nuz—Nuz lurks in the shadows (what a drama queen), Nuz eats dirt for breakfast (no), Nuz has no friends (okay, probably true)—but what do you know? It was true. After a few phone calls, it was all arranged, and those oh-so Nuz emails I remember from back in the day started coming in again. So, ladies and gentlemen, I direct you to page 14 for the return of Nuz.

In other news, it’s our Health and Fitness issue this week, and we welcome back our former managing editor Maria Grusauskas—who is still living it up in the sunny Baja California climes she ditched us for—with an article on the healing frontiers of biodynamic farming. Meanwhile, Hugh McCormick slips and slides into the world of hot fitness, with entertaining results.

Finally, this is the last week to vote for your favorites in the Best of Santa Cruz 2019 Awards. So go to bestofsantacruz2019.com and do it today!

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Read the latest letters to the editor here.

Legalized Solutions

I appreciated and celebrate your article on MAPS projects to use MDMA to treat PTSD via MDMA-assisted therapy (GT, Jan. 9). It seems an easy leap to imagine MDMA could be used for so many of what are now labeled as disorders or mental illnesses by the DSM.

Many years back, I wrote an article (“Club Meds”) that described the experience of one older gentleman who had been depressed for years. But then he took LSD with therapeutic assistance as part of a program at Stanford. His depression lifted as he saw from a “higher” perspective the unjustified weight in thought he was giving to the past and to his domineering father.

I wrote that article for Metro and Metro Santa Cruz because of my own experience with depression in my 20s, and the tremendous amount of compassion it generated in me for those who cling to life on a day-by-day basis because of anxiety and depression. Their internal realities are almost completely negative and past-fear or ego-based. In fact, writing the article changed my life, and I went quickly from journalism to studying and then teaching and sharing a spiritually based psychology in order to be of help.

What the MDMA article does not mention—no fault of Mr. Baine’s—is the tremendous psychiatric and spiritual/psychological benefit of what I would describe as the most mild of psychedelics, marijuana.

Through speaking with Valerie Corral and a caring doctor at the Wo/Mens Alliance for Medical Marijuana (WAMM—now with a new home at 815 Almar St., Ste. 2), I learned that since recreational legalization, the tremendous stampede to commodify pot has rushed blithely past the most important uses for THC—mental and physical health and well-being. While dispensaries are becoming increasingly well stocked, employees are not qualified to provide advice concerning marijuana for medical or psychiatric use.

This is also an area that begs for increased exploration, research and funding. Socrates Rosenfeld, founder of the local pot company IHeartJane, has described his experience in treating his own anxiety from PTSD with cannabis and the outcome, his company, which dispenses widely to veterans.

With suicide on the rise in the U.S., and considering its continued epidemic proportions amongst veterans, the urgency of these matters cannot be overstated. Many will die by their own hands—shattering families and friend groups—as we wait for federal regulators to loosen up, and for the medical community to take a serious look the benefits of MDMA, other plant-based psychedelics and marijuana.

Interestingly enough, I am now compelled to put my journalistic hat back on to write about what may be one of the greatest and most beneficial psychiatric developments in centuries.

Ami Chen Mills
Santa Cruz

Highway 1 History

I enjoyed the article “Ever Green” (GT, 1/16). I have been to the original part of Purissima Cemetery numerous times. It is so nice to hear that it is being restored. My great-great uncle Henry Dobbel founded the town of Purissima. He also farmed potatoes on land he owned on the ocean side of Highway 1, later selling the land to Henry Cowell. My great-great grandfather John Dobbel (Henry’s brother) and his wife Gaschen Bruns owned a market in San Francisco after arriving in the U.S. They later settled in Hayward.

Nancy Dobbel Kaping

Santa Cruz

PHOTO CONTEST WINNER

Submit to ph****@go*******.sc. Include information (location, etc.) and your name. Photos may be cropped. Preferably, photos should be 4 inches by 4 inches and minimum 250dpi.

GOOD IDEA

The Santa Margarita Groundwater Agency has been organizing educational seminars about managing the groundwater below Scotts Valley and the San Lorenzo Valley. The next event, “Water Budgets: How Do We Balance All Needs?” will be Saturday, Feb. 9, at 1 p.m. at the Felton Community Hall. Assemblyman Mark Stone (D-Scotts Valley) will speak. The series, which began in January, has been engaging those who rely on water from the Santa Margarita Groundwater Basin. For more information, visit https://smgwa.org.

GOOD WORK

The Santa Cruz and Golden State Warriors teams aren’t the only ones racking up big wins this season. The undefeated Mission Hill Mavericks 8th grade basketball team won the 2019 Ed Kelly Classic Tournament hosted at Notre Dame Middle School in Watsonville. The Mavericks prevailed in triple overtime against the New Brighton Vikings with a score of 49-47 behind Aden Cury’s 17 points. Preston Pillsbury clinched the game with two free throws.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“The more we sweat in peace, the less we bleed in war.”
-Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit

No Horsing Around For Comanche Cellars

Josie Cowden

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January 23, 2019

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I love the story behind the label on Comanche Cellars’ wines. Michael Simons, owner and winemaker, had a trusted steed called Comanche from the age of 10—a big part of his life, his paper route and his rodeo circuit. In memory of this beautiful horse, he named his winery Comanche.

Comanche’s horseshoes are now depicted on the label of each hand-crafted bottle. But we know it’s always the contents that count, and ex-contractor Simons is turning out some very good wines. His 2011 Calaveras County Tempranillo ($28) is a standout.

“This big-boned beauty is bursting with savory sausage, caraway, sun-dried tomato, grilled figs with balsamic, soy-roasted nuts, white pepper, and roasted cherry peppers,” says Simons. “A spirited wine built for ultimate enjoyment with food, you’ll love the grippy tannins and the relentless finish. It’s a sheer joy to drink.”

After going from making wine as a hobby to producing hundreds of cases, Simons’ wines now include Pinot Noir, Merlot, Syrah, Chardonnay, and a red blend called Maverick. The good news is that Simons recently opened a tasting room to showcase his excellent wines. He’s even started another brand called Dog & Pony—what else would it be called!— featuring several old-world “forgotten wines.”

Comanche Cellars Wine Room, 412 Alvarado St., Monterey. 747-2244, comanchecellars.com.

Burrell School

Burrell School Vineyards will be celebrating everybody’s favorite crustacean with a Wine & Crab Feed featuring Chef Kyle Davis—and at the same time, releasing their 2017 Chardonnay. We can also look forward to tasting more of Burrell School’s wonderful wines, including a “surprise tasting” of cellar wines and an unreleased varietal.

Fresh local crab, homemade clam chowder, fresh sourdough, mixed green salad and—wait for it—crab-themed cupcakes. Bring out your finery because a bottle of wine will be given to the best dressed.

2-5 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 26, and Sunday, Jan. 27. Burrell School Vineyards, 24060 Summit Rd., Los Gatos. $55, cash requested for gratuity. Ky**@bu********************.com for tickets.

The Santa Cruz Sisters Behind Wild Poppies Olive Oil

Georgia Johnson

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January 23, 2019

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The Santa Cruz Sisters Behind Wild Poppies Olive Oil

Last year, sisters-in-law Jamie de Sieyes and Kim Null took over an 8-acre olive orchard in the Santa Cruz Mountains in the hope of continuing a long olive oil legacy.

The orchard belonged to Chris Banthien, who imported 100 Italian olive trees 25 years ago, and has since grown the orchard to 2,000 trees of various varieties—the majority of which are Italian.

In November, the whole family joined in for a three-week olive harvest to bottle up the perfect tin of local extra virgin olive oil. Every night during the harvest, Wild Poppies moved 4,000 pounds of olives to San Ardo to be pressed, yielding hundreds of pounds of oil that they are selling at the farmers market and the newly opened Companion Bakeshop in Aptos.

Your olive oil is green!

Jamie De Sieyes: Oh yeah! You want that, that’s where all of the antioxidants come from. The greener, the better. As it ages, it turns more golden, but right off the press it’s really green. It’s so exciting for us to see it come off the press—it’s super green, and some of them smell like cinnamon.

Wow, I feel like I know absolutely nothing about olive oil.

Kim Null: We didn’t know anything a year ago, either! It’s definitely been a learning curve.

What’s changed since you took over?

De Sieyes: We have more separate varietals of oil. Chris used to blend all of the olives into one big Tuscan blend oil, which we have, too. But we were just really excited to try different kinds. We have five oils this year, including three blends: the Olio Nuovo, Tuscan Blend and the Banthien named after our mentor. Then we have the single varietals, Taggiasca and Ascolano.

You’ve probably learned so much in the last year.

Null: It’s been amazing to see how helpful the community has been. There are so many individuals who helped us along the way, and they really made a difference in us having a successful year. It was also a great opportunity. We both have young kids, and I looked at it as an opportunity to share with our children. The orchard is close to our houses, so it seemed like too good to be true to pass up.

De Sieyes: Our kids love going to the orchard to climb the trees. Every time we drive by now, my daughter is like, ‘Hi, olives!’

wildpoppiesoliveoil.com.

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