Honor the Museum of Natural History’s founder with a day of activities, including geological exploration and a beach cleanup. Hecox was the first Santa Cruz lightkeeper and a naturalist who shared her profound love of the environment and marine life with the world through her curated exhibits. Before passing away in 1916, Hecox donated her collections to the city; they became part of Santa Cruz’s first public museum. Celebrate Hecox’s legacy while enjoying the beauty of our own rocky coast.
INFO: Saturday, Jan. 26. Lighthouse Field beach cleanup 9-11 a.m., Rockin’ Geology Pop-Up 10 a.m.-noon, Mobile Museum 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Lighthouse Point. 700 W. Cliff Drive, Santa Cruz. santacruzmuseum.org. $10 general/$5 members/children free.
Art Seen
Cabrillo’s ‘Continuum & Flux’
Natalya Burd and Kirk Maxson use images of nature to comment on the shifting conditions of humans moving through time and space. Burd paints scenes of human activity in natural landscapes on tinted Plexiglass panels, her images amplified by mirrored backgrounds. Maxson creates hundreds of small, hand-cut and formed metal leaves clustered in large-scale installations. His work has been featured in Victoria’s Secret fashion shows. Each artist creates technically striking, otherworldly artworks that are both sublimely beautiful and provoking.
INFO: Show runs Monday, Jan. 28-Friday, March 1. Reception and artists talk Saturday, Feb. 9, 4-6 p.m. Cabrillo Gallery, 6500 Soquel Drive Room 1002, Aptos. 479-6308. Free.
Tuesday 1/29
‘Questions That Matter: Data and Democracy’
Technology increasingly shapes our habits and defines our access to information. As our society navigates shifting sources of news, targeted advertising and polarizing online rhetoric, it is essential that we work to understand the complex and often-obscured relationship between data and democracy. A conversation between UCSC Associate Professor of Linguistics Pranav Anand and Professor of Computer Science and Engineering Lise Getoor, the event is part of the “Questions That Matter” humanities series.
INFO: 7 p.m. Kuumbwa Jazz Center. 320 Cedar St., Santa Cruz. thi.ucsc.edu. $15.
Thursday 1/24
‘Legally Speaking’
The Santa Cruz Public Library System has partnered with the Santa Cruz County Bar Association to offer a free monthly series of discussions on various legal and financial life event topics. The series answers questions about the most frequently experienced legal issues faced by people in our community. These discussions will take place at various locations throughout the county. This evening in particular focuses on immigration law, led by local immigration attorney Jeraline Singh Edwards. The presentation will encompass “Know your Rights,” immigration law fundamental principles—such as ways to get a green card and the process of naturalization—and the truths and myths about current immigration law and policies.
INFO: 6-7 p.m. Santa Cruz Downtown Library, 224 Church St., Santa Cruz. 427-7707, santacruzpl.org. Free.
Saturday 1/26
Women’s Adventure Film Tour
This is the first time that the Women’s Adventure Film Tour is touching down in the U.S. This tour is a celebration of the fantastic women around us who are doing extraordinary things in the otherwise male-dominated adventure industry. Join Patagonia in an evening of short films highlighting the world’s greatest female athletes. Subjects vary from extreme skiing and snowboarding to surfing and rock climbing. The show benefits the Changing Tides Foundation, whose mission includes educating others on how to adventure and live in a conscious way, protecting our oceans and earth, and empowering women through the outdoors.
INFO: 7-10 p.m. Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. riotheatre.com. $18.
There’s been so much to talk about for the last few weeks that I haven’t mentioned that voting in the Best of Santa Cruz awards is in full swing. So get over to goodtimes.sc and vote for your favorite local businesses, groups and individuals now! Voting ends Feb. 1, and our always-show-stopping Best of Santa Cruz issue comes out on March 27. Make sure your picks are in it!
Meanwhile, I’ve wrapped up another agenda item in this issue with a story on the final results of the Santa Cruz Gives campaign. Getting to go to the final Gives event where all the nonprofits get their checks and talk about their experiences is maybe the best part for me, and if you read the story, I think you’ll find that the things they got up to in the name of raising money were pretty entertaining, and maybe even inspiring.
Also inspiring is the no-nonsense approach of Madeleine Albright to the subject of her newest book, Fascism: A Warning. Our writer Steve Kettmann was in Washington D.C. last week and spoke with Albright in advance of her event in Santa Cruz on Feb. 5. Not that it’s a timely subject or anything ….
Having dealt with Mr. Krohn and his cabal for more than 20 years, I’m not surprised that he is trying to stack the Charter Amendment Committee. This attempted power play should be viewed in light of the election results. His Measure M was defeated by more than 62 percent of city voters and his candidates received just 46 percent of the city council votes. This situation is similar to Mr. Trump’s “winning” the presidency while losing the popular vote—neither Trump nor Krohn can claim a mandate. The California director of Common Cause says that, “he has never heard of a city considering such a change to a special committee that has already been seated.” Given that the council will have the final say—not the committee itself—why not let this group complete its work? Changing the rules in the middle of game is both unfair and unethical.
Thanks to Jacob Pierce for his thorough reporting on this issue: good journalism!
Robert deFreitas
Santa Cruz
On the MAPS
Bless you for your recent MAPS and psychedelics research coverage (GT, 1/9)! There is so much misinformation and disinformation out there, and GT, when you’re good, you’re good!
Please stay on the forefront of important journalism and forego the powerful and elite message that burdens the working people and harasses the vulnerable. We now have an ever-growing homeless population, and governments prosper from those hit the hardest—whether drug-addicted or just falling through the cracks, these humans need better shelter and living conditions.
Please write your governor, mayor or representative—this is part and parcel their job!
Any Anderson
Nevada City, California
Last Beat Standing
I just wanted to send out a big huge thanks to Geoffrey Dunn for his wonderful and unexpected article on one of the most chill, laid-back Southern Pacific railroad hipsters of 20th century America, Al Hinkle (GT, 1/9). I was so surprised that he just passed away to the Other Side of the Cosmic Road at age 92 last month. Wow!
Every day for the last four years, I have not only been reading, but studying all of Jack Kerouac’s 44 published volumes of genius writing, including his literary journals and letters. As a newly minted local expert on Beat literature and its dramatis personae, I have pretty much read/heard all the numerous stories of this crew, including some from Carolyn Cassady in 1996, when I and several friends had dinner with her at Vesuvio’s in SF. So it was interesting to read Mr. Dunn’s article and learn new things about Al Hinkle I was unaware of, such as his dad playing minor league baseball, his mother dying when he was only 8, and that he had such a long and stable career with Southern Pacific.
Hinkle’s mentioning of Kerouac sometimes getting “mean” under the influence of too much alcohol is evident from some of his angry letters written in a wasted state (usually followed by sober apologies). Allen G. always advised him “more weed and less juice”—and one of Kerouac’s finest novels, Dr. Sax, was written in William Burroughs’ pad in Mexico City wholly under the influence of one of Santa Cruz’s favorite herbs, so Allen’s advice was apt. Our hearts go out to the ol’ railroad man on his new journey and to his surviving family. Peace!
Professor Ell
Santa Cruz
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GOOD IDEA
State Senator Bill Monning (D-Carmel) has been appointed to the California Air Resources Board. It’s a new honor for Monning, who already serves on six Senate committees. Meanwhile, over in Washington D.C., where Democrats have a new congressional majority, Rep. Jimmy Panetta (D-Carmel Valley) has been appointed to the House Committee on Agriculture. In notoriously polarized Washington, the sophomore congressman can say goodbye to the days of watching all his bills die in the House—he can now watch them die in the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate instead.
GOOD WORK
Santa Cruz County’s Homeless Action Partnership has released a request for proposals aimed at addressing the rising crisis of homelessness. California’s homeless population soared to 134,000 residents in 2018, a quarter of the nation’s estimated homeless population. The state legislature recently passed emergency funding for local communities to address the problem. The Homeless Action Partnership will distribute more than $10 million to local programs, services and facilities. Grant funds must be spent within two years. For more information, visit santacruzcounty.us.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“The power to dream, to rule, to wrestle the world from fools … people have the power.”
Local skate-punk band 3upfront has been “defending a nation of ears from the evils of emo” since ’98, or so says their biography. Makes sense. Emo is pretty much the exact opposite of what the band is about.
“Nothing officially against it, just the fact that is unacceptable,” says bassist Josh “Fish” Fisher. “I can respect the talent. It just feels whiny to me. Everybody has hard times, a rough day. I think you stay positive, get a little crazy, run in circles, do a couple cartwheels.”
The group, which includes Fisher, Dave “D$$” Montanari on guitar, Adam “Mr. Pierce” Pierce on vocals and Mason “The Beast” Mitchell on drums, plays a mix of hardcore, pop-punk, funky alt-rock and some ska, but one thing that ties it all together is its nonstop energy. It’s not the kind of music to sit in your car and cry over. It’s fun and irreverent. (Songs “Boobies” and “Whoa Bundy,” for instance). Even the songs that are serious aren’t overly dramatic.
“It’s stuff you can drive fast, go skate or snowboard to—extreme sports, skydive. Do things like that,” says Fisher.
The band’s latest album, 2018’s Puppets & Psychiatrists, is their first studio record in a decade. It was a work several years in the making, and endured four drummers, three studio engineers, two hard drive crashes, and one divorce.
The result is an 18-track album that finds the band with renewed energy that is pure, old-school punk rock at its core.
“It’s the most powerful material that we’ve ever put out on one single album,” says Pierce.
INFO: 8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 25. Blue Lagoon, 923 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $5. 423-7117.
Live music highlights for the week of Jan. 23, 2019
WEDNESDAY 1/23
POWER POP
THE POSIES
A little more than three decades ago, two melodically inclined students were in the audience at a funk concert thinking, “We could be a better band than them.” Soon after that, Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow began playing shows as the Posies. Before long, they evolved into a full-fledged band, complete with a major label deal and a string of hit singles (one of which was even covered by Ringo Starr). Now celebrating 30 years of power pop, the Posies return to their duo roots, coming to Santa Cruz for an intimate acoustic performance at Flynn’s. MIKE HUGUENOR
A dark soul weaves its way through the Yawpers blend of psychobilly and truckstop blues. This trio from Denver delves deep into the maniacal and grotesque with thudding grooves, screeching, raspy vocals and foreboding, gothic literary aspirations. Their 2017 album Boy In A Well is about exactly what the title states. At once haunting and morbid, the Yawpers take the old notion of a concept album and give it a second wind with a complete and concise exploration of a melancholy life lived in a well. Concept albums aren’t dead—far from it. But the boy in the well probably is. AMY BEE
The moment the beat drops in nearly any Wifisfuneral track, the Palm Beach rapper jumps in with a mile-a-minute, rapid-fire flow and doesn’t quit. His beats are tailor-made to pump you up like audio steroids. Lyrics about drug benders and a day in the life of a rap star take front stage in his verses, which might sound like typical hip-hop braggadocio. But within all the nonstop, turn-up energy is a subtle inherent sadness in everything Wifisfuneral is rapping about. AARON CARNES
Guitarist Bill Frisell is a protean creative force who’s wandered down countless musical paths. He’s been a thrasher and a bluegrass acolyte, a post-bop explorer and a Delta blues rambler. Drawing on material from 2016’s When You Wish Upon a Star, Frisell applies his bittersweet tone to his arrangements of themes written for Hollywood films and television, exploring everything from Bernard Herrmann’s score for Psycho to Johnny Mandel’s “The Shadow of Your Smile” to the Evans/Livingston theme song for Bonanza. He’s joined by violist Eyvind Kang, bassist Thomas Morgan, drummer extraordinaire Rudy Royston, and vocalist Petra Haden. ANDREW GILBERT
INFO: 7 and 9 p.m. Kuumbwa Jazz, 320-2 Cedar St., Santa Cruz. $31.50-$47.25. 427-2227.
SATURDAY 1/26
CELTIC
TEMPEST
Though their band photos suggest otherwise, Tempest is not a gang of swashbuckling pirates on the hunt for buried treasure. At its core, this is Celtic-influenced rock ’n’ roll. But the group also mixes in music from all over the high seas: Scandinavian, Middle Eastern, African, Irish. It’s all in there because they’ve all been there (allegedly). Your urge to swing back a drink and sing along in a drunken slur will surely be high if you dare test the waters of a Tempest show. AC
INFO: 8 p.m. Michael’s on Main, 2591 Main St., Soquel. $15. 479-9777.
METAL
MYTHRAEUM
Deep from the bowels of sunny San Diego comes the aural void of black metal quartet Mythraeum. Ok, so maybe San Diego doesn’t sound like the darkest, most evil place for a black metal band to hail from, but don’t let that fool you. Their music is as brutal as anything from a pagan forest, and my guess is their live show is just as relentless. Rounding out the night in a fury of hellfire and sound is Oakland’s Dearth, with Cult Graves and Slege from San Jose. MAT WEIR
INFO:9 p.m. Blue Lagoon, 923 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $5. 423-7117.
ELECTRONIC
CHROME SPARKS
The world of electronic music is a colorful, wild and muddied place. There are thousands of DJs constantly putting out new music, trying to find a new sound while keeping one step ahead of the competition. But there are some names that stand out from the rest, and Chrome Sparks is one of them. Since 2012, he has continued to expand the realm of Futurebeats, mixing original sounds into danceable moments. MW
Jake Shimabukuro travels the musical landscapes with his trusty ukulele, turning beloved (and often overplayed) iconic singles into something strangely poignant and new because, you know, he’s doing it on a ukulele. One might think this is a gimmick, until one hears Shimabukuro shred solos, trade sparring riffs with guitarists, or give a rendition of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” that makes even the most hardened prog-rocker soften up and take notice. With a mixture of covers and originals, Shimabukuro validates the ukulele and proves that it’s not just a tiny island guitar to play at bonfires. AB
INFO: 8 p.m. Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. $35. 423-8209.
TUES 1/29
REGGAE
THE GLADIATORS
Starting out as a rocksteady vocal group in the mid-60s, the Gladiators were playing roots reggae at the time when reggae was still laying its roots. In 2014, longtime singer Albert Griffiths retired from touring, but the band carried on, replacing him with up-and-comer Droop Lion (note: not Snoop Lion), whose soulful and gravelly voice had already become famous around Jamaica for his hit “Freeway.” Now made up of the four original Gladiators along with Droop Lion on the mic (and Griffiths’s son Anthony on drums), the Gladiators are still essential to the story of reggae music. MH
Really, if you do a little translation of cultural reference points, it’s not that big of a gap from first-term Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib’s much-clucked-about “Impeach the motherfucker” remark earlier this month to the line that former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright dropped on a Washington banquet crowd in December, eyebrow raised for emphasis.
“Leaders such as Viktor Orbán and Rodrigo Duterte have said that these times demand a governing model that is more autocratic than democratic,” Albright intoned with slow, steely deliberation, referring to the neo-fascist thugs who have taken power in Hungary and the Philippines. “There is a diplomatic term of art for such thinking, and it starts with a ‘b.’”
I happened to be in the crowd for the National Democratic Institute event, next to where Albright was sitting before taking the podium, and considered yelling out: “’Bullshit!’” to complete her thought. It was the kind of fancy-fancy Washington function where I’d have probably been dragged out of the place for such an outburst, but I’d have done my part for the public discourse.
“Balderdash,” Albright quickly added, with perfect comic timing and a butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-her-mouth look.
Indeed, it’s time to call balderdash, loudly and repeatedly, to the notion that there’s anything at all justifiable about dallying with fascism, as our dim-witted monster of a president so loves to do. Fascism is a power grab. Fascism is crude self-love writ large. Fascism is the enemy and the opposite of democracy, real democracy, as Madeleine Albright has articulated better than anyone—in that speech in Washington, to a degree, but especially in her New York Times No. 1 bestseller Fascism: A Warning, due out next week in paperback. And, I expect, at her upcoming appearance at the Kaiser Permanente Arena in Santa Cruz on Feb. 5 (the $23 admission also includes a paperback copy of the book).
As Albright writes in a new preface to the paperback edition:
“Fascist attitudes take hold when there are no social anchors, and when the perception grows that everybody lies, steals, and cares only about him-or-herself. That is when the yearning is felt for a strong hand to protect against the evil ‘other’—whether Jew, Muslim, black, so-called redneck, or so-called elite. Flawed though our institutions may be, they are the best that four thousand years of civilization have produced, and cannot be cast aside without opening the door to something far worse. The wise response to intolerance is not more intolerance or self-righteousness; it is a coming together across the ideological spectrum of people who want to make democracies more effective. We should remember that the heroes we cherish—Lincoln, King, Gandhi, Mandela—spoke to the best within us. The crops we’ll harvest depend on the seeds we sow.”
SPEAKING WITH THE SECRETARY
I spoke to Secretary Albright on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, just after I sat through the numbingly cynical sight of President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence toddling along in winter coats after laying a wreath at the King memorial in Washington. Yes, the likes of Trump and Pence shall reap just what they sow, and the same is true for all of us. Democracy is not just what you take out, it’s also what you give back.
“Citizens must consider voting and participation not just a right, but a responsibility,” Albright told me. “Some people think my book is alarming. It is supposed to be alarming. … I do think that it’s tragic what is going on. Clearly there are issues in all our societies in terms of divisions, and whether the social contract is broken, and what technology is doing to our societies.”
History, which Albright has lived to a remarkable degree, can indeed be a good teacher.
“I don’t think most people focus on the fact that Mussolini and Hitler and Franco in Spain all came to power constitutionally,” she told me. “There are those who are copying things that Mussolini said initially, which was that there are simple answers to problems. The problems are complicated. People don’t want to hear that.”
No, they don’t, especially in an era when most of our dialogue comes in short bursts via social media.
“If all of a sudden there is a leader who says, ‘I have the answers, just follow me,’ and the extrapolation of that is that there are scapegoats, which are the reasons that this happened, and the identification with one group that feels that they have been robbed or neglected, then divisions are exacerbated. So what we need is leaders who can find common ground.”
So what of Trump, then? Albright paused before answering.
“I don’t call him a fascist,” she said evenly. “I do think he’s the least democratic president in modern American history. I draw an allusion in the book, first made by Mussolini, which is that you can pluck a chicken one feather at a time and nobody notices. What I think is happening is Trump is plucking feathers. Thinking he’s above the law or having no respect for the judiciary and generally putting down institutions—those are pretty significant feathers. He is taking steps that are undermining how government is supposed to operate.”
THE IMPEACHMENT QUESTION
I didn’t think it likely that the former Secretary of State was going to stand with Tom Steyer, our California firebrand, and others loudly calling for the impeachment of Trump, and I was right. That’s not her position, but it was still fun to listen to her say a lot between the lines when I asked if she supported an immediate push toward pursuing the impeachment of Donald Trump.
“I don’t,” she said, and paused to choose her words carefully before expanding on the thought. “I do think laws have to be followed. I have witnessed two impeachments, and they suck the air out of everything going on, but I think if a president is breaking the law, there are processes here, and I do believe in the constitution, or maybe even the 25th amendment.”
I had to look that one up for a refresher, and when I did, wished I’d asked a follow-up. The 25th amendment calls for the vice president to replace the president “in the event of death, removal, resignation, or incapacitation.” Since Trump is already somewhat incapacitated, more so all the time, it would seem, I’m assuming she was probably alluding to the “resignation” option, which I for one have been espousing for a while as our most likely way out of this long national nightmare. If you attend Albright’s Santa Cruz speech, this would be a great follow-up question for her.
“The reason I also wanted historic parts of my book, like how Mussolini happened, was to illustrate how fascism can creep up on a society,” Albright told me. “By the way, Mussolini said he was ‘a stable genius.’”
Staring fascism straight in the face is a great way to get us thinking in a fresh way about democracy and what it really means, just as staring death in the face—when cancer claims a relative, for example—has a knack for reminding us that we’d better get out there and live our lives like we mean it. Make no mistake, the American experiment in democracy has been on life support these last two years, dangerously close to slipping away in the night, and we’re not through the woods yet.
This is a good time to ask yourself, really ask yourself: Do I care about democracy? What am I willing to do for it? And do we ask ourselves often enough what democracy requires of us?
“I think they don’t,” Albright told me. “I wasn’t born in the United States. When we came to this country, my father used to say that he worried that Americans take democracy for granted. You have to work for democracy. It is both resilient and fragile—both are true.”
Albright has devoted her life to democracy to a degree few could really fathom. She’s worked on democracy the way Steph Curry has worked on his jumper. Albright was born in 1937 and grew up in Prague—her father, the diplomat Joseph Korbel, a supporter of icons of Czech democracy like Masaryk and Beneš. The family fled Hitler to live in England during World War II, then returned briefly to Prague before moving to Belgrade, where Korbel had a diplomatic posting, and ultimately moving to the U.S. by the late 1940s.
Albright writes indelibly about those experiences:
“On the day the fascists first altered the direction of my life, I had barely mastered the art of walking. The date was March 15, 1939. Battalions of German storm troopers invaded my native Czechoslovakia, escorted Adolf Hitler to Prague Castle, and pushed Europe to the threshold of a second world war. After ten days in hiding, my parents and I escaped to London. There we joined exiles from all across Europe in aiding the Allied war effort while waiting anxiously for the ordeal to end.
When, after six grueling years, the Nazis surrendered, we returned home with high hopes, eager to build a new life in a free land. My father continued his career in the Czechoslovak Foreign Service and, for a brief time, all was well. Then, in 1948, our country fell under the control of Communists. Democracy was shut down and once more my family was driven into exile. That Armistice Day, we arrived in the United States, where, under the watchful eyes of the Statue of Liberty, we were welcomed as refugees.”
I’ve written on foreign policy for publications from The New York Times to Salon to Foreign Policy, and I had some reservations about some of Albright’s positions when she first took over from Warren Christopher and served as Bill Clinton’s Secretary of State. But she soon won me over, and in the years since, I’ve crossed paths with her repeatedly and have always been amazed by her combination of knowledge, considered opinion, feel for people and self-aware sense of humor.
Ask her about her pins and she can talk to you for an hour—and you’ll love every minute of it. She has what can only be called old-world charm and manners, but at the same time, a uniquely American love of ideas and engagement. She’s always excited about what’s coming next, especially some time in California.
“I love coming to California,” she told me. “It’s beautiful and the people are very politically engaged. I think it’s a fascinating state. Some people think it’s very different than the rest of the United States in its dedication to diversity. That to me is its great strength.”
Diversity was a strength of the Prague of Albright’s youth, so she’s not just mouthing slogans, she’s speaking of honest regard. I’ve always felt very at home in Prague—the Prague of Milan Kundera, the Prague of Havel, a place where the storytellers and the dreamers had a seat at the table, which sounds to me like California. But Prague also teaches the world about how much can change quickly. I was in Prague the night of the Velvet Divorce, when Slovakia decided to sever itself and create two states, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, watching a tiny TV with my Czech friend Ondrej. It’s worth studying enough history to understand that you never know what’s coming.
I asked Albright if she worries, watching the way Trump eggs on his hardcore followers. To me, he does not look so much like someone trying to put together a winning coalition in 2020. He looks like someone wanting a bigger mob when things get ugly.
“It seems at times as if Trump’s primary goal is having an energized group of supporters who tune out facts or reality and blindly support the leader, and would be willing to create chaos in the streets if called on to do so,” I said to Albright. “Is that your concern as well?”
“It is worrisome,” she said, and again talked about history and its lessons and what it tells us about the anti-democratic figures coming to power all around the world, most recently in Brazil. “We have to be very careful how they come to power and use rallies and threats and promises to get into office, and then there is the danger of violence. That’s certainly what happened in Charlottesville.”
As I spoke, I was in Virginia, working on a book (to be published this summer) looking at the events of the deadly August 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Albright is correct. We do have to worry, and we have to use that worry to push us not to yell louder, not to tweet meaner tweets, but to ask ourselves again what more we can do for decency, what more we can do to reach out and bring people together, what more we can do to understand better the fault lines and underlying causes of so much of the angst and fear that fuel the hate and resentment. Absorbing the words and message of rare individuals like Madeleine Albright, truly a wise woman, is a good place to start.
Madeleine Albright at the Kaiser Permanente Arena
Bookshop Santa Cruz will present an evening with Madeleine Albright on Tuesday, Feb. 5, at 7 p.m. at the Kaiser Permanente Arena in Santa Cruz. The event is co-sponsored by The Humanities Institute at UC Santa Cruz and Temple Beth El.
Tickets are $23 and include one general admission ticket and one pre-signed paperback copy of ‘Fascism: A Warning.’ All books will be distributed at the venue. Albright will not be doing a signing at the event.
Update: Jan. 14, 2019 — This story originally misspelled the name of Rep. Rashida Tlaib. We regret the error.
It’s New Year’s Eve, and Aaron Lazenby is desperately trying to figure out Facebook Live on the fly.
“Are you seeing me move around or anything?” he asks his virtual audience. He shakes his head, staring with a look of hopelessness into his iPad as he broadcasts from his bed, occasionally flashing the kind of self-deprecating smile you might expect from a man wearing a tuxedo t-shirt. “We’re new to this whole webcasting thing,” he admits.
After a few minutes, he’s joined by Kate Pavao, his wife and partner in Live Like Coco, a nonprofit which, among other things, provides books to local grade-school students on their birthdays. It’s the last night of the Santa Cruz Gives (SCG) holiday donation drive, and this husband and wife are determined to win the special $1,000 award for the participating nonprofit that gets the largest number of donors over the course of the campaign.
They beat out the almost three dozen other local groups that participated in SCG for the prize last year, turning it into a fun and friendly—but, make no mistake about it, truly hardcore—competition with runner-up Brent Adams of the Warming Center that had both groups dialing up donors in the final hours of Dec. 31. The spirit of the whole thing ended up inspiring a lot of last-minute donors, benefitting both groups immensely.
This year, Lazenby and Pavao have been watching the donation leaderboard at santacruzgives.org closely, and they’re upping the ante with this “virtual pajama party” that lasts over two hours. While Pavao, in her pajamas, takes sips of wine, makes brownies in an EZ Bake oven perched on the bed’s headboard, and updates viewers with the latest numbers, the couple takes karaoke requests from donors whose comments roll along next to their video as they broadcast. One requests the Elton John/Kiki Dee duet “Don’t Go Breakin’ My Heart.”
“Do you have the lyrics? Do you even know the words to this song?” Lazenby asks Pavao. “Maybe it’s ‘Make all our dreams come true…?’”
“No, that’s Laverne and Shirley,” she says.
“I’m going to have nightmares about this for weeks,” he says before they launch into a god-awful but truly entertaining rendition of the song. Then he addresses the invisible audience. “‘Give generously’ is what I’m saying.”
The user comments continue to scroll by. “This is def better than the countdown on TV,” says one. But an even better one comes up not far behind it: “Okay, so how do I make a donation?”
BLAZING NEW PATHS
Live Like Coco’s funny stunt was just one of the new and sometimes out-of-the-box ways the 33 Santa Cruz County nonprofits participating in SCG found to raise a total of $235,041, which represents a whopping 19 percent growth over last year’s total. Started by Good Times in 2015 with partner the Volunteer Center of Santa Cruz County, the yearly holiday drive has now raised almost three-quarters of a million dollars total for local causes. This year’s campaign was sponsored by Santa Cruz County Bank, Wynn Capital Management and Community Foundation Santa Cruz County.
Oswald Restaurant is another SCG backer, specifically sponsoring the three $1,000 awards that drove Lazenby and Pavao to Facebook Live—with success, it turns out, as Live Like Coco took home the prize for Most Donors with 163.
The group that won the $1,000 award for Most Young Donors, the Friends of the Santa Cruz Public Libraries, also had an innovative strategy. Erika Anderson, the group’s 25-year-old campaign manager, says she is very aware of the library system’s need to reach out to people in her age group—who, when she tells them what her job is, sometimes ask, “People still go to the library?”
With that in mind, she organized two pop-up book sales at UCSC, with a clever Santa Cruz Gives hook. She slipped a homemade handout that prominently featured the SCG logo and donation information into every book sold on campus—which turned out to be quite a few.
“The students were so excited we were there that we didn’t even have to unpack the books,” she says. “It worked out really well.”
For the nonprofit that brought in the most money overall—the Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter Foundation, which raised $29,585 via this year’s campaign—the key was storytelling.
“What’s really effective for us is social media,” says Melanie Sobel, the animal shelter’s general manager. “We tend to highlight certain animal cases that we’ve dealt with.”
It doesn’t hurt that the shelter has some pretty wild stories, like the recent call they got to free a deer whose antlers were stuck in the chains of a swing set. Though most people think of dogs and cats when they think of an animal shelter, the SCCAS actually deals with other varieties, as well—from farm animals to exotic creatures like big snakes and turtles—and are the only local shelter which does so.
“You just never know what’s going to come in the door,” says Sobel. “It’s never boring, I’ll tell you that.”
MATCH MAKING
Besides heavy social media pushes and inventive events, challenge grants and matching funds were a huge area of growth in Santa Cruz Gives fundraising—leaping 34 percent over last year in the case of challenge grants, and a whopping 61 percent for matching funds. Part of the latter was $20,000 from Community Foundation Santa Cruz County, which had a huge impact on this year’s campaign in its first year of participation.
At a wrap-up meeting at which the participating nonprofits received their checks from the campaign, Karen Delaney, executive director of the Volunteer Center of Santa Cruz County, told the assembled group representatives that this year’s results prove how effective their fundraising efforts—and cooperative spirit—have been.
“To go from zero to a quarter of a million dollars in four years is pretty astonishing,” she said. “The overall growth in donations year-over-year for an average nonprofit [nationally] last year was about 4.5 percent. So to have 19 percent growth, that’s quadruple the average.”
As for next year’s campaign, well, Lazenby of Live Like Coco has finally recovered enough that he’s starting to think about how they can top themselves next New Year’s Eve. On a trip to Japan last week, he even had a friend there inform him that he and Pavao are now somewhat “internet famous.”
“I was mortified about it in some ways,” he says now of their webcast. “But everyone I talked to about it said, ‘No, I had a good time watching it.’ Except my mom. My mom refuses to talk to me about it. I think she’s a little embarrassed.”
Yes, it’s finally open, and from what I’ve seen and tasted, Alderwood and chef Jeffrey Wall will be winning quite a few hearts, minds and taste buds in the coming months.
The high-profile transformation of the old Erik’s Deli in downtown Santa Cruz is astonishing. A wall of glittering bottles lines the long bar, and the exhibition kitchen offers counter seating and a glimpse of the wood-fired soul of Wall’s coastal steakhouse menu.
It’s a menu that includes local produce and a serious selection of oysters, as well as aged and very choice cuts of beef. We started by foraging from a three-tiered plateau of oysters—Compass Point, Skookum Inlet, Hammersley and my favorites, the tiny Pacific Northwest Kumamotos and Royal Miyagis.
After a gabby media meet and greet, we were seated at a long community table next to the floor-to-ceiling glass wall. Alderwood honors its steakhouse concept by filling the large dining room with cozy, round tables and wooden chairs. Although there’s a comforting French accent in the kitchen, the commitment here is to robust, non-fussy dining.
The chef came out as each of our sample courses was presented and introduced the finer points of the dishes. Wall is serious about food, and the first bite of the tartare bar snacks proved it. A confit egg yolk came nestled next to the beef tartare, but I was more impressed with the almost-surreal microdice of smoked beets served with crisp leaves of gem lettuce, pickled mustard and a dusting of dill pollen. All flavors were tuned to 100 percent.
Also from the bar menu were baked potato pommes frites dusted with parmesan to dip into excellent house-made ketchup. The blockbuster item was a pyramid of sourdough onion rings, gossamer and feather-light thanks to carbonation in the sourdough batter, and served with Russian dressing. These were absolutely killer onion rings—and I don’t even like onion rings!—especially when paired with the Tattinger Brut Alderwood poured for us.
Of two gorgeous salads offerings, I fell for a shared bowl of winter greens in shades of pink, burgundy and chartreuse with walnuts and squash oil. Magically intense in flavor—which, I’m coming to believe, is one of Wall’s personal fetishes (in a good way).
Then, partnered with a Hess Collection Cabernet Sauvignon, came a trio of the house specialty—red, juicy, tumescent slices of bone-in ribeye, signature porterhouse (how beef is really supposed to taste, I now suspect), and dry-aged beef tenderloin. These are showcase steaks, no mistake about it, served with three house sauces. My favorite of the options was a Bordelaise of beef and red wine reduction. Classic, Paul Bocuse classic.
The Cabernet partnered perfectly with the beef, which is probably why Santa Cruz Mountains wines were absent from the menu; this region specializes in Pinot Noir. Most carnivore traditionalists prefer bigger wines—Syrah, Cab, French Bordeaux, Malbec—with beef. But it might be both politic and desirable for a few of our top local “big” wines to be included on this menu. Something from Muns or Beauregard Vineyards, for example.
Now a media tasting is not the same as coming in for dinner, ordering, checking out the pacing, service and comfort of the room. But flavors can’t be spun out of thin air. Alderwood’s kitchen can produce dishes with depth, flavor sparkle, and finesse of presentation—exactly what you want when you dine out.
Alderwood, 155 Walnut Ave., Santa Cruz. Open 4 p.m.-midnight Tuesday-Sunday. Entrees $25-$70+, happy hour 4-6:30 p.m. and 9:30-midnight.
More Wine!
Named PinotFile’s 2018 Winery of the Year, Windy Oaks Winery is celebrating by expanding its estate opening hours. Starting Feb. 16, the winery tasting room in Corralitos will be open on Sundays, as well as Saturdays, noon to 5 p.m.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): We might initially be inclined to ridicule Stuart Kettell, a British man who spent four days pushing a Brussels sprout up 3,560-foot-high Mount Snowden with his nose. But perhaps our opinion would become more expansive once we knew that he engaged in this stunt to raise money for a charity that supports people with cancer. In any case, the coming weeks would be a favorable time for you, too, to engage in extravagant, extreme or even outlandish behavior in behalf of a good or holy cause.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): The Taurus guitar wizard known as Buckethead is surely among the most imaginative and prolific musicians who has ever lived. Since producing his first album in late 2005, he has released 306 other albums that span a wide variety of musical genres—an average of 23 per year. I propose that we make him your patron saint for the next six weeks. While it’s unlikely you can achieve such a gaudy level of creative self-expression, you could very well exceed your previous personal best in your own sphere.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Novelist Arthur Conan Doyle created Sherlock Holmes, a fictional character who personifies the power of logic and rational thinking. And yet Doyle was also a devout spiritualist who pursued interests in telepathy, the occult and psychic phenomena. It’s no surprise that he was a Gemini, an astrological tribe renowned for its ability to embody apparent opposites. Sometimes that quality is a liability for you folks, and sometimes an asset. In the coming weeks, I believe it’ll be a highly useful skill. Your knack for holding paradoxical views and expressing seemingly contradictory powers will attract and generate good fortune.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): In 2006, a 176-year-old tortoise named Harriet died in an Australian zoo owned by “Crocodile Hunter” and TV personality Steve Irwin. Harriet was far from her original home in the Galapagos Islands. By some accounts, evolutionary superstar Charles Darwin picked her up and carried her away during his visit there in 1835. I propose that you choose the long-lived tortoise as your power creature for the coming weeks. With her as inspiration, meditate on questions like these: 1. “What would I do differently if I knew I’d live to a very old age?” 2. “What influence that was important to me when I was young do I want to be important to me when I’m old?” 3. “In what specific ways can my future benefit from my past?” 4. “Is there a blessing or gift from an ancestor I have not yet claimed?” 5. “Is there anything I can do that I am not yet doing to remain in good health into my old age?”
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): John Lennon claimed that he created the Beatles song “Because” by rendering Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” backwards. Even if that’s true, I don’t think it detracts from the beauty of “Because.” May I suggest that you adopt a comparable strategy for your own use in the coming weeks, Leo? What could you do in reverse so as to create an interesting novelty? What approach might you invert in order to instigate fresh ways of doing things? Is there an idea you could turn upside-down or inside-out, thereby awakening yourself to a new perspective?
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): The Tsonga language is spoken by more than 15 million people in southern Africa. The literal meaning of the Tsonga phrase I malebvu ya nghala is “It’s a lion’s beard,” which is often interpreted as, “something that’s not as scary as it looks.” According to my astrological analysis, this will be a useful concept for you to be alert for in the coming weeks. Don’t necessarily trust first impressions or initial apprehensions. Be open to probing deeper than your instincts might influence you to do.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): The old Latin verb crescere meant “to come forth, spring up, grow, thrive, swell, increase in numbers or strength.” We see its presence in the modern English, French and Italian word crescendo. In accordance with astrological omens, I have selected crescere and its present participle crescentum to be your words of power for the next four weeks. May they help mobilize you to seize all emerging opportunities to come forth, spring up, grow, thrive, swell, and increase in numbers or strength.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): When animals hibernate, their metabolism slows down. They may grow more under-fur or feathers, and some add extra fat. To conserve heat, they may huddle together with each other. In the coming weeks, I don’t think you’ll have to do what they do. But I do suspect it will be a good time to engage in behaviors that have a resemblance to hibernation: slowing down your mind and body; thinking deep thoughts and feeling deep feelings; seeking extra hugs and cuddles; getting lots of rich, warm, satisfying food and sleep. What else might appeal to your need to drop out of your fast-paced rhythm and supercharge your psychic batteries?
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): When people tell me they don’t have time to read the books I’ve written, I advise them to place the books under their pillows and soak up my words in their dreams. I don’t suggest that they actually eat the pages, although there is historical precedent for that. The Bible describes the prophet Ezekiel as literally chewing and swallowing a book. And there are accounts of 16th-century Austrian soldiers devouring books they acquired during their conquests, hoping to absorb the contents of the texts. But in accordance with current astrological omens, I suggest that in the next four weeks you acquire the wisdom stored in books by actually reading them or listening to them on audio recordings. In my astrological opinion, you really do need, for the sake of your psycho-spiritual health, to absorb writing that requires extended concentration.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Among the top “how to” search inquiries on Google are “how to buy Bitcoin,” “how to lose belly fat fast,” “how to cook spaghetti in a microwave,” and “how to make slime.” While I do think that the coming weeks will be prime time for you to formulate and launch many “how to” investigations, I will encourage you to put more important questions at the top of your priority list. “How to get richer quicker” would be a good one, as would “how to follow through on good beginnings,” “how to enhance your value” and “how to identify what resources and allies will be most important in 2019.”
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): A motivational speaker and author named Nick Vujicic was born without arms or legs, although he has two small, unusually shaped feet. These facts didn’t stop him from getting married, raising a family of four children, and writing eight books. One book is entitled Life Without Limits: Inspiration for a Ridiculously Good Life. He’s a positive guy who has faith in the possibility of miracles. In fact, he says he keeps a pair of shoes in his closet just in case God decides to bless him with a marvelous surprise. In accordance with current astrological omens, Aquarius, I suggest you make a similar gesture. Create or acquire a symbol of an amazing transformation you would love to attract to your life.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): About 11 percent of the Philippines’ population is comprised of Muslims who call themselves the Bangsamoro. Many resist being part of the Philippines and want their own sovereign nation. They have a lot of experience struggling for independence, as they’ve spent 400 years rebelling against occupation by foreign powers, including Spain, the United States and Japan. I admire their tenacity in seeking total freedom to be themselves and rule themselves. May they inspire your efforts to do the same on a personal level in the coming year.
Homework: Write yourself a nice long love letter full of praise and appreciation. Send a copy to me if you like at FreeWillAstrology.com.
The sun entered Aquarius last Sunday, prior to the lunar eclipse. Aquarius is the light that shines on Earth and across the sea. We (seekers, aspirants, disciples, Initiates) have returned to Earth from the summit of Capricorn; on the mountain we absorbed the light supernal (heavenly light) for humanity. In Aquarius, we now radiate that light, which becomes the waters of life for thirsty humanity.
The keynotes of Aquarius are cooperation (cooperatives), collaboration and community. Uranus in Aries and later in Taurus provides the “quickening” needed to manifest the era’s new ways of being. Aquarius is the sign of humanity working together, building community and cooperatives.
Cooperatives are democratically governed groups, operating on an at-cost, not-for-profit basis, focusing on the economic and social wellbeing of people and nations worldwide. They foster and encourage cooperative development, which generates local wealth, employment and marketplace interactions. It’s a plan of action that’s time has come. The thought of continuing under big corporation (BC) agendas is no longer feasible, acceptable, attractive, understandable or sustainable. BC is part of the past, lifeless world of greed and mass control.
Cooperatives fulfill the need of the 99 percent (humanity), seek what is local and sustainable, and are consumer-owned and member-controlled—benefits that create communality and community. Cooperatives differ completely from profit-driven enterprises. Cooperatives are “people-centered enterprises,” operating under values and principles guiding cooperatives worldwide: self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity, and solidarity. Cooperative members believe in the ethical values: honesty, openness, social responsibility, and caring for others. Farmers in cooperatives say with pride, “I’m a farmer and I’m an owner.” Where is a cooperative near you?
ARIES: You are working hard, perhaps to exhaustion, with your thinking power and energy focused in the world of work. Are you finding yourself easily upset, edgy, irritated or impatient? Are there criticisms or interruptions around you? You continue to achieve success and enthusiasm. You ask that others exhibit the same. They cannot. They don’t have your astrology chart. Be generous, listen and ponder instead of having expectations. Exhaustion then falls away.
TAURUS: You love pleasure, and pursue it quietly. You seek satisfaction through each day’s tasks and endeavors. At times, you’re unexpectedly playful. Deep down, you’re competitive. Your animals and/or children may exhibit this. You’re affectionate. You forgive. You’re admired yet secretive. You’re a taskmaster toward yourself. Enter the field of art. Draw, paint, sing, be creative each day. It’s your saving grace.
GEMINI: You’re protective of friends, home and family. You hide away with them. You have anger, but no one can find it. You don’t even know why. It’s hidden in a Scorpio sort of family situation. Be careful—resentments, like fiery sparks, sometimes fly out of you. Someday, you’ll seek a more direct approach to your hidden inner world. Prayer helps soothe away what hurts. Studying astrology does, too.
CANCER: More and more, you speak your mind, expressing ideas and opinions. Knowing a lot of this and that, you become upset when your morals and values differ from others. Sometimes you’re afraid, sometimes you’re informative. Sometimes you’re disruptive. Consider the differences and outcomes. Everyone has important information. Even silence contributes. Everyone is polishing the facet of themselves, creating the great diamond of humanity. What facet belongs to you?
LEO: You’re working hard these days. In the months to come, slow down a bit, become more precise and deliberate. Produce only what you value. At times, you’re ambitious. Then your impatience emerges with fiery impulsiveness. You can also be possessive. Independence is vital; a value you defend with secrecy. Daily life becomes filled with tasks. Take it easy. Slow down. Look around.
VIRGO: For a time, you’ll be more forcefully creative than usual. A dynamic energy will pour through you. It allows you to consider new realities, new plans and creative endeavors, giving you a new identity that’s independent and direct. You will be called to spontaneity, action and follow-through. Only for only a while, though. Then with the retrogrades, everything turns inward. You return home.
LIBRA: For a long or short amount of time, you felt stifled by your choices. Understanding and asserting yourself was obstructed. A sense of defeat, perhaps despair, was felt. No one was encouraging or loving you enough. You needed to build up self-confidence and a sense of balance. Then you made a decision to return somewhere to something. Your balance was re-established. Now, you’re strong—though very sensitive. This latter is hidden. And now, there’s one more something to do.
SCORPIO: Make a spiritual decision, based on comradeship, to work directly with people in a state of loving cooperation. You will achieve your goals more readily. Enlarge the circle of people you trust. Do this first by supporting them in their undertakings, praising their accomplishments. Cooperation is your new work, endeavor and keyword. It will establish for you more permanent relations with others. Calling forth all your hidden abilities and gifts.
SAGITTARIUS: You feel you were born to be respected and successful. Other people’s opinions of you are of no concern. You are to keep your eyes on the horizon while realizing no one is an island. Compassion is your watchword. You learn to be more loving in the coming year, realizing everyone is useful and of great value. This makes for real leadership. Be practical with money. What is true happiness and choice without limits?
CAPRICORN: You curb yourself when any sort of criticism floods your lower mind. You never want to disregard others’ opinions. However, you know there is a great truth beyond opinions and you seek that truth everywhere—in everything and everyone. It’s quite hidden these days. You have trained yourself to be honest, smoothing blunt edges of communication. Your humor finds the absurd in all events. Laughter is a companion. New leadership responsibilities come forth and knock on your door.
AQUARIUS: So clearly do you see through pretenses that sometimes you can be blunt in the attempt to banish untruths, illusions and glamours. This is both a gift and a difficulty. Many admire you. Some don’t understand you. You want to share. However, something hurt you long ago that makes you wary. Your desire nature is strong. It makes things happen like magic. Whatever you focus on materializes. You provide nourishment to the world so hungry. You are a white magician.
PISCES: Be conscious and aware of communication and interactions, especially with intimates and close family and friends. You could feel and be perceived as impatient, angry and unaware of others’ needs. Should this occur, you would feel devastated, as your behavior is never like this. Use the soul energies to quicken your sensitivity towards everyone. Ask what are everyone’s needs, hopes, wishes and cares. What can you offer them? Cultivate these ways, developing the subtle art of harmonious right human relationships.
Beginning in 1966, the Soft Machine were at the forefront of the British psych and prog movements, backing up Syd Barrett’s first solo album, playing with Andy Summers before he joined the Police, and even touring with Jimi Hendrix. Since the late ’60s, the Machine has gone through at least six distinct eras, even changing its name a few times along the way—first to Soft Ware, then Soft Works, and, in 2004, to Soft Machine Legacy.
But as of 2015, the band has once again become Soft Machine, a name inspired by William Burroughs’ term for the human body. So how does it feel for them to re-become themselves?
“It feels good,” says Theo Travis, the band’s woodwind and piano player. “It feels real.”
Last September, Soft Machine released Hidden Details, their first album under their original moniker since 1981’s Land of Cockayne. Throughout Hidden Details, the band sounds as amalgamated and inspired as ever, giving both their jazz and rock chops a heavy workout. Focused equally on improvisation and composition, the album is a mix of new songs and reworkings of classics, which have been transformed through decades of live play. The experiment works, most notably on the excellent “The Man Who Waved At Trains” from 1975’s Bundles—a slippery, angular jazz tune that’s original minute-and-a-half length has here been expanded to five (with Travis’s flute now on the melody).
As always, Hidden Details is purposefully mixed stylistically, and many may have a hard time categorizing the album. Leading with an absolutely filthy guitar riff from John Etheridge, the title track opener starts off sounding like Black Sabbath before settling into a warm, mid-tempo fusion. Third track “Ground Lift” is stratospheric in its passages of free improvisation, while “Heart Off Guard” sounds like the darker side of English folk run through a film noir filter.
“It’s kind of the jazzy end of the progressive world, or the progressive end of the jazzy world,” Travis muses on the album. A moment later, he settles. “It’s probably more of the jazzy end of the progressive world. The improvisation has a comfortable mix with the composition of the more progressive, out-there, left-field rock.”
Whichever end of the prog/jazz spectrum it most represents, Soft Machine’s music has always been something that could only emerge out of the specific soft machines in the band, and Hidden Details is no exception.
“It’s like a big melting pot,” Travis says. “The four of us, we have overlapping taste, but we have very different tastes. It’s where we meet that the music happens.”
More than anything, the band is just happy to be themselves again.
“To have an album where it says in big letters “Soft Machine,” it makes it very clear that it is Soft Machine,” Travis says, sounding at ease. “It has a greater importance to it, it feels like the stakes are higher. Soft Machine Legacy sounds a bit like a tribute band. It could be everyone in it was a key member of Soft Machine, but people don’t have a relationship to Soft Machine Legacy. They haven’t been listening to Soft Machine Legacy for 40 years People don’t have that same kind of feeling about it.”
Though they dropped the word from their name, the concept of legacy is still central to the band’s work. With more than 50 years of material to draw from, Soft Machine makes a point to embody their entire career live.
“If we like a track from the repertoire and it works well live, we’ll do it,” Travis says. “The only thing we don’t do is we don’t do any vocals, so we don’t go back to the first album.”
As soon as these words leave his mouth, he corrects himself.
“Although we did actually rehearse ‘Joy of a Toy’ [from 1968’s TheSoft Machine], and we were talking of doing it. If you’re a Soft Machine fan of any of the eras, we do them. Something for everyone.”
Soft Machine performs at 9 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 25 at Flynn’s Cabaret & Steakhouse, 6275 Hwy. 9, Felton. $35. 335-2800.
