By the time you read this, you’ll be recovering from the annual sugar shock that accompanies all things Halloween. You’ll need to start thinking ahead, to a time where wine trumps candy. And I’ve got just the thing for you.
The annual and ridiculously enjoyable Downtown Santa Cruz Fall Wine Walk, which will fill Santa Cruz with lots of folks in high spirits on Sunday, Nov. 11. The idea is inviting, the concept is simple. You, the participant, stop by SoifWine Bar& Restaurant on Walnut Avenue and register ($40).
You will then receive a pass, a glass and a map of the pouring locations. Then you set off for an afternoon visiting downtown merchants, where winery reps await to pour you a glass of their wine. Yes, it’s that easy. Soif’s co-founder and reigning proprietor Patrice Boyle explains the fine points. “Because our licensing does not allow us to participate the way other retailers can,” she told us, “we are the starting off, collect-your-glass-and-map place. Our retail shop will be open, but the restaurant is closed on Sunday.”
The Wine Walk will feature about a dozen wineries, set up in retail spots around downtown. Wineries include Muns Vineyard, Bargetto, Burrell School Winery, Bonny Doon Winery, Roudon-Smith, Wrights Station, Pelican Ranch, and Random Ridge, among others. Once participants have their glasses, they “head off on their own crawl around town.”
Let’s review: Nov. 11, 2-5 p.m. Registration opens at 1:30 p.m. on the day of the event, and closes at 3:30 p.m., $35 adv/$40 on-site. “This has become a very popular event,” Boyle notes. “It often sells out.” A word to the wise. downtownsantacruz.com.
Very New Wine
And while we’re at it: Purists will be thrilled to know that the gala party for Beaujolais Nouveau—first wine of the season—takes place once again at Soif, from 5-7 p.m. on the third Thursday of November. This is a major party. $15. soifwine.com.
New Cigare
Is there no end to this man’s marketing genius? I speak, of course, of Randall Grahm, uber winemaker and founder of Bonny Doon Vineyard, an establishment that made its name and empire based on the 1984 release of the infamous Le Cigare Volant—a memorable elixir of Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvedre (GSM).
Well, after 30 years of the Cigare, Grahm has announced a major change of style. This paradigm shift is being enacted in order to appeal to younger wine drinkers, those for whom the entire concept of letting a vintage age is unthinkable. In the Twitter era aging can amount to a matter of days. Even hours.
Ergo, the new 2018 incarnation of Le Cigare Volant, scheduled for release in June 2019, is composed of a whopping 75 percent of Cinsault and 25 percent Syrah. (No Grenache!) The original Cigare was built for longevity and usually had a price tag to match. The longer it takes to get a bottle of wine to market, the more costly the product. Which is why for a generation raised on social media, there’s beer. Eight days, versus five years. You can do that math.
The ever clever Grahm is thus reasoning that he can offer a more affordable wine by speeding up the drinkability. Makes sense to me. Now to the marketing genius. Since forever more the Cigare will be a non-GSM creature, it would be wonderful to have some of the original, yes? Bonny Doon Vineyard now offers a six-pack or 12-pack or six vintages of Le Cigare Volant (2012-2017) for half price. That’s six bottles of Rhone-style elegance for $125! I’ll see you up at the Davenport tasting room! bonnydoonvineyard.com.
In 2015, experimental singer-songwriter Jakob Battick was driving across the country—from Portland, Maine to Berkeley—with his band Afraid. As he traveled through the Arizona desert, blaring Gene Clarke’s classic psych-country album No Other, Battick remembers being blown away. Not typically his favorite form of music, he was inspired by the way the lonely desert landscapes interacted with the surreal rootsy sounds of Clark.
It planted a seed that day that manifested into his debut solo album, To Be Born Again and Again.
“I wanted to make a cosmic American record and take it as far as one could take it,” he says. “I hated when my dad played Hank Williams. I was a little weirdo kid who was into Jesus Lizard and the Birthday Party.”
No one would mistake To Be Born Again and Again for Williams. It’s a few steps away from even anything in the alt-country or psych-country realms. But it’s certainly the closest thing the weirdo, noisy singer-songwriter has come to anything traditional.
The songs are rooted in Americana, but have a slow, dreamy quality. Battick’s baritone is part mystical chant, part exhausted gospel soul singer. The layers of instruments create a wall of numbed out somber washes, even as you make out the pedal steel and acoustic finger pickings.
Battick recorded the album in early 2017, and for a while wasn’t sure he even wanted to release it.
“I came up in a freaky, DIY, noisy-strange kind of punk ethos world. I’ve put out a lot of different records under a lot of different names so far in my life. I never put one out that was this gentle,” Battick says. “I felt uncomfortable about that. I wasn’t sure if that was something I wanted to have attached to my name.”
These songs started to come out when he first moved to Berkeley, and the plan was for it to be released as the next Afraid record. But after recording it, he had a falling out with some of the band members, including one who was his partner. She sang on all the songs.
“Listening back to the songs, it started to strike me how the whole record was really about what had just happened with her. I didn’t know at the time. Sometimes the subconscious has more knowledge about what’s going on than the brain does,” Battick says.
It’s not a sad record though. In fact, it’s probably the most uplifting thing Battick has
ever recorded. The album is about rebirth.
“I’ve made sad music for a long time. To me, it feels joyous. I feel potential. There’s a mournful undercurrent, but I’m happy when I hear it, because it points more toward the future,” Battick says.
His original title at the time was going to be American Dreamer after the Dennis Hopper documentary. He laughs now, realizing what a poor title choice that was, and is happy he went with To Be Born Again and Again, which clearly points to its rebirth/reincarnation elements.
“What a shitty title. Especially under Trump. I wouldn’t want to have a record with ‘American’ on it. It’s such a weird, patriotic title,” Battick says.
The songs are full of potent religious imagery, despite the fact that he has never been religious. For him, there was something safe about using these powerful symbols to express his deeply personal emotions.
“I think the intensity of a lot of those kinds of images, I really gravitate toward those as a person,” Battick says. “I don’t think I’d been in a church until I was on vacation in New York City with my family when I was in my teens. Because of that, none of the dogma is there. So they’re really vivid and interesting and rich in symbolism to me.”
INFO: Jakob Battick performs at 9 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 3 at the Crepe Place, 1134 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. $8. 429-6994.
Jazz can be complex, cerebral music for toe-tapping philosophy majors and high-falutin’ independent filmmakers.
Drummer Sammy Miller thinks it should be uplifting music for everyone, and it should fill your heart with joy. He and his band the Congregation take elements of traditional jazz, gospel, Dixieland and swing, and hammer so much happiness into it, you’ll swear you’ve been held hostage at Disneyland for weeks.
Make sure you check out the smiles on the band members’ faces. It’s not the drugs—music really makes them this happy. Now they’re trying to infect us all with this overwhelming exhilaration.
INFO: 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 8, Kuumbwa, 320-2 Cedar St., Santa Cruz. $28.35/adv, $33.60/door. Information: kuumbwajazz.org.
WANT TO GO?
Go to santacruz.com/giveaways before 11 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 1 to find out how you could win a pair of tickets to the show.
Three things to remember when painting in plein air: don’t touch the canvas, don’t chase the light, and squintingis mandatory.
“Squint to see the shadows,” says local artist Scott Hamill, “or you’ll miss the shapes.” Hamill has been painting outside landscapes en plein air for eight years and living in Santa Cruz for much longer. He’s used to teaching and being distracted while painting and graciously allowed me to join him for a morning of painting along the coast.
“When you’re painting, you have to think of shapes and not things—it’s not a rock, it’s a shape, it’s a shadow,” he says. “When you get away from naming things, then you get away from painting them as rocks or trees and they become brush strokes.”
Hamill paints almost every day, and never runs out of subjects, thanks to the variety of landscapes around the Central Coast. He has a set of extra wide brushes to make sure he can’t get caught up in the details, even if he wants to. “Cover the canvas quick and don’t muddy the colors,” he says between wide brush strokes. I sip my coffee and wonder when the blobs will turn into something more than a shape.
An hour later, the patches of deep brown and strips of blue have turned into a landscape, with crashing foamy waves and a beautifully earthy cliffside. Toggling between the real landscape and his painting, I’m ashamed of my doubt.
Hamill is one of around 40 plein air painters participating in this weekend’s Capitola Plein Air Festival. He’s taken part every year since the event started four years ago and says since the plein air community is relatively tight knit, it’s an opportunity for the painters to say hello while focusing in on one subject matter—Capitola. Plein air artists will be stationed all around the city for three days while visitors come by and watch the paintings come to life.
“With plein air you can start to observe the world in a different way—in a beautiful way,” Hamill says, gesturing to the cliffside. “Look at all of these figures and the yellows and whites and blues that, sure, if you’re on acid you’ll see, but you otherwise wouldn’t. You can start to see those colors when painting and thinking about the world in the way of shapes and colors.”
An important part of plein air painting, Hamill says, is just trying things out, sampling colors and smudging here and there. There are no mistakes, only happy accidents—yes, Bob Ross did say that. Watching plein air painters is part of the joy, it’s not so much a tedious precise work, it’s a dance between light and dark, back and forth. With a flick of the wrist, Hamill hums along while mixing his colors—blues, reds, yellows and squidges of white. He says using a split primary color palette lends itself to more harmony in his work since he has to mix every color he uses.
“There’s no orange or purple or green here, so I have to make them from these colors and you get to the point that it all works. There’s no pop of pink or anything,” he says. “Realism painters on the other hand have like 30 colors and seven reds, and to me that’s engineering. Mixing on the fly is a bit more fun and spontaneous.”
Perfectionists and those with commitment issues need not apply. Or, do apply, but be prepared to loosen up a bit.
“Angles and matching is the opposite of what you want in painting,” he says. “Look at Rembrandt. You won’t see symmetry, because that doesn’t give us opportunity to give us imagination. People can make smudges into what they want, but if you spell it out for them, it doesn’t hold their interest.”
Back up and it’s a landscape, with waves crashing over an outcropping. But get closer and the painting dissolves, breaking apart into color blocks and lines of light and color. The light and conditions have changed considerably since Hamill began painting an hour and a half ago, but the changes don’t affect the final product.
It’s all very romantic until a pelican shits on my backpack. “Thank you, cliffs!” Hamill shouts as he packs up. “Isn’t it great being outside?”
Capitola Plein Air Festival 10 a.m.-2 p.m. peak hours. Nov. 1-4. Artists stationed around Depot Hill, Capitola Village and Beach, along the Esplanade, Wharf, and Riverfront. Competition and sale held 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Nov. 4. New Brighton Middle School Performing Arts Center, 250 Washburn Ave., Capitola. capitolapleinair.com. Free.
The title is ironic. The Happy Prince, a story written for children by Oscar Wilde in 1888, is a gentle parable of love, heartbreak, sacrifice and redemption. And now, actor-turned-filmmaker Rupert Everett borrows the title for his melancholy, wistful, and yet utterly engrossing portrait of Wilde in his troubled final days. Everett wrote and directed the movie, in which he also stars as Wilde.
Once the toast of London, with three smash plays running simultaneously in the West End, and famous for his highly quotable wit, Wilde destroyed himself with an indiscreet affair with beautiful, feckless young Lord Alfred Douglas, whose powerful father had Wilde sent to prison for the crime of sodomy, and put to hard labor for two years. This past is prologue in Everett’s film, which finds the mostly impoverished Wilde in exile on the Continent trying to piece together life after prison. It’s a remarkable portrait of ruined nobility, disturbing in its intensity as it digs beneath both the surface glitz of Wilde’s fizzy celebrity as a dramatist, and his blackened reputation as an infamous sodomite, to explore the complex personality within.
Everett brackets the film with Wilde reading aloud his story of The Happy Prince, first to his own two sons at bedtime, and later to a pair of urchins he consorts with in the Paris garret where he spends his last days—salting in themes of love, beauty, and tragedy throughout the movie. Usually short on cash, Wilde is adept at trading cocaine or sheer bonhomie for what he desires; in one rollicking scene, he climbs to a tabletop and sings a ribald music hall ditty to settle a situation in a bar.
He’s abetted in his post-prison escapades by longtime cohort Reggie Turner (Colin Firth). (Ten points to Gryffindor if you remember Firth and Everett as the louche young Cambridge spies-to-be in Another Country, millennia ago.) Wilde’s loyal literary executor Robbie Ross (Edwin Thomas) joins them for a while, hoping to save his beloved Oscar from himself. And Lord Alfred “Bosie” Douglas himself (the always persuasive Colin Morgan) shows up to spirit Oscar off on an illicit sojourn to Naples—until Bosie’s mother and Oscar’s long-suffering wife (Emily Watson) cut off their respective allowances.
Everett has a lovely eye for atmosphere. His grimy French bistros look like Toulouse-Lautrec paintings come alive. A long shot of ladies and gentlemen in straw hats dining al fresco on a sunny patio in Naples could be a Renoir.
As an openly gay actor who was tired of being offered stereotypical parts (especially after he was such a scene-stealing hit in My Best Friend’s Wedding), Everett has said he wanted to honor Wilde asan icon of gay identity who had everything to lose, yet stayed true to himself. It’s not a portrait of bravery. Everett’s Wilde confesses himself addicted to “vice and pleasure,” and his fatal attraction to doom, yet is unable to regret any of it. In Everett’s view, Wilde’s own hubris also contributed to his fall, believing that his fame and wit and social connections would protect him.
Of course, the film also condemns bigotry and oppression in Wilde’s era. A fascinating footnote tells us that Wilde and hundreds of others convicted of “crimes” of sodomy were officially pardoned by the Crown—but not until 2017!
Everett’s towering performance as Wilde is mesmerizing. Often shot in extreme close-up, we see every millimeter of his dissipation, but also every glimmer of stubborn, ironic wit (“I’m dying beyond my means!”) and hopeful joy as he seizes any chance for momentary balm, after losing his family, his honor and his livelihood. Wilde may be downtrodden, but Everett’s close study of the author’s will to live even his marginalized and chaotic life on his own terms is deeply insightful.
THE HAPPY PRINCE
*** 1/2 (out of four)
With Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, Colin Morgan, and Emily Watson. Written and directed by Rupert Everett. A Sony Classics release. Rated R. 105 minutes.
It’s too early to say exactly what the road ahead looks like for major transportation projects. But the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) has decided who it wants in the driver’s seat.
The RTC announced this week that Seabright resident Guy Preston will be taking over as executive director in place of George Dondero, who’s retiring.
Preston has worked for more than 28 years on managing the construction of transportation projects.
For the past four, Preston worked for California High-Speed Rail Authority, where he oversaw Northern California high-speed rail work. He tells GT that he’s excited to begin his new job and start biking to the RTC’s office in downtown Santa Cruz.
Preston’s first day at the RTC will be Monday, Dec. 3, three days before the earliest date that the commission could vote on how to proceed with solutions outlined inthe Unified Corridor Study (UCS). That study, released last month,lays out four transportation options—each of them a combination of ways to improve various transportation corridors, namely Highway 1, Soquel Drive, Freedom Drive and the rail corridor. The most contentious question in the community continues to be whether or not it’s worthwhile to run a commuter train alongside a bike path down the Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line. Many activists say yes. Others are calling for a bike trail with no train.
Preston has been reviewing the UCS. His background, he argues, will help him implement whatever visions the commission chooses.
GUY PRESTON: I’ve heardboth sides of it. I love the passion that Santa Cruz brings to the table. I wouldn’t want to live in a brain dead community, where people didn’t show that level of enthusiasm, and I look forward to working with all members of our community to make sure that they’re heard, and their opinions do matter.
What’s it like jumping into the RTC at this juncture? On the one hand, with a vote looming on this big study, it’s the perfect pivot moment for the commission to bring in a new leader. In another way, it sounds like a grueling first week of work.
I actually look at it as a wonderful time to come in because the commission is really transitioning from being more a planning organization to one that’s expected to deliver projects. I have a lot of project delivery experience, so I think it’s a wonderful opportunity to come in after thesales tax measure has passed, after the studies have been done, to focus myself on delivering the actual improvements.
Why did you take this job?
I do live locally in Santa Cruz. I’ve worked in transportation my entire life. I worked previously for a transportation authority, similar to RTC. This was an opportunity for me to apply my skillset to my local community and improve transportation in the region.
What’s some lower-hanging fruit that county leaders might be able to use to reduce travel times or congestion?
They’re already working on a lot of those solutions right now. What they hope to do on Highway 1, with respect to the auxiliary lanes, is a good idea to improve traffic flow on the highway itself. I’m really thrilled with what they’re doing with Monterey Bay Sanctuary Scenic Trail. It’s amazing to see how many people get on their bikes to get around, to get home. To continue moving in that direction and deliver the projects that are already underway is a great start.
How much have you followed topics at the RTC?
I’ve readsome of your articles, I think. I’ve read some ofJondi’s articles. We’ve subscribed to the Sentinel. I see the lawn signs. I’m aware of it, but I haven’t been attending public meetings. I’ve been trying to stay out of the fray, so to speak. I’ve had a part-time job that’s been keeping me quite busy, but I’m aware of the issues and ready to come in and see how my skill set can best be used to deliver projects. I’m aware of them, but I don’t have an agenda. I come in pretty neutral and wanting to listen to listen to everybody.
I’d like to see as many people get out of their cars as possible. There is a parking problem downtown for sure. I found myself not being able to find parking when there’s a Warrior game going or a concert at the Civic center. But there are additional options that people should consider, including transit. There’s a lot of bus service that goes into the transit center. I’m really impressed by how much utilization the bike share program has developed. I see thosered bikes everywhere, andit’s great. It’s really up to the City Council to make decisions on parking for Santa Cruz proper, but I intend to fully support them and help them out wherever it is needed.
Do you see a roadmap for increasing ridership on Santa Cruz Metro buses, and does the RTC have a role in that?
Provide the service people need. Have the routes going to where the trips are going to be generated. Often people will say the best advertisement for mass transit is congestion, so the more frustrated people get, by getting stuck in traffic and not being able to find parking, is really the best advertisement for public transit. I plan on studying up on it and learning more about what works and what doesn’t.
Editor’s note: This story was first published in ‘Dilated Pupil,’ an annual magazine about student culture in Santa Cruz.
David Brissenden used to hate edibles. But the chef and owner of local cannabis food company Cosmo D’s Outrageous Edibles has come a long way from the stale weed brownies that first soured him on the experience. Today, he sells high-end weed-infused chocolate bars and rice krispies in dozens of stores throughout California.
Before he was making cannabis confections topped with goji berries, shredded coconut and other gourmet ingredients, the Sacramento native learned to cook at his family’s Byington Winery in the Santa Cruz Mountains. A knack for French and Italian cuisine paved the way to a career in catering.
It was in 2016, just as Prop 64 was reshaping the legal cannabis landscape, that Brissenden decided to switch gears and embrace a radical streak that has always included intense skepticism about the politics of weed. In an interview edited for length and clarity, he talked activism, adapting to a newly above-ground market, and how to set up an assembly line capable of cranking out 10,000 edibles a month.
GT: I heard you used to live in a tree.
BRISSENDEN: Yeah. I went off to college, up to Humboldt, and got kicked out of the dorms for being a little rebel. So I moved out into the trees. I went out and there was a fallen tree, old growth. I burned it, cut it out. Kind of old school.
There was this book I read, My Side of the Mountain. It was one of my favorite books, about a little kid who went out and survived in the wilderness on his own, ran away from home. I just lived out in the forest. It was a little double decker, so I could sleep up in one spot and have my little kitchen area down on the bottom where the dirt was.
What were you studying in Humboldt?
Sociology was my major, and poli sci was my minor. I was heavy into politics. I started a zine called Instant Mind Orgasm, and it took off. It was cool. Political, against “The Man.” And against CAMP—the Campaign Against Marijuana Production. They always had helicopters flying around back then.
How did that time shape your perspective on cannabis?
I got out and was just angry. I wrote about CAMP and the policies of prohibition. It had nothing to do with people getting stoned. It had everything to do with paper products and cotton products and fiberglass and plastics. Ford had just discovered that you could make a car out of hemp, and he made one. My Hazy Hazelnut box has a quote about that.
So I came down here, worked with Ben Rice on Proposition 215. I campaigned for Ralph Nader. I was doing Save the Salmon, Save Our Shores, whatever I could get my hands on. Then I just got burned. Left or right, they won’t talk about the real issues going on out there, because it’s all bought and paid for. So I became a chef.
When did you actually learn how to cook?
When I came home from college on summer breaks I would cater. I started working with the chefs at the winery. When I was 23, I thought I knew everything, so I started my own company. It was called Creative Cuisine in Saratoga. And then I realized, “Wait, I don’t know everything,” so I sold it and became a dishwasher. Started all over.
So how did you go from there to edibles?
I’d been a chef, working my way up. I was at one spot, Catered Too, for 12 years. I was executive chef, cooking for 3,000 people a day. I was making good money, bought a house for my wife and two kids. Two weeks later, I lost my job. It was 2015—the best thing that ever happened to me. I couldn’t get ahold of my alcoholism. I was still pissed off that there were all these political issues that had never been resolved, plus the stress of trying to provide. I never went to culinary school, which was one of my biggest mental blockers. But you know, I did it. I went to meetings and quit drinking.
I was trying to get a job, dealing with unemployment, and one day, someone came over and was like, “Why don’t you try this butter?” He said, “It’s an edible,” and I was like, “No, don’t make me try it. It gives me anxiety.” He was like, “Try a little bit,” and I did. I was like, “Oh.” It calmed me down. I didn’t get stoned. So I started experimenting with it. I didn’t have money, so I was making my own and came up with these chocolate bars. It was 2016, Trump and Hillary were battling it out, and I was like, “Smokescreen! I’m gonna go start an edible company.”
How did you start experimenting with recipes?
I had this recipe, pan de chocolate. It’s a Spanish recipe, chocolate and butter. You melt the chocolate down and you add the butter, then you chill it, usually in a mold. You serve it with grilled bread, sea salt, fruits and nuts. I was like, “Why don’t I just use canna butter?” It was Thanksgiving 2016, so I used hazelnuts, pistachios, cranberries. Hazy Hazelnut. People were like, “Dude, this is so good.”
So you were starting up in legal limbo, basically?
Yeah. Prop 64 had passed, but the rules weren’t out yet. I had the chocolate in a bag. It was like a Reese’s peanut butter cup, so it was really hard to dose. People got sooo high. I really made a name for myself, like, “These Cosmo D’s are fucking fire.”
Where was your kitchen?
I had met a woman who owned a gluten-free kitchen called In The Breadbox, and she was talking about going to a cannabis kitchen. But for like six months, I cooked in my kitchen. My wife hated it. I had chocolate everywhere. I was in the garage cooking butter. The neighbors were like, “Dude, it reeks!” But most of that was for the feedback—“this is too strong,” “that looks ugly,” whatever.
Why were you interested in edibles? Had you had good ones before, or was the idea to do something different?
Like a lot of people, I’d had a horrible experience on edibles and promised to never eat them again.
What did you eat?
Some brownies that were left out. I had tasted some of the edibles out there that were just dry. The vegan ones? Oh, god. One bar was good, but I thought I could take this to the next level. You’ve got all these foodie bloggers. It’s California—people want good food. If cannabis is going to be a regulated market, why not? The key that I had was that I know how to scale, because all of these gourmet edibles are coming out that are $50. Ours is $20.
How many bars do you make a month?
Right now we’re at about 10,000. I used to feed 3,000 people a day. It’s all about scalability—assembly line. I can make 2,000 units a day. I want to move up to 4,000 a day. But you’re doing them one at a time. I do a sheet tray with four molds, which is 16 bars. You pour the chocolate in, shake it, let it sit. Another person levels it, so it’s an exact amount every time. Then another person tops it and that goes in the walk-in. It gets popped, wrapped, put in a box, taped and boom! Organized.
Every amount of medicine that goes in there is verified by two people. Before, it would just be like, “Oh, that looks right.” If you want to do a food item for the mass market, that’s how you have to do it. Nestle and Hershey’s aren’t, like, sitting in a garage.
What are the most popular flavors?
The Hazy Hazelnut, man, I have to get you one. I had four chocolates, then everyone was like, “You have to come out with rice krispies.” I wanted to do gourmet. But I did it, and it was like a bestseller. I called it snickerdoodle and added that flavor to it, but now it’s the hardest one to get past the test. Chocolates are in a mold, so every time, I know it’s the exact same amount.
How has your taste-testing evolved since the early days? Any big mistakes?
My extra-toasted coconut used to just be called toasted coconut. I make my own canna-caramel for it. The first time I made it, I got so high. My wife was like, “I told you not to get so high around the kids!” I was like, ‘“Babe, I’m so sorry.” I was trying to not spin, so I was doing this weird thing all over the floor. I was like, “I swear it’s an accident.” She said, “You always say it’s an accident.” So I changed the recipe. She said fine, but we’re changing the name to extra-toasted coconut.
What have been the biggest lessons from legalization?
The biggest lesson to me is to be patient, and to get help. So many people are used to the black market that they didn’t understand you need to go to the courthouse, you need to go to these policy meetings—normal business stuff. Being self-funded was another difficult thing. What saved me was knowing I had to market myself. People told me to get an Instagram account, so I did. Now, it’s not my only market. Do I want the stiletto stoners, or the 55-and-uppers? Or people who are on Instagram?
Will there be new flavors in the future?
I did a pumpkin gingersnap, which we’re about to bring back.
So more seasonal flavors?
Yeah, but we still have to go through the whole process, so it’s a huge ordeal. I have a CBD line coming out. I have hard candies. I have dog food. What I’m also hearing a lot is tourists are coming through town, and they want to buy multiple things. If I could make one of these that’s 30mg and sell it for way less, that’s another thing. It’s all based on feedback. Sugar-free? Okay. Small dose? Okay. If you listen to what the market wants, then you’ll thrive.
For this week’s cover story, I interviewed Lile O. Cruse’s wife Michele Rivard while she was driving to a family wedding. She had her GPS directions on, and every once in a while the voice of Google Maps would startle us both, suddenly filling my phone speaker.
“So what do you think Lile’s legacy should be?” I asked her at one point about her husband, who defined a generation of music and theater at Cabrillo College before passing away on Aug. 23.
“FINDING A NEW ROUTE,” came the loud, monotone answer.
“That wasn’t me,” said Rivard. “That was the car.”
“‘Finding a new route is a pretty good answer though,” I said, as we both chuckled.
“Yeah,” she said thoughtfully. “It actually is.”
Rivard’s real answer was much more moving, and you’ll find it in the story. But for some reason, I keep thinking about the wisdom of the GPS. Cruse certainly did forge a new path for Cabrillo College, both in music and theater. And the bottom line is that he changed many lives, launched many careers and just made people feel lucky that he was in their lives. That so many of those people have come together to produce and perform in the show celebrating his life this weekend is perhaps the ultimate testament to that. His legacy will live on.
I was just reading the e-cigarette article in the latest issue, and I had to come write immediately to ask how it’s possible that GT could publish such a biased piece? How could Hugh McCormick not even touch on the great numbers of teens who are addicted to e-cigs, and the egregious fruity-flavor marketing campaigns of the manufacturers? Well, he did touch on “scary stories about … grade schoolers getting hooked,” but in a brushing-off way. If Hugh wants to enlighten the public on their smoking cessation benefits, he needs to tell the whole story about e-cigs. Hugh just gave an endorsement of e-cigs, and now people can feel good about their vaping choices since they read about their safety and benefits in the Wellness section of the local free paper.
EHF
Santa Cruz
Bicycle-Friendly Vision
In last week’s Good Times, Greenway took issue with Bike Santa Cruz County’s vision statement: “Bicycling in Santa Cruz County is a safe, respected, convenient, and enjoyable form of transportation and recreation for people of all ages and abilities.”
Bike Santa Cruz County stands firmly behind that vision, working every day for the past 27 years toward that future through advocacy, education, and community-building. We do this because we strongly believe that our county can become a top-tier bicycling environment that is safe and comfortable for all.
We certainly don’t believe that we have achieved this vision, as Greenway seems to suggest. However, we do take great pride in what we have been able to accomplish as a community working toward a common goal. We are proud to have had a significant role in a long list of infrastructure improvements for cyclists: the Arana Gulch bicycle/pedestrian trail; the UCSC bicycle trail; bike racks on Metro buses; bike lanes and green lanes on Beach, High, Front and Bay Streets, as well as Soquel Avenue; green lanes at highway overcrossings; the Highway 1 bike and pedestrian bridge at High Street; the Pacific Avenue contraflow bike lane; and $86 million in Measure D funding for the Coastal Rail Trail.
We further recognize the need to invest in people and programs, not just in paint and asphalt. We take great pride in our programmatic work which includes our Earn-a-Bike program that delivers bikes to Watsonville, Live Oak, and Santa Cruz youth-in-need; Open Streets events in Watsonville and Santa Cruz; support for Vision Zero across Santa Cruz County; and more than 200 community events and bike rides in the past 10 years.
Building support for bike infrastructure is challenging. To build that support, we work closely with other organizations, bike advocates, pedestrians, motorists, and community leaders. To be effective, we find that we must listen to these stakeholders, respect their work and opinions, and find ways to support each other to achieve common goals. In that spirit, we remain open to working with Greenway in order to advance the vision of better cycling for everyone in Santa Cruz County.
Janneke Strause
Executive Director, Bike Santa Cruz County
Value Voiced
Congratulations to the real community servants who vocalized the value of the Second Story Respite House and financially gifted the continuity of its operation. The community spoke with one voice and acted at all levels to maintain this gem of behavioral health care. The community now should come forward with oversight support to polish and multiply this respite house gem. Do not let its fate fall back into the abyss of uninformed senior county and Encompass management decisions that occur in the darkness of secrecy.
John P. Dietz
Scotts Valley
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GOOD IDEA
The Association of Environmental and Outdoor Education’s Northern California branch awarded Nick Bischoff of the Ramblin’ Adventure Club its 2018 Environmental Educator of the Year award this past weekend. Bischoff is a certified California naturalist and a three-year employee at Ramblin’. The after-school program and hiking club has its own unique curriculum, providing a safe learning experience throughout Santa Cruz County’s wide-ranging wilderness.
GOOD WORK
A state grant has allowed Santa Cruz County mental health workers to double down on prevention and diversion services with a program that includes additional staff, downtown outreach, pre-trial and in-custody programs, and mental health liaison workers. A recent third-party evaluation showed a 79 percent increase in contacts with program participants. That resulted in a 74 percent reduction in jail bookings and a 90 percent reduction in convictions. For the 160 participants, this represents a savings in excess of $2 million in jail costs alone.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“There’s a place for us, somewhere a place for us. Peace and quiet and open air wait for us.”
Abalone is pretty intimidating for those not used to cooking with shellfish at home, and it can become really tough if not cooked right. Join the American Abalone Farm in Davenport and Chef Eric Adema in preparing five dishes, including the classic meuniere-style (dusted with flour and pan-fried in brown butter, chopped parsley, and lemon), abalone fritters, grilled abalone and shaved fennel salad, ceviche and chowder. Each dish will be paired with wines for an all-out abalone feast.
INFO: 6-8:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 25. New Leaf Community Market, 1101 Fair Ave., Santa Cruz. 426-1306. newleaf.com. $45/two for $80.
Art Seen
Santa Cruz Symphony’s ‘Rites of Spring’
Santa Cruz Symphony’s second program of the season is inspired by La Belle Époque, a time characterized by optimism, regional peace, economic prosperity, and a flourishing period of the arts before World War I. The evening begins with Debussy’s “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun,” followed by Stravinsky’s revolutionary “The Rite of Spring” and Gershwin’s “An American in Paris.”
INFO: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 27. Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium, 307 Church St., Santa Cruz. 420-5260. santacruzsymphony.org. $31.50-$102.50.
Saturday 10/27
‘An Israeli and Palestinian/Jordanian Tell Their Stories’
Shlomit Manneberg and Muna Alsheikh were born and raised in the Middle East amid political, religious and cultural turmoil. They wanted to know why war was happening all around them, and embarked on a journey to learn about what it means to be “the enemy” and letting go of anger and fear. They turned their experiences into their livelihoods, and promote peace-building, reconciliation and cross-cultural connection in educational outreach and events. They are hosting an open conversation around the idea of the enemy and conflict locally, where they will share their own experiences and invite the community to participate in a Q&A.
INFO: 7-9 p.m. Resource Center for Nonviolence, 612 Ocean St., Santa Cruz. 423-1626. rcnv.org. $10-$20 donation requested, no one turned away for lack of funds.
Saturday 10/27
22nd Annual Strike Out Against Cancer
October is national breast cancer awareness month, and WomenCARE is taking pledges for their bowling fundraiser. Last year participants raised $68,500, so this year the bar is a bit higher, at $70,000. There’s no bowling experience required—all bumper bowlers are very welcome. There are three rounds of games, with each team member collecting pledges and bowling in one game, maximum of five per team. Those unable to attend can create a virtual team online and collect pledges to help strike out cancer.
Twenty-one youth plaintiffs are suing the federal government for destroying their future by destroying the environment. The suit was filed in 2015, and despite repeated requests by both the Obama and Trump administration to throw the case out, it is scheduled to go to trial in Oregon on Oct. 29. The plaintiffs, ages 10 to 21, say that because the government has failed to stop the use of fossil fuels in the last 50 years, they are denying them their right to a life-sustaining climate in the future. Santa Cruz community members will be joining rallies at federal courts across the country on Monday to show support for the plaintiffs.
INFO: 3-6 p.m. Santa Cruz Courthouse. 701 Ocean St., Santa Cruz. 704-6529. youthvgov.org. Free.
I was thrilled to attend the grand opening and release party of Lester Estate Wines recently when they showcased their Pinot Noir, Rosé of Syrah and Chardonnay that day. I was impressed with all of them, but chose their 2016 Chardonnay ($45) to highlight here as it’s truly spectacular.
John Benedetti is the winemaker for the estate Chardonnay, which has a delicate nose of jasmine and white peach—along with a mélange of apricot, kiwi and lemon curd. All of these delicious flavors come together in a lush, mouth-coating richness, resulting in a lingering complex finish.
Lester Estate family members Lori and Steve Johnson both work extremely hard to showcase their wines—with Steve acting as “brand ambassador.” Well-known local viticulturalist Prudy Foxx oversees the vineyards and Keiki McKay takes care of marketing.
Lester Family Vineyards is known far and wide for growing premium grapes—always in demand by local wineries. Nestled in a bucolic setting on Pleasant Valley Road in Aptos, the Lesters’ Deer Park Ranch is a stunning place to visit. The late Dan Lester and his wife Patty Lester envisioned how wonderful it would be to grow grapes and make the best wine possible—and their dream is now fulfilled. As well as Chardonnay, Lester Ranch also produces excellent Pinot Noir and a bright and beautiful Rosé of Syrah—all available by allocation due to limited quantities.
The Lester family’s release party was a splendid event, with tasting room manager Frank Cates overseeing the day’s happenings. A healthy buffet was served by Lia Adams Events, and accomplished local musician Ken Constable played guitar.
The icing on the cake is that the estate will now be open at certain times for private and semi-private tastings. Up to 10 guests will enjoy a seated tasting featuring a five-wine flight ($25 per person)—the next dates being Nov. 10 and Dec. 8 at 11 a.m., 1 p.m. or 3 p.m. Check their website for some possible events around the holidays. Their wines are stunning—and just perfect for your Thanksgiving table.
Lester Estate Wines, 2010 Pleasant Valley Road, Aptos, 728-3793 or contact them by email at in**@le***************.com to schedule a reservation.
