Page 660 – Good Times

Gordo Gustavo’s Cooks Up BBQ Expansion Plan

Georgia Johnson

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October 2, 2018

Gordo Gustavo’s Cooks Up BBQ Expansion Plan

Gordo Gustavo’s just upgraded from a market stall to a food truck a year ago, and now the team is ready to make things more permanent. Owner Austin Towne says he’s looking for locations to open a restaurant, a Tex-Mex joint with a full bar, if everything goes his way.

This will come as welcome news for Gordo’s die-hards, who patiently wait in line at the farmers market every week for their smokey barbecue fix. Someone on Yelp summarized it beautifully: “I stopped going to church and just started going to Gordo Gustavo’s, because that’s all the church I ever need.” Cue brisket sando with homemade pickles and pork breakfast sandwich with bacon and an egg … preach.

But good barbecue isn’t easy, and Towne is no stranger to working 90-hour weeks. He and his staff make everything but the bread and tortillas—all local, organic and super fresh. He casually lists off menu ideas like blue corn tortillas and tamales with brisket drippings instead of lard (*wipes drool off chin*). Someone please get this guy a non-mobile place to cook already.

A lot has changed since the Gordo’s market stall a few years ago, huh?

AUSTIN TOWNE: Now it’s turned into something where people count on me to cure their hangover on Sundays. Last weekend we were gone, and people hit me up like “hey really needed you this morning.” It’s funny, it’s such a silly path, and was so unexpected. We really enjoy it, that’s my biggest thing—even when we have rough days, we are still laughing and having fun. We have two flat-tops now with the truck, and much more space, which makes a big difference.

Even with that space it’s still not enough; we are constantly moving forward. A new place is the appropriate move, but I’ve gotten used to being told no in Santa Cruz, so I’m being optimistic and have a few other projects going on.

You’ve got lots of veggie options, way more than you used to.

In Santa Cruz you have to cover all of the bases to make things work. If it were up to me, I’d do true farm-to-bowl, and break down one whole animal where everything gets used. What’s cool is the farmers market is its own community; I can see what’s coming into season and work with the farmers around.

If I get to open my dream spot and do Tex-Mex, I know whole hogs won’t be for everyone, we’ll still have separate vegetarian options, because that’s important here.

Gordo Gustavo’s is at most farmers markets. gordogustavos.com.

Love Your Local Band: Backyard Birds

Aaron Carnes

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October 2, 2018

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Jean Catino and her neighbor Linda Baker like to sing together. They met in the local ukulele scene, along with June Coha, who they also liked to sing with. The three women enjoyed singing together so much that they played a gig as a trio last May in Davenport as the Backyard Birds.

It went so well that they quickly added Larry Prather and Linc Russin, and began playing more shows.

“I don’t think there was a big plan behind it. Every little development that happened day by day was like, ‘whoa, this is great,’” Catino says. “I’ve been around long enough to know that things don’t necessarily last forever. I’m grateful for every new opportunity that we get. I don’t think there was ever a long-range plan. But it’s evolved really nicely.”

The group currently plays strictly covers, and does them in acoustic renditions accented by the gorgeous, multi-layered harmonies from the women. In terms of choosing songs, they look for obscure gems like “Going Back to Harlan” by Anna McGarrigle, “Emmylou” by First Aid Kit and “Reflecting Light” by Stan Phillips.

“It was really about finding great songs that worked with our voices. The theory behind choosing songs is to try to find things that are not obvious—not necessarily well-known, but great songs,” Catino says. “It’s more trying to give exposure to some of these great songs maybe people haven’t heard, or haven’t heard lately.”

INFO: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, October 10. Michael’s on Main, 2591 S Main St., Soquel. $10. 479-9777.

Film Festival’s ‘Rise’ a Santa Cruz Story that Had to Be Told

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October 2, 2018

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Film Festival’s ‘Rise’ a Santa Cruz Story that Had to Be Told

“There’s a certain artifice to making a song. But there are certain things that go beyond artifice; there are certain things you can’t fake. And that genuine quality, that emotional honesty, that’s so evident from note one when Billy opens his mouth to sing. There’s no fourth wall. I mean, you are in there. He’s laying it all out on the table.”

—John Schaefer, WNYC DJ, in ‘Rise: The Story of Augustines’

The new music documentary Rise: The Story of Augustines starts with the Brooklyn rock band at the height of its success, appearing on The Late Show With David Letterman while riding a wave of acclaim and popularity after the release of the 2011 album Rise Ye Sunken Ships.

But pretty quickly, the film takes Augustines frontman William McCarthy all the way back to his childhood in scenes shot around the places he grew up in Santa Cruz County. It was a trip he wasn’t entirely prepared for.

“Oh my god, it was crazy,” McCarthy tells me by phone from London, where he’s just attended the sold-out screenings of the Rise world premiere at the Raindance Film Festival. “I grew up in Santa Cruz and Watsonville. We went back to my trailer park in Watsonville and found my trailer. It’s pretty weird when you see it in the movie; I’m huge compared to this trailer. But when I was a little kid, I didn’t even know it was a trailer. I didn’t know we lived in a trailer park! I just thought everyone’s houses had wheels on them.”

McCarthy speaks with a disarming mix of enthusiasm and glee that only adults who are still truly in touch with their inner child can manifest. It’s a quality that has fueled his best songwriting—first in the band Pela, which came up with the National and TV on the Radio in the early-2000s Brooklyn scene, and then with Augustines—allowing him to reach dizzying heights of confessional earnestness that connected with fans around the world. But reaching back to that younger self also has a lot of risks for McCarthy, who lays out the story of his difficult childhood in Rise: his mother struggled with schizophrenia and heroin addiction, which eventually led to her children being placed in foster homes. He and his brother James were relocated to Placer County.

“What was weird about Santa Cruz in the ’80s when I grew up was it was sort of this beautiful mellow beach town, but it also had this really gnarly darkness to it,” says McCarthy. “They took me away because my mother ended up being a panhandler in Santa Cruz. We could have stayed there, but I think they didn’t want us to see this underbelly any longer, because my mother had gotten completely swept up in it. I feel bad, because my sister went to high school in Santa Cruz, and she had to see my mom homeless. It’s heartbreaking to me.”

His mother committed suicide; he would eventually lose his brother to mental illness and suicide, as well, just as Pela was breaking up. How he came to channel the pain around his family tragedies into the album Rise Ye Sunken Ships—and especially the breakout anthem “Book of James”—is the story at the heart of Rise.

“It was difficult, because there were so many layers to the Augustines story,” says the film’s director Todd Howe. “You have a band that had a great record, and their live shows were undeniable, and there was a backstory to that record which had another couple of layers. When we made the decision to tell the story around the arc of the conception to the completion of Rise Ye Sunken Ships, I think that’s when it all kind of changed. Bill’s life story is part of that record, and the Augustines story really is from day one of Bill’s life.”

Howe and McCarthy became friends while Howe was lead guitarist for the London rock band the Boxer Rebellion. “When I met Todd, he was on the crest of his wave of success,” says McCarthy. “He’d been in this movie with Drew Barrymore [Going the Distance], and the whole premise of the movie was that Drew Barrymore and this guy meet at a Boxer Rebellion show. I didn’t really know anyone who had that going on with their band, so we had a lot to talk about. And then we toured together, and Todd was actually a really large part of getting Augustines going.”

After Howe got married and left the Boxer Rebellion when he moved to the U.S. in 2014, he decided he wanted to make a documentary about McCarthy’s life—though he had no filmmaking experience whatsoever.

“I woke up one morning, and that’s when it hit me: not only was it just a beautifully compelling story, but it had every element possible that would make it a great documentary, if I did it right and didn’t mess it up,” says Howe. “I made every mistake in the book, I learned how to make a film on this film, and I’m very thankful they had the patience to allow me so much time to make it.”

Rise is also a fascinating look into the perils of being an indie rock band in the 21st century. Because of his close relationships with not only McCarthy, but also the other members of Augustines, Eric Sanderson (who had also been in Pela) and Rob Allen, Howe was able to elicit stark and compelling insights in his interviews.

“They really did not hold back,” says Howe. “They all wear their hearts on their sleeve. It’s all out there.”

What emerges is a portrait of a band that swings between desperation and exhilaration. There are times (in the Pela years, at least) when they are selling out shows they can’t afford to get themselves to. There are people telling McCarthy that his songs saved their lives, even as he struggles to figure out if Augustines can afford to continue. But looking back, McCarthy believes the intensity of those times also made it possible for him to write songs like “Book of James.”

“Whenever you’re doing art because you have to, when you’re doing art to survive, you’re getting so close to the essence of expression. Because it’s not, ‘Well, on the weekend if I get around to it, if I have some spare time, I’ll do it,’” he says. “It’s ‘I have to do this, otherwise I think a part of me will die.’ It’s a completely different energy. That song was written with that kind of energy.”

It’s also what makes the band’s story so inspirational, says Howe. “I love the lyric ‘Let go of all your ghosts, or more will come around,’” he says, quoting the Augustines song “Now You Are Free. “And Bill also said that you can’t be married to struggle, you have to keep a little bit of yourself open to the possibility that you might get to where you always wanted to go.”

RISE: THE STORY OF AUGUSTINES will have its U.S. premiere at the Santa Cruz Film Festival at 9:15 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 6 at the Courtyard Theater at the Tannery Arts Center. William McCarthy and Todd Howe will be in attendance. For more information, go to santacruzfilmfestival.org.

Don’t miss our top 5 picks for the 2018 Santa Cruz Film Festival.

60 Comics, 11 Venues: A Guide to the Santa Cruz Comedy Festival

Wallace Baine

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October 2, 2018

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60 Comics, 11 Venues: A Guide to the Santa Cruz Comedy Festival

No one who is paying any attention to the national political situation, or the gradual escalation of climate change, or the ever rising cost of housing in California is likely to believe that 2019 will somehow have more laughs than 2018.

But, at least in Santa Cruz, one guy believes it. In fact, he’s going to make it happen.

He’s the stand-up comic known as DNA, and for more than a decade he’s been doggedly working toward a goal that he hopes will finally come to fruition on New Year’s Eve: his own comedy club.

This weekend, Oct. 4-7, DNA will preside over the fifth annual Santa Cruz Comedy Festival, when once again almost every flat surface in downtown Santa Cruz will feature a comedian attempting to entertain a crowd. For those keeping score, that’s 60 comics at 11 venues, beginning Thursday, Oct. 4 with a kick-off party at the Blue Lagoon, and running through Sunday, Oct. 6 with a finale, also at the Blue Lagoon, featuring Comedy Central regular Kyle Kinane.

After that, DNA will turn his attention to the opening of DNA’s Comedy Lab and Experimental Theater in the space formerly occupied by the Regal Riverfront Twin theater in downtown Santa Cruz.

The Comedy Lab will not be a traditional comedy club, says its future impresario. “That’s not really who I am,” he says. “I’m not the owner of the Bada Bing. I’m not that comfortable in that environment.”

For months, DNA had been evaluating the retail property once occupied by Radio Shack on Soquel Avenue, a space that would have lent itself to a traditional comedy club. The former Riverfront Twin, by contrast, is an old movie house with one 400-seat theater and another 200-seater. DNA plans to use the larger space to host stand-up comics, locals and Bay Area comics as well as nationally recognized names. In the smaller room, he’ll bring in experimental and avant garde theater productions.

In past years at the Comedy Festival, DNA has staged the kind of offbeat theater/sketch comedy that he’s interested in bringing to the new venue. Last year, the festival included a staged representation of an old Twilight Zone episode, as well as DNA’s own original concept called The Last Late Night Show, in which a TV talk show grappled with impending planetary doom on the last night on Earth, “you know, just like the band playing on the deck of the Titanic as it sunk.”

As examples of the kinds of productions he would be interested in, DNA pointed to a play about the life of rock star Alice Cooper or an all-female adaptation of Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs. “We have a very strong theater community here,” he says, “but I don’t often see things to my taste, which runs toward a little more strange and weird.”

As far as the stand-up comedy element goes, the Comedy Lab will attempt to takes its place in the Northern California comedy circuit, which includes Cobb’s Comedy Club or the Punchline in San Francisco, or Rooster T. Feather’s in Sunnyvale. Many of the comics who have performed at the Comedy Festival in recent years are vets of the Bay Area comedy circuit.

“I think we can be a stop on that circuit,” says DNA. “When a big headliner comes to Cobb’s or the Punchline on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday night, we can probably get them to come down for a Sunday, Monday or Tuesday show. But every Thursday, Friday and Saturday, we’ll have shows.”

While including brand-name comics when it can get them, the new club will mostly feature working comics that operate below mainstream awareness. As an analogy, DNA points to beer. “People really enjoy their microbrews. Sure, there are the national brands out there, but these smaller, uncommon brewers, they have their fans too. That’s the kind of comedy I like, the smaller names, the ones you haven’t heard of yet,” he says. “I’ll be bringing in the people you’ll hear about tomorrow or five years from now. Isn’t that exciting, to see someone early on in their career?”

Additionally, the new club will give local would-be comedians a chance to showcase their material with occasional “Funniest Person in Santa Cruz” or “Funniest Person at UC Santa Cruz” evenings. “My motto,” says DNA, “is that I want to build community through laughter.”

Before coming to Santa Cruz in the early 2000s, DNA ran his own club in Chico, bringing live comedy and other programming to a turn-of-the-century vaudeville house. For more than a decade now, he’s been in Santa Cruz programming comedy in a number of venues including the Poet and the Patriot, Rosie McCann’s, the Kuumbwa Jazz Center and the Blue Lagoon. In its fifth year, the Comedy Festival has grown to accommodate more venues, including Pure Pleasure, Streetlight Records and, a first for this year, Bookshop Santa Cruz.

Stand-up comedy is a relatively new art form that is experiencing a pivotal moment in its cultural history. The Lenny Bruce/George Carlin mode of speak-truth-to-power comedy has infiltrated the late-night platform popularized by Johnny Carson to create a chorus of late-night hosts with stand-up chops who have become central and influential voices in America’s ongoing political debates. At the highest levels, comics have attained nearly mythological rock-star status in American culture from the beloved (Robin Williams) to the reviled (Bill Cosby). At the same time, stand-up seems to be everywhere, particularly on the internet where YouTube catalogs the battalions of comics working the circuits and Netflix showcases comics who are working with innovative forms such as Bo Burnham and Hannah Gadsby.

This expanding cultural power of stand-up comedy means that maybe young people are climbing on open-mic stages with the same kind of frequency that they were forming bands a generation or two ago. DNA says that few art forms can provide the electrical charge of live comedy, and in an increasingly mediated world, audiences recognize that power.

“There is an uptick in live entertainment right now, because people are hungry for the truth,” he says. “They’re hungry for something that is not adulterated, pre-packaged, homogenized, masticated for your consumption. Live comedy is raw. What happens is real. A live audience is the living organism of what’s going on in the room at any show. And being a part of that live audience changes you, I think, on a molecular level. I think it rearranges your brain on how you relate being part of a society. It’s great to watch stuff on your phone and on Netflix and all of that. But you’re not part of anything. You’re just alone having light shot into your eyes.”

Top 5 for Comedy Fest

The Santa Cruz Comedy Festival has so much stuff in both volume and variety that it can be a bit intimidating to negotiate if you’ve never been before. But you don’t have to be a victim of what psychologists call “choice overload.” The culmination of the festival is Saturday night’s All-Star Showcase at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center. But there are a lot of other cool things, too. Here are five of the festival’s highlights. For more info, go to standupsantacruz.com.

Stand Up Santa Cruz: The Movie: The Comedy Festival and the Santa Cruz Film Festival collide in the form of this entertaining new documentary that offers a street-level view of the scruffy, bizarro world of Santa Cruz comedy and the misfits that populate it, written and narrated by Comedy Festival impresario DNA. “One thing you might notice,” DNA deadpans early on in the film, “is that cannabis is legal in Santa Cruz. Not only is it legal, it’s mandatory to get through the day.” If you’re curious about “barberoke,” or the corndog hustle in Santa Cruz, it’s a must-see. Friday, 9:15 p.m. Tannery Arts Center.

Vegan Comedy Showcase: To carnivorous snobs everywhere, vegans and comedy are two circles that never quite touch. But long-time vegan DNA ain’t havin’ it: “You know who can’t take a joke—it’s meat eaters,” he says. Testing that theory will be a number of meat-free comics including irascible New York Eddie “Bitter Buddha” Pepitone, who often makes Lewis Black look like a mellow hippie. Saturday, 8 p.m. Blue Lagoon. $25 advance; $30 at the door.

Four Authors, Four Comics, One Night: Bookshop Santa Cruz joins the list of venues for the Comedy Festival this year with this oh-so-literary evening featuring comics Alison Littman, Robert Berry, DNA and Keith Lowell Jensen, who will be discussing his new book Punching Nazis and Other Good Ideas, a collection of essays about his experience in the Sacramento punk-rock scene and his encounters with white supremacists and Nazis. Cue nervous laughter. Saturday, 5 p.m., Bookshop Santa Cruz, free.

Pure Pleasure Comedy: If you’re not familiar with the wares on sale at Pure Pleasure, think twice before inviting your grandmother along for a shopping excursion. The Santa Cruz sex toy shop will be the site for a comedy show featuring (mostly) female performers, including headliner Emily Van Dyke, who says she’s not always comfortable in sex shops. “Do you have any bondage gear that billows?” Saturday, 8 p.m., Pure Pleasure, Cooper Street, Santa Cruz. $25 advance; $30 at the door.

Comedy Brunch: Even though it’s universally popular (who doesn’t like brunch?) the Comedy Festival gives its audiences an incentive to eat great food on a sleepy weekend morning, this time breaking bread with comedians. Watch out for the spit takes. Saturday, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Food Lounge, Santa Cruz, $5.

5 Top Picks for the Santa Cruz Film Festival

Steve Palopoli

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October 2, 2018

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5 Top Picks for the Santa Cruz Film Festival

Rise: The Story of Augustines isn’t the only music documentary worth checking out at this year’s film festival; there are more than at any SCFF I can remember (Up to Snuff, Calm Before … The Rising Storm, Si-G, and I Can Only Be Mary Lane, to name a few).

Of course, true to the festival’s patented eclecticism, there are interesting films across a range of genres and subject matter. Here are five you shouldn’t miss at the SCFF, which runs Oct. 3-7. You can find more info at santacruzfilmfestival.org.

At Capacity

A collective of 19 UCSC students put together this sobering look at the housing crisis in Santa Cruz from a myriad of angles, including the campaign for rent control, the tiny home trend, and the controversy over homeless encampments. 73 minutes. Thursday, Oct. 4, 2:30 p.m., Hotel Paradox Ballroom; Saturday, Oct. 6, noon, Colligan Theater.

Barbara

American audiences know Mathieu Amalric as an actor, for his roles in films such as Munich, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, and Quantum of Solace (in which he played Bond villain Dominic Greene). But in France, he’s put together quite a career as a filmmaker, winning Best Director at Cannes for On Tour in 2010, and acclaim for his 2014 erotic thriller The Blue Room. He wrote, directed and stars in his latest, Barbara, which also features Jeanne Balibar as an actress taking on a biopic of a famous French singer. As she becomes increasingly obsessed with the role, Amalric as her director also seems strangely possessed by their project. 98 minutes. Friday, Oct. 5, 7 p.m., Corridor Theater.

Dark Money

Forget Russian interference—this Sundance award-winning documentary, the opening film of the SCFF, couldn’t be more timely in its examination of how Americans are allowing untraceable corporations to buy and sell elections right here at home. The filmmakers will attend. 99 minutes. Wednesday, Oct. 3, 6 p.m. at Colligan Theater, with an opening night party at Hotel Paradox after the screening.

Industrial Accident: The Story of Wax Trax Records!

In the ’80s and ‘90s, the Wax Trax label out of Chicago kept misfit kids everywhere entertained with some of the wildest and most out-there industrial and dark-dance bands around. This documentary tells the story of the label that raised Ministry, My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult, Front 242, KMFDM and so many more. Director Julia Nash and former Dead Kennedys/LARD frontman Jello Biafra, who’s featured in the film, will attend. 95 minutes. Saturday, Oct. 6, 7 p.m., Colligan Theater; Sunday, Oct. 7, non, Courtyard Theater.

Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin

The world lost a literary genius when Ursula K. Le Guin died in January. This new documentary from director Arwin Curry is a wonderful, thoroughly engrossing look not only at Le Guin’s legacy in literature, but also at the beauty and potential she saw within the science fiction genre that allowed her to revolutionize it. 67 minutes. Saturday, Oct. 6, 4:45 p.m., Colligan Theater; Sunday, Oct. 7, noon, Corridor Theater.

Survivors Seek Support After Kavanaugh, Ford Assault Hearing

Jacob Pierce

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October 2, 2018

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Survivors Seek Support After Kavanaugh, Ford Assault Hearing

On Thursday afternoon, Kalyne Foster Renda, associate director of Monarch Services, began noticing an increase in calls to the local nonprofit, which offers support to abuse victims and those in crisis. Women also started showing up to Monarch in person to talk about their experiences as survivors of sexual abuse.

Foster knew that the spike in walk-ins was no anomaly. She had been listening all day to the live testimonies of Judge Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford as the two appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which was considering President Donald Trump’s nomination of Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court. The committee was hearing allegations that Kavanaugh had assaulted Ford in high school. Such hearings can be very triggering for survivors, Renda says.

Its impact was felt nationwide. The National Sexual Assault Hotline reported a 201 percent spike in phone calls. One 76-year-old woman from Missouri called in to a live C-SPAN broadcast to share about an assault she had experienced in the second grade.

That same afternoon, Monarch Services organized an impromptu healing circle for victims, with calming music.

“It was very helpful,” Renda says of the safe space. “Even for those who haven’t been able to come into the office, having someone to talk to on the phone is very comforting.”

Many of the survivors, Renda adds, have mentioned Ford’s connections to Santa Cruz. Ford is a Palo Alto University professor and an avid surfer. According to a Bay Area News Group report, she spends a lot of time on this side of the hill, along with her husband and two sons, who were in the Junior Lifeguards program. Locals held a rally in support of Ford at the town clock on Thursday afternoon.

Bettina Aptheker, a distinguished feminist professor at UCSC, spoke at the rally, where women showed up toting large signs supporting Ford, and motorists honked in support as they drove past. Santa Cruz Women’s March organizers held the rally before Kavanaugh’s testimony and after Ford’s portion had wrapped up. “Hearing her testify like that was amazing,” Aptheker says.

Aptheker adds that she wasn’t at all surprised by the uptick in women seeking support in the wake of Thursday’s testimonies.

The hearing was everywhere—airing in bars, airports and living rooms across the country. Aptheker, herself a survivor of multiple sexual assaults, says that victims tuning in to an event like that will hear it differently than others might. “It triggers you, even when you only partially hear her,” she says. “You get inside her experience. Instead of being outside her, it’s an interior feeling.”

Renda says that calls to the center have increased over the past year, since revelations about Harvey Weinstein’s abusive behavior sparked the #MeToo movement.

Watching Ford’s story unfold has been both inspiring for victims and incredibly nerve-wracking, Renda says, even when compared to other stories of sexual violence. On the one hand, here’s this woman on live television showing the courage to share her story of an alleged high school trauma in front of some of the nation’s most prominent politicians and journalists—knowing full well that her account will be met with eye rolls (and even some death threats) from conservatives who support Kavanaugh.

It’s that last part, of course, that’s been difficult for victims, Renda says—watching a fellow survivor, with everything to lose, get criticized for speaking out about the sordid past of a man who has everything to gain. On top of that, there’s the very real possibility that the Senate could confirm Kavanaugh to a lifetime appointment to the highest court in the land. The FBI is finally investigating some of the allegations against Kavanaugh with a weeklong inquiry, but it’s unclear how thorough the investigation will be.

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Arizona), a crucial vote for Kavanaugh, called for the inquiry. The FBI has yet to interview several individuals whom the Democrats see as key witnesses.

Experts estimate that between just 2 and 10 percent of sexual assault reports are false and 63 percent of sexual assaults don’t get reported at all.

National pundits have mused in recent months about whether or not the #MeToo movement will go too far. Renda doesn’t believe there is a “too far” for the movement, given the harm that sexual violence inflicts on so many women, and plenty of men, too, she says.

“And the LGBT community has been victimized at an exponential rate,” Renda adds. “We need to address solutions, and women shouldn’t have to worry about being safe.”

Monarch Services is celebrating Domestic Violence Awareness Month for the month of October. Visit monarchscc.org for more information. The nonprofit’s 24-hour crisis hotline is 888-900-4232.

Dive Bar Softball Team Celebrates Birth, Awaits Five More

Georgia Johnson

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October 2, 2018

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Dive Bar Softball Team Celebrates Birth, Awaits Five More

After Callahan’s bar owner Rachael Murphy and her husband joined the Twin Lakes Church softball team more than a year ago, they began inviting friends from the bar to join. Pretty soon, they were starting their own team.

Together, they recruited more Callahan’s regulars, bringing in husbands, wives and friends to their own club last fall. As soon as they started, one of their team members got pregnant—then another one did, and another, and then three more. At one point, six of the eight women on the team were pregnant and playing ball at the same time.

“There must be something in the water,” Murphy jokes. “Or maybe the vodka.”

“Nobody knows what goes on when the softball lights go off,” David Coombs, Murphy’s husband, laughs.

For some of the teammates, their new baby is their first. They all help one another out, offering advice on strollers, feeding and exploding diapers. Murphy already has two kids at home, and says that it’s better to go through pregnancies with a support network.

“The biggest thing for me is showing that women can still do things when they are pregnant,” Murphy says, on a recent afternoon in the Callahan’s parking lot, while several locals pop out for a smoke and motorcycle engines hum around her. “The mentality that I’ve seen over the years is that you get lazy and fat and your body hates you, and that’s what I experienced in my first couple of pregnancies. This time, I didn’t allow myself to do that. I pushed myself through the season, and it made me feel better about myself and my pregnancy. It’s a time to show that we don’t need to be put up in an easy chair surrounded by bonbons.”

Murphy has welcomed the change in routine and says that she’s now more active than she’s ever been. She sits out back with the other players, swooning over the first newborn as the neighboring smokers keep a safe distance.

“Don’t rev!” the ladies demand of the bikers. “There’s a baby here!”

The Callahan’s softball team just finished its summer season last month, and although they wanted to play this upcoming fall season, each team needs to have at least five men and five women to play, and their usual group of 19 players is a bit short on female players at the moment. With the five other pregnancies and one woman in postpartum recovery, the team only has two non-pregnant women available to play.

“You have to play two days a week, and with people out and sick and breastfeeding there aren’t enough people to play,” Murphy explains.

They are currently recruiting new players, women in particular. The Callahan’s team played against eight teams this past season, including Bay Federal, New Leaf and UCSC. Although the Callahan’s team didn’t exactly go undefeated, they did win a game. “Despite our record, we are the best team,” third baseman Wes Rose insists. “Don’t let the numbers fool you. We have style points.”

Murphy says the team picked up a few tricks along the way. “We all show up and are a bunch of pregnant chicks and are like, ‘You can’t strike us out because we are pregnant,”’ Murphy says. “We definitely got special treatment.”

With the addition of five new babies by their next season, they say they’ll have to take turns or draw straws for who babysits. There are usually injuries, they say, so maybe the injured players will have to be the babysitters. Murphy is due in a matter of weeks and says that post-pump jello shots are in order next season.

Most of the players have some prior softball experience, even if it was 20 years ago. Though they admit that they aren’t the best team, the Callahan’s players feel confident that they have the most fun in the whole league. In matching Callahan’s T-shirts, they put up a good fight, then retire back to the bar for a family dinner, all made by Murphy herself. They even invite the other team, which almost always shows up, Murphy says.

“It turns into a thing. I don’t know what kind of thing, but it turns into something,” she laughs. “It turns into a gestational fest.”

Murphy says that since she bought the dive bar five years ago, the Callahan’s community has become like an extended family. Most of players on the team have known each other for 20 years, and see each other every day. From bikers and babes to mechanics and Apple engineers, there’s room for everyone and anyone, she says.

“Everyone does something completely off-the-wall different. We just wanted to do something that was fun,” Murphy says. “It’s a funny group of people, we have different lives, and then we just all meet here at the end of the day. We’re a dysfunctional, happy family.”

Motion Pacific Sets Dance Show to Marty O’Reilly’s New Album

Jacob Pierce

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October 2, 2018

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Motion Pacific Sets Dance Show to Marty O’Reilly’s New Album

Santa Cruz fixture Marty O’Reilly says that pretty much everyone who listens to his band’s new album Stereoscope for the first time has had the same reaction.

“They didn’t really get it,” he says.

More often than not, though, fans of O’Reilly and his Old Soul Orchestra will say that they understand the new music better on the second listen. “Everyone that loves it says, ‘Oh, I had to listen to it a couple times,’” O’Reilly says. “Or ‘Oh, I figured out how to listen to it,’ or ‘I figured out that I had to sit down and not do anything while I listen to it.’”

The new songs are more introspective than his previous work, and O’Reilly says that while writing them, he had to get comfortable with a different “level of vulnerability.”

Members of the band sometimes find it difficult to describe Stereoscope, or explain how it fits into their larger body of work.

Chris Lynch, violin player for the Old Soul Orchestra, came up with an analogy to illustrate the album’s significance, but he’s unable to relay it with a straight face.

Lynch has heard that in the realm of astrology, a person’s “rising sign” refers to how someone presents themselves in the world, whereas the individual’s “moon sign” describes who that person is on the inside, at their emotional core. The band’s 2014 Americana release Pray for Rain could represent the band’s rising sign, he says, while Stereoscope reveals something deeper.

“This is like our moon sign,” Lynch says, before putting his face into his palm and laughing at himself. “But you know what I mean? It’s heavy. It’s genuine. It’s who we all are.”

The songs’ lyrics are dark and emotional, and the music veers gently back and forth between bluesier, folksier and more rocking songs. There’s a melancholy vibe that pulses relentlessly through each movement, holding the whole collection together.

The challenge for a band like the Old Soul Orchestra—a group with so much energy on stage—is translating its energy into the recording studio, which the band worked hard to do. That often involves laying down recordings when each song is fresh, and channeling as much energy as possible into each track. Some of Lynch’s solos feel so raw that you can almost hear his emotive wincing as he shreds the hairs on his bow.

It’s fitting that an album that’s difficult to describe will soon be interpreted in front of a live audience by Motion Pacific Dance Studio, which is partnering with the Old Soul Orchestra on Oct. 11-13 for a three-night run of live choreography while the band performs the entire album.

O’Reilly and company have already toured in support of the album across both Europe and the U.S. The collaboration with Motion Pacific will serve as their local Stereoscope release. The group will share the stage with local dancers, who have developed new choreography for each of the 11 songs. The event will showcase an artistic exchange of passion and creativity between all of the evening’s performers, says Motion Pacific Director Abra Allan.

O’Reilly and the Old Soul Orchestra already have set their sights on their next release, which may bring the band back to its Americana roots. This next project may involve laying down some almost-forgotten classics, like the stripped-down acoustic song “Going to the Country,” a personal favorite of mine. There isn’t a recording of it available anywhere, even though O’Reilly wrote it years ago. As it happens, the tune is also a personal favorite of Matt Goff, the band’s drummer, who didn’t even realize the song was an old O’Reilly original until after a year of playing it at Old Soul Orchestra shows.

“Going to the Country” is no sure thing, as O’Reilly says that the band hasn’t decided how best to arrange it. But either way, the band’s happily diving back into their craft.

“We’re going to take a step back toward traditional songwriting that feels folksier and more genre-specific,” O’Reilly says. “We’re returning to that world with a lot of tools we picked up from recording Stereoscope.”

Marty O’Reilly and the Old Soul Orchestra will perform alongside dancers from Thursday, Oct. 11-Saturday, Oct. 13, at Motion Pacific, located at 131 Front St. # E, Santa Cruz. Tickets are $25-$35. motionpacific.com.

Rob Brezny’s Astrology Oct. 3-9

Rob Brezsny

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October 2, 2018

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Free will astrology for the week of Oct. 3, 2018

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Electra is an action-packed story written by ancient Greek playwright Sophocles. It features epic characters taking drastic action in response to extreme events. In contrast to that text is Marcel Proust’s novel In Search of Lost Time, which draws from the sensitive author’s experiences growing up, coming of age, and falling in love, all the while in quest for meaning and beauty. Author Virginia Woolf compared the two works, writing, “In six pages of Proust we can find more complicated and varied emotions than in the whole of the Electra.” In accordance with astrological omens, I recommend that you specialize in the Proustian mode rather than the Sophoclean. Your feelings in the next five weeks could be as rich and interesting and educational as they have been in a long time. Honor them!

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Researchers in Maryland have created a new building material with a strength-to-weight ratio that’s eight times better than steel. It’s an effective insulator, and in some forms can be bent and folded. Best of all, it’s biodegradable and cost-effective. The stuff is called nano wood, and is derived from lightweight, fast-growing trees like balsa. I propose that we make it your main metaphor for the foreseeable future. Why? Because I think you’re primed to locate or create your own version of a flexible, durable, robust building block.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): The U.S. Secretary of Defense paid an official visit to Indonesia early this year. The government arranged for him to observe soldiers as they demonstrated how tough and well-trained they were. Some of the troops shimmied through broken glass, demolished bricks with their heads, walked through fire, and bit heads off snakes. I hope you won’t try stunts like that in the coming weeks, Gemini. It will be a favorable time for you show off your skills and make strong impressions. You’ll be wise to impress important people with how creative and resourceful you are. But there’s no need to try too hard or resort to exaggeration.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): i confess that i have a fuzzy self-image. With odd regularity, i don’t seem to know exactly what or who i am. For example, i sometimes think i’m so nice and polite that i need to toughen up. But on other occasions i feel my views are so outrageous and controversial that i should tone myself down. Which is true? Often, i even neglect to capitalize the word “i.” You have probably experienced some of this fuzziness, my fellow Cancerian. But you’re now in a favorable phase to cultivate a more definitive self-image. Here’s a helpful tip: We Cancerians have a natural talent for inspiring people to love us. This ability will come in especially handy as we work on making an enduring upgrade from i to I. Our allies’ support and feedback will fuel our inner efforts to clarify our identity.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): “I am a little afraid of love, it makes me rather stupid.” So said author Simone de Beauvoir in a letter she wrote to her lover, Nelson Algren. I’m happy to let you know, Leo, that during the next twelve months, love is likely to have the opposite effect on you. According to my analysis of the astrological omens, it will tend to make you smarter and more perceptive. To the degree that you expand your capacity for love, you will become more resilient and a better decision-maker. As you get the chance to express love with utmost skill and artistry, you will awaken dormant potentials and boost your personal power.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Your theme in the coming weeks is the art of attending to details. But wait! I said “the art.”That means attending to details with panache, not with overly meticulous fussing. For inspiration, meditate on St. Francis Xavier’s advice, “Be great in little things.” And let’s take his thought a step further with a quote from author Richard Shivers: “Be great in little things, and you will be given opportunity to do big things.” Novelist Tom Robbins provides us with one more nuance: “When we accept small wonders, we qualify ourselves to imagine great wonders.”

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Libran astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson offers this observation: “When you look for things in life like love, meaning, motivation, it implies they are sitting behind a tree or under a rock. [But] the most successful people in life recognize that in life they create their own love, they manufacture their own meaning, they generate their own motivation.” I think Tyson’s simple wisdom is exactly what you need to hear right now, Libra. You’re primed for a breakthrough in your ability to create your own fate.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Japanese entrepreneur Hiroki Terai has created a business that offers crying therapy. His clients watch short videos specially formulated to make them weep. A professional helper is on hand to gently wipe their tears away and provide comforting words. “Tears have relaxing and healing effects,” says an Okinawan musician who works as one of the helpers. Hiroki Terai adds, “It has been said that one drop of tear has the effect of relieving stress for a week.” I wish there were a service like this near where you live, Scorpio. The next two weeks will be a perfect time to relieve pent-up worry and sadness and anxiety through cathartic rituals like crying. What other strategies might work for you?

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Fling out friendly feelers! Sling out interesting invitations! Figure out how to get noticed for all the right reasons! Make yourself so interesting that no one can resist your proposals! Use your spunky riddle-solving powers to help ease your tribe’s anxieties. Risk looking odd if that will make you smarter! Plunk yourself down in pivotal places where vitality is welling up! Send out telepathic beams that say, “I’m ready for sweet adventure. I’m ready for invigorating transformation!”

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): “Someone spoke to me last night, told me the truth,” writes poet Dorianne Laux. “I knew I should make myself get up, write it down, but it was late, and I was exhausted from working. Now I remember only the flavor.” I offer these thoughts, Capricorn, in the hope that they’ll help you avoid Laux’s mistake. I’m quite sure that crucial insights and revelations will be coming your way, and I want you to do whatever’s necessary to completely capture them so you can study and meditate on them at length.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): As a young man, Aquarian poet Louis Dudek struck up a correspondence with renowned poet Ezra Pound, who was 32 years older. Dudek “admired him immensely,” and “loved him for the joy and the luminosity” of his poetry, but also resented him “for being so magnificent.” With a mix of mischief and adulation, Dudek wrote a poem to his hero. It included these lines: “For Christ’s sake, you didn’t invent sunlight. There was sun dazzle before you. But you talk as if you made light or discovered it.” I hope his frisky tone might inspire you to try something similar with your own idols. It would be healthy to be more playful and lighthearted about anything or anyone you take too seriously or give enormous power to.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): In his book Till We Have Faces, C. S. Lewis writes, “Holy places are dark places. It is life and strength, not knowledge and words, that we get in them. Holy wisdom is not clear and thin like water, but thick and dark like blood.” In that spirit, and in accordance with astrological omens, I suggest you seek out dark holy places that evoke wonder and reverence, even awe. Hopefully, you will be inspired thereby to bring new beauty into your life. You’ll be purged of trivial concerns and become receptive to a fresh promise from your future life.

Homework: At what moment in your life were you closest to being perfectly content? Recreate the conditions that prevailed then. Testify at Freewillastrology.com.

Understanding Libra: Risa’s Star’s Oct. 3-9

Risa D’Angeles

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October 2, 2018

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Understanding Libra: Risa’s Star’s Oct. 3-9

Libra is the charming and charmed one of the zodiac. They love peace and harmony and lightness. They can’t emotionally go too deep (unless their birth chart also contains planets in Scorpio). Librans are happiest having parties and having fun with friends in beautiful environments. Libras want everyone to be happy. They need calmness and tranquility. Needing to keep the peace, not wanting to hurt feelings, Libra can have difficulty saying “no.” Libras are natural peacekeepers with an innate sense of justice. They seek balance and harmony in all relationships. Libra is air (element), thus a thinking sign, both instinctual and intuitive.

Libra, the seventh sign, is the sign of relationships. And they have many. Why? They are learning how to be in relationships, how to give and take (Aries is the opposite of Libra), how to balance self with the “other.” Libra combines the “I & Thou.”

The symbol for Libra is unlike other zodiacal signs (except for Aquarius—the glyph of electricity). Libra’s icon is not an animal. Libra is the scales (of justice, measuring, weighing, balancing). Often under Libra (and Sagittarius) we see Lady Liberty, holding the scales of Justice, her eyes blindfolded, representing impartiality, the ideal that justice must be applied without regard to wealth, power, or any other status.

Libra’s are natural negotiators, diplomats. They act like Capricorn sometimes (strict). In young Librans, decisions are very difficult, seeing one side then the other of the scales. Intelligent parents, knowing this, can help their little ones cultivate decision making by discussing both sides of an issue.

Libras are beautiful and artistic (Venus ruled) even if they do create clutter and chaos at times. That’s really the sign of an artistic creative mind. Libra’s charm gets them through everything, doesn’t it?

ARIES: A potent time of change is occurring. Strong desires and powerful emotions can act like ocean swells almost overcoming your ability to think. Alternately, they offer you courage to go where others, even angels, cannot. Tend to finances and resources held with another. Something’s expanding. Hopefully love and communication in relationships. Don’t be ruthless and don’t seek to conquer. Work always with.

TAURUS: You ponder upon your relationship in terms of love, sacrifice and usefulness. You encourage others to work and cooperate with you. Careful with your energy in relationships. You could create a separation through unaware tendencies, anger and harsh communication. On the other hand, there’s great ability to compromise if you begin a deep listening of other’s needs. Learn the art of negotiation and deeper cooperation.

GEMINI: You become creative and strong with desires and emotions pushing you toward certain goals. It’s important to practice extreme care and safety, especially while doing any physical labor, lest accidents, falls, burns, cuts, things red and scratchy occur. Be kind to those around you. A lot of fire trucks, police and emergency vehicles pass by. Things filled with love, too. A bit like you’ve become. Remember patience gets you everywhere.

CANCER: You need some pleasure, love and romance. Or, on the other hand, sports; competitive and disciplined. However, most likely you focus on thinking about home and children, showering them with gifts that nurture and nourish. In turn they may not be able to act as you need or expect. Their energies are high, fast, almost uncontrollable. This will pass. However, you must watch over them carefully. Allow yourself to be a bit foolhardy at times.

LEO: The themes continue—communication with family, parents, tending to home, property, traditions. Creating your own traditions. Something seeks balancing concerning your perception of family and/or parents and making peace with daily life. The old anger doesn’t work or hold us anymore. It actually weakens the body. The starry energies are helping to beautify, repair and organize the environments you live and work in. Prepare your home for an unusual future.

VIRGO: You’re contemplating events in the past. Considering previous partnerships, lovers, friends. Careful not to intimidate yourself with critical thoughts. Gathering information should be very easy now. Allow a natural rhythm to occur with daily life, work, arrangements and plans. Begin to write Halloween (then Thanksgiving) cards by hand, using pen, ink, paper, envelopes, stamps and a secret seal you make yourself. This is a creative meditation.

LIBRA: You enjoy making, having and using money. Money is a resource, a way to help others. It provides freedom and choice. It can be used to create more wealth. We are given the gift of money and resources so we can help others. Money helps rebuild the lives of humanity in need. Tithe 10 percent of your income to those in need. The old-fashioned way of giving was the word “charity.” Tithing insures a constant flow of return. Is someone in the family in need? Always, for you, it’s good to be frivolous (a bit).

SCORPIO: You find that strength, stamina and endurance grow stronger each day. They help in meeting and encountering unusual challenges along your path. As you pursue more independence, liberty and freedom, your self-identity slowly expands. Careful not to bump your head. Careful of fire. For fun, natural dye your hair red, orange or violet. Complete all projects. Plan your next ones. Your intuition reaches out to others.

SAGITTARIUS: Your strength is hidden and veiled for a while. Only you are aware of it. Next to your strengths are desires. They’re secret, too. Sometimes you don’t know your motivation for choosing something. Sometimes you feel you’re in a conspiracy. Your past comes to brood over you. You wonder do you have enemies? To overcome this seeming strangeness, enter into a new creative endeavor. Know that you’re just in a state of completing karma.

CAPRICORN: You have hopes, wishes and dreams and want to express yourself socially with friends and associates. You want to be part of a group that recognizes your gifts, and doesn’t think you’re scandalous when you make some unusual artistic move. You’re strong, at times revolutionary. Don’t change. Review goals. Create a manifestation journal. Write daily wants and needs, creative plans and how you see yourself in the future. I see beauty, materials and a book.

AQUARIUS: You’ve become an adventurer, traveler, and philosopher. Justice becomes a focus. You see where humanity is caught in polarization, duality, judgment and despair. Aquarius is the sign of humanity. You worry, sensitive to humanity’s needs. You wonder where you stand. An excellent question. You benefit by traveling, undergoing change, moving about here and there. Gradually, you become a world server, serving humanity.

PISCES: A regeneration needs to occur, allowing a new sense of self-confidence to come forth. You sometimes question who and what you are. Wondering if you have real needs, hopes, wishes, desires, dreams. Your needs are very important. Pisces often serves others before serving themselves. You must now turn your energies inward and seek your own counsel, reliability, safety and trust. Entrusting yourself to your own self. The past presents itself. Then disappears.

Good TimesGood Times

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