Page 672 – Good Times

Vape Wars: Are We Missing the Bigger Picture?

Hugh McCormick

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October 3, 2018

Vape Wars: Are We Missing the Bigger Picture?

A little over six years ago, Michael Wright walked into Beyond Vape in Capitola—one of the area’s first e-cigarette shops—with a few crumpled $20 bills, a half a pack of smokes, and a big dream: to end his smoking habit once and for all.

Wright started smoking what he calls “analog” cigarettes at age 14—two to three packs of Camel Reds a day for almost 12 years. Big Tobacco hooked him early. “When I was smoking cigarettes, I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t exercise, and I smelled really bad,” he says. “My whole life changed when I started vaping.”

Wright says he had tried every other product on the market designed to beat smoking, numerous times. The gum and the patch made him physically sick. The pills gave him terrible nightmares. When he tried to go cold turkey and eliminate nicotine entirely, he was miserable and angry. “No one wanted to hang out with me,” he says.

Wright, 27, is one of the millions of people around the globe who has managed to quit smoking cigarettes using vaping devices. He calls electronic cigarettes, which were invented by a Chinese pharmacist whose father died from smoking in 2003, the “ultimate smoking cessation device.”

Vaping, however, receives its fair share of scorn. Scary stories about exploding devices, toxic chemicals, and grade schoolers getting hooked on e-cigarettes are hitting social and mass media outlets with more frequency. And there’s one question Wright hears a lot these days: “Is vaping safe?”

In the United States, e-cigs have developed a menacing reputation. Powerful campaigns from anti-smoking groups have created the perception that e-cigs are just as dangerous as their tobacco counterparts. Vaping devices contain no tobacco, but they are deemed tobacco products and placed under similar restrictions.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been a vocal critic of electronic cigarettes for years, consistently warning the public about the potential dangers of e-cigarettes. Recently though, things at the agency may have begun to change. Although not recommending vaping outright, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb has repeatedly discussed vaping as a valuable, yet unproven, tool to wean adult smokers off cigarettes.

Most experts agree that conventional cigarettes are the true menace, significantly more damaging than their electronic counterparts. Groups like the American Cancer Society highly recommend electronic nicotine delivery systems to smokers trying to quit.

The ACS contends that members of the general public are being misled by anti-vaping campaigns on social media and the mainstream media. “Over one-third of the population is under the mistaken impression that vaping is just as dangerous to one’s health as smoking,“ estimates the ACS.

Studies documenting “toxic chemicals” found in e-cigs make regular headlines in American news outlets. One highly publicized study done by Harvard University found that diacetyl, known to cause damage to the lungs’ smallest airways, was found in 75 percent of flavored e-cigs. Tobacco cigarettes contain at least 100 times the amount of diacetyl found in vaping products.

While teenage vaping is frequently being called an “epidemic,” what isn’t mentioned is that since the advent of e-cigs teen smoking rates have plummeted to historic lows.

In Great Britain, health agencies, the government and the public are more welcoming of e-cigs, as millions of Brits are using them to ditch “the stinkies.”

The U.K.’s National Health Service reports that “an estimated 2.9 million adults in Great Britain currently use e-cigarettes, and of these, 1.5 million people have completely stopped smoking cigarettes.”

In the U.S, the decades-long war on smoking has become, in effect, a war on nicotine. But nicotine has arguably never been the deadly villain in cigarettes. British scientists and politicians contend the harm from smoking doesn’t come from nicotine, which is already an over-the-counter component in gum, the patch, and pills. Experts agree the true harm comes from the thousands of other chemicals contained in tobacco smoke, including tar and carbon monoxide.

The British Parliament recently concluded that e-cigs are 95 less harmful than traditional cigarettes. An August 2018 report rejects claims that e-cigs can be a gateway to smoking, and that taxes on vaping should be cut significantly. Just last month, the U.K’s House of Commons and Technology Committee recommended that e-cigarettes be made available on a prescription basis as a smoking cessation tool.

Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard’s Graciano 2012

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October 3, 2018

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Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard’s Graciano 2012

“Graciano is a Spanish grape that is grown primarily in Rioja and is very rare in the New World,” says Jeff Emery, owner of Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard.

“It is a low-yielding, aromatic and intensely flavored variety that typically provides a deep core of fruit and structure to blends. Our Graciano exhibits tremendous blueberry fruit surrounded by a zesty spiciness.”

Made under his Quinta Cruz label, which Emery created to showcase wines from the Iberian Peninsula, this CCOF organically grown 100 percent Graciano 2012 ($28) is a delightful red wine treat. Emery says that even in Spain, Graciano is rarely bottled as a single varietal, so it’s fortunate we have winemakers like Emery who always go the extra mile to capture the essence of a certain grape in a bottle.

The Graciano grapes came from Bokisch Vineyard in the Sacramento Valley, where Markus Bokisch, who has Spanish ancestors, grows climate-appropriate fruit. Crammed with intense black fruits, red cherries and red plums, you’ll think you’re in Madrid on your first sip. So, take the bull by the horns, as the Spanish do, and try some of this delicioso dry wine.

Emery will be at the annual Santa Cruz Cancer Benefit Group’s fundraiser Gourmet Grazing on the Green on Oct. 6 in Aptos Village Park with his Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard wine—kudos to him for supporting this worthy cause.

Emery’s wines can be found all over, including at New Leaf, Deer Park Wine & Spirits and other local markets.

Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard and Quinta Cruz, 334 Ingalls St., Santa Cruz, 426-6209. santacruzmountainvineyard.com.

Info About Corks from Pelican Ranch

Did you know that up to 10 percent of wines closed with a cork can suffer from a defect called “cork taint?”

These unpleasant aromas, often described as moldy, musty and more, will ruin the character of a well-made wine, says Pelican Ranch Winery in Capitola, which often hosts educational gatherings—usually served up with their excellent wines and some delicious treats. You can find out about upcoming events by going to their website and signing up.

Visit pelicanranch.com.

Opinion: October 3, 2018

Steve Palopoli

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October 3, 2018

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EDITOR’S NOTE

Looking over the program for the Santa Cruz Film Festival, I was shocked at how many films this year are about subjects that have also been GT cover stories over the last few years, including Santa Cruz’s housing crisis and homeless encampments (At Capacity), the history of Mt. Umunhum (Umunhum), major shifts in cannabis culture (The End of Weed) and Ursula K. Le Guin (Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin).

But what surprised me the most was one that wasn’t ever on our cover: the story of Santa Cruz native William McCarthy, frontman for the Brooklyn indie rock band Augustines and the subject of Todd Howe’s film Rise, which gets its U.S. premiere at SCFF this week. The story of McCarthy’s life—growing up in a heartbreaking situation in Santa Cruz and eventually finding some catharsis for his family tragedies in his songwriting—is so compelling, and I can’t recommend the film highly enough. I also got the chance to put McCarthy on the cover this week, after speaking to him and Howe about the film and the story behind it.

The thing is, there are two big festivals in Santa Cruz this week, so Wallace Baine and I tag-teamed them, with Wallace writing about the Santa Cruz Comedy Festival. I particularly like his “must see” picks for SCCF, and the story of how a very big development may be in store for the local comedy scene. Check it all out and see you at this week’s festivals!

STEVE PALOPOLI | EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Read the latest letters to the editor here.

Corporate Arrogance

Your story last week (GT, 9/26) regarding “Blowback” should alarm anyone who ventures forth where crops are being sprayed. Of course there is the right to farm. That is settled law, long ago. I support our ag business for the great, healthy products it produces, and the huge tax receipts it provides for Santa Cruz County. Our county depends on them.

But how you control mites and other insects that eat or destroy these crops is just as important.

Is every company to blame? No. But I wish to point out one offender: E Berry of Hollister. They farm the raspberries behind Bronte Avenue where I live. They give notice to just one of our neighbors, and expect her to warn all of us. She does not work for E Berry. She warns us because she believes in the philosophy of Fred Rogers: will you be my neighbor? My carcinogen-free neighbor?

Sadly, E Berry does not. They don’t answer the phone. They don’t list a CEO for their company. Just a P.O. box in Hollister.

They use Acramite 50WS, which contains four proven carcinogens: bifenazate, kaolin, silica gel and sodium 2 sulfonate. These ingredients are toxic to bees, birds, fish, pets and people. It can’t be used within 25 feet of a fresh water source. You must wear hazmat gear to apply the spray. The neighbors don’t get hazmat gear to live in their yards or patios. And the dust goes everywhere.

E Berry gives us less than 72 hours to prepare. They say they will spray on a Sunday, and then spray Monday, after we have let our pets out and opened our windows or doors for “fresh” air.

This issue is more important than my candidacy for city council. And I am proud to have the Sierra Club endorsement.

This corporate arrogance must stop!

Steve Trujillo
Watsonville

Short-Term Limits

Like many longtime Santa Cruz residents, I’ve been following the discussion about Measure M and lack of long-term rentals in Santa Cruz County; it’s an important discussion for our community to have. I find it troubling, however, that nowhere do I see a conversation which includes any mention of the impact of short-term vacation rentals on the availability of our long-term rentals. Have I somehow missed this? Short-term rentals such as Airbnb are a huge reason rents have gone up in our community. There is nothing mysterious here. It’s supply and demand. Conversely, if our community puts more limits on vacation rentals, then long-term rental availability will go up. In turn, rental costs should go down or at least stabilize.

Of course there are other reasons for lack of housing, but this particular reason seems to be conspicuously absent from the discussion. Why is that? I have read that the city of Santa Cruz is going to limit vacation rental units to 450, but why even allow that? And what about the rest of the county?

Airbnb and the like are forever changing resort communities all over the world. Just ask my good friend who has lived for the past 25 years on the island of Santorini, Greece. She and most of her friends (all working service jobs) are being kicked out of their apartments because the local owners want to rent to the tourists. Sound familiar? Difficult to see a favorable outcome for locals. Will this be us, too?

Marty Mueller
Santa Cruz

PHOTO CONTEST WINNER

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

GOOD IDEA

Santa Cruz’s own Elias Lammam, a microtonal accordionist beloved by Arabic music fans, will help locals see frightening international conflict through a cultural lens. Lammam will perform at “What’s Happening in Syria?,” which is scheduled for 7-9 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 6 at the Resource Center for Nonviolence on Ocean Street. The evening will also feature a powerful scene from a play about the journey of desperate refugees. For information, email es*******@ba*****.com.

GOOD WORK

UCSC has been awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to help evaluate the effectiveness of programs designed to support beginning farmers. The problem? The average age of farmers in this country is approaching 60. The solution? That’s what this three-year, $600,000 grant will help determine, as the UCSC Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems (CASFS) uses it to create webinars, teleconferencing, and digital tools that will improve the support network for ag upstarts.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“The greatness of a culture can be found in its festivals.”
-Siddharth Katragadda

5 Things to Do in Santa Cruz Oct. 3-9

Things To Do This Week

GT Staff

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October 3, 2018

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A weekly guide to what’s happening.

Green Fix

Plastic Water

This two-day event starts with the bad and ends with the good. Day one lays out the “new normal” of just how polluted and poisoned our oceans have become, and looks at the problem through the lens of art. Day two is more hopeful, with a family fair and consortium about how to help prevent further pollution to the oceans. The event is dedicated to Assemblyman Mark Stone, for his efforts to help turn the tide on plastic pollution.

INFO: 6-8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 5 and 1-5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 6. The 418 Project. 418 Front St., Santa Cruz. the418project.com. Free.

Art Seen

Tahitian Dance and Hula Class for Beginners

Plane tickets to Hawaii are expensive, so why not bring a little aloha to Santa Cruz?

Learn sacred Hula and Tahitian dances with Lorraine Kalei Kinnamon of the Te Hau Nui School of Hula and Tahitian Dance. Participants will learn the foundations of these traditional dances that help preserve culture and celebrate nature’s elements. The class is open to anyone age 12 and up, regardless of gender or experience level. Pa’u skirts are provided. If you can’t make this one, they host beginning classes every Thursday and do five-week series. Call or check online for more details.

INFO: 5:45 p.m. Thursdays beginning Oct. 4. Te Hau Nui Dance Studio, 924 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. tehaunuidance.com. 345-3628. $20 single class drop-in.

Friday 10/5

FishWise Anniversary Celebration

FishWise began in 2003 as a pilot seafood sustainability and training program with New Leaf Community Markets, and is today acknowledged as one of the world’s most effective nonprofit organizations in empowering seafood companies to protect not only seafood sustainability, but also the oceans. FishWise turns 15 this year, and in celebration of their years of pioneering work they are hosting a First Friday event with live music, food and drinks and ocean-themed work by local artists. FishWise staff will be there to answer any questions about the next 15 years.

INFO: 5-8 p.m. FishWise Headquarters. 500 Seabright Ave., Santa Cruz. fishwise.org. Free.

Wednesday 10/3

Free Skin Cancer Screening

Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States, and there are many people who don’t even know they have it. This is the 25th year of O’Neill Surf Shop’s free skin cancer screenings with Dr. James Beckett and Santa Cruz Dermatologists, and it will unfortunately be Dr. Beckett’s last year. As he hands the torch of to his new replacement, Dr. Beckett will be saying farewell to this event and attendees.

INFO: 5:30-7:30 p.m. O’Neill Surf Shop. 1115 41st Ave., Capitola. 475-4151. Free.

Sunday 10/7

Open Farm Tours

With fall in full swing, there is no better time to pick apples and get to know your farmer than now. They come out to the farmers market every week, we can get it together to go visit them at least once, right? There will be 14 farms participating, including Alladin nursery, which will be hosting the Marketplace, featuring live music, food preservation demonstrations and kids activities. Check online for a full list of events at all of the farms.

INFO: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Locations vary, Alladin Nursery Marketplace located at 2905 Freedom Blvd., Watsonville. openfarmtours.com. Free.

Music Picks: Oct. 3-9

Aaron Carnes

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October 3, 2018

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Live music highlights for the week of Oct. 3, 2018.

WEDNESDAY, 10/3

FOLK

ELIZA GILKYSON

“Dark comes down like a bird in flight.” So begins Secularia, the 23rd studio album by Austin-based folk musician Eliza Gilkyson. In her nearly 50 years of work, Gilkyson has twice been nominated for a Grammy Award, been covered by Joan Baez, and been inducted into the Texas Music Hall of Fame. And yet Secularia (which just came out this July) still sounds fresh—marked by soft tendrils of reverb, subtle orchestration and her effortlessly clarion voice. When dark comes down, Gilkyson is here to say she’s with you. MIKE HUGUENOR

INFO: 7:30 p.m. Michael’s On Main, 2591 Main St., Soquel. $30 adv/$33 door. 479-9777

WEDNESDAY 10/3

JAZZ

CHICK COREA

When Chick Corea released his breakthrough 1968 album Now He Sings, Now He Sobs, he was joined by Czech bass virtuoso Miroslav Vitous and Roy Haynes. Almost exactly 50 years later, Corea, 77, is the ageless master presenting one of his recent ensembles, Vigilette. Corea has always thrived in a trio setting, and this one ranks among his best. Distilled from the Latin Grammy Award-winning 2013 project The Vigil, the extraordinary combo features Cuban bassist Carlitos Del Puerto and drummer Marcus Gilmore, a standout talent on a scene overflowing with insuperable drummers. ANDREW GILBERT

INFO: 7:30 p.m. Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. $57.75/adv, $65/door. 423-8209.

THURSDAY 10/4

SKA

REEL BIG FISH

Orange County ska band Reel Big Fish has been around so long that even its origin story seems dated. The group got heavy rotation on MTV with an ironic song about “selling out” to the evil major record labels. Does that sentence even make sense to someone currently under 30? Regardless, the band’s high-energy, goofy-meets-depressing ska-punk sound has served it well for the past 20+ years. Reel Big Fish has stayed on the road full-time since their initial “Sell Out” moment and have packed clubs every year, no matter what the experts say about the state of ska in this beautiful nation. AARON CARNES

INFO: 9 p.m. Catalyst, 1011 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $22. 423-1338.

FRIDAY, 10/5

ROCK/FOLK

CONOR OBERST AND THE MYSTIC VALLEY BAND

Like a modern reincarnation of the Band, the Mystic Valley Band are a group of Americana mining tunesmiths whose playing feels near-symbiotically connected. They formed in 2008 to backup Conor Oberst on his solo debut album. On 2009’s Outer South, the members even managed to wrest the spotlight away from Oberst, who by then had already been drawing comparisons to Bob Dylan. Shows with the Mystic Valley Band have been rare this decade, so this is a don’t miss show. MH

INFO: 8:00 p.m. Cocoanut Grove Historic Ballroom, 400 Beach St., Santa Cruz. $33. 423-5590

FRIDAY 10/5

ROCK

THELMA AND THE SLEAZE

After a night with hell-raising southern rock sludge-trio Thelma and the Sleaze, you’re gonna feel a little scared, and a little excited. You’re also gonna wanna be just like them. Frontwoman LG feels like that’s what a great live band should do to a person. They definitely deliver with rowdy biker-dude-gone-feminist tunes that sometimes sound like Janis Joplin joined Le Tigre. So go ahead and dust off those daisy dukes, faux mustaches and pearl necklaces, because you ’bout to have a night. AMY BEE

INFO: 9 p.m., Crepe Place, 1134 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. $10/adv, $12/door. 429-6994.

SATURDAY 10/6

ROCK

IT’S A BEAUTIFUL DAY

It’s a Beautiful Day has been performing since the infamous 1967 Summer of Love, and are most famous for their hippie anthem “White Bird.” Amazingly, four of the six current members have been playing since the original days and show no signs of slowing down. Last year they joined other Summer of Love alumni at Golden Gate Park for the 50th anniversary show, alongside contemporary legends like Big Brother and the Holding Company. MAT WEIR

INFO: 9 p.m. Flynn’s Cabaret, 6275 Hwy. 9, Felton. $15/adv, $18/door. 335-2800.

SATURDAY 10/6

HIP HOP

DUCKWRTH

South Central Los Angelino Duckwrth hit the music scene with such savagery he became an instant success virtually overnight. His debut album, 2016’s I’m Uugly, earned him love from critics and audiences with a style stuck in between the mainstream and underground worlds. He spits over traditional boom-bap beats, whacked-out funk and even rock music. MW

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

SUNDAY

ROCK

THE RED ELVISES

Everyone’s favorite Russian surf band is heading to Santa Cruz to invite one and all to get on the dance floor and “Smell the bacon/smell the bacon/ I’m on fire.” Somehow surf, funk rock, disco and all forms of party music resonate way better imbued with a healthy dose of Soviet sensibility. A giant red triangle bass and a sequined horn section help, too. It’s kitschy, but not corny; fun, but not sloppy. AB

INFO: 8:30 p.m., Moe’s Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz. $15/adv, $20/door. 479-1854.

MONDAY 10/8

ALTERNATIVE

JARVIS COCKER

Back in 1998, underrated brit-pop band Pulp released one of the bleakest rock albums ever. On This is Hardcore, lead singer Jarvis Cocker pondered the meaningless of life, the inevitability of death, and the inner lives of porno stars. In other words, it’s a dark masterpiece. Since going solo in 2006, his outlook hasn’t grown any brighter, but there is a certain whimsy to his solo career. You could almost call it a “fun” quality that to his fans might seem a few steps removed from the musically dense days of Pulp. Somehow it just makes the darkness all the more glaring. AC

INFO: 8:30 p.m. Moe’s Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz. $26/adv, $30/door. 479-1854.

Gordo Gustavo’s Cooks Up BBQ Expansion Plan

Georgia Johnson

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October 2, 2018

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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

Steve Palopoli

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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.

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Top 5 for Comedy Fest

At Capacity

Barbara

Dark Money

Industrial Accident: The Story of Wax Trax Records!

Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin