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Illuminations of Each Day: Risa’s Stars April 24-30

Risa D’Angeles

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April 23, 2019

Illuminations of Each Day: Risa’s Stars April 24-30

Aries is always the first sign of the new spiritual year. It is the seed pushing forth the first two leaves (they look like rams’ horns, the Aries sign) emerging from the Earth during spring.

Aries (sign, person, time), the first sign of the zodiac, holds the force of creation. However, Aries realizes that it is only with patience and time that the creative force can come into practical focus and substance. Aries’ fire is unable to complete tasks and projects. Completion is not the task of Aries; that is the task of Taurus. Aries hands the initiating fiery ideas from the Mind of God to Taurus for anchoring, application and completion. And so here we are in Taurus for a month.

Taurus is the sign of desire. It is also the sign of aspiration. Taurus lives within slow time. Taurus ponders things deeply before coming to any final decisions. During Taurus, it’s good to understand the planetary frequencies available and influencing us each day.

Sunday: the sun guiding us, illuminating our mind to look toward the week ahead. Monday’s moon helps us nurture daily home life. Tuesday: Mars helps to ensure that our actions and power are expressed with kindness, wisdom and in a rhythmic regulatory way, creating Goodwill. Mercury, the messenger, rules Wednesday, providing us with discernment and discrimination as to what is right and what is not right. Thursday is Jupiter’s day, offering the qualities of generosity, expansion, love, and joy. Friday, Venus guides us into experiences of beauty and Right Relations. Venus unifies all separations. Saturday is Saturn’s day, helping us learn more, clarify all matters, complete our past week and create new structure for the days and weeks ahead.

ARIES: Past abilities and gifts emerge in your daily life. There are many, and they are good. Wounds go into hiding for a while. Tend with mindfulness to all daily tasks, especially if traveling. Responsibilities increase; love increases, too. Find Taurus people and communicate with them. They comfort you. Be prudent with money while also tithing and sharing.

TAURUS: In these times, as the reorientation of humanity and our economy continues, you tell us why and how and what to prepare for life on the edge, life without comforts, and how to still maintain the art of living. It’s time to gather materials for a greenhouse. Old wood-framed glass doors and windows will do.

GEMINI: So many responsibilities call you. And whatever does, no matter when, you must do your very focused best to tend with care and mindfulness. Two directions imply an opposition, which creates much resistance at first. Later, acceptance comes, and a blending of the many. Your intuition is active, wanting to bring forth synthesis. Ask for more information and ask for all that you need. Then wait for the subtle quiet answers in response.

CANCER: Many of us are experiencing inflammation and pain, especially in the knees (Saturn, south node, Pluto in Capricorn). Turmeric is an anti-inflammatory. Preparing East Indian (or ayurvedic) foods are best for healing and digestion. Indian spices have health benefits—turmeric is anti-inflammatory, as is coriander (it also contains magnesium); cayenne and black pepper for warmth; cumin aids in digestion; chilis have Vitamin C. Dry roast the spices, then add ghee (clarified butter). These are nurturing Capricorn/Saturn health tips. Capricorn is your opposite sign.

LEO: Tending to self is your Easter season task. Is there contact, communication and emotional support with and from family? Are many things from the past remaining behind the scenes and hidden away? You can no longer stay hidden. Leo is the light of life for others. Leo is to discover their creative loving self, like a found object of self. We are to discover that we are each an art form. Leo is to discover this first.

VIRGO: Focus on serving others and not on anything else. Sometimes it’s hard to do our work with concentration and dedication. However, if we have an intention to do something in a certain way, like focusing on our intention to serve, then it becomes easier. What you receive by doing this is a clear and grounded sense of self. The wound that’s always hurting will slowly dissolve. Clarity of vision and purpose then emerge. You need all of these.

LIBRA: In daily life, you’ve become prudent, disciplined, focused, reliable, industrious, serious, reserved, patient, and persevering. You’ve assumed more and more responsibilities. Some Librans have stepped into a healing role. Are you, however, the one in need of healing? Do not allow any type of insecurity or inhibitions to limit you. Think these through. Be only with those who care for, love, support, and see you as perfect.

SCORPIO: There’s a new state of creativity flowing through you. Music, very important at this time, must be in your environments at all times. Travel, study, culture, sculpting, hiking, archery, horse tending and/or riding are past abilities, talents and gifts you can again cultivate. Tend to mundane tasks carefully and honor the details. Blessings create new and deeper awareness and responses.

SAGITTARIUS: Home, for so long in a state of here and not here, now assumes a more defined reality. Bring in bright colors—plants, vines, cactus, aquariums, Tibetan art, lights, and a flash of neon. They create the style you seek. Home is your sangha (refuge), sanctuary and retreat. Try not to be at odds with anyone. Tend to all tasks with constancy and loving care. You are to expand into a new identity, growth and development.

CAPRICORN: The tension and pressure you’re feeling can be used creatively. Know that a self-transformation is slowly coming your way. Cooperation is available from everyone. Teaching others to cooperate nurtures them and you. Everyone sees you as someone of great value, providing you with the courage needed that transforms all situations. You answer to needs. You are the harmony after the conflict. All that you do is good.

AQUARIUS: It’s important to secure your money and not use it indiscriminately. It’s also important to share it with those in need. Your money should be used to safeguard your future, work and family. Invest with others in land, consider what it would take to build an agrarian community. Assess the world situation, and be the first to communicate what you see. A new world is coming. You will play a major part in its establishment.

PISCES: Is your daily life feeling somewhat shrouded in a mist? Can you assess your present daily needs and priorities? You want to be practical while initiating new goals. Relationships are expanding. How will this affect your life? Do you think about serving others? Serving is a Virgo task, your hidden sign. Always the world calls to you. Always you respond with grace.

Santa Cruz Family Film Traces Baja’s Long Road

Wallace Baine

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April 23, 2019

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Santa Cruz Family Film Traces Baja’s Long Road

The allure of Baja California has always been tied to its separateness. Separated from Alta California—that is, the state of California—by a contentious international border, and from the rest of Mexico by the Sea of Cortez, Baja has developed a distinct identity that you can only feel if you escape the centrifugal force of its polar party cities, Tijuana and Cabo San Lucas.

The Bruce family of Santa Cruz do not need to be sold on the magic of Baja. They’ve been going there regularly for decades, and their abiding love of the place is the guiding spirit that animates the new documentary The Devil’s Road: A Baja Adventure, which makes its world premiere at the Rio Theatre on April 27.

The Devil’s Road is an adventure story that takes the viewer along for the ride down nearly 800 miles of the Baja peninsula. Filmmaker J.T. Bruce and his dad Todd Bruce (the film’s producer) made the trip on a couple of rented motorcycles. Their mission was to follow a 1905 expedition by American naturalists Edward Nelson and Edward Goldman, who covered Baja top to bottom to catalogue the peninsula’s unique flora and fauna. To tie it all into one nice thematic bow, the Bruces learned that they were in fact related to one of the naturalists.

Drawing on both what Nelson and Goldman learned, and the Bruces’ own travels, the film delivers about as complete a portrait of Baja as you could expect in an under-two-hour documentary. The Devil’s Road wraps its arms around the history, ecology, economy and culture of Baja, visits with many of its people, and chronicles alarmingly rapid changes brought about by population growth and climate change. If you’ve ever wanted to get to know Baja California better, this film is a full meal.

“Baja has pretty much formed me,” said Bri Bruce, sister of J.T. and daughter of Todd, and the film’s associate producer. Bri joined the expedition as it traveled south, and at one point participated in a horseback outing tracing the very path that naturalists Nelson and Goldman took more than a century ago. “It was really an incredible experience,” she says. “I kept asking myself, ‘Am I in 1905?’”

With an eye toward the work of Nelson and Goldman—the latter of whom the Bruces knew as an ancestor in an old family photo before they learned he was a celebrated naturalist—The Devil’s Road strikes a mournful tone when it contemplates the rapid changes that have consumed the Baja peninsula. Working in the immediate post-Darwin world of natural science, Nelson and Goldman catalogued and identified scores of species of plants and animals, some of which bear their names in their present-day scientific nomenclature.

The world that the naturalists discovered in Baja a century ago is disappearing, thanks to pressures brought on mostly by development and climate change.

“Baja has boomed over the course of the last century,” says Bri. “A hundred years really doesn’t seem like all that long ago. Things can change so quickly on a year-by-year basis. When that whole region is seeing these intense boom-and-bust cycles, you’d be surprised how much can change in just a few years.”

In that sense, The Devil’s Road emerges as a snapshot of a Baja utterly changed since Nelson and Goldman, yet still in the throes of that change. The broad transformation taking place in Baja convinced the Bruces that their film had to have a wider scope of vision than their own relationship with the region. “I don’t think initially we set out to get that big complete portrait,” says Bri. “But we realized that we couldn’t just follow one string of the narrative without telling the rest of it. It was so intertwined.”

Still, the film is a family story. The Bruces trace their lineage back in Santa Cruz several generations, but their connections to the Baja peninsula are no less profound. J.T. and Todd Bruce covered more than 5,000 miles on their motorcycles going up and down the peninsula, and while much of it was fueled by a sense of discovery, there was a deep familiarity at play as well. Bri Bruce says she has been traveling to Baja regularly with her family since she was a baby. “The saltwater from the Sea of Cortez runs in my veins a little bit.”

‘The Devil’s Road: A Baja Adventure,’ directed by J.T. Bruce, plays Saturday, April 27, at 5:30 p.m. at the Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. $15. devilsroadfilm.com.

Rob Brezsny’s Astrology April 24-30

Rob Brezsny

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April 23, 2019

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Free will astrology for the week of April 24, 2019

ARIES (March 21-April 19): In the U.S., the day after Thanksgiving typically features a spectacular shopping orgy. On “Black Friday,” stores sell their products at steep discounts and consumers spend their money extravagantly. But the creators of the game Cards Against Humanity have consistently satirized the tradition. In 2013, for example, they staged a Black Friday “anti-sale,” for which they raised their prices. The coming weeks will be a favorable time for you to try something similar. Is it possible you’re undercharging for your products and services and skills? If so, consider asking for more. Reassess your true worth and seek appropriate rewards.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Whether or not you believe in magic, magic believes in you right now. Will you take advantage of the fancy gifts it has to offer? I guess it’s possible that you’re not interested in seeing deeper into the secret hearts of those you care for. Maybe you’ll go “ho-hum” when shown how to recognize a half-hidden opportunity that could bring vitalizing changes. And you may think it’s not very practical to romance the fire and the water at the same time. But if you’re interested, all that good stuff will be available for you. P.S. To maximize the effects of the magic, believe in it.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): In 1815, the most ferocious volcanic eruption in human history exploded from Mount Tambora in what’s now known as Indonesia. It flung gas and ash all over the planet, causing weird weather for three years. Sunlight dimmed, temperatures plummeted, skies were tumultuous, and intense storms proliferated. Yet these conditions ignited the imagination of author Mary Shelley, inspiring her to write what was to become her most notable work, Frankenstein. I suspect that you, too, will ultimately generate at least one productive marvel in response to the unusual events of the coming weeks.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): For over 40 years, Cancerian musician Carlos Santana has made music that blends rock and roll with Latin and African rhythms. In the early years, his creations sold well, but by the mid-1980s his commercial success declined. For a decade, he floundered. His fortunes began to improve after a spectacular meditation session. Santana says he was contacted by the archangel Metatron, who told him how to generate material for a new album. The result was Supernatural, which sold 30 million copies and won nine Grammy Awards. I mention this, Cancerian, because I suspect that you could soon experience a more modest but still rousing variation of Santana’s visitation. Are you interested? If so, the next seven weeks will be a good time to seek it out—and be very receptive to its possibility

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): “Expergefactor” is an old English word that has fallen out of use. In its original sense, it meant something that wakes you up, like an alarm clock or thunderstorm or your partner’s snoring. But I want to revive “expergefactor” and expand its meaning. In its new version, it will refer to an exciting possibility or beloved goal that consistently motivates you to spring out of bed in the morning and get your day started. Your expergefactor could be an adventure you’re planning or a masterpiece you’re working on or a relationship that fills you with curiosity and enchantment. In my astrological opinion, the coming weeks will be an excellent time to identify and fine-tune an expergefactor that will serve you well for a long time.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): We live in a cultural moment when satire, sarcasm, cynicism, and irony are prized as supreme emblems of intelligence. If you say that you value sincerity and earnestness, you risk being considered naive and unsophisticated. Nevertheless, the current astrological omens suggest that you will generate good fortune for yourself in the coming weeks by making liberal use of sincerity and earnestness. So please try not to fall into the easy trap of relying on satire, sarcasm, cynicism, and irony to express yourself. As much as is practical, be kindly frank and compassionately truthful and empathetically genuine. (P.S. It’s a strategy that will serve your selfish aims quite well.)

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): “Most people don’t find their creativity,” mourned Libran author Truman Capote. “There are more unsung geniuses that don’t even know they have great talent.” If that describes you even a little bit, I’m happy to let you know that you’re close to stumbling upon events and insights that could change that. If you respond to the prompts of these unexpected openings, you will rouse a partially dormant aspect of your genius, as well as a half-inert stash of creativity and a semi-latent cache of imaginativity.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Do you know the word “sfumato?” Its literal meaning in Italian is “smoked.” When used to describe a painting, it refers to blurred borders between objects or fuzzy transitions between areas of different colors. All the forms are soft and hazy. I bring this to your attention because I suspect the coming weeks will be a sfumato-like time for you. You may find it a challenge to make precise distinctions. Future and past may overlap, as well as beginnings and endings. That doesn’t have to be a problem as long as you’re willing to go with the amorphous flow. In fact, it could even be pleasurable and useful. You might be able to connect with influences from which you’ve previously been shut off. You could blend your energies together better with people who’ve been unavailable.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): “You have a right to experiment with your life,” declared author Anaïs Nin. I agree. You don’t necessarily have to be what you started out to be. You can change your mind about goals that you may at one time have thought were permanent. I suspect you could be at one of these pivot points right now, Sagittarius. Are there any experiments you’d like to try? If so, keep in mind this further counsel from Nin. It’s possible that “you will make mistakes. And they are right, too.”

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): You have one main task to accomplish in the coming weeks, Capricorn. It’ll be simple and natural if you devote yourself to it wholeheartedly. The only way it could possibly become complicated and challenging is if you allow your focus to be diffused by less important matters. Ready for your assignment? It’s articulated in this poem by Rupi Kaur: “bloom beautifully / dangerously / loudly / bloom softly / however you need / just bloom.”

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): When the forces of the Roman empire occupied the British Isles from the years 43-410 A.D., they built 2,000 miles of roads. Their methods were sophisticated. That’s why few new roads were built in England until the 18th century, and many of the same paths are still visible and available today. In this spirit, and in accordance with astrological omens, I recommend that you make good use of an old system or network in the coming weeks. This is one time when the past has blessings to offer the future.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): “I’m not enigmatic and intriguing enough,” writes a Piscean blogger named RiddleMaster. “I really must work harder. Maybe I’ll start wearing ankle-length black leather coats, billowing silk scarves imprinted with alchemical symbols, and wide-brimmed hats. I’ll listen to Cambodian folk songs and read rare books in ancient Sanskrit. When someone dares to speak to me, I’ll utter cryptic declarations like, ‘The prophecies will be fulfilled soon enough.’” I understand RiddleMaster’s feelings. You Pisceans need mystery almost as much as you need food. But I believe you should set aside that drive for a few weeks. The time has come for you to show the world who you are with crisp candor.

Homework: Compose an exciting prayer in which you ask for something you’re not “supposed” to. freewillastrology.com.

Alderwood Elevates New American

Christina Waters

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April 23, 2019

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So urban-hip, yet very Santa Cruz, the new Alderwood is already more than the sum of its parts. I can’t remember the last time I went to a New American steakhouse and came away impressed by the bravura treatment of seasonal vegetables. And the dessert!

Outfitted in Beto-O’Rourke-style Western gear, the kinetic waitstaff are everywhere at once, joining a large team of mixologists and chefs who keep the high-energy operation moving. Surrounded by a gleaming bar, exhibition kitchen and booths that line the restaurant’s perimeter, the central seating area offers the attractive and comfortable appointments that distinguish this dinner house. Good-looking table settings—from tasteful glassware to sophisticated serving pieces—reinforce the guiding concept: food, drink and people are the main attractions.

The Alderwood cheeseburger, especially when joined by the signature onion rings, has already achieved epic status. The comprehensive oyster offerings deserve an article unto themselves.

But we were here for dinner, and we were rewarded by bold flavors and presentation. From our cozy booth (the term “cozy” requires some latitude, given the noise level) we could watch a long table of extended family members celebrating a birthday, real housewives of Aptos celebrating their cocktails, and a cross-section of entrepreneurs occupying the bar. Alderwood looks to be a great place for people-watching and business deals. Romantic trysts? Not so much.

Generous pours of Cantos de Valpiedra Tempranillo ($12) and an excellent Thomas Fogarty Pinot Noir ($15)—both served at exactly the right, slightly cool temperature—started us off. Our food arrived in stages, which began, rather abruptly, with a plate of sliced, 8-ounce Heart of Ribeye ($38). Joined by a bowl of thick, green peppercorn sauce Bordelaise ($7), the aged midwestern beef proved delicious and juicy, if not life-changing.

Soon arrived the sides (these were my main dishes) of grilled asparagus ($15), beet tartare ($15) and remarkable potatoes glazed with parsley pesto, bits of bacon and mustard ($15). In a moment of culinary drama, I was next presented with a single grilled scallop ($15), nestled in the central thumbprint niche of a large rectangular plate. The scallop sat on a cushion of cauliflower puree, topped with balsamic and a ribbon of smoked hog jowl. Pretty damn spectacular and yes, worth its price tag. Only the dice of smoked beets, onions and pickled mustard seeds proved underwhelming. The rest of these lavish sides were addictive, especially the enormous bowl of potatoes, from which four people might have feasted with abandon. Plump spears of asparagus arrived dotted with micro-squares of Asian pear (great crunch!), and garlanded by ribbons of fried shallot. With the spring asparagus came a large bowl of green curry—excellent and very spicy green curry. Great, but unnecessary.

Along with fresh drip preparation of decaf coffee ($7) served in sleek porcelain cups, we shared one of the house desserts, a strawberry and white chocolate macaron ($10). This spectacular dish turned out to be the highlight of our meal, and I say this as an avowed fan of cheese at the end of a meal. Truly gorgeous, the substantial macaron—a pillow of white chocolate diplomat pastry cream studded with strawberries inside the tender almond meringue sandwich—was joined on the plate by an oval of salted strawberry ice cream, crumbles of white chocolate and fresh strawberries. Our two forks worked swiftly until nothing remained of this creation. Simply a knockout! A destination dessert.

Noise level be damned, writing this makes me want to go back to Alderwood right now! The service continues to fine-tune, which is a good thing. But the food already justifies the hype.

Open Sunday-Thursday 4-10 p.m. Friday-Saturday until 11 p.m. Closed Monday. Alderwood, 155 Walnut Ave., Santa Cruz. 588-3238, alderwoodsantacruz.com.

Music Preview: Gurf Morlix Melds Mortality, Americana Optimism

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April 23, 2019

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Music Preview: Gurf Morlix Melds Mortality, Americana Optimism

Americana singer-songwriter Gurf Morlix has been thinking a lot about his own mortality lately. It’s just kind of a part of his reality now as a 67-year-old man.

“Friends of mine have been dying and that’s not going to stop anytime soon,” Morlix tells me. “When you get to be 67, you’re thinking about these things.”

So it should be no surprise that his latest album, Impossible Blue, deals with death—a lot. It’s an intimate album that sounds as though his worn voice is gently singing in the same room as you. Even with a full band backing him, it has the same quiet emotional quality that you might get on a solo acoustic album.

Morlix is an experienced producer who’s worked with Lucinda Williams, Mary Gauthier and Slaid Cleaves, so he knows how to find the sound he wants. For this record, he set out to create a lot of space on the album and not fill in every gap with an instrument.

“I play small venues. I play to a hundred seats or less. So I am going for that intimacy,” Morlix says. “I’m not going to be playing an enormo-dome, so why would I want Bruce Springsteen drum echo in my music?”

One of the deaths that influenced Impossible Blue more than any other happened a decade ago, when a close friend took his own life. Morlix tried to write a song about it four different times, and it finally clicked, emerging as the album’s closing song, “The Backbeat of the Dispossessed.”

He knew the song was finished when he found himself able to memorialize his friend in a loving, tender and sympathetic way. That was a process.

“First, you’re sad, then you become angry. Then you kind of get over that and it turns into this really tragic thing that happened,” Morlix says.

A poignant line in that song, “I can’t imagine the impossible blue running deep inside of you,” inspired the album’s title. The “impossible blue,” he tells me, is the feeling of deep, deep sorrow that he can only imagine his friend felt and led him to take his own life.

“This guy had a teenage son when he checked out. I was thinking, ‘How sad can a human being be? How deep is that chasm?’ I can’t relate,” Morlix says. “I felt really bad in my life sometimes, but nothing close to that. I was just trying to imagine it.”

In spite of how hopeless the title sounds, the record is actually filled with hope and joy.

“The body count has been pretty high on some of my albums, and I don’t really have much say in that matter,” Morlix says. “You can’t just be dismal. No one wants or needs that. You got to offer something. You have to have hope somehow.”

Morlix recently suffered a heart attack, but he’s fully recovered and back on his feet. Now he feels like he’s living on borrowed time. You can hear the optimism on Impossible Blue, even as he talks about grim moments in his life.

“That was a monumental event. When you’re faced with mortality, you start embracing love a little bit more,” Morlix says. “Every day is really special to me. They put a stent in, and I’m good to go. I’m clear to eat all the triple baconators now, and I feel good.”

As a lifelong sideman, player and producer, he’s finally at a place where he’s writing and recording his own tunes—and people are actually excited to hear him play them.

“Some people peak early on, and they can’t seem to write a relevant song after that point,” Morlix says. “I feel like I’m still ramping it up here. It’s good to keep growing and improving.”

Gurf Morlix performs at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 25, at Michael’s On Main, 2591 Main St., Soquel. $15. 479-9777.

A Prodigal Son of Santa Cruz Lit Returns

Geoffrey Dunn

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April 23, 2019

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A Prodigal Son of Santa Cruz Lit Returns

In the early 1970s, Robert Lundquist was both a rising star in, and the enfant terrible of, the Santa Cruz literary Renaissance that included the likes of Raymond Carver, George Hitchcock, William Everson, James D. Houston, Anne Steinhart (who was also a brilliant musician), Stephen Kessler, and Morton Marcus—with occasional appearances by one of Lundquist’s mentors, Charles Bukowski—in what was largely a male-dominated (and often sexist) milieu.

By his early 20s, the Los Angeles born-and-bred Lundquist had been published in the Nation, the Paris Review and designated by Rolling Stone as one of the “Best 100 American Poets.” In only a few years, Lundquist was a broken figure, lost in the bottle, and I presume, a variety of drugs and despair. His once-bright literary star had burned out.

I later came across a dark, poignant poem entitled “A Street,” in the highly respected UCSC literary journal Quarry West, that had been written by Lundquist. It was a knockout-brilliant poem chronicling Lundquist’s noir downtown L.A. childhood. But only the first segment of the poem appeared. I waited years to read the other half. It never came.

Cut to four decades later. Last fall, I learned that Lundquist was having his first full-length collection of poetry published, After Mozart (Heroin on 5th Street), by New River Press of London. I could hardly wait to get my hands on it. My anticipation was fully rewarded. In my mind, the collection (which includes the denouement of “A Street”) is one of the great works of American poetry to emerge in the last quarter century.

Lundquist, now sober and a practicing psychoanalyst in his beloved downtown Los Angeles, is coming to Bookshop Santa Cruz, this Thursday, April 25, at 7 p.m. Given European reviews of his book and various reports of his readings in London and Paris (and they have been exuberantly praiseworthy), it promises to be a literary celebration for the ages.

Robert Lundquist will read from ‘After Mozart (Heroin on 5th Street),’ at Bookshop Santa Cruz on Thursday, April 25, at 7 p.m.

Fundraiser Aims to Save Santa Cruz’s Hidden Peak Teahouse

Georgia Johnson

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April 18, 2019

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Fundraiser Aims to Save Santa Cruz’s Hidden Peak Teahouse

Hidden Peak Teahouse owner David Wright may be the king of tea, but he’s the first to admit that when it comes to business and marketing, he’s more of a jester.

“We are way behind financially but way ahead spiritually,” he laughs.

Wright is something of a paradox. An avid fan of the film Superbad and dirty jokes, he doesn’t use cell phones or computers—or really any technology aside from light switches, a fridge and his DVD player. He also says that he’s disconnected from the financial side of running his business, and he still feels like a novice when it comes to taxes and marketing. That probably explains why, for the second time in the last couple of years, the teahouse is struggling to make ends meet. If it doesn’t raise funds or come up with another plan, Wright says, it could close up shop as early as July.

“There is nothing like this place anywhere. We just want to stay here in a simple way because of what we hear back from people,” he says. “We have so many testimonials of clarity and equilibrium that come from people here to unplug. This is a temple, this is not a business. It’s put here so that it can be in the marketplace, but it’s here for a unique reason that’s maybe too cutting-edge and ahead of its time.”

The teahouse’s first online fundraiser was in December 2016, when Wright launched a campaign on the shop’s website with a $50,000 goal. He garnered nearly $10,000, which helped Hidden Peak continue to keep the doors open and alleviate financial difficulties at the time. Wright says the money went quickly, and he decided that he wouldn’t want to run another campaign himself.

“It didn’t feel right before, it wasn’t my way. It felt wrong, contrived, upside down and backwards. I tried it, and it wasn’t something I was going to do now,” he says. “We are tea people, nature people, simple people. We have been doing this for over 20 years, and we still don’t know anything about driving business. We are more concerned with engagement and community.”

After hearing about the dire financial situation at the teahouse, friend and Santa Cruz resident Michael Trainer, who’s set to open a downtown café of his own, started a GoFundMe page to raise money for the teahouse and rally support. Currently, Hidden Peak is operating at a deficit upwards of $36,000—nearly half of which is IRS employee taxes. The teahouse needs an additional $20,000 to cover merchandise and maintenance costs. As of 1 p.m. on Thursday, April 17, the GoFundMe had raised $1,875 of its $56,334 goal.

The new effort is more transparent than Hidden Peak’s last fundraiser, which simply involved a donate button on the teahouse’s website and periodic updates on its blog, where Wright would say how far along the effort was. In hindsight, Wright says the reason for that approach was probably technological incompetence on his part. He says it’s helpful that someone else is behind the new fundraiser.

“This time it’s all Mike and his crew and the community he brought into it,” Wright says. “We petitioned nobody. He said, ‘We will do everything. We can’t have this place disappear.’ It was very touching.”

Although the fundraiser has a long way to go, Wright’s happy to feel the community’s support.

“Mike gets the more quirky Santa Cruz element of what we are, what I am,” Wright says. “We are about people and community. Yes of course, we need money to continue doing what we do, but we don’t do it for money. I’m not here to build an empire.”

Trainer says he was shocked to hear about Hidden Peak’s financial troubles. He wants to prevent the business from going the way of other beloved downtown institutions, like Caffe Pergolesi and the Logos book store, both of which closed in the past two years.

“In my mind, if people knew about their financial situation, it would never close,” Trainer says. “I wanted to take the initiative to help. Other people have been shocked and amazed when they hear about it too. The general feeling about us losing Pergolesi and Logos is an open wound, so the idea of losing something else is really sad.”

Looking ahead, Wright would like to setup a council of supporters who believe in Hidden Peak’s mission. He and his team are thinking about putting out a call for a business partner who would share a similar mindset and values.

Before telling a dumb-blonde joke as we wrap up, Wright, who doesn’t have credit or job history, mentions to me that if the teahouse doesn’t work out, he will likely have to find another job, one that doesn’t require computers, of course. While many entrepreneurs would struggle to imagine life after business, he expresses an openness to transitioning away and opening new doors.

“My life is devoted to humanity. I don’t want anything,” Wright says. “I’m not looking for remodels and bigger sectional couches. I realize now that I’ve put myself in a situation where I need help with business motivation alongside our main community aspect. But the glass isn’t half-empty, there is so much joy, so much abundance.”

For more information on Hidden Peak TeaHouse’s drive, visit gofundme.com/save-the-hidden-peak-tea-house.

Preview: Lauren Ruth Ward at Catalyst

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April 17, 2019

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Last December, singer-songwriter Lauren Ruth Ward released a seven-song Doors cover EP called Happy Birthday Jim. She also made a video for each song. The whole thing was done in just seven weeks, a way to keep busy while her label waited for the right moment to release her new album.

“We did that out of sheer boredom. I was like, ‘I am dying, I need to put something out,” Ward says. “They’re being so precious about these songs and the plan. I want to respect it, but my fans are asking me when I’m going to put something out. It really drives me nuts.”

The cover EP was a collaborative project. She gave each of the seven songs to a different videographer, told them what the color scheme should be, and gave them each two weeks to make their videos. She didn’t even watch the videos until they were uploaded.

Despite having released the critically praised, fiercely queer art-rock record Well, Hell early in 2018 on Weekday, a subsidiary of Sony, putting together the Jim Morrison cover record on her own really excited her. There was a freedom to it that she really missed.

“They want you to work with names,” Ward says. “In L.A., if you’re working with somebody in their closet in Sherman Oaks, I understand it sounds sketchy, but I’m like, ‘It is a very creative human being.’”

The label let her make the Morrison cover record on her own, but they didn’t see eye to eye on her overall career trajectory. She was actually relieved in early January when she got the call that Weekday had folded, leaving her without a label.

“I’m super creative. I like to stay active,” Ward says. “That was such a problem. I didn’t foresee that. It would totally dampen who I am as a person, thus affecting my art.”

Since being label-free, she’s already released the highly energetic and self-empowering “Valhalla” as a video, as well as the audio for low-key and reflective “Pull String.” She’s got several more songs and videos in the works, and she can’t wait to get to them all out.

“I don’t really have a passion for an album. My thoughts don’t feel like they’re coming together as a chunk,” Ward says. “I’m just having a notion and writing about it, seeing a visual and creating it, and then releasing it as its own thing. That’s always been who I am.”

Originally from a small town in Maryland, she left her life as a hair stylist in 2015 and moved to L.A., where she entered the music scene full throttle. There she also felt a freedom to explore her sexuality. She’s now engaged to female singer-songwriter LP.

Ward is fiercely creative musically and visually. Getting signed to a label seemed like the opportunity she needed, but she found that she’s much better suited to being independent and having no one telling her what she can and can’t do. She still works as a hair stylist in L.A. In fact, in the four years she’s lived there, she’s been able to build up her client base enough that she can now fund her music videos herself, and pretty much express herself how she wants.

“I see visuals for every song. Sometimes I see the music videos before the songs are finished, or when it’s being written,” Ward says. “Before the label, I wanted a music video for everything, but I couldn’t afford it. Now after the label, I have a day job that I can use to fund projects.”

She’s had the unexpected offer this past year of joining a newly revived Divinyls. Through mutual friends, she met Divinyls guitarist Mark McEntee, who was blown away by her voice and energy, which reminded him of original singer Crissy Amphlett. They recorded a version of “I Touch Myself” with Ward and it was incredible. He booked a Divinyls tour in Australia earlier this year, but it got postponed due to some personal issues he was dealing with. She’s hoping it gets rescheduled soon.

“My generation does not know them at all. I’m excited to be a megaphone for my generation to be like, ‘This band was insane,’” Ward says. “Some of my friends were like, ‘I saw you post about going on the road with some Australian band. And I looked them up and holy shit, Crissy Amphlett, I lived my life not knowing who this person is.’ I was excited to put them on blast, because they deserve it.”

INFO: 9 p.m. Wednesday, April 24. Catalyst, 1011 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $12 adv/$15 door. 423-1338.

Full Steam Dumpling Makes Local Debut

Georgia Johnson

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April 17, 2019

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Andy Huynh has an impressive restaurant résumé.

Having worked at Assembly, 515 Kitchen & Cocktails and Home in Soquel as Brad Briske’s sous chef, he’s put his culinary time in. It was after making thousands of angliottis with Briske that he noticed they aren’t too different from dumplings, and left his day job to perfect the art of the Asian staple over the last eight months.

Full Steam Dumpling is a mobile pop-up that specializes in bao, gyoza and har gow, but these aren’t just typical street dumplings—they’re fancified. Huynh makes a pork with kimchi version and a squid ink, pork and crab shumai, plus a kale and hedgehog mushroom veggie option; don’t worry there’s no hedgehog in there.

What got you into cooking?

HUYNH: I just needed a job when I was 17. My family does cook, but I did it out of necessity. When I moved to Santa Cruz, I noticed how food was so important to people here. I used to help my mom roll wontons growing up, too. But I’ve also had to try and teach myself how to make dumplings. There is so much that goes into it, it’s crazy.

I started making dumplings at the 515, doing specials, and people actually bought them. There aren’t a lot of dumplings around Santa Cruz. I feel like sometimes Asian food is underrepresented. The last dumpling place was Mortal Dumpling. I heard great things, but they have been gone for awhile.

Favorite filling?

I really like the classic pork and scallion. It has a bunch of secret ingredients I can’t share. I also have a chilli-cheese bao that I tried for fun one time that was pretty good. The braised beef is pretty good, but I have a lot of favorites. We are always experimenting with new things.

What’s the most dumplings you’ve made in a day?

Like 600 by myself. It was a lot. Now I have a team, but for the Do It Ourselves fest we have to make like 2,000.

Have you been just living off of dumplings for the last eight months?

Pretty much. Dumplings and fillings. Sometimes I will cook up some rice with the filling. It’s not too bad.

Full Steam Dumpling hosts their first pop-up at Shanty Shack at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 20.

Bonny Doon Farm’s Lavender Legacy

Georgia Johnson

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April 17, 2019

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I fall in love with people all the time. It’s the nature of the beast when writing about artists and makers in this community. But I have a special kind of love for Bonny Doon Farm.

America’s first English lavender farm measures only 5 acres, but what it lacks in size, it makes up for in the details. Founded in 1972 by Diane and Gary Meehan, Bonny Doon Farm is an old-world timewarp built on community, love and the kindness of others.

Diane inherited the land from her parents, then began growing lavender in the sandy, oceanic soil that English lavender thrives in. After learning how to make tallow soap from the man at Shopper’s Corner, she started making lavender soap to sell alongside lavender bunches at the original Renaissance Faire.

Although she passed away in December, Diane’s legacy lives on in the farm, which sells goods at the Goat Hill Fair, Saratoga Blossom Festival, Bonny Doon Art & Wine, and Capitola Art & Wine festivals. After a 25 percent crop loss following the 2008 Martin Fire, the small team that runs the farm is in the process of planting more lavender, which they expect to bloom this summer.

“There is something about lavender, more so than other oils, that relaxes us,” farm manager Anita Elfving says. “Linalool is a component of lavender that relaxes us, and that’s a good thing.”

Linalool contributes to lavender’s distinctive flavor and scent. The plant is popular for aromatherapy, sleep aid and anxiety relief, but also as an insecticide and mosquito repellant. Bonny Doon Farm uses it to make shampoo, conditioner, salves, lotions, and oils.

While the soaps are no longer made from tallow, the location has retained a sense of enchantment and wonder. Scottish moss blankets the paths to the large, Japanese maples that were just sprouting their first baby spring leaves on a recent visit. Careful where you step; there are rodent-sized salamanders meandering around minding their own business.

My first encounter with Bonny Doon Farm’s soap was at the Tea House in downtown Santa Cruz. I used to rely on commercial products from CVS but was on the lookout for natural alternatives after reading an ingredient list one day in the shower. Paraffin wax (a petroleum-based candle wax derivative) and silicone-based polymers, among many other things, didn’t sound like something I should be lathering up with daily.

It feels selfish to keep Bonny Doon Farm a secret. The land is surrounded by the 500-acre State of California Bonny Doon Ecological Reserve. It’s not open to the public, but this is a special farm—mostly because the folks running it are the nicest people you’ll ever meet.

“We are mountain people and Santa Cruz people” Anita Elfving says, handing me a cup of Irish Breakfast before she goes to prod the fire. “We aren’t foo foo Santa Cruz people. We are real.”

Elfving says a lot of people call them to create their own scents, given that they compound many of their own perfumes and colognes. Elfving’s daughter Caitlin makes salves out of cocoa butter and beeswax. They are also wading into CBD salves, “because everyone wants them,” Elfving says. They get their honey from hives onsite, though Elfving says years of drought didn’t do them any favors.

“Our honey is one-source honey, which is very rare,” Elfving says. “Most honeys come from a conglomeration of honeys. We could tell you exactly which hive the honey comes from.”

On the rainy afternoon when I visited, what started as a fine mist turned into soft drops, making our walk around the garden more of a slow stroll over the mossy bricks. If it weren’t raining, I wouldn’t have watched where I stepped and may have missed the personalized bricks—an homage to family and friends cemented into circles and squares around a fountain.

“There’s nowhere like it, this place,” Elfving says. “We all share in the bounty.”

bonnydoonfarm.com.

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