With Capitola’s transient occupancy tax (TOT) headed to the November ballot, additional cash could soon start flowing into city coffers, as well as toward youth programs and business groups (“TOT Off the Presses,” GT, 7/18), but not everyone sees the breakdown as perfectly fair.
After reading last week’s brief on the topic in GT, Ray Cancino, CEO of Community Bridges, called to remind us that this new youth program money will supplant a similar amount of youth funding that already comes from the general fund—not add to it.
Similarly, the marketing money supplants business-oriented general fund dollars, although that new allocation would see an estimated $8,000 more than the kids’ groups would. The combined $62,000 for the Business Improvement Area and the Capitola Soquel Chamber of Commerce would replace $30,000 of general fund money for the chamber. That’s an estimated increase of $32,000, while kids’ groups see an estimated increase of $4,000.
Cancino questions the values reflected in the decision and calls the resulting measure “a hard sell.”
Councilmember Ed Bottorff, who worked with the business community on a breakdown that everyone would like, says that TOT revenues have been growing at about 5 percent per year. And if the marketing campaign leads to an added boost in visitors, as supporters think it will, everyone will end up with more dough, including the kids’ programs. “If the measure fails, that means nobody gets anything,” he says.
Bottorff says that if the City Council simply kept funding youth programs via the general fund that stash would be liable to get cut in the next recession. This way, it’s instead protected long-term in the measure’s wording. He adds that Capitola, the county’s smallest city, is the most generous local government per capita, when it comes to supporting community programs.
If the measure passes, most of the proposed 2 percent tax increase on visitor lodging would go to the general fund, and Cancino has no illusions about what’s really driving budget constraints—pension obligations, he says.
At a recent budget hearing, Finance Director Jim Malberg called pension costs “the biggest threat to our city finances.”
“All these other things are just patches on the boat, until the cities and the county and the unions work together,” Cancino says. “When the majority of your funds are paying for people who are no longer working, and you have all these other needs, with streets and social services and first responders, something’s going to break.”
The SEIU, a union representing many government service workers (as well as some Community Bridges employees), did not provide a comment for this story by deadline.
Living up to “bigger and better than ever” hype, here comes the 56th season of the homegrown festival with a worldwide reach. Under the leadership of Cristi Măcelaru, the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music comes to town next week with an abundance of very fresh musical ideas that span the globe from Romania to China to Canada to Korea.
This year’s festival offers two world premieres, three U.S. premieres, and seven West Coast premieres. The musicians and performers involved have been recipients of Pulitzer Prizes, Grammys, and Oscars. Several works have been commissioned by and for the festival, guaranteeing that audiences will be treated to never-before-heard musical experiences.
So how does this premiere programming happen? We talked with the director, a composer, and a performer about what happens behind the scenes.
The Director: Cristi Măcelaru
Speaking from a conducting gig in Munich, maestro Cristi Măcelaru says this year’s world premieres tie into what has become a Cabrillo Festival trademark. “Premiere performances are important, because they reinforce and redefine who we are as a festival,” he says. A big aspect of contemporary music is “not only the performing. It is also the commissioning of new music. When you commission a new piece, you are flying blind. Well, almost,” he laughs. “You are making an informed guess—and definitely take a risk. It’s different than performing a known work.”
In offering premiere performances, the festival brings new life to the music world. There will always be Beethoven and Mozart, but now there can also be Muhly, Shahov, and Clyne. It’s an expansion of the global imagination. “To think of the Cabrillo Festival only as performing contemporary music isn’t enough,” Măcelaru reminds me. “It also has a role as a commissioning agent, to bring new work into the world.”
The opening concert features a U.S. premiere by Romanian composer Dan Dediu. “He is a composer I met after I left Romania to live in the United States,” the maestro explains. “When I went back to Bucharest asking about leading Romanian composers, everyone recommended Dediu. He’s a very accomplished composer. I listened to a lot of his work for orchestra. It’s incredibly creative and fun and beautiful— plus it’s virtuosic for the orchestra.”
NEW MUSIC Măcelaru sees premieres and commissions as an essential part of the Cabrillo Festival’s mission. PHOTO: ADRIANE WHITE
Also on the program for the first concert is the festival commission world premiere of Piano Concerto No. 2, by Macedonian Pande Shahov. “Shahov’s piano concerto was written for, and will be performed by, fellow Macedonian Simon Trpceski. He is a great pianist,” Măcelaru says.”We’ve worked together several times before. When we have, he always wants to play, as an encore, something from his country.”
Trpceski’s encores always involved Macedonian folk dance music, which gave Măcelaru an idea. “I proposed that he might like to do a suite of dances as a concerto. Then he mentioned the composer he’d worked with, Pande Shakhov,” he says. “So it came about—filled with crazy rhythms, and complex harmonies, just what you’d expect from southern Balkan music. I can’t wait to hear it.”
The composer Shahov says that he “aimed at creating a texture which resembles a tapestry or a kaleidoscope.” And in the center of this the virtuosity of pianist Trpceski—who worked closely with the composer—will translate the musical and folkloric colors of his native country into a journey across Macedonian musical heritage.
Romanian-born Măcelaru has clearly enjoyed programming his second season at Cabrillo’s podium. “For me, this festival has been a discovery. The Bay Area community feels so right for contemporary music. And this year I come back knowing more what to expect. I think it’s the difference between the excitement of going somewhere new, and the excitement of coming home. This time I’m coming home.”
The Composer: Nico Muhly
Nico Muhly is the only one of the 18 featured composers who will not be in residence this season. But he has a good excuse for why he is unable to be here for the West Coast premiere of Impossible Things, a double concerto for tenor, violin and string orchestra. The composer will be in New York conducting the technical rehearsal for his new opera Marnie—which opens at the Metropolitan Opera in October. “I’ve had that on my calendar since September 2014,” he says.
A bona fide prodigy of the crossover musical landscape, Muhly does it all: operas, song cycles, choral works, concerti, and an electrifying dive into the poetry of C.P. Cavafy. Based in New York, former boy soprano Muhly has composed for films, Broadway, and Björk. For many years an editor and archivist with Philip Glass, Muhly pushes the term postmodern to its limits. Of Marnie—his third opera—he admits, “of course it is a big deal. It’s the biggest piece I’ve ever written.” On the other hand, he admits, “right now I’m writing something for a solo lute. Every piece has to feel like a big deal, or else why are you doing it?”
Impossible Things is one of his favorite pieces that he’s written, says Muhly. “It was commissioned for a duo concerto voice and violin for Pekka Kuusisto (violin) and Mark Padmore (tenor). They toured with it all over the U.K. and Europe, with many performances, and then it sort of disappeared.” Muhly is thrilled that it will receive fresh life in Santa Cruz next week.
Muhly chose the text, a suite of poems by Cavafy—widely considered the most important Greek poet of the 20th century. Muhly knew the Cavafy translator, Daniel Mendelsohn, at Columbia. “To me, his translation combined the literal and poetic in a compelling way,” Muhly says. “So I cobbled together a triptych of poems.”
NEXT TO ‘IMPOSSIBLE’ Composer Nico Muhly is thrilled that the Cabrillo Festival has given “fresh life” to one of his favorite pieces. PHOTO: ANA CUBAN
The compelling nature of Cavafy’s work, Muhly believes, is in the subtext.
“There was a magical space created by the opening section of poetry,” Muhly says. “That was a point of entry for me. Cavafy’s work always contains the unsaid thing: ‘Why should I remain with lips shut tight?’”
Muhly very much likes commissions—and the restrictions they bring. “Commissions are great. They are a challenge. Like being invited to a duel. Commissions and freeform composing are like complementary muscles. They work to refresh each other,” he says. “The different composing modes are complementary, not either/or.”
He starts out planning a piece by hand, and then inputs it into a computer. “Then I print it out—without the rests indicated—and work on more details, input it again, and then print it out again,” Muhly says. And back and forth in this way. In the case of the Cavafy piece, the abstraction of the beginning text offset the reality of the funeral cortege, the hanging. I also knew I wanted the opposite of passion, an atmosphere that offsets the erotic.”
As he wrote deeper into the composition, he found that the narrative juxtaposition “suggested musical textures. Much like architecture, or even better, like the layering of choices when curating an exhibition.”
One of Muhly’s favorite things in the piece is the relationship between voice and fiddler. “I thought so hard about how the text insists on one or the other, the voice or the violin, and why that is important,” he says. And he’s very happy with the scary passacaglia of the last section. “It’s a traditional form, so it’s unexpected,” he says of the slow triple time.
Muhly says he gets musical inspiration from the past, “like Benjamin Britten. I find those things incredible. Really incredible,” he says.
The Tenor: Nicholas Phan
Nicholas Phan, a celebrated tenor whose recordings of opera and lieder have attracted many Grammy nominations, performs across the globe. Phan makes his Cabrillo Festival debut with Muhly’s Impossible Things.
“Nico and I have known each other—and known of each other—since we both started living in New York,” Phan says. “And at some point he said ‘hey, check out this score.’” Phan did, and pronounced it “stunning.” Phan, who debuted Muhly’s piece in New York several years ago, says that when he found out Măcelaru was newly involved with the Cabrillo Festival, he asked him to check out the Muhly piece. “I thought it would make the perfect collaboration.”
“This piece is a great fit for my voice,” says Phan. “That shocked me at first, that it felt so natural to sing. I feel a sort of kinship artistically with Nico.” And with maestro Măcelaru as well. “Christi and I met at the Philadelphia Orchestra. We did the Messiah, several times, and we’ve been to Romania together. I think the world of what Christi does. He’s a serious musician,” says Phan.
Phan says his approach to most vocal music is the same. “Vocal music illustrates a text through music. Music is an abstract way of engaging with human emotion. The words make it concrete,” explains the tenor, who began his musical career as a violinist. “First, you learn it all—the words, the music, the entire piece. And then you try to understand what the composer is trying to convey. And the more you perform a certain work the more layers reveal themselves.”
LETTING FLOW Tenor Nicholas Phan says he was surprised at how natural it felt to sing Muhly’s complex ‘Impossible Things.’
Phan describes Muhly’s piece “as a sort of double concerto—a dialogue between the tenor voice and the violin. The piece is actually reminiscent of Britten’s Serenade with the voice and the instrument. Vocal concertos are like chamber music, yet not as intimate as a song recital.”
The tenor finds the doubling of instruments especially provocative. Cabrillo Festival concertmaster and violinist Justin Bruns is a key element of this performance. “In this case, I view the violin as another voice, but with its own colors. Justin is someone I know very well, since we were students at Rice,” says Phan, who says it is always exciting to interact with the other instrument. “It’s my job to convey the meaning—and poetry’s tricky,” says Phan.
As a singer, Phan believes in trusting the material. “You have the ability to share this insight, to share the moment that we can all relate to,” he says.
Muhly’s work is notoriously intricate. “You have to keep your concentration,” says Phan. “Often just keeping the focus is a great challenge with new music. Partly because it’s not familiar.”
The sheer newness of this music is also its strength. “You have to hear it with fresh ears,” insists the tenor. “And what’s great is that it inspires us to hear all music with fresh ears.”
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The Cabrillo Festival runs July 29 through Aug. 12, at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium. Nico Muhly’s ‘Impossible Things’ will receive its West Coast premiere featuring tenor Nicholas Phan and Cabrillo Festival concertmaster/violinist Justin Bruns on Sunday, Aug. 12.Go to cabrillomusic.org for tickets and info.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Be extra polite and deferential. Cultivate an exaggerated respect for the status quo. Spend an inordinate amount of time watching dumb TV shows while eating junk food. Make sure you’re exposed to as little natural light and fresh air as possible. JUST KIDDING! I lied! Ignore everything I just said! Here’s my real advice: Dare yourself to feel strong positive emotions. Tell secrets to animals and trees. Swim and dance and meditate naked. Remember in detail the three best experiences you’ve ever had. Experiment with the way you kiss. Create a blessing that surprises you and everyone else. Sing new love songs. Change something about yourself you don’t like. Ask yourself unexpected questions, then answer them with unruly truths that have medicinal effects.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Your past is not quite what it seems. The coming weeks will be an excellent time to find out why—and make the necessary adjustments. A good way to begin would be to burrow back into your old stories and unearth the half-truths buried there. It’s possible that your younger self wasn’t sufficiently wise to understand what was really happening all those months and years ago, and as a result distorted the meaning of the events. I suspect, too, that some of your memories aren’t actually your own, but rather other people’s versions of your history. You may not have time to write a new memoir right now, but it might be healing to spend a couple of hours drawing up a revised outline of your important turning points.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): One of the most famously obtuse book-length poems in the English language is Robert Browning’s Sordello, published in 1840. After studying it at length, Alfred Tennyson, who was Great Britain’s Poet Laureate from 1850 to 1892, confessed, “There were only two lines in it that I understood.” Personally, I did better than Tennyson, managing to decipher 18 lines. But I bet that if you read this dense, multi-layered text in the coming weeks, you would do better than me and Tennyson. That’s because you’ll be at the height of your cognitive acumen. Please note: I suggest you use your extra intelligence for more practical purposes than decoding obtuse texts.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Ready for your financial therapy session? For your first assignment, make a list of the valuable qualities you have to offer the world, and write a short essay about why the world should abundantly reward you for them. Assignment #2: Visualize what it feels like when your valuable qualities are appreciated by people who matter to you. #3: Say this: “I am a rich resource that ethical, reliable allies want to enjoy.” #4: Say this: “My scruples can’t be bought for any amount of money. I may rent my soul, but I’ll never sell it outright.”
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): As you wobble and stumble into the New World, you shouldn’t pretend you understand more than you actually do. In fact, I advise you to play up your innocence and freshness. Gleefully acknowledge you’ve got a lot to learn. Enjoy the liberating sensation of having nothing to prove. That’s not just the most humble way to proceed; it’ll be your smartest and most effective strategy. Even people who have been a bit skeptical of you before will be softened by your vulnerability. Opportunities will arise because of your willingness to be empty and open and raw.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Since 1358, the city of Paris has used the Latin motto Fluctuat nec mergitur, which can be translated as “She is tossed by the waves but does not sink.” I propose that we install those stirring words as your rallying cry for the next few weeks. My analysis of the astrological omens gives me confidence that even though you may encounter unruly weather, you will sail on unscathed. What might be the metaphorical equivalent of taking seasick pills?
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): The Spanish word delicadeza can have several meanings in English, including “delicacy” and “finesse.” The Portuguese word delicadeza has those meanings, as well as others, including “tenderness,” “fineness,” “suavity,” “respect,” and “urbanity.” In accordance with current astrological omens, I’m making it your word of power for the next three weeks. You’re in a phase when you will thrive by expressing an abundance of these qualities. It might be fun to temporarily give yourself the nickname Delicadeza.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Uninformed scientists scorn my oracles. Reductionist journalists say I’m just another delusional fortune teller. Materialist cynics accuse me of pandering to people’s superstition. But I reject those naive perspectives. I define myself as a psychologically astute poet who works playfully to liberate my readers’ imaginations with inventive language, frisky stories, and unpredictable ideas. Take a cue from me, Scorpio, especially in the next four weeks. Don’t allow others to circumscribe what you do or who you are. Claim the power to characterize yourself. Refuse to be squeezed into any categories, niches, or images—except those that squeeze you the way you like to be squeezed.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): “I have no notion of loving people by halves; it is not my nature. My attachments are always excessively strong.” So said Sagittarian novelist Jane Austen. I don’t have any judgment about whether her attitude was right or wrong, wise or ill-advised. How about you? Whatever your philosophical position might be, I suggest that for the next four weeks you activate your inner Jane Austen and let that part of you shine—not just in relation to whom and what you love but also with everything that rouses your passionate interest. According to my reading of the astrological omens, you’re due for some big, beautiful, radiant zeal.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): “There are truths I haven’t even told God,” confessed Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector. “And not even myself. I am a secret under the lock of seven keys.” Are you harboring any riddles or codes or revelations that fit that description, Capricorn? Are there any sparks or seeds or gems that are so deeply concealed they’re almost lost? If so, the coming weeks will be an excellent time to bring them up out of their dark hiding places. If you’re not quite ready to show them to God, you should at least unveil them to yourself. Their emergence could spawn a near-miracle or two.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): What are your goals for your top two alliances or friendships? By that I mean, what would you like to accomplish together? How do you want to influence and inspire each other? What effects do you want your relationships to have on the world? Now maybe you’ve never even considered the possibility of thinking this way. Maybe you simply want to enjoy your bonds and see how they evolve rather than harnessing them for greater goals. That’s fine. No pressure. But if you are interested in shaping your connections with a more focused sense of purpose, the coming weeks will be an excellent time to do so.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): In Janet Fitch’s novel White Oleander, a character makes a list of “twenty-seven names for tears,” including “Heartdew. Griefhoney. Sadwater. Die tränen. Eau de douleur. Los rios del corazón.” (The last three can be translated as “The Tears,” “Water of Pain,” and “The Rivers of the Heart.”) I invite you to emulate this playfully extravagant approach to the art of crying. The coming weeks will be an excellent time to celebrate and honor your sadness, as well as all of the other rich emotions that provoke tears. You’ll be wise to feel profound gratitude for your capacity to feel so deeply. For best results, go in search of experiences and insights that will unleash the full cathartic power of weeping. Act as if empathy is a superpower.
Homework: Do you have a liability that could be turned into an asset with a little (or a lot of) work? Testify at Freewillastrology.com.
In this last week of July, with Sun in Leo (I am by what I create), humanity is experiencing seven retrogrades—Mercury (communication, thinking), Mars (action), Saturn (restructuring), Neptune (spiritualizing), Pluto (transforming), Vesta (the self as a newly discovered reality, the fire within), and Chiron (the wound leading to suffering, leading to awareness, leading to healing, leading to understanding).
Retrogrades create a time of remembering for humanity. In October (Oct. 5-Nov. 16) Venus retrogrades (in Libra) and Mercury, too (in Sag). By the second week of December, the retrograde season is over.
What is a “retrograde season” and how do we respond? A season is a cluster of months (spring, summer, autumn, winter). When retrogrades occur, it signals a time of rest for humanity, a moving inward. Everything turns inside out, upside down, the usual day-to-day becomes the unexpected and different.
Multiple retrogrades can create unease, tension and pressure upon humanity.
We can become irritated and out of sorts. Communication (Mercury) becomes miscommunication. Moving forward (Mars), takes us two steps back. Memories flood us. Sadness sometimes, too. We remember what hurts (Chiron). And how we have hurt others. Some return to church (Neptune) or to drugs/alcohol (unskillful level of Neptune). We seek love and harmony (Venus), but it’s unavailable. Our entire world seems transformed (Pluto). And it is.
Let us consider this. If the entire world of humanity (98 percent) has turned inward, what happens to the outer world? Chaos ensues, conflicts, too. And then we remember. Retrogrades are times to assess past actions, events, situations. A time to reassess, reanalyze, reassemble, review, reorganize, reevaluate, reexamine, reconsider, and revise. Retrogrades help us change. In the night sky, through August, we can actually see Mars. It’s the red “star” in the sky.
ARIES: Mars is what propels you. It’s is your physical energy. During this time, you may experience interactions slowing down, not working in ways expected. It’s good to understand retrogrades. Because there can be anger and frustration. It’s good to allow setbacks to be taken in stride. And to know that different opportunities will be offered. When interruptions occur at work, just refocus and review everything. Something from the past becomes important.
TAURUS: The task for Hercules in the sign of Cancer was to lift up instincts and intellect to the intuition; holding intuition close to the heart. Your intuition is very keen. You are able to sense the false, deceptive and unreal. Things you planned on doing may experience setbacks. Simply reorient yourself to a different agenda. One that changes day to day. Review previous studies, cultural interests and important goals. Do you have the same aspirations?
GEMINI: During retrogrades our enthusiasm for interactions in the world slows down. Life becomes an internal drama, we’re more cautious, we question more, we wonder about past choices and if we should redo them. We want to refine and perfect, refocus and review, reorganize and reorder. Especially our old ways of thinking and old beliefs. Money and communication with intimates can become complicated. Look at finances once, twice, three times. Review everything.
CANCER: Finances, insurance, shared resources—all of these may need to be explored once again. Review all previous transactions. Fix what’s broken. And don’t allow any buried anger to surface and hurt others. Have the intention to manage emotions with equanimity and poise. Communication may be difficult. Something may become an obsession. Reassess how you approach relationships. Find ways to have more kindness, less protection under your shell. Reach out and touch the heart of everything.
LEO: You may be looking deep within the self, assessing communications in past relationships. Nothing is clear or direct. There is such a focus upon the past that the present doesn’t seem to exist. Assessing one’s behavior within relationships is important at this time. Relationships with everything, not just lovers. This is very important inner work. Daily schedules and agendas may change. Notice setbacks, hindrances. Work around them with agility and poise. You’re always the leader.
VIRGO: You may feel less than enthused about your present daily life. Projects and routines may have lost their luster. Work may seem difficult, unexciting. Expressing the self may be frustrating. It’s a good time to reorganize all levels of everyday life. Experiment with different time schedules, ways of eating, exercise, walks and chats in the garden. Notice any anxieties, confusion, preoccupations or changes of heart.
LIBRA: It’s time to return to your artistic abilities, a creative project previously put away. Time to reconsider leisure, work, travel and creative self-identity. Time to consider new approaches to interactions with friends, groups and your future. Are you questioning something? Remembering will produce feelings, deep and complicated. There could be exhaustion, too. It’s time also to rest more. Giving you time to contemplate, to ponder, to understand more and to forgive.
SCORPIO: All Scorpios are deeply affected by Mars and Mercury retrogrades. Mars brings the Nine Tests of Discipleship. And Mercury informs Scorpio (especially) to be careful of thoughts and words, which either create or destroy. In the meantime things around the home begin to have a life of their own. Breakdowns may occur, things long waiting to be fixed won’t wait anymore. Family situations occur, emotional issues from the past appear. Siblings call needing help. Daily routines aren’t anymore. No matter the situation, carry on, Scorpio.
SAGITTARIUS: Here are the areas of life that may be affected in some ways. Observe them. And go on your way. Creativity, recreation, pleasure, children, hobbies, love affairs, enthusiasm, creative projects, leisure. Or perhaps ideas, thoughts, self-expression, social interactions, communication, money making and security. In all these things, one after another, something may occur that makes you rethink past actions. You will revise some things, eliminate many others. In between times use mantras to reorganize your thinking.
CAPRICORN: Is the issue of money or resources up for discussion? Do you feel that you are a resource for your family and friends? Things may come quite up-close and personal. Emotions may be volatile. Are you responding or reacting? What needs refining, reorganizing, rethinking and/or repaired? What is creating frustration? What are you concerned about and need answers for? Is there a need to redo or coordinate something? What initiatives do you want to put into place after the retrogrades?
AQUARIUS: It’s important to realize that everything you have done has been perfect. And according to plan. Aquarians are sometimes hard on themselves, thinking they don’t do enough, aren’t enough of something. They worry a lot, too. However, it’s important to know that Aquarians are quite different than most of humanity. Aquarians come from another star system, from the future. They don’t perform or accomplish things like the rest of humanity. They have different tasks altogether. Aquarius, you’re perfect.
PISCES: You’re hidden away for a while, Pisces. As it should be. It’s time for resting more, contemplating the future, reaffirming dreams or letting them go. Something has changed in your work. A new level of study has appeared after many months of preparation. It’s important to tend to health now, to assess what’s needed for your well-being. Focus on the little things that make up each day. Accomplish each task with order and strive to do your very best. One’s best is better than perfect.
It was 2009 when Keri Waters decided she couldn’t do it anymore. She was pregnant with her second child, and racing down the coast to avoid a wildfire on Highway 17 and get back to her young son. She was on Highway 92 that afternoon when she decided it was time to create her own opportunity at home in Santa Cruz.
“I just thought, ‘I’m not going to do this anymore,’” says Waters, 41, who is now on her third local startup with water tech provider Buoy. “If I’m going to live here, I need to work here.”
A native of the Boston area who studied mechanical engineering at MIT, Waters first moved to Mountain View for a job at dot-com-era powerhouse Silicon Graphics. She’d been driving over the hill off and on since 2000, when she moved to Santa Cruz with her now-husband to escape the constant feeling of living “between an office park and a Safeway” in Silicon Valley.
Today, Waters’ three-year-old company Buoy is wading into conservation issues that are front and center for Santa Cruz, and other customers in more than 20 states. The startup sells a $17.99-a-month subscription system, plus a $299 plumber installation fee, that fuses an in-home water sensor with a mobile app that allows homeowners to monitor their usage and intervene when there’s a suspected leak.
The idea, says Waters, was obvious given recent extreme water supply issues in Santa Cruz that have pushed local agencies to consider measures like water swaps, desalination and other potentially risky or costly options.
“At the time, it was the height of the drought,” remembers Waters, who says the irony of her aquatic last name isn’t lost on her. “I feel like water is the defining issue of our generation.”
If the ambitious goal of shoring up the water supply was clear, the path to making Buoy a reality was much murkier. The startup is currently courting investors for a Series A funding round to help grow its 14-person team based on the Westside of Santa Cruz.
It’s a big shift from Chopwood, the first company she founded in 2009, which took full advantage of Santa Cruz’s longstanding symbiotic relationship with neighboring Silicon Valley. The company specialized in providing digital services to companies in social networking and other fields centered over the hill. Waters got her first taste of vaunted tech startup success when she sold her second Santa Cruz-based company, a business-to-business data analytics provider called Arqetype, to a customer in Europe.
By early 2015, she was seeking a new challenge.
“I’d learned a bunch from my first two startups,” Waters says. “I wanted to really make the big swing with this one.”
Along the way, Waters credits the tight-knit Santa Cruz community—and, in particular, her older son’s preschool class—with providing the connections she needed to get viable businesses off the ground. In her son’s 10-student preschool class at Coastal Community Preschool, Waters met soon-to-be Santa Cruz Mayor Hilary Bryant, NextSpace Cofounder Jeremy Neuner, Stripe Design Services Founder Suna Lock, and former Netflix executive-turned-Buoy marketing director Carrie Kingsley.
Those connections had an impact.
“That’s how I met a bunch of these people, which I just love,” says Bryant, who went on to become one of Waters’ two co-founders at Buoy, along with longtime business partner Joel Boutros. “There’s about 1 degree of separation.”
The timing, during the depths of the recession in 2009, felt pivotal to Waters and Bryant. In the coming years, those interested in technology would band together with a wave of new business groups like Santa Cruz Works, where Waters is now a board member.
“It really is an exciting moment in tech,” Bryant says. “We’ve been building toward this, but we’re making breakthroughs in all kinds of areas.”
The rapid growth of deep-pocketed tech companies, among them Looker and a local Amazon outpost, has added high-paying jobs to a local economy heavily reliant on government work and seasonal hospitality. The area’s housing market, however, has not kept pace with new jobs and population gains, including a new generation of Silicon Valley transplants. After Santa Cruz median home prices plummeted below $500,000 during the housing crisis, they have skyrocketed to historic highs approaching $1 million this year, according to real estate data provider Zillow.
Amid broader economic tide changes, Waters, for her part, plans to dive deeper into water policy. Buoy is currently negotiating with several water agencies and homebuilders in the Santa Cruz area and beyond to evaluate incentives like rebates toward the installation of the water-saving system, she says.
In the meantime, the company finds itself at the center of the increasingly crowded “smart home” space. Buoy is already designed to work in tandem with Google-owned Nest’s smart thermostats and Amazon’s voice-controlled Echo, Waters says. She has also personally taken an interest in related data privacy and security groups like the Center for Humane Technology, which advocates for transparent and consensual use of consumer data.
The goal, Waters says: “technology working for humans, instead of vice versa.”
A crowded Santa Cruz City Council race shows no signs of thinning.
It’s still relatively early, but there are now 11 candidates running for three seats—two of which are open, given that Mayor David Terrazas is termed out and Councilmember Cynthia Chase has ruled out running again.
Since the last time we looked at the race, three new candidates have jumped in: attorney Phillip J. Crawford, who ran unsuccessfully for a county judge seat in 2010; Ashley Scontriano, a dog lover who launched a GoFundMe campaign earlier this year after the city shut down her pet care business, and Craig Bush, who kept a low profile when he last ran for the council in 2014. All three filed statements of intent to run with the city clerk’s office.
Robert Singleton, who ran in 2016, says he’s officially decided to pass on this year’s race.
Singer-songwriter Shawn Mullins recalls fiddling around with his friend’s sampler/drum machine 20 years ago. He loaded a James Brown song into it—he thinks it was “Sex Machine”—and slowed the beat down until the original song was unrecognizable. Mullins grabbed his journal and read one of his personal entries. He then wrote a rhythmic finger-picking guitar part over the top. It took all of 30 minutes to create “Lullaby,” which would become his biggest hit, one that would launch his career into a whole new stratosphere.
“It was not a lot of effort, it just kind of worked out,” Mullins recalls. “Other stuff I labor over quite a bit and never get any kind of commercial success.”
The song landed on Soul’s Core, which got released in 1998. It was his fourth record. Prior to Soul’s Core, he was an underground, mostly acoustic indie singer-songwriter. Soul’s Core not only explored a new territory of alternative rock with folk, trip-hop, spoken word and pop, it also boosted his fanbase significantly.
“It’s really significant for me. It’s kind of the second phase of the career for me where it got really real and also really unreal,” Mullins says.
Now it’s the 20th anniversary of Soul’s Core, and Mullins is revisiting it. But he’s not taking the typical route of just playing the album front to back on the road or re-releasing the album with bonus tracks. He’s re-recorded the entire album with a full band, and then also re-recorded the album a second time with solo guitar/vocals, and occasionally his friend on piano.
“Since we’re totally independent again, the easiest and most profitable way of doing it is just re-record the project. If I have to go through Sony music, I’m probably buying copies of the record from them at 11 bucks a piece or whatever,” Mullins says. “We re-did everything, artwork included, to give it to them kind of like how it is now. Stuff grows and changes.”
The idea of re-recording his breakout album started a year ago after he was coping with the suicide of his partner. Unsure what to do, he called up a bunch of his friends to get together, play music, and basically not be alone. These sessions yielded a few songs, but it got him thinking about how great it would be to capture Soul’s Core with a band like this, and document how the songs have changed from touring so relentlessly over the years.
“I kind of let everyone do their thing. It wasn’t as big of an undertaking as you might imagine. Everything worked beautifully,” Mullins says. “It comes natural, what you do when you have a bunch of really great musicians in a room for the songs.”
Around the same time, he was thinking it would be fun to tell some stories about each of the songs on Soul’s Core. It didn’t seem right to tell these stories and then go into a full band rendition of the songs, so he decided to do an entirely different recording of the record.
“It’s like the Kris Kristofferson kind of way of doing it, where you stay up all night, and just track it solo,” Mullins says.
These two albums are expected to be released in August or September this year, and he’s looking forward to celebrating the record that essentially made his career.
“That whole record was written from journal entries while I was on the West Coast,” Mullins says. “Just me and my dog and a van. That had a lot to do with people’s connection with it, I think.”
The album also taught him a lot about how to incorporate his broad influences in a creative way.
“I think it took getting the kind of audience that got whatever I was at the time in ’98,” Mullins says. “They kind of told me what I was. I have so many influences. I think I started to find my voice.”
Shawn Mullins plays at 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, July 26 at Moe’s Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz. $22/adv, $25/door. 479-1854.
Sarah Farrell Mackessy, co-owner of Lille Aeske, fielded a frantic call at the Boulder Creek gallery a couple of weeks ago. The woman on the other end of the line told her, “‘I need to get to your show tonight. I have no idea where you are.”
It turns out the woman had received a mysterious email from a friend, who wrote, “I went to this show. I don’t even know how to describe it to you, but you need to go.”
The show was Spektrum, the live, interactive installation that Mackessy and her husband James, who run the gallery together, have orchestrated for the last few weeks at Lille Aeske. And while that email might seem bizarre, I totally understand it—because that’s exactly how I had to describe Spektrum to my friends. “I can’t tell you what it is, just go,” “I guarantee you’ve never experienced anything quite like it” and “it will blow your mind” are a few of the things I remember saying to people I knew would be up for it. Clearly, I wasn’t the only one.
“The news about it traveled so quickly,” says Sarah. “We were worried that no one would come; we were like ‘Who’s going to come to this?’ Because we couldn’t even really find a way to talk about it in the beginning.”
That was the most frustrating part for those of us who went, too. Georgia Johnson of GT, who wrote a review of Spektrum after its first week, was tearing her hair out trying to figure out how to explain the experience without, you know, explaining the experience. Nobody wanted to spoil anything, because there was a certain purity to the whole presentation that seemed like it could be ruined by knowing too much about what to expect.
Now that Spektrum has finished its run, though, it seems like a good time to marvel over what the Mackessys and their collaborators were able to accomplish. One caveat: the Lille Aeske owners tell me that because of its success—it was sold out every week after the first weekend, and demand was so high by the end that they bent their own rules to allow for 16 visitors instead of 12 on the last night—that they are thinking about bringing the installation back in some form in 2019, so maybe spoiler alert.
The best way I can think of to sum up Spektrum is that it was a solo journey that turned the basic concept of a gallery on its head—rather than looking outward at objects of art, the people moving through the installation arguably became the objects themselves, with each subsequent room in the hour-long experience encouraging the visitor to look inward in a different way.
The first room was a very retro kitchen in which a masked man (actually James) moved about in an apron, doing what would have once been considered “motherly” type things: dusting, washing dishes, looking at photographs, sitting with me in silence at a small table (visitors were asked not to talk, as it would have surely ruined the quiet, solitary ambience for those who were in rooms in front of or behind them). This was also where the first of a series of letters was laid out on the table—from an unnamed person, inquiring about my well-being and describing memories.
As more letters appeared in each room, the themes of Spektrum started to emerge, stimulating questions like: Where do I come from? Who are my ancestors? What is my place in nature? These were developed through each room—one where I was invited to play an extremely cosmic piano, another where I was asked to meditate as empty frames teased the question of who my mind would imagine in them—until the climactic set piece, where an eerily lit bed that seemed ominously like a deathbed awaited. A veiled figure (actually Sarah) invited me to lie down on it, and when I did, I saw that there was a screen embedded into the top canopy that flickered in front of my eyes like footage of memories. Again, the theme of nature and especially big trees kept recurring in the images.
“One of the things we considered was what we love about being here, and the feel of this place,” says James. “As we were collaborating on the piece, we all agreed that the presence of those trees—as mentioned in the letters, they have a timelessness, a possible immortality, a lineage and an ancestry that is so visible and is such a force here—seemed like a very rich vein to tap into.”
One of the rooms featured a guest artist that changed every week, and each one did something completely different there. The week I went, the interaction with the artist was particularly personal and direct; the role she played was a sort of “Mother Nature” that tied in well to the other themes of the installation—and provoked some of the most emotional reactions of the entire run, Sarah says. But regardless of what week they went, visitors knew they were experiencing something unique.
“I think one common point of feedback was just how considered and special and thought-of they felt as they moved through the installation,” James says. “They felt like they were being taken care of. That was sort of built into the design of the show. You go through individually, and that immediately eliminates any sense of group dynamics or audience dynamics. The whole show is literally for you at that point. I think it’s rare to feel that kind of thing these days.”
At times, the whole thing was like a whirlwind for the Mackessys and their collaborators—and eventually, like a marathon. But the success of Spektrum and the positive feedback they’ve gotten has them thinking about what other kind of outside-the-box installations they can do next year.
“The challenge was that this is our space that we converted for this installation, and we quite literally immersed ourselves in it, day and night. That was a little maddening at times,” says Sarah. “So there were definitely peaks and valleys to it. But we’re sitting in it now, getting ready to de-install it, and are quite sad that we have to change it back.”
Landmark margaritas and incomparable atmosphere continue to make Manuel’s a destination for devoted locals and adventurous visitors. I’ve been coming to Manny’s since the first week I arrived in Santa Cruz a few decades back. It was great then. And it’s great now. One of the rare restaurants to deliver exactly what you remembered, it has stayed the same even though so many other places changed, morphed or declined.
Filled, no, make that packed, with a happy and vivacious crowd last week, Manny’s made us feel right at home. Seated under the portrait of John Tuck painted by founder Manuel Santana, Melody and I each immediately ordered a house Top Shelf Margarita ($9.75)—a hefty and complex creation of triple sec, Cointreau, and tequila—and checked out the menu. Yes, all of the famous chiles, tacos, burritos, and entree specials were still where we left them. But Melody only had eyes for the justly famed chile relleno dinner, a landscape of melted cheese over eggy chiles, with rice and sensuous refried beans ($14). My à la carte order of a carne asada taco ($6.50) and a quesadilla filled with shredded chicken, tomatoes, peppers, and cheese ($6.75) proved—like those gargantuan chile rellenos—enough for a World Cup after party. Thick slices of grilled beef filled the soft, warm tortillas, to which I applied the sour cream and pico de gallo adorning the side of my plate. I’m a fool for a quesadilla, and these delicious gooey wedges of filled tortillas were exactly the partners for the smoky, salty margarita. You’ve got a choice here: fill up on chips, salsa, and drinks and then take your dinner home for another day. Or, exercise restraint with the chips and do justice to the fine cooking. We managed to aim somewhere in between. The service here is always warm, friendly, and fast. After more than 50 years, Manuel’s continues to earn its happy reputation. Lucky folks who live in South County. The family-owned treasure is their neighborhood haunt. And it’s open late! Manuel’s Mexican Restaurant, 261 Center Ave., Aptos. Daily 11:30 a.m.-Midnight, and 11 p.m. on Sunday.
Tribute to Ahlgren
Raise a glass to one of the movers and shakers of our Santa Cruz Mountains wine region—the late Dexter Ahlgren—at a Harvest Dinner in his honor, Aug. 19, 4-9 p.m. Ahlgren, who died this past April was founder of Ahlgren Family Vineyards, was also a founding member of the Santa Cruz Mountains Winegrowers Association, and helped put our viticultural region on the international map. Join friends and fellow winemakers at Deer Park Ranch, home to Lester Estate Wines, for an all-star evening of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay tasting, followed by a bountiful farm-to-table dinner prepared by chef Brad Briske of HOME restaurant in Soquel. You’ll be sure to hear a few tales about the colorful winemaker. Tickets $150, available at the SCMWA website.
Sustain Supper Sensations
Congratulations to the organizers of the recent al fresco dinner to honor the Homeless Garden Project. Congressman Jimmy Panetta described the follies in Washington while we enjoyed a wonderful succession of courses, starting with Cafe Cruz chef Steve Wilson’s delightful appetizers, and a fabulous chicken confit over black bean feijoada with orange balsamic reduction sauce from Peter Henry of the Cremer House. Equally enchanting was an unusual zucchini lemon cake with roast strawberries from Aubergine’s Yulanda Santos. Gorgeous food, lots of progressive honchos in attendance—vibrant company.
Wine of the Week
La Honda’s 2017 Santa Cruz Mountains Sauvignon Blanc. The first of the 2017s and it is delightful. New wine! Crisp with limestone, lemongrass, and kiwi fruit. 13.5 percent alcohol. Utterly refreshing. $22ish. Everywhere.
Sometimes it seems like it’s hard to find a movie that really has something to say. Very rarely does one encounter a film like Sorry to Bother You that seems to have everything to say.
There isn’t a frame in this debut from writer-director Boots Riley (previously known for leading Oakland hip-hop group the Coup) that doesn’t seem to be working on multiple levels. Hell, even the title is loaded with subtext: the phrase is something a telemarketer like the movie’s protagonist Cassius Green (Lakeith Stanfield) might say. It’s also an important line at the end of the film in an entirely different context. But more than that, it’s what Riley himself is saying to anyone who doesn’t want his movie to make them think about race and class.
There’s a constant meta-narrative winding through the film, like the way the earrings that Cassius’ girlfriend Detroit (Tessa Thompson) wears, and the photo of his deceased dad in his cubicle, constantly change to comment on the twists and turns.
So it’s whip-smart, for sure, and the best politically conscious movie to come out in a long time. But it’s also funny and entertaining as hell. It’s also not a good movie to give away too much about. Halfway through, you’ll still be wondering why this film keeps being described as sci-fi—but, oh man, when you find out … well, you’ll never think of the word “workhorse” the same way again, that’s for sure.
As the film opens, Cassius, who lives in Oakland, is trying to scam his way into a telemarketing job. Turns out he doesn’t have to— “I’ll hire damn near anyone,” his boss reassures him. Why? Well it turns out no one cares who’s doing what at the bottom of the corporate heap. But when Danny Glover as a fellow telemarketer shows Cassius how to find his “white voice”—the keys are imagining “you don’t really need this money” and “you’ve never been fired, only laid off”—Cassius’ career starts to take off. (His “white voice” is provided by David Cross, and it never stops being hilarious, one of the film’s most brilliant satirical touches.)
The comedy here reaches deeper into the absurdity of the workplace than Mike Judge ever got, as Cassius becomes a Power Caller, angering his friends who are trying to unionize. There’s a lot of wonderfully subtle stuff (when Cassius asks for “40 on 2” at the gas station, it’s 40 cents) and even better over-the-top ridiculousness (like the insane number of digits in the Power Caller elevator passcode, or the way that same elevator tells him things like “you are in your sexual prime, the top of the reproductive pile”).
The material is also ripe for visual experimentation by Riley, who clearly had a blast bringing this story to life. When Cassius starts cold calling and his desk suddenly drops into the home of whoever he’s talking to, it’s a genuinely original way to make us look at human interaction. What if we didn’t have the facelessness of the phone—and by extension, the internet? How would we treat each other differently? How would we change what we say?
There aren’t inherent heroes here, only ordinary people who have the potential to act heroically. Nobody is flawless; Detroit is self-righteous about Cassius’ upward mobility, but part of that is simply masking her own guilt about selling art to rich people—her life experience is being consumed by the ruling class—and Cassius sees right through her, just as she does him. And nobody is truly bad, except for CEO Steve Lift (Armie Hammer), who runs a company called WorryFree that provides the mysterious conspiracy that eventually pushes this whole movie into Crazytown—and I mean that in the best way possible.
All of the supporting cast is solid, but the real revelation is Stanfield, who is the perfect actor to convey both the lightness and the heaviness of this material. He’s got an easy warmth and empathy even when he’s trying to convince himself he can be a “monster” at this capitalist game.
Sorry to Bother You is part of a particularly woke moment at the movies. Last year’s Get Out (which featured Stanfield as the haunted Andre) proved a horror movie that did for race issues what The Stepford Wives did for feminism could be a blockbuster hit, and even win an Oscar. The First Purge took an action-horror franchise that’s been getting better with every film and turned the sociopolitical commentary to 11, focusing on African-American characters for the first time. (“People are very resistant to thinking that you can make the world a better place through a horror movie,” Jason Blum, the producer of both Get Out and The First Purge, told me in a recent interview. “But you can.”) Spike Lee’s upcoming BlacKkKlansman, remarkably, also features an African-American character who has to find his “white voice,” in this instance to bait the KKK over the phone. And the indie flick Blindspotting, also set in Oakland and politically charged, languished for years before becoming bankable.
Of all these films, Sorry to Bother You may be the most important, but its importance is ironically the hardest to explain. It’s in its layers of meaning, sure, but even more so in the way its humanist heart and values shine through in every scene. When one of his co-workers tells Cassius “just do right from now on,” we see how all of Riley’s subtext can boil down to something gorgeously simple and relatable to all of our lives.
SORRY TO BOTHER YOU
Written and directed by Boots Riley. Starring Lakeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, Terry Crews and Armie Hammer. Rated R. 115 minutes.
Singer-songwriter Shawn Mullins recalls fiddling around with his friend’s sampler/drum machine 20 years ago. He loaded a James Brown song into it—he thinks it was “Sex Machine”—and slowed the beat down until the original song was unrecognizable. Mullins grabbed his journal and read one of his personal entries. He then wrote a rhythmic finger-picking guitar part over the top....
