Page 758 | Good Times

Opinion June 13, 2018

Steve Palopoli

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June 12, 2018

EDITOR’S NOTE

Sometimes important stories kind of sneak up on you. That’s what happened this week with Lauren Hepler’s report on the rise of whale entanglements in the Monterey Bay. It wasn’t originally planned as a cover story, even—we sent her out with the Whale Entanglement Team not knowing how much of a story was really there, but that the numbers on whale rescues in the Monterey Bay seemed to have jumped by statistically improbable percentages in the last five years.

What she brought back is a fascinating—and concerning—look at the future of the Monterey Bay ecosystem. It’s a complicated picture, and as with so many environmental stories, climate change plays a huge part. Within the fluctuations of the vast ocean off our shores, though, is a smaller but very dramatic story of two types of mammals trying to navigate around each other. One of them is 60,000 pounds, the other is roughly .002 percent that size. But as Hepler’s story shows, a few of those smaller mammals are dedicating themselves to saving the bigger ones, and making a huge difference in our waters. Their story is every bit as compelling, in its own way, as the larger picture here, and I hope this gives some much-deserved and needed exposure to their work.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Read the latest letters to the editor here.

Bad Education

Most people would agree that the primary goal of a university is to educate. One method of educating is to illustrate by example. Thus, UCSC illustrated principles for building a university by constructing examples. The visions of our early administrators—think of Clark Kerr and Dean McHenry—taught us how to start.

They recruited first-rate architects and planners, such as John Carl Warnecke and Thomas Church. “Church and the architects were so struck by the beauty of the UCSC site they convinced the Regents to move the heart of the campus out of the meadow and into the trees, where the flora and terrain would be both a challenge and an inspiration.” (See http://50years.ucsc.edu/new-campus/.)

The current proposal for constructing the new 3,000-bed housing project on the UCSC campus includes seven apartment buildings ranging from four to 10 stories tall near Heller Drive and—even more egregious—15 acres of buildings in the East Meadow near the intersection of Hagar and Coolidge Drives. (See https://ppc.ucsc.edu/planning/EnvDoc.html for details.)

The project is a bad example, and therefore bad education. It fails to achieve the primary goal of the university.

If you ask faculty, staff, students and alumni why they chose to come to UCSC, you will find that a primary reason is the beauty of the campus and its close connections with nature—the views, the redwoods, the expansive meadows, and the amazing variety of wildlife. This “Design With Nature” philosophy is the primary reason we have such an excellent educational institution, and the reason that our faculty, staff and students don’t want to leave.

Please help us work to maintain the original goal set by our founders. The comment period on the Draft EIR was recently extended to June 27. Please sign the petition by the East Meadow Action Committee at eastmeadowaction.org/petition.

Peter Scott

Santa Cruz

Not Good News

The local density topic meetings I attended left me dismayed and in strong opposition to what was proposed with the East Side corridor plan. It makes no sense to lift/revise current regulations which are in place to safeguard our neighborhoods and a resident’s right to park their car in front of their own dwelling, as well as revising current building permit regulations, making it easier for density construction. More buildings and more people and cars in Santa Cruz, yet insufficient allotted parking? A recipe for disaster.

Every East Side local should be aware, also, that the stated intention for said corridor plan is five-story structures without enough parking for whoever takes up residence. Where would all of these extra cars be parked? In your front yard, most likely.

I tell you, it makes no sense and is not good news for the local tax-paying residents of our beloved Santa Cruz hometown.

Nada J. Misunas

Santa Cruz

The Danger is Real

Re: Wildfire danger (GT, 4/11): I live adjacent to Willow Canyon, which in turn is adjacent to the Seascape Uplands Preserve. While I applaud the deals made to protect these lands, Willow Canyon has become severely choked with vegetation, much of which is weedy and non-native. When I first moved to this house 18 years ago, my dog and I would hike a loop through the canyon easily. Now it’s impossible without a machete. This is one of those areas in the county that would blow up so fast that at least 50 homes, a school, and a church could all be on fire before a fire truck could get here, despite the nearest station being only a mile away on Bonita Drive near Rio Del Mar Boulevard.

Whoever has been responsible for this property should have been working on reducing the fire hazard rather than ignoring the property altogether. As far as I’m concerned, and in this matter I think I can speak for all of my neighbors, all the owners of said property over the last 20 or more years will be held responsible for the devastation should a fire erupt here.

CJ Handy

Aptos

PHOTO CONTEST WINNER

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

GOOD IDEA

SEASONAL SPLASH

As of June 9, the Harvey West Pool is officially open for the season, with lessons, exercise, lap swimming and good old-fashioned splashing around. Swim teacher Jim Booth and his staff have been teaching in Santa Cruz County for more than 40 years. The swim school can be reached at 722-3500. $6 water exercise classes are Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11:30 a.m. Lap swim is $5 per visit, and recreation swim is $4. For details, visit santacruzparksandrec.com.

GOOD WORK

GETTING A READ

In an end-of-the-school-year reading challenge, students at the Pajaro Valley Unified School District read close to three million words in one month with a brand new literacy app. The district announced three winners—preschooler Noah Baliscao, first grader Marcelino Ortiz Carcia and third grader Brandon Corona-Matias. Each winner will receive three movie tickets donated by Green Valley Cinema. Superintendent Michelle Rodriguez announced a new reading challenge this past weekend.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

You never truly win a conservation battle. You just win the right to fight another day.
-Joshua Horwitz

Why Whale Entanglements Are on the Rise in Monterey Bay

Cover Stories

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June 12, 2018

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Why Whale Entanglements Are on the Rise in Monterey Bay

The morning fog in Moss Landing is still thick when Peggy Stap and her volunteer whale rescue crew load up their GPS-equipped buoys, flying knives and repurposed lacrosse helmets.

It’s just after 9 a.m. on this Tuesday morning when Stap steers her 40-foot boat into the harbor. Her 13-year-old rescue dog, a local social media celebrity known as “Whiskie the Whale Spotter,” shares the captain’s seat. After a quick safety check—calm water, good weather—Stap relays the latest radio chatter to her small team of researchers, photographers and curious visitors.

“Tim’s got a gray whale that doesn’t look healthy,” Stap says. She revs the engine and heads for the open waters of the Monterey Bay.

Following up on vague reports from whale-watching boats, fishermen and park rangers has become a near-daily routine for the 63-year-old Michigan transplant. As founding director of the nonprofit research and rescue group Marine Life Studies, Stap has carved out a niche as the Monterey Bay’s go-to first responder for injured whales.

Lately, that means helping to cut loose more and more of the 60,000-pound animals who get caught in crab lines, fishing nets and other ocean hazards. It’s a task that has grown increasingly daunting since 2006, when Stap and Mary Whitney of Carmel’s Fluke Foundation started an early version of the Whale Entanglement Team (WET) that now struggles to keep pace with calls about animals in distress.

“We’ve had three entanglements just in the past couple of weeks,” says Laura Kasa, former director of Save Our Shores and a consultant to the recently formed Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Foundation. She says the new organization is prioritizing fundraising for entanglement to ensure rescue crews have necessary supplies.

“The sad thing is they die such a slow, painful death. They can carry this gear for six months to a year,” Kasa says.

cover-opening-1824 — **TRACKING SUCCESS** A humpback whale entangled by a crab pot off the coast of Northern California was tracked and disentangled by Pieter Folkens (pictured) and other WET team members more than two weeks later in Santa Barbara. PHOTO: R. BERGER, MMHSRP PERMIT 932-1489 / WhaleEntanglementTeam.org

Climate Changes

Statistics from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) show a quickly evolving picture for entanglement. From 2000 to 2013, California averaged 10 reports of entangled whales per year. In 2015, there were 25 reports of entangled whales in Northern California alone—21 of those in the Monterey Bay—marking the highest tally since record-keeping began in 1982. In 2016, the number of reports climbed again, to 23 whales in the Monterey Bay alone. Last year saw 26 reported entanglements throughout California, still well above the historical average, according to NOAA data.

Not all of the entangled whales reported in the Monterey Bay actually originate there, though.

“We’re the whale watching capital of the world, so there are more eyes on the water,” Stap said. She’s seen animals drag lines to the Central Coast from fisheries in Fort Bragg or farther.

Explaining the science behind the increase in entanglements is also more complicated than keeping a closer eye on fishing lines, according to the researchers, nonprofits and fishermen watching the water. Whales entangled in pursuit of shifting food stocks illustrate a convergence of evolving ocean biology with big implications not just for wildlife, but also a regional economy built on a reliable supply of valuable seafood.

“If the world continues to get warmer, things are going to shift,” says Francisco Chavez, senior scientist and biological oceanographer with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. “The species that are in Monterey Bay will be in Oregon, and the species that are in Point Conception will be in Monterey Bay.”

That doesn’t mean wildlife in the Bay will disappear, Chavez is quick to point out. What it might mean is major uncertainty about the ecological future of the Monterey Bay, perhaps with unexpected side effects like the surge in whale entanglements.

“We should expect more surprises,” Chavez says. “I don’t know if entanglements will be the next big thing or if it will be something else.”

For Calder Deyerle, a Moss Landing fisherman whose family owns and operates Sea Harvest Fish Market and Restaurant, the biggest challenge is working with researchers and environmental groups to understand the problem in the context of an ever-evolving marine environment.

“What it really comes down to is a whole lot of really smart people don’t really know a whole lot,” Deyerle says.

cover-jump-1-1824 — **STAYING AFLOAT** The Whale Rescue Research Vessel (background) and inflatable boat WET uses for responses. The organization is trying to raise funds for an inflatable that it can keep on the boat at all times. PHOTO: BOB TALBOT, NOAA MMHSRP PERMIT 1876 / WhaleEntanglementTeam

Feeling the heat

By mid-morning on her recent Tuesday expedition, Stap is losing faith that her crew will be able to locate the injured gray whale reported the night before. A few seemingly healthy humpback whales and white, squid-eating Risso’s dolphins surface, but most sightings are of another kind.

“First one, species was balloon,” Stap tells a volunteer who is recording each identification. “This one, species is plastic.” By the end of the day, the Marine Life Studies boat will collect 47 Mylar balloons, many marking the recent Mother’s Day holiday. Pollution is one of many variables that complicates the mission of Stap’s team and others working to minimize wildlife run-ins.

Chavez, who has studied the Monterey Bay for three decades, says the exact biological changes attributable to human activity remain impossible to pinpoint. Still, he says, the ecosystem “changed in a way we hadn’t seen” after 1997.

Among the most acute shifts are periodic temperature changes—beyond the normal cycle of warmer El Niño water—that impact the “upwelling system” cycling feedstocks through the Monterey Bay. In 2015, both researchers and fishermen say that the altered temperature resulted in fewer krill in deeper water, pushing whales to follow anchovies closer to shore.

“The buzzword these days is ‘marine heatwaves,’” Chavez says, noting similarly anomalous years around 1940 and 1997. “The habitat shrinks. Man meets whale. This recent event was just much more prolonged.”

Day to day, Deyerle says, fishermen were left to contend with a sudden influx of whales during 2015 near long-established coastal fishing and crabbing spots. The resulting accidents were a shock to the system.

“I never even really worried or considered whale entanglements to be an issue,” Deyerle said. “That year really forced it into everybody’s lap.”

The sheer number of whales in and around the Monterey Bay is another major factor in changing interactions with the ocean giants. The population of humpback whales on the West Coast has rebounded from 1,200 before whaling restrictions in the late 1960s to more than 18,000 today.

In the meantime, Deyerle says, fisherman are also juggling limitations on the region’s famous Dungeness crab—both natural fluctuations in population, and regulations on crabbing season and the types of crabs it is permissible to catch in the Bay. As of 2012, federal data shows that commercial fishing was a $30 million business in the Monterey Bay, including almost $9.5 million in revenue from Dungeness crab.

“You spend more money on fuel and bait and time and gear than you’re making,” Deyerle says of the predicament fisheries have faced in recent years.

As the Central Coast economy diversifies with increased investment in tourism, advanced agriculture and attracting high tech companies, Deyerle says he is among the fishermen hedging his bets. He’s now casting longlines for sablefish, no longer relying as heavily on crab.

Looking ahead, Chavez says staying in business could require even more significant adjustments if water temperatures continue to climb.

“The things that we normally see during these warm events are tuna and things of that nature. Things people like to eat. It’s not all gloom and doom,” Chavez says. “The thing is, it’s kind of hard to prepare for the local fishermen. The bigger fleets will do better than the small mom and pops.”

cover-jump-2-1824 — **SEA OF UNKNOWNS** Of 26 entangled whales reported in California last year, three were disentangled by response teams, five were partially disentangled, and one appeared to free itself, leaving 20 cases with unknown outcomes. PHOTO: DOUG CROFT, MMHSRP PERMIT 18786-02 / WhaleEntanglementTeam.org

Moving Targets

Before she decided to spend her retirement tracking down injured whales along the coast from Davenport to Big Sur, Stap spent two decades studying whales in Hawaii and California. The former retail sales director and landscape architect moved from the Midwest to be in the Monterey Bay area full time in 2010.

After more than a decade on the entanglement beat, Stap knows when to stop and regroup. By late morning on her recent patrol, she calls off the search for the injured gray whale—an example of the difficulty of tracking a gigantic moving target, since people who report entangled whales are often unable to stand by and keep an eye on the animal until Stap arrives.

“We could do this all day and not find it,” Stap says. In one case, she remembers, it took 17 days to find a whale reported entangled in the Monterey Bay—which was eventually discovered in Santa Barbara.

If a search does prove successful, WET’s team of volunteers and one part-time assistant are ready. First, they call NOAA for permission to approach the whale. When that is granted, a team departs on a smaller boat to get closer. The first objective is to attach a telemetry buoy equipped with a satellite tracker to make it easier to monitor the whale’s location.

From there, protocol dictates that a NOAA-certified “level four” responder should do the actual cutting. Since the closest level four to Santa Cruz is 100 miles away in Benicia, that can leave the WET crew to monitor whales for several hours.

Getting a local certified to perform disentanglements on shorter notice is one long-term goal, Stap said. Marine Life Studies also photographs whale flukes and dorsal fins, which are sent to Washington’s Cascadia Research and logged in a database tracking whale migration patterns.

Fundraising for specialized equipment is one recurring challenge. Marine Life is currently raising $10,000 for a new cut boat. Then, there are dozens of smaller tools, like navigation devices and a $500 “whale rescue blade”—rounded at the tip to avoid cutting the animal, but sharp enough to cut thick lines “like butter,” Stap says.

In the coming months, the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Foundation hopes to raise $50,000 from area residents and businesses to fund Stap’s group and additional NOAA boats that could be mobilized to help despite shrinking federal conservation funding. Those funds would be matched by the Monterey Bay Peninsula Foundation.

To better understand one of the primary causes of entanglement, Deyerle and Stap are both part of a three-year-old California Dungeness Crab Fishing Gear Working Group convened by the state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife. The group is currently focused on collecting data and applying ocean biology to whale migration as part of an ongoing Risk Assessment and Mitigation Program (RAMP). Deyerle says he and other fisherman are also exploring alternative line materials and other animal-safe technologies, though such tools can be cost-prohibitive or not yet proven for regular use.

Still, some environmental groups have grown impatient. Last year, after quitting the crab working group, the Center for Biological Diversity sued the state for failing to address the problem. The group blamed the state for enforcing “virtually no restrictions on the fishermen,” according to an October 2017 report in the East Bay Express.

Deyerle says local fisheries are already subject to more regulation than counterparts in other parts of the country. Stap and others also contend that working with the Central Coast’s multimillion-dollar commercial fishing industry is the most pragmatic approach.

“There’s nobody out there that wants to catch a whale,” says Heather Willis, a Pacifica-based volunteer with the nonprofit California Whale Rescue, which helps coordinate entanglement responses. “That sucks, to lose thousands of dollars worth of equipment.”

Day to day, Stap is left to man the front line of a rapidly-changing environment. On this one, even with the sun shining on an unusually serene bay, the gray whale never surfaces.

A few days later, though, a humpback trailing a 70-foot line with white and yellow buoys is spotted in Big Sur. Stap says her group is on standby, with a team ready to respond.

Kasa says what the whale rescue effort needs is more reliable funding for better equipment and more manpower. Of the 26 entangled whales reported in California last year, just three were fully released from gear by response teams. Five whales were partially disentangled and one appeared to free itself, leaving 20 cases with unknown outcomes.

“This is just a Band-Aid,” Kasa says. “We really have to figure out how we can fund the research piece.”

Rob Brezsny’s Astrology June 13-19

Rob Brezsny

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June 12, 2018

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ARIES (March 21-April 19): My Aries acquaintance Tatiana decided to eliminate sugar from her diet. She drew up a plan to avoid it completely for 30 days, hoping to permanently break its hold over her. I was surprised to learn that she began the project by making a Dessert Altar in her bedroom, where she placed a chocolate cake and five kinds of candy. She testified that it compelled her willpower to work even harder and become even stronger than if she had excluded all sweet treats from her sight. Do you think this strenuous trick might work for you as you battle your own personal equivalent of a sugar addiction? If not, devise an equally potent strategy. You’re on the verge of forever escaping a temptation that’s no good for you. Or you’re close to vanquishing an influence that has undermined you. Or both.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): You have caressed and finessed The Problem. You have tickled and teased and tinkered with it. Now I suggest you let it alone for a while. Give it breathing room. Allow it to evolve under the influence of the tweaks you have instigated. Although you may need to return and do further work in a few weeks, my guess is that The Problem’s knots are now destined to metamorphose into seeds. The awkwardness you massaged with your love and care will eventually yield a useful magic.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): “Whether you love what you love or live in divided ceaseless revolt against it, what you love is your fate.” Gemini poet Frank Bidart wrote that in his poem “Guilty of Dust,” and now I offer it to you. Why? Because it’s an excellent time to be honest with yourself as you identify whom and what you love. It’s also a favorable phase to assess whether you are in any sense at odds with whom and what you love; and if you find you are, to figure out how to be in more harmonic alignment with whom and what you love. Finally, dear Gemini, now is a key moment to vividly register the fact that the story of your life in the coming years will pivot around your relationship with whom and what you love.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Congratulations on the work you’ve done to cleanse the psychic toxins from your soul, Cancerian. I love how brave you’ve been as you’ve jettisoned outworn shticks, inadequate theories, and irrelevant worries. It makes my heart sing to have seen you summon the self-respect necessary to stick up for your dreams in the face of so many confusing signals. I do feel a tinge of sadness that your heroism hasn’t been better appreciated by those around you. Is there anything you can do to compensate? Like maybe intensify the appreciation you give yourself?

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): I hope you’re reaching the final stages of your year-long project to make yourself as solid and steady as possible. I trust you have been building a stable foundation that will serve you well for at least the next five years. I pray you have been creating a rich sense of community and establishing vital new traditions and surrounding yourself with environments that bring out the best in you. If there’s any more work to be done in these sacred tasks, intensify your efforts in the coming weeks. If you’re behind schedule, please make up for lost time.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): “Necessity is the mother of invention,” says an old proverb. In other words, when your need for some correction or improvement becomes overwhelming, you may be driven to get creative. Engineer Allen Dale put a different spin on the issue. He said that “if necessity is the mother of invention, then laziness is the father.” Sci-fi writer Robert Heinlein agreed, asserting that “progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things.” I’m not sure if necessity or laziness will be your motivation, Virgo, but I suspect that the coming weeks could be a golden age of invention for you. What practical innovations might you launch? What useful improvements can you finagle? (P.S. Philosopher Alfred North Whitehead attributed the primary drive for innovative ideas and gizmos to “pleasurable intellectual curiosity.”)

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Would you have turned out wiser and wealthier if you had dropped out of school in third grade? Would it have been better to apprentice yourself to a family of wolves or coyotes rather than trusting your educational fate to institutions whose job it was to acclimate you to society’s madness? I’m happy to let you know that you’re entering a phase when you’ll find it easier than usual to unlearn any old conditioning that might be suppressing your ability to fulfill your rich potentials. I urge you to seek out opportunities to unleash your skills and enhance your intelligence.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): The temptation to over dramatize is strong. Going through with a splashy but messy conclusion may have a perverse appeal. But why not wrap things up with an elegant whisper instead of a garish bang? Rather than impressing everyone with how amazingly complicated your crazy life is, why not quietly lay the foundations for a low-key resolution that will set the stage for a productive sequel? Taking the latter route will be much easier on your karma, and in my opinion will make for just as interesting a story.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Each of us harbors rough, vulnerable, controversial, or unhoned facets of our identity. And every one of us periodically reaches turning points when it becomes problematic to keep those qualities buried or immature. We need to make them more visible and develop their potential. I suspect you have arrived at such a turning point. So, on behalf of the cosmos, I hereby invite you to enjoy a period of ripening and self-revelation. And I do mean “enjoy.” Find a way to have fun.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): For the next two-plus weeks, an unusual rule will be in effect: The more you lose, the more you gain. That means you will have an aptitude for eliminating hassles, banishing stress, and shedding defense mechanisms. You’ll be able to purge emotional congestion that has been preventing clarity. You’ll have good intuitions about how to separate yourself from influences that have made you weak or angry. I’m excited for you, Capricorn! A load of old, moldy karma could dissolve and disperse in what seems like a twinkling. If all goes well, you’ll be traveling much lighter by July 1.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): I suggest you avoid starting a flirtatious correspondence with a convict who’ll be in jail for another 28 years. OK? And don’t snack on fugu, the Japanese delicacy that can poison you if the cook isn’t careful about preparing it. Please? And don’t participate in a séance where the medium summons the spirits of psychotic ancestors or diabolical celebrities with whom you imagine it might be interesting to converse. Got that? I understand you might be in the mood for high adventure and out-of-the-ordinary escapades. And that will be fine and healthy as long as you also exert a modicum of caution and discernment.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): I suggest that you pat yourself on the back with both hands as you sing your own praises and admire your own willful beauty in three mirrors simultaneously. You have won stirring victories over not just your own personal version of the devil, but also over your own inertia and sadness. From what I can determine, you have corralled what remains of the forces of darkness into a comfy holding cell, sealing off those forces from your future. They won’t bother you for a very long time, maybe never again. Right now you would benefit from a sabbatical — a vacation from all this high-powered character-building. May I suggest you pay a restorative visit to the Land of Sweet Nonsense?

Homework: Many of us try to motivate ourselves through abusive self-criticism. Do you? If so, maybe it’s time to change. Testify at Freewillastrology.com.

Krishna (Teacher) & Arjuna (student), Soul & Personality & a War: Risa’s Stars June 13-19

Risa D’Angeles

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June 12, 2018

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Krishna (Teacher) & Arjuna (student), Soul & Personality & a War: Risa’s Stars June 13-19

The week begins with a Wednesday new moon at 23 degrees Gemini, sign of the two brothers, one the personality (its light waning), the other, the Soul (I grow and glow). In Gemini we see “instability doing its work.” The purpose of instability in relationships is to help us, exhausted with conflicts, seek harmony and balance which comes with Soul direction. The Soul eventually shows itself and says with compassion to the struggling personality, “Here, let me help you. I am the Soul, I am Light Divine. I am Love, I am Will. And perfect in my design. I am your Soul.” When the Soul begins to direct the lower self, the personality is able to adjust to a more calm and harmonious livingness.

Gemini points out the relationship between personality (self) and Soul (Self). It is the story of Krishna (Teacher) and Arjuna (student). Krishna woke Arjuna early one morning and told him to look outside. There in the fields a war was proceeding. On both sides of the war Arjuna saw family members. Krishna told Arjuna to choose a side to fight on. Arjuna refused to choose. With great kindness Krishna informed his student the purpose of the choice and the battle—he was to discern which side represented the Soul and which side represented the personality. And to then choose where he stands.

Our present world situation, especially the U.S., is experiencing both an Arjuna lesson and predicament. The polarized political players represent the two warring parties. Humanity is Arjuna, needing to discern and discriminate between the two—the stable Soul qualities from the personality fluctuations. One sings, the other doesn’t. Things (appearances) are not what they seem.

And so, onto this week: Flag Day (Thursday), Father’s Day (Sunday), Neptune retrogrades (Monday), in our last week of Spring.

ARIES: You want to learn more, to communicate with intelligence. You’re curious; seek sensation and variety, instinctively cheerful and carefree. You’re restless, want to be with humanity, yet feel a bit distanced. You want to interact, walk neighborhoods, talk to siblings, be active, gather information, ponder upon and share it. You have errands to do, people to contact, letters (emails) to write. Visualize all this first.

TAURUS: All you want is a bit of peace and quiet, a place of repose, comfort and tranquility. Your need is to unwind and begin to heal old wounds. You need to be out in the Sun, in the gardens, tending to the soil, the plants, the grasses, working with the devas. You also must tend seriously to things financial concerning resources. You’re slow when it comes to cleaning and disposing of material possessions. Yet this must be done soon.

GEMINI: You want to begin anew. You don’t know where or how. You feel a pioneering impulse; you’re ready, willing and filled with enthusiasm. However, there are so many avenues available, choosing can be difficult. Making the choice, each day, with dedication to stand under the Light of the Soul, under the Will-to-Good, helps in making Right Choice. This is a challenge for you. Steadfastness. Just begin. Visualize.

CANCER: Things are a bit dreamy. You feel sensitive and susceptible. Your imagination is in full force, filled with impressions and pictures. There seems to be no boundaries, everything blending together, creating very interesting situations. Details are unavailable at this time. Things are just too mystical with spiritual developments occurring everywhere. It’s time for a retreat into the garden of joy.

LEO: Sometimes you must break the rules. The need for freedom makes old rules awkward and difficult. So often you must express your independence and uniqueness. It’s good to find a group that recognizes, admires, applauds and supports your creative individuality. You need activity, more people around, more of the world in order to have a sense of uplifted well-being. You need things bright and beautiful. Plant blue morning glories.

VIRGO: You sense a need for more planning, order and structure. So the future can unfold according to your needs. You feel limited from time, by time. Sometimes you feel you haven’t done enough. You want to feel successful. This is most important. And so you become more resourceful, are careful of time and energy and the right use of resources. You are serious and productive. You thrive in gardens.

LIBRA: It’s important to search out the truth concerning all decisions, activities and choices in your life up till now. This is because previous ways of life will soon become worn. You seek a new vision in life with new goals, new ways of interacting. Everything is an adventure for you. You will find emotional needs changing. This comes subtly. It’s important to have Right Relations with everyone in the family. Forgiveness liberates you.

SCORPIO: You hide a very vital part of yourself until you feel a sense of trust. You hide elation and sorrow, desires and misgivings, emotions, likes and dislikes, passion and pain. Some understand you, many don’t. When the moon enters Scorpio each month, you are urged to go even more undercover, to retreat into solitude where you assess fears and inhibitions. Brooding is your second nature. Brooding is a good thing. It fosters revelation and helps bring visions into materialization.

SAGITTARIUS: Creating harmonious interactions with everyone, externally and internally (how we act, what we feel) is important. This means internally having the intention for Goodwill, which creates Right Relations. Experiencing this from the heart creates a deep love and intelligent activity in all environments and interactions. This type of activity creates diplomacy and the peace everyone seeks. Although you can see both sides, choose from Goodwill. Right direction follows.

CAPRICORN: Each day we experience different states of consciousness. A disciple is one who is aware of these different stages, within the self and in others. Disciples learn (and thus teach by example) to be aware of all actions and their outcomes. We learn about our role in society, a most important task for Capricorns. We learn to protect the kingdoms (mineral, plant, animal, human, angels). It is our destiny. You are already a leader. Now, day by day, more so.

AQUARIUS: Aquarians (part of the New Group of World Servers) are responsible for humanity’s evolution by bringing the future into the present, a major task of building the new culture and civilization. In between this weighty task you need a variety of experiences and light-hearted interactions to soothe restlessness and the deep need for human contact. Contact releases love. Make intentional contact.

PISCES: You need quiet places, peaceful environments, a sense of belonging providing solace and safety. With these conditions met you’re able to heal wounds, accomplish your unique spiritual and worldly tasks, discover feelings, hopes and aspirations that direct your life and motivate your specific ability to serve. Balance each day with gratitude and the awareness that your needs must come before assisting in the needs of others. Plant violet morning glories.

What were your career ambitions as a child?

Columns

Matthew Cole Scott

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June 12, 2018

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What were your career ambitions as a child?

“An elevator operator to take people up and down. ”

Vickie Assunto

Santa Cruz

LMFT

“I wanted to be a dolphin when I was 5 or 6 years old.”

Kate Kiti

Santa Cruz

Catering

“When I was a kid I wanted to be the Jane Goodall of tigers.”

Remy Vincent

Santa Cruz

Aspiring Wildlife Conservationist

“I wanted to be a paleontologist.”

Bill Scott

Bonny Doon

Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry

“Psychiatrist. On the playground somehow the bullies always ended up crying on my shoulder. ”

Mark Buchanon

Santa Cruz

Dude

Music Picks June 13-19

Andrew Gilbert

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June 12, 2018

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Live music highlights for the week of June 13, 2018.

WEDNESDAY 6/13

ALT-COUNTRY

MARGO CILKER

Margo Cilker makes “cowgirl music from San Francisco.” What’s the distinction here? Maybe it’s the fact that she opens her newest EP, California Dogwood, with a line about a “lonely painter” renting a “cold room” on the coast. Otherwise, this is stark southern acoustic-style music that you’d expect attached to the word country (or at least “real” country as some roots enthusiasts have come to refer to it as). Cilker brings an intense, deeply sad emotionality to her music that brings to mind some of the darker Lucinda Williams material. AC

INFO: 8 p.m. Crepe Place, 1134 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. $10 ($7 with cowboy boots). 429-6994.

THURSDAY 6/14

FOLK

PAT HULL

Melodic, light and dreamy, Pat Hull’s music has everything in it to put a smile on your face. Based out of Chico, Hull writes songs that are reminiscent of Neil Young, Bonnie Prince Billy and M. Ward. He is currently touring on his upcoming album, Denmark Sessions, named after the studio in Portland where it was recorded, which drops on June 28. Hull will be joined on stage with the alt-country sounds of Dan Too and the return of Santa Cruz string band, MAJK. MAT WEIR

INFO: 7:30 p.m. Flynn’s Cabaret, 6275 Hwy. 9, Felton. $15. 335-2800.

FRIDAY 6/15

SOUL

ROYAL JELLY JIVE

On a mission to “spread the jelly,” San Francisco soul outfit Royal Jelly Jive calls to mind the jazz clubs of old, with dimmed lights, smoke-filled air, and swinging music deep into the early hours. Blending funk, soul, horns and infectious grooves, the band, led by frontwoman Lauren Bjelde, throws it back to the old school in all the right ways. Over four years, two albums, and countless live shows, Royal Jelly Jive has established itself as a Bay Area favorite. CJ

INFO: 9 p.m. Moe’s Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz. $10/adv, $15/door. 479-1854.

FRIDAY 6/15

FOLK

KINGSTON TRIO

In the late ’50s and early ’60s, folk revival group the Kingston Trio was a huge pop hitmaker. The group played two acoustic guitars, a banjo, insanely catchy hooks and a near-constant wall of vocal harmonies to not only climb the charts, but to help kick off the folk revival that came to epitomize the ’60s counter-culture. The trio themselves, with their matching striped shirts and harmless storytelling lyrics weren’t exactly counter-culture icons, though without blazing a trail to the charts, groups like Peter Paul and Mary and Dylan may not have reached the number of ears that they did. AC

INFO: 9 p.m. Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. $30. 423-8209.

FRIDAY 6/15

AMERICANA

ERIC MORRISON

Hailing from Santa Cruz, Eric Morrison & the Mysteries play a hybrid of West Coast soul, rock, Americana and jam. The band’s debut album, No Wolves, is described as a “10-track gem” led by the hit singles “Bad Girl” and “Big Stacks of Money.” This Friday, Morrison and company are joined by rock/fusion outfit Magic In The Other, comprising Ezra Lipp (Phil Lesh & Friends, Sean Hayes) Steve Adams (ALO, Nicki Bluhm & The Gramblers) and Roger Riedlbauer (Jolie Holland, Mercury Falls). CJ

INFO: 8 p.m. Michael’s on Main, 2591 Main St., Soquel. $10. 479-9777.

SATURDAY 6/16

ROCK

BUCKETHEAD

Bust out the fried chicken and get ready for a mind melting experience of the musical kind, because Buckethead returns to the Catalyst. The anonymous guitar noodler has more than 291 albums and has worked with a plethora of musicians from Les Claypool to Axl Rose. Whether with a band or just backed by a track, the virtuoso shreds through a wide range of musical tastes influenced by funk blues, electronic and even Michael Jackson. MW

INFO: 9 p.m. Catalyst, 1011 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $25/adv, $30/door. 429-4135.

SATURDAY 6/16

REGGAE

MIGHTY DIAMONDS

Jamaica is kind of amazing in how many talented singers the country has produced. This is especially true of the late ’60s and ’70s as reggae took hold of the tiny island. We’ve lost a lot of legends over the years, so we are quite fortunate when some old school powerhouse vocalists roll through town. On Saturday, that group is the Mighty Diamonds, a vocal trio that formed in 1969. Not only that, but the group is still touring with all of its original members. They were known for several hits, including “Pass The Kouchie” which was covered (and sanitized) by Musical Youth in the ’80s as “Pass the Dutchie.” AC

INFO: 9 p.m. Moe’s Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz. $25/adv, $30/door. 479-1854.

MONDAY 6/18

JAZZ

THUMBSCREW

The band’s name might conjure a fearsome image, but Thumbscrew makes inviting music full of wonder and discovery. A super-trio of improvisational masters, the collective ensemble features award-winning guitarist Mary Halvorson and drummer Tomas Fujiwara, who can often be found working together in an array of arresting settings, and Pacifica-raised bassist Michael Formanek, a creative catalyst on jazz’s adventurous frontiers for more than three decades. With two new CDs on Cuneiform focusing on originals, Ours, and music from outside the trio, Theirs, Thumbscrew can turn just about any piece into a revelatory excursion. ANDREW GILBERT

INFO: 7 p.m. Kuumbwa Jazz, 320-2 Cedar St., Santa Cruz. $26.25 adv/ $31.50 door. 427-2227.

TUESDAY 6/19

PSYCH-ROCK

STEVE KIMOCK

Guitarist and songwriter Steve Kimock is a legend of the Bay Area psych-rock scene. Hailing from Pennsylvania, Kimock headed west in the mid-1970s to join the Goodman Brothers, a folk-rock group in San Francisco. From there, he was woven into the area’s inimitable music history, collaborating with members of Quicksilver Messenger Service, the Grateful Dead and more. Kimock remains a boundary-pushing musician fusing Eastern sounds with American roots music and psychedelia. As Frets magazine writes, “Kimock’s acoustic aesthetic comes entirely from another place.” CJ
INFO: 9 p.m. Catalyst, 1011 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $25/adv, $30/door. 423-1338.

IN THE QUEUE

T.V. MIKE & THE SCARECROWS

Cosmic twang stomp. Wednesday at Flynn’s Cabaret

BLUE WATER HIGHWAY

Roots band from the Texas Gulf Coast. Thursday at Crepe Place

LOW SPARK OF HIGH HEELED BOYS

Tribute to Traffic and Steve Winwood. Thursday at Michael’s on Main

STARS BAND

Canadian indie pop/rock outfit. Sunday at Catalyst

BOOSTIVE

Santa Cruz-based hip-hop/electronica. Tuesday at Moe’s Alley

Giveaway: Eric Revis Quartet

Music

Cat Johnson

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June 12, 2018

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Jazz bassist and composer Eric Revis is widely regarded as one of the most accomplished musicians of his generation and an important voice in the genre. Possessing a sound that legendary saxophonist, composer and bandleader Branford Marsalis described as “the sound of doom; big, thick, percussive,” Revis has captured the attention of the jazz world. On June 25, Revis and his quartet, comprising saxophonist Ken Vandermark, pianist Kris Davis and drummer Chad Taylor, hit the Kuumbwa.

INFO: 7 p.m. Monday, June 25. Kuumbwa Jazz, 320-2 Cedar St., Santa Cruz. $26.25/adv, $31.50/door. 427-2227. WANT TO GO? Go to santacruz.com/giveaways before 11 a.m. on Monday, June 18 to find out how you could win a pair of tickets to the show.

Love Your Local Band: Bobcat Rob and The Nightly Owl

A&E
Music

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June 12, 2018

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Love Your Local Band: Bobcat Rob and The Nightly Owl

Back in 2013, while living in Lee Vining, musician Bobcat Rob fulfilled a lifelong dream: Recording a solo album. He’d been a musician for years. Originally from New Jersey, he moved out to California and moved around from place to place. He’d had bands, and even released some records, but this one was different.

“It’s something I wanted to do, I had full control over it and I could do whatever I wanted. I took my time with it,” Rob says. “I love writing with a band and I love playing with a band. But that’s just something I wanted to do before I moved back to the full band aspect.”

That solo record, which is a mostly acoustic, gritty Americana-inspired record, led to plenty of solo gigs, and eventually a love for the city of Santa Cruz, where he relocated to roughly four years ago.

In Santa Cruz, he had a band for a while called Abalone Grey, which, as of last summer, is on an indefinite hiatus. With no band again, Rob has had the time and focus to work on his follow-up record, A Different Horse, which will be released this summer.

“I was accumulating a lot of the songs that are on this new album. They were written while I was in or right after I was in that band,” Rob says.

This new record is a different horse. It’s got a full band sound, a lot of energy, and unlike the first record, all the instruments are not played exclusively by him. The country and Americana roots influences are still intact, but now the music is much more urgent and busting at the seams with immediacy and emotion. As of late he’s been consistently playing with a backing band, The Nightly Howl.

“The material has grown from where I was at five years ago,” Rob says. “It’s a big jump from what I’ve done before.”

INFO: 9 p.m. Saturday, June 16. Crepe Place, 1134 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. $10. 429-6994.

Bottle Jack Cellars’ Fiercest Bottles

Josie Cowden

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June 12, 2018

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It’s not every day that a wine scores top-of-the-line awards—100 points at the California State Fair and a double gold medal. This is Bottle Jack Cellars’ fabulous Syrah-Grenache 2014, a luscious blend of 89.4 percent Syrah and 10.6 percent Grenache. Kudos go to owner and winemaker John Ritchey for this outstanding elixir awash with blackberry, red cherry, white pepper, cedar, and dark chocolate.

We headed to Bottle Jack’s tasting room on the edge of Santa Cruz—up a bucolic winding road surrounded by redwoods. Word has spread about Ritchey’s wonderful wines, and the tasting room was busy on a Sunday afternoon. I was impressed with every wine Ritchey poured for us, but I fell madly in love with the Syrah-Grenache ($35). Grapes for this wine were harvested in the Santa Cruz Mountains and aged in oak barrels for 30 months, resulting in what Ritchey calls “a fierce and unique wine from this region.” Ritchey and his wife Katharine are a team in the business and are truly dedicated to making superb wines.

The good news is that Ritchey is now sharing space in Silver Mountain Vineyards’ tasting room in the Swift Street Courtyard complex in Santa Cruz—open every weekend. Check the website for opening times of both locations.

Some Bottle Jack wines are available at Cantine Winepub in Aptos Village. Try Bottle Jack’s beautiful Viognier paired with Arugula Salad ($9) and Cantine’s fingerling potatoes with chimichurri ($8)—a tasty trio of food and wine.

Bottle Jack Cellars, 1088 La Madrona Drive, Santa Cruz, 227-2288. bottlejackwines.com.

Wrights Station Celebrates Father’s Day

Celebrate Father’s Day on Sunday, June 17 at Wrights Station Vineyards with live music by local musician Asher and tasty bivalves by Bill the Oysterman. Open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Wrights Station Vineyard & Winery, 24250 Loma Prieta Ave., Los Gatos, 408-560-9343. wrightsstation.com.

Forks. Corks. Action!

The Hyatt Carmel Highlands is celebrating its 101st anniversary with a series of “Forks. Corks. Action!” winemaker dinners. The next one is Thursday, June 21. It’s a four-course dinner paired with ZD Wines. Cost is $130 per person inclusive, and reservations are required. For more information visit highlandsinn.hyatt.com.

What Anthony Bourdain Taught Us About Ourselves

Maria Grusauskas

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June 12, 2018

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What Anthony Bourdain Taught Us About Ourselves

On my darker days, I feel I live in an America bleached by corporate ambition and greed. The state of the rivers, oceans and forests is a barometer of our political times, our lifestyle. But when we blow the dust off that ’60s rally cry, “the personal is political,” we see what they meant: humans, too, are barometers.

The deterioration of culture and real connection—of taste, ambiance, sharing meals and honoring the food at the center of it all, resourcefulness, good music at the right volume, lemon zest, good sex—has been gnawing at me for months, and more subtly casting shadows for years.

Two weeks ago, amid a perfect storm of fraught sleep, hormones and the aforementioned social byproducts of a consumption-driven society—the corporate model of which thrives best on the exploitation of workers here and abroad—I self-medicated with the Tangiers and Congo episodes of early Parts Unknown, CNN’s travelogue show hosted by Anthony Bourdain. On that particular night, it worked. I felt reassured, inspired. Because Moroccan tajine! Because cafe culture still exists, though one may have to cross borders and entire oceans to slip into its chairs.

And so it goes. I cannot recall a celebrity death, nor its incomputable circumstances, that has shaken me harder than the loss of Anthony Bourdain last week. Bourdain’s work followed those remaining threads of real connection and culture and held them up for the world to see and taste. In so doing, he was a protector.

Rising from the underbelly of New York City kitchen culture, Bourdain’s No Reservations and Parts Unknown narrated a quest for the cultural glue at the center of it all: food. Not the protein bars and yogurt thrown into a work bag, the Trader Joe’s salad eaten at a desk. Cue his unmistakable voice: the “local stew, the humble taqueria’s mystery meat and the sincerely offered gift of a lightly grilled fish head.” It was a quest for that which does not merely sustain us physically, but pulls humans into a shared experience of tradition and love—eyeballs and all.

But Bourdain also broadcast to the mainstream in full color the world’s harsher realities, like low fish counts in rivers and ingeniously sourced meals cobbled together in areas of extreme poverty. One of the most well-traveled and well-fed humans to ever live, Bourdain was a self-made anomaly who shook his head in disbelief at his own luck. He seemed to have everything a man could want beyond his wildest dreams. The devastation of suicide’s premature credit roll comes with a thousand unanswered questions. Speculation is tortuous, its solace flimsy.

The media’s mishandling of Kate Spade’s suicide just days before Bourdain’s prompted outreach by the American Association of Suicidology and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention to larger media houses, and a notable shift in how it addresses a growing elephant in America’s living room: Over the past two decades, tinged by an epidemic of prescription opioid addiction, mental illness has become the second most common cause of disability in the U.S., but its relationship to the economy is the inverse of its funding. Across age and ethnicity, suicide has risen by 30 percent since 1999 in half of the nation’s states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The number of Americans taking antidepressants for five years—15.5 million—has tripled since 2000. Many of these pharmaceuticals list suicide as their side effect, a fact Bourdain mentions in a 2011 interview with Marc Maron, in reference to his then-use of the drug Chantix to quit smoking.

Following Bourdain and Spade’s deaths, social media channels brimmed with heartbreak. But a new trend also emerged, as many admitted their own struggles with depression and suicidal ideation. As with those courageous figures of the #MeToo movement, says Alejandra Vargas, program coordinator at our local Suicide Prevention Services, those who brave potential ridicule to come forward are also “showing [those struggling] that ‘your loved ones, or people maybe you look up to, have also gone through this and survived and thrived.’ It normalizes. It helps us recognize that we’re not completely alone.”

We can’t bring back the beloved renegade chef or the loved ones we’ve lost to suicide, but the humanity we’ve seen thus far appears to be melting a long held stigma. And it’s inviting individual mental health and society’s overall health to finally sit down next to each other around the same table, because the stew is almost ready.

Local 24-hour crisis line: 1-877-ONE-LIFE. Staffed by a team of professionally trained volunteers, many of whom have life experience with suicidal ideation, on-hand to take calls 24/7. If you’re struggling with suicidal thoughts, or on the waitlist to see a therapist, or cannot afford to see a therapist and need someone to talk to, they await your call with compassion and equanimity. Servicing Santa Cruz, San Benito and Monterey counties. For more information visit suicidepreventionservice.org.

Good TimesGood Times

Good TimesGood Times

EDITOR’S NOTE

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

PHOTO CONTEST WINNER

GOOD IDEA

GOOD WORK

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

Vickie Assunto

Santa Cruz

LMFT

Kate Kiti

Santa Cruz

Catering

Remy Vincent

Santa Cruz

Aspiring Wildlife Conservationist

Bill Scott

Bonny Doon

Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Mark Buchanon

Santa Cruz

Dude

MARGO CILKER

PAT HULL

ROYAL JELLY JIVE

KINGSTON TRIO

ERIC MORRISON

BUCKETHEAD

MIGHTY DIAMONDS

THUMBSCREW

STEVE KIMOCK

IN THE QUEUE