Both commemorative and zeitgeist-filled, Detroit is the angriest movieKathryn Bigelow has ever made. Although she deserves the praise she got for The Hurt Locker, in Detroit, she reverses Zero Dark Thirty’s coziness with “enhanced interrogation.”
An animated sequence describes the black diaspora to the north that made Detroit what it was by 1967—a company town with strictly delineated African-American ghettos, patrolled by a 90-percent white police force.
By the opening, before the rebellion begins, we’re completely on the side of the rebels. The cops raid an illegal after-hours club, but they can’t get in through the chained-up back door, and have to roust the suspects out on the street. There are a lot more celebrants inside than they’d expected, and the cops lose control. The tempo increases, in incidents caught by camerawork meant to recall Arriflex camerawork: we see a face in the crowd, smoking a cigarette and sizing the cops up fearlessly, a joker yelling at a friend he sees being hauled out in handcuffs: “Hey, you alcoholic …” And then the Molotov cocktails start to fly.
After this carnival, we meet a main character, Melvin Dismukes (John Boyega) who is about to start his 17th hour of work, moonlighting as a security guard. Boyega is big, intensely restrained, and looks like a peacemaker—we can follow his presence through the chaos to come. Bigelow’s trick on us is that no matter what Dismukes looks like, he’s unable to stop the trouble he witnesses. Meanwhile Larry (Algee Smith) and Fred (Jacob Latimore) of the real-life band The Dramatics meet backstage for a big show at the Fox Theater—The Supremes (or a lookalike group) are opening for them, or would be if the show weren’t canceled.
Avoiding the patrols, Larry and Fred duck into a nearby hot-sheet motel. The sight of the neon Algiers Motel sign makes the long-memoried viewer’s stomach turn over. The Algiers Motel incident—New Yorker’s John Hersey did a book on it—is still officially unsolved.
As presented here, what happens is like a long home invasion. Will Poulter plays Krauss, the inept patrolman in charge, a fictional composite. Poulter has the serpentine eyebrows of Jack Nicholson—he could play the young Michael Keaton, too—and he brings a surprise to every scene. Playing a dedicated ethnic-hater, actors usually go big. The fear on this callow fool’s face is barely concealed.
Detroit gets caught up in its ordeal of beating, mock executions and ultimate murder—at half the length, it would have had twice the power.
Bigelow proceeds the overnight ordeal with an unusually fun sequence. Two visiting Ohio girls (Hannah Murray and Kaitlyn Dever) tease the musicians over to the motel’s annex. Here, as in the beginning, we see the headiness of life during a civil insurrection, seen from what seems like a safe place, a swimming pool with beer-drinkers enjoying themselves. Then, at an after party, some more drinking, some yakking about John Coltrane.
The fun ends when Carl (Jason Mitchell), who gets tired of the strangers in his room, plays a stupid practical joke. He’s trying to make a point about how white people don’t understand the ambient fear black people live in: “I’m just acting,” he smirks at the end. Yes, and you’ve been caught acting by the audience, even before you admitted it.
Liberal wishy-washiness is evident in this otherwise startlingly intense film. Bigelow is no political sophisticate, and insists there were good apples on the DPD. But this is one of her best films, and an ornament to this year’s cinema, as exciting a year as we’ve had in ages. Detroit matches in intent Get Out, the Ferguson, Missouri documentary Whose Streets? and Justin Chon’s drama Gook about the 1992 L.A. riots.
She balances her startling force with sensitivity and sensuality. It’s said you can never make an anti-war movie, that some of the thrill of battle will leak into even the most pacifistic film. Give Bigelow credit—this certainly isn’t an anti-rebellion movie.
DETROIT With John Boyega, Kaitlyn Dever, Jacob Latimore, Jason Mitchell, Hannah Murray and Algee Smith. Written by Mark Boal. Directed by Kathryn Bigelow. Rated R, 143 Mins.
With bright sea foam-green Adirondack chairs scattered around the edge of Lighthouse Field, a tide chart hung on the door, and a surfboard rack outside the entrance, the vibe at Steamer Lane Supply is utterly “Santa Cruz.” Located steps away from its aquatic namesake, the cafe’s over-the-counter menu of wholesome and hearty snacks and meals, local Alta Organic coffee, and Ferrell’s donuts has made it the fueling station for surfers and West Cliff wanderers since it opened a year ago.
The quesadillas, in particular, have cultivated a fan following. Nearly as big as a sheet of printer paper, they’re folded and pressed to completely contain the evenly-distributed queso fresco, organic brown rice and additions of kimchi, pulled pork, cumin-spiced kale or albacore tuna salad. I have always placed quesadillas pretty low on the roster of Cal-Mex meals, but Steamer Lane Supply really turns it up to eleven.
Lately I’ve been stretching my lunch break to the max in order to enjoy another discovery: the Rock Cod Roll. Not only is the mild, sweet fish complemented by the tangy, herbal dressing, they also get the texture right too, as soft-on-the-outside and toasted-on-the-inside bun gives way to tender cod and crunchy cabbage. To me, it’s the perfect meal to eat while looking out over the waters where this local fish was caught.
These visits remind me that, although I’ve lived in Santa Cruz long enough to take its incredible beauty for granted sometimes, the view from West Cliff still takes my breath away.
THE BEE IN BEER
Congratulations to New Bohemia Brewing Co, whose Cherry Bomb Imperial Stout won gold for the second year in a row in the National Honey Board Beer Competition. Made with honey from Jeff Walls’ Family Farm in Soquel and hand-picked cherries from Brentwood, NuBo is celebrating their victory with live music, a special menu, and other surprises at an all-day party on Friday, Aug. 11 at the brewery.
When I read that Folktale had been voted “Best Winery to Visit” by Monterey CountyWeekly readers and “California Winery of the Year” by the California Travel Association in 2016, my husband and I hightailed it to Carmel Valley for a tasting. And what a lovely experience we had.
Greeted on a warm day with a refreshing sparkling wine, we meandered around the beautiful property—complete with a French-style chateau and surrounded by lush vineyards. We took our time taking in the scenery before finding a good spot to sit and sample a flight of Folktale’s impressive wines. I particularly loved a NV (nonvintage) Sparkling Brut ($40) with its brilliant color and exciting tropical notes. If you pop the cork on this gorgeous bubbly, you’ll be thrilled with the flavors of stone fruit and almond husk—with a hint of minerality and a bright, clean finish.
Other sparkling wines made by Folktale are equally stunning. I could have stayed in the tasting room until midnight, just soaking up the atmosphere and drinking these exquisite wines. Our attentive server Conrad made our experience even more pleasurable.
Folktale (which used to be Chateau Julien) is a place to linger, especially as a tasty array of food can be ordered from their kitchen. The Cheese Board ($24) comes with four different cheeses and an assortment of nuts and dried fruit, along with Lafayette bread from Carmel. What more could one want?
Folktale Winery, 8940 Carmel Valley Road, Carmel, 293-7517. folktalewinery.com.
Chardonnay Days
From noon to 5 p.m. on Aug. 12 and 13 comes the opportunity to celebrate the queen of all varietals: Chardonnay. This two-day festival includes music, toffee, biscotti, awesome cheese platters by Tabitha Stroup of Friend in Cheeses, and specials on everybody’s favorite summer white wine. Participating wineries include Burrell School, Loma Prieta, MJA Vineyards, Radonich Ranch, and Wrights Station Vineyard & Winery. Tickets are $25. For more info visit summit2seawinetrail.com.
Chaminade Farm-to-Table Dinner
The next farm-to-table dinner is Friday, Aug. 11—paired with the wines of Bargetto Winery. Cost is $110 per person, all-inclusive. A reception at 6 p.m. is followed by dinner at 6:30 p.m. Visit chaminade.com for info and reservations.
On Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Paul McCartney sings one of the Beatles’ slipperiest lyrics: “And it really doesn’t matter if I’m wrong I’m right.” Equally slippery has been Sir Paul’s memory of how much he contributed to the cover of that album, which has gone on to be arguably the most famous and pored-over piece of artwork in the history of rock music. And he’s not the only one; as the legend of the 1967 album cover—a photograph of the Beatles in day-glo uniforms, surrounded by dozens of cutouts and wax figures of historical and pop culture notables, including their own mop-topped early incarnations—grew, more and more people seem to have remembered how much credit they deserve for it.
Jann Haworth says it doesn’t matter much to her whether people think McCartney’s wrong or right. She and then-husband Peter Blake were the artists who put together the album cover’s collage, which was photographed by Michael Cooper. The daughter of Oscar-winning Hollywood art director Ted Haworth, Jann grew up in Hollywood before moving to London in 1961 to study at the Courtauld Institute of Art and the Slade School of Fine Art. With the 50th anniversary of Sgt. Pepper this year, Haworth looks back on the album cover and its aftermath with a certain bemused distance, but she’s also revisited the concepts she and Blake employed for it on more recent projects that combine her artistic and political passions.
Haworth will be on the Santa Cruz airwaves this weekend, doing an interview on KPIG about the anniversary of the album cover at noon on Sunday, Aug. 13. She spoke to me about what it was like to co-create the world’s most recognizable piece of rock art by phone from her home in Salt Lake City.
You met the Beatles long before the Sgt. Pepper album. How did it happen?
JANN HAWORTH: It wasn’t their first concert in London; it was possibly the second, at Luton [in 1963]. And we’d gone down with Bob Freeman, who was photographing them at that time. And Bob, in a funny sort of way, almost palmed them off on us, saying “oh, you know London. They haven’t been to any of the clubs. Why don’t you take them to the clubs after the concert.” So we did that.
Having met them that early on, what was it like to see the incredibly meteoric rise they had not long after?
We went to L.A. in the fall of ’63, and Peter made a point of taking the Beatles album with us. And no one wanted to listen to it. It was just sort of “Eh, OK, you’re coming with your little English album.” And then within weeks of our trip, it was just like everything in L.A. was the Beatles. It was the Beatles weather, and “the Beatles time today is …” I mean, it really was ridiculous. My father thought it was terribly funny, because he had listened to the album, and responded to it rather well, and he caught us up with the fact that you couldn’t move in L.A. without running into something that related to the Beatles. A couple of people we had played the album for sort of laughingly communicated with us, saying “wish we’d listened.”
You don’t seem like you were too impressed with the Beatles at the time.
Youknow, I think it’s very hard to imagine back, because nostalgia and all sorts of stuff gets in the way. I always had a fairly detached sense with the Beatles, because my ear was American and I was interested in, you know, Bo Diddley and that area of music. Chuck Berry and stuff was what I was tuned to. To me, this was kind of a “boy band,” and coming as I did out of Hollywood—if you grow up on the backlots, nothing impresses you very much. It doesn’t mean anything to have met Marilyn Monroe, because you don’t know her, you just have met her, and so what? So it wasn’t something that to me was like an arc of excitement. It simply was a band … they’re just people. It was more interesting to me that I had dinner with Francis Bacon, because there’s more common ground to talk about, more curiosity, more sort of interest for me personally. [Pop musicians] have a way of being very ordinary.
Did working with them on the cover change your opinion of them at all?
Well, not really. I mean, going back a little bit, I went to one of Yoko Ono’s performances when she was with her former husband and did a piece at St. Martin’s School of Art. And it was just another kind of thing, you know? It was kind of weird, kind of stupid and kind of annoying and curious and so forth. So on an artistic level, there really wasn’t any entry point for Peter and I, unless we’d sat around and hung out, I suppose, which we weren’t inclined to do. We had other things to do. We wouldn’t have entered in on the music level of what they were doing, I don’t think. That would have been a spectator sport—not something that we would’ve really been able to understand the same way we understood the language of painting and talking about sculpture and art and so forth. I’m sure that the level of their musical significance, their abilities, their insight and their creativity in those fields is outstanding. But we wouldn’t have had access to that in the same way that we did to our own fields.
So how did you come to work on the cover?
Well, it really came through Robert Fraser; he was a gallery dealer in the ’60s, and both Peter and I were with his gallery. He was
Jann Haworth now, in front of a photo of her at the time the album cover was shot. Her then-husband Peter Blake is third from right in the front row. PHOTO: COURTESY OF JANN HAWORTH
our dealer, as it were. He also represented a lot of other people; the list of people that he showed is just completely remarkable. He was showing New York artists, Richard Lindner and Jim Dine and Dennis Hopper. I mean, it’s just amazing. Peter always said that we introduced [Robert] to the Beatles, I don’t know if that’s actually accurate or not. But he became very friendly with the Beatles, and he showed John and Yoko in an exhibition at the gallery. He was kind of in with them. And what happened was there was a design for the cover by Simon [Posthuma] and Marijke [Koger]—they called themselves “The Fool.” And Robert didn’t like that cover—he didn’t think it was suitable for the music. And he suggested Peter and I. So it was kind of like replacing one couple with a second couple.
I’ve always heard that of the Beatles, McCartney was more of the mastermind of the concept. Is it true that he was that involved?
Paul’s story has changed. He [originally] made no claims on it, as was appropriate. Now he has sort of backhoed that story into that it was all his idea. Which is really pretty disrespectful to Peter, because Peter claims he did it all. Paul now claims he did it all. I claim I did 50 percent. So it’s 250 percent of a cover. But I think it’s the retelling of the story—I’m sure he believes what he’s saying, it just happens to be inaccurate. And it’s surprising, because he and Peter maintained their friendship. And it’s an affront to Peter to say that. And it’s so childish, because at the very least he could be generous to his friend, and even if he thinks he did it, he could afford to be generous. Having said that, personally I don’t actually care that much. But I think it is a good example of how stories morph. You start telling your family or your friends “Well gosh, you know, I did that and I did this,” and you’ve got to stick to it because you said that. And so then you get kind of unhappy when somebody contradicts you.
It seems like many people over the years have gradually remembered how much credit they deserve.
Nigel Hartnup, who was the assistant to Michael Cooper, now claims that he actually pressed the button on the photograph that they used. Well, the normal set up for a photographer is to stand there and say “OK, move to the left, lift your head, hey I like the way the light’s hitting your nose, now turn a little bit this way,” while your assistant actually presses the button when you tell him to. So I think that would be the origin of that. The photographer is being the director, his assistant is quite happy just pressing that button. But that’s hindsight, a cherry-picking kind of vision of something that, again, like nostalgia, gets in the way of what is a simple fact.
How would you break down what Peter did on the cover, and what you did?
There’s a direct line between Peter’s work and the aspects of the cover that he did, and there’s a direct line from my work to the aspects of the cover that I did. It’s really simple: the life-size [concept] is directly from my work, and directly from my work is I hate imposed lettering, I like to control it. I didn’t want somebody else to. Peter is direct on things like a very straight set-up of “this is a way you photograph a group of people.” A band could have their fans behind them—he loves the whole fan thing—and it’s an easy way to make a collage of heads to take photographs. The life-size was straight from movie stuff, with the 2-D heads in photographs and front row 3-D. That’s what my dad did. I nicked the idea off of movies. Oh yeah. I mean it’s straightforward. But then it gets all buried in the retelling, I think.
I’ve always wondered about the legend of how you had to get an OK from the living people who were going to be featured. How much of that is true?
Well, my memory of that differs from other accounts, and I wouldn’t want to argue with that. But my memory is we finished the photographs, the shoot day, and Brian Epstein suddenly said “oh crap, we have to get permission from everybody, because they might sue us.” And the story as it’s written up is that EMI thought of this, but as it was presented to me it was Brian saying “oh my god, we’ve got to get this straightened out.” And so it was at that point, when it was all done, that telegrams and letters went flying out. Which was pretty funny. And I remember that it was pretty panicky, which would suggest that it was after. And so the letters went out, and the first things back were affirmative, and then there was one from Leo Gorcey saying he wanted 200 dollars, and we weren’t going to have that kind of money go out. So we just took him out of the photograph, and that suggests to me, too, that it was after. If we removed Leo Gorcey from the photograph, it means the photograph was already taken. He was photographed in the actual take. And then Mae West famously said, “What would I be doing in a lonely hearts club?” Which is lovely. So they wrote her and kind of cajoled her. And that worked out, and we kept her. And she was my choice as a head, so that’s why I love that.
What was the hardest part of the shoot?
I suppose I’m struck in retrospective that maybe one of the hard things to process that I’ve been aware of is the kind of statistics on the shoot, if you look back and see how many people died connected with that, not all that long afterwards. It seems a very kind of sad moratorium on it. I mean, there was this thing of “Paul is dead.” Well, he isn’t, but a lot of other people are. John, obviously, but Mal [Evans, Beatles assistant and roadie] and Michael [Cooper] of drug overdose, and Robert Fraser of HIV, and Brian Epstein. And then tangentially to it, of course, Brian Jones and Keith Moon, I mean, that whole circle of people—a lot of them present in those photographs, the outtakes and stuff. And you have to say something about that. That’s, to me, chronically sad, and it’s never built into the narrative. There’s a story there that’s different than the hippie dream and flower power. It was costly. There’s also the parallel timing of the Redlands raid [of Keith Richards’ home in Sussex], that was all going on in court underneath the making of Sgt. Pepper, so there must have been—I only just realized this in retrospect—a high level of tension with the people concerned, because they didn’t know if they were going to jail. In fact, Mick [Jagger] was, until the appeal came down, and Robert Fraser did go to jail … So the subtext—we harvest all the prettiness and the flowers and the costumes, and wasn’t it all pretty and fun and isn’t it interesting, but there’s this terrible stream underneath it. Which is not to pull it under, but it’s to say that what life is like—it has this dichotomy going on the whole time and nobody wants to talk about that. They want it to look back and say “oh, it’s all so pretty.”
As the album cover has gained this legendary status, is it crazy to you how much energy people have put into trying to dissect every little bit of meaning to these figures and absolutely every other aspect of it?
Oh, it’s just interesting, because it makes you reflect on things like the grassy knoll and say “we can find so many things in there.” Somebody said, “Oh yeah, hold the mirror horizontally on the drum and you’ll see that it says this.” You know, it’s just playful and kind of fun, but it does put the lie to other conspiracy theories, and tells you that no, it didn’t happen that way. Because I know it didn’t. And, you know, somewhere along the line there is an actual thing that actually happened—you didn’t make the guitars spell “Paul?” And those aren’t marijuana plants. And it’s Issy Bonn waving, it isn’t the Hindu sign of death over Paul’s head. That was really funny when all that came out. It was quite glamorous to be in England, and have people calling you from Rolling Stone to say “So, is it true that Paul is dead?” Pretty funny.
One of the “mysteries” of the cover I remember hearing about was why Shirley Temple is in there three times, and if the doll wearing the Rolling Stones shirt is Shirley Temple or not.
Yes, it was Shirley Temple. It was a figure that I made and the old lady whose lap she’s sitting on is also a figure that I made. Somebody put the T-shirt on Shirley Temple, I don’t know who. It was just not there one day and then the next morning when I came in to work it was there. So that was that.
So it’s your Shirley Temple obsession that has kept obsessive Beatles fans up at night all these years.
Well, I apologize for that. I really don’t want to own that, but yes. Peter and I both thought Shirley Temple was wonderful. It was pre-having my daughter and you know we were gearing up for kids’ stuff, I think.
Not that long after the album was released, other bands started sort of doing these tributes and parodies of the album cover, like Frank Zappa’s cover for ‘We’re Only In It For the Money.’ What did you think when you started to see those?
I thought the Zappa cover was hilarious. I thought it was absolutely wonderful. Peter hated it. I mean, I just think it’s funny. Somebody got me one that was a take-off on the cover that was a conference of colonoscopy doctors. So they’re all in their rows, with the word “colonoscopy” spelled in flowers. That is so classic.
And you’ve paid tribute to it in your own subsequent work.
It’s something that as a format has been interesting to revisit. Rolling Stone did their “Greatest 500 Albums of All Time” in 2003, and somebody pointed out to me that Sgt. Pepper was number one, which I thought “Oh, that’s nice.” And then I was thinking about the cover, and sort of disciplining my thoughts to say “hey, it’s not about the cover, it’s about the music.” But I wanted to look at the cover in review that much later. From that came the idea of doing a revamp on it myself, as a mural in Salt Lake. So we did SLC Pepper as a community project; about 30-33 artists worked on it, doing stencil portraits of different people. And the idea behind that was that you did people who were catalysts for change—to look again at the level of choices on the Sgt. Pepper cover and say, “Hey, not good enough. We’ve moved on. Let’s look at this a little more seriously, and say, ‘Who does what, and who has actually made stuff happen?’” So we can do Mother Jones and we can do Tracy Chapman and we can do Steve Earle or Peter Gabriel. What’s happening out there both in the arts and in social activism. Then again in 2008, I was thinking about doing a women’s history mural which we just, eight years later, finally brought to fruition and are doing that same format again … We have Mata Hari and Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Michelle Obama and Maria Tallchief, the first Native American prima ballerina. And Bessie Smith and Nefertiti, and—well, 156 people. It’s now 36 feet long, and we’re going to be taking it to TEDWomen in New Orleans in November, and by then it will be 60 feet long. It’s going to be traveling all over the place to different venues.
Aside from the fact that you’ve been able to use the popularity of the album cover to further projects that are important to you, what has the legacy of the album cover been like? Is it annoying to see Peter claiming too much credit, or Paul claiming too much credit?
Well, you know, I don’t take those things seriously, really. I’m glad it’s there, but it was just one thing. You know, the job. I take it as being a good thing to have done, but I’m not going to revel in it.
The ‘Sgt. Pepper’ Story on Local Airwaves
Jann Haworth will be interviewed on KPIG, 107.5 FM at noon on Sunday, Aug. 13.
The announcement that Santa Cruz’s 180/2020 program has housed nearly 600 people feels like a moment worth celebrating, and an event honoring the program’s fifth anniversary did just that at the Colligan Theater last week. Guests snacked on celery sticks with hummus and chicken-and-onion kabobs, lemon bars and brownies. The program, which aims to end chronic homelessness by 2020, has been steadily obtaining Section 8 vouchers and securing housing for struggling locals. It may sound like the hard work is over—that with the model in place, a gentle shove will see the effort through.
Not exactly, explained Sibley Simon, a founder of 180/2020.
“This is a lot like rolling a boulder up a mountain. It takes a lot of energy to keep it where it is, and you have to keep going,” said Simon, as he introduced the UCSF School of Medicine’sJoshua Bambergerat the Thursday, Aug. 3 celebration. “And to extend the metaphor a little further, it gets harder the higher you get up the mountain.”
Bamberger, the evening’s keynote speaker, made a name for himself through his work in San Francisco’s Housing and Urban Health Division, where he’s pushed to house chronically homeless people—even if it means spending health care dollars to do so—because it will save on health costs in the long run. The term “chronically homeless” refers to anyone who has a disabling condition and has either been homeless for more than a year or had four periods of homelessness in the last three years. Following an inspirational video that focused on the people helped by 180/2020, Bamberger gave examples of things Santa Cruz can do to house more people, as well as communities from Minnesota to Los Angeles it might try to emulate.
But in order to house each client, nonprofit leaders must work closely and stay in close contact with them, which can be easier said than done.
Two chronically homeless people who spoke with GT say they think that case managers have been trying to contact them, but they’ve both lost their phones and can’t call anyone back. That isn’t uncommon.
“You will hear times that a client will say, ‘If I just had a phone,’” admits 180/2020 Executive Director Mailie Earnest. “Or a housing coordinator will say, “If I just had a way to contact them …’”
That’s why the program is implementing a new coordinated entry system to allow police officers and social workers from all over the county to easily update information about each client in one shared database. Homeless Services Center (HSC) Director Phil Kramer says the new system, launching in the fall, will help managers better track and stay in contact with those in need.
Still, community organizer Steve Pleich worries that the whole program will ultimately demand a better support system in order to truly help homeless individuals transition into their new lives.
“Unless they can get better case management systems, I don’t think it’ll be successful,” says Pleich, a longtime advocate with deep contacts in the homeless community.
Earnest says that 180/2020 does need to add more supportive services and grow its network of healthcare providers, something her team is working on.
She says she would love to add a third case manager as well, but notes that she wouldn’t be able to afford it on their current budget, which gets its funding from the city and county of Santa Cruz. 180/2020 clients also work with other groups like HSC, which employs housing navigators, who are in charge of building relationships with landlords and finding someone their new home.
One possible metric to track 180/2020’s effectiveness would be the rate at which former homeless are staying housed—something that the program isn’t yet following, although Earnest says they’ll begin doing that soon. One study done elsewhere in the country found that 84 percent of those housed in housing-first models were still housed two years later.
No matter what the findings show, there are plenty of reminders of those who haven’t gotten help yet.
Even though 180/2020 has housed about 600 chronically homeless individuals, there are still 600 more, according to the 2017 Santa Cruz County Homeless Census and Survey. Many would love a change.
Dustin*, who sleeps on the sidewalk downtown, says he’s heard about the 180/2020 program from downtown outreach workers and the park rangers who patrol Pacific Avenue, as well as from his friends on the streets.
“I’m familiar with it. I’ve been approached about it, but I haven’t followed through with it,” says Dustin, his torso hunched forward like a candy cane.
He says managers may have been trying to contact him, but he hasn’t been able to connect with them because his phone was stolen. Dustin says that even his wife and daughter—who live in Monterey County and from whom he was temporarily estranged—have had a hard time reaching him. And he couldn’t call his wife because he had lost her phone number, he says, as he suffers from short-term memory loss.
As we talk outside the METRO’s Pacific Station, Dustin tries to chew on a piece of sweet and sour chicken through his missing teeth, and wash it down with a soft drink. Each time he swallows, his eyes bulge out with pain. He says he’s had a tortilla chip lodged in his throat for a month. Dustin spins around and starts coughing into the garden area behind him. It’s hard to tell, at least at first, whether he’s attempting to clear his throat, or going through withdrawal. Dustin’s addicted to painkillers, he says, stemming from his struggle with scoliosis. He tries doing exercises to work on his back, but they usually aren’t enough.
When a security guard comes over and tells us to move, Dustin obliges, leaving behind an orange mushy puddle in the dirt, and we walk a few feet to the sidewalk. The guard tells us to move again, threateningly, and insists we are still on METRO property. (I later find out that this isn’t the case.)
Across the street, Dustin explains that he doesn’t want to go through the 180/2020 program because he’d rather move home with his family instead. But first, he’s trying to get clean, because he doesn’t want his daughter to know that her father has become a drug addict.
Dustin hopes to check into the detox program at Janus of Santa Cruz.
That facility, I later learn from Leigh Guerrero, Janus’ chief financial officer, has a total of eight beds and a long waiting list.
Until he finds a safe home, Dustin says he will keep working on his life, and his back.
“Just when I think I have done enough back exercises that I can manage,” he says, “I sleep wrong, and I wake up in pain.”
* Name has been changed to protect source’s identity
Santa Cruz is hemmed in by rolling hills, graduating into coastal mountains, which are cloaked by dense coastal redwood forests that capture the tufts of fog as they roll off the sea. From a business perspective, this relative isolation poses challenges, creating lots of potential for bottlenecks in shipping and transportation.
But Peggy Dolgenos, CEO of local internet service provider (ISP) Cruzio, has never looked at it that way. After starting the company with her husband Chris Neklason in 1989, she has found that the town’s separation from the rest of the Bay Area has given Santa Cruz room to grow.
“The geography is difficult for infrastructure,” admits Dolgenos. “But while a lot of ISPs have been pushed out by the big boys, we’ve thrived.”
Soon Cruzio will celebrate the unveiling of Santa Cruz Fiber, a project that involves installing fiber optic cable downtown to bring speeds of 1 gigabit per second to customers—50 times faster than what many customers receive now.
In its initial run, the $45 million privately funded project will bring cutting-edge internet capabilities to about a thousand downtown homes and businesses. The company aims to go live next year.
Robert Singleton, the campaign’s senior marketing strategist, says locally owned, high-speed internet might be Santa Cruz’s least divisive political issue.
“Even if we can’t agree to put housing anywhere, we can all at least agree that we want to watch Netflix faster,” says Singleton, who’s also the executive director of the Santa Cruz County Business Council.
In May, Cruzio secured permits for the project, which will involve digging small trenches under the street to build the first run of the much-anticipated network from North Pacific Avenue to the Cruzio building on Cathcart Street. Cruzio negotiated last year with city leaders to create a public-private partnership and build a bigger network, but talks fell apart, leaving it to seek private funding. If it’s successful, Cruzio will secure more funding and keep expanding the network.
As they prepare for aribbon-cutting on Wednesday, Aug. 16, local officials hope high-speed internet in downtown will attract more tech companies to the city—particularly as thousands of workers commute over Highway 17 on a near daily basis. A 2014 Civinomics study found that 61 percent of those commuting out of the county have a job in a technical field.
Santa Cruz Vice Mayor David Terrazas says the new project should reduce the number of techies in Santa Cruz leaving town for work.
“Having the resources to do their job here will help create an environment that will nurture tech businesses,” says Terrazas, who will speak at the Cruzio event—along with Congressmember Jimmy Panetta and Bud Colligan, co-chair of the Monterey Bay Economic Partnership. Network construction will begin in the days following the launch event.
Besides the faster speed and the hope that fiber will spur more companies to establish headquarters in Santa Cruz, it will have a non-economic upside, too, Terrazas says.
“It has environmental benefits, as well,” he says, given that less commuting will help cut emissions locally.
Not to mention that a large number of government services—like meeting agendas for the city and county, applications for birth certificates, drivers licenses renewals and local ordinances—are online. So it’s little wonder that the city was exploring a partnership with Cruzio last year in an attempt to bring high internet speeds to every person within city limits by 2018. The plan, however, would have required a 30-year bond by the city, and significant capital investment that ultimately made city leaders balk.
Their failure to see eye to eye created some confusion, with the Santa Cruz Sentinel reporting“Cruzio Deal Dies” in a headline this past spring—and neglecting to mention in the article that Cruzio had almost finished securing permits for its own privately funded version.
Guevara, economic development manager for the city of Santa Cruz, says that after the city and Cruzio parted ways, the two parties have “been able to pivot” and work together in other ways.
“The city has helped through the permit process,” he says, “while Cruzio has pursued building its own network in downtown Santa Cruz.”
Cruzio will initially charge customers about $50 for the service. Dolgenos says Cruzio’s affordable price point is only possible because the company will be saving money by not renting infrastructure from large ISPs like AT&T.
Many areas don’t have local ISPs that are vested in their communities and receptive to customer concerns. Most small providers that cropped up during the Wild West of the internet during the 1990s have since been gobbled up or driven out by the big companies. According to a 2015 report by the American Consumer Satisfaction Index, 61 percent of U.S. households have either one or zero alternatives when it comes to high-speed broadband providers in their communities.
“If you have a monopoly, companies can raise prices and lower service costs,” says Dolgenos, pointing to the poor customer service reputations of cable companies who rely more on their customers’ lack of options than satisfaction or earned loyalty.
While Cruzio’s initial project will focus on the downtown area, the company wants to offer an upgraded suite of fiber-backed projects to other areas of the city and beyond.
“It’s not just downtown, we have organic farmers who have demand for high-speed internet,” Dolgenos says.
Dolgenos says Cruzio wants to fill the niche left by the big ISPs, ones that won’t spend dollars on infrastructure in rural areas where there’s no opportunity for big profits.
Recent studies show that 43 percent of rural Californians have no broadband access, a problem that affects much of Santa Cruz County.
For the most part, Dolgenos says Santa Cruz and its residents actually benefit from the large ISPs’ neglect, as it opens the door for a local service.
“Santa Cruz is an open-minded place,” she says, “and the people are open to alternative solutions.”
Cruzio Internet will host a launch party on Aug. 16 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. to celebrate the beginning of construction for its downtown fiber optic network. The event will be held at Cruzio, 877 Cedar St., with free beer and wine. For more information about the event or Santa Cruz Fiber, visit santacruzfiber.com.
A priest and his beaming altar boy, a winged mime on roller skates, a flock of nuns, and a bunch of guys in towels walk onto a stage. No, it’s not an old joke. It’s the beginning of a sprightly, visually splendid new production of Shakespeare’s early comedy, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, the third installment of Santa Cruz Shakespeare’s 2017 summer season.
The play’s not necessarily the thing in this show. One of Shakespeare’s earliest works, it’s a romantic comedy about a youth all too willing to betray his best friend and forsake the woman he himself loves so he can woo the woman his friend has fallen in love with. There’s a lot of funny comedy between these four characters and their servants, but the trick is to make this play appealing despite its main plotline.
This is where director Art Manke’s ingenious production excels. Its many delights come from the visual wit of his staging on Annie Smart’s core set of stone archways and catwalks (co-designed for this show with Chrissy Curl), in cahoots with B. Modern’s absolutely fabulous, mid-century, Euro-chic costumes.
Valentine (an earnest Rowan Vickers), a young nobleman from Verona, departs for the ducal court of Milan to make his fortune—leaving behind his best bud, Proteus (Brian Smolin, fun to watch, even in such a thankless part), who has just discovered that the woman he adores, Julia (Grace Rao), also cares for him.
But when Proteus’ father sends him to Milan, too, he falls instantly for Silvia (the beauteous and wily Tristan Cunningham), celebrity daughter of the strict, powerful Duke of Milan (Allen Gilmore). Against her father’s wishes, Silvia and Valentine have already exchanged secret vows of love, but that doesn’t stop Proteus from getting his old friend banished so he himself can make the moves on the profoundly uninterested Silvia. Meanwhile, Julia disguises herself as a boy and travels to Milan to find out what’s become of her sweetheart.
Okay, that’s already more than you need to know about the plot. What’s fun is the way Manke puts it all together. He envisions life at court as one lavish cocktail party, where the glitterati swill drinks and flourish cigarettes, while an army paparazzi snap their every move. Modern’s extraordinary black, white, grey and silver costume palette is a symphony of stripes, checks, solids, and plaids, with an occasional striking zebra-print thrown in. Think Mad Men and Breakfast at Tiffany’s crossed with the witty surrealism of a Federico Fellini movie (Manke’s stated inspiration).
Valentine’s servant, the aptly-named Speed, sports those wings and skates, and Adam Schroeder is terrific in the role, especially trying to explain to his clueless master the code by which Silvia is declaring her love for him. His counterpart, Launce, servant to Proteus, is a female here, and Patty Gallagher plays her with plenty of slapstick, sad-clown brio in her bowler hat and cane (reminiscent of the Fellini heroine in Juliet of the Spirits.)
These two servants trade wisecracks like a stand-up comedy routine at “Club Milano.” Launce’s ode to the joys of his “milkmaid” paramour is delivered by Gallagher to a “milk-man” in white shortalls (Joshua Orlando) who bumps and grinds across the nightclub stage. And Gallagher has the poise and charm to share the stage with a mellow black dog called Crab, who steals his every scene. In other inventive staging, Proteus delivers his soliloquy about his romantic dilemma in a confessional, putting the priest to sleep. Attempting to serenade his new beloved, Proteus croons the “Who is Silvia? What is she?” song into a vintage radio mic under her balcony.
The nuns and priest on the margins suggest the idea of faith, in contrast to the faithlessness Proteus shows to, well, just about everybody. Manke suggests solidarity between Silvia and Julia, who each admire the other’s loyalty to the man she loves. That everyone so easily forgives Proteus is the mark of a dramatist not yet in full control of his art, but Manke, Modern, and company are in full control of this delicious production.
The Santa Cruz Shakespeare production of ‘The Two Gentlemen of Verona’ plays through Sept. 3 at the Audrey Stanley Grove, DeLaveaga Park. For tickets and info, call 460-6399, or visit santacruzshakespeare.org.
We go to our favorite restaurants in quest of a favorite dish. Or the prospect of discovering something new that will rev up our tastebuds and take them for a ride. It’s true, the menu is paramount. Yet how many times has that perfect dinner—killer apps, simpatico wine, disarming entree, and a seasonal dessert clear off the charts—how many times has all of that been undone, ruined, yes—destroyed!—by lackluster service? You know exactly what I mean. A skillful server, on the other hand, can resurrect even a mediocre dinner and leave you with happy memories of a satisfying night out.
That’s why I’m thrilled to point out that this coming Sunday, Aug. 13, from noon to 3 p.m., that gourmet quadrant of downtown Santa Cruz, aka Walnut Avenue, will resound with the energetic expertise of the fifth annual Waiter’s Race. Grounded by the Soif consciousness, the delightful and highly fraught three-person relay features teams from eight area restaurants. Friendly competition is the mantra of what is always way more fun than you think it should be. You’ll be watching these skilled servers negotiating their way through a thicket of tables, chairs, napkins, cocktails and very full wine glasses. First server grabs tray, then glasses, then moves on to a table filled with napkins which must be rolled a special way. No drop of liquid can be spilled as they navigate the various obstacles en route to the finish. Then they transfer their tray to the next team member, who must repeat all of the above plus some extra high-difficulty maneuvers. Teams are assigned points according to speed, skill, and style. Since you’re wondering, last year’s first place winners from Kianti’s Pizza and Pasta Bar will return to defend their championship against teams from the Crow’s Nest, Woodstock’s Pizza, Soif Wine Bar, and a special team of bartenders. It’s gobs of crazy fun in which we all come away with a new appreciation for just how hard it really is to stay poised and smiling while balancing full trays and not spilling a drop. OK, not spilling very much.
Who, you might be wondering, will be judging the above hospitality hijinks? None other than celebrity chef David Kinch of the two-Michelin-star Manresa, as well as mega-winemaker and founder of Bonny Doon Vineyard, Randall Graham. Also helping weigh in on the final winning selection isour very own Santa Cruz Mayor, Cynthia Chase. Foodies and libation groupies will want to arrive early to catch the pre-race action as the team members salute each other with mimosas, meet and greet the competition and attempt to memorize the rules governing the race. An inspiring sight in these questionable times. Waiter’s Race is Noon-3 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 13 in front of Soif on Walnut Avenue.
Survival Snacks
Confined to my couch for the past six weeks, following complicated foot surgery, I found myself in need of instant comfort foods. While still in that post-surgery fog I relied upon ginger ale, yogurt and the occasional bowl of soup. Ginger ale has always been my go-to medicinal liquid, something about the fresh clear flavor.
As time wore on, so did my boredom. Eight Donna Leon mysteries. The collected works of John le Carré. Beaucoup Netflix. Hell, I even read Dante’s Inferno in English with Italian on facing pages. Soothing, reading Italian out loud. Carry-out from O’mei, Sushi Totoro, and Ristorante Avanti helped fill in our dinner times. But the thing that really got me through it all was Chobani brand coconut yogurt. Who knew? Tart, but not aggressively so, this creamy yogurt was a dreamy alternative to my usual fruit favorites. The big score was five containers for $5 one week at New Leaf. It got me through weeks of forced immobility. Chobani Coconut Greek Yogurt. Trust me.
Mercury in Virgo turns (stationary) retrograde Saturday, Aug. 12, at 6 p.m. (West Coast time) and lasts three weeks, until Sept. 5. For five days, as September begins, Mercury retrogrades back to Leo. Mercury retrogrades from 11 degrees Virgo back to 28 degrees Leo. Where are these degrees in everyone’s charts? That area of life is affected.
To understand how to use retrogrades, we use “re” words. Redo, review, re-visit, re-frame, re-think, re-examine, re-evaluate. Which we do with all ideas, thoughts, plans, studies and agendas created since Mercury’s last retro, (April). We look back, re-assess, refine, while also resting and recuperating from a mind exhausted with too many facts.
Let’s review our (non) actions during retrogrades. We don’t create new plans or projects, purchase important items (cars, houses, appliances, clothes, gifts, etc.), contracts aren’t signed, agreements aren’t made, money isn’t borrowed or loaned and we don’t expect clear communication or many aware drivers. We know everything’s overlooked, messages aren’t received, details are neglected, keys are misplaced, information’s off-center, minds constantly change, thoughts turn inward, and questions aren’t answered. In other words, possible havoc everywhere with everyone.
During Mercury retro, we display Virgo tendencies, becoming internally analytical, mentally organized, discriminating, detailed and practical. However, none of this externalizes because our minds are inwardly reorganizing, evaluating and reflecting. How do we respond? We consider Mercury retro an experiment everyone is participating in. It’s a magical mystery time to observe with intelligence, knowledge, and above all, humor.
ARIES: Everything concerning daily life is re-evaluated. Review daily plans, surrounding environments and those around you on a daily basis. Assess in what way you want to shift, change and adapt to make life more orderly and pleasant. You realize you must think differently from now on how to bring forth more beauty and perfection. Careful communication is needed with coworkers. Also assess the state of your health, diet, exercise and how you awaken each day.
TAURUS; Interesting situations and communication may occur with lovers, children, and your own sense of creativity. Issues not yet resolved in relationships will reappear. Try to listen to the core message of all communications. Don’t react or defend. These destroy. Instead, learn to listen carefully. The unresolved issues must be dealt with or there will be a dissolving and dissolution of important connections soon in the future. Assess everything with care.
GEMINI: Everything about home, family, early life, mother, real estate, things domestic, comes into focus and will need careful evaluation and assessments. Make no important decisions unless an emergency occurs. Remember everyone in the family is experiencing the present astrological transits. And everyone is experiencing them differently. Use your Gemini mind and heart to observe and discern the differences. You remember to be non-judgmental, non-critical and loving (your purpose).
CANCER: Cancer (sign of the crab) always circles a situation, entering the center from every direction. They do not walk a direct line to anything for they are always wary of prey. Thus, they have a very developed intuition. In the next three weeks that intuition will take on a different tone and focus. Care needs to be taken with communication, thinking, writing and driving. Something from the past reappears. Be aware of forgetfulness. In the meantime, you make your home beautiful
LEO: Do not create any shifts or waves in your financial picture. No loans (given or applied for), for example. Take this time to review finances, create new budgets (to be applied after three weeks), assess the flow of money (what’s coming in, what’s going out), the hows and whys of these transactions, and review if everything monetary is proceeding as planned. Include a review of precious metals, your values. And tithe.
VIRGO: Are you feeling somewhat distant and unable to communicate feelings? Are others saying you’re difficult and distant? During this time, you’re very internally focused, assessing all aspects of yourself—who you are, why you are, what your values are, your everyday actions, who you’re with and why. You review previous choices asking if they reflect your present values, wants, hopes and needs. Hold on. Things change within the month.
LIBRA: Thoughts, ideas, beliefs, decisions and issues not tended to for a long time appear in the present seeking attention and needing reassessment. Much of your communication may not be heard or understood by others. Therefore, try to be very clear when communicating, speak slowly, listen well. Be non-judgmental, call forth compassion, retreat for a while. This retrograde for you is a time of deep quiet, prayer and understanding forgiveness.
SCORPIO: With friends and in groups all plans may be delayed, changed or not happen at all. Those close to you may seem distant (remember everyone’s internal during retrogrades), quiet or confused. Friends, places, ideas from the past make contact and you consider returning somewhere, to a place, a group or to friendships from long ago. Allow no heartache or anguish from the past to remain in your heart. Visualize, instead, warm tropical waters.
SAGITTARIUS: Notice if there is sensitivity (extra) around these subjects: money, partnerships, joint resources/finances (something from the past?), speaking with superiors, thinking about career choices, communicating with co-workers, being misunderstood while in public, your life path, your future. It seems like every subject is sensitive. During Leo, we stand in the burning grounds, tested. Say over and over, “Don’t worry. Be happy.” Know that you’re perfect.
CAPRICORN: Rest a bit for the next four weeks, make no promises or important decisions, refrain from the following—signing anything into permanence (it won’t be), making travel plans, and traveling long distances. Realize thinking, communications, interactions and especially (people) tending to your money (watch carefully) are internally focused so that outer orderly realities won’t make sense. It will be a crazy, mixed up, topsy-turvy time. Only you will know why. Don’t be lonely. Or sad. Continue to do the Alan Watts meditation of laughing all the time.
AQUARIUS: You want to be practical with money and resources. After the retrograde, travel would be good. For now, consider new goals concerning money and resources, reaffirm what is of value to you. Eliminate what is no longer useful or what you haven’t used, touched or looked at in the past several months. Use this retrograde time of Mercury in Virgo to research, order, organize and visualize new ways of living, building community and finding your like-minded companions. Consider all dreams as practical.
PISCES: Maintain clear communication with partners, intimates and those close to you. All relationships may enter into a phase of misunderstanding, perhaps disappointments, criticisms, over-reactions, mixed messages and perhaps the need to call upon mediation for understanding to occur. Pisces also at this time must begin to assess the value of their own thoughts, decisions and needs and discriminate between the self and their beloveds. A difficult task, but necessary. A new home might be necessary.
Free Will Astrology for the week of August 9, 2017
ARIES (March 21-April 19): In my astrological opinion, your life in the coming days should draw inspiration from the ancient Roman festival of Saturnalia, a six-day bout of revelry that encouraged everyone to indulge in pleasure, speak freely, and give gifts. Your imminent future could (and I believe should) also have resemblances to the yearly Doo Dah Parade in Pasadena, which features a farcical cavalcade of lunatics, like the Shopping Cart Drill Team, The Radioactive Chicken Heads, the Army of Toy Soldiers, and the Men of Leisure Synchronized Nap Team. In other words, Aries, it’s an excellent time to set aside your dignity and put an emphasis on having uninhibited fun; to amuse yourself to the max as you experiment on the frontiers of self-expression; to be the person you would be if you had nothing to lose.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): It’s time to Reinvent the Wheel and Rediscover Fire, Taurus. In my astrological opinion, you’ll be wasting your time unless you return to the root of all your Big Questions. Every important task will mandate you to consult your heart’s primal intelligence. So don’t mess around with trivial pleasures or transitory frustrations that won’t mean anything to you a year from now. Be a mature wild child in service to the core of your creative powers.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Writing in The Futurist magazine, Christopher Wolf says that the tradition of eating three hearty meals per day is fading and will eventually disappear. “Grazing” will be the operative term for how we get our fill, similar to the method used by cavemen and cavewomen. The first snack after we awaken, Wolf suggests, might be called “daystart.” The ensuing four could be dubbed “pulsebreak,” “humpmunch,” “holdmeal” and “evesnack.” In light of your current astrological omens, Gemini, I endorse a comparable approach to everything you do: not a few big doses, but rather frequent smaller doses; not intense cramming but casual browsing; not sprawling heroic epics but a series of amusing short stories.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): The RIKEN Institute in Japan experiments with using ion beams to enhance plant growth. In one notable case, they created a new breed of cherry tree that blossoms four times a year and produces triple the amount of flowers. The blooms last longer, too, and the trees thrive under a wider span of temperatures. In the next eleven months, Cancerian, you won’t need to be flooded with ion beams to experience a similar phenomenon. I expect that your power to bloom and flourish will be far stronger than usual.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Leo actor Robert De Niro once observed that most people devote more energy to concealing their emotions and longings than to revealing them. Is that true about you? If so, the coming weeks will be a favorable time to hide less of yourself and express more. There’ll be relatively little hell to pay as a result, and you’ll get a boost of vitality. Don’t go overboard, though. I’m not suggesting that you unveil every last one of your feelings and yearnings to everyone—just to those you trust. Most importantly, I hope you will unveil all your feelings and yearnings to yourself.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): It has almost become a tradition: Each year at about this time, you seem to enjoy scaring the hell out of yourself, and often the heaven, too. These self-inflicted shocks have often had a beneficial side effect. They have served as rousing prompts for you to re-imagine the future. They have motivated and mobilized you. So yes, there has been an apparent method in your madness—an upside to the uproar. What should we expect this time, my dear? A field trip to a crack house or a meth lab? Some fun and games in a pit of snakes? An excursion to the land of bad memories? I suggest something less melodramatic. How about, for example, a frolic with unruly allies in a future paradise that’s still a bit unorganized?
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Before grapes become wine, they have to be cleaned. Then crushed. Then macerated and pressed. The next phase is fermentation, followed by filtering. The aging process, which brings the grapes’ transformation to completion, requires more time than the other steps. At the end, there’s one more stage: putting the wine in bottles. I’d like to compare the grapes’ evolution to the story of your life since your last birthday. You are nearing the end of the aging phase. When that’s finished, I hope you put great care into the bottling. It’s as important as the other steps.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Are you gearing up to promote yourself and your services? In my astrological opinion, you should be. If so, you could put the following testimonial from me in your résumé or advertisement: “[place your name here] is a poised overseer of nerve-wracking transitions and a canny scout who is skilled at tracking down scarce resources. He/she can help you acquire the information and enhancements you don’t quite have the power to get by yourself. When conditions are murky or perplexing, this plucky soul is enterprising and inventive.”
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Your eyes are more powerful than you realize. If you were standing on a mountaintop under a cloudless night sky with no moon, you could see a fire burning 50 miles away. Your imagination is also capable of feats that might surprise you. It can, for example, provide you with an expansive and objective view of your entire life history. I advise you to seek that boost now. Ask your imagination to give you a prolonged look at the big picture of where you have been and where you are going. I think it’s essential to your discovery of the key to the next chapter of your life story.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Love is your gritty but sacred duty. It’s your prickly prod and your expansive riddle, your curious joy and your demanding teacher. I’m talking about the whole gamut, Capricorn—from messy personal romantic love to lucid unconditional spiritual love; from asking smartly for what you desire to gratefully giving more than you thought you had. Can you handle this much sweet, dark mystery? Can you grow your intimacy skills fast enough to keep up with the interesting challenges? I think you can.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): There’s an eclipse of the moon coming up in the sign of Aquarius. Will it bring bad luck or good luck? Ha! That’s a trick question. I threw it in to see if you have been learning anything from my efforts to redeem astrology’s reputation. Although some misinformed people regard my chosen field as a superstitious pseudo-science, I say it’s an imaginative art form that helps us identify and transform our subconscious patterns. So the wise answer to my earlier question is that the imminent lunar eclipse is neither bad luck nor good luck. Rather, it tells you that you have more power than usual to: 1. tame and manage the disruptive and destructive aspects of your instinctual nature; 2. make progress in dissolving your old conditioning; 3. become more skilled at mothering yourself.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): August is Good Hard Labor Month for you Pisceans. It’s one of those rare times when a smart version of workaholic behavior might actually make sense. Why? First of all, it could ultimately lead to a pay raise or new perks. Secondly, it may bring to light certain truths about your job that you’ve been unconscious of. Third, it could awaken you to the fact that you haven’t been trying as hard as you could to fulfill one of your long-term dreams; it might expand your capacity to devote yourself passionately to the epic tasks that matter most. For your homework, please meditate on this thought: Summoning your peak effort in the little things will mobilize your peak effort for the Big Thing.
Homework: What do you know or do that very few people know or do? Tell me at FreeWillAstrology.com. Click on “Email Rob.”
