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Rob Brezsny Astrology Nov. 28-Dec. 5

Rob Brezsny

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November 28, 2017

Free Will astrology for the week of November 28, 2017.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): I hope that everything doesn’t come too easily for you in the coming weeks. I’m worried you will be met with no obstructions and face no challenges. And that wouldn’t be good. It might weaken your willpower and cause your puzzle-solving skills to atrophy. Let me add a small caveat, however. It’s also true that right about now you deserve a whoosh of slack. I’d love for you to be able to relax and enjoy your well-deserved rewards. But on the other hand, I know you will soon receive an opportunity to boost yourself up to an even higher level of excellence and accomplishment. I want to be sure that when it comes, you are at peak strength and alertness.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): You were born with the potential to give the world specific gifts—benefits and blessings that are unique to you. One of those gifts has been slow in developing. You’ve never been ready to confidently offer it in its fullness. In fact, if you have tried to bestow it in the past, it may have caused problems. But the good news is that in the coming months, this gift will finally be ripe. You’ll know how to deal crisply with the interesting responsibilities it asks you to take on. Here’s your homework: Get clear about what this gift is and what you will have to do to offer it in its fullness.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Happy Unbirthday, Gemini! You’re halfway between your last birthday and your next. That means you’re free to experiment with being different from who you have imagined yourself to be and who other people expect you to be. Here are inspirational quotes to help you celebrate. 1. “Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” – George Bernard Shaw. 2. “Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one’s mind.” – W. Somerset Maugham. 3. “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson. 4. “The snake which cannot cast its skin has to die. As well the minds which are prevented from changing their opinions; they cease to be mind.” – Friedrich Nietzsche.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): I suggest that you take a piece of paper and write down a list of your biggest fears. Then call on the magical force within you that is bigger and smarter than your fears. Ask your deep sources of wisdom for the poised courage you need to keep those scary fantasies in their proper place. And what is their proper place? Not as the masters of your destiny, not as controlling agents that prevent you from living lustily, but rather as helpful guides that keep you from taking foolish risks.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): In his book Life: The Odds, Gregory Baer says that the odds you will marry a millionaire are not good: 215-to-1. They’re 60,000-to-1 that you’ll wed royalty and 88,000-to-1 that you’ll date a model. After analyzing your astrological omens for the coming months, I suspect your chances of achieving these feats will be even lower than usual. That’s because you’re far more likely to cultivate synergetic and symbiotic relationships with people who enrich your soul and stimulate your imagination, but don’t necessarily pump up your ego. Instead of models and millionaires, you’re likely to connect with practical idealists, energetic creators, and emotionally intelligent people who’ve done work to transmute their own darkness.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): What might you do to take better care of yourself in 2018, Virgo? According to my reading of the astrological omens, this will be a fertile meditation for you to keep revisiting. Here’s a good place to start: Consider the possibility that you have a lot to learn about what makes your body operate at peak efficiency and what keeps your soul humming along with the sense that your life is interesting. Here’s another crucial task: Intensify your love for yourself. With that as a driving force, you’ll be led to discover the actions necessary to supercharge your health. P.S. Now is an ideal time to get this project underway.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Here are themes I suggest you specialize in during the coming weeks. 1. How to gossip in ways that don’t diminish and damage your social network, but rather foster and enhance it. 2. How to be in three places at once without committing the mistake of being nowhere at all. 3. How to express precisely what you mean without losing your attractive mysteriousness. 4. How to be nosy and brash for fun and profit. 5. How to unite and harmonize the parts of yourself and your life that have been at odds with each other.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): I predict that in the coming months you won’t feel compulsions to set your adversaries’ hair on fire. You won’t fantasize about robbing banks to raise the funds you need, nor will you be tempted to worship the devil. And the news just gets better. I expect that the amount of self-sabotage you commit will be close to zero. The monsters under your bed will go on a long sabbatical. Any lame excuses you have used in the past to justify bad behavior will melt away. And you’ll mostly avoid indulging in bouts of irrational and unwarranted anger. In conclusion, Scorpio, your life should be pretty evil-free for quite some time. What will you do with this prolonged outburst of grace? Use it wisely!

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): “What is love?” asks philosopher Richard Smoley. “It’s come to have a greeting-card quality,” he mourns. “Half the time ‘loving’ someone is taken to mean nurturing a warmish feeling in the heart for them, which mysteriously evaporates the moment the person has some concrete need or irritates us.” One of your key assignments in the next 10 months will be to purge any aspects of this shrunken and shriveled kind of love that may still be lurking in your beautiful soul. You are primed to cultivate an unprecedented new embodiment of mature, robust love.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): You know that unfinished task you have half-avoided, allowing it to stagnate? Soon you’ll be able to summon the gritty determination required to complete it. I suspect you’ll also be able to carry out the glorious rebirth you’ve been shy about climaxing. To gather the energy you need, reframe your perspective so that you can feel gratitude for the failure or demise that has made your glorious rebirth necessary and inevitable.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): In an ideal world, your work and your character would speak for themselves. You’d receive exactly the amount of recognition and appreciation you deserve. You wouldn’t have to devote as much intelligence to selling yourself as you did to developing your skills in the first place. But now forget everything I just said. During the next 10 months, I predict that packaging and promoting yourself won’t be so #$@&%*! important. Your work and character will speak for themselves with more vigor and clarity than they have before.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): There used to be a booth at a Santa Cruz flea market called “Joseph Campbell’s Love Child.” It was named after the mythological scholar who wrote the book The Hero with a Thousand Faces. The booth’s proprietor sold items that spurred one’s “heroic journey,” like talismans made to order and herbs that stimulated courage and mini-books with personalized advice based on one’s horoscope. “Chaos-Tamers” were also for sale. They were magic spells designed to help people manage the messes that crop up in one’s everyday routine while pursuing a heroic quest. Given the current astrological omens, Pisces, you would benefit from a place that sold items like these. Since none exists, do the next best thing: Aggressively drum up all the help and inspiration you need. You can and should be well-supported as you follow your dreams on your hero’s journey.

Homework: What change have you prepared yourself to embrace? What lesson are you ripe to master? Write: FreeWillAstrology.com

Opinion November 22, 2017

Steve Palopoli

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November 22, 2017

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EDITOR’S NOTE

It’s interesting to me how people’s passions are sometimes marginalized as “niche” or “trivial” when in fact they’re holding little chunks of our collective cultural memory together. I was reminded of that again while researching this week’s cover story on the rebirth of Actors’ Theatre. I personally remember being wowed by the quality and intensity of Actors’ Theatre’s work when I was just out of college and starting to cover the Santa Cruz arts scene in the mid-’90s. I realized many readers today wouldn’t really get why the fact that the company was returning to full seasons was a big deal unless they themselves had seen Actors’ Theatre work back then—which many, of course, have not. So I knew I needed to trace that history, and to really put it in context, I needed to give some background on the entire history of the Santa Cruz County theater scene. You can see how these things get out of hand.

Anyway, I got to talk to many of the key people involved with Actor’s Theatre and the local theater scene in general. They were a kick; just really fun to talk to. But I was in some cases asking them to remember names and dates from as far back as four decades ago, and the timeline I was piecing together was a mess.

Luckily, I discovered the archival work of local actor and writer David Sheaffer, which is housed in UCSC’s Special Collections and Archives. He basically documented the entire modern history of Santa Cruz County theater, and I’m sure more than one person told Sheaffer at the time that he was in way too deep on a subject that would be of “niche” interest at best to the public at large. But his work as a theater historian was absolutely incredible, and helped me to nail down many of the details in this story. In 2001, a Theater Arts endowment was established at UCSC in Sheaffer’s name, and I can’t think of anyone more deserving. Here’s to the people who are driven by their passion, whether they’re starting a theater company or preserving every scrap of memorabilia from that company that they can get their hands on.

STEVE PALOPOLI | EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Read the latest letters to the editor here.

Out of the Park Now

The current conditions that exist in San Lorenzo Park are deplorably unsafe, from both a health and a public safety perspective. This problem will not go away by itself. It will take leadership and the development and execution of a comprehensive, legally defensible plan to remove these squatters from San Lorenzo Park. This group is committing an illegal act every time they spend the night in the park. It is time for city leaders to create a safe and clean environment in San Lorenzo Park by ending this illegal encampment now.

Kevin M. Vogel | Retired Chief of Police | City of Santa Cruz

Online Comments

Re: “Tent Situation”

This article demonstrates both the city and county’s severe ignorance on the issues of mental health, substance use disorders, and homelessness.

One might remember that Santa Cruz did have a day center at Coral Street until city officials made it difficult and put up a fence. There was also a dual diagnosis treatment program on Pioneer Street that worked closely with the shelter to treat those in our community with complicated health, mental health, homelessness and substance use issues.

If the county and city are flummoxed by these issues, perhaps they might learn more about best practices currently working, like the Santa Cruz VA Supported Housing Program, which has seriously reduced veteran homelessness in Santa Cruz and has eliminated veteran homelessness in other areas. Subsidized housing is the small part … the success of programs like these are the clinical providers, therapists, social workers and case managers.

Santa Cruz used to do better! We can do this.

— Dave R.

You want to set up a homeless encampment? Downtown is not the place. Paradise Park used to work. I don’t know why they shut that down. There’s a huge empty field next to the old clubhouse in Pogonip. Build a fence around it and set up a big circus tent for people to camp under. Make that your “Hamsterdam,” out of sight and out of harm’s way for the average citizen who wants to enjoy the city’s public parks. You could retrofit the old clubhouse for homeless services. Think about it. Downtown is not working, though. It’s just kicking the can around.

— Neil

It’s interesting to see, the usual homeless-ophobe narrative of homeless folks as being “drunken, drugged, mentally ill, lazy, transient bums” becoming less fashionable. In fact, folks outside are a combination of many things, but die 20 years earlier, are treated like second-class citizens, and have the same faults, vices, and disabilities that those in housing have without the benefit of privacy, anonymity and support. And, of course, many of them are longtime Santa Cruzans dumped from housing because of the city’s support for profiteering developers and greedy landlords.

I fear it’s likely that city authorities will use the opening of the slightly-beyond-token shelter (100 emergency walk-in beds for 1,500-plus folks outside) as an excuse to disperse the politically embarrassing spectacle of poor people huddling in cold winter weather away from San Lorenzo, and away from the communal support they now enjoy there, however briefly.

— Robert Norse

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

ROLL FORWARD
Inboard, the first electric skateboard with a swappable battery pack, is bringing its M1 to 200 Best Buys this holiday season. The Santa Cruz-based company just finished an $8 million investment round. The high-end board—currently on sale for $999, via Inboard’s website—isn’t cheap, but it could be the ride of the future. Hopefully, locals will even be able to afford one.

GOOD WORK

ROLL FORWARD
Inboard, the first electric skateboard with a swappable battery pack, is bringing its M1 to 200 Best Buys this holiday season. The Santa Cruz-based company just finished an $8 million investment round. The high-end board—currently on sale for $999, via Inboard’s website—isn’t cheap, but it could be the ride of the future. Hopefully, locals will even be able to afford one.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“A dramatist is one who believes that the pure event, an action involving human beings, is more arresting than any comment that can be made upon it.”
-Thornton Wilder

What are you grateful for?

Columns

Matthew Cole Scott

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November 22, 2017

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“For my family, and any love and nice thoughts other people give us.”

Nancy Rumrill

Alameda

Environmental Engineer

“For all of the good people in the world. America’s already great. ”

Tim Larry

Alameda

Artistic Craftsperson

“That my head is better than it was seven years ago. I had a traumatic brain injury.”

Mike Davidson

Santa Cruz

Renaissance Man

“For my lovely fiancé. She puts up with me and she’s the sweetest woman in the world.”

Ross Albert

Santa Cruz

Water Operator

“That the Giants get another year to prove themselves. ”

Ellen Newberry

Santa Cruz

UCSC Teacher

With Retail in Trouble, Experts Ponder What’s Best for Business

Local News

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November 22, 2017

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With Retail in Trouble, Experts Ponder What’s Best for Business

Not long ago, Derek Timm, a local developer and real estate broker, demolished a run-down Ocean Street party house to build a Dunkin’ Donuts—a newly opened safe haven for nostalgic, coffee-loving East Coasters, though it’s certainly not a player in the local economy that Santa Cruzans talk about so often.

Timm has gotten an earful about the new Dunkin’ Donuts and its neighbors, a T-Mobile and a Habit Burger Grill, both of which will be opening soon. People tell him they wish he had brought in local businesses. But Timm says that, as supportive as Santa Cruz proclaims to be of local businesses, fees often make it difficult for anyone other than a chain to set up shop.

“We want local businesses,” Timm says, “but with traffic impact fees totaling into the thousands of dollars, what small business can afford that?”

The one-time traffic impact fees paid by those three tenants combine to a total of $132,000, according to Chris Schneiter, Santa Cruz’s assistant public works director.

Schneiter, who developed the fee a little over 10 years ago, says the algorithm takes into account a business’ location, its size and the type of business. A fast food joint will create different traffic patterns than a warehouse.

The city wasn’t the first local government to implement the fee. Scotts Valley, Watsonville and the county all have similar ones. The fee to developers mostly funds nearby projects, but a small portion of the pot has gone to bigger undertakings, like the Arana Gulch Multi-Use Trail or the studying of improvements to the intersection of Highway 1 and Highway 9.

“We do get complaints that the fee is too high, but on the other hand, the public and the council have given the direction that the developer also needs to pay their fair share. It’s usually a give and take that comes with development,” Schneiter says.

As Small Business Saturday nears on Nov. 25, with more than 2,000 county businesses participating, the questions about what’s best for business are getting louder, and a new outreach program aims to help struggling stores stay afloat when it launches early next year.

Retail around the country is gasping for breath, with online retailers hurting many of the nation’s major chains—Urban Outfitters, Macy’s, Men’s Wearhouse, Sears, JCPenney, Barnes and Noble and even Target. Local businesses, meanwhile, are crossing their fingers for a strong December.

Here in Santa Cruz when a new business prepares to open, that business only pays a traffic impact fee if there’s a change of uses—for instance, when a developer takes a house and converts it to a restaurant. If The Habit were to go out of business, and a similar restaurant came in, that new business would not have to pay an impact fee. But Timm says the fee makes it difficult for any self-funded local to open in a brand-new building.

Over the years, Schneiter admits there’s been a history of businesses finding out about these fees late in the game—often after they’ve been talking to city staffers about their business idea for months. Schneiter says he’s worked with the planning department and economic developers to improve lines of communication, so entrepreneurs find out earlier if there may be a traffic impact fee, and he says he’s happy to provide estimates for a new fee.

“In a few cases, it’s fallen through the cracks where people either weren’t paying attention or plans didn’t get routed to me, or the information changed between one set of plans and the other, and it wasn’t caught,” Schneiter says. “Some things like that do happen—I would say a lot less than they used to.”

Casey Beyer, CEO of the Santa Cruz Area Chamber of Commerce, has seen the data on the priorities of many of the county’s businesses. Both the chamber and the Santa Cruz County Business Council have polled their members in recent years, and both came back with the same top four concerns: high cost of living, lack of housing, transportation options that are both limited and insufficient, and public safety. Fees and red tape don’t crack the top of the list.

Beyer, who used to lead the business council, would know as well as anyone how to compare Santa Cruz to other communities. He serves on the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, as well as the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. He worked as the chief of staff for former Congressmember Tom Campbell, a Bay Area Republican, and for a solar company in Los Angeles. He says that, although county businesses face many local fees, so do businesses in other California communities.

Beginning in early 2018, the local Small Business Development Center will lead Reset 2018, a new outreach program for retail, in partnership with the city’s economic development department and the Downtown Association of Santa Cruz. The program will work with about 15 struggling downtown shops, trying to help them survive. Teresa Thomae, director of Small Business Development Center, has a lot of experience offering guidance. She’s found that some clients listen better than others.

“We work with a lot of businesses that I wish could get out of their own way,” says Thomae—noting that a successful business owner needs a combination of financing expertise, marketing brilliance, a strong-willed ego, and the ability to listen to criticism. “And then there are other businesses that work really hard. It’s frustrating sometimes when a business won’t get out of their own way, but sometimes they don’t have it in them to do that.”

Around that same time next year, retail expert Robert Gibbs is scheduled to return for a twice-delayed trip to Santa Cruz. While here, Gibbs will update his 2011 analysis of the local business scene, says economic Development Director Bonnie Lipscomb, and give a few talks to downtown shop owners as well.

With Small Business Saturday around the corner, Beyer calls the nationwide event, which is sponsored by American Express, “a great model” to get people to keep money in the community. But helping our local economy is a complex game of pros and cons.

“A lot of folks are willing to pay the extra dollar for something that’s local, instead of a big box outlet,” he says. “But I remember years ago, before Trader Joe’s moved in and before Costco was there. That changed when [the City Council] saw the tax revenue of having those businesses there. So that’s interesting. It’s all about the tax base. It’s an interesting conundrum.”

Small Business Saturday is Nov. 25, with more than 2,000 local businesses participating. A number of events are happening in conjunction with the day. There will be hayrides and hot chocolate at Watsonville’s East Lake Shopping Center and a Makers’ Market in Felton, as well as giveaways of Boulder Bucks, which are good at many Boulder Creek shops. For more information, visit facebook.com/santacruzcountysmallbusinesssaturday or americanexpress.com.

Santa Cruz Nonprofits Save and Transform Animals’ Lives

Local News

Andrea Patton

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November 22, 2017

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Santa Cruz Nonprofits Save and Transform Animals’ Lives

Stepping into the center of a well-lit conference room, Michelle* and John* volunteer their Chihuahua, Mango, to show off a trick they’ve taught him. Following Michelle’s command, Mango does a spin—no small feat for a shelter dog who lost his hind leg just three weeks ago.

The room bursts into celebratory applause as the three of them leave the center stage area and return to one corner of the room, making room for the next group to step into the spotlight. Michelle and John, two teenagers, are preparing for the graduation program of their eight-week session, where three teams will introduce their adoptable, well-trained dogs—two pit bulls and a Chihuahua—to a larger audience.

Michelle feels she can relate to Mango, a canine she met through the UnChained program, a nonprofit that pairs at-risk youth with shelter dogs to help them both learn valuable skills. “It’s like he understands what loss is, so we kinda get each other because loss is loss,” Michelle says. “We just grieve differently.”

UnChained is one of the two nonprofits helping animals in the third annual Santa Cruz Gives campaign, which raises money for charity groups during the holiday season. Melissa Wolf, founder and director of UnChained, worked for 15 years in social work, devoting all of her free time to animal welfare. She saw devastating stories of animals, she says, and realized people could help them in a way that was mutually beneficial.

“It’s really about shaping the kids and helping them through the vehicle of dogs,” Wolf says.

Jen Walker, a humane education specialist, is leading today’s training session at the Kinship Center in Salinas. Walker, also the programs manager of the Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter, is showing everyone a skill she calls “Zen dog,” and she demonstrates by holding a piece of kibble in one hand, and a much tastier cheese treat in the other. The trick teaches pups delayed gratification, a skill both dogs and humans need to learn, Walker says, and the youth in this program are in charge of teaching it.

Walker is also a volunteer board member of Heading Home Animal Rescue, the other animal-loving nonprofit participating in Santa Cruz Gives this year.

Heading Home is a placement partner, meaning it helps find alternative placement options for animals with special needs, such as an identified medical condition or behavioral needs. The nonprofit takes more animals from the shelter, Walker says, than all of the other 30-odd placement partners combined. “Their strong focus on caring for local animals in need is what really sets them apart from other organizations,” she says.

Heading Home acts as a bridge between shelters and their adoptive families. They take in animals who arrive at the shelter needing additional help—whether they’re neonates, have medical needs the shelter can’t address, or are simply shy and need help getting socialized. Working with their network of veterinarians and volunteers, Heading Home prepares these pets for adoption.

Heading Home is currently helping three puppies who were rescued from an abandoned travel carrier that was left in a Watsonville church parking lot. Two of the three puppies were pre-adopted, meaning that after being spayed/neutered, they would go home to someone who wanted them. But the shelter soon discovered that all three had parvo, a highly contagious canine disease, possibly caused from eating their own feces when they were trapped in the carrier. Melissa Finley, director of Heading Home has been working to get the puppies the medical care they need to survive. Forest, the third puppy, is still up for adoption.

Petey, a pit bull mix in the UnChained program, has been in and out of the shelter a couple of times. He has seen tremendous growth in the last few weeks, Wolf says, now that he has been working with his trainer, Kristen. The teens remember how Petey spent his first training session screaming and crying.

Now he is a much calmer dog and is able to follow Kristen’s “leave it” command in the Zen dog trick, Kristen says.

“It makes me feel good that I helped him with that,” she says.

*Name has been changed to protect child’s identity.

To donate to any of the 33 nonprofits participating in Santa Cruz Gives, visit santacruzgives.org through Monday, Dec. 31.

Vegan Chef Beth Love Takes On Healthy Dessert

Maria Grusauskas

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November 22, 2017

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Vegan Chef Beth Love Takes On Healthy Dessert

For many, it’s the hardest part of adopting a healthier, plant-based diet: that lonely void where dairy-rich desserts used to be. A week into chef Beth Love’s “30-Day Health Challenge”—a group-supported program of eating fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes—that void had grown into a gaping chasm that no amount of dates could fill.

This is how I found myself squeezed into Love’s cozy West Side living room, nibbling on homemade cashew cheese atop homemade crackers, for a “Desserts in the Raw” class. At a kitchen table the size of a bocci ball court, I and 15 others would create four palate-dazzling iterations of a total paradox: healthy dessert.

Yes, beyond frozen bananas blended into “ice cream” (try it, trust me), there exists an entire world of opportunity for successfully swapping out ingredients that are unhealthy to the body and the Earth with healthy ones. Take, for example, Brazil nuts, four of which have been found to lower one’s bad cholesterol for a full month (though eating four every day may raise selenium levels beyond the tolerable limit). Or dates, a key sugar substitute that happens to contain fiber, minerals (especially potassium), vitamins, antioxidants and other nutrients.

“Since they are whole foods, the sugar in dates metabolizes more slowly in the body than refined sugars do,” says Love. Since embarking on her mission to help locals transform their diets and reclaim their health a couple of years ago—sparked, in part, by her viewing of the documentary Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret—Love has noticed a most common Achilles heel: ice cream and chocolate.

“The sugar is like the seductress that calls you in, but it’s not the unhealthiest part. What’s in those foods that is equally addictive and unhealthy is dairy products,” says Love, who recommends The Cheese Trap by Neal D. Barnard, M.D., for anyone interested in learning more.

Baked goods, Love points out, are full of refined flour, which depletes the grains of their nutrients and fiber—and if you’re buying them rather than making them, they are likely full of chemical additives, too. Aside from contributing to environmental destruction, dairy products come with a load of saturated fat, cholesterol and animal protein. “We’ve been conditioned to think animal protein is something we should be eating, and something we should be getting a lot of, but it’s actually toxic for our bodies,” says Love.

Heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the United States, but within the past generation, the number of deaths from chronic kidney disease has doubled. Excess table sugar and high-fructose corn syrup are culprits, while high animal protein intake overloads the kidneys in a way that plant protein does not, explains Michael Greger, M.D. in his nutritional tome How Not To Die. Late last year, an expansive Harvard study entitled Association of Animal and Plant Protein Intake With All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality, concluded that replacing animal protein of various origins with plant protein was associated with lower mortality, while animal protein intake was positively associated with cardiovascular mortality.

But the USDA has two mandates: to protect public health by helping to develop the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, and to support the growth of the agricultural industry—a conflict of interest addressed by the Food and Drug Law Journal: “The Guidelines sometimes favor the interests of the food and drug industries over the public interest in accurate and impartial dietary advice.”

Which is why it’s important to do our own research, says Love. “There is a huge industry, the food industry, that is spending billions of dollars to engineer foods that will hook you,” says Love, on why we shouldn’t feel so guilty about our Achilles heels.

Devoid of extracted oils and cholesterol, Love’s desserts are sweetened with fruit, made creamy and rich with nuts, seeds and avocados, and launched into heaven by spices like freshly grated nutmeg, ginger, cardamom and cinnamon. They’re also teeming with phytonutrients. At the end of the evening we enjoyed a Fruit Torte with Avocado Lime Cream, a Raw Zucchini Hazelnut Cake with Cashew Cream Cheese Frosting, and a Raw “Faux” Pumpkin Pie. All otherworldly. Epiphanic was the torte’s no-bake crust, made with energy-rich chia seeds, coconut, Brazil nuts and, of course, dates.

“What I found is that when I talk to people, it feels overwhelming. People feel like ‘oh, I can’t do anything to save the Earth,’ and it’s hard for people to get on board,” says Love. “But what really is a driver for people is the pain in their bodies and the sickness that they are facing. People are more receptive to hearing how they can, instead of killing themselves by fork, bring life to their bodies with their fork.”

More info at tasteslikelove.com.

Music Picks Nov. 22-28

GT Staff

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November 22, 2017

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The best live music for the week of November 22, 2017.

WEDNESDAY 11/22

REGGAE

MEDITATIONS

Formed in 1974, the Meditations are an impressive Jamaican harmony group. They sang backups on songs by Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff and Gregory Isaacs. You can hear them on the Congos’ Heart of the Congos album, one of the best roots reggae albums ever recorded, with harmonies that are gorgeous and eerie. They also recorded their own music; their most famous track is “Woman is Like a Shadow.” They still have great voices, and play authentic roots reggae music in a way few living artists still can. AC

INFO: 8 p.m. Don Quixote’s, 6275 Hwy. 9, Felton. $20. 335-2800.

FRIDAY 11/24

INDIE

CANDACE

Hailing from Portland, Oregon via Minneapolis, Minnesota, Candace is a shoegaze-y indie band with a penchant for moody, atmospheric tunes driven by pop aesthetics. Confused yet? Imagine slow grooves, chilled-out bass lines, jangly guitar, and pleasing, mellow multi-part harmonies. Comprising Sarah Rose, Sarah Nienaber, and Mara Appel DesLauriers, the trio—which was formerly known as Is/Is—has weathered relocations, lineup shakeups, reunions and a name change to emerge as one of the best (if still underappreciated) indie groups in the Pacific Northwest. CJ

INFO: 9 p.m. Crepe Place, 1134 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. $8. 429-6994.

FRIDAY 11/24

REGGAE

THROUGH THE ROOTS

There’s an informal rivalry between Santa Cruz and San Diego as to which is the most Cali-reggae city of all. Obviously, I’m too biased to name a winner, but let’s just say that San Diego “tries hard.” Hell, let’s give a shout out to one of their coolest bands, Through The Roots, a group formed in 2008 by several reggae-loving friends who wanted to spread of message of peace, love and “bloodshot eyes.” The group spent the first few years playing backyards and garages. These days, they headline big clubs, sprinkling reggae positivity wherever they go. AC

INFO: 9 p.m. Moe’s Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz. $12/adv, $15/door. 479-1854.

FRIDAY 11/24

POP-PUNK

NEW FOUND GLORY

There have been a lot of waves of punk rock—like, seriously, a ton of them. In the 2000s, there was a second wave of pop-punk that was huge. These bands had ridiculously catchy hooks, anthemic choruses, emo-angst, fast beats, and a bit of studio polish. One of the key players in this era was New Found Glory, who in a lot of ways helped to define it. And guess what, they have a new album out, Makes Me Sick. What it’s like? Let’s just say that the video for single “Happy Being Miserable” includes an orgy of vomiting. So basically, it’s not a huge departure. AC

INFO: 9 p.m. Catalyst, 1011 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $23/adv, $27/door. 429-4135.

SATURDAY 11/25

ROOTS

NAKED BOOTLEGGERS

Boasting four-part harmonies, down-home instruments—including a washboard—and a porch-jam approach to making music, the Naked Bootleggers are part of Santa Cruz’s lively roots music scene. The band draws inspiration from the Santa Cruz Mountains, the local creative scene, old-time mountain music and even shitty jobs—check out the song “I Don’t Wanna Go to Work Today.” If acoustic jams are your thing, put this band on your radar. CJ

INFO: 8 p.m. Don Quixote’s, 6275 Hwy. 9, Felton. $10. 335-2800.

SUNDAY 11/26

BLUES

GUITARSONISTS

Mighty Mike Schermer is one of Santa Cruz’s favorite musical sons. Now a well-known guitarist on the national blues scene, Schermer honed his chops in Santa Cruz before relocating to Austin. On Sunday, Schermer teams up with multi-instrumentalist bluesman Chris Cain and Bay Area favorite Daniel Castro as the Guitarsonists. An all-star group dripping with talent and passion for the blues, the Guitarsonists have a collective musical pedigree that rivals any contemporary artists, including collaborations with Albert King, Bonnie Raitt, Ronnie Lane, Albert Collins, Marcia Ball, Tower of Power and many more. CJ

INFO: 4 p.m. Moe’s Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz. $20/adv, $25/door. 479-1854.

MONDAY 11/27

JAZZ

JEREMY PELT QUINTET

A leading voice on the trumpet, Los Angeles-reared Jeremy Pelt first gained attention on the New York scene in the Mingus Big Band. With his gorgeous tone and capacious improvisational resources, he became one of the most in-demand horn players around, recording with veteran jazz masters such as Wayne Shorter, Cedar Walton, James Moody, Ralph Peterson, and Nancy Wilson. Since releasing his first album as a leader in 2002, he’s made more than a dozen increasingly impressive sessions, leading up to his latest, Make Noise!. Pelt is touring with the same blazing young band featured on the album, with pianist Victor Gould, drummer Jonathan Barber, percussionist Jacquelene Acevedo, and bassist Richie Goods (filling in for Vicente Archer), a prolific player known for his work with jazz and pop stars. ANDREW GILBERT

INFO: 7 p.m. Kuumbwa Jazz, 320-2 Cedar St., Santa Cruz. $30/adv, $35/door. 427-2227.

TUESDAY 11/28

ELECTRONIC / SOUL

SYD

Producer. Songwriter. Syd is a person who wears many hats in the industry and has just as many musical projects. Earlier this year, she released her solo debut album, Fin, along with her instrumental EP, Raunchboots. Forever restless, Syd dropped another three-track EP of electronic soul and R&B jams two months ago, appropriately titled Always Never Home. Along with her ever-evolving solo career, she is also the singer for soul act The Internet, and was a long-time member of the Odd Future collective. MW

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

IN THE QUEUE

DAN JUAN

Fun-loving alt-country/indie-rock out of Santa Cruz. Wednesday at Moe’s Alley

REDLIGHT DISTRICT

Local psychedelic rock and roll outfit. Wednesday at Crepe Place

TERROR REID

San Jose-based rapper. Friday at Catalyst

GRAND LARSON

Blue-eyed soul. Saturday at Crepe Place

ISRAEL VIBRATION

Legendary roots reggae group. Saturday at Moe’s Alley

Giveaway: The California Honeydrops

A&E
Music

Cat Johnson

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November 22, 2017

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Lech Wierzynski doesn’t have a typical American funk and soul artist backstory. For starters, he was born in Warsaw, Poland. But as a youngster, he was introduced to the music of Sidney Bechet, Louis Armstrong and others, and when the family moved to the U.S., Wierzynski’s love of music grew. When a friend introduced him to the Rebirth Brass Band, he found his musical calling. Now frontman for the California Honeydrops, Wierzynski leads one of the funkiest dancefloor-packing acts in the Bay Area and beyond. With tight horns, irresistible grooves and a New Orleans-inspired sense of get-down, the band is pure joy in action. On Dec. 1, the Honeydrops bring the party to the Catalyst.

INFO: 9 p.m. Friday, Dec. 1. Catalyst, 1011 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $20/adv, $22/door. 423-1338. WANT TO GO? Go to santacruz.com/giveaways before 11 a.m. on Monday, Nov. 27 to find out how you could win a pair of tickets to the show.

Love Your Local Band: Sasha’s Money

A&E
Music

Aaron Carnes

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November 22, 2017

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Michelle Kraft recalls a woman coming up to her after her band Sasha’s Money played, waxing nostalgic about the band’s set of alt-rock hits from the ’90s. That’s exactly what the band is going for.

“She said, ‘I can’t believe you played Alanis and then you played No Doubt. Oh my god, that was my high school jam!’” Kraft recalls. “We try to throw in some songs that people go ‘Oh yeah, I remember that. I haven’t heard that in years.’”

The songs aren’t exclusively from the ’90s—they play songs going all the way back to the ‘60s. But danceability and that nostalgia factor are key.

Initially, Kraft was singing on her own, and then teamed up with bassist Mike Kelley and guitarist Bill McBride, playing around at open mics. As they locked down their chops and got a drummer, they started playing bigger gigs.

The name Sasha’s Money refers to Kraft’s longtime karaoke nickname. Early on, she went to pay for the rehearsal space and someone in the band called it “Sasha’s money.” It stuck.

They only do covers at this point, but that might not always be the case going forward. “We’re intrigued with the idea of eventually throwing some originals in. But we’re pretty happy right now,” Kraft says.

INFO: 9 p.m. Friday, Nov. 24. Crow’s Nest, 2218 E Cliff Drive, Santa Cruz. $6. 476-4560.

Film Review: ‘Lady Bird’

A&E
Film

Lisa Jensen

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November 22, 2017

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Okay, I didn’t have high hopes for Lady Bird. From the trailer, it looked like it was going to feature one of those indie heroines who’s supposed to be adorably quirky, but is really just tiresome—the kind of character so often played by Greta Gerwig (in movies like Damsel in Distress, or Frances Ha). Knowing that Gerwig wrote and directed this movie only intensified my dread.

But, surprise! With Lady Bird, Gerwig delivers a wry but warm-hearted portrait of family, home, and dreams in modern America. The family in question is not dysfunctional in any clichéd movie comedy way, but Gerwig captures the gulf of potential calamity in the fractious relationship between a high-school senior (Saoirse Ronan) and her loving, but harried mom (Laurie Metcalf). As in most mother-daughter relationships, one false move or the wrong word might set either one of them off as they try to navigate the minefield of what they think or feel, and their ability (or not) to express it.

The movie begins with a quote from Joan Didion: “Anyone who talks about California hedonism has never spent Christmas in Sacramento.” Ronan plays Christine, who calls herself “Lady Bird,” and is facing her senior year at a Catholic girls school in the suburbs of the state capital. She has few scholastic ambitions, but she’s eager to leave the nest and fledge, preferably to a college on the East Coast “where culture is.” Unlike Sacramento, which she calls “the Midwest of California.”

Lady Bird is close to her mom, Marion (Metcalf); they shop together and weep together in the car listening to The Grapes of Wrath on tape. But Marion is supporting the family with her job as a hospital therapist, since her husband, Larry (the endearing Tracy Letts) was downsized from his tech job. So she’s extra sensitive to any perceived snark from her daughter that she might be ashamed of her working-class family, their plain house, or their lack of disposable income.

It’s true that sometimes for fun, Lady Bird and her BFF, Julie (Beanie Feldstein) stroll down a block of rich mansions in the neighborhood and fantasize about living in them. But it never occurs to Lady Bird to feel shame. She is only prey to the usual kinds of teen angst around love, friendship, sex, finding herself, and getting the heck out of Dodge—and perhaps a bit too ready to chafe against her mom’s iron-willed temperament. (Like when Marion refuses to let Lady Bird get a driver’s license.)

The plot is episodic as the school year scrolls by. The girls take roles in the school musical, where Lady Bird gets her first giddy thrill of having a boyfriend, adorable, respectful Danny (Lucas Hedges, from Manchester by the Sea), who’s almost too good to be true. She briefly falls in with a bored rich girl (Odeya Rush), jeopardizing her friendship with Julie.

When she meets Kyle (Timothée Chalamet), a moody boy in a band who declines to “participate in the economy” (by, like, having a job), Lady Bird decides to become “deflowered” by him. Meanwhile, she cooks up a clandestine plot with her father to apply for a scholarship without letting her mom know she’s applied to out-of-state colleges. (Although it’s a bit hard to believe, since she’s not shown to have any particular scholastic abilities, or interest.)

The story is set in 2002, the cusp of the Millennium, when social mores are being reorganized. Lady Bird’s brother, Miguel (Jordan Rodrigues), is presented as Latino without commentary; his live-in girlfriend, Shelly (Marielle Scott), his colleague at the grocery store where he clerks, has also blended into the family. But Gerwig’s most trenchant observations concern issues as eternal as time itself—the elliptical orbits of friendship; separating the reality of sex from its romantic mythology; the often fraught, but fiercely devoted relations between parents and children.

It’s no surprise to learn that Gerwig herself grew up in Sacramento. The affection with which she portrays her hometown on screen, coupled with the impatience of her youthful alter-ego, imbues much of Lady Bird with a refreshing ring of truth.

LADY BIRD

*** (out of four)

Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Tracy Letts. Written and directed by Greta Gerwig. An A24 release. Rated R. 94 minutes.

Good TimesGood Times

Good TimesGood Times

EDITOR’S NOTE

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

PHOTO CONTEST WINNER

GOOD IDEA

GOOD WORK

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

Nancy Rumrill

Alameda

Environmental Engineer

Tim Larry

Alameda

Artistic Craftsperson

Mike Davidson

Santa Cruz

Renaissance Man

Ross Albert

Santa Cruz

Water Operator

Ellen Newberry

Santa Cruz

UCSC Teacher

MEDITATIONS

CANDACE

THROUGH THE ROOTS

NEW FOUND GLORY

NAKED BOOTLEGGERS

GUITARSONISTS

JEREMY PELT QUINTET

SYD

IN THE QUEUE

LADY BIRD