Since 1938 we’ve been running into each other, old friends, former spouses, godparents, neighbors, while combing the well-stocked shelves of Shopper’s Corner.
Everyone has a Shopper’s story—the kids running around and squealing over the gummi displays at the front counter; the older “children” staring carefully at the single malt selection; oenophiles standing in front of Andre’s bargain racks seeking spiritual guidance for their next wine purchase. I remember the Italian butchers who would rattle on in Italian with some of the old-timers. And now Italian has elided into Spanish, with customers gossiping happily with the guys carving the racks of lamb and cleaning Dungeness crab. For me, it’s always the butchers who seem most memorable. But surely you’ve got your own memory. And for one more day—contest ends Dec. 15!—you can post your Shopper’s story at the Shopper’s Corner Facebook page to see if you win a $150 Gift Card. Go hereand submit your own heartfelt story or childhood memory and see if you get lucky at Shopper’s. You wouldn’t be the only one who has. Thank you Jim Beauregard and his family and staff for all the only-in-Santa-Cruz memories!
Sheep’s Milk Yogurt Win
Former Gabriella chef Rebecca King gave up commercial kitchens long ago to become a Wild West sheep rancher, and now creates fabulous artisanal Garden Variety cheeses from her sheep out at Royal Oaks. The excitement now is that her farmstead is again offering the rare and wonderful treat of sheep milk yogurt at our Farmers Markets this weekend, Dec. 17 (Aptos Market), as well as the Downtown Santa Cruz market on Wednesdays. After a fascinating discussion with my endocrinologist several years ago, I switched from cow’s milk to sheep’s milk yogurt. It seems that sheep’s milk, like goat’s, has smaller fat globules and more fatty acids than cow’s milk, which means that sheep milk yogurt aids in digestion. Well, at least for me. The proof was in the eating. And I’ve been devoted to sheep’s milk yogurt ever since. No more digestive issues. So the chance to sample King’s sheep’s milk yogurt is exciting. Stop by the Garden Variety Cheese stand at the market this weekend and find out what you’ve been missing. For more information visit gardenvarietycheese.com.
Manini’s Ravioli Senza di Gluten!
Here was a discovery that made our tastebuds dance. In another era, i.e. two years ago, going gluten-free might have had all the cachet of a winter vacation in Siberia. So few choices, so little joy. But that was then. Today there are new, and more importantly worthy, gluten-free food choices popping up daily. Well, even though Manini’s gluten-free ravioli have been around for almost a year, we just found out about this pasta creation. Made from the Manini ancient grain flour blend—which includes amaranth, millet and sorghum—the raviolis filled with spinach and cheese cooked in only four minutes (exactly four minutes), accepted the sauce beautifully (I chopped up and browned a New Leaf Italian pork sausage and added it to one of my jars of marinara sauce), and when topped with plenty of grated Romano and Parmesan made us sigh with pleasure. Pasta is one of the things many foodies really miss when trying to cut out gluten. Well, that little issue has been taken care of once and for all. OK, Manini’s lacked the flavor depth of Italian durum wheat. But it was more than acceptable. Sea salt helps. I’m happy to see more creative artisanal producers doing the homework to provide acceptable substitutes to gluten glut. Available at New Leaf Markets and Whole Foods.
In order to understand the name of the new Capitola restaurant Sotola Bar and Grill, you may need a little history lesson. Luckily, the restaurant has a 1929 newspaper clipping on the wall that describes how Soquel and Capitola were to become one town—Sotola.
It never happened, mostly because of the Great Depression. Husband and wife Ashley and Adam Bernardi, who are first-time restaurant owners, loved this piece of history so much, they named their restaurant after it. They also enlisted longtime Santa Cruz chef Anthony Kresge, for whom this is a homecoming after seven years at Santa Clara’s Epicurean Group. Ashley told us everything else we needed to know about their new restaurant.
Why did you choose Anthony Kresge?
ASHLEY BERNARDI: He has 25 years of experience. He’s a creative and open-minded chef, but he also serves what the community is asking for in terms of ingredients and how he presents things. We really admire how he can take what we’re asking him to do and turn it into something that everyone can enjoy. He’s so passionate about cooking and teaching people about the culinary arts. And he loves what he does. He was just a perfect fit for us.
How would you describe your menu?
Mostly it’s farm-to-fork, keeping it as local as possible. We’re not going to change the menu every season per se, but more what’s in season in terms of our vegetables. The fish, we’ll always have a “catch of the day.” One of our servers said it was like “blue-collar gourmet.” It’s like fine-dining food, but in a more relaxed, casual setting. You’re getting the freshest. Everything is made from scratch, down to the ketchup and mustard. It’s pretty simple. It’s not intimidating food. We have soup, fish, chicken, burgers, and sandwiches. We have some unique dishes like an “Indichimi,” which is a mix between a chimichanga and Indian tandoori chicken. We have onion hay. It’s like onion rings, tiny little thin strips of onion that are fried.
Your restaurant has a very home-y look about it
We like to host events. Everyone comes to our house on the Fourth of July, on New Year’s. We’ve always been the hosting house. The tables we have are handmade tables that my husband made. He’s actually a general contractor by trade. We got raw cypress, and he built them; sanded them down, epoxied them. We wanted to put our handcrafted touch on everything, and put a lot of greenery, and natural feel with neutral tones.
Windy Oaks’ winemaker Jim Schultze has garnered accolades far and wide for his outstanding wines, especially his Pinot Noirs.
When I saw his 2014 Terra Narro Pinot Noir Santa Cruz Mountains on the wine list at Solaire Restaurant in Hotel Paradox, I ordered it to pair with our entrees—a delicious special dish of venison, and superbly prepared scallops by Chef Pete Martinez. Solaire is a beautiful place to dine, with excellent service, and Martinez takes pride in preparing innovative dishes using seasonal produce.
The estate Terra Narro is delightful, and with its robust flavors and balanced structure, it’s a sure-fire Pinot to enjoy. Winery owners Jim and Judy Schultze say “it’s a great everyday drinking wine” and describe it as “medium garnet, aromas of cherry candy, underbrush, incense and fir balsam; fuller-bodied, more mouth-coating and deeper-flavored than previous editions of this wine.” I remember first trying the 2007 Terra Narro in an Aptos restaurant many moons ago and being impressed. What’s not to love about a splendid handcrafted wine by Jim Schultze?
The 2014 Terra Narro is now available and sells for $29 at the winery, but more in restaurants, of course.
On Friday nights from 4-7 p.m. at the Windy Oaks tasting room in Carmel is a wine and cheese party with a charcuterie plate and specially paired cheeses from The Cheese Shop for $15 a person, which includes a tasting of four wines.
Windy Oaks Estate Vineyard & Winery, 550 Hazel Dell Road, Corralitos, 786-9463, and Su Vecino Court between Dolores and Lincoln streets in Carmel, 574-3135. windyoaksestate.com
Scotts Valley Farmers Market
Several treats awaited me at a recent visit to the Scotts Valley Farmers Market, held on Saturdays outside the Scotts Valley Community Center, a robust coffee from Hidden Fortress Coffee Roasting, a buckwheat blueberry scone (one of my favorites) from Companion Bakeshop, and a delicious sample of smoky cider from Rider Ranch, based in Los Gatos. Visit riderranchciderworks.com for more info. Hidden Fortress has just opened a coffee shop at 125 Hangar Way #270 in Watsonville. Visit hiddenfortressfarm.com for info.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): “Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what next or how,” said dancer Agnes De Mille. “We guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark.” As true as her words might be for most of us much of the time, I suspect they don’t apply to you right now. This is one of those rare moments when feeling total certainty is justified. Your vision is extra clear and farseeing. Your good humor and expansive spirit will ensure that you stay humble. As you take leap after leap, you’ll be surrounded by light.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): “We are torn between nostalgia for the familiar and an urge for the foreign and strange,” wrote author Carson McCullers. Are you ready to give that adage a twist, Taurus? In the coming weeks, I think you should search for foreign and strange qualities in your familiar world. Such a quest may initially feel odd, but will ultimately be healthy and interesting. It will also be good preparation for the next chapter of your life, when you will saunter out into unknown territory and find ways to feel at home there.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): “If you don’t use your own imagination, somebody else is going to use it for you,” said writer Ronald Sukenick. That’s always true, but it will be especially important for you to keep in mind in 2017. You Geminis will have an unparalleled power to enlarge, refine, and tap into your imagination. You’ll be blessed with the motivation and ingenuity to make it work for you in new ways, which could enable you to accomplish marvelous feats of creativity and self-transformation. Now here’s a warning: If you don’t use your willpower to take advantage of these potentials, your imagination will be subject to atrophy and colonization.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Why are Australian sand wasps so skilled at finding their way back home after being out all day? Here’s their trick: When they first leave the nest each morning, they fly backward, imprinting on their memory banks the sights they will look for when they return later. Furthermore, their exiting flight path is a slow and systematic zigzag pattern that orients them from multiple directions. I recommend that you draw inspiration from the sand wasps in 2017, Cancerian. One of your important tasks will be to keep finding your way back to your spiritual home, over and over again.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Vault 21, a restaurant in Dunedin, New Zealand, serves sautéed locusts. For $5, patrons receive a plate of five. The menu refers to the dish not as “Oily Sizzling Grasshoppers,” but rather as “Sky Prawns.” Satisfied customers know exactly what they’re eating, and some say the taste does indeed resemble prawns. I bring this to your attention, Leo, because it illustrates a talent you will have in abundance during 2017: re-branding. You’ll know how to maximize the attractiveness and desirability of things by presenting them in the best possible light.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): The literal translation of the German word kummerspeck is “grief bacon.” It refers to the weight gained by people who, while wallowing in self-pity, eat an excess of comfort food. I know more than a few Virgos who have been flirting with this development lately, although the trigger seems to be self-doubt as much as self-pity. In any case, here’s the good news: The trend is about to flip. A flow of agreeable adventures is due to begin soon. You’ll be prodded by fun challenges and provocative stimuli that will boost your confidence and discourage kummerspeck.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): “Since you are like no other being ever created since the beginning of time, you are incomparable,” wrote journalist Brenda Ueland. Pause for a moment and fully take in that fact, Libra. It’s breathtaking and daunting. What a huge responsibility it is to be absolutely unique. In fact, it’s so monumental that you may still be shy about living up to it. But how about if you make 2017 the year you finally come into your own as the awesomely unprecedented creature that you are? I dare you to more fully acknowledge and express your singular destiny. Start today!
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): “To dream . . . to dream has been the business of my life,” wrote author Edgar Allan Poe. I don’t expect you to match his devotion to dreams in 2017, Scorpio, but I do hope you will become more deeply engaged with your waking fantasies and the stories that unfold as you lie sleeping. Why? Because your usual approaches to gathering useful information won’t be sufficient. To be successful, both in the spiritual and worldly senses, you’ll need extra access to perspectives that come from beyond your rational mind. Here’s a good motto for you in 2017: “I am a lavish and practical dreamer.”
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Physicist Stephen Hawking is skeptical of the hypothesis that humans may someday be able to travel through time. To jokingly dramatize his belief, he threw a party for time travelers from the future. Sadly, not a single chrononaut showed up to enjoy the champagne and hors d’oeuvres Hawking had prepared. Despite this discouraging evidence, I guarantee that you will have the potential to meet with Future Versions of You on a regular basis during the next nine months. These encounters are likely to be metaphorical or dreamlike rather than literal, but they will provide valuable information as you make decisions that affect your destiny for years to come. The first of these heart-to-hearts should come very soon.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): During these last few weeks, you may have sometimes felt like smashing holes in the wall with your head, or dragging precious keepsakes into the middle of the street and setting them on fire, or delivering boxes full of garbage to people who don’t appreciate you as much as they should. I hope you abstained from doing things like that. Now here are some prescriptions to help you graduate from unproductive impulses: Make or find a symbol of one of your mental blocks, and bash it to pieces with a hammer; clean and polish precious keepsakes, and perform rituals to reinvigorate your love for them; take as many trips to the dump as necessary to remove the congestion, dross, and rot from your environment.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Singer-songwriter Tom Waits has a distinctive voice. One fan described it this way: “Like how you’d sound if you drank a quart of bourbon, smoked a pack of cigarettes and swallowed a pack of razor blades. Late at night. After not sleeping for three days.” Luckily, Waits doesn’t have to actually do any of those self-destructive things to achieve his unique tone. In fact, he’s wealthy from selling his music, and has three kids with a woman to whom he’s been married for 36 years. I foresee a similar potential for you in the coming weeks and months. You may be able to capitalize on your harmless weirdness . . . to earn rewards by expressing your charming eccentricities . . . to be both strange and popular.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Was punk rock born on June 4, 1976? A fledgling band known as the Sex Pistols played that night for a crowd of 40 people at a small venue in Manchester, England. Among the audience members was Morrissey, who got so inspired that he started his own band, the Smiths. Also in attendance was a rowdy guy who would soon launch the band Joy Division, despite the fact that he had never played an instrument. The men who would later form the Buzzcocks also saw the performance by Johnny Rotten and his crew. According to music critic David Nolan, these future pioneers came away from the June 4 show with the conclusion, “You don’t have to be a virtuoso or a musical genius to be in a band; anyone can do it.” I see parallels between this seminal event and your life in the coming weeks.
Homework: Talk about the pleasures you’d enjoy if you went a week without consuming any media. Write: tr**********@gm***.com.
This is our last week before winter solstice. Mercury retrogrades (Monday, Dec. 19) through Christmas and into 2017. That means four safe days for holiday shopping (before the 19). This is our last week of Advent, a spiritual, religious and astronomical cycle. When the Sun reaches the Tropic of Capricorn (solstice), winter begins (Dec. 21). We are in our darkest days of the year, before the new light.
We sense inner and outer preparations … for the change of seasons, for solstice, a holy child. Advent, ‘adventus,’“something’s about to happen, something’s arriving.” There is expectancy, a hushed time of waiting. The Hebrews await the Messiah, Christians the Second Coming, esotericists the Reappearance of Christ, Buddhists the Bodhisattva, Hindus the coming Avatar, and Islam the Imam Mahdi. All of Earth’s kingdoms await the new light. Always, darkness precedes the light.
Two thousand years ago a holy child was born into our world (at the intersection of East and West). He came in an age of great darkness (ignorance). His birth created a new law. And a new light shone in that dark world. Something beyond the Laws of the Old Testament (Ten Commandments). What was anchored in the Earth was the Light of Love. He said to us, “Love one another.” With every annual rebirth of the new light in the world at winter solstice, the veils between the visible and invisible worlds become more transparent. Wednesday, Dec. 21 at 2:44 a.m., West Coast time, Sun enters Capricorn. The new light dawns.
ARIES: Careful and conscious communication, especially with elders, wise ones, teachers, supervisors, colleagues, and those you work with, is most important. There could be misunderstandings and misgivings. Have the intention to “hold your mind steady in the light” of Right Relations so that all your thoughts radiate love, yet also authority. This allows for true leadership. At times you may need to be strict. Do it with compassion.
TAURUS: All of humanity is called to be a “thinker.” A thinker begins with curiosity, then gathers information. Usually we believe what other people tell us. We believe what they believe. In our world, ignorance is more acceptable than knowledgeable thinking. This must change for humanity. Taurus is called to have an illumined mind that illuminates the minds of others. Offering the light of knowledge. Throughout all your lifetimes, this is your purpose.
GEMINI: For deeper self-identification it would be good for you to study the lives of ancient philosophers. Many, as thinkers, philosophers and knowers, began schools and academies with lifetimes as great teachers. Geminis are teachers and writers. What are you studying at present? Learn also about investments, and preparing your assets should something unexpected occur (illness, death, economic loss). This is Gemini intelligence at work. Read Catherine Austin Fitts.
CANCER: Past loves and relationships (and perhaps monetary concerns) may show up in one or more ways, especially in your thinking and in your heart. You will revisit previous issues, especially misunderstandings and misinterpretations with those present in your life. With all communication, examine the intentions behind words, assess the meanings, and do not overreact or there will be sadness, illusion and separation. You may need to make several financial decisions soon.
LEO: Tend carefully to your health at this time; be sure to exercise (gently) as part of a daily routine. Allow yourself the thought that mistakes are made more easily now. Therefore, check and re-check all work, writing, thoughts and actions. With co-workers, realize criticism separates while cooperation unifies. You are a natural leader. Others look to you as a model of either good or bad (manners). Wear the color violet and rose.
VIRGO: Has something bothered you in the past months? Something about your relationship or lover or children or even your sense of creativity. Whatever it is will re-emerge in your daily life for healing. You will ponder upon the field of love. It is most important to be exacting and truthful. Truth occurs when we love enough. Love mobilizes us to do what we must. What is that “must” for you? Remember to “love more.”
LIBRA: It’s important to communicate more with family members. Or to at least consider this communication so that during the holy days your heart will be able and willing. Care in communication needs to be taken with family and all domestic matters, including real estate. You might consider transforming your home(s) so that they reflect more beauty. Accomplish all things, including communication, with non judgment and ahimsa (doing no harm). These will protect you in later lives.
SCORPIO: Often you feel the ancient fires (ancient battles) coursing through your body, allowing regeneration to take place. You hide yourself away sometimes. You know many would not understand. So often you live in the shadow of a thought—a form of protection. It takes a long time for you to trust. However, during this time you will need to contact and connect with others. If you remember that “contact releases Love,” you will be released (and protected).
SAGITTARIUS: Previous financial issues may appear. Don’t feel threatened. You will not drown in financial perplexity. Instead, think re-budgeting instead of continuing to purchase. The only real use of money at this time is for educating others and for tithing to those in need. And for beauty. Think on all the charities that you believe in. For gifts this year, tithe to those charities, in other people’s names. This provides you with real wealth.
CAPRICORN: It’s best to remain balanced between the garden and being out in the world. Sometimes hiding behind a large tree in the courtyard while a party is going on. In the past you have been misunderstood, through no fault of your own. Sometimes people think you are different or emotionally distant. You really aren’t. You’re a spiritual onlooker, a silent watcher and listener. This is a grace-filled place to be. A place of beauty. A mentor for others.
AQUARIUS: A completely New World view begins to emerge in your understanding of life and the world. Your knowledge is being expanded which nurtures future plans. There has been uncertainty the past several years. However, this has strengthened you, allowed courage to come forth. Intuition becomes your guide and will remain with you at all times. This is a golden realm, a golden thread. You are protected.
PISCES: Ideas, goals, hopes and visions, groups and friends from the past may show up either in person, in classes, in dreams, letters, emails, or phone calls. It’s therefore important to review your hopes and wishes for the future. They may no longer exist. So many dreams, beliefs, visions and hopes have come and gone. However, a new light dawns, along with a new sense of detachment. This eases you. For now, tend carefully to all phases of health. Drink golden milk each night.
While working on this week’s cover story, I was getting a bit nostalgic about days of Pacific Avenue past, and how great the street performance scene used to be. Of all people, it was Tom Noddy, one of Santa Cruz’s biggest street-performer success stories, who gave me a reality check. “Remember the guy who used to hang out in front of the pawn shop with a ventriloquist dummy and call out to passersby?” he asked me. “Remember the older Mexican man with the squeaky violin? Some people loved those guys—me among them—but no one would argue that they were acts that you sell tickets to.”
OK, I do remember those guys, and yeah, they were terrible. So maybe the Golden Age of the Pacific Avenue scene wasn’t always as golden as we romanticize it to have been. Ah, but the Great Morgani—to me, he was always the class of the avenue. He came along much later than Noddy and other legendary downtown acts, but actually, I’m glad, because in those post-earthquake years, Santa Cruz’s main street suddenly needed all the cultural help it could get. The Great Morgani carried the flag—a brightly colored spandex flag, sure, but still … he made Pacific Avenue feel like Pacific Avenue at a time when downtown was desperately searching for its identity. Talking about his 20-year career with me, he was as funny and down-to-Earth as always. I hope you enjoy our look back at his two decades of street performance.
Chris Potter at NASA completely misses the ball when he argues the so-called causes of Santa Cruz Mountain “wildfires,” which is a misnomer for what are really “man-caused disasters.” (“Burn Notice,” GT, 11/2)
Let’s look at the facts: The three main fires focused on in the article were all caused by human error, not by lightning strikes, the true and real cause of wildfires.
The Summit fire was started by a burn pile not fully extinguished when winds came up and re-kindled it. Horrific, irresponsible behavior.
The recent fire in Big Sur was started by an illegal campfire created by humans, or sub-humans. Deplorable.
The most recent Loma fire was caused, once again, by a spark from a motor at a legal or illegal pot-growing operation. Dumb, dumb, dumb! I learned this early by contacting an employee at the Summit Store on day two. The locals know the scoop!
These are certainly not “acts of God” and have nothing to do with warm air, climate change, sunspots, etc.Let’s keep it real and not let a government bureaucrat mislead us in an effort to create a boogeyman. The sky is not falling, sir. We’re all smarter than that out here.
Tom Legan | Corralitos
Rent Control Now
A specter is haunting Santa Cruz—the specter of rent control. All the powers of gentrified Santa Cruz have entered into an unholy alliance to exorcise this specter: City Council and Chamber of Commerce, Rittenhouse and Canfield, Take Back Santa Cruz and the California Apartment Association.
Rent control and tenant protection ballot measures were passed or strengthened Nov. 8 in these nearby communities: Humboldt County, mobile home park rent control; Berkeley, stronger tenant protections; Richmond, rent control and limits reasons tenants can be evicted; East Palo Alto, limits rent increases to 10 percent a year and limits reasons tenants can be evicted; Mountain View, rent control and allows landlords to increase rent each year by at least 2 percent but not more than 5 percent, depending on the inflation rate.
Even as severely weakened by the California Costa-Hawkins Act, which exempts housing constructed after 1995 and enacts vacancy decontrol, rent control would affect a significant number of Santa Cruz city renters. And Costa-Hawkins may yet be overturned.
So let’s get going. Rent Control for Santa Cruz, now!
The County serves us all, and we pay for it dearly with our property taxes, and state taxes. They work for us, period. This is not our fault, and yet we ultimately pay for this. Why not revoke the pensions of those directly involved with this, and fire them, and fine all of the administrative management, including the Board of Supervisors. They have zero ability to supervise anyone. The Sheriff, or any other important official, only receives praises, and no disciplinary actions are ever taken, and this is what we get? Expensive lawsuits, tragedies and false promises? — Bill Smallman
PHOTO CONTEST WINNER
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GOOD IDEA
REUSE FACILITY
Santa Cruz County officials hosted a well-attended community workshop on the defunct Davenport Cement Plant last month as they plan for the reuse of the site. The county hired a firm to handle a study into the location in June, and leaders plan to update the county’s homepage soon to let people submit comments, view background information and find out about future meeting dates.
GOOD WORK
STORY SHARK
Leaders of the local electric skateboard company Inboard made its appearance on “Shark Tank†last week, as covered in last week’s issue (“All Aboard,†briefs). On the episode, which aired Friday, Dec. 2, the team agreed to take a $750,000 loan at 9 percent, with a 4-percent equity stake in the company for shark panelists Kevin O’Leary and Lori Greiner. Good deal!
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“I have known heaven, and now I am in hell, and there are mimes.â€
Santa Cruz’s newest state historic park is finally open for business, and starting this season visitors are invited to partake in their “Festivos en el Rancho.” The Castro Adobe is one of the finest examples of a rancho hacienda in the Monterey Bay area and a historically important example of Northern California’s Rancho period. Visitors will be able to tour the property, see the newly restored cocina and Potter-Church garden, as well as dig into handmade tortillas cooked on the reconstructed brasero (stove).
When the going gets tough, the tough get together. Celebrate the beginning of the winter holidays with the Diversity Center’s annual holiday party. Bring nutritious canned or boxed food donations for the Santa Cruz Aids Project holiday drive. Raffle tickets will be offered for chances to win a sail on the Monterey Bay for four, trips to the spa, craniosacral massages, yoga, dinner and a show at Kuumbwa and so much more. Celebrate the end of one year with friends in the local community.
Remember “think global, act local?” Well here’s a way you can combine that with the best in holiday shopping sprees—shop local for your Christmas gifts! This year Think Local First of Santa Cruz has expanded its annual Shop Local Week to extend to the entire month of December. Make your dollar count where your friends, family and neighbors reside. It’s all about the Think Local First principle—which TLF has put to the test with a month-long “Great Money Race.” Five checks of $100 from five local financial institutions were given to five members of the locally-owned business community who were then asked to spend the check at another local business, and so on. At the end of the month, the five $100 checks generated $8,711.48 in local business.
“Scales and Tails,” an open house, art show, and silent auction to benefit the Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter
This Saturday, Dec. 10, the Santa Cruz Veterinary Service and Santa Cruz Koi join forces to host “Scales and Tails,” an open house, art show, and silent auction to benefit the Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter. Janey Appleseed, Jeri Mearns Photography, Kaleidescapes Art Works, and Connie Williams Art will have their art exhibited and tours of the one-of-a-kind aquatic veterinary facility will be offered. There’ll be a silent auction with gifts for pets and local products in addition to the book launch for Dr. Jessie Sanders’ book Boo and Bubbles, the tale of a friendship between a cat and a fish.
Info: 5-9 p.m. 4061 Soquel Drive, Soquel. Free.
Sunday 12/11
Mary/Maryam Play
Mary/Maryam Play
Who was Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ in the Christian Bible and who was Maryam, the mother of Isa, in the Qur’an? That’s the question that writer and director Victoria Rue, who teaches Comparative Religious Studies at San Jose State University, wants to flesh out in Mary/Maryam. “In these difficult times, it is so important to build bridges of understanding among people and religions. The story of Mary/Maryam is that bridge between Christianity and Islam,” says Rue. This dinner-and-a-show event is a benefit for the Islamic Center of Santa Cruz and Peace United Church programs, and hosts a cast of all different faiths including Muslim, Christian, Hindu and Sufi.
Info: 4-8 p.m. Peace United Church, 900 High St., Santa Cruz. peaceunited.org/mary. $8-$10.
“Bucketman in San Francisco. He plays 10 or 12 buckets and pans simultaneously for 15 hours. He’s a solid percussionist.”
Chaos 938
Santa Cruz
Teacher
“The Great Morgani. He always has the greatest costumes, and he’s a great Santa Cruz entertainer.”
Carolyn Getschow
Santa Cruz
Americorps Program Manager
“The xylophone [players] are undoubtedly the best. They’re so enthusiastic, they play homemade instruments, and there’s like 15 of them of all sizes and all ages. ”
Virginia Scott
Santa Cruz
Retired
“Miming in France. I had never seen it before and it was pretty cool. People laughing in the outdoor cafes.”
Pedro Smith
Santa Cruz
Window Cleaner
“In Boulder, Colorado there was this man that would ride a unicycle and throw fire and he would catch it in his mouth. It was pretty cool.”
Quitapenas is an infectious afro-cuban dance band from the Inland Empire, thus adding further proof to my theory that all of the best music coming out of Southern California right now is from the Latino-American communities. Afro-cuban is an exciting genre that, as the title suggests, mixes Latin and African rhythms. But if you hear the term “afro-Cuban” and immediately feel like you’re reading a boring textbook, you are precisely the person that needs to shell out the modest door price and feel the band’s vibes in person. This is make-you-forget-all-your-cares music. The guys have such an interesting tropical-meets-lounge-meets-funk take on the music. AARON CARNES
Remember “Far From Any Road,” the haunting song from season one of True Detective? That was the Handsome Family. A husband-and-wife Americana duo comprising Brett and Rennie Sparks, the Handsome Family does not sing about the good old days in the country or romanticize life on the land—they create dark, textured stories from the underside of the American West. At times shadowy and beautiful, and at other times terrifying, the music has an unsettling depth that makes the duo one of the most remarkable American roots acts around. CAT JOHNSON
Keron Salmon’s eclectic mix of hip-hop and reggae garnered internet fame in the early days of Myspace Music. The Kingston native drew inspiration from African roots for his stage name—Kabaka is Ugandan for king, and the long-lasting survival of the Pyramids of ancient Africa represent his “desire for longevity in music and his deep connection to Kemetic roots.” Kabaka Pyramid has made it his goal to leave spiritual messages for generations to come. Opening the set are Raging Fyah, a five-piece regarded as one of Jamaica’s most promising young acts for their nuanced harmonies and expressive roots rock reggae. KATIE SMALL
In 1970, Dave Mason released the album Alone Together, with the hit song “Only You Know and I Know.” The solo debut from the Traffic guitarist, who would later be inducted into the Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame, the album is packed with star power, including Bonnie Bramlett, Leon Russell and Rita Coolidge, and has since become a staple of classic rock music collections. Mason is currently revisiting the masterpiece on his Alone Together Again Tour, along with his band, comprising Johnne Sambataro, Alvino Bennett, Tony Patler, and Bekka Bramlett—daughter of Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett, who toured with Mason in the 1970s and had a No. 2 hit on their own with Mason’s “Only You Know and I Know.” On Thursday, Mason and company hit the Rio. CJ
INFO: 7:30 p.m. Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. $55/gen, $125/gold. 423-8209.
FRIDAY 12/9
AMERICANA
PATTERSON HOOD
Former Drive-By Trucker Jason Isbell may be getting “the future of country music” write-ups in the press, but Patterson Hood—co-founder, and member of Drive-By Truckers—is a country-rock-Americana artist you don’t want to miss. He has a handful of solo albums, which aren’t far from the worn-torn roots sound that’s made Drive-By Truckers a favorite for folks seeking intelligent and vulnerable country-inspired music. Hood’s solo material taps into the bleakness, loneliness and regret of the music in a much more haunting way than when he’s surrounded by his longtime bandmates. AC
Two years ago, local folk ensemble Mylo Jenkins wrote the tearful ballad “California Funeral Song.” (“You died so sad and slow”). It may have been written a couple of years back, but hearing it, you can’t help but immediately be transported to the general despair of 2016’s election results. California may have overwhelmingly rejected Trump, but we are tied to the rest of the country in this epic intellectual and moral funeral. “California Funeral Song” is a sad, cathartic acoustic tune—the likes of which Mylo Jenkins delivers on the daily. It’ll hopefully heal your wounds enough to get you out of the house and back in action, to fight what’s most definitely wrong with our country over the coming years. AC
Austin-natives Kelsey Wilson and Alexander Beggins met during a mutual backup band stint for a Danish artist’s U.S. tour. With Wilson on violin and Beggins on ukulele, the pair share lead vocal and songwriting responsibilities, and are backed by a formidable five-piece band. Wild Child’s sound is difficult to pin down, landing somewhere between pop and indie rock, with distinct Romanian folk influences. The bright and cheery instrumentation contrasts with more serious lyrical material. As Wilson puts it, “The instruments may belong in a granola commercial, but what we’re saying is often dark and angry and bitter.” The group recorded their third album earlier this year in Dr. Dog’s “Mt. Slippery” studio in Pennsylvania. KS
Jim Kweskin and Geoff Muldaur led their own musical revolution in the 1960s with the Jim Kweskin Jug Band, which reinvented early 20th century roots music for a new generation. They weren’t playing country music, they were playing boondocks music—the songs from way out in the sticks. And they inspired a whole lot of bands, including the Grateful Dead. The Jug Band also happens to be where Geoff Muldaur met Maria Muldaur (then known as Maria D’Amato) when she joined the band in 1963. Hmm, wonder if that went anywhere? In any case, Kweskin and Geoff Muldaur joined up again in 2006 for more Jug Band albums, recreating the chemistry that is partly responsible for the Americana movement as we know it. STEVE PALOPOLI
INFO: Kuumbwa Jazz, 320-2 Cedar St., Santa Cruz. $25/adv, $32/gold circle. 479-9421.
MONDAY 12/12
JAZZ
ROBERT GLASPER EXPERIMENT
The Robert Glasper Experiment gained fame and crossover success with 2012’s Black Radio, which won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Album and 2013’s Black Radio II, Blue Note releases that found the ensemble keeping company with a succession of soul stars such as Lalah Hathaway, Erykah Badu, Meshell Ndegeocello, and Ledisi. After serving as music director on Don Cheadle’s Miles Davis biopic Miles Ahead, Glasper decided the time was ripe to unleash the Experiment. Featuring Casey Benjamin on alto and soprano saxophone and vocoder, bassist Burniss Travis II, guitarist Mike Severson, and drummer Mark Colenburg (who’s propelled recent albums by Amos Lee, Maxwell, and A Tribe Called Quest), the band delivers a sleek mélange of grooves inflected by hip-hop, funk and Herbie Hancock-inspired 1970s jazz fusion. They even supply their own vocals on several pieces, to mostly good effect. ANDREW GILBERT
INFO: 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Kuumbwa Jazz, 320-2 Cedar St., Santa Cruz. $35/adv, $40/door. 427-2227.
TUESDAY 12/13
ROCK
GARY HOEY
Guitarist Gary Hoey’s music spans the spectrum, from surf and prog to rock and the blues. A long-running favorite of fellow guitarists and fans alike, Hoey has been holding down instrumental rock guitar duties for more than 20 years and 20 albums—including several holiday albums that see the Boston-born rocker producing driving, shredding versions of classics tunes such as “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” A family-friendly entertainer who always makes time for his fans, Hoey has a reputation for rocking hard and celebrating the season in style. On Tuesday he brings his Ho Ho Hoey Rockin’ Holiday Tour to Moe’s. CJ
When I was editor of Metro Santa Cruz back in the early 2000s, our annual “Best of Santa Cruz County” awards were called the Goldies. And every year, as sort of a tongue-in-cheek take on the name—and on the awards themselves, really—we’d photograph Santa Cruz’s favorite street performer, the Great Morgani, in a costume he called “The Oscordionist.” It wasn’t even close to the most outrageous of the head-to-toe lycra outfits locals and tourists have seen him in on Pacific Avenue and at events around the county for two decades, but it made him look like a giant gold Academy Award statuette—and posed in front of various Santa Cruz landmarks on the cover of the awards issue, he embodied exactly the quirky-yet-captivating vibe we were going for.
One year, while heading to the Goldies photo shoot with him, I got a chance to see something that few outside of his closest friends have seen: the inside of his house. And let me say that it was everything locals would expect it to be, times a hundred: costumes of every color hung in various spots around the living room, and there were multi-colored accordions on the couch. Underneath the tools of his artistic trade, however, the décor was shockingly normal.
EYE SPIED Morgani’s ‘Eyes Watching You’ ensemble at the 2016 Capitola Art and Wine Festival.
Now, as Frank Lima celebrates 20 years of performing in Santa Cruz as the Great Morgani, he tells me that he still lives in that house, as he has for the last 43 years. And the 74-year-old Lima says the décor is still as bland as he can possibly get it.
“My whole place is beige,” he says. “I don’t like color. I love color in costumes, but I cannot live in that. So the beige is my Zen.”
His 800 square-feet now houses 150 costumes (the most elaborate take him around 100 hours to make) and 39 accordions. But I must have seen it during a particularly busy performance stretch, because generally he needs everything put away out of sight or he’ll pretty much go crazy, as he was reminded after doing the Cotati Accordion Festival, Palo Alto Fine Arts Festival and Capitola Art and Wine Festival in the space of just a couple of weeks this summer.
“Oh my god, I didn’t put anything away for three weeks,” says Lima. “There were bodysuits and accordions and wings—it looked like a clown threw up in my place. So then I spent two weeks putting everything away to get back to my Zen. I just really need that in my life. I’m very good at hiding stuff. In fact, I lost a pink accordion for a year. How do you lose a shocking pink accordion?”
Hitting the Street
When Lima started all this Great Morgani business 20 years ago, he didn’t have a shocking pink accordion to lose. He didn’t even have a costume. His was just the typical story of a successful stockbroker who gets fed up after 18 years and sells his share of the business, retires at the ripe old age of 35, does nothing for another 18 years, loses his motivation to get out of bed, and finally re-invents himself as the most famous post-earthquake street performer on Pacific Avenue. Textbook!
That’s not even the craziest part, though. Though he’d been playing accordion since the age of 9 (saved from a life of rock ’n’ roll by an honest-to-god door-to-door accordion salesman, who showed up at his parents’ house and talked them out of starting him on guitar—four years before Elvis broke), Lima had never aspired to live the artistic life; he just happened to pick up a book on street performance and decided to try it. But clearly there had been something in the back of his head pushing him toward Great Morgani-ness, even two decades earlier, in his life of finance, as evidenced by the jokes he’d make to his business partner about quitting.
ONE MAN, ONE ACCORDIAN, TWO DECADES APART Left: The Great Morgani’s first day performing on Pacific Avenue—Nov. 25, 1996. Right: Frank Lima recreating the photo in the same outfit on Nov. 25, 2016. ‘I didn’t know tweedy wool pants would have shrunk so much in 20 years,’ he says.
“I’d say ‘I am getting out of this business. I’m going to go to the Azores and raise goats, or I’m going to go out on the Avenue with my accordion and play music.’ Just kidding, just a very flip remark! So I went to the Azores to visit some relatives, and they had goats. Man, those things smell. That’s off the list. Never thinking I would end up on the Avenue.”
He did, though, taking his name from the “J Morgan” emblazoned in rhinestones on his 1933 Guerrini accordion, which was actually the name of its original owner. Lima went with it, adding an “i” to the last name to make it sound more Italian (although he’s actually Portuguese), and creating the first name “Julio,” which he later dropped.
And how he got the other part of his stage name? It is, of course, a “great” story: the late Peter Ciccarelli, who hired him to play at the Gilroy Garlic Festival, saw a photo of Lima on the front page of the Gilroy Dispatch serenading the festival queens, and credited as simply “Morgani.”
“Peter called me the next day and said ‘If you ever go by the name of Morgani again, I will deduct 1 percent of your pay. I can get a Morgani on any street corner! I’m paying for a Great Morgani!’” Lima remembers, laughing. “I changed up my business cards and became the Great Morgani. Which sounds a bit egotistical. I’d rather just be Morgani, and that’s what people generally call me: ‘Hey, Morgani!’”
Just as boredom had driven him to the streets in the first place, so did it push him to cover himself up in full-on bodysuits and craft wilder and wilder costumes, complete with fiber optics, 10-pound shoes, dozens of plastic egg shells sewn on the fabric, clocks, full-body black-and-white stripes, giant cones and a whole lot more. Who-knows-how-many thousands of locals and tourists have caught him performing on the street over the years, and he’s upped his design game at events like First Night Santa Cruz, Seventh Sense, and FashionArt.
Lima came along after what locals generally think of as the Golden Age of street performing in Santa Cruz; famous acts like the Flying Karamazov Brothers and Artis the Spoonman that are the cornerstone of Pacific Avenue lore had long since left. However, Tom Noddy—who performed on Pacific Avenue from 1977 to 1983, before being invited on The Tonight Show and finding international fame with his “Bubble Magic” act—thinks that “Golden Age” was actually much longer than most locals remember. Noddy was instrumental in forming the Santa Cruz Street Performers Guild, and has seen the local tradition wax and wane through several eras. “In the 1980s and ’90s, we had some truly amazing acts coming through town because of the reputation that had grown up around the Karamazovs and their rise in show business,” says Noddy. “Of course we also had Tom Scribner as a fixture downtown, and an ever-changing group of musicians who called themselves the Ethnophonic Orchestra. They played Mexican or Balkan music, classical pieces or odd Hungarian music with the strangest time signatures … and they were regulars! You might step outside of the Woolworths and be transported to one of these remarkable places.”
However, he thinks Morgani’s imagination, humor and musicianship have made him a headliner of the Pacific Avenue “show.”
“Frank is a charmer,” says Noddy. “He loves what he does. That’s what’s kept him and the others around.”
Symbol with a Squeezebox
Lima doesn’t like being called a local “icon,” even though he is. (He’s not too crazy about the times he’s been called an “oddball” in the local press, either.) He sees himself as just another “colorful Santa Cruz character.” But he admits his view of his status in Santa Cruz did change in February of 2014, after he was threatened with a ticket under the ordinances governing street performance downtown. He had permission from the Verizon store he was playing in front of to be there, but was still told he’d have to pay the $300 fine.
“I could have gone in a really nasty direction. And I had some people who were advising me to go in front of the city council and raise holy hell,” says Lima. “And I said ‘no, I won’t do that.’”
THE MASKED MAN GOES WEST The Great Morgani as ‘The Coetaughty Kid’—a western theme at this year’s Cotati Accordion Festival.
Instead, he posted on Facebook that he would be retiring from street performance—and Santa Cruz basically lost its collective mind. He was flooded with interview requests, and the idea that the already-controversial ordinances would drive away a performer like the Great Morgani turned a lot of the public against them for good.
“Since the 2014 thing, maybe I do realize now that I have an image, but I think I’ve always had this image,” he says. “I want to be respectful. I’ve always had a good relationship with the businesspeople, and the cops, and the downtown hosts.”
Lima’s longtime friend Woody Carroll, who once produced a video about him for Comcast, isn’t afraid to use the i-word when describing him, and thinks many people are fooled by the theatrics into overlooking his genuine talent.
“There are a number of reasons the Great Morgani is still going strong after 20 years, and has become an icon in Santa Cruz,” says Carroll. “Yes, the dayglo spandex and outlandish costumes first get your attention, but if you pause to actually listen, you’ll hear that Frank Lima is actually a very talented musician. That’s a good thing as far as longevity goes. If you’re a bad accordion player, you’ll get run out of town pretty fast.”
Lima disappeared for nine months after the 2014 incident, but after Louis Rittenhouse offered to let him perform in front of the Rittenhouse Building, he returned. (The Rittenhouse alcove facing Pacific is private property and thus not covered by downtown ordinances.) To this day, people are still coming up and saying ‘welcome back” and he responds with typical Morgani humor: “I say, ‘Yeah, I had to buy the building. I’m going to open a store here selling accordion-shaped pot holders.’”
Since he dreams of eventually kicking it while playing a Puccini opera, then immediately being spray-painted bronze and hoisted onto a Tom-Scribner-like pedestal, it’s unlikely Lima will retire from his retirement anytime soon. Until then, he’ll chuckle at the great irony of it all.
“I used to wear three-piece suits, and I was always on Pacific Avenue a lot delivering securities. I’d see the [street performers] at the Cooper House—Ginger the Rainbow Lady, the guy that tap-danced. My thinking at the time was just terrible: ‘Why don’t these people get a job? God, look at these freaks!’ Never thinking I would be the ultimate freak many years later. So you better watch out what you say.”
Frank Lima’s book ‘The Great Morgani: The Creative Madness of a Middle-Aged Stockbroker Turned Street Musician’ is available at Bookshop Santa Cruz.
