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New Brain Therapy Treats Depression

Local News

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May 24, 2016

For as long as he can remember, Steve Chappell felt isolated from the world. Even among friends there seemed some chasm separating him from meaningful human connection. The despair manifested in his body, pulsing into excruciating headaches that made it feel like his eyes would pop out. From the time he was a child, he struggled to get out of bed.
“It’s almost like I needed a training manual to be myself,” he says, “but I didn’t have one.”
Depression may have run in his family, but Chappell—an only child raised by a single, widowed mother—lacked a frame of reference. It took years of hospital visits before a doctor diagnosed him with a major depressive disorder, giving him a name for what ailed him.
But it also marked the beginning of a three-decade struggle to treat the disorder, which sucked the joy out of life, and, at times, sent him to the brink of suicide. Medications—Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft, to name a few of the 13 he has tried—made him nauseous, sometimes violently ill.
“The psychotropic drug thing did not work for me,” says Chappell, a Silicon Valley data scientist who runs his own company. “I can tell you, it had the benefit of ruining two marriages.”
Last year, he hit bottom.
To save his third marriage, Chappell considered more extreme measures, namely shock therapy or a brain implant, before turning to a novel, apparently safer alternative: a magnetic helmet.
According to Dr. Saad Shakir, the San Jose-based neuropsychiatrist who treated Chappell, electromagnetic therapy is the best available treatment with the fewest side effects.
Called deep transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), the technology involves placing a cushioned helmet over a patient’s head while a machine delivers electromagnetic pulses to affected parts of the brain.
In 2007, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the treatment for patients resistant to depression medications and talk therapy. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, some 15 million Americans suffer from a major depressive disorder, but more than one-third fail to respond to antidepressants. A tenth—Chappell among them—have a genetic immunity or can’t stomach the drugs because of the side effects.
Three years ago, the FDA signed off on a new variation of the magnetic pulse treatment developed by Israeli company Brainsway. Called deep TMS, the machine generates a powerful magnetic field that travels a few centimeters through the scalp and skull and into the prefrontal cortex. The magnetic field changes the electrical activity of neurons, temporarily altering the way brain cells communicate. Unlike electroshock therapy, in which patients get zapped by seizure-triggering electrodes affixed directly on the scalp, TMS targets specific regions of the brain.
Brain neurons respond to stimulation in a perpetual balancing act between excitement and inhibition. Too much inhibition can lead to depression. Too much excitement can induce autism and seizures.
TMS treatment has shown some promise for neuropsychiatric conditions that seem to involve dysfunctioning brain circuits, including epilepsy, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and, though the evidence is still thin, schizophrenia. It has also been used to treat people with autism, attention-deficit disorders, tremors, addiction, bipolar disorder, chronic pain and stroke.
“At first it was a little jarring,” Chappell says from a couch in Shakir’s sunlit office. “It feels mildly like a very small electrocution. Your face locks or twitches, some people get teary eyed.”
“Some patients describe it like a miniature jackhammer,” Shakir chimes in. “Or a woodpecker.”
The breakthrough for Chappell came this spring, halfway through the second week of treatment. For the first time in three decades, he says, his head cleared. About a month in, he felt calm, upbeat.
“The fog had lifted,” he says. “Things felt much sharper. I was smiling and laughing, which had been so hard for me. That became almost every day as the treatment progressed.”
For Chappell, TMS dispelled the need for antidepressants. Still, he keeps a dose of “rescue medication” just in case and undergoes cognitive behavioral therapy to address negative thoughts.
“It’s not a cure-all,” Shakir says of TMS. “But it’s transformational for the right patients.”
Though American doctors have spent decades testing magnetic therapies for various mood disorders, it wasn’t until federal approval in the new millennium that Shakir took up the cause. Once the FDA gave it the green light, he signed on as a provider and founded Silicon Valley TMS, one of 600 such centers nationwide and one of 11 in Northern California.
Still, questions persist about how many patients could benefit from TMS, which requires daily office visits for six weeks and maintenance sessions beyond that. Because it’s so new, there’s also a dearth of research on the long-term effects.
No one has figured out how to account for the placebo effect, in which patients feel better because they believe in the treatment. That would require building a fake TMS machine, and the electric charge that induces muscle twitching has proved a challenge to replicate.
Cost has been another barrier, with TMS running from $10,000 to $12,000 for a series of sessions and often not covered by insurance. Until recently, Shakir says, patients paid out-of-pocket at his for-profit clinic.
In the past few years, Kaiser, UnitedHealth, and Blue Cross have come on board. A few months ago, Cygna agreed to cover TMS. The American Psychiatric Association advises TMS for people who have tried one to four medications with little to no effect. But there’s no set standard for determining how a patient qualifies for the treatment.
“We’re trying to change that by raising the profile,” says Jon Miller, a retired Air Force veteran and TMS patient. As a pilot, Miller says, he lived in the shadows with his illness, which took a toll on his body and personal relationships.
Miller, who has been getting treatment from Shakir, sees TMS as an alternative to the “‘Band-Aid” approach of prescription pills for mentally ill vets.
Chappell says having the option of a non-pharmaceutical treatment gives him hope: “For each of us who have suffered for as long as we have, there is always a time where you go, ‘Enough, I shouldn’t be here any longer.’ That’s life threatening. You have to give people hope that they can get better.”

Inside the Documentaries at the Santa Cruz Film Festival

Steve Palopoli

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May 24, 2016

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Inside the Documentaries at the Santa Cruz Film Festival

“Niche filmmaking” is a term that’s been somewhat tainted by its overuse on the business side of the movie industry. Young filmmakers are now urged to not only find their niche, but even their “super-niche,” when considering how to market their talent—and find their talent a market.
Artistically, most of the best documentaries—perhaps all of them—can be considered niche filmmaking. These films take people, places and things that may be little-known or even completely unknown in mainstream culture, and make a case for why an audience should spend 90 minutes or so getting to know and hopefully understand them.
But first, the filmmakers themselves have to spend far more time—weeks, months, even years—doing the same thing. And in that time, the filmmaking process can get awfully complicated. As documentarian and subject bond, and sometimes become friends, the fact that in the end the filmmaker will be putting the subject’s story up on the big screen for the world to see can become significantly more nerve-wracking. Sure, the fact that they are telling the story in the first place might bank them some goodwill, but ultimately there is a very real possibility that a documentary subject may see his or her story very differently.
This year’s Santa Cruz Film Festival offers the chance to look at that dynamic on a number of different levels.
“I think the films this year deal with that—doing justice to your subject in bringing it to the world,” says Logan Walker, the festival’s head of programming.
It’s a particularly good year to examine this deeper question of documentary ethics and aesthetics, since many of the documentaries at this year’s SCFF are themselves about visual art and artists who create representations and reflections of culture, including James Scott’s Love Bite: Laurie Lipton and Her Disturbing Black and White Drawings, Betsy Andersen’s Eduardo Carrillo: A Life of Engagement and Tadashi Nakamura’s Mele Murals. Other films focus on sonic art, like Michael Coleman and Emmanuel Moran’s The Art of Listening, and Patrick Shen’s In Pursuit of Silence.
“This year we got a lot of amazing films that are about art and about sound,” says Walker.
Other films at the festival deal with subcultures that may be particularly wary of how they’ll be represented on film, like Pedro Delbrey’s Santa Cruz-set Pussywillow Dirtbags, Kami Chisholm’s Pride Denied and Kurt Vincent’s The Lost Arcade.
I talked with the filmmakers behind five of these films to get a better understanding of how they dealt with the unique challenges that came with their chosen subjects.

‘LOVE BITE’

James Scott spends most of his working life editing other people’s documentary films, and the ethics of how to fairly represent a film’s subject isn’t just a question, it’s the question.
“That’s what we think about every day, all day,” says Scott. “It’s such an ethical and moral responsibility to tell someone’s truest story.”

margaretmead — **IT’S ME, MARGARET** The life of Margaret Mead, shown here on a 1957 trip to Bali, is viewed from the perspective of her daughter in ‘The Anthropologist.’

But when it came to his directorial debut Love Bite: Laurie Lipton and Her Disturbing Black and White Drawings, the question got more personal than he could have foreseen. Scott, a native Canadian who now lives in England, came across a book about Lipton’s work in a head shop in Winnipeg. The first drawing that appears in the film is the one that first magnetized him.
“I was gobsmacked,” he says. “I don’t get moved emotionally or politically by many other artists. But there’s something about what she’s doing that crosses all races, creeds and religions. To me, that’s something only the Old Masters were able to do.”
As he dug deeper into Lipton’s somewhat mysterious 50-year history of making art, he was shocked to find almost no information about her online, and over time the process of making the film became a personal crusade.
“I felt like it was an injustice that Damien Hirst is selling his polka dots for a million dollars, and here’s Laurie locked away in her room,” he says.
Ultimately, he spent four and a half years getting to know Lipton and documenting her story.
“In that time, Laurie and I built up quite a friendship,” he says. “That changes quite a lot, in terms of how much she was willing to tell me.”
That’s especially evident in the last scene of the film, which contains a rather shocking reveal from the artist. It was also the very last footage he shot for the film. “It took four and a half years for her to trust me enough to tell me that,” Scott says.
And it only added to Scott’s anxiety over what Lipton would think of how he represented her art and her very personal story. “It was a huge amount of pressure,” he says.
However, when Lipton saw the final version at a South By Southwest screening, Scott was able to breathe easy. “She’s happy,” he says, “and that makes me happy.”

‘PUSSYWILLOW DIRTBAGS’

There’s getting involved with your documentary subject, and then there’s getting involved with your documentary subject. Pedro Delbrey most definitely did the latter when he played for two seasons with the group of Santa Cruz baseballers whose stories he would go on to document in Pussywillow Dirtbags. The thing is, he didn’t actually know he’d end up making a movie about them.
“I didn’t start out with the intention of making a film,” says Delbrey.
At the time, he was finishing film school at UCSC, and looking for a project. The baseball games every Tuesday at Harvey West Park were just a way to blow off steam. In fact, when he first decided to make a film about them, even the guys he was playing with expressed disbelief. We understand why you’d want to make a baseball movie, they told him, but why us?
The reason, says Delbrey, is that he saw a universal appeal in their love of the game.
“The subject of baseball, the subject of nostalgia, reconnecting with childhood dreams, I think a lot of people can connect with that,” he says.
However, his closeness to his subjects did make the special screening he did for them at the Rio Theatre—before he showed it to other audiences—more harrowing.
“You get really close to these people, and they let you into their lives. Then you weave the story as you see it, and that may not be a valid representation in their eyes,” he says.
In the end, “I got their blessing, which made me feel a lot better,” says Delbrey. “But that said, I don’t think [the subject’s approval] is necessarily a prerequisite.”

‘THE LOST ARCADE’

Neither Kurt Vincent, director of The Lost Arcade, nor Irene Chin, the film’s producer, consider themselves gamers. But when they started making a documentary about Chinatown Fair, the last video game arcade in New York City, they got so into the minutiae of gaming subculture that it started to reshape the film itself—and not in a good way.
“We realized we were making a movie that would only connect with the people who shared our interest in these weird details,” says Vincent. “Once we realized ‘this isn’t about the nuts and bolts of Street Fighter,’ that’s when our approach really started working.”
Instead, they went for a “more human and personal level,” says Vincent, and focused on what made people dedicate their lives to the subculture. As the interviews got more revealing, Vincent began to feel more and more protective of the interviewees.
“I spent many years making this movie, and I’m sure there were times when they were like, ‘Are we wasting our time trusting this guy with our secrets?’” he says. “That was a specter hanging over the whole editing of the film. These people are real to me. They’re not just subjects. We got to know each other really well.”
Because of that, Vincent says he was “so nervous” at the New York screening of the film, and incredibly relieved when one of the key people in the story, Akuma Hokura, came up immediately afterward and gave him a big hug.
“He bared his soul to us,” says Vincent. “He gave us a piece of himself.”

‘THE ART OF LISTENING’

“People are giving you their time, but more than that, they’re giving you their voice,” says Emmanuel Moran, co-director of The Art of Listening. “That’s definitely a challenge in making documentaries.”

It’s an interesting way to put it, since The Art of Listening is actually about voice, and other types of sound. It’s an in-depth look at how we hear music, and the complexities of our relationship with it.
“So many times people take sound at face value, and they don’t really understand how it gets to us,” says co-director Michael Coleman. “But as a listener, you’re just as involved in the music creation process as the artist. We wanted to show the value of having a closer relationship with music.”
Coleman says that of some 200 interviews, only 45 were ultimately used, and that he and Moran were “so careful and protective of the people in the film, and how we represented them.” In terms of winning their subjects’ trust, though, they had a leg up: they were often talking to audio engineers who are generally sought out for their understanding of sonic science, and not for their deep love of music.
“People don’t ask them about the emotional part of music,” says Moran. “But they’re some of the most passionate people in the music business.”
It also helped that both directors had a background in music production and could converse at a knowledgeable level with their interviewees, who were often just as interested in dispelling misconceptions about the music experience as Coleman and Moran are.
“They were attracted to what our intent was,” says Coleman.

‘IN PURSUIT OF SILENCE’

persuitofsilence — **ON THE LEVELS** One of the cities ‘In Pursuit of Silence’ travels to is Tokyo, where it examines the noise produced by the world’s busiest subway system.

In a way, the flip side of The Art of Listening is In Pursuit of Silence, which sent its filmmakers around the globe in pursuit of explaining the power of silence. They shot in eight countries, and went everywhere from the anechoic chamber at Orfield Labs in Minneapolis, said to be the quietest place on Earth, to Denali National Park in Alaska to the Urasenke Tea House in Kyoto, Japan, to Trappist and Zen monasteries. And though the highly meditative film—which the Austin Chronicle’s Wayne Alan Brenner compared to the groundbreaking Koyaanisquatsi, does feature interviews, the filmmakers felt they had to think about being true to their subject in a radical way.
“The main character in the film is silence,” says the film’s producer, Brandon Vedder. “What we had to do was try to understand the power of silence in our lives. A lot of people fall into this point of view that silence is the lack of something. But this is one of the more mystic and spiritual opportunities we have on a daily basis. It’s a bedrock of life.”
To extend the metaphor further, the film’s villain could be said to be noise. “Noise pollution is only second to air pollution in terms of harmful effects on the human body,” he says. “It takes an incredible amount of energy to filter out all this unwanted noise.”
One aspect of the film that will undoubtedly intrigue many viewers is its opening examination of John Cage’s famous experimental piece “4’33,” which is four minutes and 33 seconds of silence. The filmmakers were already working on In Pursuit of Silence when they discovered Cage’s controversial work, and set out to tell the story behind it.
“We realized that his journey from being known as this crazy noise musician to silence was a fascinating way to explore this,” says Vedder.
The final cut is what he describes as “a kaleidoscopic view on silence. The film is really, really experiential. It can be overwhelming to a certain extent. You can’t just be a passive observer.”

SCFF at the Tannery

June 1-5

This year’s Santa Cruz Film Festival will be presented primarily at the Tannery Arts Center, where there will be three different screening venues. Logan Walker, head of programming for SCFF, anticipates a lot of energy swirling through and around the festival as it runs concurrently with the Tannery’s Thursday Art Market, as well as First Friday, and the Santa Cruz Pride festivities on Saturday, June 5.
“It’s going to be a very festive atmosphere,” says Walker. “I think it’s going to be great that we’ll be on this campus where you can walk from theater to theater.”
Catherine Segurson, best known locally for producing the Catamaran Literary Reader, took over as director of SCFF this year.
“She’s been great at going out and making things happen for the festival,” says Walker, who’s in his third year as SCFF programmer.
The festival will kick off at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 1, at the Del Mar with The Anthropologist, a documentary about anthropologists Margaret Mead and Susie Crate, as told from the perspectives of their daughters.
The Closing Night Party will be at 9:15 p.m. on Sunday, June 5, at the Radius Gallery.
For a full schedule of films, and to purchase festival tickets and passes, go to santacruzfilmfestival.org.
— Steve Palopoli

Preview: Rodrigo y Gabriela at Catalyst

A&E
Music

Katie Small

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May 24, 2016

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Is it possible to channel the spirit of flamenco guitarist Carlos Montoya and Motorhead’s Lemmy Kilmister, while dancing to your own groove? Rodrigo Sanchez manages to do just that.
Traces of his early love affair with thrash metal are evident in the nuevo flamenco he performs as one half of Mexican guitar duo Rodrigo y Gabriela.
“I used to listen to classic rock: the Beatles, Led Zep, Black Sabbath,” says Sanchez. “Then one day in high school my older brother came up with a copy of Metallica’s Master of Puppets and opened up a whole new world to me.”
Known for their unique blend of heavy metal with traditional Latin guitar and percussive rumba elements, the pair has played Santa Cruz before, back when they used to stay seated during shows. Now they perform their entire set standing, weaving a rich tapestry of sound at mesmerizing speeds. Rodrigo y Gabriela maintain a magnetic chemistry, somehow managing to pull off well-timed dance moves to match their incredible finger pyrotechnics. The nimble guitarists create furious crescendos that blaze through intricate melodies.
Rodrigo and Gabriela Quintero met through their mutual involvement in Mexico City’s underground metal scene in the ’90s. Rejection from music school led them to Dublin in 1999, where they moved to “avoid doing the obvious thing—to get out of our comfort zone,” Sanchez recalls. “We knew nothing about Ireland. A friend mentioned that it was a good place for musicians, but that was all we had to go on.”
Broke and speaking little English, the pair took up busking, which would help shape their unique sound: “Obviously using acoustic guitars rather than electric is a big part of our sound … playing on the street without amplification meant that the style we played was very rhythmic, percussive and full of energy,” Sanchez says.
Their eight years in Dublin resulted in lasting friendships with Irish musicians Damien Rice, Lisa Hannigan and Mundy (a.k.a Edmond Enright), and opened many doors for the duo. Over the next decade, Rodrigo y Gabriela would go on to release five studio albums, three live albums and one EP, in addition to performing for President Obama at the White House and working with composer Hans Zimmer on the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtracks.
Each track on their most recent album, 9 Dead Alive, is dedicated to a significant historical figure, with special attention paid to “themes and causes that are close to our hearts,” Sanchez explains. “I think we are in a position of privilege. We have a global audience who may have discovered us from TV, or the movies, and they might not know about our musical influences, or the historical figures who we think made a difference to the world. If someone listens to Astor Piazzolla or is inspired to find out more about Harriet Tubman and her incredible life, then this can only be a good thing.”
The album’s final track is dedicated to animals and the natural world—Quintero has been a vegan for most of her life, while Sanchez gave up animal products 10 years ago. “For both of us, the vegan lifestyle and animal rights are a huge issue,” he says.
When she’s not touring, Quintero runs a vegan Co-Op in Zihuatanejo, Mexico, where she offers cooking demonstrations to teach the local community about a cruelty-free lifestyle. “The aim is to show that veganism can be accessible to all,” Sanchez says. “People think that [being vegan] is expensive or requires very special preparation, but it’s really just about making simple choices.”
The tremendous amount of concentration required for their live performances are yet another demonstration of the high standards and dedication that permeate Rodrigo y Gabriela’s daily lives. Post-show rituals include plunging their arms into vats of ice water, which they’ve found essential to avoiding injury.
“The show is intense,” Rodrigo says. “It definitely takes a toll on our bodies.”

INFO: 8 p.m., Saturday, May 28, The Catalyst, 1011 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $50-$53.

Tomboy Launches Roots Music Video Series

A&E
Music

Cat Johnson

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May 24, 2016

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Tomboy Launches Roots Music Video Series

On a recent Friday afternoon in Midtown Santa Cruz, the Soquel Avenue boutique Tomboy transforms into a music video set. Among Western shirts, leather jackets and royal blue cowboy boots are microphones, cameras, a laptop, recording gear, and audio and video technicians. There’s also a handful of enthusiastic friends and supporters, and, of course, the band.
Bay Area roots outfit Brothers Comatose tears through a warmup number in the corner while cameras are set, sound levels checked, and engineers readied. After one take, the band stops to tighten up the ending.
“More fiddle,” someone shouts. “Let’s mic the fiddle.”
The project is the first installment of the Tomboy Sessions, a music video series spearheaded by Mischa Gasch, bass player for California country band Miss Lonely Hearts and founder of TourMore, a roots music booking agency. The seed for the project was planted when Gasch saw a band perform at Tomboy during a First Friday event.
“I thought, ‘They should make a video here,’” says Gasch. “Then I thought, ‘No, we should make videos here.’”
Tomboy is a natural video set. The shop curation is impeccable and the merchandise is the envy of any detail-obsessed American roots enthusiast. In the corner, a few steps from vintage T-shirts, handmade soaps and meticulously folded bandanas just waiting to be put in a back pocket is a wall of perfectly aligned retro photographs by local artist Tommy Brisley that provide the backdrop for the shoot.
To bring the project to life, Gasch teamed up with several top-tier local companies, including Universal Audio, Santa Cruz Guitar Company, Sylvan Music, Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing, Gadgetbox, Seafoam Films, and Tomboy. The team will produce nine videos over the next year, showcasing touring acts as well as standout local artists. They have a wishlist of potential bands, but have not yet released any names beyond Brothers Comatose. The hope is that the project will eventually draw bands to Santa Cruz.
If all goes well, the team would like to see the Tomboy Sessions take off in the way that Jam in the Van, the Gondola Sessions, and other pop-up style video projects have—but with a focus on roots music.
“When I think of a genre, I would say ‘handcrafted music,’” says Gasch, explaining that the styles will range from Americana and bluegrass to folk, country, honky tonk, alt-country and beyond. “It’s related to roots music, but it doesn’t have to be traditional. I like when bands bring in new ideas.”
For Gasch, this is just another chapter in his unlikely story. A 6-foot-something cowboy with a charming and magnetic personality, he is all-in on Western culture. His style of dress, what he listens to, what he plays, and his friendly demeanor capture the best of the Old West. But the fact is, Gasch grew up in Germany where, apparently, there’s a great appreciation of country and rockabilly music. He first discovered country music at the age of 12, and he hasn’t looked back.
“I like to dance to it,” says Gasch. “I wouldn’t call myself a dancer, but I like to dance. I like the melody and simplicity in this music. With the lyrics, it can be so powerful, without too many things that aren’t necessary.”
The Brothers Comatose’s first Tomboy Sessions song is “The Way the West Was Won.” They’re playing it at a hellhound-on-my-trail pace, accented by yips and yeahs. The song showcases the no-frills brilliance of the band, with smooth and lonesome vocals, shredding fiddle, banjo and mandolin, and the thump of an upright bass. The band’s warm, four-part harmonies rise up and bounce around Tomboy’s raw wood rafters.
Watching the band and the video shoot, one gets the distinct impression that Santa Cruz is on the verge of blowing up as a roots music hotbed and that the Tomboy Sessions, along with Gasch’s monthly Western Wednesday gigs at the Crepe Place, will be an anchor for the scene. Gasch would like nothing more than to continue contributing to the local music community.
“I’m really excited being part of the music scene in Santa Cruz,” he says. “Even though it’s a small city, we have something really good going on. I’m excited to be part of building something here.”

For more information and to watch the first video, visit thetomboysessions.com.

Hula’s Spills onto Sidewalk

Christina Waters

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May 24, 2016

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Lunchtime at the new sidewalk lanai at Hula’s Island Grill and Tiki Room made us feel like pampered tourists who’d found the exact right spot on a beautiful day to slide into the heart of downtown Santa Cruz. Here’s where you take those out-of-town guests with adventurous appetites and a yen to be in the middle of the action. Hula’s new parklet—a handsome bit of wood and stainless steel cabinetry corralling five tables, designed by Chris Delaney—brings a touch of holiday ambience into a vivacious corridor of Cathcart Street. From where we sat, we could watch the Wednesday farmers market folks setting up their stalls while enjoying the mixed sun and shade (thanks to large canvas umbrellas). I like the sun. Jack craves shade. So we both basked in our favored climate, sipping excellent jasmine iced tea and a high-spirited ginger beer from Cock’n Bull.
Taking up the space formerly devoted to two parking spaces (hence the “parklet” nickname), the little open-air seating area boasts five wooden tables for four, set with tangerine chairs and a happy bouquet of fresh flowers (pink pelargoniums and ranunculus). The entire mood is tropical, a dining spot in the key of coastal resort. Open only a few weeks, it feels like it’s always been a part of a tasty neighborhood that includes Lúpulo, 515, Logos, Kianti’s, and Assembly.
So what did we have to eat? Well Jack couldn’t get past the Ahi Katsu Tacos ($13) which arrived on a rainforest-green platter. On either side of the warm soft tacos were a mound of addictive rice topped with sumptuous black beans, and a little vat of molten salsa companioned by a wedge of fresh lime. Laid across the two tacos were long slabs of pink panko-crusted ahi, topped with cilantro and underscored by fresh slaw. Big flavors. Big fun.
Meanwhile on my side of the table sat a brilliant blue bowl of Spicy Thai Chicken ($13). Generously packed with rice, more of the crunchy cabbage slaw, and the delicious simmered black beans, my order was topped with fat fingers of succulent chicken breast and several sweet sensuous plantain fritters in turn lavishly sauced with a Thai coconut sauce. That sauce was exactly the right shade of spicy for my taste. Hot, but not palate-numbing hot. A perfect avocado fanned out over the sauce and I could not stop eating. Despite all my efforts, there was still enough chicken, rice and beans left—after I had pigged out in a semi-ladylike way—to form a huge dinner later that night. And yes, the ginger beer was the perfect ally for the spicy chicken bowl, especially with those faux bamboo straws. I could eat that lunch all over again right now. Even the idea of serving tropically-inspired foods in Fiestaware makes poetic sense. Fiestaware for fiesta food. If you get here at 11:30 a.m. you can count on scoring a table on the new lanai and watching the sunshine, clouds and locals glide by. Let’s just say that we were charmed by our lunch hour at Hula’s and plan to work our way through the dazzling tropical menu all summer long. After all, they’ve got a whole gluten-free dinner menu (and a vegan one too), as well as plenty of meaty dishes, all with serious flavor power. Oh, and there are plenty of tiki cocktails to help you into even deeper resort consciousness. Hula’s Island Grill, 221 Cathcart St., Santa Cruz; open 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m. hulastiki.com.

Wine of the Week

An elegant, full-throated Meursault 2013 from Rodolphe Demougeot knocked us out at Soif last week ($21). Gorgeously flinty, full of peaches and salty minerals, this showpiece white Burgundy (Chardonnay) made magic with an exceptional appetizer of red chicory, avocado, clementines, and a nutty, earthy sesame vinaigrette ($12). While savoring the fine wine and menu of Mark Denham, we learned that Soif’s much-anticipated full bar will very likely be open by next month.

Risa’s Stars May 25—May 31

Risa D’Angeles

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May 24, 2016

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With Mercury now moving forward we begin a new three-month cycle of information gathering. The purpose of Mercury retrograde is to help us organize information received previously, thus preparing our minds for new information in the upcoming months. We were to review, then cast away thoughts and ideas no longer needed. Not utilizing the retrograde in this way, we can have difficulty integrating new information and revelations offered before the next Mercury retrograde occurs. Mercury next retrogrades Aug. 30–Sept. 22 (in Virgo). And again Dec. 19 into the new year (in Capricorn), so that 2017 begins in a Mercury retrograde.
As of this writing, Mars, Saturn, Pluto, and Juno remain retrograde. Soon Neptune, too. We are therefore still experiencing an inner reflective focus and many of us feel exhausted. Mars retro makes Aries and Scorpio unusually tired. With Saturn and Pluto retro, Capricorn, too is affected. We don’t push the river. We stand deep in the river of reflection instead.
Saturday, Jupiter (in Virgo) squares Saturn (in Sag). Jupiter direct, Saturn retrograde. Jupiter expands us, Saturn holds back. They’re social planets, affecting our being out and about in the world. We seek expansive change and encounter hindrances everywhere. It’s not time yet. Their interchange? Saturn creating structures (we can’t see yet) to express love and wisdom (Jupiter). They’re mutable signs, telling us to adapt and observe more, make adjustments to old beliefs, and to know all is well. Even the vicissitudes. They have purpose. Here is a statement from a great teacher to a student: “Be simple, clear as day, accepting and full of love.” These get us through the retrogrades all the time.

ARIES: In the past weeks you considered what was important to you. What was special, of value, and your monetary situation. These are important considerations. You might have asked how much am I worth and/or is what I’m doing worth it? You realized what would make you more comfortable, what to do with your cash (where to put it), and perhaps you researched gold and silver. If not, do so. Values and worth were your keynotes.
TAURUS: You thought and re-thought on how to approach the world, the new world of new ideas. How to bring forth all that you’re worth in order to create changes in living, location, geography, purpose, and way of life. You are the sign of the Art of Living. So where and how you live is important, because people watch you, mentor you, imitate you. Something of great value hasn’t emerged from you yet. It will soon. It’s brilliant!
GEMINI: The Mercury retro invited you to retreat into yourself, to be contemplative, to become a Pisces actually. Pisces and Gemini have a lot in common. Only these two signs are able to synthesize polarities and dualities. Dualities that you bring forth is the task of Gemini, always. Did you feel alone these last weeks? Did you receive messages? Did you dream? Spirit and Venus were with you. Create an altar.
CANCER: Did you withdraw a bit from your usual social situations? When we are away from our usual habits, something unusual happens to us. We discover that we have an inner life and rediscover who we truly are. It’s important during the retrogrades to focus upon hopes, wishes and dreams. Even if you don’t yet know, ask each night before sleep. As the retrogrades ease, it will be time to reconnect and be with friends again.
LEO: The past weeks gave you an opportunity to tend to previous tasks, old business, to bring closure to work no longer relevant. A question for you: Are you happy with your work, your career, or with what you do each day? Do you know what you hope to achieve? Have you thought of this before? Tend to the world of work with renewed vitality, a new vision and orientation. The world needs you at this time.
VIRGO: The question posed to you these past weeks has to do with adventures. Have you had any recently? You’re due for a double shot of the world expanding all around you. A new sense of identity, too. It’s important to consider where you might want to travel in the near future, what you would like to study, and what cultures are of interest. Your mind needs new information so that the hidden parts of you can come to life.
LIBRA: Let all things secret come to light in your relationship. Let all your wealth be spread abroad. Let your gifts come forth, let them be shared with all who love you. Let anything that hinders your flow of love be eliminated. Let everything be forgiven. Forgiveness leads to the beginnings of understanding. Ask lots of questions. Listen deeply. Let the joy of others’ gifts wash over you.
SCORPIO: It seems everything came into renegotiation these last weeks. What you thought you wanted and needed wasn’t. What you thought was important and what you valued turned out to be different. There were things unspoken, hidden, unknown. Things will continue to change for you over the next months. You are continuing to clear your path and forge ahead. Read The Labours of Hercules (by Alice Bailey). Every labor. Find yours.
SAGITTARIUS: Everything about work was, has been, and continues to be re-organized. Even your daily life seems to be without an agenda. You reflect upon previous relationships and previous work situations. Sorting out what was good, what was valuable? All schedules have gone by the wayside. You’re called to be completely intuitive, flexible, discerning, and unpredictable. In the meantime, in all the changes, care for your health first.
CAPRICORN: Your creative energy was in a state of rest for a while. This seeming withdrawal was quiet. It was to create a new underlying state of the arts, creativity, and inspiration. What are you imagining now, what is inspiring you? Galleries, art magazines, dance, music, these reconnect you to spontaneity, playfulness and curiosity. Keywords: recapture, reanimate, restore what love kindled.
AQUARIUS: You are very aware of how home is our hideaway, refuge, shelter, our sangha, the sanctuary we retreat to. What is the quality of your home? So many of us don’t yet have one. Or we’ve lost our home. Home is our childhood, our past, our foundation, the roots that grew our values and established our character. Be grateful for all that has been given to you. As you grow in gratitude, things needed are offered you.
PISCES: You are beginning a new phase soon. Now you are in the transitional phase. In all transitions, Libra comes into our lives. Libra whispers to us, “Maintain balance, be poised. Be graceful, dignified and self-confident. Remain calm. Simply prepare. You are to “triumph wherever you find yourself.” Don’t hover, perch, hang, float or suspend your life. Just wait patiently.

Connect with Risa at ri**********@***il.com, nightlightnews.org, or on her Facebook page.

Rob Brezsny’s Astrology May 25—May 31

Rob Brezsny

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May 24, 2016

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ARIES (March 21-April 19): To convey the best strategy for you to employ in the coming weeks, I have drawn inspiration from a set of instructions composed by aphorist Alex Stein: Scribble, scribble, erase. Scribble, erase, scribble. Scribble, scribble, scribble, scribble. Erase, erase, erase. Scribble, erase. Keep what’s left. In other words, Aries, you have a mandate to be innocently empirical, robustly experimental, and cheerfully improvisational—with the understanding that you must also balance your fun with ruthless editing.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): “One must think like a hero to behave like a merely decent human being,” wrote Taurus memoirist May Sarton. That’s a dauntingly high standard to live up to, but for the foreseeable future it’s important that you try. In the coming weeks, you will need to maintain a heroic level of potency and excellence if you hope to keep your dreams on track and your integrity intact. Luckily, you will have an extraordinary potential to do just that. But you’ll have to work hard to fulfill the potential—as hard as a hero on a quest to find the real Holy Grail in the midst of all the fake Holy Grails.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): “Whatever you’re meant to do, do it now,” said novelist Doris Lessing. “The conditions are always impossible.” I hope you take her advice to heart, Gemini. In my astrological opinion, there is no good excuse for you to postpone your gratification or to procrastinate about moving to the next stage of a big dream. It’s senseless to tell yourself that you will finally get serious as soon as all the circumstances are perfect. Perfection does not and will never exist. The future is now. You’re as ready as you will ever be.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): French painter Henri Matisse didn’t mind being unmoored, befuddled, or in-between. In fact, he regarded these states as being potentially valuable to his creative process. Here’s his testimony: “In art, truth and reality begin when one no longer understands what one is doing or what one knows.” I’m recommending that you try out his attitude, Cancerian. In my astrological opinion, the time has come for you to drum up the inspirations and revelations that become available when you don’t know where the hell you are and what the hell you’re doing.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Proposed experiment: Imagine that all the lovers and would-be lovers you have ever adored are in your presence. Review in detail your memories of the times you felt thrillingly close to them. Fill yourself up with feelings of praise and gratitude for their mysteries. Sing the love songs you love best. Look into a mirror and rehearse your “I only have eyes for you” gaze until it is both luminous and smoldering. Cultivate facial expressions that are full of tender, focused affection. Got all that, Leo? My purpose in urging you to engage in these practices is that it’s the high sexy time of year for you. You have a license to be as erotically attractive and wisely intimate as you dare.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): “Consider how hard it is to change yourself and you’ll understand what little chance you have in trying to change others,” wrote editor Jacob M. Braude. Normally I would endorse his poignant counsel, but for the foreseeable future I am predicting that the first half of it won’t fully apply to you. Why? Because you are entering a phase that I regard as unusually favorable for the project of transforming yourself. It may not be easy to do so, but it’l be easier than it has been in a long time. And I bet you will find the challenge to reimagine, reinvent, and reshape yourself at least as much fun as it is hard work.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): “Never turn down an adventure without a really good reason,” says author Rebecca Solnit in her book The Far Away Nearby. That’s a thought she had as she contemplated the possibility of riding a raft down the Colorado River and through the Grand Canyon. Here’s how I suspect this meditation applies to you, Libra: There have been other times and there will be other times when you will have good reasons for not embarking on an available adventure. But now is not one of those moments.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Russian poet Vera Pavlova tells about how once when she was using a pen and paper to jot down some fresh ideas, she got a paper cut on her palm. Annoying, right? On the contrary. She loved the fact that the new mark substantially extended her life line. The palmistry-lover in her celebrated. I’m seeing a comparable twist in your near future, Scorpio. A minor inconvenience or mild setback will be a sign that a symbolic revitalization or enhancement is nigh.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Norway is mountainous, but its neighbor Finland is quite flat. A group of Norwegians has launched a campaign to partially remedy the imbalance. They propose that to mark the hundredth anniversary of Finland’s independence, their country will offer a unique birthday gift: the top of Halti mountain. Right now the 4,479-foot peak is in Norway. But under the proposed plan, the border between countries will be shifted so that the peak will be transferred to Finland. I would love you to contemplate generous gestures like this in the coming weeks, Sagittarius. It’s a highly favorable time for you to bestow extra imaginative blessings. (P.S. The consequences will be invigorating to your own dreams.)
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): I believe that every one of us should set aside a few days every year when we celebrate our gaffes, our flaws, and our bloopers. During this crooked holiday, we are not embarrassed about the false moves we have made. We don’t decry our bad judgment or criticize our delusional behavior. Instead, we forgive ourselves our sins. We work to understand and feel compassion for the ignorance that led us astray. Maybe we even find redemptive value in our apparent lapses; we come to see that they saved us from some painful experience or helped us avoid getting a supposed treasure that would have turned out to be a booby prize. Now would be a perfect time for you to observe this crooked holiday.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Sometimes the love you experience for those you care about makes you feel vulnerable. You may worry about being out of control or swooping so deeply into your tenderness that you lose yourself. Giving yourself permission to cherish and nurture can make you feel exposed, even unsafe. But none of that applies in the coming weeks. According to my interpretation of the astrological omens, love will be a source of potency and magnificence for you. It will make you smarter, braver, and cooler. Your words of power will be this declaration by Syrian poet Nizar Qabbani: “When I love / I feel that I am the king of time / I possess the earth and everything on it / and ride into the sun upon my horse.” (Translated by Lena Jayyusi and Christopher Middleton.)
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): In November 1916, at the height of World War I, the Swedish schooner Jönköping set sail for Finland, carrying 4,400 bottles of champagne intended for officers of the occupying Russian army. But the delivery was interrupted. A hostile German submarine sunk the boat, and the precious cargo drifted to the bottom of the Baltic Sea. The story didn’t end there, however. More than eight decades later, a Swedish salvage team retrieved a portion of the lost treasure, which had been well-preserved in the frosty abyss. Taste tests revealed that the bubbly alcoholic beverage was “remarkably light-bodied, extraordinarily elegant and fantastically fresh, with discreet, slow-building toasty aromas of great finesse.” (Source: tinyurl.com/toastyaromas.) I foresee the potential of a similar resurrection in your future, Pisces. How deep are you willing to dive?

Homework: Confess, brag, and expostulate about what inspires you to love. Go to Freewillastrology.com and click “Email Rob.”

Opinion May 18, 2016

Steve Palopoli

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May 18, 2016

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EDITOR’S NOTE

Memorial Day kicks off festival season, and around here that means the American Music Festival, which is in its second year as the successor to the long-running Santa Cruz Blues Festival. Brad Kava’s cover stories this week take a look at each day of the festival from unexpected perspectives. For instance, Saturday headliner Buddy Guy, who has been making his mark on modern music since he played with Muddy Waters in the 1960s, and who Eric Clapton once called “the best guitar player alive,” is usually associated with the old guard of blues music—the Legends Division, if you will. But Kava writes that Guy is actually far more obsessed with what the future of blues music will be than with his own iconic status, and then argues that Guy himself is finding that future in his most recent songs.
As for the festival’s second day, Kava explains how he misjudged the country-focused Sunday line-up last year, and points out how the very definition of country music is in flux, thanks to musicians like AMF headliner Josh Turner.
I also want mention two awards for news reporting that GT picked up from the California Newspaper Publishers Association last month. The paper won second place for environmental reporting in the CNPA’s largest-circulation division for breaking news about environmental mercury poisoning in Henry Houskeeper’s cover story “Tracing the Elements” and Maria Grusauskas’ news story “Foggy Notion.” GT was also a Blue Ribbon finalist in the category of education reporting for Anne-Marie Harrison’s article “Learning Inside Out,” about how Aptos educator Mark Rogers is working to transform the way dyslexic students learn.
STEVE PALOPOLI | EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Read the latest letters to the editor here.

Not Empowering
Your burlesque story is misleading. While I love sex and want nothing censored, I also believe those who choose this “entertainment” might consider that there are unforeseen repercussions that nobody wants. The line between prostitution and stripping is increasingly blurred, and the amount of physical contact between exotic dancers and customers has increased, along with verbal abuse, sexual harassment and physical assault of women in strip clubs. As former stripper Taylor Lee explained: “The sale of sexuality through stripping also leads to the customer’s impression that he has bought the right to touch, grab, slap, or otherwise violate, degrade, or devalue the woman stripping.”
Why pretend the sex industry is benign, because some performers claim to choose it? Nothing exists in a vacuum. Females do not live in a secure bubble where we have burly bouncers, (as Cyn has at the Catalyst) to ensure our level of consent. The men thrown out of her burlesque show, after yelling “show me your boobs” will land right on Pacific Avenue both angry and aroused. Is women’s safety really of no concern? Every 107 seconds a woman is raped. Every day at least three women are murdered by their intimate partners.
As a community paper why not report on the complexity and harm that this industry brings to all who live around it? We need to work together to promote and model the fact that every human is worthy of dignity and respect, no matter their age, race, gender, class, or sexual orientation.
Ann Simonton
Santa Cruz

Re: “Back for Moore”: Martin Luther King famously said, “a genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus. but a molder of consensus.” This describes exactly what Bernie Sanders has done by changing the political discussion in this country. Six months ago, virtually no one was talking about “income inequality,” the “rigged political system,” health care as a human right, or investing in our country’s future by providing free college education for our children. Even Republicans are now talking about these issues. Like Martin Luther King, Bernie Sanders does not accept the status quo—he knows we can do better.
Don Eggleston
Aptos

Online Comments
Re: Burlesque
Wonderful article! Hope to have a chance to meet these empowering women!
— Kitsune Kami
Re: Michael Moore
In reply to Rex—give Michael a break. He makes great films of huge social educational value for which he gets a lot less than people of lesser talent who produce stuff of zero or negative social value. He probably needs to make some money to pay for the movies he made, which don’t make much, if anything. What would you charge to go spending your time in airports and staying in motels so you can talk in person to large numbers of people hungry for this information presented in an entertaining way?
— Steve Newman
Re: Library Tax Measure
It seems that the people of Santa Cruz continue to pay for budget mismanagement. Why are we taking out a credit card (bond) for something that has been paid for by the general budget for over 100 years?
I am for the libraries, but against another tax created by the city borrowing money. The city should live within its means, just like the citizens do. We could decrease funding of some other programs to increase funding for the library.
— Joe Hill

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

GM-NO
Many Santa Cruzans have strong feelings about Monsanto, the international agricultural biotechnology company, as do people interested in the food industry around the country. Seven West Coast cities, including San Jose, recently announced they would be suing the GMO developer for contaminating waterways, and Nebraska farmers filed suit over an alleged cancer link. Locals are organizing a March Against Monsanto starting at 1 p.m. on Saturday, May 21 in San Lorenzo Park. Costumes are encouraged.

GOOD WORK

ALL THINGS APTOS
The Aptos History Museum celebrated 10 years on May 15. Karen and John Hibble began acquiring historic Aptos memorabilia in 1985, starting with a photograph of the old Aptos Train Station. Soon the Hibbles were getting plenty more donations, including the guest register from the Aptos Hotel, to go with incredible artifacts, important documents and amazing photographs. The museum, which is on Old Dominion Court near Best Western, is open Monday through Friday.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

â€œThe essence of democracy is the ability to make intellectual choices in an election. Unless you have access to information, those choices are not available to you.â€
-Conn Hallinan

How do you picture a Trump presidency?

Columns

Matthew Cole Scott

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May 18, 2016

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“Bringing greatness back to America. ”

Otto Scratchensnif

Boulder Creek

Horticulturist

“A disaster for humanity.”

Dr. Diann Mizell

Boulder Creek

Retired Speech and Hearing Scientist

“Disastrous. Scary.”

Paula Marcus

Aptos

Rabbi

“A nightmare. Just the worst.”

Lynda Grandinetti

Santa Cruz

Sales

“A whole screen of turd emojis.”

Craig Owens

Santa Cruz

Professional Musician

Music Picks May 18 — May 24

GT Staff

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May 18, 2016

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WEDNESDAY 5/18

INDIE-FOLK

LITTLE WINGS

Kyle Field, the only consistent member of Little Wings, has had a long, prolific career, but somehow through it all, he’s remained a mystery. His music reflects on simple everyday occurrences like watching a bumblebee fly away, or on the heavier stuff, like meditations on death. With his bushy beard, aloof demeanor, and combination of too-quiet acoustic numbers with blown-out, sloppy folk, he might seem like a Portlandia version of an indie-folk rocker, but he practically invented the modern indie-folk troubadour genre in the late ’90s. AARON CARNES
INFO: 9 p.m. Crepe Place, 1134 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. $12/adv, $15/door. 429-6994.

THURSDAY 5/19

BLUES

GUITARSONISTS

An all-star team of ace guitarists, the Guitarsonists comprises deep blues guitarist and vocalist Chris Cain, former Santa Cruzan and guitar shredder Mighty Mike Schermer, and celebrated Bay Area bluesman Daniel Castro. Together, they’ve played with a who’s who of contemporary blues and rock, including Albert King, B.B. King, Albert Collins, Ronnie Lane, Elvin Bishop, and Bonnie Raitt. Catch the three slingers on Thursday as they join forces to create what promises to be a ripping and rocking evening of blues guitar mastery. CAT JOHNSON
INFO: 7 p.m. Kuumbwa Jazz, 320-2 Cedar St., Santa Cruz. $20/adv, $25/door. 427-2227.

HIP HOP

YOUNG THUG

How many artists can release a song dedicated to the victims of the April flooding in Texas and have the hook be, “If Texas love was a drug”? Or write a hot jam, with almost a million views on YouTube, called “F Cancer”? Just one: Young Thug. At 23, YT has already emblazed the rap world with a slew of hits and mixtapes. Last year he dropped his debut full-length album Hy!£UN35 (read: “hi-tunes”) and collaborated with Kanye West for Yeezy’s 2016 release, The Life of Pablo. Five months into the new year and Young Thug has already released two mixtapes, February’s I’m Up, and March’s highly anticipated Slime Season 3. He’ll be joined onstage by the Bay Area’s one and only DJ Nima Fadavi. MAT WEIR
INFO: 9 p.m. Catalyst Club, 1011 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $39.50/adv, $45/door. 429-4135.

REGGAE/DUB

KING JAMMY

A reggae and dub legend, King Jammy (aka Prince Jammy) is one of the most influential producers to come out of Kingston, Jamaica. Known for his clear sound, experimental effects and technical prowess, Jammy remains one of the standouts of the genre. This will be the debut of the dub pioneer at Moe’s Alley and word is the 69-year-old has never played Santa Cruz. Don’t miss this rare treat to see a living legend. Also on the bill: DJ Spleece. CJ
INFO: 9 p.m. Moe’s Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz. $15/adv, $18/door. 479-1854.

FRIDAY 5/20

ROCK

U.S. ELEVATOR

Husband and wife Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion got a lot of acclaim for their 2013 folk-rock, Jeff Tweedy-produced record Wassaic. It’s a heartfelt, harmony-rich Americana album. However, Irion wants to show off his rock side with a fairly recent group he’s touring with called U.S. Elevator. Heavily influenced by the Beatles, Neil Young and ’70s power-pop, it’s nothing that will explode any eardrums. Irion is the primary songwriter in this project, and the tunes rock, but they are incredibly catchy at the same time. His backing band harmonizes with him, too. It’s not quite as soul-wrenching as when he sings with his wife, but it’s still quite beautiful. AC
INFO: 8:30 p.m. Don Quixote’s, 6275 Hwy. 9, Felton. $15. 335-2800.

PSYCHEDELIC ROCK

NEW RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE

For one glorious night, these psychedelic pioneers return to Moe’s Alley for a set of class Purple Sage wisdom and fun. Originally formed in 1969 by John Dawson and Jerry Garcia, the band would go through several lineup changes (often with Grateful Dead members floating in and out of the ranks) before their self-titled 1971 debut. After a breakup in 1997, NRPS reunited in 2005 with original members David Nelson and Buddy Cage leading the way. While Dawson remained retired in Mexico, he gave his blessing to the Riders before his death in 2009, and something tells me his spirit will be dancing at this show. MW
INFO: 8:30 p.m. Moe’s Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz. $22/adv, $25/door. 479-1854.

ROCK

LEON RUSSELL

Long before it was cool to sport an epic wizard beard, Leon Russell was rocking the piano hardcore like a full-on old-timey prospector. Besides his facial hair, his most impressive feature is his scrappy vocals. He’s not what you’d call a “technical” singer, but has a lot of war-torn soul. His voice is somewhere between Mick Jagger and Van Morrison, but even more raw. He’s been a session player, a sideman and a singer-songwriter with a ton of albums to his credit, and his sound is a combo of rock, soul, country, and blues. But really it’s all about how he plays those styles, which is all heart. AC
INFO: 8 p.m. Catalyst, 1011 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $30/adv, $33/door. 429-4135.

SATURDAY 5/21

BLUEGRASS

JOHN JORGENSON BLUEGRASS BAND

Led by blisteringly fast guitarist and mandolinist John Jorgenson, the John Jorgenson Bluegrass Band features four legendary artists collaborating to create outstanding, contemporary bluegrass music. Founded by Jorgenson and banjoist Herb Pedersen, who formed the Desert Blues Band along with Chris Hillman from the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers, this outfit also features Jon Randall, who has performed with Emmylou Harris, Earl Scruggs, and Sam Bush, on guitar, and Mark Fain, who spent 13 years performing with Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder, on bass. On Saturday, the hot-picking outfit hits Felton. CJ
INFO: 8 p.m. Don Quixote’s, 6275 Hwy. 9, Felton. $25. 335-2800.

MONDAY 5/23

JAZZ

JACK DEJOHNETTE TRIO

If NEA Jazz Master Jack DeJohnette had to rest on his laurels as a drummer, he’d be very comfortable indeed. His extraordinary five-decade career includes epochal recordings with Charles Lloyd (Forest Flower), Miles Davis (Bitches Brew and On the Corner), Pat Metheny (80/81), and more than a dozen “Standards Trio” albums with Keith Jarrett. But even more significantly, he’s made essential contributions as a composer, bandleader, world music trailblazer (and even pianist) on some two dozen sessions under his own name. Though his trio with pianist George Colligan and bassist Jerome Harris, an inveterately creative improviser who spent years with Sonny Rollins, is a distilled version of the quintet captured on the excellent album Live at Yoshi’s 2010, it’s a formidable ensemble that moves in sly and unpredictable ways. ANDREW GILBERT
INFO: 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Kuumbwa Jazz, 320-2 Cedar St., Santa Cruz. $30/adv, $35/door. 427-2227.

IN THE QUEUE
JENNY DON’T & THE SPURS
Roots and desert country out of Portland. Wednesday at Trout Farm
TURKUAZ
Brooklyn-based funk outfit. Friday at Catalyst
KARL BLAU
Pioneer of the Pacific Northwest indie-rock scene. Sunday at Crepe Place
CAFE MUSIQUE
Gypsy folk and jazz out of San Luis Obispo. Sunday at Kuumbwa
SECURITY PROJECT
Celebration of Peter Gabriel. Also on the bill: the Walkers. Tuesday at Don Quixote’s

Good TimesGood Times

Good TimesGood Times

‘LOVE BITE’

‘PUSSYWILLOW DIRTBAGS’

‘THE LOST ARCADE’

‘THE ART OF LISTENING’

‘IN PURSUIT OF SILENCE’

SCFF at the Tannery

June 1-5

Wine of the Week

EDITOR’S NOTE

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

PHOTO CONTEST WINNER

GOOD IDEA

GOOD WORK

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

Otto Scratchensnif

Boulder Creek

Horticulturist

Dr. Diann Mizell

Boulder Creek

Retired Speech and Hearing Scientist

Paula Marcus

Aptos

Rabbi

Lynda Grandinetti

Santa Cruz

Sales

Craig Owens

Santa Cruz

Professional Musician

WEDNESDAY 5/18

INDIE-FOLK

LITTLE WINGS

THURSDAY 5/19

BLUES

GUITARSONISTS

HIP HOP

YOUNG THUG

REGGAE/DUB

KING JAMMY

FRIDAY 5/20

ROCK

U.S. ELEVATOR

PSYCHEDELIC ROCK

NEW RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE

ROCK

LEON RUSSELL

SATURDAY 5/21

BLUEGRASS

JOHN JORGENSON BLUEGRASS BAND

MONDAY 5/23

JAZZ

JACK DEJOHNETTE TRIO