At the far end of the studio, a life-sized woman, daydreaming in a brilliant red skirt, fills a huge canvas. Her gaze turns away from me, and I am weightless again in the dreamy abstracted space, textured with atmospheric grids and patterns. Confident gestures, brilliant light and enormous swaths of color, layered in oil impasto and transparent slips—the compositions are unmistakably Linda Christensen’s. Christensen was struck by the work of Bay Area figurative painter David Park in the late ’80s, while a student in the UCSC Art Department.
“His impact was immediate, and it was emotional,” she says. Since then, and for many years now, she’s made a living reinventing the light and color of the Bay Area.
The day I visit her studio, which adjoins her Corralitos home, the petite Christensen is at work on four paintings. “I’m getting ready for several shows, one in Atlanta, another in Ketchum, Idaho, and a group show in Los Gatos,” she says.
These shows are part of the harvest of Christensen’s recent campaign to expand the visibility of her work. “I wanted to be more international in my reach,” she says.
Armed with a new website, a new artist statement, and more brochure packaging, her strategies are working. “I send out packets of images along with show announcements and catalogs. Then I wait,” she smiles. “In a few weeks, I do a follow-up, mention other galleries who are showing my work. Then I go back to work in the studio.” Then more office work, checking on responses, and doing more mailing. And with luck comes new interest. “A lot of galleries in New York now want realism,” she says. Sigh. “I fall somewhere in between expressionism and realism.” That signature style has found its way into many museums and private collections, including that of former Secretary of State, Condaleezza Rice.
After the end of her first marriage, Christensen went back to school while raising two daughters. Trying her hand at landscapes for a while, Christensen returned to freely abstracted figure paintings. “What repeats in my work is the solitary figure, always a woman. My daughter was my muse,” she says. “Then I add texture with patterns. I find repetition very soothing.”
Her predominant theme began as she watched a woman sitting at a car wash waiting for her car. “She was completely in her own thoughts, shoulders slumped, off-guard. That was the moment I was interested in,” Christensen says. The figures float in boldly abstracted spaces. “A lot of the time, painting is what you leave out.”
The painter worked with architects to design her large, sun-drenched studio. With state-of-the-art ventilation, and access to her adjoining office and storage, it is a painter’s dream. A small flat-screen TV is mounted on a bookcase over the studio sink. “I watch a black and white movie every day. I’ve got enough color in here as it is,” she laughs. And yes, Christensen works in her studio every day. “Because it calls me,” she says. “Plus, I’m driven by deadlines. I’ll come in and clean brushes, surfaces.” Then she’ll put out all her paints on a table-sized glass palette.
Working on three or four paintings at a time, her current works in progress —4′ by 4′ and 4′ by 5’— are vibrant with blues, greens and that brilliant crimson.
Intent on creating “happy accidents” that provoke an emotional response, she uses lots of self-fabricated stencils “just to mess with the work,” she explains. “I want to interfere with anything close to Disney-esque perfection. That moment of risk in my work—it’s inspiring for me.”
The painter takes care of obligations and phone calls in the morning. “Then about noon I’ll come in and work until dinner, or maybe no dinner—just keep working,” she says. “I love using a palette knife. That way there’s the least amount of control,” she reveals. “Also, that way the colors I apply stay fresh, they don’t blend and get muddy. Once I apply the large areas, then I do my magic,” she laughs. Christensen uses large brushes, palette knives, even huge carpentry trowels to apply paint, and she currently favors large tubes, fist-sized oil sticks and cans of Gamblin oil paint.
“I’m having a great time with it, but I let myself fall in love with my work,” she says. “I keep reaching, wanting to get at something that keeps eluding me.”
Born in the Bay Area, educated and based in Santa Cruz, Christensen and her work reflect our local landscape. “I like to think of it as ‘local girl makes good,’” she grins proudly. lindachristensen.net.
How do they do it? How can this Aptos landmark continue to enchant even the pickiest patrons? We weren’t the only ones who had decided to have wine with lunch on Martin Luther King Day. Cafe Sparrow’s long listing of wines by the glass tempted us, and we went with half glasses ($5.50) of Alfaro 2013 “A” Estate Chardonnay. Jack had never been to the Sparrow, a restaurant I’ve been visiting since even before the days of Bob and Julie Montague’s ownership. Ever appealing in its old-West-country-French way, the two dining rooms were lively when we took a spacious table for two in the sunny downstairs room. Jack approved of the lace-under-glass tablecloths, antiqued chairs and fresh flowers on every table. We both loved the long menus of special brunch entrees, Angus filet tip risotto, blackened Chinook salmon and luscious egg creations, but turned our attention to the house signature sandwiches and salads.
Always a draw for enlightened female diners, the Sparrow was well-stocked with men on the holiday afternoon of our visit, and everybody was clearly there to savor a long lunch. Seared ahi on infant spinach leaves was Jack’s choice ($17.75), while I couldn’t resist the idea of a shrimp croissant ($13.75), especially since the grilled shrimp arrived in a creamy toss of dill-infused crème fraîche. Seriously, how could that not be fantastic? And it was! Our lunch began with fresh sourdough, presented in a thick white napkin along with unsalted butter. Accompanied with a tall glass of black currant iced tea—which tasted intensely of tangy black currants—Jack’s salad was huge yet beautiful. A thicket of thumbnail spinach leaves was threaded with thin ribbons of red bell pepper and a smartly spiced wasabi vinaigrette, then studded with long thin strips of crimson-seared ahi. On top was a central garnish of spun carrots and purple cabbage, everything dusted with white and black toasted sesame seeds. It was a salad made with care and expertise, presented to make the eyes as happy as the tastebuds.
Meanwhile, my shrimp croissant arrived with a side portion of spicy roasted red potatoes. The toasted croissant was arranged to reveal a nest of shrimp—perfectly cooked, still moist, yet toothsome—on a leaf of butter lettuce. A tiny pyramid of fresh fruit anchored the side of the pretty plate. This was another gorgeous dish that tasted even better than it looked. I adore the haunting sexiness of dill, and the combination of dill, tart crème fraîche and shrimp made a northern French (or perhaps southern Norwegian?) statement.
Our entire meal was delicious, very satisfying and refreshingly Old World (plus new California). How incredible that Cafe Sparrow continues to renew its reputation for country French cooking. I’ve never had anything but fine meals here in many decades of dining. Open nightly for dinner, Monday-Friday for lunch, and brunch on weekends. cafesparrow.com.
Award-Winning Spirits
Kudos to Sean Venus whose Venus Spirits Gin Blend No. 02 has won at this year’s Good Food Awards. From almost 2,000 entries, the citrusy, complex, and very unusual new gin was one of 176 winners in 13 categories. If, like me, you keep a bottle of Venus’ Gin No. 01 in your freezer, then this second creation will surprise you. Infused with botanicals such as orange and bay, this gin was aged in American oak. The color is caramel, the flavor is astonishing.
Wine of the Week
A light, charming, easy-sippin’ Dolcetto from Banfi. This high-value wine was made in cement tanks—no oak! Lots of pure strawberry fruit notes. A steal at $7 from the Shopper’s treasure trove of bargain wines.
Through all his years as a professional baseball player, Tim Flannery had his guitar at his side. From his first minor league stint in Liberal, Kansas, through 10 years as infielder with the San Diego Padres, and another seven years as third-base coach for the San Francisco Giants, Flannery spent many nights on the road playing his guitar deep into the night.
“It kind of just let me breathe,” he says. “The baseball life is a glamorous life from a distance, but there’s a lot of collateral damage that comes with it. The guitar seemed to be my one constant.”
Flannery’s family emigrated to Kentucky in the mid-1700s, and Appalachian music provided a musical education. Flannery’s grandmother was a great banjo player, and the young Flannery picked up singing and playing early. He started writing his own songs on long bus rides with minor league teams.
When asked if he ever considered pursuing music rather than baseball as a career, Flannery talks about his uncle, Hal Smith, a major league infielder who was a home-run hero for the Pittsburgh Pirates in game seven of the 1960 World Series. Uncle Hal, as Flannery calls him, also carried around a Gibson J-45 guitar.
“I never thought there was a choice to make,” he says. “When people would tell me I had to make a choice between baseball and music, I’d tell them, well then, you have to make a choice between water and air. Which one do you want?”
A warm and funny man, and an excellent storyteller, Flannery was a fan favorite in San Diego. During his final game, he received a standing ovation that lasted so long the umpire had to stop play. In San Francisco, he developed a reputation for being the most excitable third-base coach in baseball, jumping and running alongside base runners to guide them to home plate safely.
Flannery was never a star on the field—he only hit nine home runs in his 10 years with the Padres—but his reputation in the majors is sealed. As one announcer said, “If there’s a better third-base coach in baseball, I’d like to see him.”
Flannery’s passion carries through to his music. A singer-songwriter with 14 albums, he writes about love, hard luck, the natural world, friends and joy. His songs fall comfortably into the folk/bluegrass vein, but Flannery’s music isn’t limited to roots styles. He was adopted by the Grateful Dead and has performed several times with Bob Weir, who is among the Bay Area’s rock music royalty.
Flannery has a deep appreciation for the people and music of San Francisco. His 2015 album Three Ring Circus is a love song to the city, and a snapshot of his own journey from pain and struggle to joy and acceptance. The album, which features of photo of Flannery’s three World Series rings on the cover, was released shortly after he retired from the Giants in 2014—something that he knew he needed to do.
“My last year before I left was a tough year for me,” he says. “It was time to come home. I was leaking oil and had an engine smoking. You win three World Series and I’m thinking, what else do I have to do? Can I do something else other than have a game every day?”
Flannery now focuses on music and one of his other great passions, the Love Harder Project, a nonprofit he started to help Bryan Stow, the local Giants fan who was beaten in the Dodger Stadium parking lot in 2011. Flannery and his band donate all proceeds from album sales, performances and merchandise to Stow and his family.
Flannery’s generosity and kindness can be heard in his music, which has a thread of spirituality running through it. The son of a “hillbilly Christian minister,” Flannery views life through the lens of someone who’s seen a lot and come out the other side.
“Someone once told me ‘religion is for people who don’t want to go to hell, and spirituality is for those who already have,’” he says.
For his Santa Cruz performance, Flannery is bringing his band, the Lunatic Fringe, which includes celebrated rock guitarist Doug Pettibone. The band loves coming to Santa Cruz and Flannery tends to stay awhile once he comes to town.
“My wife would say, ‘The gig was Friday and you’re back like a week later,’” he says with a laugh. “I’d say, ‘Yeah, I’ve been at the Crepe Place, I’ve been at the Dream Inn, I’ve been out surfing with Wingnut down at the Point. I’ve got lots of friends there.’”
Tim Flannery will perform at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 30 at the Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. $25/gen, $40/gold. 423-8209.
January can be a bleak month. But if you’re a cider maker, it means boisterous singing to the oldest apple tree in your orchard. “A wassail involves a lot of noise,” Nicole Todd of Santa Cruz Cider Co. says of the traditional English cider ceremony. “In January, we’re already thinking about waking the tree up for production for the next year. You pour cider on the roots and hang toast in the branches to nourish it,” she says. “And you thank it for all it gave you the previous year.” (Hey, whatever keeps the cider flowing.) As the family-owned company enters its third year of production, it’s racked up a lot to be thankful for. The local cidery, run by Todd and her sister, Natalie Beatie, has more than doubled its production every year—from 500 gallons in their first 2013 batch to a projected 5,000 gallons in 2016. Last year, they graduated from their so-called “bootleg” operation (making cider homebrew-style) to a professional facility on the Westside. This year, they plan to begin bottling for the beer bars, restaurants and markets that have been clamoring for the effervescent brew. Currently, SCCC’s cider is on draft at Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing, the Cremer House, the Food Lounge, and The Poet & The Patriot Pub. “Last year we sold out as fast as we could make it,” says Todd. “This year we’re hoping to expand to a lot more local beer bars and restaurants. We’re focusing on Santa Cruz. Hopefully next year we’ll expand production to San Francisco.” The company’s success belies a slower approach to the craft and a commitment to using local fruit they pick themselves. The vast majority of SCCC’s apples come from a century-old apple orchard in Corralitos, and other local farms. “We’ve kept it small, and grown piece by piece without investors,” says Beatie, who handles the production side of the business. “It’s just our family out there every weekend.” The fruits of their labor are hard to resist: dry, crisp ciders that are delicious and thirst quenching—and a far cry from the slick, sugary ciders newcomers to the craft may be familiar with. “We make a dry-style cider using mostly champagne yeast. Sometimes we blend fresh juice back to add body and flavor, but we never add sugar. It’s just apples,” says Todd. SCCC will be offering their best-selling ciders, as well as some unique blends, at their Second Annual Wassail on Saturday, Jan. 23 at The Poet & The Patriot Pub. Guests will be invited to sample their brews, sing “apple songs” and enjoy live music from the Apple City Slough Band. They’ll supply the toast.
We live in an age where technology is intertwined into almost every aspect of our lives. Perhaps the only place it hasn’t yet completely conquered is our own bodies. That may be why mainstream culture greeted certain wearable technology like Google Glass with distrust and even outright hostility—after all, once technology is on us, isn’t it only a matter of time before it’s in us, or simply is us? But Philippe Kahn, best known as the inventor of the camera phone, and now CEO and founder of Santa Cruz-based Fullpower Technologies Inc., thinks that attitude is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. More and more consumers are embracing gadgets like FitBits, smart watches, smart beds, and even fitness-tracking smart shoes for their potential to revolutionize the fitness and health care industries. These wearables can track every aspect of daily life, from sleep patterns to steps taken to heart rate, calories burned, body weight, and time spent standing. Meanwhile, Kahn’s company is already working on all sorts of ideas that will help usher in the next era of wearable tech. Why is he betting the industry will continue to grow? Because knowledge is power. When it comes to improving our health and lifestyles, extremely individualized data can go a long way. And when we decide to make a change and do something about it, wearable technology can provide immediate feedback on our progress. “It’s simple and amazingly efficient,” Kahn tells GT. Wearable technology provides the kind of information that can get results fast, he says, which feeds its popularity. “Without any other changes, if Ms. and Mr. Everyone are just a little more active and sleep just a little more, health immediately improves.” Whereas current fitness wristbands and watches collect data mainly through an accelerometer that tracks step-related movements or lack thereof, devices of the future will be able to distinguish among many different and diverse types of exercise, as well as provide data about blood sugar, hydration, hormone levels, and beyond. Additionally, whereas a current concern among wearable technology users and makers is a lack of privacy, the wearable tech of the future will use authentication techniques that are unique to every individual, such as heart rhythm. Current wearable fitness trackers are fairly limited in the types of exercise they can track, and this is especially true if the exercise doesn’t involve taking steps. The next generation of wearable tech will not only be able to “learn” and measure new exercises performed by the wearer, it will also be able to more accurately track activities like weight lifting, swimming, and even something like playing an instrument that while usually performed stationary is nonetheless a legitimate workout for the upper body. Future fitness wearables will also be able to instantly access the wearer’s diet and medical history and even be able to “critically think” and provide advice. Smart sports gear is also just around the corner, such as a basketball that has an implanted computer and can track made baskets and provide feedback on shooting form, or a football that can help aspiring quarterbacks throw a tighter spiral.
PICTURE OF HEALTH
Exercise and sport aren’t the only frontiers for wearable technologies. They show even greater potential to improve personal health on a large scale because they provide a larger amount of more accurate data to a doctor or health care provider. As long as the patient consistently wears his or her health-and-fitness-tracking wearable technology, a doctor can easily use the data from the device to get a more accurate picture of the patient’s lifestyle. This will allow doctors to make better decisions and diagnoses than ever before. Eventually, wearable technology will allow doctors to treat patients remotely, without having to see them in person—transforming health care for travelers, those who find it difficult or impossible to visit a doctor’s office, and pretty much everyone else. Some examples of cutting-edge health care wearable technology include body-worn sensors and contact lenses that monitor blood sugar levels and could revolutionize the care and management of diabetes, an increasingly common condition in America. Companies are also developing smart bras that track breast health, as well as wearable technology that could help a person quit smoking by detecting cravings and then releasing medication before the smoker falls off the wagon and lights up a cigarette. There is even ingestible technology being developed that is powered by stomach acid and could monitor the timing and consistency of when a person takes their medications. This could provide doctors with unprecedented information about the adherence to and effectiveness of prescribed therapies.
FUZZY DATA
Wearable technology, however, is still in its infancy, or, at most, its toddlerhood. And there are plenty of growing pains. One challenge is the drive to constantly improve the accuracy of the data these devices provide. When current wearable technology can only provide estimates on steps taken, calories burned, or anything else, it simply isn’t good enough. This can be a major problem, especially if health care providers are basing recommendations for medication, exercise, diet, and lifestyle on the accuracy of this data. “Accuracy is important, as that is key work that Fullpower focuses on more than any other company on the planet,” says Kahn. But for most current applications of wearable technology, he believes this issue shouldn’t be overblown. “Remember that the benefits come from being more active and sleeping a little longer, not necessarily understanding every detail of everything.”
There is even wearable technology being developed that turns sound into patterns of vibration felt on the skin from a garment that, with training, can help the deaf “hear” the world around them.
At this point, there is little industry regulation and no governing body to make independent verifications of wearable technology data, and to make sure standards are upheld. Greater industry regulation with independently verified data will go a long way toward legitimizing the entire industry. “We sure hope this happens soon, as it will make Fullpower’s technology shine even more,” says Kahn. “My understanding is that there are a couple of labs who are evaluating the business opportunity.” There is also the issue of interpretation of all this data—without it, the information is basically useless. “It’s not just quantified self-measuring, it’s using big data science to give meaningful insights,” explains Kahn. “For example, Fullpower’s new Sleeptracker® Smartbed will soon start being deployed by major bedding manufacturers and will provide lots of insights and tools to improve sleep.” Kahn says the insight the smart bed provides is based on data from more than 500 million nights of detailed recorded sleep, and calls it “the greatest sleep study ever.” Wearable technology not only needs to be stylish, in Kahn’s view, it also needs to be at least somewhat invisible or at least seamlessly integrated into a person’s “look.” Making a one-size-fits-all product that also has universal aesthetic appeal is no small challenge. Just consider how many different companies sell widely diverse products that are all essentially either a shoe, a shirt, a hat, or anything else wearable. “We believe that wearable tech and fashion are tied at the hip. We are focused on making non-invasive technology that is green, invisible and beautifully discreet,” says Kahn. Battery life is another challenge. “Fullpower is working on energy harvesting off the host. It’s no different than getting solar energy to work in the home,” says Kahn. His company recently launched the Movado smartwatch that can run for over two years without a charge. Whether it’s using body heat, body movement, or some other source, renewable energy is a big part of the future of wearable technology.
WEARABLE FRONTIERS
As bright as the future may be for wearable fitness technology, the possibilities for merging man and machine on a larger scale may be even more astounding. For example, Lockheed Martin has developed an unpowered exoskeleton that makes heavy tools feel almost weightless, as if they are being used in zero gravity. This kind of technology could revolutionize many industries including construction, demolition, disaster cleanup, and first-responder situations. Still other exoskeletons are being used to help paraplegics regain the use of their legs and walk again. There is even wearable technology being developed that turns sound into patterns of vibration felt on the skin from a garment that, with training, can help the deaf “hear” the world around them in a similar way to how Braille turns letters and words on a page into tactile representations that allow the blind to “see.” Some people are even pushing the boundaries of our senses by implanting magnets into their fingertips in order to be able to “feel” electromagnetism. The incredible neuroplasticity of the human brain allows for all of this remarkable technology to be seamlessly integrated into the brain’s representation of the body over time. For example, ask any experienced surfer where the body ends and they will all tell you that eventually the surfboard becomes an extension of the self. To them, the body does not end at the foot, it ends on the wave. All of this seemingly space-age technology being closer to our doorstep than most of us thought begs the question: How much technology is too much technology? But the reality is that technology is in many ways the ultimate embodiment of everything it means to be human, showcasing our ingenuity, ambition and creativity. Wearable technology is only the latest expression of an age-old truth: We have always been natural born cyborgs, using technology to transcend ourselves and our biology.
Technology is everywhere: It’s in the checkout line at Trader Joe’s, glowing in the dark after bedtime, tempting us while we’re stopped for a red light—it even creeps into our bathrooms while we’re sitting on the toilet. But what is our attachment to our phones doing to our bodies and brains? Well, let’s start with the latest medical phenomenon you should probably know about: text neck. “Think of it as whiplash at zero miles an hour,” says local chiropractor Michelle Bean, co-founder of the Santa Cruz Challenge. “It’s the shortening of certain [neck] muscles, [while] muscles on the other side of the body get inhibited or elongated. If they’re chronically elongated and inhibited the body turns them off at some point.” So how relevant is this to anyone who relies on texting as their main form of communication with friends? “I look around all the time and see people with their heads hanging over their shoulders and it’s sad. I worry,” says Bean. “What’s going to happen with this next generation coming up?” To experience the healthy, all-too-rare sensation of a straight spine while reading on a mobile device eye, or other screen for that matter, we should raise it up to eye level. “With text neck, you’re constantly looking down at your tablet or cell phone, and nodding, sitting on the couch, on a chair. You do it hundreds of times a day over the course of years and suddenly your body’s breaking down,” says UCSC’s Campus Ergonomist Brian MacDonald. Social psychologist Amy Cuddy recently brought the text neck concept—also referred to as iHunch or iPosture—into the national discussion with her Dec. 12 article in the New York Times, which presents this previously underreported fact: “When we bend our necks forward 60 degrees, as we do to use our phones, the effective stress on our neck increases to 60 pounds.” “That extra weight will either go directly into their neck or transfer down, often to a weak link in the spine,” Bean says. “Sometimes they’ll feel it all the way down their back into the hips.” The problem is growing, and fast—a 2013 study on the health effects of smartphones and portable devices in 1,049 people found 70 percent of adults and 30 percent of children surveyed reported musculoskeletal symptoms in the body, according to the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the Hong Kong Physiotherapy Association, which collaborated on the study.
Spinal Tax
The physical effects of the now ubiquitous iHunch can creep up slowly, and sometimes people don’t realize that the jaw, wrist, elbow or lower back pain they develop is caused by poor posture in the neck and shoulders. “What it ends up doing is putting a lot of load on the [spinal] discs,” says Bean. “The disc is designed to absorb load when you put stress on it, and it ends up kind of moving the stress to the front of the disc, squeezing the disc so you can get cracks in the disc or a herniation, disc bulges, bone spurs.” And that’s just talking about the spine, says Bean. “Other things like lung capacity gets bound because you’re closing down the lung space. Problems with digestion is one we really see. You’re also squeezing down on the abdominal cavity,” says Bean. The saddest thing about these negative physical impacts is that they’re so easily preventable, says Bean. Most people aren’t yet cognizant enough of the problem to make a change. Bean and MacDonald both report seeing text neck affecting young people, in a way never seen before, and that there’s a significant gap in education on how to maintain good posture—both at school and in the workplace. Bean works on patients who come into her practice with complaints of pain, once things like text neck have already set in, while MacDonald’s focus as an ergonomist is to try and prevent those injuries from forming. MacDonald and the UCSC Environmental Health & Safety Department try to encourage supervisors and managers to report physical effects of equipment as they arise, in order to get funding for ergonomically sound furniture. There’s an altruistic and financial motivation for businesses to do this, too, he says—healthy employees create a happier work environment, but from a financial standpoint, keeping employees in good posture decreases the cost of an injury or hiring and training someone new. “In the late ’80s, late ’90s, computers started showing up in a big way. Before then it wasn’t recognized that office work was risky,” says MacDonald, who worked as a chiropractor for 20 years before beginning ergonomics consulting. “But since around 2000, even in the last five years, we’re experiencing an industry-wide shift,” says MacDonald. “For the first time new employees—young people in their early 20s—showing up within in the first few months experiencing these injuries because they’ve been looking at their cell phones, tablets—and they’ve been doing it since they were 3 years old. We’re seeing a new epidemic of young people with these injuries.” Straightening up in your chair can help, and guess what, there’s an app for that. The Text Neck Institute—yes, that exists too—launched the Text Neck Indicator app for Android phones to notify cell phone users when they’re holding their device at an unhealthy height. MacDonald also points out that employers are legally responsible for making workplaces ergonomically safe. The California Code of Regulations stipulates that if one or more ergonomic-related injuries takes place on the job, the employer must institute training, an evaluation and controls to minimize the risk of injury.
Necks Generation
CHIN UP Dr. Michelle bean demonstrates correct mobile device posture on a patient. PHOTO: KEANA PARKER. Back in the 18th and 19th centuries, good posture was a status symbol—a social signifier of good breeding and etiquette. Most baby boomers were also nagged by their parents to sit up straight, too, perhaps while dialing a rotary phone or opening a piece of mail. But then there are those who grew up with the Internet—millennials with the last remaining memory bridge to the dial-up past—and those born after, into a world of Wi-Fi. Teenagers and young adults have often had bad posture, says Bean, but there’s now far less education about how critical good posture is. “If you’ve ever seen a one-year-old or two-year-old they’ve got [good posture], because they’re influenced by one thing, and that’s gravity,” Bean says. “Gravity is the number one influencer on the body, so they sit with really good posture, they bend over with really good posture, they stand up with good posture. Those are natural instincts.” The change occurs when kids reach around 7 or 8, says Bean. These days, that’s the age when children are starting to really use technology, especially for school and homework. The good news is that there are ways to prevent the effects of bad posture from leading to chronic problems, especially if children start changing their posture habits at an early age. Bean recommends that in order to maintain good posture while seated, bring the shoulder forward, up and back for a roll motion. The goal is to elongate the body, not just pop the chest out, she says. “You can just get up and walk around the desk, it’s going to make a huge difference,” says Bean. “For people that commute a lot, set the rearview mirror getting into the car and get in a good postural position—and then don’t move it.” For workstations, MacDonald recommends that all furniture be adjustable, especially the chair and desk, that everything be in close reach, and that the monitor is at a height that maintains a neutral neck position. Listen to music while you work, dance a little—any sort of movement to break up the stagnation helps.
Body of Trouble
While our mental state can often affect our posture, poor posture can also affect our mental state. In 2010, the Brazilian Psychiatric Association found that depressed patients tend to slouch with the whole body folding more inwardly than non-depressed people. Meanwhile, a study published last year in Health Psychology showed how the moods of non-depressed participants can become much more negative when sitting in a constantly slouched position. And then there’s the damage to our eyes. “The eye didn’t develop to stare at a fixed distance for eight hours in a row,” says Santa Cruz Optometric Center optometrist Laura Prisbe. The problem is so pervasive that the Vision Council even came up with a name for it: Digital Eye Strain. And with nearly four out of 10 millennials spending at least nine hours on digital devices every day, it’s something to pay attention to, says Prisbe. “That muscle that controls focusing, by being locked in the specific distance, gets really fatigued staring at the same distance,” Prisbe says. That’s how people who aren’t genetically nearsighted or farsighted end up with symptoms of those conditions. But that’s not even the half of it. Prisbe says that staring at one spot also causes us to blink less—increasing eye fatigue—and that the glare from a computer screen coupled with the ubiquitous aesthetic atrocity that is overhead fluorescent lighting is the ultimate recipe for eye exhaustion. New research coming to light over the last few years details the effects of “blue light”—that familiar glow on most screens—on the human eye. According to the Vision Council’s 2015 Digital Eye Strain Report, the band of blue-violet light thought to be most harmful to retinal cells falls between 415 to 455 nanometres (nm). Some of the “most favored digital devices and modern lighting” typically start at around 400 nm. Prolonged exposure to blue light can lead to macular degeneration, especially if you have a family history of it, says Prisbe. “It’s the loss of your central vision. Your macula is the center part of your retina, what you use when you look directly at something,” she says. “With macular degeneration, you get a blind spot in the center of your vision.” It’s a scary prospect, says Prisbe, who, like Bean, worries most about children spending unprecedented amounts of time looking at screens when the long-term effects are not yet known. One thing parents can do to avoid future problems, says Prisbe, is make their kids go outside more. “There’s research that supports that your eye continues to grow if you’re reading up close in poor light—that’s what nearsightedness is, the eyes grow too much,” she says. “With kids who are in natural daylight, they found that having exposure to outside reading was the key in not developing myopia, or nearsightedness.” For cubicle dwellers, Prisbe recommends anti-glare screens, using artificial tears, and making sure the screen is at least an arm’s length away, the font is at a comfortably large size, the illumination is not at its brightest, and the screen is just below eye level. For those fighting fluorescent lighting, she even suggests wearing a hat or visor. Also worth looking into: a coating for glasses that blocks blue light, and computer-specific glasses to help the focusing muscle relax. For most people, the most important rule to remember is the 20-20-20 rule, says Prisbe: every 20 minutes, take 20 seconds and spend it looking away from your screen at something at least 20 feet away. “This field is evolving with the research being done,” says MacDonald. “Technology is providing us with new challenges, many people now aren’t working in front of a desktop computer, but they’re looking at their tablet and cell: that provides a new set of static prolonged postures.”
After a recent media chat with Casey Hill, a handful of reporters shuffled away from the Santa Cruz Warriors coach, who remained still and staring at the ground for what was probably only 10 seconds, but seemed like an eternity.
One reporter, perhaps trying to break the uncomfortable silence, asked, “Doing some heavy thinking there, coach?”
“Yeah,” Hill responded quietly. “I’ve been doing that all year.”
His team had just lost at home, in front of an international audience, putting their wins for the season below 50 percent with a performance that could best be described as “lackluster.”
It was the team’s first game of the NBA D-League showcase. Five rows of the north side of the Kaiser Permanente Arena were filled with scouts from all over the world, NBA employees and reporters from the likes of ESPN and the Associated Press. They came to see the up-and-coming talent, and the Santa Cruz Warriors may have choked under the pressure.
“I think what happened is we came out nervous,” Hill said after the Jan. 8 game.
Of course, it would be a wrong to say that a poor performance boils down to only nerves for a team that has now lost the last seven of its past eight games. The team was playing its first game with point guard Aaron Craft, last year’s D-League Defensive Player of the Year, since April. More significantly, the team had just lost guard Elliot Williams—who earned both Player of the Month and Player of the Week honors at the beginning of the season—to a 10-day contract with the Grizzlies.
“Losing Elliot at 28 points a game hurts, and at a certain point, you’ve got to find where those 28 points are gonna come from,” Hill said.
Since that disappointing game, Santa Cruz would go on to lose four more straight games. But it’s too early to sound the alarm for a 10-15 team that just reached the midway point in the season. Forward Kevon Looney, Golden State’s first-round draft pick, has been getting playing time, now that he’s back from his hip surgery. Looney got 11 points, 12 rebounds and two blocks in just 16 minutes. He might help carry Santa Cruz to wins, just as James Michael McAdoo did to help them win the championship last year.
At this month’s showcase, I sat next to a league official, who told me that Santa Cruz has one of the three best environments in the league.
It is a fan base that’s never been tested, though, as the team has been to three championships in its first three years in Santa Cruz, even winning it all and taking home the D-League trophy last year. So, this all begs the question: What happens if and when the winning stops in a league where it’s so hard to have continued success?
Chris Murphy, Santa Cruz’s new team president, says he isn’t too worried, as the organization has done a lot of community work to build a relationship that’s bigger than just basketball.
“You build an affinity with your fan base, and they stay with you through thick and thin,” says Murphy, who notes that Golden State’s diehard following stayed true during 17 miserable straight seasons of missing the playoffs.
In the meantime, Hill says his team needs to come out aggressive early in games.
“This group’s got this strange need to get flicked in the ear six or seven times, and then they wake up and turn around and punch someone in the face,” Hill said at the showcase. “It’s the perfect example of the hibernating bear—fat and happy. And then at a certain point, we wake up and start attacking.”
In a race against time, chef Ana Mendoza Rodriguez is searching for the appropriate spatula to scrape brownies off her baking sheet and onto small plates already decorated with strawberries, chocolate chips and a glaze. Yards away, her competitors have been reducing a creamy Alfredo sauce, mashing avocados for guacamole, baking cupcakes and frying malasadas, a fried Portuguese pastry similar to a doughnut or a beignet. “It was really fun, but we were in a rush,” says Ana, a member of Ms. Sandra Palazzola Jennings’ culinary arts class at Branciforte Middle School. With one hour to prep, cook and plate dishes, they didn’t leave enough time to bake for 20-25 minutes, forcing Ana and her small team of fellow middle schoolers to improvise. The dish was still graceful enough to win “Best Plate Design” at the class’s Top Chef competition that afternoon—an honor she shared with teammates Anthony Sundeen, Jennifer Pacheco Martinez and Keidy Mendoza Martinez. Jennings says that making the best of a bad situation is just one of many skills kids learn through cooking, along with a little science, math, reading, and practical life skills. “It teaches kids how to work in a team. You have to with others in close communication,” Jennings says. “And we also all need to learn how to cook.” The award for “Best Flavor” went to Emily Bolin, Erick Juarez Medina, Jordan McCray-Brown, Olivia Amador, and Mai Naughton-Ceja for a ravioli Alfredo dish. Perhaps more important than winning, though, are the connections and skills the students pick up along the way. “You get to know a lot more people in this class,” Olivia Lackey, a seventh grader offers. “In most classes, you just sit down and learn.” Olivia also learned how to be resourceful, and that you don’t need fancy tools to make good food—for instance, you can whisk eggs just fine using a fork. “You don’t need the most expensive things,” she says. In the class, which is officially called Literacy Through Culinary Arts, students start out reading food reviews from newspapers like Good Times and the Santa Cruz Sentinel, and eventually begin writing their own. Jennings has them study rules of etiquette, so they learn how to set a table. There are also cook-at-home projects, writing assignments about food memories, journal entries and assignments on similes and metaphor descriptions of food. There is a small class fee, but no one is turned away for lack of funds. None of this, of course, would be possible without backing of the district and community donors who support the class.
“It teaches kids how to work in a team. You have to with others in close communication,” Jennings says. “And we also all need to learn how to cook.”
“It comes from the creativity of our district and the willingness to hang on to electives,” says Jennings, who is still grateful after all these years that she was offered to teach the class as a first-year teacher a decade ago. “I will be teaching it until I retire, I hope.” Kris Munro, the Santa Cruz City Schools superintendent, says electives are important, because they allow students to grow and also help them to lead well-rounded lives. Other school districts took a different approach 15 years ago, she explains, when the since-defunct No Child Left Behind Act became law—effectively cutting their more creative curriculum in favor of basic math and English classes. “Kids would take three hours of math and three hours of language arts, instead of getting exploratory classes. But we decided to embrace those skills and embed those standards in our exploratory course work,” Munro says. As a result, the district has a handful of elective classes. Mission Hill Middle School, the district’s other middle school, has 15 electives, including ceramics, stained glass, musical theater, multimedia, and 3D design. As Jennings is now more than six months pregnant, long-term substitute Kyle Noone has been coming into class three to four times a week to get a feel for the class as he’ll take over next month in the new semester. “It’s a self-driven class,” Noone says. “The kids are just doing. The teacher facilitates it, but the kids make it happen. I love the fact that other teachers come in during their prep [periods] and eat the food.” After Jennings finishes counting down an hour of cooking, children’s hands spring up from their plates, and the dishes are complete. Next begins the tasting and voting, which all of the students, as well as a few teachers who are in between classes for the day, participate in. After that, the sound of discussing tasty dishes is replaced with the drone of running water and the swishing of brooms. Out come the 409 spray bottles and sponges. “And this might be the most exciting part—watching kids clean,” Jennings says. After class, Jennings tallies up the votes and prepares to announce the winners later in the week. “What they win is bragging rights. I used to give out a $5 gift card to Safeway, but they didn’t really care. What they really want is to be able to say, ‘Hey, I’m Top Chef,” says Jennings, casually lifting her sweater an inch off of her shoulders and shrugging. “Bragging rights are a hot commodity.”
Plus Letters To the Editor When I was working on a story back in 2013 about why Randall Grahm’s Le Cigare Volant restaurant failed in Santa Cruz, several people I talked to told me that they never went there “because it was on the Westside.” They said it like the Westside was an entirely different place...
Yes, I’m concerned about the radio waves and how they affect the human body. Jamil Johnson, Santa Cruz, Courtesy Clerk It just sounds like a lot of mumbo jumbo. Cell phones have been around, what, 20 years? And people aren’t dropping off from cancers, so I’m not worried about it. Colin...
Plus Letters To the Editor
Yes, I’m concerned about the radio waves and how they affect the human body.
