Six graduates-to-be talk about debt, work and their near- and long-term plans.
Articles by Maya Weeks
The State of The UCSC Graduate
In a time when student loan debt surpasses credit card debt and a state where public higher education costs more than a new fully loaded SUV, just about the only people who remain optimistic about the future are the professional counselors. Those about to walk across the stage in this weekend’s commencement ceremonies are nervous and just grateful they didn’t graduate at the peak of the recession in 2009.
Hoedown at Pie Ranch
When I first walk into the barn, I meet a mass of bodies holding hands and reeling from one end of the hay-strewn wooden floor to the other as it spirals towards the center of the room. A blonde little girl in pint-sized cowboy boots tugs a tall, young bearded man—a farmer, judging by his boots—along, laughing. The train thunders like a summer storm, and although I am only 20 miles outside of town, I feel like I’ve traveled back in time with the dozens of other folks lined up shoulder-to-shoulder under the canopy of twinkle lights.
Touche’d By An Angel
Hamlet certainly knows what it is to grapple with self-doubt. In Mountain Community Theater’s production of Paul Rudnick’s I Hate Hamlet, the actor behind tragedy’s greatest hero does, too.
LED And The New Lighting Landscape
Roy Johnson of Johnson Art Studio Lighting Design loves his job. As a lighting designer, he ensures the quality of light in our homes and businesses. And as California phases out incandescent light bulbs, he and his fellow light designers have their work cut out for them.
Avoiding The Sting
Rules on beekeeping vary greatly throughout the county. Some jurisdictions don’t regulate at all, while others demand—in theory, at least—a bundle of cash for a beekeeping permit.
Symposium Asks: What If Happiness Were King?
All over the world, communities are making efforts to localize their politics in attempts to rebuild their starving economies. This Friday, March 18, Santa Cruz goes local when the film The Economics of Happiness screens at the Rio Theatre. Following the screening will be a discussion with local experts Ross Clark, City of Santa Cruz Climate Coordinator; Michael Levy of Transition Santa Cruz; Irene Tsouprake, CEO of ITL Events and Gross National Happiness Advocate; Ocean Robbins, author, speaker and activist; and Dr. Wallace J. Nichols, researcher, author and activist.
Watching The Tsunami
On the afternoon of a day that saw 30 boats sink in the Santa Cruz Yacht Harbor by early official counts, damage from a tsunami surge that left an estimated $15 million of wreckage in its wake, Howard Thevenin watched stoically from the side of the harbor and recounted some history.
Heart of Porkness
In Spain I’ve had octopus, and in Sweden I’ve eaten reconstituted lutefisk, but heart is a dish I’ve never encountered in any of my travels. Last Saturday, however, that changed. After morning errands at the Westside Farmers Market, I stopped in at El Salchichero, where it warmed my heart to find that I don’t have to cross any geographical boundaries to leave my comfort zone and embark on a gastronomic adventure. When butcher Chris LaVeque told me what organs they had for sale, I couldn’t resist buying a pig heart. For $3 per pound it was an excellent deal and made a delectable dinner for three—but not necessarily a simple one.
Ireland Meets Appalachia in Solas
Had Winifred Horan and Seamus Egan of the Irish-American band Solas decided in the mid-’90s to start a family instead of a band, their progeny would now be deep in the throes of adolescence. Today, the fruit of their union is, rather, a rich sound that is ripe beyond its 15 years. Egan, who plays guitar, banjo, mandolin, flute, whistles and the bodhran in the transnational band, describes Solas as “fundamentally a traditional Irish band that takes the traditional material and stretches it a bit and then puts it back together.”
