Some big stars have walked the streets of our fair town. Here are some worth bragging about.

The unofficial, un-sanctioned, really-not-legal-but-biggest-fireworks-party-anywhere happens on every beach in Santa Cruz for a six-mile stretch. Word has it that it’s settled down significantly from years past, when just stepping onto the sand between Main Beach and Seacliff was a declaration that you were a willing participant in a bottle rocket fight. Many locals avoid this scenario at all costs, though it’s hard to argue with the sheer prettiness of a Silver Fountain on a beach at nighttime. If you go, remember to pack your gunpowder-tainted trash and cigarette butts off the beach; that stuff’s really not so good for the wildlife.

Time was that price and USDA Grade A quality were all that the average shopper asked of their beef. Now the meat counter is a crossroads of signs touting all-natural, sustainably raised and grass-fed beef, especially at premium butcher shops like Shopper’s Corner and Staff of Life.

Your career path is dead. Save yourself. Such is the underlying premise of Chris Guillebeau’s new book The $100 Startup, a rallying cry to scrappy entrepreneurship.
Yes, job security and pensions have evaporated, but Guillebeau consoles us with the idea that we’re actually in charge.  The subtitle says it all: Reinvent the Way You Make A Living, Do What You Love, and Create A New Future.

We gather in the parking lot at Castle Rock State Park, six people ranging in age from mid-twenties to mid-forties, here to learn the art and science of rock climbing courtesy Santa Cruz–based Treks and Tracks. Before we set off on the 20-minute hike to the site, our guide Daniel Laggner, who has a shock of curly sun-streaked hair and forearms like Popeye’s, warns us about what may be the greatest actual threat we face all day: poison oak. “Leaves of three, let it be,” he instructs us. Got it.

The death of Shannon Collins on May 7 has prompted a public outpouring of shock and sorrow that’s impossible to ignore. On Monday, May 14, a week after she was stabbed to death in broad daylight by a troubled and violent man she didn’t know, some 300 community members organized by Take Back Santa Cruz walked from the scene of the murder to her shop, Camouflage, on Pacific Avenue, completing the walk she wasn’t able to. Neighbors of the block on Broadway where the murder happened held a memorial on Sunday, and before that friends and family gathered there Friday for a vigil. Hundreds of people—some who knew the 38-year-old Collins, many who did not—have signed online memorials and weighed in on Facebook. The Sin Sisters Burlesque donated the proceeds of their Saturday show to the Collins family. The Rio Theatre put her name on its marquee.

The Westside is foggy and cold when Jon Young and I meet on Delaware Avenue, at the back entrance to Natural Bridges State Beach, for a morning lesson in bird language. With him is Josh Lane, a mentor at Young’s Bonny Doon–based 8 Shields Institute, a nonprofit promoting connection with nature.

Just because you’re feeling broke doesn’t mean you ought to skip dinner. These winners of the Cheap Eats category in the 2012 Santa Cruz Weekly Gold Awards Reader Survey serve up flavorful food, and lots of it, for under $10.

TThe June 2-3 music and crafts festival looks to be a barn-burner, with the Brothers Comatose, David Lindley and a rash of other great local and regional bands in Felton.