Proudly presenting all the winners from the music & nightlife category of our annual Readers Survey.
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The 2011 Gold Awards: Food & Drink
Presenting the winners in the Food & Drink category of our annual Gold Awards Readers Survey, from bagels to wine lists.
Ten Questions for Maya Barsacq
The music director of Cadenza writes us back.
Bridging The Santa Cruz Digital Divide
Through the Pacific Avenue doors of Santa Cruz’s computer repair and training co-op the Computer Kitchen, visitors find a modest, somewhat shabby space populated by gray Dell towers and clamshell iBooks, like an Island of Misfit Toys for discarded tech. But though these computers have been replaced in the market by sleeker, more powerful models, they’re far from useless. For Santa Cruz residents stuck on the wrong side of the digital divide, they present opportunity. Founded in 2009 by former UCSC students Robert Sese and Dan Devorkin, the Computer Kitchen takes a DIY approach to bridging the divide and saving operational equipment from the trash heap.
PLATED: Roots Rock
Chef Telos Delosil of Gabriella Café created an appetizer this week so gorgeous and tasty that it needed closer examination. The plate in question involved roasted Live Earth beets—pink, red and yellow—arranged on a narrow plate and strewn attractively with candied citrus zest, guajillo chili emulsion, some feisty greens called “castlefranco” and a provocative dusting of something Delosil calls “chocolate hazelnut soil.” I needed to know more about that delicious soil, which clearly referenced the freshness of the just-harvested ingredients. “It was influenced by a dish I used to make in a restaurant in Mendocino, and also by something David Kinch does at Manresa,” admitted the Gabriella chef, who like all artists, is inspired by the best prevailing concepts.
Singer Songwriters Anonymous
She was kidnapped by an incense-burning hippie; hauled here from Los Angeles in the back of a Volkswagen van. At least that is how Jessica Sada, the last to take the stage of the Singer Songwriter Showcase, was introduced by the emcee. She fell in love with Santa Cruz and out of the love with the hippie, and here she was late on a rainy Tuesday night, performing her Aquabats-inspired songs to the small crowd gathered in the low light of Britannia Arms in Aptos.
A YouTube Tribute to James Durbin
There are those that say that Rebecca Black’s song “It’s Friday” is the worst song ever written. I beg to differ. For one thing, she has 63 million hits on YouTube, and even if she has well over 1.15 million dislikes, that’s still a lot of hits. Then there is her musical expression of such existential questions as to which seat she should take in the car, front or back (oh, the angst!), and her clear dependence on medicinal marijuana to get through the morning, even before she has her Cheerios (“Gotta have my bowl. Gotta have cereal,” is not as innocent as it seems). Then there is her vindication of the California educational system, which has already taught her four out of the six seven days of the week. That’s almost half! “We we we so excited,” indeed.
Sixth Graders Hunt Mountain Lions
A group of sixth graders from Santa Cruz spent a rainy Saturday hiking in the Santa Cruz Mountains, searching for mountain lions. They didn’t see any, but they certainly saw plenty of signs of the animals, including the remnants of past meals and, to their excitement, plenty of lion poop. At first they thought it could have been dog poop, but upon closer inspection, they found little bits of hair and bone in it—not something they find in animals’ reprocessed Alpo.
Gov. Brown’s Options
It looks like a familiar set-up. In a YouTube video titled “Governor Jerry Brown Checks in with The People of California,” the screen flashes an animated version of the official state seal before cutting to the governor seated at his desk. As California’s chief executive starts enumerating the Golden State’s many problems, the viewer half-expects him to stop mid-sentence, lean over the desk and announce, “And LIVE FROM NEW YORK, IT’S SATURDAY NIGHT!”
Last Chapter for Gateways
Borders, which has begun closing its Santa Cruz store along with 200 others nationwide, isn’t the only local bookselling casualty of this foot-dragging recession. Gateways Books closed its doors on Saturday, March 26, ending a 32-year run for the nonprofit spiritual bookstore. In the 5,000-square-foot emporium’s final days, its vast book collection dwindled to a few small volumes on mostly empty shelves.
