Q&A: David Kumec of Mission Hill Creamery

David Kumec

“When I was a student in Paris I found out about Berthillon ice cream and was fascinated by their intense and perfect flavors, like salted caramel and dark chocolate,” says David Kumec. “I thought it must be the best ice cream in the world. My goal with this business is to make ice cream and sorbet that is good enough to compete with Berthillon in Paris.”

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Quirky Mural Welcomes All to ‘The Cruz’

“The Cruz,” Kirby Scudder. Photo courtesy of the artist.

New students trickling into town for the first time are getting a crash course on Santa Cruzan identity, thanks to a 30-foot-long caricature map of Santa Cruz now plastered on the corner of Bay and Mission streets. The mural is the work of Kirby Scudder, Tannery artist and co-founder of First Friday, who happened to have an obscenely large version of his recently released poster “The Cruz.”

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Letters to the Editor: Aug 22-28

In order to thank a veteran, one of our readers suggests using more than simply spoken words. Other readers, meanwhile, muse about the recently opened ReStore on the west side, a new Cabrillo College musical and those all too unaffordably priced condos at Walnut Commons.

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Shakespeare Santa Cruz ‘Henry IV Part Two’

Shakespeare Santa Cruz’s production of Henry IV Part Two bristles with strong performances and dramatic tension. Directed by SSC veteran actor and director Scott Wentworth, it plays in the Festival Glen in repertory with The Man in The Iron Mask, a Wentworth-authored play receiving its world premiere this season. Watching the cast members perform wildly different roles between the two adds an extra layer of pleasure to this already excellent production.

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Sanctuary Exploration Center

Kids try out the remote-controlled underwater submersible at the Exploration Center. Photo by Chip Scheuer.

The 12,600-square-foot Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Exploration Center is as vibrant and inventive a window on the ocean as one could hope for. Standing sentinel as a guardian of sea life at the mouth of the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf, the admission-free educational center opened to the public on July 23, 2012, and schools of curious observers have been flowing freely through the two-story center since.

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Q&A: Dispatch

Dispatch, seen performing here at Outside Lands, releases a new album Aug. 12. Photo by Jacob Pierce

When Dispatch released its first album in 1996, the world was a different place. Alanis Morissette’s latest album was topping the Billboard charts, eventually selling over 7 million copies that year in the US alone. There was no Google or YouTube.  There was no Facebook, MySpace or even Napster.

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