The 2012 Secret Film Festival

The dystopian '80s get a good look in Panos Cosmatos' 'Beyond the Black Rainbow.'

Hundreds packed the Del Mar on Saturday night, April 14, for the Seventh Annual Secret Film Fest, a delectable 12-hour run of movies from around the world. Among the eclectic mix were Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope, Morgan Spurlock’s surprisingly poignant documentary about the annual convention of comic book geeks, and The Raid: Redemption, an Indonesian martial arts thriller wherein a rookie cop must bust out of an apartment building full of underworld thugs after a special task force mission goes horribly awry.

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Dance Week in Santa Cruz

Poetry in motion during Dance Week 2011, captured by Adam Freidin.

National Dance Week kicks off (pardon the pun) in Santa Cruz Thursday, April 19, at 5:30pm right outside Santa Cruz Weekly’s doors—lucky us!—with performances in front of the Civic, City Hall and the Church Street Library. And what do the organizational wizards at Dance Week Santa Cruz have in store for the dance fans of Santa Cruz?

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Stripe’s Secrets: Retro Eclectic Design Interiors

This 2010 file photo from Stripe shows off the principle of rusty multiples. (Photo by Brian Harker)

Most people don’t look at a rusty old hammer and see the perfect thing to hang on an interior wall, or see a pile of padlocks as potential art or weatherbeaten wood as a place to put cherished photos. These are things that you find in junk piles and salvage yards. But to those with an eye for upcycling and repurposing, these things are treasures that have the potential to add an inspired touch to a space.

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The Seeds of Renee’s Garden

Renee Shepherd got hooked on flavorful veggies early. Photo by Carlie Statsky.

It all began about 30 years ago, when passionate gardener Renee Shepherd met a friend from the Netherlands who was selling seeds. “He suggested that if I liked to garden so much I ought to try some vegetables that were bred for flavor, because this was in the ’80s when I got started, and most American supermarkets weren’t worrying about what things were tasting like,” says Shepherd, owner of Renee’s Garden.

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The Great Santa Cruz Seed Bank Revolt

Andrew Whitman with some of the 250 varieties of heirloom seed he's gathered. Photo by Chip Scheuer.

Andrew Whitman holds out his hand. At first glance, he appears to be offering up a pile of tiny gray pebbles, or the world’s tiniest seashells, purple and black flecks radiating from the center of each. They are alive, and very, very old, but the spiraled wonders have nothing to do with the ocean. They are the seeds of teosinte, the ancient predecessor of maize and corn.

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