It’s a sunny but brisk day and I’m sitting at Blue Ball Park with local musician Dayan Kai. He’s there with his family, and every now and then one of his kids runs over to pounce on him or give him a toy to hold. We’re talking about music and the fact that some people are just born musically gifted. “In the Indian tradition,” he says, his long blond hair blowing about in the winter breeze, “they say that you cannot learn to play tabla in one lifetime.”
The Hidden Right-Wing Agenda at the Heart of ‘Thrive’
Dust off your tin foil hats! The locally produced film with the cult following claims the government is suppressing a mystical source of “free energy.” And that’s just the start of the wackiness. Thrive also lionizes radical libertarians, John Birchers and conspiracy theorists who believe a race of lizard people rule over us.
New Leaf Serves Up Fresh Cooking Tips
Are you as addicted to New Leaf as I am? Outstanding fresh coffee, vigorous green health drinks bursting with minerals that slap your immune system into shape, custom-made sandwiches and that life-saving dinner alternative, turkey chili. All this plus a butcher section and a bracing selection of local premium wines? It’s safe to say New Leaf offers everything (except perhaps a parking lot large enough for cars powered by gasoline).
COPA Plans to Fight Foreclosures
The regional community activist group COPA is gearing up to put lots of pressure this year on Monterey Bay candidates to do something about people losing their homes to banks. “There’s not enough trained people to deal with foreclosure,” says Jon Showalter of COPA, which stands for Communities Organized for Relational Power in Action. “The banks just kick you down the road.”
PaddleFest to Draw Spray, Crowds
The lineup of surfers anxiously awaiting a clean drop at Steamer Lane this weekend will have to wait a little longer. Here come three days of competitive surfing with a twist—the best paddle-powered wave riders the world over are set to take the beach by storm. After whipping wind and hail cut short the quarter-century-old competition last year, the Santa Cruz PaddleFest is back.
Letters to the Editor, Mar. 14-20
Here’s what public schools, desalination, and Madonna all have in common: they can all elicit pretty strong opinions from Santa Cruz Weekly readers.
Supervisor Letter Shows Dog Leash Tensions
Officers from the Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter started issuing tickets earlier this year for people walking their dogs without leashes. Judging from a recent newsletter from Santa Cruz County Supervisor John Leopold, the enforcement change is causing a stir in parts of the county.
LAFCO Delays Decision on UCSC Water Expansion
The Santa Cruz Local Agency Formation Commission voted yesterday by a narrow margin to kick a can of water issues farther down the road.
‘Hello and Goodbye’ at Jewel Theatre
Johnny’s face and shiny head are drenched with sweat as the frantic middle-aged character pleas with his older sister to stay out of their father’s bedroom. There, Johnny fears she might uncover one of the family’s last remaining secrets—that their father isn’t even there.
UCSC Alum Edited Occupy Movement Paper
Two weeks after the first protestors unrolled their sleeping bags in Zuccotti Park, Occupy Wall Street’s inaugural newspaper hit the streets of lower Manhattan, hot off the people’s press. Among those hawking that first free issue of The Occupied Wall Street Journal was UCSC graduate Michael Levitin. A journalist by trade, Levitin jumped at the chance to join in the paper’s creation and help broadcast the diversity of voices and shared frustrations from within the fledgling movement.
