Four girls perched in a row on the pickup tailgate behind the blueberries are a sight for old eyes on a Saturday morning, their dangling legs keeping time to the bluegrass band serenading the shoppers and the farmers and the faux flâneurs out for a stroll in a parking lot turned country fair for a day. The pasta man offering bargains under his baseball cap, the Happy Boys and Dirty Girls coolly flaunting their greens, the gourmet olive oil entrepreneurs with their tempting bits of bread for dipping in little golden bowls, fruit purveyors with their sweet bright hills all take me home to a farm I’ve never known except in old poems by aging drunks nostalgic for imagined Edens remembered precisely and harvested in language alone.
Breaking Down Bike Safety
After the death last week of cyclist Noel Hamilton—the second fatal hit-and-run accident involving a bicyclist in June—a memorial sprouted up at the scene on Old San Jose Road.
Downtown-Beach Trolley Launches
Santa Cruz has launched a trolley to shuttle riders from downtown to the beach. This is the second time that the trolley has been launched, and though it has only run for a short time, it is already a popular destination in its own right.
Good News for County Farmers
Crops in Santa Cruz County were valued at a record-breaking $532 million in 2010, $40 million more than in 2009. The most important crop was strawberries, which were worth $197 million. Raspberries, the second most valuable crop, were valued at less than half that at $91 million, with blackberries, miscellaneous vegetables, flowers and apples accounting for most of the remaining crops.
Star-Spangled ‘Stravaganzas
Where to go this weekend to celebrate the fact that our nation’s leader is a super hot former pothead with game and not an 85-year-old British matron.
Budget Passes, But Few Rejoice
Gov. Jerry Brown’s new budget, approved yesterday, assumes that the state can bring in $4 billion in new revenues, with two possible contingency plans if these revenues amount to less. Since no agreement was reached with Republicans on a special election to extend existing tax hikes, the state is looking at extensive deferments in education funding that will affect K-12, community colleges and the UC and CSU systems. The extra revenue is projected to come in from the enforcement of a sales tax on online vendors and a $12 car registration fee. Most controversial, however, is the decision to take $1.7 billion from redevelopment agencies statewide. This effectively ends the role that redevelopment agencies have traditionally played in improving services for local communities.
The Game of Life
In an elite UCSC lab, one group of computer scientists strives for hyperadvanced gaming software that can duplicate the human experience, while another puzzles over how to keep the tools of a powerful new medium accessible to all.
Santa Cruz Woman Wins Guinness Gaming Title
With clenched knuckles and a list of combo moves, Santa Cruz’s own Melissa Estuesta made her way this month into the Guinness Book of World Records for “longest videogames marathon playing a fighting game,” with exactly 32 hours, 5 minutes and 47 seconds of continuous time playing Mortal Kombat.
PLATED: Westside Wonders
If, like me, you’ve been shamelessly inhaling the luscious pumpkin bread from Companion Bakers all these years, you have reason to rejoice. Husband and wife team Erin and Jeremy Lampel just celebrated the opening of their new Companion Bakeshop on the site of Westside’s former Beckmann’s Bakery. And the crowd went wild. The couple’s inventory of organic sourdough baguettes, hefty whole wheat loaves, strawberry rhubarb pies and those sinful tea breads sold out completely at the new bakery/cafe’s opening last week.
Have A Ball at ‘The Full Monty’
Now that we’ve seen The Full Monty, we’ve seen everything. From the spicy curtain raiser to the bodacious closing number, Cabrillo Stage’s 30th season opener has wildly appreciative audiences shriek-laughing and whooping for more.
