In the back of Robbie Pleasant’s closet, behind a few wrinkled T-shirts and a couple pairs of pants, are rows and rows of costumes. Among them is a black-and-silver collared robe modeled after “Manjoume” from the anime series Yu-Gi-Oh GX. There’s also a white flowing martial-arts-type gi like the one “Aizen” wears in Bleach and a tattered wizardly gown famously donned by “Negi” in Mahou Sensei Negima!
Crawford, Connelly for Judge; Coonerty for Supe
The Santa Cruz Weekly‘s political endorsements for the June 8 primary.
Grim Prospects for City Schools
Mary Hart, Associate Superintendent of Business for County Education, has some grim news for the Santa Cruz City School District. Despite teacher concessions and other steps taken to overcome the deficit, it is unlikely that local schools will be able to rehire teachers or restore abandoned programs. The district is facing a $7 million budget shortfall over the next three years
Why Does That Car Smell Like French Fries?
Have you ever walked down the street and suddenly had a hankering for French fries? You look around for the nearest McDonald’s, but there isn’t one in sight. What’s going on?
We’re the Best (for Surfing at Least)
The Times of London has named Santa Cruz the world’s top surfing destination, beating such strong contenders as Australia’s Gold Coast, Bali and the North Shore of Oahu.
Chanteuse Emily Jane White Returns to Santa Cruz
There’s a unique confidence to Emily Jane White’s songwriting: it’s at once sympathetic and tough-minded, reflective and unsentimental. Her work has been described as folk, which is reductive, considering how orchestrated her full-band arrangements are. While the music creates a contemplative space reminiscent of folk music, White’s subject matter and musical touchstones transcend the woman-with-acoustic-guitar label that is inevitably applied to women with acoustic guitars, whether or not it fits.
Saying Goodbye to The Capitola Theater
It’s been a while since the Capitola Theater held its last show. Still, the wrecking ball came as a shock to fans of the 61-year-old venue, considered a landmark in Capitola Village.
Bernal Replaces Wilson as New City Manager
Assistant city manager Martin Bernal will be taking the reins from City Manager Dick Wilson after a unanimous vote by Santa Cruz city council to appoint him to the new position. Bernal served as Assistant City Manager for 13 years, and was a popular choice among City councilmembers, department heads and community leaders.
Gangmembers Go After Tourists
The problem with gangs in Santa Cruz is getting more severe by the day. According to a recent report, tourists in Santa Cruz were beaten up by gang members on April 5. Their crime? One of the tourists was wearing a red 49ers jersey. Though the group denied any affiliation to a gang, their attackers saw it as affront and proceeded to beat them up anyway. By the time the police arrived, the four tourists, from Sonoma County, needed stitches because of their injuries.
Santa Cruz’s Yuppie Intifada
Have you ever seen the blog stuffwhitepeoplelike.com? It explains why white liberals like things such as awareness, diversity, the Prius and yoga. Perhaps this is beyond its purview, but stuffwhitepeoplelike.com doesn’t tell the whole story, so I added a few items it neglects to name: maximum police protection, no questions asked; political homogeneity; self-aggrandizing hand-wringing in the name of the wretched of the earth and as little contact with them as possible. This month, UCSC and the Resource Center for Non-Violence (RCNV) hosted a talk by shylock-hustler buster and avowed Hizbollah supporter Norman Finkelstein. What could possibly be more important for Santa Cruzans than doing our part to soothe tensions in the Holy Land by speaking “truth” to Israeli power?
