Once a strictly blues festival, the Santa Cruz Blues Festival has come to encompass a wider range of music in the past decade or so, including rock ‘n’ roll, soul and roots music.
The Dirty Secrets of Processed Food
Katherine Reid, Ph.D. is a biochemist and founder of the nonprofit organization Unblind My Mind, whose mission is to raise awareness about what’s in our food, and how it might contribute to the diseases plaguing Americans.
Nick Gallant’s Free Music for Santa Cruz
By giving his record away for free, Gallant hopes to jumpstart some serious discussion about how much we value music as a culture—or more to the point, why we don’t anymore.
Tim Goncharoff’s Political Puppet Show
A collection of fake Facebook accounts were used to support several of Tim Goncharoff’s initiatives in 2012.
Preview: The 2014 Oscars
Almost nothing is as commercial as an Oscar-nominated film—except in the case of the nominees that frankly aren’t. This year’s nominees are as eclectic a marginal mix as anyone can remember: a grumpy alcoholic mumbling his way through a high plains road trip, an elderly British woman tracking the baby she gave up for adoption,…
Letters to the Editor, Feb. 26-Mar. 4
Wheels of Politics Re: “Spoke Out” (<a href="https://www.santacruz.com/articles/whats_wrong_with_the_citys_bike_program.html): In the article on the Bike Church being frozen out of the action distributing unclaimed lost and stolen bikes to youth in the community, the actual dynamic of the decision is apparent. Five of the seven of the city councilmembers believe staff reports above their own observations…
Can the Great Morgani Force Rule Changes Downtown?
Frank Lima almost didn’t leave his condo Sunday Feb. 16 to perform on Pacific Avenue, because he’d already enjoyed a nice afternoon busking the day before. It takes Lima, a 71-year-old mustached ex-stock broker, up to an hour to turn into the Great Morgani—an accordionist dressed head to toe in lycra, velvet and flamboyant colors.…
A Dog Search Like No Other
The first time I met him, Tim Ruzzo was saddled with a large briefcase stuffed to near bursting with documents about his dog. Like a magician pulling an endless handkerchief out of his pocket, Ruzzo retrieved adoption papers, legal documents and news articles about other people like him—people who had had their dogs stolen. He…
Preview: 'Three Days of Rain' at Center Stage
In all families, there is at least some gap between how much kids want to know about their parents’ early adult life, and how much the parents would rather not divulge—which is ultimately probably a good thing. How many people really want the gory details of their parents’ college years? These communication gaps become the…
Preview: Negativland at Crepe Place, Part 2
[Editor’s Note: This is the second part of a two-part story.] Over the course of three decades, Negativland have earned the badge of honor bestowed by the title of the 1995 documentary that examined their work—Sonic Outlaws. Using a mix of artfully edited sound samples from every corner of American culture, rock beats and a…
