Santa Cruz’s Strange Brew

Assistant brewer Reed Vander Schaaf explains the finer points of brewing beer. Photo by Brian Harker

Alec Stefansky learned to make beer in his UC-Santa Cruz dorm room, where he hid five-gallon batches from campus authorities and shared home-brewed pints among his roommates. It was a common enough way to begin. But today the 31-year-old is a professional brewer quickly ascending into the ranks of West Coast weird-beer stardom.

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A New Festival for Santa Cruz? But for What?

We're just saying. Photo by Curtis Cartier.

City Councilmember Don Lane and former Mayor Emily Reilly have an idea to raise money for Santa Cruz. They want to launch an annual festival, much like Gilroy’s famous Garlic Festival, with proceeds going to support local charities. It’s a great idea, but they haven’t quite thought it through. While they insist it become “a signature event” for Santa Cruz and a means of promoting off-season tourism, they haven’t decided exactly what it should celebrate.

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One Hate, One Fear

Anti-"batty boy" Buju Banton

Andy Samberg’s brilliant Saturday Night Live character “Ras Trent” navigates a day in the life of a reggae-loving college student, from the “shanty dorm” to his part-time job at “Jah Cold Stone Creamery” and, of course, his DVD of Cool Runnings. The skit is hilarious because everyone knows a suburban “rude boy,” complete with the blonde dreadlocks and Bob Marley silkscreen, who smokes way too much weed. Reggae music is pervading our culture like never before, from annual festivals to skanking reggae remakes of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Dark Side of the Moon.

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