Man. Woman. Masculine. Feminine.

Eight years ago, if you asked local photographer Jana Marcus to reflect upon those words and deliver an explanation of how we identify ourselves and relate to each another, she would have been game to play along, but may have not have been prepared to truly elaborate on the subject matter and retrieve an esoteric summation.

But she is now.

Somebody smart and savvy once quipped, “Drive into the sea of thought, and find there pearls beyond the price.” That’s something Rose Sellery would appreciate at the moment. The local artist and artist coordinator for the upcoming, bold and lush FashionArt Santa Cruz, has been delving deep into the nether regions of her mind to come up with enterprising ideas that will make the area’s quintessential fashion showcase even more spectacular than last year.

Fittingly, she’s doing her part by designing her own piece—with pearls of course. A lot of pearls. We’re talking thousands and thousands of pearls, all of which will collect themselves on a wearable art piece that, like the others in the show, is bound to capture interest.

Why? Two words: Wearable art.

All the World’s a Stage

An unmarked warehouse currently serves as the epicenter of the underground music scene in Santa Cruz. But to divulge the site’s name and location would be to betray the very fundamentals of underground music: word-of-mouth marketing and (sometimes) sidestepping the law, all in the name of music that operates outside of mainstream culture and challenges the listener to question the creative boundaries set forth by profit-driven labels and venues.

Local DIY music promoter Nick Bane, of Bane Shows—a production collective that has been hosting all-ages, alcohol- and drug-free shows in Santa Cruz since 2007—is one of a handful of underground music advocates responsible for the scene today.

Particularly in the summer months, when there were waves, sun, warm sand and the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk’s Giant Dipper twisting and dropping into the darkness of night, a Santa Cruz summer provided a nonpareil setting as we local Baby Boomers came of age in the so-called American Century.

Can internationally renowned museum dynamo Nina Simon take the Museum of Art & History into the new millennium? Geoffrey Dunn engages her in an interactive discussion

In April of this year, the Museum of Art & History issued a press release announcing that then 29-year-old Nina Simon, who Smithsonian magazine had dubbed a “museum visionary,” had been hired to serve as the new executive director of the Downtown Santa Cruz institution that, at least in recent years, had never quite fulfilled the vision of its early founders of being a cauldron for cultural activity in the community.

A local family’s experience with the disorder

River Robbins didn’t make eye contact for the first 10 years of his life. Not even his mother, father, grandmother and grandfather—all of whom help to raise him and his twin brother, Bodhi—knew the joy of looking into his beautiful blue eyes. Until recently.

“River had not made any eye contact with anybody, ever. His eyes might have, in passing, grazed over a person but there was no connection,” recalls River and Bodhi’s grandfather, John Robbins. “This particular time, about five months ago, something happened. Our faces were close to each other’s, and we found each other’s eyes and just stared. For about a minute. It hadn’t happened for even two seconds before.”

The boys’ grandmother, Deo, watched in amazement. “I remember watching it happening and I didn’t want to talk or even breathe because I didn’t want to break the spell,” she says. The “soul to soul” contact John remembers making with his grandson a few months ago was a breakthrough for the Santa Cruz County family.

How a cool posse of enterprising teens managed to find greater meaning in life and give back to the community. Two words: Food Justice.

Not too long ago, Jacques Jackson, a Watsonville teenager, often came home after school and, by his own admission, would not do anything productive at all. “Me and my friends would just go and waste time.”

Then there’s Sal. He lives in Santa Cruz’s Beach Flats area. A year ago, the 19-year-old says he just “partied” with his friends—like … off and on from Friday night through Sunday.

Conductor Marin Alsop looks back over her 20-year legacy at The Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music. PLUS: Why this year’s fest is destined to stand out.

Through composer Michael Daugherty’s eyes, the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music is a lot like Las Vegas in the ’50s and ’60s. Strip away the neon lights, wedding chapels and slot machines, and the man has a point. For entertainers at that time, playing Vegas was considered a career milestone. The same prestige applies to the festival today. And it is at this renowned gathering, where some of the greatest musical minds from around the world share the stage, that Marin Alsop reigns queen.

Celebrating her 20th year as music director of the festival, which has had a significant presence locally since 1963, Alsop is hailed by Daugherty and all who have had the opportunity to collaborate with her, as “the hardest working woman in show business.”

Homeschooling and unschooling. A look at the alternatives in Santa Cruz
School isn’t for everyone. Some critics even say that mass schooling makes kids dumber and less creative, less confident and less capable of thinking for themselves. Today in the United States, about 56 million children attend compulsory schools while the trend in learning outside of schools is growing as more families decide to avoid the socialization of control that’s a hallmark of “public education.” If “regular” schools are symbolized by a regimented system of bells and rules, the freedom and flexibility of homeschooling and unschooling might be characterized by this maxim: trust that children learn everywhere, all the time.