Dynamic, enterprising and inventive, Community Television of Santa Cruz County weathers the modern media storm but still faces an uncertain future

This past May, YouTube turned 7 years old. To mark its birth, the Official YouTube Blog proudly announced that 72 hours of video are uploaded to the site every minute. Though it seems that now, more than ever before, individuals are creating videos with their smartphones, digital cameras, and computers with the purpose of sharing their footage with as many people as possible via the Internet, YouTube’s success has one local nonprofit scratching its head.

For nearly 18 years, Community Television of Santa Cruz County has been putting locally made videos on the air via three area channels. Whether those videos were produced onsite at its Pacific Avenue studio or produced elsewhere, CTV will air “anything that’s not illegal” and stream it on its website, Keith Gudger, vice chair of CTV, says with a laugh.

A community of local visionary artists is making higher consciousness visible

As I step inside a cave-like structure on Soquel Avenue, a burly, tattooed man glances up from a laptop computer. He’s heavily peacocked in exotic jewelry and space-age gypsy/tribal rock star clothing, and there’s a sizeable splash of blue-green dye in the punky plumage erupting from his scalp. It’s an impressive look: Picture a Road Warrior character whose battle gear has been given a lysergic acid patina.

The “T” word. You’ve muttered it under your breath after witnessing an ill-advised left turn, while shaking your head at an unwieldy load of beach paraphernalia, or maybe when overhearing someone declare “I can see Hawaii!” while pointing straight at Moss Landing. The “T” word is an easy catchall for behaviors we don’t deem local. It’s not flattering. However, anyone who understands, even in the most general terms, the concept of our tourism-based local economy and tax dependency will keep these mutterings to a minimum. Taken a step further, those lucky enough to travel and explore the world outside of our awe-inspiring climes recognize the joy of being the tourist (the definition of which, contrary to popular opinion, is not “one who takes my street parking” but is actually “one who travels for leisure, recreation or relaxation”).

In an excerpt from his forthcoming book, Geoffrey Dunn chronicles the life of his late friend, Godofredo ‘Freddy’ Alnas—and a dark and forgotten chapter in Santa Cruz County history

Why was America so kind and yet so cruel?
It was like going to war with other soldiers;
some survived death, but could not survive life.
-Carlos Bulosan, America Is in the Heart

In the Eye of the Storm
... our bravest archetypes "dress it up"
The Daredevils
The Burners
The Animal Activist
The Goddess
The Lovers
The Cyclist
The Cool Chick
Surfer-Hipster-Sk8R
The Non-Conformist
The Techie
The Performer
The Hunk


Words and concept by Greg Archer. Photo shoot design by Stripe Design Group.
Photos by Keana Parker

Santa Cruz nonprofit Organic Farming Research Foundation leads the charge for organics in the Farm Bill and beyond

Organic. Santa Cruz can pat itself on the back for helping bring about this word’s current ubiquity.

The area’s more obvious contributions to the organic movement include The Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, which is headquartered at our City on a Hill, UC Santa Cruz, and is widely considered the birthplace of organic farming, and Westside Santa Cruz-based California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF), one of the oldest and largest organic certification organizations in the country.

Santa Cruz’s own Joe Ortiz hits a high note. How his turbulent, and oftentimes humorous, childhood became the genesis of an original musical at Cabrillo Stage.

Growing up is hardly a walk in the park—especially when your father is a Puerto Rican womanizer with a gambling addiction that’s as aggressive as his drinking addiction. So was the case for Joe Ortiz, who at 6 years old, had his universe flipped upside down, when a bookie set up shop in his living room in order to settle the gambling debts of his father, who had secretly skipped town.

Fearless females honored at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music’s 50th

“It’s really easy to hide behind a camera,” Deborah Luster says, when asked how she became a photographer. The Louisiana native goes on to explain that she took up the hobby as a means of honoring her mother’s memory and re-engaging with the world, after she was murdered by a hired hit man in April of 1988.

Twenty-four years later, the resulting photos and Luster’s incredible life story have inspired a musical composition, which will debut as part of a larger work, entitled “Hidden World of Girls: Stories for Orchestra,” at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music on July 28 and 29.

For many technophiles, Santa Cruz-based game designer/programmer Graeme Devine is an über creative beast. But what’s behind the secret to his most recent success with GRL Games?

It’s 2012, so when it comes to something like social gaming, it’s not that hard to do the math. Add any one of the numerous devices to which we now have access—from the iPhone and the tablet to the computer and the console—with the bastion of game designers and programmers out there, draw a line under it and you’d find the number of games available reaching somewhere in the millions. Why … it was only two years ago that news reports revealed that social gaming would rise 30 percent by 2012, gaining an edge in popularity over traditional forms of entertainment like television and film. (And then, there’s Wii.)

At 40, the county’s indelible Second Harvest Food Bank reaches a significant milestone. And the fight to eradicate hunger has never been stronger.

Aisles of stacked pallets, crates, and cardboard boxes filled with rice, beans, pineapples, canned food, foods of every kind, stretch out as far as the eye can see. This is the massive warehouse of the Second Harvest Food Bank (SHFB) in Watsonville, and it is buzzing with activity. Volunteers remove plastic film from crates full of bananas to prevent them from spoiling. Workers zip by in orange forklifts, packing orders into trucks destined for the Davenport Resource Center, the Salvation Army, Padres Unidos, or any one of the 200 agencies SHFB serves.

How one local lured in hundreds of artists for the ultimate fest

What Fringe?
Let’s play a game. I will describe something for you, and you guess what the subject is. This mystery subject focuses on the performing arts—theater, dance, performance art, puppetry, spoken word, improvisation, film and visual arts. This mystery thing is uncensored— no one is too overly concerned with swearing or nudity, and family-friendly content is also welcome. What’s more, participation is vital and varied, and it celebrates originality. Now, what would you say I have just described:
0 Santa Cruz, California
0 A Fringe Festival