Santa Cruz native opens up about his creative role in Steven Spielberg’s Abraham Lincoln biopic

Now that our collective post-election hangover has mostly subsided, politics are probably the last thing you’re looking for in an escape outing at the movies. But Steven Spielberg’s new film—about the triumph of the political process in a time of near-apocalyptic social discord—might surprise you.

David Cay Johnston’s new book explains how big companies rob us blind

In his late teens David Cay Johnston started to ask questions. “Why do we have these guys in uniforms with guns driving around in cars all day?” “Why is the Santa Cruz County Courthouse being built in such an unusual shape?”

He wrote an article, while still living in his hometown of Santa Cruz, proving that the off-kilter courthouse building, which officials had promised would save money, actually cost more than a conventional building.

Local neon artist Brian Coleman reveals his latest creations at the Felix Kulpa Gallery

Local abstract neon artist Brian Coleman creates colorful arcing, looping, cursive-shaped patterns from glass tubes filled with glowing gasses—xenon, krypton, subtle amounts of argon, and once in a while a pinch of Mercury for bright reds.

The results, he says, are other-worldly.

New performance art piece tackles turf wars in Santa Cruz history

In 2009, an altercation stemming from the utterance of the word “Westside” ended with a Santa Cruz youth slain. “It is clear that many factors and details surrounded this heinous crime, and yet there was a noticeable surge of conversation and debate on the topic of territorialism and the representation of turf,” says Eli Weinberg, a dancer/choreographer whose latest project was conceived as a response to that tragic event. “One of my goals with this work was to try to understand how, in a city of less than 60,000 residents, such clear demarcation of territory came to be and how the identification with one side or another managed to permeate so many sectors of the community.”

Shakespeare Santa Cruz’s ‘Ugly Duckling’ revamp promises to entertain and inspire

Anyone who has ever felt left out, or survived high school for that matter, will appreciate Shakespeare Santa Cruz’s holiday show, “Honk!” The charming and heartfelt production is based on Hans Christian Andersen’s classic fairy tale, “The Ugly Duckling.”

“Essentially it’s a great allegory for bullying,” says actress Megan Smith, who stars as Ida, the duckling’s mother. “Being a person who is different from the dominant culture, how it affects your home and social life, and how to deal with that.”

Cabrillo College jazz icon Ray Brown celebrates Stan Kenton’s centennial with a rare concert of Kenton arrangements

It was in the early 1970s that Cabrillo College music instructor Ray Brown—fresh off a stint in the U.S. Army’s touring jazz band during the Vietnam War—wound up playing fifth trumpet in the legendary Stan Kenton Orchestra, the last remnant of the so-called Big Band Era that forged a uniquely American sound in the years bookending the Second World War.

Vintage Faith founder sifts through the ‘mess’ of modern-day church in new book

Dan Kimball is not your average church founder. Having not grown up in a Christian family, his path to evangelical Christianity has been a circuitous one, which includes several years as a punk and rockabilly drummer.

Eventually, that colorful background led to the founding of Vintage Faith Church and The Abbey in Santa Cruz, and more recently, Kimball has used his unique perspective to write “Adventures in Churchland: Finding Jesus in the Mess of Organized Religion,” a book published by Harper Collins.

Local filmmaker/photographer Patrick Trefz crafts cinematic ‘Ode to California’

Patrick Trefz was born and raised halfway around the world in Düsseldorf, Germany, and since then has lived and traveled all over the planet, while fulfilling his life’s passion of documenting his globetrotting experiences.

Surf and ocean enthusiasts can get a glimpse of some of those experiences in his recently released book of photographs, entitled “Surfers’ Blood,” which is, in his own words, about “the kinship of surfers and their tradition and bond.”

Editor’s note: The third annual Morton Marcus Memorial Reading, which will take place at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 10 at the Cabrillo College Recital Hall, will feature American Book Award Winner and Chancellor of American Poets, Arthur Sze. In honor of the free event, this week’s Poetry Corner features work by the renowned poet. Educated at UC Berkeley, Sze is the author of eight books of poetry, including “The Ginkgo Light,” “The Redshifting Web: Poems 1970-1998,” and “Archipelago.”

Cabrillo’s ‘Black Snow’ puts protagonist through series of unfortunate events; hilarity ensues

Reality and satire are the same,” said dissenting Soviet writer Vladimir Voinovich in reference to his country.

“I thought that was a great quote,” says David Ohanesian, dramaturg at Cabrillo College Theater Arts. “It made me think about today in the United States, and I was thinking about how many of us get our news and our sense of American life through satiric comedies these days—and how it almost makes it easier to swallow the indignities.”