Jaimal Yogis’ book rides the wave between Zen and surfing

Any self-respecting surfer who’s paddled out into the ocean’s fury and caught a wave knows that Zen and surfing are inseparable. It’s just that most don’t know it—yet. Now with Jaimal Yogis’ new book “Saltwater Buddha: A Surfer’s Quest to Find Zen on the Sea” (Wisdom Publications, $15.95) the connection between the two is at last articulated, coming full-circle into the reflective light of the ocean. Yogis will be speaking about his book at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 5 at Bookshop Santa Cruz.

Authors explore the untold story Croatians in the Pajaro Valley

If you’ve never heard the story of Croatian immigrants in South County, you’re not alone. Their history has been kept fairly secret—until now. Seeking a better life in the United States, some settled in San Francisco, and discovered that they could create business opportunities by transporting apples from the Pajaro Valley to the big city in the late 1880s.

New theater director Gina Hayes stages work of famous poet
Starting up a new theater company in a small town like Santa Cruz can equate to making it as an actor in Hollywood. Meaning that it’s tough, not only to get it off the ground, but to keep it rolling. And that is exactly what 24-year-old UC Santa Cruz alumni Gina Hayes has set about to passionately do with her creation of Red Egg Theater. The one-woman company, spearheaded by Hayes, hopes to provide college students across the Bay Area, and particularly in Santa Cruz, with an option to act off-campus, and plug into community theater.

Artist Michelle Giulvezan-Tanner’s work

When I first met Michelle Giulvezan-Tanner years ago, she was a straightforward artist. These days, the painter has taken to being more abstract, particularly on canvas. It happened about two years ago. She felt that her work, predominantly large-scale oil paintings of people, had become static and one-dimensional. “They didn’t seem to have any life or movement so I started hungering for that wonderful abstract of mark making,” she says. “I had a great conversation with a curator in San Francisco. He pushed me to go back to my abstract roots. I love throwing paint around and seeing what emerges from it; I [now] take abstraction and infuse portraiture.”

Here are a few things you should know about zombies:

the way to kill them is via blunt trauma to the head, or destroy their brain; they don’t talk; they don’t have a consciousness; and I Am Legend was a really crappy zombie movie. This is all, of course, coming from zombie aficionados Robert Klem and Edu Cerro, two thirty-something tattoo artists who work at Samuel O’Reilly’s Tattoo Parlour on the Westside of Santa Cruz. The two men, plus their other tattoo artist

Kubo's world of assemblage

I highly recommend that if you can sequester yourself away with Lucien Kubo and hear her talk about the atrocities of war, life as a Japanese American, and how both things relate to her artwork, it will be a meeting well worth your time.

The wax artist takes over the walls of Lulu's

Pretentious he’s not. Ask 35-year-old artist Ben Hecht what his artist statement is, or what’s the point of his work, or some other abstract artist question, and he might just shrug his shoulders, smile, and say, “I don’t know.” And that is incredibly refreshing. He’s not caught up in the overly analyzed and thoroughly confusing verbiage that some artists use to explain their work, and hence, one can relate to him—and understand him. Hecht brings new light and a fresh perspective to a generation of young artists. “I make it (art) intentionally ambiguous,” Hecht says.

The Santa Cruz trio of lady troublemakers proves its TV show is still rad

Her book explores what she calles "The Middle of Somewhere"

She’s known for laughter, not literature. But that’s all about to change this month as local actress, improviser and co-owner of The Fun Institute, Clifford Henderson, releases her first published novel. The book, “The Middle of Somewhere,” by the small publishing company, Bold Strokes Books, is a story of a lesbian woman finding her way in life. Henderson will speak about her book at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 29 at Bookshop Santa Cruz; her novel sells in local bookstores.

The waterproof artist finds her spot in the camera lineup

"Hi, I want to do surf photography. I don’t have any gear ... What do I need to do?” Armed with a casual portfolio of shots she’d taken of friends with an old Minolta during down time as a marine biology major, Nikki Brooks said this to the prominent Larry “Flame” Moore, former photo editor of Surfing magazine, back when she unceremoniously knocked on his door without an appointment in 2003. Moore, ever intuitive, welcomed the audacious 24-year-old into his office for a chat and ultimately became Brooks’ treasured first mentor.