Bruce Kleinsmith’s creativity shine at Cabrillo Gallery
The name was too long. Kleinsmith. It took up too much space at the bottom of a drawing. He wanted something phonetic instead, something that “jumped right off the page.” A cartoon figure he liked was called Futzie Nutzle—his own cartoon. He’d done the lettering with his left hand: “an avenue into another brain hemisphere.” The Z’s jumped right off the page.

Musicians find prime practice space at Santa Cruz Rehearsal Studios

Practice makes perfect. But what about when you don’t have a place to hone your instrumental and vocal jiu-jitsu—then what? With the sound ordinance and party-crashing police pretty ubiquitous in town (just ask your local bemoaning band about it), Santa Cruz Rehearsal Studios (SCRS) is serving up soundproofed rooms for players to get loud in, one hour at a time. After all, if lovers can get it on at an hourly rate, so should musicians.

When SCRS owner Paul Gallacher moved to Santa Cruz in 2003 he, like most musicians, just wanted to jam. For the seasoned bassist who’d previously lived and gigged in the big cities (New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco), finding people to play with wasn’t the problem. It was finding where to play.

“There was a place in town that had a monthly lockout rental,” Gallacher recalls his arduous search for an affordable spot to rock. “But the concept of having a monthly lease didn’t work with my budget, and I didn’t want a lease to just jam with people or get a band going.”

Rich Harvest at Pajaro Valley Gallery

Landscapes lushly compose themselves of fog and sedge and water while an ocean hides beyond the trees. Irrigated fields march in all directions in bold grids while bees make their way through dramatic clouds. A perky crop of houses erupts on a hillside; birds stalk and stare and rise in flight everywhere and a pantheon of noble vegetables pose for their close-ups. “A Harvest of Images: Pajaro Valley Impressions by the MPC Printmakers” at Pajaro Valley Arts Council Gallery serves up that promised harvest in 100 fine art prints by 48 artists in an exhibition curated by painter Howard Ikemoto.

The humble appearance of the PVAC gallery is all part of the act of the quietly essential powerhouse hidden within a converted bungalow on a residential street in Watsonville. PVAC uses the homey feeling to relax viewers into a receptive relationship with the art, then in room after tiny room builds a story around powerful social or educational themes.

Two diverse artists get close to nature with grants from the Creative Work Fund
Claudia Stevens is the surgeon of artists—exact and patient. She examines the intricate parts of a monkey flower under her microscope, then renders the seed pods, leaves and root structures perfectly in gouache, silver point and dry brush water color.

A photograph might depict these details well enough, but Stevens’ art translates the ethereal quality of live plants through translucent layering techniques.

Stevens studied printmaking and scientific illustration at UC Santa Cruz, and continued her art education at San Jose State University where she earned a master’s degree. That was 20 years ago. Since then, her illustrations have been commissioned by Sunset magazine, Rodale Press, Bantam Books and University Press. By necessity, teaching has dominated her art career.

Creating an art series requires a significant time commitment, which is hard to meet without the promise of compensation.

Quirky new downtown shop dispenses natural highs
Only a longtime resident of this town can fully grasp the meaning of the slogan “Keep Santa Cruz Weird.” There was a time when the Pacific Garden Mall teemed with eccentric characters, bohemian shops and offbeat events. For every Average Joe, there was an unusual street performer, a hippie harlequin wielding devil sticks or a flamboyant hipster in A Clockwork Orange-like apparel.

Santa Cruz’s quirk factor has taken a significant plunge in the past decade or so, but lately there have been some encouraging signs that our town is getting its weird back. One example is the pair of gentlemen whom your narrator recently saw reclining on the lawn of the Capitola New Leaf in sleeping bags. Another is an unambiguously psychedelic shop on Pacific Avenue called Truthlab, which proclaims itself an “antidote to the ordinary.”

“Shut up, and eat something!” That’s my new motto for 2011. It’s also one of the messages found in the new book, “Shut Up, Skinny Bitches—The Common Sense Guide to Following Your Hunger and Your Heart” (NorLightsPress), which I co-wrote with an eating disorder specialist Dr. Maria Rago.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: It’s the new year; we should all be “dieting.” We should limit our food consumption. Dammit … we should just get skinny!

Think again. Eat! Skinny is not the cure.

Blasphemy?

The fuel that fires Jackson Browne’s green activism
Jackson Browne has never been one to stay quiet. As introspective poet or volatile protester, he’s emblematic of the singer-songwriter that doubles as a sign of the ever-changing times. At 61, while he’s a classic when it comes to California folk rock troubadours that emerged in the prolific ’60s, he continues to modify his lyrics and his life to accommodate some cutting-edge concerns. So don’t be fooled by the simplicity of the solo sound and Gibson acoustic guitar he’s bringing to the Santa Cruz Civic this Wednesday, Feb. 23, because the man is clearly plugged in.

These days the staunch environmentalist is driving a new Chevy Volt electric car, and he certainly doesn’t “Take It Easy” when it comes to taking political and green-minded stands. When GT catches up with the founder of Musicians United for Safe Energy, and Nukefree.org, his thoughts are preoccupied with the Great Pacific Garbage Patch—and the plastic that feeds it.

Indie film ‘Bold Native’ explores the ethos of animal liberation
"What is freedom? Are we born with it, or do we earn it? And if you deny freedom to the quiet ones—those who have no voice—can you be free yourself? Or are you caged by your own lack of compassion?”

These are the opening words in the film Bold Native, as spoken by the film’s protagonist, a young man named Charlie Cranehill. Charlie is a strong believer in American freedom. But he’s also a domestic terrorist wanted by the F.B.I. and his own freedom survives only so long as he can evade the authorities.

As the leader of a small cell of animal liberators who call themselves Bold Native (and whom the government are after for millions of dollars in property damage), Charlie’s life and livelihood are dedicated to freeing animals from injustices inflicted upon them by humans. The fiction feature length film follows Charlie, documentary-style, over a two year period as he organizes 35 simultaneous liberation actions—the largest ever coordinated in the decentralized, loosely organized movement known as the Animal Liberation Front, or ALF.

Editor’s note: In this week’s Poetry Corner, we feature the work of poet David Thorn. He has been published in Poetry Canada, in England, and many literary magazines across the United States, including the Porter Gulch Review, and has been the Poet of the Year three times. He is a writing teacher at UC Santa Cruz and Cabrillo College and is considered Santa Cruz’s original surfing poet.

Renowned history and politics expert Douglas Brinkley talks conservationism at UCSC.
If you ever find yourself feeling cocky about all your achievements and accolades, contemplate Douglas Brinkley’s life for a while. Among the Rice University history professor’s accomplishments: He’s CBS News’ history commentator; he was selected as Rosa Parks’ official biographer; he’s Jack Kerouac’s authorized biographer; he’s the literary executor for Hunter S. Thompson; he’s written several articles for Rolling Stone, including profiles on Ken Kesey, Norman Mailer and Kurt Vonnegut as well as a cover story on Bob Dylan; he’s a contributing editor to Vanity Fair; his books include 1992’s Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt Naval History Prize-winning “Driven Patriot,” 1999’s “The Unfinished Presidency” (believed by many to be largely responsible for Jimmy Carter’s winning of the Nobel Peace prize) and 2006’s Robert F. Kennedy Book Award winner “The Great Deluge”; he’s a member of the Council on Foreign Relations;  he was invited to the White House twice to discuss history with the president … and the list goes on.

On Saturday, January 29, Brinkley presents his lecture “Change: Mobilizing the Historical Narrative” at UCSC.