Camryn Manheim on show biz, reality checks and the importance of keeping close ties to UC Santa Cruz

She was the woman who shouted, “This is for all the fat girls,” during her unforgettable Emmy acceptance speech in 1998. Camryn Manheim—then and now—leads a very full life: There was the time she auditioned for David Kelley and challenged the television producer to a game of cribbage—it won her a role on The Practice. There’s her work for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU); her support of the size acceptance movement; and there’s the blessed job of mother to her 7-year-old son who will go to university, she says, quite emphatically. With her warm and big-hearted personality, it’s no surprise that UC Santa Cruz has invited one of the school’s most famous alumni back for a special event. On Feb. 9, Manheim will be the keynote speaker at the school’s fifth annual Scholarship Benefit Dinner.

Digital Media Factory launches new television show

Some cities keep their cultural evolution on the pause button, but not Santa Cruz. It continues to move in a fast forward motion, especially when it comes to the arts, as is the case with a new invention taking off at the Digital Media Factory (DMF) on the Westside of town.

Time are tough for turkeys, but thanks to one local couple, some feathered friends are flippling the bird for the holidays

Karen Oeh’s girls are spoiled. They’ve got a luxurious room to sleep in and a playground of their own. Ariala and Rhoslyn (‘the girls’) had a lot to be thankful for on Thanksgiving, and the same goes for Christmas. While much of America chows down on Ariala and Rhoslyn’s feathered friends Dec. 25, A&R will have survived the holiday season and they’ll be safe at a new home in Ben Lomond, living with a vegetarian couple (Oeh and her husband Mike Balistreri) who recently adopted them from an animal activist group called Farm Sanctuary.

In 1999 at Aptos Junior High School, Monica Magallanes, a psychotherapist, was working with two severely emotionally disturbed children, when a suicide attempt happened. A child tried to throw himself down a stairwell and Magallanes tried to restrain him. Meanwhile, the other child became upset and smashed Magallanes over the head with an old telephone. A few days later, the damage to her brain began to surface.

“I was in the field working with a child and I lost use of my hands, I couldn’t use them,” Magallanes says.

Bonny Doon artists open their studios

Information in this article was relevant to the event in 2007. Sorry for any confusion. CM
Here’s the bad news: You’re gonna burn up some gas money and put a few extra miles on your car. The good news: It’s worth it. For those daring enough to make the trek out of comfy downtown Santa Cruz, and venture into Bonny Doon for Open Studios—the mountain version—the brief inconvenience of driving out of your comfort zone will turn up rewards of the artistic variety.

First time Open Studios artists come out of hiding

Mike Shuler’s studio is concealed behind a forest of bamboo and a nondescript mailbox. It’s an easy place to miss—nearly hidden in the unincorporated Live Oak area.

Until now, the undeniably talented artist (and his studio) has remained, for the most part, out-of-sight from Santa Cruzans. (His woodwork is typically shown in galleries across the country.) That’s all about to change when Shuler and his wife Rainey, (a photographer), invite Santa Cruzans to walk beyond the bamboo and view their work during the next two weekends of Open Studios.

It’s all in the family for one pair of artists in Open Studios

Some people believe there are no accidents. Lynette Cederquist is one of them. When she was 47, Cederquist was working as a teacher for gifted children. She was on a field trip, going about life and work as usual, when wham—an accident—her head slammed into a mirror on a school bus and in that instant, Cederquist’s life was changed. The accident ended her career and in fact, at the time, it ended many things including happiness (for the time being) and her short-term memory.

Survivors Healing Center expands its services

She first remembers something happening around age 2. It’s cloudy, but there are some details: Jan was in her crib and a shadow was looming nearby. Suddenly, yelling ensued and the shadow disappeared. Years later, a story surfaced, explaining that the shadow—her uncle—was crazy, that he’d left the house that day with only his underwear on. But Jan didn’t quite put the pieces together until she was much, much older. By the time she hit her 20s, she knew something was sketchy about her childhood. By the time she was in her 30s, certain memories that she had disconnected from began to surface.

MichaelAngelo Gallery preps for its second annual fashion show

Santa Cruz isn’t exactly the fashion capital of the world. I mean, Birkenstocks? They’re way out of style, folks. Tevas? Ditto. That hippie look? Out. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t have some fashionable finds among us; that someone could opt out of the really laid-back Santa Cruz style and maybe strike up a savvy, hip “look.” Enter The 2nd Annual MichaelAngelo Gallery Fashion Show and Trunk Sale, which hits the runway in the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium at 7 p.m., Friday, Sept. 14.

Jolie shines in ‘A Mighty Heart’

Watching a woman wail for her just-pronounced dead husband gets to you. How could it not? And when the woman in question has just undergone a five-week ordeal, trying to find her kidnapped husband, you can’t help but get emotional when watching her breakdown. This pivotal scene happens at the end of A Mighty Heart, which opens at the Nick and stars Angelina Jolie in an understated, spellbinding performance as Mariane Pearl, the woman whose husband is killed in the film.