Old guard and young guns shape the future

The Sacred Craft Consumer Surfboard Expo blew into town this past weekend, an event rarer than the pre-apocalyptic blizzard and Super Moon that dusted our fair Surf City Saturday. For a brief 48 hours, optimism and mutual respect in the surfing community trumped headlines of freakish weather, meltdowns and no-fly zones. And Santa Cruz turned out in droves, with more than 3,000 folks in attendance.

The Best of SF International Comedy Competition hits town
Comedy, like all of the arts, appears to us as the work of individuals, when in reality it is the effort of a larger group of people. Behind the scenes is where some of the more interesting stories appear—and in comedy, there is the silver-haired Jonathan Fox. You might have enjoyed his efforts at the Crow’s Nest, where for the last 15 years he’s been providing the fodder for the weekly Sunday night laughs.

“I’ve actually been booking comedy for 30 years in Santa Cruz,” Fox says. “At first it was at the old Albatross, which used to be off of 41st Avenue. That lasted about 15 years on Sunday nights, and they went out of business and the Crow’s Nest called me and asked me if I would like to move over.  And I’ve been here ever since. And, it’s been super successful.”

So Christopher Nolan dropped quite the bombshell this week. In a statement released by Warner Bros., the Dark Knight and Inception director finally revealed which two villains the caped crusader will be squaring off against in his third (and presumably final) Batman film. And guess what, nerds? It isn't Hugo Strange or the Riddler! Nope, Anne Hathaway will be slinking into the form fitting black tights as Catwoman and Tom Hardy will take on the role of Bane: The character who in the comic books is best known for setting all of the inmates of Arkham Asylum free and eventually breaking Batman's back (along with being a general pain in the butt).

Well, I guess I should be clear about this: My exposure to the Green Hornet is extremely limited at best. I never read any of the comic books or caught any episodes of the television show from the 60's. In fact, the only real memory I have of the character is from his occasional appearances on the old Adam West Batman series and even those only stood out because Kato was a total badass. Seriously, what's cooler than seeing Batman fight alongside Bruce Lee?

The rise, fall and redemption of the surfing legend….Flea
I pull up outside Darryl “Flea” Virostko’s house that he shares with his mother and I notice freshly cut grass, I knock on the door and no answer. A few years ago this would have meant no interview, not the case this time as Darryl comes walking around the corner with a mask over his mouth “Man, cutting the grass kills me” he smiles while pulling an inhaler out of his pocket.

As we get settled in his living room, he throws his feet up and wipes his face “I love just chilling in my living room”. This is a much changed Flea of years past, Santa Cruz is a small town when it comes right down to it, and myself being in the surf industry and living through the era of The Westside brigade I was privy to first hand visuals of his rise to the top as a premier surfer. We get right into it and Darryl comes straight out stating his sobriety and how he has started FleaHab with Providence Recovery Center. He just starts pumping out information, but before we can jump into the redemption of Flea we have to first understand the rise and fall of the man now sitting before me.

So here's a heads up for those of you who can't wait to line up outside the movie theater this week to toss ten bucks at Tron: Legacy (sequel to Disney's 1982 cult flick). Did you know that this isn't the first time the light cycle filled universe has been revisited? Yep, the franchise has also flirted around in a couple of other mediums. Of course there were the 2 arcade classics that Midway cranked out to soak up kid's quarters back in the early eighties: Tron and Discs of Tron (which combined ended up earning more money than the movie on which they were based!). But there was also a first person shooter released  back in 2003 for the PC and Mac. In Tron 2.0, players manipulated the role of a new character named Jet Bradley as he traversed the neon lit cyberworld. However despite generally favorable reviews, the game failed to achieve any sort of commercial success and the Tron license went back into hibernation.

How to book the acoustic music series at the Ugly Mug
In today’s high-tech music market, sometimes you just can’t trust what you hear. Consider the ease with which artists can produce their own tracks bursting with string quartets, drum lines and back-up gospel choirs. These days CDs can sometimes lie, and Dick Brundle and Marky Starks fancy their music more on the truth side. Producers of the bi-monthly acoustic music series at the Ugly Mug in Soquel (4640 Soquel Drive), Dick and Marky don’t want your CD, preferring to see what you can do live before presenting you to their ultra music-loving audiences.

Veterans of the Santa Cruz music scene, Dick runs Fiddling Cricket Music, which specializes in arranging acoustic music events in intimate settings, while Marky runs The Canyon Acoustic Society, a venue for house concerts, workshops and jamming.

What do you get when you take everyone's favorite web-slinger and throw him into a stage show filled with songs provided by Bono and the Edge and directed by the legendary Julie Taymor? How about "Spider-Man:Turn Off The Dark" (yes, that is actually what they're calling this thing), a massively budgeted Broadway spectacle that I'm pretty sure nobody asked for. Several photos of the long delayed project surfaced onto the old internet a few days ago (taken by none other than Annie Leibovitz). And now those curious have their first peek at what to expect. Well, guess what? It's even more out there than anyone could have imagined.

Well, who can say they saw this one coming? In an interview given over at Vulture, Hugh Jackman dropped the bombshell that Darren Aronofsky (writer/director behind such flicks as Pi, The Wrestler and the upcoming Black Swan) will be lensing the sequel to his 2009 Wolverine flick. According to the Aussie actor:

"This is Wolverine. This is not Popeye. He’s kind of dark. But, you know, this is a change of pace. Chris McQuarrie, who wrote The Usual Suspects, has written the script, so that’ll give you a good clue. [Aronofsky’s] going to make it fantastic. There’s going to be some meat on the bones. There will be something to think about as you leave the theater, for sure."

A roundup of comedy, music and mayhem
Friday, Oct. 29, had the foreboding element of heavy rain hovering in the night sky like a million drops of determent. Still, the holiday vibe coursed through the Santa Cruz community strong enough to bring several hundred hopeful to the Rio Theatre for an evening of guffaws, entitled “Jack-O-Laughter.” Brainstormed by Capitola resident John Brown, the night featured Bay Area Comedy Central star Kevin Camia—but the balmy evening belonged to UC Santa Cruz graduates Emily Heller and Brendan Lynch. Heller and Lynch both share a deadpan delivery that provides a foundation for their snarky humor, and each found their way into the audience’s heart.