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Jun 19th
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GT Columns

Local Talk

What makes a good conversationalist?

What makes a good  conversationalist?

Someone who's had a lot of experiences in life and is interesting, yet takes his or her turn and listens attentively and includes the other person, and is not just narcissistic and talks about themselves constantly.
Judy Moore
Santa Cruz | Volunteer/Writer

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Opinion

Politician, Heal Thyself

Politician, Heal Thyself

Isn’t it funny how elected officials are quick to regulate others but slow to regulate themselves?

Santa Cruz County Supervisor Mark Stone wants to extend a ban on plastic bags by clamping down on paper bags at local grocery stores. Under his plan retailers would be forced to offer discounts to shoppers who bring in their own reusable shopping bags. Or, perhaps, they’d charge shoppers more to use what he calls “single-use bags.”

Perhaps his idea is a good one, although I’d love to hear from retailers to find out whether the plan would lead to higher prices. But a bigger issue is something more basic: if you want to make change, start with yourself.

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Astrology

Saturn Square Pluto, Dark Sky, New Moon

Saturn Square Pluto, Dark Sky, New Moon

Saturn squares Pluto Sunday in cardinal signs Libra/Capricorn. Cardinal signs bring forth new realities, squares force us onto new pathways. As Saturn disciplines us toward reality and truth (the breakdowns, economic crisis, shootings, etc., are engineered), Pluto simply transforms everything relentlessly. Libra is about relationships, money, economics, Right Relations, Right Thinking and Right Values while Capricorn rules governments, leaders and the entire structure of our civilization. This Saturn/Pluto square occurs again Jan. 31 and Aug. 21, 2010 moving us forward on a trajectory of constant and ceaseless new direction, change and transformation. All of this humanity needs in order for our present unreal financial system to move toward a real economy based on principles of sharing. Day by day, transit-by-transit, planet-by-planet, sign by sign, over time this reorientation (Scorpio work) will occur. At first we will have suffering. Then realization.

Venus is in Scorpio for the next three weeks (till Dec. 1 at Full Moon). With Venus in Scorpio our feelings, often hidden, show themselves directly. (There's more at nightlightnews.com.)

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Editors Note

From the Editor

From the Editor

Plus Letters to Good Times...
What A Drag
In the Stars
Health Scares

November is here and it kicks off a month full of promising activities. Of course, the theme of the month is gratitude—leading to the all-empowering and downright gastro-orgasmic event known as Thanksgiving. In the coming weeks, turn to GT as we spotlight a number of locals, nonprofits and other entities striving to make a positive difference in the lives of others. Some things I came across in my travels this week that are certainly worthy of sharing: The No on Prop 8 fundraiser, sponsored by the Diversity Center in Santa Cruz. The good news is that the event unfolds at Kianti’s Pizza & Pasta Bar at 6 p.m., Nov. 17.  Kianti’s plans on donating 10 percent of its total sales that evening to the cause. See kiantis.com for more information. One more event to note: It’s the book release party of “Tribal Revival,” created by the great local photographer Kyer Wiltshire. The fun unravels at 8 p.m., Friday Nov. 6 at the Vets Hall in Santa Cruz.

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Local Talk

Are you getting the H1N1 vaccine? Why or why not?

Are you getting the H1N1 vaccine? Why or why not?

I heard some good advice that anyone over 50 has already been exposed to that particular virus. And I don't get shots.
Steven Jones
Santa Cruz | Disc Finder

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Opinion

Finding Self-Confidence

Occasionally a friend will tell me he (or she) admires my confidence, and ask if he can “run some small problem by me.” "Of course," I say. I like to listen because I believe that often we can arrive at our own answers just by sharing our thoughts with another. Sometimes I am tempted to confess that I am not as confident as I seem, but I like that I appear confident and so I never do. I like that people come to me; it is my way of making friends. I didn’t have friends growing up and have been shy and lonely much of my life.

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Astrology

Mercury in Scorpio – Don’t Be Cruel

Mercury in Scorpio – Don’t Be Cruel

The Sun and Mercury join forces in Scorpio Thursday - Hermes, the messenger (Mercury) sending information about Scorpio’s Nine Tests to humanity via the Sun.  With Mercury in Scorpio we all become resourceful, determined, fearless, intuitive, quite witty, investigative, profound and filled with desires, however secretly and with great mystery. We may go into hiding, display suspicion and skepticism, stubbornness, determination and be emotionally on edge. Scorpio presents an interesting mix of depth-psychology behaviors. Research is best during Mercury in Scorpio. We’ll all be deeply searching for something seeking the heart of all matters. When we find what we’re searching for we’ll “capture” it and make it our own. Our intelligence becomes highly instinctive, and we’ll learn how to strategize. There is a warning with Mercury in Scorpio. That we do not harshly criticize and judge, opinionate or insinuate for Mercury’s communication while in Scorpio could destroy due to its power, force, passion and intensity. Mercury in Scorpio can also be vindictive. Intrigue, hidden motives, and mysteries may appear. We must ask if they are real or mental illusions. We will challenge others and be challenged in return. Everyone may begin to wear black and sales of sunglasses will skyrocket. We are to remember Elvis’ (Jupiter in Scorpio) song “Don’t be Cruel.”

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Editors Note

Editor's Note

Editor's Note

Plus Letters to Good Times...
Puffed Out
Rock of Ages

What a week. if you were bored in Santa Cruz between Oct. 22 and 28, don’t blame us. There were so many activities unfolding, it was truly hard to keep track. Last Saturday found hundreds flocking to Cooper Street in downtown Santa Cruz to witness what turned out to be quite the re-enactment of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” dance. “Thriller” mania was part of a national event that found many cities participating. Log onto goodtimesantacruz.com and grab a peek at what GT photographer Charles Mixson captured (below). In the meantime, MJ fans will undoubtedly be in the movie line for the premiere of the highly anticipated doc This Is It, which opens this week.

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Local Talk

Who’s the biggest trick (and/or treat) out there in the world?

Who’s the biggest trick (and/or treat) out there in the world?

My husband Clay Olsen. He's kind of like a trickster and he's full of surprises and you never know what he's going to say at any given time. People call him a mythbuster or a trance breaker. And he could just say something very off the wall without worrying what people think. And he has statements that kind of wake you up.
Bonnie Eskie
Santa Cruz | Psychotherapist

 

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Opinion

In Defense of Tesla and Fisker

In Defense of Tesla and Fisker

The two most prominent green car startups are Fisker Automotive and Tesla Motors, but a recent BusinessWeek article quotes longtime analyst Maryann Keller as saying, “We’re pouring $1 billion into two companies without a future. The economics of the industry favors large companies.” Is Obama wasting our hard-earned money? I don’t think so.

Of $8.5 billion in Department of Energy loans to automakers so far to build new green-themed plants, $465 million went to Tesla for work on its Model S sedan and, more recently, $528 million to Fisker Automotive for final design work on its $89,000 Karma luxury plug-in hybrid and for its more affordable Project Nina car. The total Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan fund is $25 billion, so much of the money remains to be spent.

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CYNDI

On the eve of Cyndi Lauper’s Mountain Winery gig, we dissect the woman, the icon, the creative beast. Plus: Her thoughts on the music industry, equal rights and those sparkling ‘Kinky Boots’ Few performers possess the kind of fierce, she-bopping tenacity Cyndi Lauper has become famous for. Equal parts free spirit, civil rights activist and Grammy-winner, Lauper is one of the few creative artists able to successfully marry her cutting-edge verve with a heart-of-gold panache. It certainly has helped fuel the remarkable career resurgence she has been experiencing lately.

 

Field to Vase

Open house provides opportunity for residents to meet their local flower growers Valentine’s Day is a high point of the year for those in the cut flower business. So when, one year in the late ’90s, the bouquet-riddled holiday failed to deliver for Kitayama Brothers Farms, the family behind the decades-old rose-growing business knew something was wrong.  “It was the writing on the wall,” recalls Stuart Kitayama, operations manager for the Watsonville-based company. “Those of us who had been hoping things would just get better finally said ‘it’s time to change.’”

 

The Price of Safety

The city's proposed budget addresses public safety needs The City of Santa Cruz’s pocketbook has come a long way since 2009, when an $8 million shortfall loomed. According to City Manager Martin Bernal, the proposed general fund budget for 2013-2014 is healthier than it has been since the beginning of The Great Recession in 2008. Armed with this returning stability, the proposal puts one of the community's top concerns—public safety—front and center.

 

Community Studies 2.0

After a controversial suspension, a new incarnation of the unique UC Santa Cruz major is reinstated The UC Santa Cruz community studies lounge is a great place to have a conversation.  Housed on the second floor of a faculty building in Oakes College, just down the hall from a whiteboard that reads “COMMUNITY STUDIES LIVES,” the room has a big round table, couches and chairs, and shelves stacked with past senior “capstone projects.”

 

North Pacific String Band

Jeff Wilson, who plays banjo for North Pacific String Band, loves being part of original music experiences. “What I like about the music we play is that it’s fairly unique and kind of hard to put your finger on,” Wilson says. “We’re not just trying to do bluegrass or country or folk. It’s a mixture of those things and we try to add in a lot of musicality to all of that.” Originality and musicality aren’t ideas which are limited to the band’s exploits either.

 

Peace in the Middle East

New dance-concert explores Palestinian-Israeli conflict Inspired by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, local choreographer Karl Schaffer’s “Mosaic” is a dance-concert featuring Jewish Diaspora and Arab music from the women’s choral group Zambra, singer Fattah Abbou and a troupe of local dancers. In between rehearsals for the show, which runs June 21-22 at Motion Pacific, Schaffer shared the story behind its creation.

 

Muscle-Bound

Valiant cast battles loud, ugly action for the soul of 'Man of Steel' Early in Man of Steel, fourth-grader Clark, the boy who will be Superman, is cowering in a broom closet at school, eyes screwed shut, hands clapped over his ears. He can't control his super powers: his X-ray vision shows him the skulls and skeletons under everyone's flesh; unfiltered noise—dogs, traffic, heartbeats—assault him from all sides. Rushing to school, his mom kneels outside the door and asks what's wrong.

 

The Plug Bug & Corbin Dunn

Mechanic, programmer, acrobat, builder, tinkerer. Corbin Dunn's 1969 Volkswagen Beetle is a fully electric vehicle. It has an electric motor powered by 48 stacked squares of Lithium-ion battery cells under the hood in place of the 50 horsepower gas engine that it was built with. He calls it, affectionately, “the Plug Bug.” Dunn, who was born in Hawaii, raised in Corralitos, and now lives in a large, old A-frame house near the summit in the Santa Cruz Mountains, is a 35-year-old programmer for Apple in Cupertino, where he helped develop the iPhone and works on the framework for the Macintosh operating system. But his aptitude for intricate technical work is not limited to computers. Dunn is a tinkerer.

 

Making the Grade

The quest to identify sources of high levels of bacteria at Cowell Beach continues With straight As on Heal the Bay’s annual “beach report card” for 10 out of 13 Santa Cruz County beaches—Main Beach, Seabright, and even Cowell Beach at the Stairs, to name a few—it would seem that Santa Cruz boasts a high coastal GPA. But in recent years, one Santa Cruz beach just can’t seem to pass: Cowell Beach west of the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf.

 

Flag Day, Father’s Day and Chiron

Another week of complex planetary energies falling to Earth. Mars interacts with Pluto (inconjunct), Uranus (sextile) and Chiron (square, challenge, ouch!). We won’t know how to comprise, we’ll want to be friends but our hurts will challenge that desire.
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Good Morning Maui

Goodness, righteousness, virtuousness and fairness are some of the four-score English words that attempt to describe the Hawaiian essence of pono, whose use in the state motto translates to “The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness.”

 

The Power of Conversation

Local author Cecile Andrews emphasizes importance of community engagement in newest book Cecile Andrews, author of the new book “Living Room Revolution: A Handbook for Conversation, Community and the Common Good,” probably wouldn’t get along too well with Larry David’s character from HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm, known for hiding his face and avoiding communication with anyone he runs into on the street. Andrews is a longstanding part-time Santa Cruz (part-time Seattle) resident who says something that’s struck her about this town over the years is people's willingness to participate in a practice she’s dubbed the “Stop and Chat”—which is exactly what it sounds like.

 

Is Edward Snowden a patriot or a traitor?

He's a patriot. Anyone who stands up for the rights that we stand for as a country, that is real democracy. That would be in my book—somebody who is a patriot. Leah WeissSanta Cruz | Therapist

 

Best of Santa Cruz County

The 2013 Santa Cruz County Readers' Poll and Critics’ Picks It’s our biggest issue of the year, and in it, your votes—more than 6,500 of them—determined the winners of The Best of Santa Cruz County Readers’ Poll. New to the long list of local restaurants, shops and other notables that captured your interest: Best Beer Selection, Best Locally Owned Business, Best Customer Service and Best Marijuana Dispensary. In the meantime, many readers were ever so chatty online about potential new categories. Some of the suggestions that stood out: Best Teen Program and Best Web Design/Designer. But what about: Dog Park, Church, Hotel, Local Farm, Therapist (I second that!) or Sports Bar—not to be confused with Bra. Our favorite suggestion: Best Act of Kindness—one reader noted Café Gratitude and the free meals it offered to the Santa Cruz Police Department in the aftermath of recent crimes. Perhaps some of these can be woven into next year’s ballot, so stay tuned. In the meantime, enjoy the following pages and take note of our Critics’ Picks, too, beginning on page 91. A big thanks for voting—and for reading—and an even bigger congratulations to all of the winners. Enjoy.  -Greg Archer, EditorBest of Santa Cruz County Readers’ Poll INDEX | Shops | Food & Drink | Arts & Entertainment | Health & Fitness | Professionals | The Rest |

 

Dancing Creek Winery

At the Pinot Paradise event back in March, I tasted some very good Pinots from the Santa Cruz Mountains, and Dancing Creek Winery’s 2009 Pinot ($27) was one of them. This plummy dark brew, made from grapes grown in Corralitos, has delicious flavors of pomegranate, prosciutto, dried cherries, and mint julep.

 

Paying it Forward

Pianist Benny Green wants jazz’s past to continue to inform its future I can honestly say I’m still learning.” Hearing such an admirable, humble statement from someone like Benny Green—a jazz pianist, arranger, composer and band leader whose 30-plus year career includes performances and recordings with jazz luminaries like Oscar Peterson, Art Blakey and Betty Carter—might be surprising at first. But Green’s insatiable desire to keep learning has served him well. That desire—and his deep love of jazz—is something he wants today’s younger musicians to feel, too.

 

A Very Fine House

Adjacent to the front door, the long, clean wooden bar is surrounded by pumpkin-colored stools. At the entrance to the dining rooms, there is a new low-slung cafe door hung in the wood-covered arch. Where there once was a stage, stocky wooden tables are neatly arranged perpendicularly on a new tile floor, each set with square white plates and burnt orange cloth napkins.

 

Exposed

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.

 

What’s your secret to avoiding the summer swarms?