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Jun 17th
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Columns - Astrology

Mercury Retro in Virgo

Mercury Retro in VirgoMercury in Virgo turns retrograde Friday, Aug. 20 (12:59 p.m., west coast). The retrograde, till Sept. 12, lasts three weeks. Mercury retro joins five other starry retro big hitters—Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and Chiron. Retros are linked with the prefix “re”. We redo, review, re-visit, re-think, re-examine, re-evaluate, etc. ideas, thoughts, plans, studies, agendas created since Mercury’s previous retro, (April/May).  We look back, assess, refine, rest and recuperate from a mind exhausted with facts. With so many retrogrades, especially the major transformers (outer planets), the entire world is critically rethinking everything. It’s an interesting time.
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Columns - Astrology

Awakening the Savior: Uranus Retros Back to Pisces

Awakening the Savior:  Uranus Retros Back to PiscesTo my readers: I am seeking a place to live with others in community by the end of August. Is there a community or community house (young and elderly, children, adults, teens, etc. with gardens) in Santa Cruz County? I’ve been looking and haven’t found it yet. Is it yet to be created? Please email me: [email protected]

The week: After intense planetary activity, including solar flares (Shamballa force) from the Sun and the magnetic field impacted Earth in previous weeks, the energies slowdown. Friday, Uranus (planet ruling the Aquarian Age, where community flourishes), retrogrades (till March 2011) back into Pisces (sign of saving the world). Uranus stimulates revolution, inventiveness, freedom, new archetypes.

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Columns - Astrology

Leo New Moon, Cardinal T-square, Nine Tests

Leo New Moon, Cardinal T-square, Nine Tests

Monday (8:00 pm, Pacific time) is Leo new moon. The personality-building seed thought is “I rule because I exist,” the words of the undeveloped and un-integrated personality, the “benevolent dictator”, learning (stumbling) toward true leadership. At a later time, when the integrated personality is directed by the Soul, the little will joins the greater Will (of God) and true leadership, combined with Love, comes forth. Friday Venus (money, values) enters Libra (Ray 3, equalizing economics). Sunday Venus/Saturn oppose Uranus, creating new structures (Saturn) with money (Venus). This opposition connects with Pluto in Capricorn (civilization transforms). A cardinal (signs) T-square appears in the heavens initiating new ideas/realities. Mars is also in Libra (Ray 3, economics). Mars presents humanity’s personality (physical, emotional, lower mental) with Nine Tests (3 x 3).

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Columns - Astrology

Essential and Sweeping Change

Essential and Sweeping Change

Astrologically, the coming week/month is very challenging. The upcoming transits, phenomenal in their power, force, strength and multiplicity (with more to come), have long-range, enduring and continuing effects upon all of humanity’s endeavors.

Thursday, Mars enters Libra. Mars presents humanity with nine tests, including testing our ability to recognize and discriminate between the two forces presently at battle on our planet. Simultaneously, as Libra asks us to choose sides, Mars allows us to distinctly see the difference between personality and the Soul. Watch the news for “arbitration,” mediation (Libra) between two distinct factions often at war (Mars).

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Columns - Astrology

Saturn Enters Libra

Saturn Enters Libra

Last Wednesday, in the early morning, Saturn (Dweller on the Threshold, Taskmaster, Disciplinarian) entered Libra. Saturn is very dignified and in “exaltation” in Libra. It does good things. Libra is the sign of relationships and the creation of Right Relations. “Exaltation” in astrology means the planet continues to grow in strength, bestowing goodness and the power of cooperation (Aquarian principle, and Saturn is the ancient ruler of Aquarius). Saturn reorganizes, reforms and redistributes. While in Libra Saturn restructures our relationship to each other, allows us to see the essential needs of a partner and how to make the relationship last forever. Saturn in Libra also restructures our money and economic systems. The new currency will eventually shift to food.

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Columns - Astrology

It Takes a Revolution

It Takes a Revolution

We’re in the midst of summer. The days are hot in the northeast, cold and rainy out west. It’s as if the earth has shifted positions and every area is now experiencing different weather patterns. The situation in the Gulf worsens daily. The news media lacks the truth. I wonder how long before the revolution begins. Perhaps after December. Let’s look at our week. Thursday is Virgo moon, a gentle gestating day till early evening when Mars (action) arrives for dinner. Friday morning moon enters Libra, calling us to Right Relationships. Let’s pray for those (all kingdoms) living in and around the Gulf Coast waters. Friday is orderly,  disciplined in the morning, unruly in the afternoon. Saturday, Mars joins the U.S. Neptune. Neptune is oil. Mars/Neptune gives an indirect, roundabout response, which is how BP is handling the situation. With Mars/Neptune there can be lies told, cloudy realities presented, things left to “fate,” real control is illusive, facts are unclear, infections (disease, illness) appear, there’s mystery and secrecy.

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Columns - Astrology

Isolation is the Rule, Yet the Crowd Exists

Isolation is the Rule, Yet the Crowd Exists

At 12:40 p.m. (PST )Sunday, there’s a new moon total solar eclipse (19 degrees Cancer). New moons bring forth new endeavors. Solar eclipses (hidden Sun) inform us that something substantial, having completed its purpose, is no longer available. Eclipse means “hidden.” The personality-building theme for Cancer new moon is “Isolation is the rule, yet the crowd exists.” This is how our personality feels, before Soul integration. The personality often feels isolated; connecting with others is difficult, even with family members. Something’s always missing. We feel imprisoned in an isolated reality, seeking something, not knowing what. Until one day, one lifetime when, having built a strong and vibrant personality (physical body, emotional body, lower mind) the Soul (love, unity) makes contact and the personality, feeling exhausted, responds with surprise and surrender. Then the meditative seed thought becomes “I build a lighted house and therein dwell.” We then become the “Light of the world,” nourishing the “little ones” (Earth’s kingdoms).

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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.’”

 

To Arm or Disarm?

While gun sales soar nationally, a group of musicians fundraise for a local gun buy-back In the wake of high-profile incidents of gun violence—from the Sandy Hook school shooting last December to the fatal shooting of two Santa Cruz police officers three months ago—the debate over gun ownership in America centers on one question as it rages on: Do guns make us safer or do they make our lives more dangerous?

 

The Bold Woman and the Sea

A paraplegic veteran launches solo row across the Pacific Military veteran and paraplegic Angela Madsen finds life at sea liberating. What others call her disabilities melt away when she is rowing to far-off destinations, and all that remain are her capabilities—what she can or cannot do is determined by the tasks at hand and what the ocean will allow.

 

Mark Twang

Mark Twang plays a little bit of everything—rock, roots, jazz and bluegrass for starters—but so far they haven’t played much in public as evidenced by the fact that their upcoming show at Don Quixote’s will only be their second gig. But there’s a reason why the band isn’t performing a lot right now. “We have plans [to make an album],” says drummer Jeff Wilson. “We’re trying to do some things differently though and not just come out full-steam ahead and start playing all these shows.

 

Breaking the Waves

Free Radio Santa Cruz celebrates 18 years of subversive programming Though the term “free radio” comes to us from the Summer of Love—a time when some folks splashed the word “free” on their nouns like an all-purpose verbal condiment—you can rest assured that the name Free Radio Santa Cruz (FRSC) is no mere tip of the hat to the psychedelic era. For the past 18 years, the colorful characters at the helm of our community’s own pirate radio station have been enjoying the freedom to broadcast whatever they damn well please, be it up-to-the-minute, uncensored local and worldwide news, programs in the Spanish language, shows produced by children, teens and homeless people, or all manner of music, from death metal to free jazz.

 

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.

 

What’s your secret to avoiding the summer swarms?

 

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.

 

Stranger than Fiction

Memphis singer-songwriter, Amy LaVere, finds joy and humor in painful situations Producer Craig Silvey likely saved singer-songwriter Amy LaVere’s life a few years back. Before recording 2011’s Stranger Me, LaVere had endured a breakup with her longtime boyfriend and was in the midst of one of those I-need-to-find-out-who-I-am phases. She knew the content for the album was going to be incredibly dark and moody, but Silvey did something which changed the course of the recording sessions entirely.

 

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 activities would you suggest to friends and family visiting Santa Cruz?

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