Bruce Bratton hosts University Grapevine, linking local and campus issues, every Tuesday 7:30-8:30 p.m. on KZSC 88.1 fm.
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LEMPERT VERSUS SIMITIAN RACE. I was originally going to put this letter from State Senator John Vasconcellos in the Letters to the Editor section, and I will. But I respect John so much that I'm printing his letter in its entirety right here first, so you can see why I'm supporting Lempert with such enthusiasm.
From: State Senator John Vasconcellos
Date: February 22, 2004 12:06:46PM PST
To: Bratton Online.com
Subject: I whole-heartedly endorse Ted Lempert
I've known Ted since he was in high school, he's proven himself to be a legislator of the utmost integrity- (as a result of my immediate personal experience, I cannot say the same for his opponent, in fact the opposite.)
Integrity is always the #1 over-riding issue-especially in these dark times of political cynicism and machinations.
The people of Santa Cruz will always be served by Ted Lempert-in the very same ways they have chosen wisely and been well served by Fred Keeley, Sam Farr, Bruce McPherson and Henry Mello!
Ted will especially help fill my shoes in the crucial areas of ethics and education - and the also emptying shoes of my colleague Byron Sher, on the environment.
In fact, I am accompanying Ted into Santa Cruz tomorrow evening (February 23) when he appears before an important progressive group (SCAN) there.
John Vasconcellos,
California State Senate
Dem. San Jose District 13
MEASURE F. Sure measure F has one of the most bizarre lists of supporters in recent memory and I'm still voting for it. There is a problem that needs addressing however. Since this measure goes to supporting our City Council projects why do we have a council that supports projects like the new Boardwalk Tower of Death ride and now the developing of the Westside? How much are the studies of developing the Westside going to cost the city and how much of that cost will be paid by the developers? We do need accountability here and the sooner the better.
MOVIE WITH MOOSE. I won't attempt to list all the TV stars that have either made it or failed miserably when they attempt the move to the big screen it isn't an easy accomplishment. Ray Romano is one of the failed miserably ones. I'd never seen him on TV, but watching him try to act in Welcome to Mooseport was embarrassing. Gene Hackman can and does do his role easily, except that the film isn't much to begin with. Romano is just not a likable or empathetic person. This film, like 50 First Dates (reviewed last week) might be ok if you rent it on a one buck special night.
SIMITIAN AND SCOTT KENNEDY. Once again we've got Scott Kennedy pulling his sneaky campaign tricks. Remember when he and Mike Rotkin were caught red handed tearing down campaign posters for Tim Fitzmaurice, Christopher Krohn, and Keith Sugar. They flung the posters in the street, later we found out the property was owned by the very same Louis Rittenhouse. Anyway many people have sent me Kennedy's emails that purport to expose Ted Lempert's campaign contributions. What Kennedy purposely omitted were direct contributions to Simitians campaign from Avalon Bay Communities, Georgia-Pacific Corporation, Chevron, BPAmaco, Pacific Lumber, plus many insurance companies. As you probably know by now the California Correctional Peace Officers Association (prison guards union) spent $65,000 for Simitian. These campaign contributions were all accepted with Simitian's knowledge and control.
NO MOOSE MOVIE. No mooses in Against the Ropes but lots of boxing, and I like boxing. This is a gussied up version of the real life Jackie Kallen's career as a manager of boxers. Jerry Hoffman of 12 Sports Productions and producer of Riots at the Hyatt in Monterey has worked with Jackie. She was at some of Jerry's boxing matches I attended awhile back. I asked Jerry the good old Hollywood question, "What is she really like?" Jerry reminded me that Kallen managed Jose Celeya for his first 10 fights and was at the Riot each time he fought there. A stunning silver haired tomato, she would get in the ring each time and throw out little boxing gloves and promo junk. All style and no substance, says Hoffman. Jerry hadn't seen the film but said he likes Jackie. She'll never make it into the Boxing hall of fame like Eileen Eaton and she doesn't have much capital, but she works hard for her fighters. Jerry asked me if the film showed how her boxer James Toney pulled a gun on her and threatened to blow her head off. I left the film early so now I have to go back and see if they used that bit of truth. This is way to long a piece on a mediocre Hollywood film. The boxing scenes aren't much either.
STRANGE DEMOCRATS. Yes it's true, and some of you remembered that I had used that term, or actually Funny Democrats, years ago. It worked in the past to describe Funny or Strange Democrats such as Dick Little and Bob Lissner. Now it works to describe folks who register as Democrats but go ahead and vote for development, think big box stores solve city tax problems, talk more about taxes than the environment and even vote for Bruce McPherson. Now, that's strange.
RITTENHOUSE REVEALED!! Michael Bethke, a member of the Downtown Neighbors spoke up at the Santa Cruz Neighbors meeting last Monday night to say that Louie Rittenhouse's lot at the corner of Pacific and Church Streets is ready to be built!!! He said that everything's ready to go except they're waiting for one last anchor store to sign up. I'm trying to track this down to see if it's true. Lord knows we've had enough rumors about that property. Wouldn't it have been great if Louie and the city had agreed to have the lot filled with sand or soil for the last 15 years so we could have used it as a plaza or park? Now that it's ready to be developed (maybe) just haul out the dirt fill and away it goes. Our City Councils whip out penalties and fines on small businesses all the time. Let's all guess how many dollars Rittenhouse has been fined for allowing that most prominent piece of real estate in the heart of our city to become an eyesore in this last decade? Next we can start betting on what the ratio of office space is to affordable housing and how much space will be rented to retail business that's locally owned?
OTHER MATTERS. I'm definitely voting yes on D the Cabrilho College Improvement Measure. Yes on all the measures, 55, 56, 57, and 58. I'm voting for John Kerry too because the few times I've ever voted for the really best candidate I ended up feeling good until the results came out, then I felt guilt for not uniting and supporting the most logical Democratic party winner. So yes on Kerry.
SWIMMING IN THE SHALLOWS. I've been trying hard to write down my reaction to the Pisces Moon production of their current play Swimming in the Shallows. The production is fine, the acting is fine everything is fine and I guess I just don't like Adam Bock's (he wrote the play) plays. His writing is a bit like David Mamet's dialogue, that is quick, brittle remarks. The topics and characters traits he takes off on just don't work for me. Adam Bock's plays are widely performed and admired all over the theatrical world, go see this production and see what you think.
MARK STONE FOR SUPERVISOR. Mark Stone is running for Supervisor in the Scotts Valley/Felton/Boulder Creek area. Being California's second smallest county means we know everybody around these parts. When I see names like Sam Farr, Fred Keeley, John Laird, Les Gardner, Mary Hammer, Nancy Macy, Bob Taren, Renee Shepard plus both the Santa Cruz Democratic Central Committee, and the North County Democratic Club on his endorsements list, you have to figure he's by far the best person for the job. Now look at who's endorsing Randy Johnson, a business insurance consultant - he got money from among others Phil Liberty (remember Pat Liberty?) and Bob Thomas (owner of Outdoor World), but my favorite Johnson supporter is small time developer Bill Brooks. Brooks was the guy who took out ads in the Sentinel telling everybody to stop reading the Metro, stop advertising in the Metro, and stop patronizing the businesses who do advertise in the Metro. Why, you ask? Because he was mad that I wrote in my Metro column that Bush was the dumbest president in the history of the US and I stated that my hope was that he doesn't get us all killed. Bill Brooks small developments seem to grow almost everywhere in our county. He's clearly angling to get more of them in the fifth district by supporting Johnson. Vote for Mark Stone.
YET MORE ON LEMPERT AND SIMITIAN. What more can you say about endorsements than the fact that the newspapers in Lempert's area endorse him. That would be the San Francisco Chronicle, The Redwood City Tribune, The Los Altos Town Crier, and San Carlos Enquirer. What paper endorses Simitian? The Santa Cruz Sentinel, that's got to tell you something... or actually, it tells you everything. You have read that SCAN also endorsed Lempert.
COUNTY COMMITTEE. Just a reminder to vote for Judy Warner, Joyce Malone, and Brian T. Murtha. Janet Singer supported Mark Primack and widening Highway 1, Carol Fuller, Darrell Darling and Robert De Freitas are the leading strange Democrats. Patricia Pfremmer has worked hard for years supporting every development and possible commercial enterprise up in Bonny Doon. She was soundly defeated by Bonny Dooners when they had a chance to vote against her recently. Just vote for Warner, Malone and Murtha.
FUN STUFF. Don't forget the Oscar discussion at the Del Mar Theatre this Saturday noon. Film critics Lisa Jensen, Wallace Baines, Morton Marcus and yours truly will be there to get your opinions on the Oscar race and to tell you some of our opinions. Yes, I know there are many more important issues to be discussed but even your most belligerent guru will tell you to lighten up once in a while. Besides that, it's free. This is the last weekend to see Tales Of The Lost Formicans up at UCSC. Jim Bierman told me that it's a top notch production. Danny Scheie's production of Victor Hugo's Ruy Blas is up at UCSC both this weekend and March 4-7 call 459-2159 for tickets.
QUOTES WORTH CONTEMPLATING. Hopefully there'll be a long line at the voting booth on Tuesday, so while you're waiting... mull these over. "The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good." -Samuel Johnson. "When choosing between two evils, I always like to try the one I've never done before." -Mae West. "I love Mickey Mouse more than any woman I've ever known." -Walt Disney. "In the end, everything is a gag." -Charlie Chaplin
Bruce critiques films every Friday on KZSC-FM (88.1) on The Bushwhacker Breakfast Club at 8am.
It's free! Click here.
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SCAN AWARDS DINNER. LONDON Nelson Community room was packed with more than 150 folks eating and musing their way through the annual SCAN Awards dinner last Friday the 13. John Laird and Fred Keeley were wonderful as presenters and it was obvious they were among friends. Mardi Wormhoudt, Emily Reilly, Mark Stone, Ed Porter and Tim Fitzmaurice were the elected officials present. Awards? Well Louis La Fortune got the Fashionista award for his wearing of that Pink Slip, Valerie and Michael Corral got the Farmers of the year award, Saturn Café got the Socially Responsive Business award, Mercy Housing got the Responsible Development award and so forth. Well after that Freak Radio Santa Cruz (101.1 fm and 96.3 fm) won the Freedom of Speech award and there was much talk about what a fine radio station this has become and that everyone should stay tuned literally. Celia and Peter Scott won the Environmentalists of the year award and it was a great evening. There was more talk about the dangers of an Eastern Access to UCSC, the folly and boondoggle of widening highway one was bandied about. That's about it except for the announcement that there will be a progressive Coalition Endorsement Forum Monday February 23 room 3 LONDON Nelson Community Center at 7 p.m. there'll be endorsements for County Supervisor, State Senate, state and local ballot measures. Call 458-9425 for details.
DAVID MAMET FANS. As genuine Mamet fans know his newest play Dr. Faustus will have its world premiere at San Francisco's Magic Theatre next week. He based the play on Christopher Marlowe's and Johann Goethe's Faust legends. Magician Ricky Jay was going to play the role of Magus in the play (he's a Mamet regular) but he got a hernia and cancelled out. Like any Mamet play there are levels under levels of interpretation. Dr. Faustus is about good and evil, science and religion and things like that. It won't be like Mamet's earlier works not the street wise men talk and b.s. This is Mamet's first time with the Magic Theatre. Sam Shepard has done many works at the Magic. Go to www.magictheatre.org for tickets. They're selling out rapidly. I couldn't get in until March 17, and I'll tell you how I liked the play after that. You could probably call the Magic boxoffice at (415)441-8822. But hurry.
NEWS ABOUT LOWE'S. I just found out, (I must have missed it in the Sentinel) that Santa Cruz city councilman Mark Primack is slated to be the architect on George Ow's Lowe's Home Improvement development at the old Wrigley plant. I assume that means that Primack won't be voting on anything to do with the entire Westside area. That's Home Depot, UCSC's developing of Texas Instruments building, and anything that impacts where Mark will want to design his Lowe's Monster plan. Watch and see if Ow goes for adding some black owned business out there too as part of his plan. Like his development of the five story Cathcart and Pacific building depended on being allowed to build the Pacific Shores homes out on Schaffer Road for some tricky reason.
RUY BLAS VICTOR HUGO's PLAY. Danny Scheie is directing and Jim Bierman has translated Victor Hugo's play Ruy Blas. It'll be performed in UCSC's Mainstage theatre Friday-Sunday Feb.27-29 and Thursday-Sunday March 4-7. Evenings at 7PM. And Sunday matinees at 3PM. Many critics say that Ruy Blas (just say ree blah ) is Hugo's best dramatic effort. It's a play about an insignificant valet in a 17th century Spanish court who is devoted to his queen. Elaine Yokoyama Roos is doing the costumes and this is the big UCSC student play of the year...don't miss it. Call 459-2159 for tickets.
TED LEMPERT NEWS. I just read that the San Francisco Chronicle has endorsed Ted Lempert. Not that the Chron has a special case to hold all their Pulitzers but they do cover S.F. Politics and know that scene. In other old breaking news I learned that State Senator John Vasconcellos also endorses Ted. You probably saw the Sentinel's backing of Scott Kennedy's hit piece on Ted. Why this race between two good guys is already nasty makes you wonder. And you have to wonder why such politicians as Scott Kennedy, Darrell Darling, Mike Rotkin, and Cynthia Mathews are such ardent Joe S. supporters, how come and why, why, why?? I also just found out that Duke Energy, Enron, Pacific Lumber, Eli Lilly, all contributed to Joe Simitian's campaign. There's a clue right there.
I LIKE ADAM SANDLER. It isn't easy to come right out and say that but his roles in Wedding Singer and Punch Drunk Love made me enjoy his vulnerable side. He and Drew Barrymore won't win awards for 50 First Dates but it does keep you awake and wondering. It has more plot holes than you can count but go just for the fun of it. It would also play well if you rented it for home use. Better yet go see City Of God. It's up for many awards and it is gritty, unrelenting, and excellently directed. Barbershop 2 is exactly like all bad sequels. Some committee gets together, reads all the reviews of what worked about the first film, think they can do better by making each ingredient bigger, louder, or grosser and there's your sequel. You won't be the only viewer not able to understand Cedric the Entertainer's lines, because he mutters a lot. Save your money.
WHO TO VOTE FOR PART ONE. Naturally assuming you'll be voting on March 2 be sure to vote for these three people for County Committee from the third supervisorial district. Judy Warner, Joyce Malone and Brian Murtha. They're good people and will vote for any possible progressive progress. Darrell Darling, Carol Fuller, Patricia Pfremmer, Robert De Frietas are best known as strange democrats and lean as far right as the Democrat label will allow.
STITCHIN BITCHES. That's just a title to announce the Santa Cruz Stitch 'n Bitch club. They meet every Saturday from 4 to 6pm at 120 Union (formerly the Jahva House.) They exist to crochet, bead, do needle point, but mostly knit. Plus they talk a lot. Men attend and are welcome, as are all ages and any level of expertise. Doesn't it seem like more of your friends are knitting nowadays? More of my friends are certainly bitching more anyway. Call 295-3918 for info, or visit their website at artyoucanwear.com/stitchnbitch.
SANTA CRUZ FILM FESTIVAL. This year will be an even bigger year for the Film Festival. It'll run May 13 through the 21. There'll be four days at the Del Mar, some at Cabrilho College, UCSC, The Rio Theatre and even at the Drive In. Guests are being lined up and the amount of films submitted is what you'd call staggering. Save those dates!
KING LEAR CLASS. Don't forget that Don Young and Jeff Towle are doing their 5 week class on King Lear starting Saturday February 28 at 10AM. It'll be all the Saturday AM's in March at the Aptos Library. It's fun and it's free. Don and Jeff have done other Shakespeare plays in this format and we love them. Get the Pelican version of Lear at 41st avenue Book Café. I'll save you a seat.
PISCES MOON AND SWIMMING IN THE SHALLOWS. London's Time Out magazine said Adam Bock's play Swimming in The Shallows was like imagining falling for a shark and really loving it. (no connection with above historical photo). Swimming In The Shallows is surreal, very funny, and about relationships so it says. Pisces Moon Productions, our excellent resident challenging theatre group is opening this play February 20 and will run it through March 20 Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays at 8PM and Sunday matinees on March 7 and 14 at 3PM. It's at the Actors Theatre so there are not a lot of seats. Based on every one of Pisces Moon productions I've seen this play will not be your average play. It'll be well acted, professionally directed, and like Bock's other plays it will leave you with something to think about. It's been produced all over the world and won several awards in the S.F. Bay Area. Tickets at the Civic Boxoffice or by calling (831) 420-5260.
SAUL LANDAU ARTICLES. I'm trying to work out some internet deal where I can alert you to Saul Landau's latest articles. We've known each other for years and I trust his views almost implicitly. Go here for Landau's latest piece on the tragedy of the Salton Sea. It's about how the developers never ending searches for money have turned the Salton Sea into a hell on earth. It's a lesson we need to be reminded of often. Turning The Wrigley neighborhood that was designed for a few hundred day time workers parked cars to a car destination for thousands of Home Depot and Lowe's shoppers is just about the same thing, and we don't need it.
TECHNICAL NOTE. Due to the unfathomable intricacies of the internet, the notice for my column for last week (February 13) didn't get sent out till later than expected. Be sure to scroll down and check out my rantings and ravings on Lowe's and other calamities in last week's issue, just below this one. It's easy to subscribe to Bratton Online now, just click here. It's absolutely free, confidential and you'll get an email notice each time a new column is complete. Plus, as soon as possible, I'll be sending out bulletins as they happen to subscribers. So do subscribe, the numbers of subscribers helps make this thing work.
IN CLOSING. Thanks for the fine reactions and feedback to the column and especially to these quotes, I'll get to all the ones you've sent in eventually. Remember when we used to see Bumper Stickers that really stated something? "There are people in the world who are so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread." -Mahatma Gandhi. "To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance. -Oscar Wilde. "If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe." -Carl Sagan. "The covers of this book are too far apart." -Ambrose Bierce
Bruce critiques films every Friday on KZSC-FM (88.1) on The Bushwhacker Breakfast Club at 8am.
It's free! Click here.
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LOWE'S LAND, USA. One of the most important problems with the development of the Wrigley plant into a Lowe's Home Development center is that we must make sure there is adequate and fair public process for every step of its promotion. George Ow and Jeff Dunn know a lot about how this city and county face development*. With Kennedy, Rotkin and Mathews on the council, stuff could be shuffled around so fast we wouldn't know what hit us until it was too late. Another problem that needs careful consideration is just how many businesses will be terminally ended. Hardware stores, gardening supply stores, Riverside Electric, nurseries, arts and crafts people, gift shops, and dozens more will be shut down. Look what Costco, Circuit City, and Gateway Plaza have cost our community in the loss of local money and jobs. What jobs will Lowe's and Home Depot bring us and our children? Minimum wage, cashiers and shelf stocking jobs... is that our future? UCSC has invested in the Westside area and will bring research and development here - why not more of similar jobs with integrity and futures instead of businesses like Lowe's and Home Depot whose every day existence is controlled by out of town management?
CITY COUNCIL RACE. Now that Christopher Krohn has said he's likely to throw his hat into the ring, it proves once again that Santa Cruz politics are indeed a world apart. And it even got him page one in the Sentinel, which must mean something. Ryan Coonerty is probably going to run, Katherine Beiers probably isn't, and all the incumbents certainly are running. None of that is news if you follow these things. What is still sad is that there isn't anybody running or even thinking about it that can get any excitement stirred up. The people who back Krohn, and it'll be intriguing to see who they turn out to be, are not the kind of voters who'll back Coonerty. The business community will back Kennedy for sure, and they'll vote for Joe Marini obviously. But the progressive community who remain so deeply disappointed with Porter and Reilly and never could stomach Primack still can't find anyone who will carry out their long time concerns.
LOWE'S AND TRAFFIC. Think about what Costco type traffic will do to the Westside. Mission Street was widened for safety, not for future development. Our city council back then promised that - ask Scott Kennedy, he should remember. Watch traffic on Western, King and California Streets become completely and permanently jammed. Lowe's and Home Depot on the Westside will put even more pressure on North Coast development. Watch traffic from Half Moon Bay and points north come zooming down highway one. Wait until all the trucks from Lowe's and Home Depot poke up and down West Cliff Drive, Swift Avenue, Delaware and the entire Westside, it'll be our worst nightmare. More Coastal development will wipe out any semblance of our greenbelt. Watch too when the good old Eastern access to UCSC is brought up again when it becomes impossible to use Western Drive or Bay Streets.
ISRAELI THEATRE AND THE JEWISH HISTORICAL IMAGINATION. That's the title of the talk that The Jewish Studies Research Unit and Jewish Studies at UCSC is presenting by Freddie Rokem on Friday, February 20 at 12:30pm in room 252 at College Eight. Freddie is Dean of the Faculty of Arts and professor of Theatre Studies at Tel Aviv University. I don't imagine he'll get into this, but he's also the author of a new book Strindberg's Secret Codes, which'll be out this year sometime. The talk will be free and the public is invited especially if you're interested in Jewish theatre. Click on the UCSC humanities website at humanities.ucsc.edu/jewishstudies/ and that will explain everything.
LOWE'S AND MONEY. The developers and the city council talk about the vast sums of taxes Lowe's and Home Depot will bring in. If that's true, Capitola, after selling out 41st avenue to any and all development, must have the richest source of money in the western hemisphere... yet they don't have enough to even buy the Rispin Mansion. Those taxes haven't made Capitola any better off than they were before. Yet Rotkin, Ow, Kennedy etc. all say our tax problems will be over if we just develop the Westside. Where are the ethics and ingenuity we elected these people for?
FOCUSING ON FILMS. Miracle is much better than you think. That's the hockey film starring Kurt Russell. I've only seen one hockey game in my life and that's enough, but this film is so well made and so exciting you should go. Even if you're a sports fan and know the outcome of every game in the film it's still exciting. To realize that each game was recreated and staged is amazing. Kurt's accent is a bit much but it's one of the best roles he's had in years. Robert Altman's latest The Company is another Altman film that is sort of very good but you're not sure why and you're not completely sure you know what it's all about. Of course it's about Chicago's Joffrey Ballet Company and what ballet life is like, and yet there's more to it than that. It's probably about some part of Altman himself and how he feels about making movies. Neve Campbell and Malcolm McDowell are the stars and as folks say nowadays it's one of Altman's more accessible films. The film to see and argue about is Bernardo Bertolucci's latest, The Dreamers. Bertolucci directed The Last Emperor, Last Tango In Paris and The Conformist. He also directed Little Buddha featuring Keanu Reeves and Bridget Fonda but nobody's perfect. Remember Stealing Beauty with Liv Tyler, Jeremy Irons and Jean Marais? That too was Bertolucci. So that means that The Dreamers has a lot of sex in it. After you see it you'll know why I call it Home Alone Three. There really aren't many working directors today whose names mean much to the movie-going public. Altman and Bertolucci are two and these films are very good films.
MINOR ADJUSTMENT. I said last week that Lee Quarnstrom wrote in his letter to the editor at Bratton Online that traffic would be a problem out at the Wrigley Plant if Lowe's goes in there. What he really said was "I don't know what the traffic implications would be out by the Wrigley plant". Lee sent an email to Geoffrey Dunn who directs Santa Cruz Community Television and is working for George Ow trying to get Lowe's developed, saying I'd misquoted him. Of course I had linked to Lee's letter in the letters to the editor section, so you could have read it. I just wanted to straighten this out - there's going to be enough animosity created by this attempt to bring Lowe's here without adding any more.
LOWE'S LAMENT. We haven't heard anything from our past leaders on the Lowe's and Home Depot issue... how come? Why aren't we developing the old George Wilson property? Why not houses instead of box stores? Why not as much effort and giving of concessions to develop Louie's lot at Church and Pacific? Why not save some really big bucks and cut the staff of the Redevelopment agency? How come an unelected official like Dick Wilson has so much power over our city council? What happened to our representative government? I hate to see Santa Cruz sold down the drain for developer's profits.
BIG WEEKEND COMING UP. Be aware of next weekend... there's too much to do. Don Williams's production of Lonnie Elder's Ceremonies in Dark Old Men plays Feb.20, 21 at 8 and 22 at 3pm at UCSC's 2nd Stage. It plays again Feb 27, 28 at Cabrilho's Forum Room 450 at 8pm. Call 459-2159 for tickets or 459-4309 for info. The Santa Cruz Symphony plays Feb 21 at 8 pm. in the Civic and the 22 at the Mello Center. They'll play Mozart, Ibert, Mollicone and good old Beethoven. Mollicone would be Henry Mollicone from San Jose. The Beethoven is the Seventh Symphony and that should be fun to listen to. William Trimble and Anthony Quatuccio are the guest performers. Call 420-5260 for tickets or just get them at the door. UCSC's choral ensemble and chamber singers present works by Morley, Dowland, Charpentier, and other vintage composers Feb 20 at 7:30 and 21 at 8 p.m. at UCSC's recital hall. Patrice Maginnis, Kathryn Atkins, Michele Rivard, Brian Staufenbiel and Reg Houston will be singing. Tickets at 459-2159 or at the door. Don't you wish all these events could be spread out a bit more?
ABOUT THAT * ASTERISK. Just to keep the record straight I worked for George Ow in helping to bring Longs Drugs to Mission Street. I look back on that job with many mixed feelings and I still regard him as a friend. He autographed my copy of Chinatown Dreams that he published and that I mentioned in the historical photo. But knowing his tactics makes me even more afraid that he'll succeed in his campaign to bring Lowe's to our Westside. We're wondering if he'll bring in Tony Hill and the NAACP to push for Lowe's, wondering if he'll make similar promises about using art and employment promises that never materialized at Longs. It's a small town.
QUOTES IN CLOSING. Ralph Meyberg sent this one. It's from Bruce Barton (1886-1967) "Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside them was superior to circumstance." Barton also said, "Before you give up hope, turn back and read the attacks that were made on Lincoln."
Bruce critiques films every Friday on KZSC-FM (88.1) on The Bushwhacker Breakfast Club at 8am.
It's free! Click here.
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STOP THE DOUBLE SHOT NOW. The Santa Cruz City Council is going to be considering the Boardwalk's proposed Double Shot death ride at their Feb. 10th meeting. I didn't realize that this thrill ride that has a 13 foot wide top will be twice as high as the County Building or 125 feet. This tower would be a huge interruption to the view of the ocean from anywhere in Santa Cruz. Why we should allow the Boardwalk to ruin our most important environmental asset is beyond me. The issue of the number of birds that will be killed by this tower of death is much more significant than I thought. Go to www.towerkill.com and see what a problem towers are. They kill migrating songbirds by the thousands. Check out the photos, it's a problem and I apologize for not realizing the seriousness of it before. It'll be interesting to see how Mayor Scott Kennedy votes on this Double Shot tower. He's always been in Charlie Canfield's back pocket before, watch closely on this one.
HEALTH CARE IN CUBA. A group of Santa Cruz medical practitioners went to Cuba in November to see first hand what Cuba's been up to in health care. We have all heard about the low infant mortality rate, the ratio of doctors to patients, universal health care, their medical research, and other positive health statistics that equal or surpass their wealthier neighbor nations. This is a chance to hear first hand from experts on just how the Cuban health system is working. The Alliance of Guama, Cuba, and Santa Cruz County (AGuaS) is presenting this special event on Sunday, February 8 at 4 p.m. Following the presentation which includes slides there'll be a Cuban dinner and music during the dinner will be provided by Lynn Johnson of KUSP's Radio Caribe show. Advance tickets (strongly recommended) are available at Rhythm Fusion 1541 Pacific Avenue call 423-2048. The event will be at Live Oak Grange, 1900 17th avenue (between Capitola Road and Highway 1).
BIG-BOX RETAIL SEEN AS REGIONAL THREAT. That's the headline in the San Francisco Chronicle (Thursday, February 5, 2004) in the business section. You can read the entire article by going to www.sfgate.com/business and clicking on the article with that heading by Jenny Strasburg. While this article talks mostly about Wal-Mart Supercenters it has a lot of what should be required reading for any area resident and especially for office holders/politicians. What it says is that while big box retail development supercenters may save residents some money it could seriously eat into the sales tax base4, erode entry level wages and worsen traffic. The facts are contained in a 104 page report from the Bay Area Economic Forum. The report urges a cautious approach to welcoming giant discount grocery stores. Some county governments have issued a ban on big-box stores that devote more than 5% floor space to non taxable grocery items. Remember folks, Safeway is applying for a super sized increase in their Mission Street store. The article goes on to say that small cities generally can increase their sales-tax revenue through development but that any revenue impact must also be weighed against local public sector costs, such as traffic, possible vacancies at other retail sites, and the public services required by a supercenter. Read the article think about if we need a Lowe's Home Development store in the Wrigley Plant and what it will really cost us in long range terms. What's even worse news is that I've had some communications telling me that Home Depot is also planning another attack on our county. This time on the west side. Get to your representatives tell them to fight these big boxes. Other communities have beaten them back, the lowering of wages and small tax revenues aren't worth it.
LETTER FROM LEE Q. Lee Quarnstrom emails in to tell us his views from Orange County about Lowe's. He says most consumer groups give Lowe's a higher rating than Home Depot. He goes on to say that traffic would be a big problem out at the Wrigley plant. Read Lee's letter in the letters to the editor section. In case you just got here, Lee Quarnstrom used to be a reporter/columnist for The San Jose Mercury and other fly by night papers around here for nearly 40 years before moving to Orange County.
SCAN ANNUAL AWARDS DINNER. According to SCAN officials this may be the 10th. Annual SCAN Awards dinner, but maybe not. At any rate the dinners are great fun and everybody gets to think good thoughts and plot a lot. Assemblyman John Laird and Fred Keeley will be emcees and keep things moving. It's best to make reservations asap so they know how many are coming. Call 458-9425 or if you have questions call 476-4685. Dinners are priced on a sliding scale.
SERIOUS MOVIE TIME. Be sure to see Errol Morris film Fog of War. That's the documentary interview with Robert McNamara, former strategic planner with Gen. Curtis LeMay in firebombing Japan, advisor to Kennedy and LBJ on Vietnam, and former Secretary of Defense to JFK. Don't just watch it for his explanations and faux apologies for killing hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians, but watch it to see the interplay of egos between him and LBJ or JFK. Think about how much of our world's future is decided on by personality clashes, by imagined plots, and insane thinking. You will be forced to compare the tragedies of WW2, Korea and Vietnam with exactly what is going on today over Iraq and our current leader crisis. Do not miss this film. The theatre should let all Republicans in free, they won't go otherwise.
HISTORICAL PHOTO NEWS. I ran the old photo of the woman and her popcorn wagon in last week's column. I had no clues about her or the year of the photo. As fortune would have it Eric Fingal and Carolyn Swift who are still cataloging the Covello & Covello collection happened on that very same photo exactly last week. Eric phoned to tell me that the woman in the popcorn wagon is Lorraine Wieland and the photo was taken for The Sentinel on January 31, 1950. The location is still a guess but the car ad behind the wagon says Better Than Ever . Thanks to Eric and Carolyn for all their good work and sleuthing, and reading the column!
THEATRE REVIEW. I saw the 60 gRit Theater Company production of David Mamet's plays The Duck Variations and Sexual Perversity in Chicago. The most important thing to say to 60 gRit is a very big thank you and welcome to Santa Cruz. Even though they've been acting and directing here for some time this was their first 60 gRit production. To see true theatrical spirit and energy come alive and succeed is always exciting and not since The Pisces Moon Productions have we seen such creativity and talent. It is entirely possible that Santa Cruz is ending its dumbing down period and will once again seek challenging theatre. 60 gRit's acting, staging, and ingenuity are what makes good theatre good. Rumors have it that they're moving to a new space near downtown for their next play. Actually they have to because the temporary gallery at 1319 Pacific has a new tenant moving in.
ORCA WORKSHOP HAPPENING. ORCA stands for Organization of Regional Coastal Activists. They're having their first public meeting in the Community room of the Santa Cruz Police Department 155 Center street across from LONDON Nelson Community Center Monday, February 9 at 6:15 p.m. They'll be discussing how to become effective coastal protection activists. It'll focus on the Coastal Act and the emerging ORCA network. ORCA is sponsored by Save Our Shores, The Ocean Conservancy, Sierra Club, Surfrider Foundation and The Surfers Environmental Alliance. Orca will have a second workshop on how to file appeals, working with Coastal Commission staff lobbying commissioners and how to make presentations work. Contact the local ORCA coordinator at 831 4238567.
MUSIC REVIEW. New Music Works celebrated its 25th anniversary last weekend with two different concerts that summed up exactly why this organization is so important to Santa Cruz. The music was exciting, confusing, sonorous, jarring and every piece deserved hearing. The evening concert was easily the finest concert I've heard in attending almost every one of their 25 years of music presentations. Amy X. Neuberg's Five Distractions wowed the entire audience. Fred Frith's Stone, Brick, Glass, Wood, Wire was equally amazing and enjoyed. Allen Strange's Shivaree which was a tribute to Warner Bros composer Carl Stallings grabbed and surprised everybody. Thomas Schultz played a beautiful piano piece by Yuji Takahashi that used volume and silent spaces and we all liked that one too. Three cheers to New Music Works and thank goodness the first 25 years are the hardest they've paid their dues and deserve much credit.
DUMB MOVIE TIME. I should mention... the truth is I have always gone to every single movie no matter how bad it sounded hoping that just maybe there'll be a second or two of something worthwhile in it. Possibly a well delivered line, a clever camera angle, a plot twist that no one ever thought of, and to be honest there usually is something in almost every movie. There isn't in The Perfect Score. Even Scarlett Johansson doesn't help this piece of muck. For some reason the film goes to great trouble to justify the stealing of SAT test answers. Don't think about seeing this terrible film...for any reason. There isn't any real reason to see The Big Bounce either. It's from Elmore Leonard's book and that's one small step but aside from getting a little bit of the laid back Hawaiian lifestyle on film even Owen Wilson can't save this film. Doesn't it seem like the mainstream screens went from some interesting films to junk in about one week? What's with those major studios anyways?
GOODBYE VERN BOWIE. Vern Bowie died last Saturday. I'm sorry if you didn't know him. He was just about the perfect definition of "a scholar and a gentleman." More than that, he was magnificently talented. Talented as both an artist and as a craftsman, which is rare. He worked hard to create the LONDON Nelson memorial and with wife Carol they devoted much of their busy lives to making our community a lovelier place to live. Their house is full of Vern's wood creations and it's full of his love too. I'll certainly miss him and so will everybody else.
CZY MOZE PAN/PANI TO POWTORZYC? That's Polish for could you repeat that please? I couldn't find anything to cover quotes. "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." -Albert Einstein. "Don't be so humble - you are not that great." -Golda Meir to a visiting diplomat. "The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by those who don't have it." -George Bernard Shaw. Remember that last one.
Bruce critiques films every Friday on KZSC-FM (88.1) on The Bushwhacker Breakfast Club at 8am.
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