MISS CALIFORNIA PAGEANT PARADE. 1964. Looking North on Pacific Avenue Please note the Del Mar theatre up two blocks on the right. Note too the Santa Cruz Bowling Lanes sign on the left up top which became the new Catalyst in 1975. Looks like these are all Oldsmobile convertibles. Two big differences from then and now, more people went to parades and there were many more utilitarian stores for locals below Laurel. photo credit: Covello & Covello Historical photo collection. Additional information always welcome: email photo@brattononline.com

STUDENTS IMPACT ON SANTA CRUZ. Just a thought in passing...has anyone ever calculated the enormous impact that the hiring of UCSC students has on local offspring's chances of getting work here at home? Local highschoolers and local college age kids have to compete with UCSC students. What's the net effect on how our community grows...and how it forces locals to leave or give up...ever see or hear any figures on that?

LOCALLY OWNED BUSINESS AND WHERE THEY BANK. Reed Searle and I got to talking about locally owned businesses. Does Think Local address the facts or results in the percentage of locally owned businesses who buy all their raw materials out of County or state? That includes coffee beans, bread, wheat, paper supplies, etc. THEN does Think Local take note of where these locally owned businesses do their banking? Where do the banks these locals deposit their money in invest that money?...not too much locally I'll bet. What am I missing here???

NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION TALKS ABOUT DEVELOPMENT. NOAC writes about how seaside communities need to take care of their ocean frontage...they say, "Coastal and waterfront communities have a distinctive sense of place. The water, beaches, cliffs, rocky shores, and other natural features attract people and spur development.

Smart growth approaches to development are guided by a set of principles that help communities grow in ways that expand economic opportunity, protect public health and the environment, and enhance places that people care about. Some of these approaches also help communities become more resilient to the hazards created by weather and climate, including drought, sea level rise, and coastal inland flooding." Here's a link - the article ends with these 10 points.

Smart Growth Coastal and Waterfront Elements

1. Mix land uses, including water-dependent uses.
2. Take advantage of compact community design that enhances, preserves, and provides access to waterfront resources.
3. Provide a range of housing opportunities and choices to meet the needs of both seasonal and permanent residents.
4. Create walkable communities with physical and visual access to and along the waterfront for public use.
5. Foster distinctive, attractive communities with a strong sense of place that capitalizes on the waterfront's heritage.
6. Preserve open space, farmland, natural beauty, and the critical environmental areas that characterize and support coastal and waterfront communities.
7. Strengthen and direct development toward existing communities, and encourage waterfront revitalization.
8. Provide a variety of land- and water-based transportation options.
9. Make development decisions predictable, fair, and cost effective through consistent policies and coordinated permitting processes.
10. Encourage community and stakeholder collaboration in development decisions, ensuring that public interests in and rights of access to the waterfront and coastal waters are upheld.

I suffered a mild nervous breakdown when John Kroyer shot himself, he was my colleague in philosophy, while I was on sabbatical in Northern Wisconsin in l969.  I had to fly back and perform his funeral service.  It was a message that my career was over at UCSC.  I sold the muskie weavings which I did as a kind of occupational therapy for a dollar.  I can't remember if we sold any. 

Max Walden, who owned Cooper House, was a nice guy externally and a monster internally, which one didn't realize until one became an employee which I did when I took over the management of his restaurant, and called it the Wild Thyme. I felt sorry for Max when his wife died and he acted like he didn't notice.  Never assume the business, let alone a restaurant, because you feel sorry for a friend who suffers from spiritual impoverishment.  I learned that lesson, but it was an adventure while it lasted, about six months.  Eloise Smith and Joanne LeBoeuf and my wife, Charlene Lee, were in the kitchen and Page Smith was the Maitre d' in his Gary Cooper loafers (he bought them at the auction of Cooper's effects).  Blue blazer and rep tie.  He looked great.  He liked pouring coffee and he had a natural greeter's aplomb.  I had no idea what I was doing but I bluffed it.  The restaurant became a big success, the only game in town, what with Adolf's of old as competition, although there was Manuel's, which no one would slight, but that was out at Seacliff Beach.  The restaurant business is a big strain and I got sciatica, mostly because Max was such a pain in the ass.  It was every day all day until two in the morning.  The women's toilets overflowed on opening night.

I was nuts about the herb thyme because of my Alan Chadwick connection, having started the garden at UCSC, and Alan got me interested in herbs.  Thyme is etymologically derived from the Greek word, thymos, meaning courage, and vitality or spirited.  It is also the root for the thymus gland.  So we served sweetbreads (thymus glands) as the featured offering and Joanne LeBoeuf had the knack.  We tried thyme in hamburgers, according to a Julia Child recipe and everyone thought we were using pork instead of beef as they associated the flavor with pork.  We stopped serving them and the kitchen laughed at me.  I would go around and lecture diners on the physicalist/vitalist conflict in the system of the sciences and why scientism (physicalism) was responsible for the crisis of organic nature and the collapse of the environment.  I liked referring to the late stage in the self-destruction of industrial society and the complicity of scientistic reductionism.  I had a chart I could prop up on a chair and I got so good at it I could frame it to almost any time frame, over five minutes.  Buckminster Fuller came in one time and took to the whole show.  He was terrific.  He said it was the best restaurant outside of one in New York he had ever been in.  He was referring to the idea behind it.  ...My idea.

Max wanted me to go to Spengers, the famous fish restaurant in Berkeley to get some training but I stupidly declined.  I had started the Whole Earth Restaurant at UCSC, with Herb Schmidt and Sharon Cadwallader so I thought I knew it all.  After all, she sold a million of her cookbooks and I wrote the Preface. There are a lot more stories and if there is great demand I will be happy to tell them.

FUNERAL NOTICES.
Leon Tabory early pioneer and good fellow will have his services Sunday, November 15 at 2 p.m. at the Scotts Valley Moose Club 2470 El Rancho Drive, near "The Barn".
Bob Van Hook. Engineer, ace mechanic, neighbor, good samaritan and his services are this Saturday November 14 2p.m. at Arbor Cove in the Community Room.
More words on these and other departed friends later on.

HISTORICAL PHOTO DATA. Last week I ran a historic photo of Davenport's railroad trestle being constructed (scroll down) and asked about the wood frame tower just about the distant cliffs. Paul Hostetter replied, "It had to have been a simple lighthouse. Remember there was a boat pier on the next point north of there, the fabled Davenport Landing". He's probably right. Then scroll down even further to see the previous week's historical photo of a costumed couple with a whale blubber cauldron. Historian Frank Perry writes to say..." It was quite a surprise to see A. Noble's whaling cauldron in the photo last week.  Unless Mr. Noble had two (and with the same sign), I bet this is the same caldron that was later located in Tyrrell Park by the Natural History Museum.  It must have been moved there when the old city hall was demolished and the new one built.  I remember as a little kid being placed inside it on a school field trip to the Museum in about 1961.  According to Charles Prentiss, longtime museum curator, a cypress tree later fell on it, smashing it to bits.  So sad.  It would be great to still have this artifact.  Thanks for sharing this photo". Frank Perry

VETERANS DAY LIGHTHOUSE POINT CELEBRATION THIS WEDNESDAY. This Memorial is to honor the service of the all black 54th Coast Artillery Army Regiment during WWII, guarding California shores and waters against enemy attack, thus ensuring our safety. Activated February 10, 1941, this mobile, seacoast regiment was formed at Camp Wallace, Texas from a cadre of black soldiers from Texas, Kansas and Missouri. More details here

MEDIA FROM CUBA.  Dawn Gable, Santa Cruz local has worked in Cuba and has seen firsthand  a lot more overseas politics in her fewer than most of us will in a lifetime. She writes for Havana Times whose mission was described by one of its founders...

"We wanted to get away from the hell presented by the foreign mainstream press and the heaven described by the Cuban media". Dawn sent her article titled "Cuba A State Sponsor of Terrorism?" link and said "Sam Farr DID co-host the event http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=15625. The article centers on the embargo more than the Terrorist theme. Here's an auto bio of Dawn... "Since returning from Havana, I have strived to stay connected to Cuba and to continue facilitating communication between the people on the island and the people in my world- the English-speaking world. Havana Times has provided me a concrete venue for doing just that. The thoughtful, open and creative work of the HT writers, photographers, and technical team can only have a positive effect. I  believe that peace is based on understanding and the source of understanding is communication. Thus, I am proud to lend my translation skills to Havana Times in its effort to scale the walls of doubt and misconception and weave a bridge of trust and familiarity".(editors note. HT seems to have links to Cuba's cultural life...which I believe says as much about a community as does its politics).

LANDAU ON CUBA.  I asked Saul last Monday about politics in Cuba or what he thought about Havanna Times he wrote..."I don't see any politics in Havana Times. Or in Cuba for that matter. The Party Congress will soon convene and announce the new reforms -- at least I hope so. As long as the US MAINTAINS THE EMBARGO AND TRAVEL BAN, CUBAN POLITICS IS TOTALLY CONSTRAINED BY SECURITY FACTORS, NOT THE BEST CULTURE FOR POLITICAL experiment. Best saul

PATTON'S PROGRAM. Gary tells about John Leopold's Live Oak Board of Supes meeting happening Tuesday 11/10. He tells details of the development in San Luis Obispo and housing requirements. Read what Gary says about the Highway 68 grassroots gang and how they are working hard to control development along highway 68. Sam Farr is working on H.R. 4040 which is devoted to Los Padres National Forest rulings.
(Gary Patton is "Of Counsel" to the Santa Cruz law firm of Wittwer & Parkin, which specializes in land use and environmental law. The opinions expressed are Mr. Patton's.)

EAGAN'S DEEP COVER. Tim demonstrates the problem of "Suffering in the Translation" or better yet Suffering from the Translation". Scroll down a few pages.

LANDAU'S PROGRES. The late Ed Newman was a good friend of Saul's. Saul wrote and sent a very touching tribute to Ed that was delivered at Ed's services by a member of the Institute for Policy Studies last Sunday. I told Saul I was noting his tribute to Ed he wrote, "I hope the folks follow Ed's lead and contribute some $ to the Institute for Policy Studies where Ed invested -- so his ideas would continue to live".  Saul writes in this week's Progreso... "Afghanistan: Sad incongruities" read it here   Saul Landau is an Institute for Policy Studies fellow whose films are on DVD from roundworldproductions@gmail.com  

WATERS WEIGHS IN. Christina hypes the opening of a new winery on the Westside, recommends a great Cab blend, and dishes a bit of restaurant gossip. She always calls Cabernet Sauvignon "Cab". She probably never drinks Bur or Thun or Sau!! All at http://christinawaters.com.

THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS. George Clooney is usually quite good in any role he takes on but even his acting talent can't save this mess of a film from disaster. Part funny, part psychic nonsense, but mostly inane this seems to have been edited from a five hour flop into a 2 hour failure. Avoid it at all costs, don't even rent it.

AN EDUCATION. ( a perfect movie!!!) Once in a great while I see a film that is so well written, so perfectly acted, and so much the result of what the director tried to accomplish I call it a perfect film. This is one of those!! Peter Sarsgaard is an about 40 year old who seduces a 16 year old British school girl in London in 1960. Yes, that plot again but nothing like any other version you've seen...its perfect.

THE BOX. Cameron Diaz never has been much of an actress or actor as they call them nowadays. But she's the least of the problems in this film that goes nowhere for no good reason. Frank Langella who has only half his face for some reason gives her a box with a button. Push the button and get a million dollars is the gimmick which could have been a Jean Paul Sartre plot but isn't...its science fiction dumbed down to its lowest level. Avoid this one too.

OBAMA BRONZE BUST HAPPENING. Barrington McLean has a party coming up on Sunday. WHO IS BARRINGTON?   Barrington created the bronze bust of Martin Luther King, now in Cabrilho College's quad. The first African-American hired for Cabrilho's faculty, Barrington taught art there.
WHAT'S THIS EVENT?   An informal non-political time to brainstorm ways for Barrington to achieve his next idea—an Obama bronze bust. We'll share good food with Jazz A playing soft, ear-pleasing renditions of old standards and mellow Jazz, with a dash of Latin for spice.
WHO'S INVITED?   Please bring friends to expand our initial invitation lists of friends in the art community and others who might enjoy being part of Barrington's next project.
DETAILS:  Sunday, November 15, 2009, 3-5p.m at Piedmont Court, High St., Santa Cruz [directions when you RSVP]; beverages provided. Please bring finger food to share.
HOSTS:   Barrington McLean, John and Judy Stenovich, Frank Garcia, and Susan Drake. RSVP by November 12 at susansdrake@baymoon.com or 462-1889.

TWELFTH NIGHT by William Shakespeare, and directed by Bill Peters. Santa Cruz Actors Theatre is presenting this production as part of its 25 Year Celebration. The play's accomplished history and a bright new future make a wonderful excuse for a party. Friday November 20^th at 8:00 pm & Saturday November 21^st at 3:00pm AND 8:00pm, 2009. Santa Cruz Actors Theatre, in collaboration with San Francisco State University and Ghostlight Theatre Company will present a series of three benefit performances of William Shakespeare's comedy Twelfth Night, directed by Santa Cruz local Bill Peters, as a joint fundraiser. Ghostlight Theatre Company, founded by Bill Peters and Sarah Albertson is proud to continue its association with Actors Theatre. Audiences may remember Bill's productions of his adaptations of Herman Melville's Moby Dick, and Charles Dickens's Hard Times. His Actors Theatre production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, prompted the Santa Cruz Sentinel's theatre critic to describe it as "definitely...among the very best productions of the comedy that I've seen." Bill also directed Mountain Community Theatre's production of Comedy of Errors, which was named Best Comedy of the Year by the Santa Cruz Sentinel.

UNIVERSITY GRAPEVINE. Each and every Tuesday from 7:30-8:30 p.m. I host University Grapevine on KZSC 88.1 fm. or on your computer at  WWW.KZSC.ORG. .   S.F. State theatre person and Santa Cruz local Bill Peters will be on the Nov. 11^th program talking about Shakespeare's Twelfth Night production coming to Actors Theatre Nov. 20 & 21^st. After Bill, Stephen McCabe from UCSC's Arboretum will give us the real dirt. Noted marriage family therapist Jane Dawson will be my guest for the full hour on November 24^th talking about handling pressures and relatives during the holidays. County Supervisor John Leopold will give us the inside scoops on what's happening on the December 1^st program. On December 8^th Attorney Bob Taren and I will discuss downtown and politics, followed by County Superintendent of Schools Michael Watkins who will teach us about the school district. Linda Bixby, development manager of CASA will bring us up to date on their programs on Tuesday December 15. Tune in or keep listening whichever works best for you.

QUOTES. "What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence" Ludwig Wittgenstein. "Rub out the word", Brion Gysin. "Burnt Sienna. That's the best thing that ever happened to Crayolas', Ken Weaver.

Deep Cover

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Bruce critiques films every Friday on KZSC-FM (88.1) on The Bushwhacker Breakfast Club at 8am.

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