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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REAL STATE NEWS. I'm continuing to track down what news sources respectable politicians use. We've heard from John Laird and Gary Patton. Here are a few more California State News sources. The first links are from Senator John Vasconcellos, he said his old staff came up with them.
California Chronicle California Political Daily http://www.calpday.com It contains California public policy, politics, and government updated continuously throughout the day. It is a daily collection of breaking stories from California newspapers. Check it out. Another Vasconcellos staffer added this, "My recommendations are http://www.aroundthecapitol.com and http://www.rtumble.com. I find the daily round-up on aroundthecapitol to be indispensable. Dan Weintraub at the Sacramento Bee also has a pretty good blog on CA politics, as does John Myers at KQED. Only 48 days until the November 8th Special Election.
KUSP LAND USE REPORTS Speaking of Gary Patton, here is, as usual, his KUSP Land Use Report. Lots on water this week, and a bit of UCSC expansion. There's no limit to the amount of useful stuff one can learn, so be sure to click it and check it out.
GORILLA MY DREAMS. Sally Clark, ace photographer and good person and fine friend has some problems with brain and spinal cancer. So Wormy (not her real name) of Curbside Coffee Cart fame (in front of Logo's) is putting on one hell of a benefit this very Sunday. This is the benefit that had that papier mache cow that got vandalized acopuple of weeks ago. Now Wormy has a beautiful stuffed toy gorilla maybe 5 or 6 feet tall as first prize, go to Logo's and see it, before some lucky person wins it. The benefit and gorilla will raise money to help Sally pay for her cancer operations. Sista Monica will preside and perform at the benefit. Plus, there will be a silent auction of many, many art donations and wine donations and excellent things like that. There'll also be a dinner known as a Summer Feast. It all happens this Sunday, September 25 at 3 p.m. at 595 Wente Avenue, Ben Lomond. Get gorilla drawing tickets and party tickets and information at the Curbside Coffee Cart or call 336-2077. If you can't attend, the benefit checks can be sent to "Sally Clark" at PO Box 3855, Santa Cruz, CA, 95063.
POLICE WANT TO USE RADAR, SO THEY'RE INCREASING SPEED LIMITS? Debbie Bulger sent this in, and we need to pay attention. "The Public Works Staff and the Santa Cruz Police Department are recommending the City increase posted speed limits. The reason for the staff recommendation is to preserve the police department's ability to use radar for speed enforcement. (State law prevents the police from using radar if most people are going more than 10 mph over the posted speed limit.) Because of this dangerous state law, the posted speeds on Morrissey and Bay were changed to 30 mph to permit radar enforcement. This was a test to see if radar enforcement would lower the 85th percentile speed enough to use radar at the previously posted 25 mph. The staff report explains that this experiment failed.
So why are they recommending a strategy that doesn't work? A better strategy is to put our energy and resources into altering the streets so that speeders voluntarily slow down. The City's traditional posting of 25 mph on all City streets is not based on a desire for enforcement, but rather on a desire for safety and quality of life. What is our vision for Santa Cruz neighborhoods? Do we want a community that emphasizes quality of life and safety, or do we want to accommodate speeders in our neighborhoods? Should we work to preserve the use of radar, or should we work to slow down speeders who endanger our children and pets, who generate excess noise, and who decrease our quality of life?
The noise generated by a vehicle at 35 mph is DOUBLE the noise generated at 25 mph. The chance of a pedestrian dying when struck by a car is THREE TIMES GREATER if the car is going 30 mph rather than 20 mph. When struck by a car going 40 mph, 85% of pedestrians will die. At 25 mph a car will be able to brake soon enough to avoid hitting a person 150 feet ahead. At 38 mph, the driver will not be able to stop in time and will hit the person at 36 mph.
The streets affected would be:
High Street, increase to 30 mph from Laurent to Bay and to 35 mph from Bay to city limits.
Western Drive, increase to 30 mph
Delaware Ave, increase to 30 mph
Fair Ave, increase to 30 mph
Bay Street from West Cliff to California, increase to 30 mph
Water Street from River to North Branciforte, increase to 30 mph
North Branciforte from Water to Fairmont, increase to 30 mph
Broadway from Pine to Frederick, increase to 30 mph
Coral Street from Evergreen to Harvey West Blvd, increase to 30 mph
Carbonera Drive and Isbel Drive to Bartlett Way, increase to 30 mph
LaFonda Ave between Oak Way and Soquel Ave, increase to 30 mph
Meder Street between Bay and Western, increase to 30 mph
Morrissey Blvd from Prospect Heights to Pacheco, increase to 30 mph
Graham Hill Road, Ocean St. Extension and Ocean Street from city limits to Water St., increase to 30 mph
Additionally, Morrissey Blvd from Fairmont to Water and Bay Drive up to High, previously posted at 30 mph as a test would remain at 30 mph.
If you think the 25 mph speed limit should be maintained, contact the City Council citycouncil@ci.santa-cruz.ca.us and the City Transportation Commission pw-transportation-commission@ci.santa-cruz.ca.us.
Debbie Bulger.
Let your favorite City Council person know what you think of this and do it quickly. The Council is notorious for giving the police whatever they ask for.
SAY NO TO MERGING THE MONTEREY PENINSULA AND FELTON'S WATER SYSTEMS. Margie Kay (former star of the defunct but charming General Feed and Seed Show now on Community television) sends in this article by Virginia Hennessey of the Monterey Herald. Tell your Felton friends to take notes.
SANTA CRUZ COUNTY DISASTER PLANNING. Patti Jazanoski saw my question about just how prepared is the City or the County of Santa Cruz in case an earthquake or tsunami hits. She sent this link http://sccounty01.co.santa-cruz.ca.us/oes/Santa Cruz County 2002 EMP.htm. I've seen it before, but you tell me just how secure you feel after trying to read or enlarge those imbecilic maps or, trying to understand what the realistic plans are for you and your family that they have on these pages. I hope none of our money was spent on this BS and I hope that whoever is responsible lives in some part of our vast flood plain.
FREE THERAPY. Tim Seidl of Ben Lomond sends this link to one of the funniest animated cartoons I've ever found on the web. Click on it, especially if you are completely frustrated and depressed about George Bush as president. Put you cursor on Georgie and drag him around for an hour or two, you'll feel better, I guarantee it. http://www.planetdan.net/pics/misc/georgie.htm
NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS AGAIN. S.F. Weekly has a great article on the dangers of allowing existing nuclear power plants to automatically renew their licensing by 20 years. There's also an article in the online edition of American Prospect on the same topic. Link here: http://www.citizen.org/cmep/energy_enviro_nuclear/nuclear_power_plants/articles.cfm?ID=13447 Can anyone tell us where all this talk about nuclear power plants is coming from lately?
PEOPLES DEMOCRATIC CLUB. Fred Keeley will be the guest speaker at the monthly meeting of the People's Democratic Club Thursday September 22 at 7 p.m. at London Nelson Community Center. Fred's going to talk about being inside politics, the November election, and tax collecting in Santa Cruz (I made that up, but he might if we ask him!). For more information on what Democrats are doing in Santa Cruz county go to www.cruzdemocrats.org. Now's the time to plan on helping to hang door hangers.
PROGRESSIVE COALITION. There'll be an endorsement forum also at the London Nelson Community Center, September 26 at 7p.m. Supervisor Mardi Wormhoudt will moderate. This will cover the State ballot propositions. Some of the member groups of the Progressive Coalition are; The Monterey Bay Central Council, SCAN, GLBT Alliance, People's Democratic Club, Santa Cruz Green Party and SEIU Local 415.
FOR OPERA FANS ONLY. The opening two operas in the San Francisco Opera's 2005-06 season are wonderfully performed and beautifully sung, but both of them wouldn't be good choices if you haven't been to many operas. George Frideric Handel's Rodelinda was first performed in 1725 and is a baroque opera. But this production is set in a film noir Italy of the 1940's and looks more like Sin City than the usual medieval Lombardy with castles, royal gardens, and a dungeon. Updating it by hundreds of years brings out the serious side of this opera seria. Centering on love, power, politics, and women's place in the ruling class, makes this opera well worth hearing, and especially seeing, just for the absolutely stunning set design. There are two counter tenors in Rodelinda and even that doesn't ruin the very serious setting. In the good old opera days instead of high singing counter tenors they used "castrati", a castrati would be like if Eddy Fisher and Wayne Newton gave birth to a singing baby boy. A little joke there, anyway if you like Handel's music, gorgeous singing get tickets right away. Go to www.sfopera.com and check it all out, there's only five more performances.
SAN FRANCISCO OPERA'S THE ITALIAN GIRL IN ALGIERS. Gioachino Rossini like Händel wrote both serious and comic operas. Tancredi, Otello, and William Tell are some of his serious operas. He also wrote Barber of Seville and Cenerentola which have much humor. I can't think of another opera by anybody that is as plain goofy, and nutty as Italian Girl In Algiers. It's Marx Brothers funny. And it contains coloratura (decorative) singing that goes off the charts, so it has some glorious and gorgeous music too. www.sfopera.com.
GUESS WHO?? I've been meaning to mention for years now that you'll never guess who's on the board of directors of the San Francisco Opera...Claude Jarman!!!. Who's Claude Jarman? Just the 12 year old co star with Gregory Peck in "The Yearling"(1946). He also did High Barbaree with Van Johnson and Intruder in the Dust. The Academy awarded him a special miniature Oscar for Yearling. Then he sold Amway for a while, then he got very culturally involved in San Francisco. That's just in case somebody asks you about Claude Jarman.
TOUCH THE SOUND. This is a documentary about sound, not about Evelyn Glennie, the deaf percussionist. Evelyn is the tour guide and expert on exploring what sound is. The film is by Thomas Riedelsheimar who did Rivers and Tides which was about the sense of touch using Andy Goldsworthy as the guide. Don't go only to see what was filmed in Santa Cruz when she was here with the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, there's only about 30 seconds of the usual Santa Cruz stuff, Boardwalk, surfers. No CabMuFest. There are some shots of her playing barefoot in the Mission at San Juan Bautista, but it's a fine film about sound and musician composer Fred Frith, who visits and plays here often, has a prominent part too.
LORD OF WAR. Nicolas Cage plays his well honed part of Mr. Disturbed and Mr. Possibly Nuts guy again, and he's got it down perfectly. The film really says a lot about international gun sellers. And for a main stream release it is a fairly gutsy diatribe on how world powers depend on wars to make profit. Adding The Constant Gardener's film theme of exposing the ruthless and greedy pharmaceutical giants, you'd think more people would wake up on some of these bizarre world dealings, but I guess not. Go see this film, you'll be entertained.
MEMORY OF A KILLER. (The Alzheimer Case) That other title is real, this is about a contract killer who has Alzheimer's. He's got a bad and alternating memory and gets weird flashbacks when he's on a job he doesn't want to do. It's Belgian film and has all the ingredients of a good international thriller, go see it.
AN UNFINISHED LIFE. This mainstream Hollywood has it all. Robert Redford, Morgan Freeman, a bear, Jennifer Lopez, and her kid. You can almost write the story without seeing it. It should be called Grizzly Man 2, Redford being the grizzly. It's a blah film and you can see why they let it sit on the shelf for a year or more before releasing it.
QUOTES. "A Boy Scout troop is a bunch of boys dressed as jerks, led by a jerk dressed as a boy." -Shelley Berman. "My Mother didn't breastfeed me. She said she just liked me as a friend." -Rodney Dangerfield. "I understand the importance of bondage between parent and child." -Dan Quayle. "Friends are people who borrow books and set wet glasses on them." -E.A. Robinson
Deep Cover
Bruce critiques films every Friday on KZSC-FM (88.1) on The Bushwhacker Breakfast Club at 8am.
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