Blog Archives

SCOTTS VALLEY 1958. That’s Camp Evers at the lower left at the intersection of Mount Herman Road and Scotts Valley Drive by the Union Station. And yes, this is before all the high tech companies came…and left. And it’s before Highway 17 became so terrible.

photo credit: photo courtesy Covello & Covello Historical photo collection

Additional information always welcome: email photo@brattononline.com

BURTON DOING HAMLET,

DESTRUCTION OF LA BAHIA OR, WHAT WILL THE COASTAL COMMISSION DO ….etc.

I asked Don Webber who’s been opposing Charlie Canfield’s Boardwalk and developer Barry Swenson building a too high condo hotel instead of saving La Bahia to write BrattonOnline a piece summing up where the history of Santa Cruz stands in view of the recent Coastal Commission’s staff report. You can read all of his reply here…among other items he says….” So the Coastal Commission staff has signed on to the city’s vision for La Bahia and has recommended to Coastal Commissioners that they approve the city’s application to amend our local coastal program to allow Barry Swenson Builder to demolish the La Bahia Apartments and to replace them with a replica six times the size.

This kind of thing isn’t allowed under current zoning, so the city’s is seeking Coastal Commission permission to create a new zone specifically for the La Bahia parcel allowing Swenson to build at an increased mass and scale. The Coastal Commission staff says that’s okay with them.

Their staff report also contains a slew of new policy provisions for the city to include in its local coastal program relating to the regulation of condominium-hotels and other matters. There will undoubtedly be a lot of talk about condo-hotels and these other matters in the staff’s presentation to the Commission; their staff report is full of it.

BRANAGH DOING HAMLET. I like Kenneth Branagh’s Yorick scene better than Burton’s…check it out.

But the crux of the matter before the Commission remains these two questions:

Must we demolish a protected coastal resource, the La Bahia Apartments?

And if so, what is the proper mass and scale of the construction that replaces it?

After what can only be called a tortured analysis, the authors of the staff report come down on the side of demolition and maximum scale—just what the city asked for.

Whether their analysis will persuade a majority of Commissioners to agree with their conclusions remains in doubt until the morning of August 11 in the Watsonville City Council Chambers”.

SPEAKING OF SHAKESPEARE IMPRESSIONS.

Don tells many more ideas and possibilities then closes with…””One thing for sure, the Coastal Commission hates spot zoning, i.e., carving out one parcel for special treatment different from all others in a zone. It’s notoriously bad planning that undermines the integrity of a local coastal program. What good is having a program if landowners can exempt themselves from it and have their own zone within a zone? Ultimately this process thwarts the intention of local coastal programs because it allows the coastal zone to be changed parcel by parcel; like dominoes they fall, before you know it, the coast is transformed.

I’ve watched the Coastal Commission for a long time. Commissioners take their role as statewide protectors of coastal resources seriously. They are aware that developers and project boosters are always in support of the maximum development, and that it’s not at all rare for local government to share the boosters’ point of view. So, the jury is out until the Commissioners themselves address these issues on the 11th. See you in Watsonville”. Don Webber.

Here’s a link to Webber’s take on La Bahia

GO HERE FOR SEARCH ON AREA’S LOWEST GAS PRICES. I just now found this, and yes, everybody else knew long ago…but just in case. Wow, Scotts Valley????

http://www.californiagasprices.com/GasPriceSearch.aspx

IN & OUT BURGER CONTINUED. No video clips, but an interesting article.

http://www.thedailymeal.com/n-out-burger-coming-town-near-you

URGENT: Sign Our Petition to Save Sharks! Kaitilin Gaffney of the Ocean Conservancy sends this…Over 70 million sharks are killed each year to meet a growing demand for shark fin soup—and we need to act quickly to make sure shark populations worldwide have a fighting chance of recovering.

Internationally, numerous governments have passed, or are considering bans on the trade in shark fins. The United States currently has a national ban on the brutal practice of finning in US waters —but a loophole still allows for the import of shark fins to California, which primarily enter the country through its ports. California now has the chance to join Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington State in banning the trade in shark fins. To protect sharks worldwide from massive declines and risk of extinction, we simply must eliminate the trade in shark fins in California. Please add your name before August 15th to our petition asking California’s State Senate to put an end to the shark fin trade. Sign the petition here!

UM…ER…AHHH. Morton Marcus almost had a corner on this speech improvement. Read the article here

PATTON’S PROGRAM. Here’s how Gary describes his KUSP broadcasts for the week.

Monday. Find out about a major conservation effort in San Benito County. It’s up for discussion at a meeting scheduled for tomorrow morning in Hollister.
Tuesday. There is a lot going on at the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors meeting today, including a $300,000 payment to the County! More here.
Wednesday. The Santa Cruz County Transportation Commission meets tomorrow in Watsonville. Lots of interesting items! Find out more right here.
Thursday. The so-called “Regional Water Project” would have major land use impacts. Why are local officials trying to hide the ball? Check out today’s Report.
Friday. Today’s Land Use Report talks about the state laws that protect our right to participate effectively in key land use policy matters. Check out the links!

Read them in full detail here.

(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. Gary has his own website, “Two Worlds / 365”www.gapatton.net )

DAWN GABLE IN PROGRESO WEEKLY. Dawn Gable used to work and study at UCSC’s Predatory Birds Department. Then she went to Cuba, and Washington and is involved in politics (and even nastier predatory birds!!!), she writes this about a bill we need to watch closely. She writes, “Florida Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and her right-wing friends in the House Foreign Affairs Committee had what Ranking Member Howard Berman reportedly called “a series of tantrums” that caused the committee to spend two straight days dealing with over 100 amendments to a bill that will never become law. While Ileana would like someone, not sure who, to believe that she is valiantly and courageously fighting against all sanity wherever it may lurk, she knew, as well as Berman, that it was nothing more than a cowardly show. The bill in question is the State Department Authorization bill”. Read the rest of it here…

ELERICK’S INPUT. Is Santa Cruz going to the dogs?

Dogs off-leash at Lighthouse Field, on- leash downtown on sidewalks and in shops? Bumper stickers with the strident message “I love dogs and I vote”? Dogs sitting atop their owners lap while the owner is driving?

The doggy lobby certainly seems to be in control of the Business Community and City Council. The problem is that there are people who love dogs, like me, but don’t want to deal with dog-owning showoffs and their pets when I come to Santa Cruz for a movie or lunch with friends and family. Every time our city takes a step forward to attract customers downtown they take two steps backward with things like allowing dogs on sidewalks downtown and off-leash at Lighthouse Field. Parking meters and restrictions in Santa Cruz have made it a no-brainer where to see a movie especially if it’s showing on 41st Avenue in Capitola, Scotts Valley, Aptos or Watsonville, where the threat of a $40 parking ticket doesn’t exist. And that’s not even including the threat of being towed away ($350) if you don’t read the fine print on the parking lot signs near Trader Joes.. I’d rather spend that kind of money on movies elsewhere.

(Paul Elerick is thechair of the Campaign for Sensible Transportation, http://sensibletransportation.org , chair of the Transportation Committee of the Santa Cruz Group Sierra Club. and is a member of Nisene 2 Sea, a group of open space advocates).

VINTAGE DE CINZO. DeCinzo thinks about tourism in Santa Cruz scroll way down.

EAGANS DEEP COVER. Tim creates a genuine cliff hanger…in color as always. Scroll down, if you please.

LANDAU’S PROGRES. Saul writes in this week’s Progreso, “The reason we have a Department of Defense is to break things and kill people. The problem we have now is that so much of the money is not going to the people who are breaking things and killing people.” –Ret. Marine General Arnold L. Punaro, Member of the Defense Business Board, to the Washington Post (7-21-11). As strategic minds of Washington figure out nation building in Afghanistan while undermining the crumbling infrastructure at home, U.S. political culture focuses on gay marriage and debt ceilings. On his radio show Rush Limbaugh still severely stresses the President’s middle name, “Huuu—ssssein.” Millions righteously titter over Rush’s “subtlety” and, of course, continue to believe the radical Muslim Obama was born in Kenya. For Rush, Obama represents the left, a threat to our rights to choose our own doctors and keep all our money. Left and progressive circles have re-christened Obama: President Disappointing. There’s more…read it here…

Saul Landau is an Institute for Policy Studies fellow whose films are on DVD from roundworldproductions@gmail.com

LISA JENSEN LINKS. Our summer theater season continues with two new productions from Shakespeare Santa Cruz. Visit Lisa Jensen Online Express (http://ljo-express.blogspot.com/) to find out if Danny Scheie’s reboot of The Comedy Of Errors lives up to its predecessor, and whether The Three Musketeers is fit for a king. Also, expect the beginning of a beautiful friendship when the First Friday Art Walk launches the new August Wine Walk, and a few thoughts on the return (at last!) of Project Runway. Lisa Jensen has been writing film reviews and a column for Good Times since 1975.

OFFICIAL MAGIC TRIP MOVIE SITE… http://www.magictripmovie.com

MAGIC TRIP (NOT “THE TRIP”). Our Monterey Bay and San Francisco Bay areas have heard so many fables, lies, stories, facts, and dreams about Ken Kesey’ s legendary bus trip in his bus named “Furthur” that to see this documentary is at least revelatory. Kesey bought a 16 mm camera and took miles of footage of their trip to the World’s Fair in NYC in 1964. To watch these trippers in this film that took 40 years to assemble, is to put lies to fully ¾ of all the fables we’ve heard. You’ll see the west coast psychedelics meet the uptight east coast experimenters like Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert (Ram Dass), and Larry McMurty…they didn’t get along! Hear the Grateful Dead then known as The Warlocks, watch the busload go swimming in the “colored section” of a river in Louisiana and just a lot of good drugged fun. Neal Cassady drove and talked meth-odically and constantly. Ken Babbs, Paul Sundstren, and Jane Burton were onboard. As was writer Robert Stone, who was also in Shakespeare Santa Cruz’s opening play King Lear (but nobody was supposed to know that)!!! Local resident Ron Bevirt (from Swanton’s Last Chance Road) is in it too. No Hells Angels, no Paul Krassner, no Stewart Brand, they all came later. After this NYC trip that took off from Kesey’s place in La Honda, the bus and Ken took many trips around the USA and around the west coast doing what was called “Acid Tests”. There’s about 4 seconds of a trip to Santa Cruz if you watch closely. Just don’t miss it, it probably won’t play here long, and it needs the big screen to take in all the sights, fun and craziness. Ken Kesey died in 2001 from liver cancer.

CRAZY, STUPID LOVE. This movie would be 100% asinine if it weren’t for the few dramatic twists. Steve Carell loves and is married to Julienne Moore who loves Kevin Bacon, probably. But Carell’s kids love the wrong people and those people love the wrong people and Marisa Tomei is still very good. Go only if this lousy summer fog weather keeps up.

CRAZY, STUPID, DUMAS’ THREE MUSKETEERS. This relatively new play based on Dumas book is more or less a staged version of those goof ball relationship comedies some of us see opening every week. Shakespeare Santa Cruz’s production of THREE MUSKETEERS is good fun, signifying nothing, and has excellent costumes. It’s easy to imagine Ryan Gosling, Steve Carrell, Mila Kunis, Seth Rogen in this “swashbuckler” as folks call it. AND it’s good fun, especially in the outdoor Glen…go see it, and bring your visitors.

COWBOYS AND ALIENS. With all the names of writers, producers, and especially actors like Harrison Ford, Daniel Craig, Sam Rockwell, and David Carradine this could have been a contender. Late 1800’s in Arizona and aliens visit cowboys…why not have a good story line…but it doesn’t. It’s just fun, really dumb fun, maybe for very young movie goers.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER.(repeat) CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER. Each of these comic hero epics makes me miss Christopher Reeves as Superman more and more. Those first two Superman films with Marlon Brando and Margot Kidder were absolutely believable, fun and full of genius. Captain America was one of my comic book favorites back in the very early 40’s along with Captain Marvel and this film has terrific special effects and is better than almost all the other Marvel Comic Movies…but that’s not saying much.

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS. (repeat) Like the last six Potter films, I couldn’t keep track of curses, locations, worlds, villains and heroes’ names. Lord of The Rings was a classic compared to this series of scenes, proving nothing. We watch Harry, Ron and Hermione get older and the ending seems satisfactory, but give me the MGM Judy Garland Wizard of Oz any time…now, there’s a masterpiece.

PROJECT NIM. Political type fans must know by now that the chimpanzee that was trained and so cruelly treated in this film was named Nim Chimpsky. The entire film is or should be a testament to PETA. You’ll cringe over watching Nim’s intelligence grow and seeing just how his “owners” failed him. A fine but painful film to watch.

RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS PLAY BIG SUR. I’ve finally calmed down after hearing this anonymous tip about The Henry Miller Library and the peppers. But in case some of you didn’t hear…

HOSTETTER’S HOT STUFF. Paul H. is back from some secret places and these dates are long past (some of them) but it’s good to keep tabs on him anyways…”It has been awhile. Time to get organized. A couple of things are coming up immediately, or soon thereafter. Debo Band + Fendika makes its first real hit on the west coast soon, including the Bay Area, which is huge news. Not only that, there are the Honeydrops, and some out-of-control tamburasi, and an opera by Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thompson. Wow! Details are, as to be expected, here.

I lament the paucity of decent venues in Santa Cruz. Furthermore, I have a checkered history with Moe’s Alley and am at pains to exhort people to go there, but also have to confess that they are the only venue in town that presents certain good things, and one of them—this Wednesday night—is a singer from Saharan Africa named Bombino. I only know his music from YouTube and recordings and I really like what I have heard, and he’ll be here soon. Suck it up and try and see Bombino at Moe’s. More again very soon, as other worthy events will flood in no time. As ever, ph

CABRILLO FESTIVAL OF CONTEMPORARY MUSIC. Hopefully everyone’s learned about the free Festival Orchestra rehearsals at the Civic almost daily, right now. And for sure everyone is planning on the Art & Wine Festival on Church Street in front of the civic on Saturday and Sunday from 11am to 8 pm. The concerts and visiting stars are listed in ads nearly everywhere. You know what’s odd is that I’ve attended just about every single Cabrillo Festival concert for nearly 36 years and I have only seen one, maybe two elected local officials at any of them…why is that?? Go to www.Cabrillomusic.org to get details, times, locations, lecturers, titles and what have you.

UNIVERSAL GRAPEVINE. Each and every Tuesday from 7:00-8:00 p.m. I host Universal Grapevine on KZSC 88.1 fm. or on your computer (live only, or sometimes old programs are archived…(see next paragraph) and go to WWW.KZSC.ORG. New executive director of MAH Nina Simon will guest on August 2, telling us all about the new ideas happening at the Museum of Art & History. After Nina, Grey Hayes will talk about environmental issues and ideas for our bay area. Then on August 9th local raker of muck Don Webber will detail the problems with the La Bahia plans followed by writer John Deck who will talk about his new book ” Joan Linville.. Seven Steps to an Acting Career“. Tuesday Aug 23rd has Wilma Bonet from The San Francisco Mime Troupe in town and previewing. Sept. 13 KUSP’s Opera host Jim Emdy and I will discuss up coming Opera seasons. Christopher Krohn will discuss one of UCSC’s student programs then that same program, Rita Bottoms author of the new book “riffs & ecstasies” will talk about that book..Do remember, any and all suggestions for future programs are more than welcome so tune in and keep listening.

UNIVERSAL GRAPEVINE ARCHIVES. In case you missed some of the great people I’ve interviewed in the last 5 years here’s a chronological list of just this year’s podcasts. Click here then tap on “listen here” to hear any or all of them… all over again. The Great Morgani on Street performing, Paul Whitworth on Krapps Last Tape. Jodi McGraw on Sandhills, Bruce Daniels on area water problems. Mike Pappas on the Olive Connection, Sandy Lydon on County History. Paul Johnston on political organizing, Rick Longinotti on De-Sal. Dan Haifley on Monterey Bay Sanctuary, Dan Harder on Santa Cruz City Museum. Sara Wilbourne on Santa Cruz Ballet Theatre. Brian Spencer on SEE Theatre Co. Paula Kenyon and Karen Massaro on MAH and Big Creek Pottery. Carolyn Burke on Edith Piaf. Peggy Dolgenos on Cruzio. Julie James on Jewel Theatre Conpany. Plus Rob Slawinski, Gary Bascou, Judge Paul Burdick, John Brown Childs, Ellen Kimmel, Don Williams, Kinan Valdez, Ellen Murtha, John Leopold, Karen Kefauver, Chip Lord, Judy Bouley, Rob Sean Wilson, Ann Simonton, Lori Rivera, Sayaka Yabuki, Chris Kinney, Celia and Peter Scott, Chris Krohn, David Swanger, Chelsea Juarez…and that’s just since January 2011. Hear them all!!!

BEST OF VINTAGE DeCINZO.

QUOTES. “Take what you can use and let the rest go by”, Ken Kesey . “In the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes”, Andy Warhol.”Read it like popcorn; eat it like a novel”, Whole Grains.

BEST OF VINTAGE DeCINZO.

Deep Cover

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