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DATELINE APRIL 27, 2015
GROCERY OUTLET OPENS ON LUCKY’S OLD SITE. Big crowds on Saturday (4/25)at the site of the old Lucky’s Store on Morrisey. New labels amongst old familiar ones , and prices seemed lower for sure Safeway/Albertsons. Grocery Outlet stores are mostly independently owned not like trader Joes and their owner ALDI International in Germany, the world’s largest grocery chain owner. They get their egges and milk and meat the same places the big chains do so not a big svaings there, but I got a great buy on imported Olive Oil at $3.99. It’s from Bellucci and is 100% Italian extra virgin, non-GMO…but then again, who isn’t? It’s probably made by ESSO or Sunoco or some other off brand. Then again, I’ll bet you’ll see more old friends at Trader Joe’s.
COAST DAIRIES NTL. MONUMENT. Supervisor Ryan Coonerty’s pledge to withdraw his support of The Coast Dairies National Monument IF all the issues aren’t dealt with is certainly a good one. WE may have to remind him from time to time so he doesn’t duck out like he did in his long pitches for a DE-SAL plant, but let’s hope.
APTOS VILLAGE…WHY? A bit further down Paul Elerick deals in details on the Aptos Village or SWENSONVILLE or ZACHARAVIA but I defy anyone anytime to show or prove that city growth has brought any kind of success anywhere in the world. These developers and Chambers of Commerce’s keep pushing for growth, development and can they possibly deny that as cities grow bigger they actually have more tax money to spend on improvements? Never happen!
SUICIDE WARNING. Exit International just sent this warning… in case you were planning to use “Balloon Time Helium” on your way out.
The largest manufacturer of disposable helium cylinders, Worthingtons in Columbus, Ohio, who make Balloon Time kits have announced on its website that from April 2015 their cylinders will guarantee only 80% helium, with up to 20% air. While an 80:20 helium:air mixture is suitable for floating party balloons, its use to provide a peaceful death is lost. It went on to state… Exit recommends that those with recently-acquired Balloon Time cylinders either test the gas to ensure that there is no oxygen contamination. Alternatively, the cylinders should be discarded and replaced with a reliable alternative like Max Dog nitrogen, where the purity of the gas (& absence of any oxygen) is guaranteed by the distributors. Read all of it here….
HISTORICAL PHOTO ADDITIONS. If you scroll down to last week’s issue (April 9-22) of BrattonOnline you’ll see a photo I quickly assumed was taken from the County Building as it was being constructed…nope, I got it wrong. Several readers sent in the “news” that the photo was taken from the roof of the San Lorenzo Park Apartments overlooking Dakota Avenue. Thanks readers.
L.A.TIMES ABOUT DESALINATION. Paul Gratz sent this timely piece…
Times (April 24, 2105)
DESALINATION PLANTS AREN’T A GOOD SOLUTION
FOR CALIFORNIA DROUGHT.
By Michael Hiltzik
* Enthusiasm for desalination tends to overlook its enormous energy demand and environmental footprint. As surely as the hot, dry Santa Ana winds bring blue skies to the coast and wildfires to the hills, severe California droughts bring calls to build desalination plants up and down the seashore. All that ocean water, begging to be converted to fresh and pumped into our pipelines, would solve our water supply problems instantly and permanently, boosters say. In the coming months, the drumbeat will only get louder. That’s not only because the current drought is the longest and most severe in memory, but because a $1-billion desalination project scheduled to start operating in Carlsbad this fall will be attracting lots of attention”. Brattonote read the rest of this article it mentions Santa Cruz!!! And a seaside beach photo caption in the LA Times article says, “As big industrial facilities, desalination plants can’t be plunked down just anywhere on the coast without destroying the qualities that attract people to the shoreline. (John Antczak, Associated Press) [MORE]
DE-SAL POETRY. Patricia Matecjek forwarded this timely ode
LETS DISCUSS DESALINATION
by joey racano
Let’s discuss Desalination
Could it be right for our nation
Let’s explore both pro and con
Before you turn those sprinklers on
First let’s see how Desal works
How it’s owned by greedy jerks
Who built a plant and ran away
Leaving Tampa Bay to pay
Two faced liars call it salt
What they dump like it was malt
But brine is so bad for the sea
Concentrated impurity
Then the issue of intake
Suck fish in and set on bake
Plankton are our baby fish
Want dead ocean? Got your wish!
Should we drink desalted water
Knowing sea life it will slaughter?
What would Desal set in motion?
It would sterilize the ocean!
Now it’s time to speak of cost
How much San Diego lost
Built a plant and spent a billion
To serve seven percent of over three million!
| ADULTS ONLY HAPPY BIRTHDAYSPECTACULAR. You have been warned, and send this one to your Facebook friends, I dare ya!!! |
With 40 million in our state
Do the math, extrapolate
California needs 200 plants!
That’s half a trillion- with no grants!
Perhaps the greatest threat of all
Fukushima comes to call
Tritium can’t be removed
Ice cubes glow when thirst is soothed
Get yours at the Geiger counter
Desal water large amounter
Hate to throw you such a curve
Maybe we should just conserve
Joey Racano the poet adds this is from a ‘Weapon of mass discussion” and remember that “Capitalism is the first stage of cannibalism” -joey racano
APTOS VILLAGE PLAN (part 2) MEETING ON APRIL 22.
As mentioned in last week’s BrattonOnline, here’s what happened at a community meeting called by 2nd District Supervisor Zach Friend. Community activist Seb Frey published a blow-by-blow account of the meeting on Neighbors Nextdoor, including a link to the audio version. Click here to read his account and the audio. What cannot be described was an overwhelming sense of community frustration. The 150 plus SRO audience fired questions at the developer and speakers even though they were asked to use 3 x 5 cards to submit them on. Most of the questions were about how the developer was going to handle traffic and our water shortage. There was a crowd of people standing outside that couldn’t get in due to the full house. Nobody spoke in favor to the Village Plan, but were encouraged by Supervisor Friend to attend a public hearing on May 5th at the Board of Supervisors regular meeting, The meeting will start at 9:00 A.M. Thanks to the Rio Sands Hotel for making their meeting room available, and to Supervisor Friend for scheduling the meeting. If you’re not satisfied with changes made to The Plan by Barry Swenson Builder after it was approved, please plan to attend the May 5th meeting and speak out.
(Paul Elerick is co-chair with Peter Scott of the Campaign for Sensible Transportation, http://sensibletransportation.org , and he’s a member of Nisene 2 Sea, a group of open space advocates).
GILLIAN’S INSIGHT. (April 26, 2015)
ABOUT UCSC AND RAPE.
I was surprised to read that UCSC is again being investigated by the US Office for Civil Rights (OCR) for possible violations of federal law in its handling of sexual violence and sexual harassment cases. The last investigation of UCSC by OCR for the same reasons was in 1994. At that time UCSC was found in violation and deservedly so, although the students who suffered from the horrific mismanagement of their cases received no justice.
I was not surprised to read that reports of sexual crimes at UCSC have tripled since 2011. When I left UCSC in 2010 after 30 years as founder and head of UCSC Rape Prevention Education, the official number was between zero and three, which seemed to me to be artificially low given the number of student cases that I forwarded to the Title IX office and which should have been included in the police database but weren’t.
Administrators claim the current increase in numbers is due to their efforts to increase awareness and encourage anyone who has been raped to come forward. Maybe yes, maybe no. There are many variables. Maybe the police are now keeping accurate statistics? Maybe the termination of the UCSC women’s self-defense program, gained after years of struggle by students and having a 20-year history of empowering women has had an impact? Maybe the termination in 2013 of the kiosk guards, non-police staff who sat in booths at both campus entrances at night and who turned away an average 80 people a month and kept an eye on students returning to campus after a night on the town has had an impact? Maybe the adoption of online programs for mandatory education, where students sit in isolation and answer pat questions has had an impact? Maybe transforming the few remaining dorm lounges into bed space, with the loss of public space where new students of all genders could become acquainted with no bedroom overtures has had an impact? Maybe the requirement that resident assistants now report to the police any student’s sharing their experience of sexual assault has had an impact? A well-meaning inquiry would address all of these variables and more. So far we have had only a PR campaign”.
(Gillian Greensite is a long time local activist, member of Save Our Big Trees and the Santa Cruz chapter of IDA, International Dark Sky Association. Plus she’s an avid ocean swimmer, hiker and lover of all things wild).
| WORLD’S WURST COOKING. Mark Bernhard sent this one. Do not blame me for it. |
PATTON’S PROGRAM. Gary talks about developing Fort Ord, and about an Open Space future at the Fort. Neighbors Organized to Protect Our Community (NOPOC) celebrates their victory over P.G.& E. and their unnecessary power line project. He says, “As I said yesterday, with reference to the work of NOPOC, Neighbors Organized to Protect Our Community, community participation in land use related matters can actually make a big difference in what governmental agencies do. To be successful, with respect to any community-based effort, concerned members of the community do have to “get organized,” and they have to be willing to go to meetings, and to educate and inform themselves about the various governmental processes that can so profoundly affect our future. But if they do that, the results are often quite striking. Your participation can, in fact, make a difference. Self-government actually does work, but as the term so clearly states, we don’t get self-government as a gift from someone else. If we care about self-government, we do need to get involved ourselves.
He ends the week talking about The Carmel Valley Association and their guide on how to comment on an EIR which is available.Check it out at his wensite. Read the complete scripts of the above at Gary Patton’s KUSP Land Use site http://blogs.kusp.org/landuse . Gary is a former Santa Cruz County Supervisor (20 years) and an attorney who represents indivuduals and community groups on land use and environmenatl issues. The opions expressed are Mr. Patton’s \. Gary has his own website, Two Worlds/365” – www.gapatton.net
CLASSICAL DeCINZO. DeCinzo takes a look at the roaming Catholics. Scroll downwards.
EAGAN’S DEEP COVER. Eagan looks at surfing, voting, and DARK MONEY!!! See below.
LISA JENSEN LINKS. Lisa writes: “This week at Lisa Jensen Online Express (http://ljo-express.blogspot.com), Jewel Theatre Company debuts a witty new play by Kate Hawley, and sci-fi gets smart with Ex Machina.” Lisa has been writing film reviews and columns for Good Times since 1975.
THAT IS THE QUESTION
(IN ORDER OF PERFECTION)
SEYMOUR: AN INTRODUCTION. This documentary is gone already and is worth your looking into. Especially if you love music and pianos. Ethan Hawke paid for the film and talks to Seymour Bernstein, a grand pianist and teacher. It’s about loving music, the subtleties of performance, about Steinway Pianos…it’s as educational as it is beautiful.Go seek it out.
EX MACHINA. Oscar Isaacs takes the lead in this sci-fi winner of a film. You’ll stay glued to the seat as this somewhat kinky story unfolds. If you hhave to classify it , It’s another robot into human story but with so many twists..it’s powerful, and full of suspense. You could say that there are a few plot twists that seem awkward, but go for it…it’s the best film of the year (4 months)
TRUE STORY. James Franco and Jonah Hill try their damndest to make this TRUE STORY work..but it doesn’t. It’s a murder story and Franco is the murderer and Hill is the NY Times Reporter who gets too involved. I guaranteed you’ll pay attention all the way through but at the end you won’t care about it, and won’t remember any of it. You might possibily want your money back…so think about it!!!
WATER DIVINER. Russell Crowe makes his debut as a director in this Gallipoli war saga of a father who’s a water diviner goes to the battlefield in Turkey where this two or maybe 3 sons died and “divines” their bodies…well, two of them. The war scenes are great and bloody, but the film never transports you into the story. Something is too cold, too impersonal to care that much about. But it still qualifies a a good movie.
THE AGE OF ADALINE. Beyond tacky and full of cliché and tripe, even Harrison Ford doesn’t save this impossible hackyned story. A woman has an accident and stays 29 years old forever. Ellen Burstyn tries hard to act as her daughter then becomes her mother. You’ll go batty thinking of ways this could have been a fine sensitive film, but it isn’t.
STILL PLAYING AT A THEATRE NEAR US
FROM BEST TO REALLY BAD
WOMAN IN GOLD. Helen Mirren will get no big awards for her starring role in this mini-saga of how a Jewish woman fought for years to get Gustav Klimt’s painting of her aunt back from the Austrian government. Austria possessed the painting after Hitler’s Nazi’s stole it from her folks. It lacks a point or reason or spark. Ryan Reynolds is pretty good as the young attorney. Go rent “The Rape of Europa” documentary from a few years ago, it’s more dramatic!!
WHILE WE’RE YOUNG. Naomi Watts steals the show from Ben Stiller in this “middle age” tragic comedy. They are an “older” couple who try competing with the 20 year younger couple Amanda Seyfried and Adam Driver. The film tries hard to say something about getting older and being present, but fails. However it does have a bizarre sequence when everybody goes to an Ayahuasca ceremony (Hollywood version) and of course vomiting is supposed to get big laughs…it’s that kind of film.
CINDERELLA. This is a 100 % Disney movie, and I mean it in a good way. It’s the classic Disney from Snow White, Pinocchio, Beauty and The Beast and the old timey beautiful, heart-tugging, syrupy romance years. This is a live action spectacular, with Lily James who plays Lady Rose MacClare in Downtown Abbey as Cinderella and Cate Blanchett as the wicked stepmother. I loved it, but it does start very slowly.
DIVERGENT SERIES; INSURGENT. Unless you’ve read all three of thse teeny-bopper, sci-fi thrillers you won’t get much out of this part two. They could have named it Effulgent, Detergent, Emolument, Deterrent, or even best yet, Detriment…and it would have been more honest, and saved some unpuspecting movie goer an admission price!!
| UNIVERSAL GRAPEVINE RADIO PROGRAM KZSC 88.1 FM or live online at www.KZSC.ORG TUESDAYS 7-8 P.M. |
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. . Miriam Ellis guests on May 5 to talk about this years International Playhouse at UCSC. Miriam is followed by Dr. Jason Luksich talking all about his field of Ophthalmology. May 12 has Ted Benhari telling us of some of the problems and issues that the proposed National Monument will bring. After Ted Anita Monga visits from the San Francisco Silent Film Festival to tell about this years full schedule. May 19 Elizabeth Romanini and Attny. Bill Parkin talk about the success of NOPOC (Neighbors Organized to Protect our Community) and Tash Nguyen discusses UCSC’s Sin Barras after that. . Do remember, any and all suggestions for future programs are more than welcome so tune in, and keep listening. Email me always at bratton@cruzio.com
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 herehttp://kzsc.org/blog/tag/universal-grapevine then tap on “listen here” to hear any or all of them… all over again. The update includes Nikki Silva, Michael Warren, Tom Noddy, Anita Monga, Mark Wainer, Judy Johnson-Darrow, Wendy Mayer-Lochtefeld, Rachel Goodman, George Newell, Tubten Pende, Gina Marie Hayes, Rebecca Ronay-Hazleton, Miriam Ellis, Deb Mc Arthur, The Great Morgani on Street performing, and 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 Company. Then there’s Pat Matejcek on environment, Nancy Abrams and Joel Primack on the Universe plus Nina Simon from MAH, 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!!!
QUOTES. “If I had to choose a religion, the sun as the universal giver of life would be my god”, Napoléon Bonaparte . “It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade”, Charles Dickens. “The Sun is such a lonely star. Whenever he comes out to see his friends, they all disappear”,Joseph Gordon-Levitt, “He stepped down, avoiding any long look at her as one avoids long looks at the sun, but seeing her as one sees the sun, without looking”, Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina.
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BEST OF VINTAGE STEVEN DeCINZO.
Deep Cover by Tim Eagan.
