THE PEOPLE’S BANK. Built in 1910 and designed by William Weeks, it became the Wells Fargo Bank by January 4, 1965 (when this photo was taken). Later on it was the Integrand Design or I.D. Building (an early coffee and snack place). Now of course it’s Sockshop and Shoe and there’s progress for you!!! photo credit: Covello & Covello Historical photo collection, click for bigger version. Additional information always welcome: email photo@brattononline.com

HOTEL PARADOX. You need to go here http://www.thehotelparadox.com to see Hotel Paradox’s own website and early pre opening (August 15^th) photos. The cheapest rate looks like $195.43 per night for one of their “170 chic rooms”. Off hand I don’t ever remember anyone saying “Let’s go to Santa Cruz because they have hotels like this”. What people used to like about Santa Cruz was that, “it’s not like LA”, or“lets’ hope it never becomes San Jose”. What it boasts of is “the largest meeting room in Santa Cruz seating up to 400 people”. Wikipedia says, “A paradox is a statement or group of statements that leads to a contradiction or a situation which (if true) defies logic or reason, similar to circular reasoning”.

BIRD BECOMES BLUEGRASS BUDDY. Mark Levy sent this clip and added, “This is fun to watch. About half way through in this song a little wild bird lands on the lead singer’s guitar and watches the singer. The singer is then able to pet the wild bird. Put the video on “full screen” to better to see the bird. The bird really looks straight at the singer. http://www.dogwork.com/blugrs9

ABOUT AURORA. Crooks and Liars website says, “Bill Moyers offers his cogent thoughts on the role of gun-rights outfits like the NRA (and its many, often more rabid, imitators), all of whom in the end are really the well-financed arm of weapons manufacturers, and how they have polluted not just American discourse, but our very way of life itself. Go here to watch Bill Moyers NRA talk.

ANOTHER AURORA VIEW. Check this THE ONION article on the Aurora, Colorado tragedy…

CLAM EATING SALT ON KITCHEN TABLE

REMEMBERING I.F. STONE. Don Webber sent in this memorable piece on I.F. Stone… “For eighteen years (1953-71), I.F. Stone published a radical leftist newsletter the I.F. Stone Weekly. It had no advertising and was supported entirely by subscribers. In 1963, in the introduction to The Haunted Fifties, a collection of his writings, Stone opined on the vacuity of the average American newspaper…

“The fault I find with most American newspapers is not the absence of dissent. It is the absence of news. With a dozen or so honorable exceptions, most American newspapers carry very little news. Their main concern is advertising. The main interest of our society is merchandising. All the so-called communications industries are primarily concerned not with communications, but with selling. This is obvious on television and radio but is only a little less obvious in the newspaper. Most owners of newspapers are businessmen, not newspapermen. The news is something which fills the spaces left over by the advertisers. The average publisher is not only hostile to dissenting opinion; he is suspicious of any opinion likely to antagonize any reader or consumer.” (Go here for more on Izzy Stone http://www.ifstone.org

PATTON’S PROGRAM. Gary talks about Our City Council and their agenda on Tuesday July 24…Our elected representatives are supposed to be representing us, but they won’t really do a good job of that unless they are constantly in contact with informed voters. I hate to say it, but that’s not happening nearly enough. If you’d like to be an effective part of our self-government system, you do need to be informed, and you do need to participate. That means reviewing the official documents on which your elected representatives are acting. Not everything that you might find important will be covered on the Land Use Report, or in the local media.

This afternoon (7/24) and this evening (among other things), the Council will vote on the following:

• An initiative petition to enact a Charter Amendment to guarantee the voters’ right to vote on the proposed desalination plant.
• Approval of a rather dense, 19-unit multi-family condominium project, to be located across the street from the Main Fire Station at the corner of Walnut and Center.
• A direction to staff to provide the Council with options on how security deposits for residential rental properties should be handled.

He closes with the most amazing item of all: Finally, and most important for local drivers, demolition of the La Fonda Bridge is currently scheduled for the first week in August. That means that the highway will be closed completely for two nights in each direction between the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. The alternate route is via Soquel and Morrissey. (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)

THIS IS MY VOICE. Michael (Scott) Mac Clelland sent this incredibly moving clip of Shane Koyczan delivering his poem….”This is my voice”.

Nick Royal found this “flash mob” symphony. The intro says, “In the 130th anniversary of the creation of Banco Sabadell we wanted to pay tribute to our city with the campaign “Som Sabadell.” This is the flashmob we do as a climax with the participation of over 100 people in the Vallès Symphony Orchestra and the choirs of Lieder and Friends of l’Opera and the Choral Belles Arts. It’s Spain and its Beethoven’s Ninth.

VICTIMS OF NUCLEAR WAR AND NUCLEAR POWER INDUSTRIES.

There will be a Candlelight Vigil and Memorial for Peace on Sunday August 5th, from 7-9PM at the Town Clock/Collateral Damage Sculpture Park in downtown Santa Cruz (corner of Pacific, Front, and Water Streets). This is to remember Hiroshima/Nagasaki/Fukushima/Chernobyl/Three Mile Island….. and all the victims of the nuclear war and power industries.

In Santa Cruz, we are blessed with the Collateral Damage Sculpture at the Town Clock Park. It was dedicated on August 5th, 1995, the 50th anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and serves as a remembrance of all the civilian victims of war.

We also remember the many victims of the nuclear power industry.

Join us as we vigil, share music and poetry, and light candles together. Bring signs, flags, banners, flowers, candles, and friends and we will have extras!

Please spread the word! For more info: pup@skyhighway.com This event is co-sponsored by (a growing list): People United for Peace, the Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom, the United Nations Association, Women In Black, the Resource Center for Nonviolence, Pax Christi, CodePink SC, the Santa Cruz Coalition to Bring the Troops Home Now, the SC School for Tarot and Qabalah Study, Santa Cruz Friends Meeting (Quakers).

RETURN OF THE MURALIST. Peter Bartczak sent a note saying he’s moving back!!! “Well, the day has come, sooner than I thought. Bank of America is doing a short sale of my Paradise house the first of October and that ends my only income at this point – the rent check from the house. I’ve given my landlord here in Murphys 30 days notice and will be out by the end of August. I’ll move back to Santa Cruz and will have to spread what’s left of my belongings among my friends and I’m pretty sure I can crash with friends in Boulder Creek as I look for a real job. Anything I can get – this is it for Clownbank Studio. I figure there’s more possibilities in Santa Cruz and San Jose than in this small town where even long term residents can’t find work”. Welcome back Peter.

EAGANS DEEP COVER. Scroll below to see how Eagan gets to the “heart” of hatred!!!

LANDAU’S PROGRES. Saul asks, « Where’s The Netanyahu Scandal” in the NY Times ? “. In it he says, “Western leaders met in Paris last week to discuss possible intervention in Syria where almost 10,000 people have died over the last year of internal conflict. The West has never even considered holding such a meeting on Israel’s murderous behavior, however, despite a July 5 UN report that claimed that over the last five years Israeli forces have killed nearly 2,300 Palestinians and injured 7,700 in Gaza (statement from UNOCHA, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.) He closes with, “How pathetic that a small group of right-wing Jews allied to right-wing Israeli parties, has buffaloed U.S. politicians and media. One former Congressman described the Israeli lobby as the equivalent of a pit bull that bites the Congressman’s leg in the morning and holds on during lunch and the afternoon. The Congressman sleeps with the bull’s teeth in his leg and wakes with it the next morning. No wonder Members don’t want to antagonize this angry dog! I don’t suggest Palestinians form an equivalent lobby, but rather that the media develop a little courage and report accurately on events in Israel and Palestine. Just spread reviews of the new film “5 Broken Camera,” in which a Palestinian West Bank farmer documents the encroachment by army-backed settlers that bulldozed his village’s olive trees to make room for Israeli apartment houses. Israel’s treatment of West Bank Palestinians is no better than its behavior toward residents of Gaza” Read it all here.
Saul Landau is an Institute for Policy Studies fellow whose films are on DVD from roundworldproductions@gmail.com

LISA JENSEN LINKS. Lisa writes: “This week at Lisa Jensen Online Express (http://ljo-express.blogspot.com/), fall in step with A Chorus Line at Cabrillo Stage, watch Batman get his mojo back in The Dark Knight Rises, and find out how to get your little swashbuckler into the upcoming SSC production of The Man in the Iron Mask—for free! ” Lisa Jensen has been writing film reviews and columns for Good Times since 1975.

MARK WAINER ART @ KULPA…August 3-26. Since retiring from Orthopaedic Surgery Mark Wainer has become an artist to reckon with. His paintings are wildly inventive and use new and creative techniques unheard of 5 years ago. There’ll be a showing of many of his works at Felix Kulpa Gallery at 107 Elm Street August 3-26.

HOSTETTER’S HOT STUFF. Paul’s trips and my vacation caused a two week separation in this calendar listing and I can’t edit his data so skip down to his description of Wake Up Madagascar featuring Jaojoby, Razia Said, Charles Kely, and Saramba on Tuesday July 24 in S.F. and go from there. His website is here.

THE DARK KNIGHT. With the publicity this movie is receiving…it’s like “aside from that Mrs. Lincoln how did you like the play”. Dark Knight is the third in the otherwise well done Christopher Nolan Batman series and is the weakest, by far. The only good thing is Anne Hathaway as what we have to assume is a Catwoman, even though they never refer to her as one. Bane the evil nemesis is a shabby attempt and Christian Bale, Batman/Dark Knight lacks any vim, vigor or energy for the part. Going into the odd meaning of Bruce Wayne being a rich 1 %er isn’t worth the thinking involved. Wait and rent it…even though the big screen aspect helps it a lot.

GET THE GRINGO. Mel Gibson tries to make a comeback doing his Mad Max action schtick and fails miserably. Looks like this pulp fiction copy won’t even be released on big screens….so you have to rent it. DON”T. Acting is poor, the subtitles are hard to read at home, there are 100 plot directions that aren’t followed through, it’s a mess. It was released in 2011 but only played in a few theatres.

TAKE THIS WALTZ. It’s another excellent film. Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen and Luke Kirby do beautiful, complex, and completely involving roles. They are young people in love and working out a rugged part of life. Just go, don’t read anymore anyplace about it. Sarah Silverman is in it too, but that doesn’t matter much.

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.

July 24^th I’ll play the (delayed due to technical difficulties) Bookshop Santa Cruz Short Story Contest 3 Top Winners. On July 31 Joann Rose Leonard, author of the new book, “The Healer of Fox Hollow” will discuss the book and healing. After Joann, Ed Holmes from The San Francisco Mime Troupe. He’ll be acting in their “For The Greater Good” in Santa Cruz Aug. 11, 12. Grapevine on Sept. 4^th will have Joan Van Antwerp who will tell news about the Van Antwerp Theatre Company’s next play. “Crooked” opening Sept. 19. Right after Joan folks from New Music Works will share thoughts about their John Cage tributes. Later, on September 25 Scott Griffin, Nickelodeon chief operating manager will discuss films, digital releases and

local movie tastes. 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 here http://kzsc.org/blog/tag/universal-grapevine 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. 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!!!

BEST OF VINTAGE STEVEN DeCINZO.

QUOTES. “There are no accidents whatsoever in the universe“, Baba Ram Dass. “If you resist evil, as soon as it’s gone, you’ll fold”, Ken Kesey. “It’d be nice to publish alternate universes”, Jerry Garcia.