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STAN KENTON 1965. Once upon a time Kenton’s music was so far out we argued about it even being jazz. |
DATELINE January 30, 2017
SANTA CRUZ CITY COUNCIL SPLIT. The difference between the “establishment” or “centrist” members and the “progressive” or “Brand New Santa Cruz for Bernie” members of our Santa Cruz City Council is every bit as huge as the division between Trump and “the rest of the world”. The majority city council members positions on Beach Flats residents, supporting the militarizing of our local police, the complete failure and even persecution of our homeless must finally be waking up enough Santa Cruzans to realize (Trump) is happening here and now. Last week the council refused to allow newly elected councilmembers Chris Krohn’s and Sandy Brown’s appointing Drew Glover and Steve Schnaar to any City commission. Both Glover and Schnaar came very close to winning the last election and being on the council!!!
The Trump-line-in-the-dirt has been drawn here in Santa Cruz and still voters are failing to see the unfair and anti-civil rights beliefs and practices of the majority of our City Council. The first action that can help show the council that change is needed is to attend the Council’s next meeting on February 14 and tell them what they are doing against Drew Glover and Steve Schnaar is not just wrong but that it’s become the local version of what Trump is doing to the USA.
Watch this space for ways to get involved.
“WHOSE MASTER PLAN ?”
The city’s new draft Parks Master Plan is a thickly worded, thinly disguised attempt to privilege and cater to the mountain biking community and related business interests, despite the city’s data confirming that mountain biking is not a priority for the vast majority of Santa Cruz city residents.
In 2015, the city hired Godbe Research to conduct randomized interviews of 16 minutes each, weighted to represent 52,000 adults, to gather data on a wide range of issues relative to the city’s 32 neighborhood parks; 6 community parks; 7 open spaces and 16 recreation facilities. City beaches are included. The data showed a high rate of satisfaction with our parks and open spaces with also a need for more enforcement of existing regulations to ensure the parks and open spaces are safe. In terms of usage, the top preference was found to be hiking and walking (38%) followed by swimming (18%); running, track and field (18%); biking (12%); surfing (11%) and mountain biking (9%). The relatively low ranking for mountain biking must have disappointed the lobbyists.
The city then decided to do another survey with the explanation that, “the outreach process identified several issues that needed more feedback from a representative sample of the community to inform the recommendations in the plan.” Ok, contacting the original randomized sample for more information could have been done. Rather, the city conducted a new data collection survey, which, according to their methodological overview, consisted of online interviewing from email invitations. There is no entry on the criteria for invitations. One can speculate.
This time, mountain biking was elevated somewhat but the highest ranked usage remained hiking and walking by a huge margin. Curiously, the satisfaction ratings on mountain bike trails dropped considerably from the first survey.
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~Gillian Greensite is a long time local activist, a member of Save Our Big Trees and the Santa Cruz chapter of IDA, International Dark Sky Association http://darksky.org Plus she’s an avid ocean swimmer, hiker and lover of all things wild).
Glover was rejected by the Santa Cruz City Council majority at the council’s regular January 24th meeting. I nominated him to serve on the Commission for the Prevention of Violence Against Women (CPVAW), only Councilmember Sandy Brown and I voted for him.
Drew Glover came in fifth in a field of eleven city council candidates for four open seats this past November. Almost 11,000 Santa Cruz voters thought he should be on the city council. Drew came very close and that is why I used my nomination on this commission because he was determined to serve the city in a capacity that fit his skills and interests. Many concerned residents appeared at the public podium in support of Drew. Tatanka Bricca, Sarah Durant, Candace Brown, Ernestina Saldana, and Danny Drysdale among many others, all spoke about his hard work, dedication, and commitment to the greater Santa Cruz community.
I first met Drew at a SCRAM meeting. The Santa Cruz Resistance Against Militarization was organizing to raise awareness around this city’s purchase of a Lenco BearCat tank. During those meeting I found Drew to be genial, deliberative, collaborative and thoughtful. He also consistently brought his long-haired seventeen-inch dog, Courage, to every meeting, and I became impressed by his love and care for the tiny Courage. Drew often kept our group on track. His comments were cogent and he became an uplifting force within our dozen-member group.
When I was contemplating running for city council after the gut-wrenching hatchet job that Deputy-chief of police, Steve Clark performed against Leonie Sherman’s 2014 for campaign for city council I was heartened that someone like Drew would step up and run for city council. I saw him as a co-creator and candidate during the campaign. We worked closely during the entire effort. But it was during a BearCat hearing at city hall that gave him grounds for filing a complaint with the police department.
The council was trying to decide whether to accept a Homeland Security grant of around $240,000 to purchase what is essentially an urban tank. In fact, if you Google, “Bearcat Tank,” a picture of the Lenco Corp. vehicle appears. Acronym aside, it’s real name is “Ballistic Engineered Armored Response Counter Attack Truck.” It is an “armored personnel carrier designed for military and law enforcement use,” according to the Lenco Armored Vehicle web site. This vehicle has become a poster child of the militarization of police forces around the country. It represents a disturbing trend within the Santa Cruz community public safety force. Drew and myself, along with over 200 other community members descended upon city hall to protest this purchase.
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~Bernie Sanders quote of the week: “A nation will not survive morally or economically when so few have so much and so many have so little.”
Chris Krohn is a father, writer, activist, former Santa Cruz City Councilmember (1998-2002) ex-Santa Cruz City Mayor (2001-2002) an employee of UCSC. And newly re-elected to the Santa Cruz City Council).
The storms, family health matters and the political events of the weekend have taken a bit of a toll on my time and internet energy, but I want to encourage everyone to keep up the great level of connectedness we all saw around the county, country and the world over the weekend. Keep involved in what most interests you, and keep asking questions.
I have lots of questions regarding local water issues:
- Why did Soquel Creek Water District Board choose (a vote of 3-2) to expedite a brand new request for service because the developer did not want to pay the New Brighton Water Mutual the hook-up fee of $133,000 for his 3600+SF new home? Well, that developer did NO water demand offset measures, but the Board actually moved his request to the second place for approval, even though the people in #3 place had been told they were entitled to move up to that spot and could begin their building permit application process with City of Capitola. Does that seem fair to you? By the way, the developer said his neighbor is also interested in coming to the District for hook-up privileges for his 6500+SF home. Does it seem the Board has set a precedent here? How would you feel if you were the people that have been waiting in line as #3 for the connection approval, be told you had a green light to start your permit process, then find out that some new developer got what could be considered special privileges to hook up with no wait?
- How will the agencies participating in the Mid County Groundwater Agency (Soquel Creek Water District, Central Water District, many privately-owned small water companies and commercial water users such as golf courses and Cabrillo College) convince their users that conservation efforts must remain in effect and that people still need to conserve even more if possible? These folks all rely on groundwater for 100% of their supply. We saw water use increase last summer by these agencies when Santa Cruz City, which gets a large percent of their supply from the San Lorenzo River and Loch Lomond Reservoir, remove all mandatory conservation rules. Ouch. Really? Can anyone in this state relax conservation? Certainly not those whose water comes from the critically-overpumped Purisima Aquifer. Well, San Diego’s public works leaders are asking that ALL state-mandated conservation measures be removed. Do you think that is worth a letter to your state representatives? See the list of contacts at the end of this missive.
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~AND REMEMBER…MAKE ONE CALL. WRITE ONE LETTER. MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
- Governor Jerry Brown c/o State Capitol, Suite 1173, Sacramento, CA 95814 916-445-2841
- U.S. Representative Jimmy Panetta Santa Cruz Office: 701 Ocean St., Room 318C, Santa Cruz, Ca 95060 831-424-2229
- State Senator Bill Monning 701 Ocean St., Suite 318A, Santa Cruz, CA 95060 831-425-0401
- 29th District State Assemblyman Mark Stone 701 Ocean St., Suite 318B, Santa Cruz, CA 95060 831-425-1503
- 30th District State Assemblymember Anna Caballero, 275 Main St., Suite 104, Watsonville, CA 96076 831-761-7428
- Santa Cruz County Supervisors www.co.santa-cruz.ca.us
- Watsonville City Council www.cityofwatsonville.org/city-government/city-council
- Santa Cruz City Council www.cityofsantacruz.com/city-government/city-council
Cheers, Becky Steinbruner (Becky Steinbruner is a 30+ year resident of Aptos. She has fought for water, fire, emergency preparedness, and for road repair. She ran for Second District County Supervisor in 2016 on a shoestring and got nearly 20% of the votes).
“This is a big difference between Democrats and Republicans. Republicans try to change the polls, whereas Democrats try to follow the polls”.
I am quoting, above, from George Lakoff, a linguist who explained in a recent interview a recent interview how the Democrats helped elect Donald Trump. Click the link to review what Lakoff says; it is well worth your time.
Mainly, Lakoff is discussing how “framing” the issues, in politics, can have an important impact on the outcome of the political process. Lakoff’s ideas on this topic are presented at length in his 2004 book, Don’t Think of an Elephant! In this recent interview, Lakoff documents the unwillingness of the Democrats to consider the idea (obvious to many of us) that the advertising and other campaigning done by the Clinton campaign was really building Trump’s political “brand.”
While Lakoff’s observations on how the Democrats got their “framing” wrong are worth reading about, I was more interested in a related point made by Lakoff in the interview. Namely, that the Democratic Party is “poll driven,” treating poll measurements as if they documented “reality.”
We always need to remember that “reality” is what we make it. WE are in charge of reality, because what exists depends on what we do. If you “follow” the polls, instead of “changing” the polls, you are very likely to lose. In case you haven’t noticed, that is exactly what the Democratic Party just did!
Gary is a former Santa Cruz County Supervisor (20 years) and an attorney for individuals and community groups on land use and environmental issues. The opinions expressed are Mr. Patton’s. You can read his blog at www.gapatton.net
SHIP LAUNCHES GONE WRONG. Try not thinking about our Santa Cruz Yacht Harbor. |
AMAZING FLYING MACHINES |
CLASSICAL DeCINZO. See DeCinzo’s “Now you See It….Now you don’t” demo…Scroll below.
EAGAN’S DEEP COVER. See Eagan’s definition of “Populism“down a few pages. As always, at TimEagan.com you will find his most recent Deep Cover, the latest installment from the archives of Subconscious Comics, and the ever entertaining Eaganblog.
“THE BOOK CLUB PLAY”. The Jewel Theatre Company opened THE BOOK CLUB PLAY by Karen Zacarías and Directed by Kirsten Brandt. It runs now through Feb 19, 2017 with a matinee performance added Saturday, February 18th. It’s a hit comedy about books and the people who love them. When the members of a devoted book club become the subjects of a documentary filmmaker and accept a provocative new member, their long-standing group dynamics take a hilarious turn. Sprinkled with wit, joy and novels galore — from Jane Eyre and Moby Dick to Twilight and The DaVinci Code — this hilarious comedy of manners reflects the ironies of contemporary culture. At The Colligan Theatre in the Tannery. Get tickets quickly ’cause they sell out rapidly, and really. Go here… http://www.jeweltheatre.net/santa-cruz-performing-arts-Book-Club-archive.php
TOUR DE FRANCE. The Santa Cruz Baroque Festival presents its 44th season kick off with folk & baroque music from France. Music from the French provinces elicits a sense of the Mediterranean breeze and the rolling fields of central France with popular tunes and dances for Baroque wind instruments. Sheila Willey’s clarion voice will sweep you off to France on the Baroque airs, while Alan Keith’s authentic French bagpipes will inspire you to dance the Bourrée. Shelley Phillip’s romantic oboe d’amoure causes a distinctly French love to fill the air. In authentic fashion, Debra Dawson will play the vielle (or hurdy-gurdy), which has been a staple in French folk music since the 16th century.Marianne Steeger percussion, Linda Burman-Hall organ, Yueh Chou, bassoon and Nicola Canzano, harpsichord plus percussion, complete the players.
February 4th at 7:30pm UCSC Music Recital Hall, 402 McHenry Rd, Santa Cruz, CA 95064
Tickets and more information at: www.scbaroque.org
SPLIT. M. Night Shyamalan makes some pretty weird and frequently awful movies. But Split has James McAvoy playing a very disturbed guy with 23 distinct and split personalities (and most of them are very crazy0. He’s lured and locked up 3 teen aged girls and it’s scary and more or less predictable after that, but you’ll stay glued to the screen and your seat…go for it …if you like scary stuff. Not anywhere near as a good as Hitchcock, but he tries. (Shyamalan even makes a secret cameo appearance like Hitch always did).
GOLD. Mathew McConaughey went to a lot of trouble and looks a lot like Marlon Brando in Gold. He gained 40 pounds and actually shaved most of his hair and added a phoney false front tooth, and the movie still isn’t very good. Not that anybody cares, but it’s based on some real story about bank fraud, gold mining, illegal gold salting, and almost a total cast of illegal characters…with no redeeming interest or plot. Forget about it.
ELLE. This French (subtitled) film is a cinema masterpiece. Especially because Isabelle Huppert plays the lead role. Isabelle deserves any and all awards she’s up for. She plays the CEO of a Video Game production company that produces very kinky films. Elle too is a very kinky film. Isabelle is strong, puzzling, full of angst, guilt, hatred, and even more strong. Just go see Elle, it’s a shocking and amazingly well done movie. ENDS THURSDAY FEB. 2
20th CENTURY WOMEN. Annette Bening, Elle Fanning, Billy Crudup, and Greta Gerwig do award winning roles in this very independent, off kilter story of a “family” group trying to exist in Santa Barbara in 1979. Bening deserves every possible acting award for her role as a mom trying her damndest to raise her son while surrounded by rapidly aging girls. It’s not an easy film to follow and takes wtists turns and flashbacks with little or no warning…but go see it. You’ll be completely intrigued by it.
MANCHESTER BY THE SEA. Casey Affleck single handidly sustains this deep, emotional film. It’s on the way to several awards and should win them all. It’s an intelligent, beautifically acted in depth portrait of people going through trauma and relationships. Along with Affleck there’s Michelle Williams, Gretchen Mol, even Mathew Broderick in a bit part and especially the 16 year old Lucas Hedges. It’s a cold and unrelenting film that demands your attention especially since you’ve gone through tragedies too. I’m going again, there’s just so much to watch and think about.ENDS THURSDAY FEB.2
FOUNDER. Michael Keaton is just about the only reason to see this McDonald’s Burger saga. Founder is probably President Trump’s favorite movie, both he and Roy Kroc bought and fought their way to the top by every hook and crooked means they could think of. Roy Kroc bought the rights to McDonalds from the McDonald brothers. He then screwed them out of every deal they made with him. Keaton plays this part perfectly. Laura Dern is in this for about three minutes, a must for Keaton fans., maybe his best role yet.
ARRIVAL. Amy Adams has always been an excellent actor and she’s even better in this pretty sophisticated science fiction spellbinder. 11 alien speceships hover around earth just a few feet above ground while Amy and Jeremy Renner attempt to communicate with them. It’s a thoughtful film and it’ll make you wonder just how would anybody relate to aliens (and vice versa) Like the Trump victory the world is in a state of shock over these visitors. No killings, violence or cheap cliches…a fine film. I forgot to add that like so many Special effects films nowadays it is photographed in a very dark style. (Saves money I guess)
PASSENGERS. Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt do as best they can in this spaceship drama about waking up too soon (90 years too soon) on a 120 year voyage to another planet to find a home away from earth. For obvious reasons it has to be love at first sight after Chris wakes Jennifer up early but “Hollywood level” problems arise and the plot goes lower and more predictable. Nothing here you haven’t seen before.
LION. A true story of a little 5 year old boy getting lost in India. At last we get to see Dev Patel portray somebody serious and he does an excellent job. It’s a very cornball plot that you can guess every turn and twist, but still just because it’s India you do stay tuned in all the way through. Rooney Mara is his girlfriend for part of the plot and Nicole Kidman is the Australian wife who adopts him. It’s 100% feelgood and there are much better films out and around now, but it does have a certain charm.
HIDDEN FIGURES. A syrupy, Hollywoody much- altered story of three Black American women who did spectacular mathematical and technical work at NASA while fighting against a lot of racial and female prejudice. All to launch John Glenn into orbit. It’s both a cute and painful story at the same time. It’s a contender and still lacks something that could have made it a classic. It almost outdrew Star Wars on opening weekend!
LA LA LAND. It all depends on how much you remember the glorious and very bright and brilliant days of the Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Betty Grable, even Barbara Striesand, Judy Garland, and especially Ginger Rogers musicals. La La Land works very hard to convince us that the world hasn’t changed since those days and tries earnestly to recreate the innocence, and obvious genius of those performers. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone make La La Land fun and happy to a degree, but it’s not the same. The music and songs aren’t anywhere near as good and the photography of today’s LA doesn’t add much either, besides that Stone and Gosling are not professional dancers or singers like all of above. It’s like having Eddie Redmayne play Tarzan.
SILENCE. Martin Scorsese has been consumed with the need to portray faith, despair, and tensions of religion in every one of his films. Here he has two Catholic Jesuit Portuguese priests in 17th century Japan searching for a lost brother priest. Adam Driver, Adam Garfield and later Liam Neeson are deeply involved in the roles. You’ll need to be seriously religious especially Christian or Buddhist to enjoy this slow moving twisted exercise in faith. I didn’t like it. Too long (almost three hours) and too twisted and hard to follow, I wouldn’t advise seeing it. Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, Good Fellas, and many of his other films were much better and more understandable and universal.
ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY. We can only guess that now that the Star Wars movie property is Walt Disney Property it would change, but not like this latest mess. Instead of being more cute, cuddly and cartoonish (like traditional Disney films)…Rogue One is darker, colder, meaner and full of war and killing. It has none of the charm, humor, humanity, mystery, history, tradition or fun quirkieness that the original Star Wars films brought us. The plot is tripe stuff about stealing Death Star plans. Darth Vader is back and James Earl Jones voice is too, but he looks thinner and smaller. The biggest afult for me is that it was filmed so dark it’s hard to see details, or look anywhere besides center screen. No great intricate space ships stay in view long enough to enjoy the fantasy. The acting is ok but there’s not much screen time for it to happen. Big disapointment.
SLEEPLESS. Jamie Foxx plays a Las Vegas cop who operetaes undercover in this very bad re-hash, violent, senseless, bloody, meaningless, pointless mess. Michelle Monaghan and Dermot Mulroney are in it too. Only the weird, young and poorly oriented could find anything worth seeing in this waste of time, money and special effects.
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 archived for two weeks… (See next paragraph) and go to WWW.KZSC.ORG. ). January 31 has UCSC Professor Linda Burman-Hall informing us about the 2017 season of The Santa Cruz Baroque festival and their Feb.4th concert. Willow Katz follows Linda talking about Solitary Confinement. Sexpert, author, lecturer, and performer Susie Bright guests on Feb. 7 talking about lots of things, some maybe even sexual! Then Abbi Samuels talks about the Freedom Sleepers and more current issues and causes. Feb.14 has author Dave Evans sharing ideas from his new book, “Designing Your Life”. Veterans Advocate Dean Kaufman brings us up to date on veterans issues and programs on Feb. 21. Sculptor, artist Peggy Snider guests on February 28 talking about her political sculpture show opening March 3rd. On March 7 Newton and Helen Harrison talk about their book, ” The Time of The Force Majeure”. Patrice Vecchione returns March 14 to talk about her one-woman show “Dressed and Undressed” happening March 17 & 18. Do remember, any and all suggestions for future programs are more than welcome so tune in, and keep listening. Email me always and only at bratton@cruzio.com
I love this guy. I hope he comes to Santa Cruz one day!! |
NEW UNIVERSAL GRAPEVINE ARCHIVE FEATURE. Stuff changes at KZSC a lot. If you missed either of the last two weeks of Universal Grapevine broadcasts go here… http://www.radiofreeamerica.com/dj/bruce-bratton You have to listen to about 4 minutes of that week’s KPFA news first, then Grapevine happens.
UNIVERSAL GRAPEVINE ARCHIVES. In case you missed some of the great people I’ve interviewed in the last 9 years here’s a chronological list of some past broadcasts. Such a wide range of folks such as Nikki Silva, Michael Warren, Tom Noddy, UCSC Chancellor George Blumenthal, Anita Monga, Mark Wainer, Judy Johnson, 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.
QUOTES. “FACTS”
“All political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way. People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome”, George Orwell
“Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please”, Mark Twain
“Prejudice is a great time saver. You can form opinions without having to get the facts”, B. White
“Telling a teenager the facts of life is like giving a fish a bath, Arnold H. Glasow
“Sometimes paranoia’s just having all the facts”, William S. Burroughs
“Every religion is true one way or another. It is true when understood metaphorically. But when it gets stuck in its own metaphors, interpreting them as facts, then you are in trouble”, Joseph Campbell
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