Bratton Online

PACIFIC AVENUE. ST.GEORGE HOTEL. This was the era of The Pacific Avenue Garden Mall 1969-70. The TeaCup Chop Suey Restaurant and bar, Tom Cahill’s fine clothing store and some other businesses that I can’t remember.

photo credit: Covello & Covello Historical photo collection.

Additional information always welcome: email bratton@cruzio.com

DATELINE July 4, 2016

UCSC’S BILL DOMHOFF DISCOURSES ON SANTA CRUZ POLITICS. Bill’s also written about dreams and The Bohemian Club.

TOM SCRIBNERS REDWOOD RIPSAW REVIEW. Most folks who’ve lived in Santa Cruz any length of time have heard of or even knew Tom Scribner. We know him mostly as a Musical Saw player and his statue.Tony Russomano was more than kind and sent us downloadable photos of the June 1, 1967 Redwood Ripsaw Review. (Tony mistakingly called it the Redwood Chainsaw) . It was a twice monthly typewritten opinion paper, and Tom Scribner was the main writer and editor.

Click to Download Chainsaw.zip 63.8 MB <-- large file, but worth it. If it'll open, you'll see and read what true patriots Tom and his cohorts were. Writers (and my long time friends) John Tuck, John Sanchez, Rick Gladstone, Paul Lee, and Dick Credit wrote pieces month after month centering on ways the USA could improve. The first headline article, “Another War?” is just the beginning. It circulated to about 200 people and grew to 1,700 per month. Manuel’s Restaurant in Aptos was an ardent supporter. Most of those guys later wrote for Jim and Katy Heth’s Buy and Sell Press which became The People’s Press. We have almost nothing like it in Santa Cruz County anymore.

PG&E Watch the two very different, yet both PG&E related videos below. Really, just hit play.

PG&E’S CLOSING OF DIABLO NUCLEAR POWER PLANT.
As most folks have heard by now PG&E is going to close their Diabolo Nuclear Power plant by 2025. Enivonmental groups all over the world are rejoicing. A long time ago David Weisman from the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility asked me if they could use the recording and the song our trio “The GoodTime Washboard 3” wrote back in 1964 titled “Don’t Blame PG& E, Pal”. The Alliance wanted to make a clip of and put it on You Tube. It’s there now…and you can watch and sing along, and yes we are very proud of that song. It got us lots of exposure and led to an album for Fantasy Records (now on iTunes)

COMMUNITY POWER AND OUSTING PG&E.
More than just closing Diablo there’s 1000’s of folks working hard to create “Community Power”. Counties and cities such as Marin County, San Mateo, Sonoma, San Francisco, Benecia, El Cerrito, Richmond, San Pablo all have bought in to community power and Lafayette and Walnut Creek join that group in September. Check out this link to see what Monterey Bay Community Power has already accomplished. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gY6AkwdIuY . Then read the Santa Cruz Sentinel’s angled and typically cautious piece about this October and Community Power plans for our neighboring counties.

PACIFIC AVENUE HISTORIC PHOTOS. In response to the folks who have asked why I keep mentioning the what looks like enormous width of Pacific Avenue in those historic photos and why I keep comparing it to the mostly one lane traffic that exists now…I’m not actually sure. More than anything I want to see Pacific Avenue remain healthy..and prosperous…and even necessary! I’d like to see a Pacific Avenue that would bring locals back there to shop for necessities and enjoy our shared neighborhood. I can’t see that happening if we keep encouraging more franchises and cookie cutter businesses. Narrowing it to just one-way? Or closing it to all traffic and making it a plaza like place?? I don’t know anymore than any so called experts do. Some places it works, some places it doesn’t. Who’s to decide? An involved and intelligent Santa Cruz City Council sure would be a change. The last bunch of councils decisions and attitudes are what created the Pacific Avenue that we have now. Think about that when you look at the passing parade of council candidates.

ELERICK’S INPUT. Mr. Paul Elerick of Aptos remains on vacation.

GREENSITE’S INSIGHT. Gillian Greensite brings us….

BREAKING THE GOLDEN RULE

Capitola City Council with the room packed to overflowing on a warm June evening. The issue at stake: whether to allow a skate park to be built on the four-acre city-owned Monterey Park, currently occupied by New Brighton Middle School, a baseball diamond, a soccer field and a small grove of mature eucalyptus trees providing a sweet spot of shade in the peaceful green acreage, across the street from an established neighborhood.

The meeting was well run. In fact Santa Cruz city council could learn a thing or two about respect for the public and public process that seems to have taken a holiday under current Mayor Mathew’s gavel. Attending the Santa Cruz city council the public is accustomed to being treated as an annoyance, told to raise our hands if we want to speak, scolded if we decide to speak after the initial count and sometimes only remembered as an afterthought in the process unless we are a developer, a consultant or a member of a favorite non-profit. By contrast, Mayor Bottorff carefully explained the process for the evening’s meeting, showed no impatience with the 58 people who spoke nor the many who got up to speak after the long line waiting to speak had dwindled to a handful. Beyond that the contrast ends. The 2-1 decision, with Stephanie Harlan in the minority to Ed Bottorff and Dennis Norton’s vote to approve the skate park (the other two council members were required to recuse themselves) had the familiar disregard for the impact on the nearby residents and a catering to a special interest group with financial backing that we have come to expect from the Santa Cruz city council majority.

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I had come to speak on behalf of the grove of trees. The others were there to speak for or against the skate park with the majority speaking in opposition. These were the neighbors who will be directly impacted by the all-day grind of skates on concrete, a noise many feel comparable to chain saws, barking dogs and nails on chalk boards. I sympathized with the neighbors. Since there is a new skate park within a mile of the proposed park, with plans to add a pump track, I wondered along with many others why the need for a second one? I paid a visit. Situated just off the frontage road, it’s the ideal location in that no neighbors are affected, there’s room for expansion and the boys seemed to be having a good time. Well, that’s an assumption. Skating appears a solitary activity. There was zero social connection among the boys. No look of satisfaction, accomplishment or challenge. Studied cool and indifference. No sound except the relentless grind of boards on concrete. The posted rules requiring helmets, knee and elbow pads ignored, save for one younger boy who wore a helmet. I left convinced that this activity should not be in anyone’s front or back yard.

When it was eventually my turn to speak, I saw Bryan Stow making his way towards the line of speakers. He moved slowly on crutches. I gestured to him to go ahead of me. He demurred, saying maybe he should go to the end of the line, which stretched from the front to the back of the room with little space for a man on crutches to navigate. I encouraged him to speak next. A simple gesture that could have gone unnoticed except the Mayor made a point to ask the packed room if anyone had a problem with Bryan Stow moving to the head of the line, thereby erasing any possibility for his being regarded as just another speaker. Bryan explained that his bedroom is 150 feet away from the proposed skate park; that he has sleep apnea and needs to sleep in the daytime to compensate for lost nighttime sleep; that the all-day noise from the skateboards would make sleep difficult if not impossible. He begged the council to uphold the appeal and not approve the building of the park. After he spoke I thought, “well no need for anything more to be said. How could anyone with a heart vote against that human need?” I was wrong. The two male council members were more than happy to vote for the skate park citing the need for the younger skaters to have their own spot. Council member Dennis Norton offered to soundproof Bryan Stow’s bedroom, which struck me as just a notch above offering him ear-plugs. As for the grove of trees? They’ll get the ax. Despite a choice of locations, two of which would have spared the trees and were the preference for staff, the council majority voted for the only choice that requires getting rid of the trees. Ironically, Richard Novak, skateboard manufacturer and funder for this proposed park complained about the lack of shade at the existing skate park and told the council to “plant some trees!”

What lesson did the youth present at the council meeting learn from this decision?

That compassion for others, especially those most vulnerable, has no significance. Male youth do not need more skate parks and mountain bike trails as much as they need male role models to demonstrate that concern for others and feelings of compassion are not signs of weakness but sources of strength. Yet another skate park is a poor substitute for that more important lesson.

~
(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).

KZSC COLLEGE COMMUNITY RADIO. This is dated from 2011 but it does give you some idea of the fun and creativity that the students and a few of us community people have in sharing broadcasting.

PATTON’S PROGRAM. From Gary’s letter in the Sentinel Posted: 07/01/16, 3:00 PM PDT …

“All this advice for Bernie Sanders is way off base”

Bernie Sanders has been getting a lot of advice, lately. Advice like, “why don’t you admit you lost; sit down; get out of here; shut up.”

Stephen Kessler, a regular contributor to the Santa Cruz Sentinel, pretty much says all that in his “Open letter to Bernie Sanders” published last Saturday, accusing Sanders of being “deluded” and “caught in the bubble of (his) fans’ adulation.” Kessler paints Sanders as an “intransigent nag and a sore loser.”

As an alternate delegate pledged to Bernie Sanders, who plans to be at the Democratic Convention in Philadelphia, I would like to offer a different view.

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“Hard” delegate votes are the votes of delegates who are obligated to vote for a candidate. Neither Senator Sanders nor former Secretary of State Clinton has enough “hard” delegate votes to be able to claim a victory at this time. 2,383 delegates are needed to win. Hillary Clinton has 2,208. Bernie Sanders has 1,890. Particularly when you consider the “unpledged” or “super” delegates (elected officials or Democratic Party leaders), Clinton is far ahead in the votes. Unless something changes (which is at least possible), Clinton will win the nomination. Sanders is not “deluded” about this. As he has repeatedly said, he is “pretty good at arithmetic.”

But … Bernie Sanders has not sat down nor shut up. Why not? There are at least three good reasons.

First, Bernie Sanders is being respectful of the nominating process. The process lets candidates compete for delegates who will be pledged to that particular candidate, and those delegates are a kind of “elected official.” Whether a delegate is elected through an initial “caucus,” and then a primary election, as in California, or directly in a “caucus” election, as happens in some other states, delegates who are elected are pledged to their candidate, and they go to the convention to cast votes for the candidate whom they were elected to support. That’s how the process is supposed to work.

Delegate votes are cast at the convention, not before, and that’s where unpledged “super delegates” vote, too. So, in view of the fact that neither Bernie Sanders nor Hillary Clinton has enough pledged delegates to win, the election takes place in Philadelphia, not in the newspaper columns of the pundits.

Second, Bernie Sanders is treating his delegates seriously. The people who ran to be Sanders delegates did so because they believe in Bernie Sanders and in the political positions he took in his campaign. Hillary Clinton took different positions. Sanders is giving his elected delegates the dignity they are due. In a representative democracy, representatives get to vote for the things they believe in and campaigned for. How hard is that to understand?

Finally, delegates to the convention get to vote not only for the candidate they prefer, but on various other matters, too, like the party platform and the future organization of the party. Were Sanders to abandon his campaign (and his delegates) before the process is completed, those Democrats who want a new direction for the Democratic Party, and the voters who voted for those delegates, would have the rug pulled out from under them.

The ordinary voters who selected delegates, like me, and who want Bernie Sanders to be president, deserve their chance to use the process to try to advance the political goals they support. Bernie Sanders is playing by the rules, and he is giving those who voted for him that chance. Advice to truncate the process, and to abandon the “political revolution” that Bernie Sanders has helped initiate, before the delegates elected to represent that revolution even get to the convention, is way off base.

Gary Patton was a member of the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors for 20 years, from 1975 to 1995. He served as the first executive director of LandWatch Monterey County, from 1998 to 2005. He will represent the 20th Congressional District as a pledged delegate (alternate) for Bernie Sanders at the Democratic Party Convention to be held in Philadelphia in late July.

~
Gary is a former Santa Cruz County Supervisor (20 years) and an attorney who represents indivuduals and community groups on land use and environmental issues. The opinions expressed are Mr. Patton’s. Gary has his own website, Two Worlds at www.gapatton.net

CLASSICAL DeCINZO. A Starbucks near you??? See downwards a scroll or two.

EAGAN’S DEEP COVER. Eagan gives us another earthly perspective so see below. Then check out http://www.timeagan.com/?eaganblog for some Tic Talk.

LISA JENSEN LINKS. Lisa writes: “Some people talk about building a wall. (Okay, one fool in particular.) Find the perfect antidote to that mentality this week at Lisa Jensen Online Express (http://ljo-express.blogspot.com) in The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble. Also, why are people flocking to The Lobster? Seriously; I want to know!” Lisa has been writing film reviews and columns for Good Times since 1975.

THAT IS THE QUESTION
(THE NEWEST FILMS IN ORDER OF PERFECTION)

OUR KIND OF TRAITOR. Ewan McGregor and Stellan Skarsgard take the leads in this John Le Carre international money scheme thriller.It’ll remind you of James Bond and Alfred Hitchcock type chase films. Evil Russian Mafia spies, innocent British tourists, messy internal problems with British Government…all stuff that you’ve seen before. And it’s pretty good too.Paris, Bern, Marrakech, French Alps, and of course London are feature attractions. If you like espionage, foreign intrigue, not much blood, and good acting– go for it.

THE BFG. A huge Steven Spielberg special effects version of Roald Dahl’s 1982 children’s book. It lacks charm, warmth, cleverness, and wonderment. It’s even just plain boring for long sections. The BFGiant’s big excitement is in fighting the even bigger giants. It isn’t thrilling either. The effects are very good and may be better in 3D. But you’d be better off waiting and renting it later. Oh yes, the Queen of England is in it too, and she’s also boring

THE LEGEND OF TARZAN. Tarzan has left the jungle but politics and Christoph Waltz have begun enslaving Congo locals so Tarzan ( Alexander Skarsgard) returns back to the vines. He brings Samuel L. Jackson who plays a more intelligent black version of Gabby Hayes, and does it poorly. The joy of the jungle, Brenda Joyce, Maureen O’Sullivan , Cheetah and Boy are gone. Just war, blood, violence remain. It’s sad to see a tradition like Johnny Weissmuller’s Tarzan squeezed through this absolutley senseless waste.

THE PURGE:ELECTION YEAR. What an idea…each year for just 24 hours it’s legal to kill anybody in this city. The city in this sequel is Washington, D.C. The first Purge movie had some sick but fascinating ideas in it this sequel is a very sick followup. A woman candidate for president who looks a lot like Elizabeth Warren is hunted by sort of Donald Trump type nazis. It gets bloody, racist, sexist and just plain putrid. They should purge this film, and forget the idea completely.

SWISS ARMY MAN. This is easily the most bizarre film I’ve seen in ten years.Paul Dano almost always plays in odd, nearly insane movies and he’s just as nuts in this one. Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) plays a dead corpse who farts so hard that Dano uses him as a jet ski!!! It isn’t funny, or even odd enough with any class or coherence to make it worth seeing. It’s listed as a comedy, no one was laughing when I saw it.

STILL PLAYING AT A THEATRE NEAR US
FROM BEST TO REALLY BAD

NEON DEMON. I’m conflicted on this one. Director Nicolas Winding Refn uses Elle Fanning to make an amazing look and style to this film about the sick and sex ridden world of high fashion modeling. There’s a little necrophoilia, lesbian love, cannibalism, and vampirism all wrapped in a brilliant, cold, sterile portrait of that side of Hollywood. Even more strange they cast Keanu Reeves who is as bad as usual, as Elle’s Pasadena motel manager. Audiences at the Cannes Film Fest both cheered and booed. You won’t forget this one…and it’ll be awhile before the film world catches up to what is/was being said here.Oh yes, Christina Hendricks the giant sexy babe from Mad Men, does a fine job here too.I saw it again last week…and still like it.

FREE STATE OF JONES. After all the lack of racial representationin last year’s films that was so hugely magnified at this year’s Oscars be prepared for many, many racially focussed films in the enxt few months. Jones is the first. It stars Matthew McConaughey and it’s about the little known history of one southern man’s battle to free the slaves at the end of the Civil War. It’s long ( two hours and 20 minutes) and even dull at times…and its fascinating.

WIENER. As weird as Anthony Weiner is, the social programs he fights for to become Mayor of New York City are way better than Cynthia Mathews’s any day. He’s brilliant, the documentary is well done, and this guy has a lifelong hang up with his name and his “wiener”. So he photographs his crotch and puts it online. Later on, during his Mayor campaign, he has phone sex with a young babe. His famous wife is/was Hillary Clinton’s best friend and advisor. If it wasn’t all true it would be the nutso fantasy of all time. Go see it.

MAGGIE’S PLAN. This NYC tradgi-comedy falls into the “Woody Allen, New York City Odd People in Love” category. Julianne Moore, Greta Gerwig, Ethan Hawke and Bill Hader do excellent acting (except for Julianne Moore and her lousy German accent). It’s about University teachers, divorce, sex, raising kids, control freaks, and our very, very complex lives today. You’ll be completely absorbed all the way through. Not a classic but “absorbing”.

LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP. This sharp, wordy, comedy is from a little known Jane Austen book, “Lady Susan”. If you’re particular, it takes place in England 130 years before Downtown Abbey (1790). Plenty of Hayden, Cherubini and Cimarosa-type music. Daughter Hillary convinced me that I’d been slipping critic- wise and that Kate Beckensale is completely out of character, and phoney. It’s a desperate, wordy attempt to make still more money out of anything with Jane Austen’s name on it. The plot centers on what women had to do to survive back then. Go see it if you like Brit costume epics, with lots of scenery and furniture. 99% on Rotten Tomatoes, so go figure. It’s just not all that great a film.

THE SHALLOWS. It should be titled JAWS 23 or whatever sequel it is now copying. A young, beautiful surfer girl from Texas who goes surfing at an unnamed beach in Mexico. Then the good old digital shark goes after her for about 80 minutes. I can’t spoil the ending because you know it already.

CONJURING 2. I like Vera Famiga’s acting a lot. This is an “Exorcist type” true, ghost – type movie. Based on some haunted house in Londontables and chairs fly, doors slam, a little girl sounds like an evil devil driven Popeye and it is as scary as a film can be.After it’s over you’ll go home thinking about any/all encounters you’ve never had.

THE LOBSTER. Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz and John C. Reilly head the cast of this

unfathomable, suposedly dystopian satire on our views and customs relating to sex. marriage, and it’s not nice to animals either. It’s heavy drama, with some laughs thrown in. Maybe you have to be young and distant to catch all the supposedly clever zingers. I missed 95% of any meaning or purpose to this flick.

GENIUS. Think about this cast…Colin Firth, Laura Linney, Jude Law (as Thomas Wolfe) Nicole Kidman, Dominic West (as Ernest Hemingway) and Guy Pearce (as F. Scott Fitzgerald) !!! This movie sucks. It is one of the worst acted, poorly written films I’ve seen in years. But it does prove that editors are an important fact of literary life. Don’t go.

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 archived for two weeks… (See next paragraph) and go to WWW.KZSC.ORG. Gillian Greensite local environmental activist, brings us up to date on stuff on July 5th…She’s followed by Karen Ashley and Dick Tippett reporting on the West Coast Dowsing Conference. On July 12 Ellen Primack, executive director of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music tells us all about the 25th anniversary of Marin Alsop’s conducting. After Ellen, Ralph Abraham talks about his new book, “Hip Santa Cruz:1st Person Accounts of the Hip Culture in Santa Cruz in the 1960’s”. Then on July 26 Michael Warren and Aimee Zygmonski discuss this year’s Santa Cruz Shakespeare season which opens July 12. After which, Michael G. Sullivan from The San Francisco Mime Troupe tells us about this year’s production. 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

Inherited memories? This girl from Sweden decides to see if a herd of cows will answer to the way their ancestors were called, likely by her ancestors. She’s 26, from my home town of Gothenburg, and 5 years ago moved to the far north of Sweden to get away from noise, people, and city life. She lives in a cottage in a village that has a population of 11 (!). Click through to her blog, her photography is amazing!

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 o n 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 Simont on, Lori Rivera, Sayaka Yabuki, Chris Kinney, Celia and Peter Scott, Chris Krohn, David Swanger, Chelsea Juarez…and that’s just since January 2011.

QUOTES. “TOURISTS AND TOURISM”
“The average tourist wants to go to places where there are no tourists“, Sam Ewing
“I am leaving the town to the invaders: increasingly numerous, mediocre, dirty, badly behaved, shameless tourists”, Brigitte Bardot
“Tourists don’t know where they’ve been, travelers don’t know where they’re going”, Paul Theroux
“I have come to the conclusion that the major part of the work of a President is to increase the gate receipts of expositions and fairs and bring tourists to town”, William Howard Taft
“The tourist may complain of other tourists, but he would be lost without them“, Agnes Repplier
“I quit flying years ago. I don’t want to die with tourists”, Billy Bob Thornton

COLUMN COMMUNICATIONS. Subscriptions: Click and enter the box in the upper right hand corner of each Column. You’ll get a weekly email notice the instant the column goes online. (Anywhere from Monday afternoon through Thursday or sometimes as late as Friday!) Always free and confidential. Even I don’t know who subscribes!!

Snail Mail: Bratton Online
82 Blackburn Street, Suite 216
Santa Cruz, CA 95060

Direct email: Bratton@Cruzio.com

Direct phone: 831 423-2468

All Technical & Web details: Gunilla Leavitt @ godmoma@gmail.com

Blog Archives

July 5 – 11, 2016

THAT IS THE QUESTION
(THE NEWEST FILMS IN ORDER OF PERFECTION)

STILL PLAYING AT A THEATRE NEAR US
FROM BEST TO REALLY BAD

BEST OF VINTAGE STEVEN DeCINZO.

Deep Cover by Tim Eagan.

Blog Archives

July 5 – 11, 2016

THAT IS THE QUESTION (THE NEWEST FILMS IN ORDER OF PERFECTION)

STILL PLAYING AT A THEATRE NEAR US FROM BEST TO REALLY BAD

BEST OF VINTAGE STEVEN DeCINZO.

Deep Cover by Tim Eagan.

THAT IS THE QUESTION
(THE NEWEST FILMS IN ORDER OF PERFECTION)

STILL PLAYING AT A THEATRE NEAR US
FROM BEST TO REALLY BAD