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DATELINE March 16, 2015
and also…… March 23, 2015
HIGHWAY 17 SIX, part 2. One thing we can agree on is that Governor Jerry Brown, the UC Regents and UC president Janet Napolitano won’t change tuition by one cent for months. Even then, it may increase.The HIGHWAY 17 SIX are receiving tremendous support for their blocking of Highway 17 protest. They have a Civil Rights attorney Dan Siegel who used to be legal advisor to Oakland Mayor Jean Quan. He resigned from that office because of her use of police against the Occupy Oakland Movement. We should all agree that our California education system is terrible and ranks near the bottom of most lists. We should also agree that more than ever we need to provide our kids with better and better education….just to compete on the career/ job market. We need to agree that a $5000 top is a sufficient tuition for any California resident. Those Highway 17 Six fought hard, gave up a lot and are being incredibly brave for their cause of fighting the UC tuition increase and police violence. Back in the day (1957-65) when I was a UC Berkeley student and card carrying member of SLATE at the UC Berkeley Campus and later sat inside UC Berkeley’s Sproul Hall with Joan Baez and Tom Luddy who showed his collection of silent films on the hallway walls, we heard Mario Savio say, “There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious—makes you so sick at heart—that you can’t take part. You can’t even passively take part. And you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop. And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all.” It was 1965 when Martin Luther King Jr. said, “One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” I think those brave Highway 17 Six and thousands of University of California students need to think bigger.
A BIGGER STUDENT PROTEST. Now’s the time (before summer break) when every student at all 9 of the U.C. Campuses (campii?) need to plan ahead set a date and block highways and freeways from one end of the state to the other. UC San Diego could close off the Mexican Border, UCLA could close off Highway 10, UC Merced could block freeway 5, UC Davis blocks route 80, UCSC would go back to Higwhays 17 and 1, and and on it goes. There would be hell to pay and the results would be immediate. Greatest publicity in the world, and maybe, just maybe, the power structure would get the message that our students are serious about their education, and the system isn’t being fair to them.
KEITH SUGAR TRIBUTE. Chris Krohn probably knew Keith better than anyone in the public eye. Chris wrote a very touching tribute to Keith in Sunday’s Sentinel. Here’s a link in case you don’t subscribe, and missed it.
Among other reminders Chris said, “You could always count on Keith Sugar. He was a consistent voice for the environment, didn’t waver under development pressures and he always voted his conscience as a member of the Santa Cruz City Council from 1998-2002.
Keith was a principled environmentalist, someone who knew when he attended the McGeorge Law School in Sacramento that he would always be coming back home to Santa Cruz to help save it from overreaching developers, tourist industry takers, and timber harvesting excesses. He took to heart what former Coastal Commission Executive Director Peter Douglas once said: “The coast is never saved, it is always being saved.” Keith knew that being an environmentalist wasn’t a fad, something you volunteered for on weekends. He was an environmentalist every day; it was his job” .
Chris added, “I first met Keith back in 1997 when we were members of BAWG, the Beach Area Working Group, begun by peace activist Doug Rand of the Resource Center for Nonviolence. Keith could put difficult legal concepts into plain language and the group ran with it. When the City Council passed the Beach and South of Laurel (BSOL) plan against the will of the community, Keith decided to run for the council. At the time, he said the plan was a Seaside Co.-inspired overreaching development scheme that envisioned gutting 19 houses in Beach Flats, realigning Third Street, and adding more than 100,000 square feet of retail space that would impact an already overburdened neighborhood. People rose up, turned out the previous council’s agenda and elected Keith and two other new city council members (Krohn and Tim Fitzmaurice) . Together they threw out the bad parts of the plan, and Keith provided effective legal advice, first to the activist group BAWG, and later to the City Council”.
Be sure to read all of that Krohn-Sugar tribute. We’ve rarely seen anyone in public office like Keith around these parts.
ASSEMBLYMAN ALEJO NEWS. Now that Assemblyman Luis Alejo’s been re-elected to his last two year term his wife Karina Cervantez Alejo has decided she’s going to run for that seat. Then too, I didn’t know that Tony Madrigal of Modesto City Council fame is working in Alejo’s Sacramento office.
| OPTICAL ILLUSIONS. Stephane Levene found this nearly insane illusion. |
GROWTH AND WATER, A PRINCIPLE. It’s a battle cry for more than a few involved citizens…”We need to base our growth on the amount of water we have, NOT base the amount of water on the growth some of us hope for”.
SCIENTOLOGY ON HBO. “Going Clear and the Prison of Belief” is the title of a new documentary now at limited theatres somewhere. And it’ll be on HBO March 29. As we know John Travolta, Tom Cruise and Kirsten Alley are members, but I just found out that Juliette Lewis, Jason Lee, Anne Archer and Elisabeth Moss are members too. Locally the Scientology mystery continues. The Aptos Academy was devious about their Scientology connection/affiliation for years. Then too Capitola chiropractor Dr. David McCollum has never been too clear about his affiliation with Scientology. Maybe after we see the movie…he’ll tell us?? Here’s some links in case you want to see a larger view of the question…
LAST WEEK REPEAT…“SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS SHOCKER. RICHARD SCHEININ, one of the most valuable music critics in Northern California—as at home with jazz as classical—has been reassigned to write about real estate. The Merc announced that it plans to use free-lancers in place of Scheinin. The move is guaranteed to lose subscribers”.. I put all of that in quotes because I don’t remember where online I found it. I sure agree with it. Last week Scott MacClelland reminded me it was from his weekly website. He says that “if you look again you’ll see an expanded profile of Rich Scheinen under Performing Arts People. To visit www.performingartsmontereybay.com
MARGHE McMAHON SERVICES. Marghe McMahon is an official local legend. She’s the once UCSC student who sculpted the bronze statue of musical Saw player Tom Scribner that sits in front of Bookshop Santa Cruz on Pacific Avenue. She died and her husband Luc mailed to tell us “Marghe was an Artist, a Scientist, an Educator, a Dancer, a Champion Horse Rider and a loving Mother and Wife. She was the definition of a renaissance woman”. We would like to invite you to a celebration of Marghe’s life with us on Saturday March 28th in Santa Cruz. The gathering will start at 1 PM at the Santa Cruz Oakwood Memorial cemetery in front of the Dominican Hospital and close to Soquel Avenue, where Marghe’s ashes will be put to rest (close to the white columns entry). After the ceremony, a celebration of Marghe’s life will be held at Chaminade resort just up the hill from the Oakwood Memorial Park.
MARY WEST
We lost another of the true progressive Democrats and a beautiful lady, Mary West, last month. For those who never knew her, read about her life here. Mary, along with Elsie Beltram, Lois and Bert Muhly, Gordon and Rachel Haskell, Sharon Elerick, Bruce Bratton, Nancy Matlock and several others sang at an annual St. Patrick’s Day musical for the Democratic Women’s Club fundraiser. They were always a sell-out, with Mary Selby and Jon Backstrom doing the honors with delicious corned beef and cabbage. The lyrics were great, written by Mary, Elsie and Lois,, always taking liberties with potshots at the Republicans, most notably Bush II. I was given the “honor” of playing Bush and it was fun. Mary, Elsie and Lois made the whole thing work every year, with new material, the Republicans always had something to poke fun at. Somewhere I have a DVD of one of those musicals and plan to play it on St. Pat’s day and remember Mary West. We’ll all miss her.
ELERICK’S INPUT II. Paul Elerick writes on March 23…
RECOVERY CENTER
We are fortunate to have elected a true leader, Sheriff Jim Hart. He continues to live up to campaign promises by working to establish a Recovery Center to house inebriated citizens while they sober up, rather than booking them at the jail. This is not happening without lots of effort, starting with his securing over a million dollars of state funding to pay for it. Santa Cruz County is the only County to receive such funding.
Rather than locking drunks up, they will be checked into the Recovery Center for a period of 5 to 10 hours until they sober up, and then released. No fingerprinting, booking, or transporting them to Dominican for sobering up. There are now about 4000 bookings per year for being drunk in public equating to 8,000 hours of law enforcement time, where each arrest for being drunk in public can tie up a law enforcement officer for up to six hours per arrest. County Chiefs have endorsed the program and the location for the Center, the blue house next to the jail.
The Recovery Center will be properly staffed by qualified medical personnel. Drug users will not qualify for the Recovery Center. The project goes before the BOS on April 14th at 9:AM for final approval. If you agree with this program, be there to support our Sheriff.
(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).
| ANDY VARIPAPA AND BOWLING. Totally unbelievable bowling. Does anyone bowl anymore?? |
PATTON’S PROGRAM. Last week (March 16) Gary talked about the North Coast proposed National Monument he says, “Establishing a National Monument would not add much by way of “protecting” the resources located on the Coast Dairies land. Those resources are already pretty well protected. Without doubt, however, establishing a National Monument would put our North Coast “on the map,” and thus promote the area on a nationwide basis. The local impacts of such a designation could be significant, which is one good reason that those promoting the Monument campaign might well consider a meeting or two on the North Coast itself, to get those most affected involved in the process”.
This week (March 23) he talks about the Board Of Supervisors agenda for 3/24 which includes,
1.A report on the UCSC Comprehensive Settlement Agreement, about University growth.
- Setting a hearing on April 21st for the Davenport Cement Plant Reuse Strategic Plan.
3.Receiving a report about a Broadband Master Plan, to extend fiber optic cable in the county.
- Set May 19th as the date for a report on regulations for weddings and special events.
5.Scheduling an Earth Day 2015 event in San Lorenzo Park on Saturday, April 18th.
6.Repealing an ordinance that allows the commercial cultivation of medical cannabis.
7.Consider a Homeless Strategic Plan.
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
| TERRIBLY BORING ARCHERY TRICK SHOTS.This kid whos doing the great bow and arrow work is a miserable show biz personality, but watch his shots. |
CLASSICAL DeCINZO. Some of those noisy bike riders have learned, but check out DeCinzo’s view of their problem. See below.
EAGAN’S DEEP COVER. Tim Eagan delivers a crushing blow to some elephants (you know which ones)see downwards.
SANTA CRUZ CHAMBER PLAYERS CONCERT # 5. This concert is titled Classical And “All That Jazz” it features music by Beethoven, Erwin Schulhoff, Schumann, Scriabin, Piazzolla, Marin Marais, and Nikolai Kapustin. Players will be Ivan Rosenblum, artistic director and piano, Kathleen Purcell, flute and Kristin Garbeff, cello. It’ll be at the Christ Lutheran Church up the hill behind the CHP Offices on Soquel just off Freedom Blvd. Saturday, Mar.28, 8 pm. and Sunday, Mar. 29, 3 pm. Tickets at the door, probably.
LISA JENSEN LINKS. Lisa wrote last week: “This week at Lisa Jensen Online Express (http://ljo-express.blogspot.com), Christopher Moore takes another whack at Shakespeare with his subversively funny new novel, The Serpent of Venice (the sequel to Fool) and Kenneth Branagh creates a luscious package for the same old story in Cinderella.” Lisa has been writing film reviews and columns for Good Times since 1975.
THAT IS THE QUESTION
(IN ORDER OF PERFECTION)
GETT: THE TRIAL OF VIVIANE AMSALEM. This almost best Foreign film (Oscars 2014) from Isreal got 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and Number 1 in the Chronicle Critics Consensus. It’s playing once only at 4 p.m. at the Nick NOW through Thursday March 20. (we should be glad they are even bringing it here). It’s the story of how an Israeli woman wanted a divorce, but in Israel unless the husband agrees, she must stay married. Gut wrenching, sad, powerful, perfectly acted, and true. Try to see this grand 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.
SPRING. An excellent quiet, surprising, intelligent ghost film about a young guy from California who meets a beautiful young girl in Italy and they have a special reletionship mostly because she’s a ghost and is 1000 + years old. The film has charm and you can’t say that about many movies today. Go for it.
QUEEN AND COUNTRY. Young Brits in their late teens go off to the Korean War. They have funny, heart-felt, stupid, and typical military adventures. Nicely acted and is a sequel to director John Boorman’s Hope and Glory, but not quite as good.
AN HONEST LIAR The Amazing Randi had a long stage career as a magician and as an “exposer” of phoney psychics like Uri Geller, and some religious “healers” too. As an amateur magician myself I was hoping for some explanation of the bending spoon trick and others but no secrets are revealed in the film and I don’t know why!!! It’s not very exciting otherwise.
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 movir goer an admission price!!
STILL PLAYING AT A THEATRE NEAR US
FROM BEST TO REALLY BAD
WILD TALES. Pedro Almodovar “produced” this Argentine film, whatever that means. It is a wonderful, tense, great collection of six unrelated-subtitled stories that will have you laughing, squirming, and praising the beauty of this absolutely great piece of cinema. Revenge, anger, accidental, all themes of our lives are carried to the extreme…plese see this film, (and I don’t say that often) but only if you really like good films.
This film received a 98 % on Rotten Tomatoes. A young Brit soldier gets lost fighting in Belfast against the Irish activists in 1971. It’s North Ireland vs. Great Britain, and you can’t tell one side from the other (main plot point). Excellent film, and it could use subtitles with all the Irish and British accents. Well worth attending, especially if you already don’t like wars.
McFARLAND, USA. This heart breaking-tearful movie is Disney at the best. Kevin Costner and Maria Bello head this solid trite hackneyed saga and yep, I cried too. It’s sort of like seven Rocky’s all in one film, as we watch the local Mexican kids in McFarland become state running champs. You can make up the plot, you’ve seen it many , many times. Yet because of the direction and Costner you’ll fall right into the pathos, cornball story.I forgot where Mc Farland is, I looked it up, route 99 goes right through the center of town, that’s why I even remembered being there…back in the day(or decade) It’s near Wasco, where I always get my gas when I drive to Victorville.
THE SECOND BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL.I left this movie angry, frustrated, and frustrated. Like most folks I expected a sequel with almost all the same stars that was at least half as cute, whimsical, and clever as the original. This slapped together- money grabbing movie is mean spirited, cliched, and poorly directed. The same geezer couples argue, lie, and cheat on each other, Dev Patel wheels and deals and argues, lies and cheats too. How anyone could have completely changed the spirit, charm and talent in the first Marigold Hotel to this contrivance is beyond me. To watch Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Richard Gere, and Bill Nighy become such small time humans is just degrading. Tell me if you see it and disagree.
CHAPPIE. Sci-Fi again and the future is controlled by a bunch of Robo-Cops. Hugh Jackman has an odd almost small part and Dev Patel plays an earnest but inneffectual jerk. The plot is awfully familiar, you’ll probably snore, so watch out for whomsoever is sitting next to you. Tons of violence, blood, and similar very popular themes…don’t go.
FOCUS. Will Smith tries hard to get back on top of the Hollywood star ladder but this clever and yet meaningless film goes absolutely nowhere. It’s about pickpocketing on a global level, and I’m not kidding. You are supposed to be fooled by who’s lying to which character but you really don’t care much. I dozed off many times and I was at the 10:50 am show!!!
RUN ALL NIGHT. Liam Neeson and Ed Harris lead the casting in this completely unnecessary bloody, violent, commercial reptition of all the other killing, murder, car-crashing, gunfire, corpse-filled, money making movie hits. Box office dynamite and stomach turning disgrace of a movie.
SONG OF THE SEA. Ireland’s Cartoon Studio also created The Secret of The Kells and I didn’t like it much either. It doesn’t compare to the Japanese Ghibli Studio’s classic works such as the current “The Tale Of The Princess Kaguya” or Pono, Howl’s Moving Castle, Princess Monoke or Spirited Away. The backgrounds in Song of the Sea are distracting, the music is too sweet or cute. The plot is cloying too. Plus, it lost the Oscar for animated feature to Big Hero 6.
THE DUFF. “DUFF” stands for “Designated Ugly Fat Friend”. The movie is touted as a teen age comedy, but it’s not very funny. Mae Whitman does a fine job as the Duff in the title, but the story is so over- used and old, you won’t care much for it…unless maybe you liked 50 Shades of Grey.
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. Former County supervisor and land use attorney Gary Patton talks about water and area issues on March 24. Then Valerie Corral discusses marijuana and altering consciousness methods. UCSC History Professor Matthew Lasar talks about the future of radio on March 31. Mathew is followed by Attorney Bill Parkin telling us about our environment and planning problems. Composer and winemaker Joseph Sekon talks about his music and about the Del Sol String Quartet appearing April 12 at 900 High Street. Joseph is followed by Carla Brennan talking about Mindfulness and meditation. On April 14 actress and playwright Kate Hawley talks about “Complications From A Fall” her newest play opening at the Jewel on April 23. Then Jeffrey Smedburg reports on the Reel Work Labor Film Festival. County Supervisor John Leopold co-hosts our KZSC #1 Pledge Drive night on April 21. Historian, author Sandy Lydon co-hosts KZSC #2 Pledge Drive night on April 28. 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. QUOTES. “The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.” Abraham Lincoln. “In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards”, Mark Twain “Education is that whole system of human training within and without the school house walls, which molds and develops men”, W. E. B. Du Bois
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Snail Mail: Bratton Online
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Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Direct email: Bratton@Cruzio.com
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BEST OF VINTAGE STEVEN DeCINZO.
Deep Cover by Tim Eagan.
