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DATELINE May 16, 2016
| PINK FROGMOUTH WALKING FISH. |
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FISH THAT WALK ON LAND |
COUNCIL CAROUSEL, PART 7. Don’t ask about the first six parts, I just made that up because I have no idea how many times I’ve written about our 2016 Santa Cruz City Council race. Just trying to list the important issues so we can learn where the candidates stand isn’t easy. We’ve got three hotels going up in North County and two new ones in South County, and our greedy developers, Chamber of Commerce, Business Council, and a majority of the present City Council all drool over the thought of attracting more businesses here with the totally untrue statements that growth will provide more jobs and provide money to help pay for our Social Services (an old Mike Rotkin mantra). So ask the candidates how they’ll vote on growth.
Ask them about widening Highway One, simply pro or con) ask them if they think adding auxiliary lanes is widening…or not. Ask them tough ones like where do they stand on The Beach Flats Garden and do they think the City has already given The Boardwalk enough land and tax breaks. Ask them their definition of “affordable” as in “affordable housing” (maybe even a dollar set of figures) the current City Council and the Board of Supervisors have long ago copped out/sold out on that one.
WHO’S RUNNING.
The final or even the first declaration dates for city council candidates to declare their commitment are July 18 – August 12. Here’s a list of names that you’ll be seeing and hearing as candidates. Some have already made their candidacy known, others are strong and oft-repeated rumors. Por ejemplo… Sandy Brown, Martine Watkins, J.M. Brown, Micah Posner, Dru Glover, Steve Pleich, Mark Primack and of course Cynthia Mathews.
HAPPY COLLEGE NEWS. KZSC 88.1 fm our local radio station just finished another pledge drive, it was good fun. More than that it worked!!! I asked Keith Rozendal our station broadcast advisor how it went from his point of view, he said …
“We are very pleased with the fundraising. We’re going to top our fall 2015 drive by roughly 25% (pledges are still coming in!), and our number of donors is up by a similar margin from the fall. The UCSC one-day Giving Day game was a nice boost near the end, with 115 donors together giving $5,700 in just 24 hours. We’re going to put that money to good use, hiring a professional instructor (Nada Milkjovic) to teach our radio training class. KZSC doesn’t sound like other college radio stations because of this deep training and mentorship behind the mic. More than 70% of our programmers are UCSC students with less than 2 years experience on the air, but it doesn’t sound like that at all! If you haven’t listened to KZSC in a while, I think you’d be pleasantly surprised. And KZSC-trained programmers go on to successful careers in the media as a high rate (NPR, This American Life, podcasting, including Serial and Maximum Fun!, ABC, CNN, MSNBC, Oregon Public Broadcasting, and more). With continued strong listener support, we plan to bring some of that same strong education to teaching local news reporting. We’d hire local journalists, and other people who know the community well, to give a crash course in local issues and history. Then the students would be sent out to meetings, events, and happenings to report on Santa Cruz, Monterey, and San Benito Counties. We get the sense that Santa Cruz is starving for local news and we think this is a very inexpensive way to start providing that essential service to the community and our democracy”.
Editors note…you can always send/donate/give to support KZSC by going to KZSC.org and click on “donate”
SAD COLLEGE NEWS. An article in the San Francisco Chronicle (Sat. May 14, ’16) talked about a Stanford student who struggled with depression, and was a lacrosse star. The article states…”The NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) cites research that suggests that suicide “is the second leading cause of death among college students. Approximately three suicides occur daily among college students, and 7 to 10 percent of college students either attempt or contemplate suicide in a given year”. I’d never heard this. More about athletes and suicide..
UCSC MEETING WITH CHANCELLOR BLUMENTHAL AND EXEC. VICE CHANCELLOR AND STUDENTS MAY 2ND, 2016. This is a group of notes taken at the meeting. There were between 90 and 100 students present. Quotes are labeled GB= George Blumenthal and AG= Alison Galloway. Assuming you’d like to hear some straight and otherwise answers to many students about their college, go here to read two pages of notes from that meeting….you’ll be surprised.
READ MORE (link expands, click again to collapse)
GENERATING OPINIONS. My notes last week about labeling generations brought in many opinions. I hasten to add, and should have emphasized that hardly any two of my sources agreed on which years bracketed those groups. More than that many generations had titles that I didn’t and couldn’t include. Lisa Jensen wrote to say…” As to your generational categories last week, it seems to me that the Beat Generation ought to be in there somewhere between the Silent Generation and the Boomers (overlapping both: people who came of age in the mid-50s). And I remember that the Me Generation is what Boomers used to call people coming of age in the ’70s. The Gen X-ers came after. What you call Generation Z (the current crop), I call “Gen-Texters” — but that’s just me!” She’s right there was no mention of the Beat Generation. Probably because it seemed to apply for only a few years and mostly to SF and NYC groups. Fascinating, isn’t it?
BERNIE NEWS. Here’s an email report with some near late breaking news re the opening of The Santa Cruz Bernie headquarters… 150 people show up to Bernie’s campaign headquarters opening in downtown Santa Cruz…pretty impressive…the Sanders people were ready…split into three groups…telephone bankers, register to vote group and door to door canvassers…had house parties lists ready for people to volunteer…Watsonville, Gilroy and Gonzalez lists and events for people to sign up for too…they were ready. The headquarters are at the new Satellite Center 325 Soquel Drive by the Hindquarter restaurant.
ELERICK’S INPUT. Mr. Paul Elerick of Aptos writes…
DO WE WANT THE CORRIDORS PLAN?
I think the County Planning Department and others are setting themselves up for failure with their development concept called a “corridors plan“. If they push more multi-purpose and multi-story projects like the one in Santa Cruz off Soquel, there may be a homeowner’s revolt. At the public hearing on CTV,(community television) every speaker (neighborhood resident) spoke against the project due to building height, density and traffic. Speakers for the project all worked for the City or County, or were part of the developer’s team.
So why is a ‘corridors plan” needed? We’re told we need more housing, especially low cost housing for workers that are already here and can’t find a place to live where they work. And of course the same old “we need to provide for growth”. Sounds reasonable, but has anybody considered all the other things these “growing corridors” will bring? Take a drive over the hill to San Jose, or even closer to Salinas and see what high-rise, low cost housing looks like after a few years. Streets mostly shaded from the sun all day, cars that look like they haven’t been driven for a long time and left on the streets. Streets that can’t be swept clean due to all the cars parked on them. The sad part is that some of our friends and neighbors are for this in the name of providing “affordable housing”. Another solution to the problem is don’t build them and they won’t come. We are big enough already.
(Paul Elerick is a member of, and former co-chair of the Campaign for Sensible Transportation, http://sensibletransportation.org . He’s a current member of Nisene to Sea, a group of mid-county citizens committed to maintaining an open hiking trail from Cabrillo College to Nisene Marks State Park
The council hearing last week on the large-scale developments proposed for Front Street between Laurel and Soquel and parts of Pacific, was a love fest among consultants, planners and decision-makers with developers observing from the wings. I kept waiting for a challenging question from a council member. Perhaps someone will express a small concern about the impact of eight story buildings, I thought? Maybe a word or two about the impending loss of long-time, small businesses? An observation, perhaps, that 85 feet tall buildings and the phrase “human-scale” is an oxymoron? No such questions were asked. No critical comments expressed. The assumptions went unchallenged.
The consultants and planning staff did a slick job of minimizing impacts and keeping the tone upbeat. The visuals kept the heights far lower than what is proposed, which perhaps explains why council member Micah Posner wrote in his newsletter to his constituents that the proposed building heights are 3 and 4 stories rather than the 5, 7 and 8 stories detailed in the presentation. Everyone on council loved the alleyways connecting Pacific and the river levee and why not? They looked cute in the drawings, decked out with flowers and surrounded by 2 story buildings rather than the sunless corridors bounded by 55 to 85 feet high buildings which is what actually will be the result if the height changes are approved. The council expressed enthusiasm for tall buildings butting up to the San Lorenzo River levee as “revitalizing” the river, although the consultant made it clear that commercial activity facing the river was not viable.
click here to continue (link expands, click again to collapse)
(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).
PATTON’S PROGRAM. From Gary’s TWO World’s website (05/16/16)
ABOUT COMMUNITY BRIDGES.
| IGOR MOISEYEV BALLET. Diana Rose has this great Russian ballet dance company on her FB page. I know nothing about ballet but this is different!!! |
| MEXICAN WALKING FISH. |
I am a long time supporter of Community Bridges, a Santa Cruz County-based nonprofit organization that provides a wide variety of human service programs in the three-county area that includes Santa Cruz County, Monterey County, and San Benito County. You, too, can be a Community Bridges supporter. Click right here to contribute! Community Bridges recently sent me its 2015 Annual Report, which you can read online. On Pages 4 and 5, I learned that Community Bridges provided help to tens of thousands of people last last year, and that over 87% of the people it helped live below 200% of the federal poverty level (less than $31,860 for a family of two). I am glad that my contributions to Community Bridges are helping families and individuals who are having a difficult time, economically. That’s great, and there are pages and pages of names in the Annual Report (all in very small print), of many hundreds of other people who are doing the same. However…..
While individual giving is good (an d let me remind you about that link in the first paragraph of this posting that will let you join the crowd), there is no reason that we shouldn’t structure our society so that the community itself provides the kind of basic human services that are now being provided by way of individual contributions to Community Bridges and other nonprofit organizations. In the richest nation in the world, the richest nation, in fact, in the history of the world, we could, thorough our collective action, provide every family and every individual in this country with a basic education, meaningful work, child care, health care, and housing. You know we could do it. The money is out there, and the purpose of politics is to decide, collectively, how we should raise money and spend it, on the things we decide just must be done, for the good of us all. So, keep those individual contributions flowing, but…Let’s make sure that the United States Congress and the next President of the United States does something to ensure that there’s a strong and solid economic floor for every family, and every person in this country.
That’s not a bridge too far! Read more of Gary’s patterns on his website. 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. Check out his website, ” Two Worlds/365” www.gapatton.net
CLASSICAL DeCINZO. DeCinzo looks at war games at Roaring Camp!!!
EAGAN’S DEEP COVER. Tim Eagan reveals the Trump campaign’s major believers. See downward a few scrollings . Read his near weekly blog right here…. http://www.timeagan.com/?eaganblog
MUNCHING WITH MOZART & FRIENDS. Every third Thursday there’s a free noon piano concert upstairs at the Santa Cruz Downtown Library. This Thursday (5/19) Rose Georgi will play Tchaikovsky, Chopin, more Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Debussy, and Khachaturian. The concert starts at 12:10, but get there early because it fills up pretty fast. Carol Panofsky creates and supervises the series.
STRINDBERG’S “A DREAM PLAY” AT UCSC. August Strindberg’s plays inspired playwrights like Albee, Artaud, Beckett, Pinter and Tennessee Williams. A Dream Play was Strindberg’s personal favorite. He weote The Ghost Sonata, Miss Julie, and The Dance of Death.
A Dream Play is about life being lived out as a dream, or an illusion. Kirsten Brandt is directing it. It runs May 20-22 & 26-29 at UCSC’s Experimental Theatre. (That’s the large black box theatre up the hill from the Mainstage Theatre). 7:30 pm & 3 p, on Sundays.Tickets available online at ucsctickets.com.
LISA JENSEN LINKS. Lisa writes: “We didn’t have much in the way of female role models on 1960s TV, but it was still possible for a little girl to get inspired — if she knew where to look. Join me in the Way-back Machine, this week at Lisa Jensen Online Express (http://ljo-express.blogspot.com).” Lisa has been writing film reviews and columns for Good Times since 1975.
THAT IS THE QUESTION
(THE NEWEST FILMS IN ORDER OF PERFECTION)
MONEY MONSTER. Genuine Hollywood. What can you expect when you have George Clooney and Julia Roberts as stars and Jodie Foster as director. The entire film demands lots of tension and there is some but it keeps lagging. You will be totally aware that you’re watching Clloney and Roberts every time they move or speak. The irate investor/person of plot isn’t the best actor either. But there’s few other films around so see this…just be warned.
MEDDLER. Susan Sarandon and J.K. Simmons who plays a cop named Zipper are the main reasons to see this family drama. There are a few laughs, but the plot is so burlesqued that you’ll never be too absorbed or care about it. It’s a warm touchy-feelie flick but only hints at any of the characters depths so again you don’t get very involved.Your call….as usual. I didn’t know that Susan Sarandon is 70 years old. Same age as the character she plays.
STILL PLAYING AT A THEATRE NEAR US
FROM BEST TO REALLY BAD
DOUGH. Jonathan Pryce is the Jewish bakery shop owner in London who hires an African Muslim, pot – selling teen ager as a helper. It’s a British film and it’s a cute and cuddly early Hollywood type comedy. If you’re Jewish, it’ll probably make you feel good, except for the treacle.
SING STREET. Dublin, Ireland in the 1980’s and a group of kids form a band. It’s almost a musical except for the teen age/lovesick plot that makes the film into a really enjoyable trip.
Not exactly Oscar material you’ll enjoy it in spite of yourself.
A HOLOGRAM FOR THE KING. Tom Hanks (born in Oakland!!) plays a weary broken marriage guy going to a very foreign Saudi Arabia to sell the king a high tech invention. The plot is from a novel and must be a fairly boring book. The movie is slow and pointless and ecept for Hanks’ typically great performance ther’s no reason to see this poke along plot.Hanks face is every bit as intriguing to look at and watch as Humphrey Bogarts is/was. It’s a pleasant movie, and you’ll stick with it all the way through…but I’d bet you’d have a tough time explaining it to your friends.
THE JUNGLE BOOK. I must confess to still being under the influence of the REAL Jungle Book movie. That’s the 1942 masterpiece starring Sabu as Mowgli. All real live action, no special effects, just Kipling and technicolor. This Disney commercial money maker is exactly that…a Disney money maker. Filmed darkly (to save FX expense) it’s a hodge-podge of Bill Murray’s looney asides, some old Disney songs and not one iota of what Kipling had in mind when he wrote the book. Send the kids, and you go to the movie next door, believe me.
SNOW WHITE SELLS OUT. Or The Huntsman: Winters War. Yes, it does have the mirror and “who’s the ugliest thing in the land” gimmick . It also has tons of dwarves who’s names should be Poopy, Syphly, Pee Pee, Crotchy and awful things like that. A fully armed (remember Mad Max?) Charlize Theron along with Emily Blunt, Chris Hemsworth and Jessica Chastain do their best to bring life and some semblence of excitement, or maybe even magic to this dull flick…and they couldn’t add anything worthwhile to this convuluted old prequel to Snow White. Rotten Tomatoes gives it a measly 17 tomatoes. It’s evil sisters fighting each other, curses, ice walls (Game of Thrones stuff), and special effects dwarves…BUT if like that sort of thing, it’ll probably play for weeks.
CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR. These box office gazillion dollar money makers are getting more and more bizzarre. They are direct copies of comic book plots. You shouldn’t apply any common sense or logic to the plots. Like comic books (even the earliest ones 1930’s) were just for fun and escape. So is Captain America:Civil War. To see Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Robert Downey Jr., Paul Rudd, Marisa Tomei, Martin Freeman, William Hurt, Paul Bettany, Hope Davis, Alfred Woodard and the legendary Stan Lee (creator of the Marvel Comics) in as nonsensical and violent and bloody and senseless a film like this one is just embarrassing. I can’t wait to see such sagas as Orphan Annie vs. Little Lulu, Joe Palooka battles Dick Tracy, Bugs Bunny vs. Minnie Mouse. They can’t fail.
GREEN ROOM. To try and watch such a fine actor as Patrick Stewart in what is supposed to be a clever satire or insiders look on slash/blood/horror films is too painful. I walked out about half way through. A traveling punk band is accidently trapped by killer druggies and get killed one at a time as they try to escape. Rotten Tomatoes gives it an amazing 88. I give it zip!
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
| UNIVERSAL GRAPEVINE RADIO PROGRAM KZSC 88.1 FM or live online at www.KZSC.ORG TUESDAYS 7-8 P.M. |
computer, (live only or archived for two weeks… See next paragraph) and go to WWW.KZSC.ORG. On May 17 Brian Spencer from the See Theatre talks about T. McNally’s play, “Mothers and Sons” and about theatre details. Then Land Use Attorney Bill Parkin brings us up to date on legal, environmental, and social issues. Anita Monga artistic Director of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival (21st Year) returns May 24, then Chris Krohn brings us up to date on the Beach Flats Garden issue. Mark Wainer and Judy Johnson talk about the Community of Artists show on May 31st followed by Santa Cruz County Clerk Gail Pellerin with updates on local voting. Former mayor Bruce Van Allen discusses local politics on Election Day June 7. The Short Story Winners from Bookshop Santa Cruz take over the June 14 program. June 21 has Carla Brennan talking about Meditation, Buddhism, and Mindfulness. 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
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Interesting stuff about something we all take for granted – 911. |
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-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.
QUOTES“The Ocean”
” The smell of the ocean was stronger now, rank and enveloping, as if the bottom of the sea had turned over and littered the shore with its dead”, T. Coraghessan Boyle
“I think space exploration is very important. I think there is very intelligent life on Mars. I believe that Martians are spying on us from the bottom of the ocean“, Annabella Sciorra
“Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering“, Saint Augustine
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 @ gunilla@thegoldenfleece.com
BEST OF VINTAGE STEVEN DeCINZO.
Deep Cover by Tim Eagan.
