|
BASKET CASE #1. Doesn’t it seem odd that Kaiser Permanente denies health coverage anyone living in Santa Cruz County and still will have their name on the front of this “temporary metal tent”?? Have you seen the hot cheerleaders on the Warriors website? Will we have Santa Cruz High School girls doing this??? And didn’t we stop the Miss California Pageant for the same reason???
BASKET CASE #2. Check out how nervous Don Lane is in this Channel 8 newscast as he attempts to explain how the City Council really, really isn’t railroading the project.
BASKETBALL PARKING??? From the email bag…
Here’s a map and a note from the Beach Hill Neighbors Association to help you locate the proposed basketball arena construction.
WHO OWNS THE WARRIORS AND WHY DO THEY NEED OUR $5 MILLION DOLLARS? Unloading the email bag we read….”Mike Ozanian, writing for Forbes about the business of sports, says: “Peter Guber and Joe Lacob bought the Warriors basketball team in 2010 for $450 million. Last November, Guber and Lacob bought a development team, the Dakota Wizards, reportedly for around $2 million. Guber also recently bought an interest in the LA Dodgers baseball team, which sold for $2 billion, and as you can see, he is no stranger to mining for government benefits”.
A CASE OF SWOLLEN BASKETBALLS. You might want to read a few thousand words by Bill Simmons, a basketball authority, on the hapless Golden State Warriors here. It’s lengthy (then again, there’s so much bad news), Bill Simmons is the editor-in-chief of Grantland and the author of the recent New York Times no. 1 best-seller The Book of Basketball. For every Simmons column and podcast, log on to Grantland. To send him an e-mail, click here.
| IDENTICAL TWINS (11 MONTHS OLD) SHAKIN’ IT UP. Kit Birskovich found this cutesy gem, check it out… |
DOCTOR JOHN STENOVICH DIED. John Stenovich was not just an excellent dentist he changed people’s lives and lived a happy life himself. He died last week. We lost an excellent human, a fine cornet player, and a sense of humor that will never die. He was my dentist for decades…I miss him.
SANTA CRUZ WEEKLY OR WEAKLEY? First there were more words around town that The Santa Cruz Weekly couldn’t pay for writing additional event coverage then last week it was announced that Steve Palopoli would be brought back from the
free lance “contributor” list to replace Traci Hukill as editor of the Weekly. Newspapers are a strange business. Which reminds me that next year marks my TENTH (10) year blogging BrattonOnline…
| SCARED OF HEIGHTS? Don’t watch this….really! |
PATTON’S PROGRAM. Gary says on his KUSP series, “The Santa Cruz County Local Agency Formation Commission, or LAFCO, will meet Wednesday, September 5 at 1:30 p.m. at the Capitola City Hall. If you care about water supply issues, within the water service area of the City of Santa Cruz, you may want to attend.
LAFCO will soon decide whether or not the City of Santa Cruz should be allowed to extend water service, outside its current water service area, to facilitate over 3,000,000 square feet of new construction on the UCSC North Campus. Since the City is facing a genuine water supply crisis, this is not a trivial question, and LAFCO is taking it seriously. A couple of informal LAFCO committees will be reporting at tomorrow’s meeting. The final decision is scheduled for the Commission’s October meeting. That meeting will be held on October 10th, and the location of the meeting is yet to be determined. The Wittwer & Parkin law firm, with which I am associated, is representing the Community Water Coalition, which opposes the extension of water service to the UCSC North Campus unless and until it is clear that there is an adequate water supply for existing customers, and to keep fish alive in North Coast streams and the San Lorenzo River. There is a meeting about that topic also on Wednesday. The Department of Fish and Game is addressing these issues at the Scotts Valley Hilton, starting at 10:00 a.m.
(Gary Patton is “Of Counsel” to the Santa Cruz law firm of Wittwer & Parkin, which specializes in land use and environmental law. The opinions expressed are Mr. Patton’s. Gary has his own website, “Two Worlds / 365” – www.gapatton.net)
ANCHOR IN ANTARCTICA. Micaela Neus wraps up Antarctica slowly…”We have entered our last month of winter solitude. The replacement crew arrives in three short weeks. The time will pass in a blur of preparations for the summer season of field science, so we try to concentrate on wrapping up the remaining winter projects even as our thoughts start to drift northward. In other words, we start paying more serious attention to the news.
Antarctica has an insulating effect, psychologically. News of the Real World gets discussed, but often feels about as significant as the hunks of brash ice in the winter. They appear, bobbing harmlessly about the harbor, after a glacier calving. People comment when one looks like a swan or giant face and high tide may strand smaller pieces on the shoreline for a few days. Eventually, it all melts or disappears over the horizon. And nobody cares, really. We don’t need to go boating, so brash ice has little meaning to us.
Headlines matter more than ice, of course; still, it’s a fair comparison. We flew the flag at half mast for the Sikhs slain in Wisconsin and made as many bitter “legitimate rape” jokes as we could through clenched jaws. Nevertheless, these events happened on another planet to unfamiliar people called “Americans”– an alien race to which everyone here belongs– and we aren’t expected to respond to them ourselves. They occur without any social context for us, like getting a postcard from a colony on Mars.
Presidential campaigns are a particularly funny example of this phenomenon. I spent the winter of 2008 in Antarctica as well, making this year’s elections the second time in a row that I’ve missed on the TV commercials, protests, bumper stickers, petitions, arguments, rallies and other forms of foreplay that lead up to our getting screwed in November. I don’t want to get into bed with either of these men, frankly… and yet none of us will be avoid waking up to one of them in another few months. Antarctica has allowed me to stand back and watch the campaigns like another Olympic event. In one short month, I’ll have to get back into the game myself. What’s my move? “.
(Micaela Neus works for Raytheon Polar Services Company as a utilities technician and is currently living at Palmer Station, Antarctica until at least October 2012.
VINTAGE DE CINZO. Professor DeCinzo deals with a non-vegetarian meal.
See below a few pages
EAGANS DEEP COVER. Tim goes even more profound than ever…scroll below…
LANDAU’S PROGRES.Saul takes on baseball as a business….he could have said the same about pro basketball ever coming to Santa Cruz. His article is titled “Baseball Hell Of A Business”. In it he states, “The players, especially the stars, make high salaries, but the team owners reap the big profits from tickets, TV rights, plus the food and booze sold at the games. It’s a big business, like all professional sports, that uses good old American values to lure buyers – come see the game and buy tee shirts and other paraphernalia that says “Giants” on it (hats, jackets, sweatshirts, bats, autographed balls and anything a sales maven can think of) – anything to attract a young child or mentally undersupplied adult. Nielsen reports that “ad spending on sports jumped 33% ” between 1974 and 2011, “to almost $11 billion annually.” In case one wonders about the price of tickets, “team owners in Major League Baseball (MLB) set ticket prices as profit-maximizing monopolists.” (Donald L. Alexander, Major League Baseball, Monopoly Pricing and Profit-Maximizing Behavior Journal of Sports Economics) So, when you take your family to the ballpark to root for the Giants, Dodgers, Marlins, whoever, and if you feed them at the ballpark, you’ll be over one hundred dollars poorer – albeit you’ll have spent the afternoon outdoors with the family who will then want to buy things they saw advertized on TV while watching a baseball game at home. Baseball might be a sport kids play, but professional baseball is solid business. Go Giants!” Read it all here… Saul Landau is an Institute for Policy Studies fellow whose films are on DVD from roundworldproductions@gmail.
LISA JENSEN LINKS. Lisa writes: “It’s all about books this week at Lisa Jensen Online Express (http://ljo-express.blogspot.com/), as Laurie King launches her new Mary Russell-Sherlock Holmes mystery, Garment Of Shadows at the Capitola Book Cafe. Breaking news about Alias Hook my new novel, it’s headed for publication next year.” Lisa has been writing film reviews and columns for Good Times since 1975.
SCARY MOVIE NEWS. A knowledgeable film enthusiast emails…”Food for thought. Here in “progressive” Santa Cruz, the number one grossing movie in the county (August 24-26 weekend) was the conservative anti-Obama doc 2016 at the Cinema 9, ($4,767 for the 3 days).It did about $1,100 more than the next highest gross. Not sure what this means, but it scares me”. I agree and think we should be very, very scared!!
CHICKEN WITH PLUMS. This part fantasy film takes place mostly in imaginary Tehran. It’s cute, clever, blah, blah, and nicely photographed. Nothing really wrong with it, but you won’t remember a thing about it afterwards. The same folks also made Persepolis a few years ago which was animated…this one isn’t.
LAWLESS. Guy Pierce never looked so greasy and nasty. Gary Oldman never was so totally unused, Jessica Chastain just sort of appears occasionally. The picture does NOT achieve what it tried to say. Poorly cut and completely senseless in parts it still has some fine scenes in it. I’m not yet a fan of Shia Le Boeuf, the “nice” kid as lead in this “based on true life” shoot em up.
POSSESSION. Is a Jewish versions of the Exorcist…seriously. It’s about a Dybbuk in a box. Wikipedia says …” In Jewish folklore, a Dybbuk (Yiddish, from Hebrew adhere or cling) is a malicious or malevolent possessing spirit believed to be the dislocated soul of a dead person”.. The first 3/4 of this movie is almost as boring as Cosmopolis but it takes off when it goes way over the top into the Jewish traditions. I liked the last part…scary, bold, well directed.
COSMOPOLIS. Good film directors make bold statements in their films. See Fellini, Bergman, DeSica etc. David Cronenberg directed this film and he’s done statement before like, Bug, Crash, M. Butterfly, and History of Violence. Cosmopolis is a boring flop of a film. It’s faux intellectual, preachy, and more boring than the brain can take. Robert Pattinson was better than expected, Paul Giamatti does his best, but it’s still a serious miss of a film.
HOSTETTER’S HOT STUFF. A few new things on the page and a top-of-the-list reminder that Debo Band will be at Yoshi’s in San Francisco on Tuesday night. You will not doze off there! And they might still have a half-off ticket deal for web purchases of tickets. Other than that: The O’Brien Party of 7 (not to be confused with another local band of the same name), at the Freight and Kuumbwa, the Berkeley Old Time Music Convention, the remarkable Andy Irvine resumes his west coast tour, Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill at the good old Ku-UM-bwa and in Pacific Grove, the south Indian violin duo of Nagaraj and Manjunath, ace electric guitarist Sonny Landreth, and eventually the Punch Brothers featuring Chris Thile. But there will be updates before they get to town. I think the autumn flood of upcoming gigs will be upon us shortly. What there is, is to be found here: http://www.lutherie.net/live.music.html, per usual. And don’t forget about Gabriella Café’s Salon Series. Next up is poet Gary Young, on Tuesday night (if you’re not going to hear Debo in SF). Check here about that, and oh yes, Jeannine Bonstelle is now singing there on Wednesday evenings. More in due time. ph
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. Grapevine on Sept. 4th will have Joan Van Antwerp telling news about the Van Antwerp Theatre Company’s next play. “Crooked” opening Sept. 19. Right after Joan, Jack Bowers and Sayaka Yabuki from New Music Works will share thoughts about their John Cage tributes. Julie James from The Jewel Theatre Company will talk about their new season and Jim Stearns will discuss his book “Feeding The (Grateful) Dead” on Sept. 11 Mireya Gomez will talk about the Day Worker Center in Live Oak on Sept. 18, then Angelo Grova and Rose Sellery return to dish details on their fashionART show. On Sept. 25th Scott Griffin, Nickelodeon chief operating manager discusses films, digital releases and local movie tastes followed by Jim Emdy from KUSP. He and I will talk about the many area opera season’s. OCTOBER 2nd means the Bi-annual KZSC Pledge Drive with County Supervisor John Leopold repeating as special guest co-host. Cathy Pickerrell from Santa Cruz Chamber Players will provide season news on October 9th ,then David Foster discusses the newly opened Re-Store project. Do remember, any and all suggestions for future programs are more than welcome so tune in, and keep listening. Email me always at bratton@cruzio.com
UNIVERSAL GRAPEVINE ARCHIVES. In case you missed some of the great people I’ve interviewed in the last 5 years here’s a chronological list of just this year’s podcasts. Click here http://kzsc.org/blog/tag/
BEST OF VINTAGE STEVEN DeCINZO.
QUOTES. All of these quotes are from long time friend Alyce Cadwallader now of Redding, CA. Where she got them… we’ll never know…
“Never test the depth of the water with both feet”.
“If at first you don’t succeed, skydiving is not for you”.
“Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day”.
“Don’t worry; it only seems kinky the first time”.
“A closed mouth gathers no foot”.
“Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night”.
Subscriptions: Click and enter the box in the upper right hand corner of each Column. 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 @ www.TheGoldenFleece.com
BEST OF VINTAGE STEVEN DeCINZO.
Deep Cover by tim eagan.
