Many books have attempted to explain John Cage, one of the 20th century’s most controversial composers, but author Kay Larson’s is the first one to concentrate on how Zen Buddhism empowered him to create his music, liberate his divided mind, reconstruct his character, remove personal crises and thus allow him to transform the entire narrative of 20th-century art.
Articles
New Music Works Celebrates John Cage
Phil Collins recalls seeing John Cage and Lou Harrison at one of New Music Works’ early Avant Garden Parties. The two old friends, who’d been artistically and personally separated for several decades after they’d both studied with contemporary music icons Arnold Schoenberg and Henry Cowell (not the California landowner), had taken a walk together and returned to the party arm in arm.
Three Mile Pilot at Catalyst Atrium
For a lot of indie rock fans, Three Mile Pilot is just some obscure band from the ’90s that Zach Smith was in before Pinback, and Pall Jenkins before The Black Heart Procession. But they recorded some of the best, least-appreciated indie albums of their time.
Quirky Mural Welcomes All to ‘The Cruz’
New students trickling into town for the first time are getting a crash course on Santa Cruzan identity, thanks to a 30-foot-long caricature map of Santa Cruz now plastered on the corner of Bay and Mission streets. The mural is the work of Kirby Scudder, Tannery artist and co-founder of First Friday, who happened to have an obscenely large version of his recently released poster “The Cruz.”
Shakespeare Santa Cruz ‘Henry IV Part Two’
Shakespeare Santa Cruz’s production of Henry IV Part Two bristles with strong performances and dramatic tension. Directed by SSC veteran actor and director Scott Wentworth, it plays in the Festival Glen in repertory with The Man in The Iron Mask, a Wentworth-authored play receiving its world premiere this season. Watching the cast members perform wildly different roles between the two adds an extra layer of pleasure to this already excellent production.
Sanctuary Exploration Center
The 12,600-square-foot Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Exploration Center is as vibrant and inventive a window on the ocean as one could hope for. Standing sentinel as a guardian of sea life at the mouth of the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf, the admission-free educational center opened to the public on July 23, 2012, and schools of curious observers have been flowing freely through the two-story center since.
Twelve Things You Missed at Outside Lands
Santa Cruz Weekly reporters ventured to Outside Lands this year and brought back the low-down on some of the festival’s best performances and moments (more than we care to mention involved portable restroom facilities…OK fine, we’ll mention them). In case you didn’t make it to the festival but still want to impress music-savvy friends, just reference one of these things.
Local Poets, Local Inspiration: Kelsey Forest
Santa Cruz writer Kelsey Forest inaugurates the return of ‘Local Poets, Local Inspiration.’
Q&A: Dispatch
When Dispatch released its first album in 1996, the world was a different place. Alanis Morissette’s latest album was topping the Billboard charts, eventually selling over 7 million copies that year in the US alone. There was no Google or YouTube. There was no Facebook, MySpace or even Napster.
China Cats’ Scott Cooper Goes Solo
Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia once said, “Just because you’re a musician doesn’t mean all your ideas are about music,” but nobody told that to local musician Scott Cooper. Besides working as a sales rep for Drumskull Drums and a guitar instructor through UCSC, the 47-year-old single father also plays in five separate bands.
