“I could catch an alligator any size—all I need is two ropes and a pole,” Frisby informs me in the southern drawl of this boyhood. He takes a sip of his café au lait. “I was catchin’ eight footers by the time I was seven.” It was at this point that I decided to put down my pen and forget the questions I had carefully planned for Frisby about his one-man band and the birdfeeders he crafts out of found relics and just enjoy the ride, for which we were departing at full gallop. NOTE: JUNE 28 SHOW POSTPONED.
Articles
UCSC Grad has Rising Comedic Talent
San Francisco comedienne Lisa Geldudig produces shows that try to bring some perspective to standup beyond the typical lineup of three white guys—because, as she says, “no offense, but the comedy spectrum and audience are wider than that.”
Chop Tops Blast Billy Audiences Away
It’s Thursday night, and Gary Marsh is waiting inside his band’s favorite bar, the Asti, rocking slicked-back hair and a gray collared shirt he could have borrowed off a car mechanic. Having just bought a Red Bull, Marsh—who goes by “Sinner” in the rockabilly-blasting Chop Tops—is sipping his nonalcoholic drink, ignoring my questions and gazing over my left shoulder at the bar’s front door. Now he’s just buying time.
Recipes for Keeping Cool
Summer’s here and the time is right for kicking back on a lounge chair, dousing yourself in coconut suntan lotion and relaxing by the nearest body of water. But wait . . . there’s something missing! A tasty, chilled cocktail, perhaps?
Local Rapper Gets a Break
Things are falling into place for Alwa Gordon. The Aptos-based rapper just returned from Las Vegas with three professionally produced hip hop tracks by Grammy-nominated production team the Audibles. Not only did he not pay a cent for them, he was flown out by the record label Future Music to make the recordings and sent home with the tracks free and clear.
Blue Lounge Opens in Seabright
The weekly queer-friendly sweat-and-danceathon known as the Rainbow Room has given LGBT and straight booty-shakers alike a reason to get out of bed on Thursday afternoons for a couple of years now. So it was cause for some concern in partyish circles when the Seabright bar the Mad House, scene of all the fun, changed hands. You could almost hear the questions marks over the beats: “Will the Rainbow Room survive?”
At R. Blitzer, Two Approaches to Viewing Earth
Last fall, local artist Lisa Hochstein discovered that the U.S. Geological Survey’s Pacific Coast and Marine Science Center shared more with the R. Blitzer Gallery than an address at the former Wrigley Building—they shared a wall. Struck by the metaphor of this relationship between art and science, Hochstein began musing about their presumed separation. “The two have much in common: a curiosity about the world, an impulse to explore and probe deeply,” she explains. “Both search for aspects of truth. And both recognize that knowledge is elusive and always subject to challenge and refinement.”
In Heaven They’ll Never Close
The most recent casualty to Santa Cruz’s dive scene, the Avenue Bar and Cigars was the best place to watch overaged, underpaid prostitutes flash returning customers and new victims. Those who didn’t want to see anything illegal happen simply had to close their eyes and listen to the sweet, sweet sounds of “I’ll get you the money tomorrow!”
Dive Bar Scoring Criteria
Given the sheer importance of this article, we had to design a scoring system that would be as entertaining, at least to us, as it would be fair. With that sentiment in mind, we came up with the following rubric. Each dive bar would be judged in the same manner a good beer would, through smell, mouthfeel and taste—metaphorical, of course—and overall score.
Dive Bar Hall of Fame
The cute, the cheap and the icky get a special shout-out from our dive bar guides.
