This weekend Santa Cruz turned out to greet the thousand of butterflies with their rich, autumn-colored wings, who will either winter in the park or move down to yet warmer pastures in Southern California or Mexico
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Wild Beasts in Santa Cruz
The most pointed critique of contemporary indie rock is that the genre has calcified into an unthreatening stylistic form, while its perpetual sexlessness has metastasized into a regressive form of twee infantilization. English four-piece Wild Beasts has successfully resisted those trends, penning a body of unconventional work that is preoccupied with the tense power dynamics and negotiations of the bedroom.
Occupy Santa Cruz: A Movement Takes Root
“I don’t take credit cards anymore because they’ve made it too expensive,” says Bob Bailes, the owner of Bob’s Stop and Get It, a camping gear and redwood store in Ben Lomond. “They charged me, they charged everybody else instead of cutting back. Not like the old days. In the old days they would say, ‘We better tighten our belts.’ Now they just charge the people.”
Baaba Maal: Between Worlds
The Sahel is a ribbon of semiarid land, 600 miles at its widest point, that runs the width of Africa from Senegal and Mauritania at one end to Ethiopia and Eritrea at the other. It separates the rippling sand dunes of the Sahara in the north from a more verdant savannah to the south—or maybe it bridges them. In any case, the Sahel exists between two very different worlds, not unlike its most famous native son, the singer Baaba Maal.
Santa Cruz Poets, Santa Cruz Inspiration: Rosie King
From the Santa Cruz poet who grew up in Michigan down the street from Theodore Roethke, a poem about sounds.
Le Grand Prix-Fixe: Santa Cruz Restaurant Week
Just what we’ve always dreamed of: an excuse to eat out every single night of the week. All of the following fine eateries are offering $25 prix-fixe menus Oct. 5-12 as part of Santa Cruz Restaurant Week. Just call ahead, since some are closed Sundays or Mondays.
African Zombie Movie Opens
The zombie has a rich tradition in literature that dates back as far as The Epic of Gilgamesh, in which the spurned goddess Ishtar rages, “I will knock down the Gates of the Netherworld, I will smash the door posts, and leave the doors flat down, and will let the dead go up to eat the living! And the dead will outnumber the living!”
Taiko Celebrates 20 Years With A Boom
Taiko drumming beats with a rhythm as steady as the human heart—and as much life and soul. Letting out screams as they pound huge drums, teams of performers at Watsonville Taiko’s 20th anniversary celebration this weekend are sure to leave audiences spellbound.
Monarchs Return to Santa Cruz
Natural Bridges celebrates the return of the monarchs this Sunday, Oct. 9 at the 31st annual Welcome Back Monarchs Day. It’s also a celebration of the re-opening of the boardwalk trail that leads down to the eucalyptus grove—repaired with the help of the Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks after it was damaged last winter.
Haircuts for Charity
L’Atelier stylist Nick Saporito first organized a Hope Cuts event four years ago after learning about the campaign through spending time at City of Hope with his father, who was a lymphoma cancer patient there. Years past have reaped as much as $4,000 in the six-hour period, thanks to desirable raffle schwag.
