To visit the Homeless Garden Project’s Natural Bridges Farm is to step into a simpler world. Just blocks away from the unending flow of traffic on Mission Street and the chaos of downtown Santa Cruz, the farm sits away from it all. Bursting with life, it’s a collage of colors, scents and sounds.
Articles by Cat Johnson
Stripe’s Secrets: Retro Eclectic Design Interiors
Most people don’t look at a rusty old hammer and see the perfect thing to hang on an interior wall, or see a pile of padlocks as potential art or weatherbeaten wood as a place to put cherished photos. These are things that you find in junk piles and salvage yards. But to those with an eye for upcycling and repurposing, these things are treasures that have the potential to add an inspired touch to a space.
Juncos Bend Genres
In 2001, Joshua Lowe walked into More Music, his George W. Bush economic stimulus money in hand, and bought his first mandolin. He knew a few chords on the guitar, but he had never taken it seriously, and on the heels of a breakup from a longtime girlfriend he needed an outlet. He liked the instrument’s percussive chk chk chk.
How 3-D Printing Works
When describing the actual 3D printing process, a good analogy to use is that of an inkjet printer, which takes information and prints it onto paper, in two dimensions, line by line, from the top down. In a similar fashion, 3D printers take information and print it, in three dimensions, layer by layer, from the bottom up.
Why 3-D Printing Matters
On Star Trek: The Next Generation, crew members use a machine known as the replicator to make replacement parts for the ship, prepare food and fix Captain Picard’s usual: “Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.” Creating something out of nothing, the replicator is, sadly, pure science fiction. But using a newly emerging technology, we can design a wrench, a toy, a bike or a flying monkey, and with a click of the mouse, create it. This replicator is a printer, but what it makes is not a two-dimensional image of the design; not a paper model that folds into a 3-D one. This printer creates, quite literally, the object. Three-dimensional printing is here.
Singer Dayan Kai’s Blind. So What?
It’s a sunny but brisk day and I’m sitting at Blue Ball Park with local musician Dayan Kai. He’s there with his family, and every now and then one of his kids runs over to pounce on him or give him a toy to hold. We’re talking about music and the fact that some people are just born musically gifted. “In the Indian tradition,” he says, his long blond hair blowing about in the winter breeze, “they say that you cannot learn to play tabla in one lifetime.”
Joni Mitchell Tribute at Kuumbwa
A masterful lyricist, composer and painter, Joni Mitchell is an inimitable creative force. She’s racked up eight Grammys, has her name in stars on sidewalks and gets honorary doctorate degrees and lifetime achievement awards. She is also a chain-smoking, media-wary introvert with a serious case of stage fright. These seemingly disparate facets, however, serve only to strengthen the allure of Mitchell, whose musical contributions are held up with those of Dylan and the Beatles. Her catalog is immense and varied and she has won the loyalties of countless die-hard fans who understand that with Joni, the artist cannot be separated from the art.
Klezmatics: They Did It Oy Vey
The Klezmatics aren’t your average Jewish music band. When the group plays Klezmer music, a vibrant Jewish style filled with lively violin, they bring in styles from everywhere—salsa, the blues, even Irish music. “It widens the colors and possibilities for arrangements,” says Lori Sklamberg, co-founder and vocalist for the Klezmatics. The beauty is in experimentation.
The Civil Wars’ No-Drama Groove
Collaborations are nothing new in Nashville. Songwriters get together looking for inspiration or a creative spark, and every once in a while lightning strikes. Such was the case for Joy Williams and John Paul White. Randomly paired up at a songwriting camp, the two quickly realized that they were onto something special.
Rowan In The Redwoods
Before Peter Rowan was an internationally recognized bluegrass artist, he was an Elvis Presley-loving, electric guitar-wielding product of the rock & roll ’50s. But as the ’50s rolled into the ’60s, his attention turned to the acoustic music scene that was emerging in his hometown of Boston. From folk, country and gospel to mountain ballads and the blues, Rowan took a shine to it all, but it was the high and lonesome sound of bluegrass that called him the loudest.
