Dan Pulcrano

Staff Writer

Graniterock Strike Started in Aromas

Graniterock exec Jack Leemaster (in truck) and striking worker Frank Gonzales at the Aromas plant Aug. 19. (Dan Pulcrano photo)

Aug. 19 was a cloudless, sunny California Sunday in the hills nine miles east of Watsonville when members of Operating Engineers Local Union No. 3 showed up at 4pm to close the cement and asphalt plant at Graniterock’s A.R. Wilson Quarry. Vice President and Aggregate Division Manager Jack Leemaster looked none too happy when he drove up in a white pickup truck 45 minutes later. 

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Doobie Brothers Guitarist Pat Simmons Recalls His Santa Cruz Days

The Doobie Brothers original members. Pat Simmons is in the hat. (Richard McLaren)

The selection of the Doobie Brothers as this year’s Santa Cruz Blues Festival headliner is an inspired choice, both because of the band’s deep connections to Santa Cruz and because they’re in their fifth decade of commercializing a sound that’s rooted in the blues and American roots music. Ahead of his appearance on the BluesFest stage, guitarist Pat Simmons reminisces about surfing, playing music with Tom Scribner on Pacific Avenue and living on Vine Hill Road.

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The Two Sides of Rudy Rucker

Rudy Rucker in his home studio in the mountains. Photo by Felipe Buitrago.

One might expect the author of a book that opens with an ax-wielding, corpse-smoking necrophiliac to be out back in the woods, gnawing on animal bones after a self-mutilation and methamphetamine binge. Instead, we’re greeted by a grandfatherly, mild-mannered retired professor in tortoise-shell glasses and sandals who comes off much younger than his 65 years. “Compared to what I write, my life has been surprisingly conventional,” Rudy Rucker confesses.

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