At Deer Tick’s sold-out indie rock show at the Crepe Place not long ago, one hipster was heard saying to another, “Man, I’m just glad someone still has shows in the summertime.” The observation, it seems, is rooted in what’s looking like another bone-dry schedule of summer sounds from a few of Santa Cruz’s most famous venues. During the spring and fall, places like the Catalyst, Rio Theatre and Cayuga Vault are well known for bringing huge names in rock, reggae, indie, folk and hip-hop to the local stage. Yet each summer, in a pattern stretching back as far as most care to remember, the hot months mark a cold front in the live music output of all three concert halls.
Articles by elgeorge
Passing of An Icon: Catalyst Founder Randall Kane
Anyone who’s ever spent a long night dancing and cheering under the bright stage lights of the Catalyst owes a little debt to Randall Philip Kane.
‘Shipwrecked’: Shakespeare Santa Cruz’s Entertainment
They say truth is often stranger than fiction. But in a tale told by master raconteur Louis de Rougemont, both fact and fantasy have their place. Explorer, seaman, survivalist and con artist, de Rougemont, as played by seasoned television and stage actor Dierk Torsek, spins his greatest yarn ever in Shakespeare Santa Cruz’s production of Shipwrecked! An Entertainment: The Amazing Adventures of Louis de Rougement (As Told By Himself).
Happy Little Headbangers at UC-Santa Cruz Rock Camp
In my day, “summer camp” meant bunk beds, nature walks, BB guns and calamine lotion. Obviously I didn’t grow up in Santa Cruz.
Santa Cruz Final Budget Includes Citizen Input
When the Santa Cruz City Council passes its 2009-2010 fiscal year budget next Tuesday, it will usher in an agenda radically different from any since the Loma Prieta earthquake struck in 1989. Then, an unexpected natural disaster leveled buildings, crumbled roads and forced residents to sacrifice services for years to come in efforts to rebuild the community. Now, a far-from-natural financial disaster has ripped through Santa Cruz, like so many other American towns, and though buildings still stand, the devastation is undeniable.
Sound Museum Searches for New Home
In an unremarkable office trailer tucked in a corner of the sprawling California Grey Bears thrift complex on Chanticleer Avenue in Santa Cruz is one man’s ode to the stereo. No more than a modest collection of dusted off old speakers, televisions, radios and record players stacked on flimsy shelves amongst a scattering of musical and political posters, the room is the pride of Grey Bears employee and local activist Franklin Williams. But one person’s “sound museum” is another’s “inappropriate use of space,” and come July 16, these old relics will need to find a new home.
Group Plans Trip to Cuba in Protest of Embargo
The first six months of Barack Obama’s tenure as president has seen the most drastic changes to U.S. policy toward Cuba in more than 50 years. But for a group of local and international volunteers, the president’s move to relax restrictions on family travel to the communist country is “commendable, but it is not enough.”
Santa Cruz May Forfeit Once-Profitable Golf Course
You could play dozens of public golf courses in America and be hard pressed to find one better maintained than Santa Cruz’s city-owned De Laveaga Golf Course. With 6,010 yards of expertly manicured fairways and greens you could eat eggs off of, the course is the handiwork of a top-notch, well-paid group of unionized golf course professionals.
Owlets on The Wing in Downtown Santa Cruz
It’s late dusk, about an hour after sundown. That’s when the first hissing screeches begin to sound in the treetops.
“There they are!” exclaims a binocular-wielding Rebecca Dmytryk, founder of the emergency wildlife care organization WildRescue. “You can hear the juveniles. The whole family will be hunting overhead soon.”
Pet Day Care Center Caters to Santa Cruz’s Fluffiest
Dealing with 70 dogs and cats every day can be a challenge. Dealing with 70 dog and cat owners every day can be downright maddening.
