The Editor’s Desk

Santa Cruz California editor of good times news media print and web
Brad Kava | Good Times Editor

I can’t help thinking about the math, as I watch the federal government fight over a budget.

One thousand seconds is just over 16 minutes. A million seconds is just over 11 days. A billion seconds is 31.5 years. And, since this number is bandied around more, a trillion seconds is 31,688 years.

The numbers are staggering and to so many of us, they are almost incomprehensible words with a hard to understand vastness. It’s hard when you see the numbers of federal spending and debt managed by people who don’t seem to understand them also. I liked Bill Maher’s comment this week that Congress spends like a broke teenager trying to fill up an empty gas tank. They pass budgets by the month? Can’t they plan better?

Some good news got me thinking about all this as well. Billionaire MacKenzie Scott donated $2 million to The Community Health Trust of the Pajaro Valley and another $2 million to Jacob’s Heart. For that, I salute her.

Loudmouth fellow billionaire Elon Musk had another view of  Scott, who is Jeff Bezos’s ex-wife: “Super rich ex-wives who hate their former spouse” should be listed among “Reasons that Western Civilization died,” he tweeted and then deleted.

He proves once again you can’t use money to measure intelligence. Scott didn’t reply except to announce that she’s donating $640 million to 361 different charitable organizations, well more than twice the $250 million she pledged to give away last year.

In total, she’s donated $17.2 billion dollars to needy nonprofit organizations in the past five years, setting the bar high and wonderfully reaching Santa Cruz agencies. In years of seconds, for those who can do the math, that’s 54, a miraculous number.

This being Good Times, I’m happy to share some good news. We’ve got more in this issue. A new music festival with upcoming bands; and more great world music from Omar Sosa and Los Straitjackets.

There’s one troubling story about how live music is being shut out of some local venues and I hope that will be a call to action to let your elected officials know you aren’t happy about that. Live music is one of the best things about Santa Cruz. We have way more than cities 10 times our size and it should be supported as a community backbone.

One of the best things about the pandemic was closing streets and letting restaurants serve outside. Why take that away and why not help restaurants continue to thrive in a challenging environment?

Brad Kava | Editor


PHOTO CONTEST

SLOW RIDE Turtles sunbathing at Roaring Camp. Photo Maria Choy

GOOD IDEA

The Santa Cruz COE is hosting a contest that invites students in grades 8 and up to use AI tools to enhance their creative expression.

Whether by creating a poem, story, song, or work of art, the contest aims to showcase students’ creativity and innovation while using AI tools to supercharge their own unique style and voice. Top projects will be announced at the ThinkBig! AI & Me event on April 11, hosted in partnership with Santa Cruz Works.

Submission deadline is 4pm, April 2. For rules: sccoe.link/thinkbig24.

GOOD WORK

A previously announced 24-hour closure of Highway 1 in Capitola is postponed until April 6 from 7pm until 7pm April 7 because of bad weather.

Updated project information for the improvements on Highway 1 between the Bay Ave./Porter St. and State Park Drive interchanges can be found on the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission’s website at:

http://sccrtc.org/projects/streets-highways/hwy1/bayporter-statepark/

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“The best customer of American industry
is the well-paid worker,”

Frankin D. Roosevelt, 1936

Letters to the Editor

PAJARO DENIED

Yes, i have said this before, but it bears repeating. The town of Pajaro has been the unwanted stepchild of Monterey County for more than 100 years.

 The fact that most of the people who live there are Mexican, are farmworkers, have little formal education and are financially poor has everything to do with their shabby treatment.

Pajaro residents are part of our larger community. They deserve the same opportunity to live a good life and the same dignity that EVERY resident of Monterey county deserves.

 The farmworkers who live in Pajaro work very hard to harvest the crops that make millions of dollars for both Monterey and Santa Cruz counties.

As I represent both parts of Watsonville and all of the northern part of Monterey county on the Cabrillo College Board of Trustees, I am proud to represent the people of Pajaro.

 I do not share the attitude that elitism and classism are acceptable if you speak limited English, do not have a college degree and do not have a Tesla in the driveway.

While we do not have any current employees who live in Pajaro, we do have students. I will not keep quiet and allow our Pajaro residents to be treated as second class, whether they are Cabrillo students or not.

By the way, if you are looking for historical verification for this, look no further than the Watsonville City Historical Museum or some of the works of John Steinbeck. It is all there.

Steve Trujillo


HATE, HATE

Various anti-hate campaigns in the media today fail to mention a brand-new kind of hate movement, the one currently sponsored by far-right Republicans against Democrats. Republicans have incited hate crimes against Democrats with offices in Congress and private homes in California and have encouraged hate against judges and election workers.

 Do Republicans really get a free pass to hate just because many go to evangelical churches and many Democrats go elsewhere? In Utah, U.S. Senate candidate Brad Wilson has a TV ad where he promises to “risk it all” and fires a rifle as he talks about “fighting” Joe Biden.

 This is outrageous incitement to violence against Democrats, especially in view of Trump’s promise of a “bloodbath” if he loses. MAGA candidates in this election cycle need to be held accountable for both religious and political hate speech before their partisans actualize their candidates’ violent fantasies.

Kimball Shinkoskey

Los Straitjackets

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Modern-day kings of instrumental surf music Los Straitjackets are touring to celebrate their 30th anniversary. The masked quartet comes to Moe’s Alley March 29.

Surf music is often associated with a specific time and place. The rock subgenre featuring instrumental tunes built around sonorous electric lead guitar enjoyed its heyday in the late 1950s and pre-Beatles early 1960s. And the form is most closely associated with Southern California. Artists like Dick Dale, The Chantays (“Pipeline”) and The Surfaris (“Wipe Out”) were exemplars of the style. But as with all trends, the popularity of instro-surf crested, then ebbed.

But it never washed away completely. Several subsequent revivals have brought surf music back into the limelight. And the unbridled joy, excitement and humor built into the style has meant that surf music has continued to delight new generations. Today it inspires and influences musicians who might not have even been alive during the original surf era.

Without a doubt, the most heralded and successful of modern-day surf revivalists are Los Straitjackets. Founded in (of all places) Nashville in 1994, Los Straitjackets put their own unique spin on the form. “We wanted to play instrumentals, and we wanted [our show] to be vintage entertainment, like the Ventures,” says guitarist Eddie Angel. As for the name, “we liked the absurdity of it.” he admits.

Dressed in matching outfits and sporting matching custom guitars, the quartet cuts a distinctive image. All four members appear onstage wearing Mexican luchador masks, and the group spokesman addresses the audience in a hilarious, gringo-fied Español. The band executes tightly choreographed stage moves while spinning out impossibly catchy, twangy and heavily reverbed instrumental tunes,  inevitably eliciting broad smiles from everyone in the audience.

Today Angel leads the group, joined by longtime member Pete Curry (a Bay Area native who played with an early lineup of the Chocolate Watchband) on bass, guitarist Greg Townson and drummer Chris Sprague.

Los Straitjackets’ music is a dazzling mix of originals (with vintage-sounding titles like “Caveman” and Rampage”) and inspired surf-instrumental reworkings of unlikely tunes like Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” and Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” The group is astonishingly versatile:  they’ve collaborated onstage and on record with rock heroes like Deke Dickerson, Marshall Crenshaw and Nick Lowe; a new Los Straitjackets album with Lowe is due later this year. They’ve released nearly 30 albums and brilliantly in breathing new life into a genre that was popular more than a half century ago.

Angel admits that while he and his band mates were serious about Los Straitjackets from the start, it was a bit of a goof. With the wrestling masks, Aztec medallions and Shadows-style synchronized moves, “we didn’t know what we were doing,” he admits with a laugh. “We just thought it looked cool. I didn’t think we were going to make a career out of it.”

When Los Straitjackets began, Angel was already a rock veteran. “I had been in bands my whole life,” he says. “Moved to Nashville, got a record deal, lost a record deal.” But when he donned that luchador mask, everything changed. “I realized that something magical was happening,” he says.

Angel recalls a recent gig in Connecticut. “This one blonde girl was out there dancing. So Greg jumped out into the audience with his guitar, and started dancing with her while he was playing.” After the show, the woman approached the group and introduced herself as Tina Weymouth (Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club). “She and her husband Chris Frantz were at our show!” Angel says with pride.

Los Straitjackets with Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys, 8pm  Friday, March 29, Moe’s Alley (1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz) $30 advance/$35 door.

Omar Sosa Plays Kuumbwa

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Omar Sosa is dedicated to making music that promotes worldwide peace. Born in 1965 in Cuba’s third largest city — Camagüey – Sosa studied percussion and marimba, later adding piano. He moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1995 and later relocated to Barcelona. Sosa has recorded many multi-cultural albums with African and Latin American musicians like Paolo Fresu, Seckou Keita, Gustavo Ovalles and Yilian Cañizares.

88 Well-Tuned Drums is the new documentary about Sosa, directed by Soren Sorensen. It was released on streaming platforms on March 15 and the accompanying soundtrack album will be released on April 20 on Oakland-based Otá Records.

On April 1, Sosa returns to Kuumbwa Jazz Center with his Afro-Cuban Jazz group Quarteto Americanos; Sheldon Brown (saxophones), Josh Jones (drums) and Ernesto Mazar Kindelán (baby bass).

PLAYING PIANO WITH A GUN ON

JM: One interesting part of the film is when you performed with a gun slung across your shoulder. Tell me about going to Angola and Ethiopia in the 1980’s when you were doing your required Cuban military service, performing for troops.

Omar Sosa: It’s a really strong image, a strong feeling. Looking back at that now I have a different angle. I was young and basically everybody was trying to figure out a way to get out of the country. (Cuba) The four opportunities were to go to the Congo, Nicaragua, Ethiopia or Angola. Three of these – Nicaragua, Ethiopia, and Angola – were in a war at the time. I try to look at the world in a positive way, but I went to the war.

That time in Ethiopia was one of the first times I said to myself, “Where am I?” I was in the hospital of the people in the war. I almost died in Ethiopia because I got amoebas in my liver. People came to the hospital with no legs. I started to have a caution inside of myself to say, “War is not the way. It’s all about peace, not about war.” There’s no reason for war; it doesn’t matter what happened, we can’t kill each other as humans. Believe it or not, man, we still live in this problem today in different parts of the planet. And for me, this is unacceptable. I’m a peaceful person.

Playing piano with a gun was normal because I needed to keep the gun with me. But inside of me, I’m thinking, “Something’s wrong here.” Something’s wrong because we don’t even know why we were there! It’s basically what happens sometimes with young people in Israel; they’re in the army at 18, 19 years old.

JM: Now there are major wars in Sudan, Ukraine, Yemen and Israel/Gaza. I appreciate when people conscripted into the military refuse to participate in war.

Omar Sosa: Most of the time, this is not their work. It’s nobody’s work. War comes from the economic people around the planet wanting power and resources like land and oil. All the wars in Ukraine, Israel and elsewhere. This has been going on for centuries and we haven’t been able to learn. It doesn’t matter if you don’t like what someone says or does. You can say, “I don’t like that.” But you don’t pick up a gun and kill another person because you don’t like what they do. It’s all about power and who owns the resources of the planet.

Peace can be the solution because we have no choice! We need to live together! No matter how rich you are or how much power you have, we need to live together. Maybe in 10 years that guy from Tesla will go to the moon. But today, everybody’s here on Earth and we need to deal with the reality here. And the first thing that we need to do is protect our resources and pray to find a balance. No more “Take, take, take” without sharing.

ACROSS THE DIVIDE

JM: One of the many beautiful and powerful projects you’ve done is Across the Divide. (2009) This album explores the history of slavery and the roots of American folk music in Black culture. It combines early Blues and spirituals with Jazz, Afro-Cuban rhythms and spoken word clips from people like Langston Hughes. I wonder if you might be considering re-releasing Across the Divide?

Omar Sosa: We are connected! I’m working on a new album with Tim Erikson called Atlantica. It is beautiful, simple music full of soul. If everything goes right, it’s going be out in 2025. We’re also planning to release a record in October that I did in South Africa nine years ago called Badzimo’ with percussionist Azah and singer Indwe.

FIVE OR SIX JINGLES

JM: Early in your music career you wrote jingles for TV commercials.

Omar Sosa: I need to tell you that this was the best money time in my life! And I was so ignorant! I spent a lot of money in restaurants and I had a lot of friends. I had a table in different restaurants in Quito (Ecuador). Everyday I was writing five or six jingles and they paid $2000 or $3000 for ten seconds!

But in Cuba we never had education to tell us that money is a tool. Our education was to work with the government and every month they’ll give you a salary. In a way this is something interesting because you focus on what you want. And in Cuba, I was focused on creating music. I was a musical director of Xiomara Laugart, one of the most famous singers at that time in Cuba.

I created a band with a couple friends called Entrenoz (Between Us) and the first music I wrote for the band sounded like a jingle! I said, “No! This is not what I want!” Later I made a band with a friend from Palma de Mallorca, Spain. He called me, “Omar, I want you to be the piano player.” I say, “OK.” So, I told my boss in the jingle studio, “Hey brother, I’m done.” He said, “You want to leave all this money?” But the only thing I was doing was eating and drinking, drinking and eating.

GOOD FOR MY SOUL

JM: I learned from the film that you lived on the streets in Cuba for a while.

Omar Sosa: Being homeless in Cuba, you still had some opportunities because the weather is great. It’s never very cold like New York, Boston or Canada. Like I was saying in the movie; the street is tough, brother. I wanted to sleep somewhere quiet and I chose a funeral home. It was quiet, clean and smelled good. Because you know, when somebody dies, the families and friends bring flowers and the flowers smell beautiful.

JM: I’m happy that your life got better and better. And that you have made all this beautiful music around the world.

Omar Sosa: I need to give a big credit to my religion. My father told me when I was initiating in the Santería religion, “Omar, music is your life and you have a mission to make an influence so that all cultures come together in a peaceful and human way.” This is what I do. I simply combine cultures and try to live peacefully myself. No matter if you were born in Burundi, Palestine or Singapore; we are all humans. In one way or another, all of our traditions connect. Art and music are one way to create unity.

Listen to this interview with Omar Sosa on Thursday at noon on KZSC 88.1 / kzsc.org on “Transformation Highway” with John Malkin.

See Omar Sosa at Kuumbwa Jazz Center, shows at 7 and 9pm. Tickets $52.45/Students $29.14. (320-2 Cedar St, Santa Cruz)

Things to do in Santa Cruz

THURSDAY 3/28

PUNK

THE KARENS

For Pittsburgh punk trio the Karens, ‘let me speak to your manager’ is not just a creed but a hilarious pit-inducing track—one of many fast-paced songs of cultural commentary with a healthy dose of satire wrapped in the warm tortilla of punk. Along with the funny (“Fix The Ice Cream Machine”), they also cover blistering versions of GG Allin’s “Bite It You Scum” with more serious topics like “Trans Rights.” Joining them are local newbies Hibakusha Baby, who tear through hardcore songs while riding the edge of power violence. It’s also the return of Santa Cruz favorites the Randy Savages, who are slamming into the ring to prove the cream of the crop always rises to the top. Dig it! MAT WEIR

INFO: 9pm, The Blue Lagoon, 923 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $10. 423-7117.

FRIDAY 3/29

ROCK

LOS STRAITJACKETS

Los Straitjackets provides an excellent challenge for those who love to guess the genre of bands based on their names and visuals. Looking at photos of the quintet—all wearing suits and Lucha Libra wrestling masks—one might guess these musicians lean toward heavy metal or Mexican hardcore. Come to find out, they are a retro-instrumental rock band from Nashville! Operating in the lineage of ’60s greats like Dick Dale, the Shadows and the Ventures, these top-notch guitarists have recorded a whopping 14 albums, with founding member Eddie Angel’s distinctive rockabilly guitar anchoring their sound for over 30 years. ADDIE MAHMASSANI

INFO: 8pm, Moe’s Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz. $30/adv, $35/door. 479-1854.

INDIE

ZZZAHARA

Zzzahara pulls stories, experiences and emotions from reality and weaves them into dreams. Her style of blending synths, power guitar and vibrant lyrics pulls listeners into this dream world of urban life and love. Her latest album from 2023 explores what it means to love and show kindness even when it’s tough. Her mostly freestyle lyrics make the mundane feel beautiful and significant. With an aethereal and almost upbeat shoegaze sound, the audience will be swaying and bobbing their heads to the tales she tells throughout the show. ISABELLA MARIE SANGALINE

INFO: 9pm, The Catalyst, 1101 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $15/adv, $18/door. 713-5492.

SATURDAY 3/30

FESTIVAL

QINGMING FESTIVAL WALK

This weekend, local historians Sandy Lydon and George Ow, Jr. take the Santa Cruz community on a walk of great cultural significance. Starting at the Chinatown Dragon Gate and ending with a talk at Evergreen Cemetery, the walk celebrates Qingming, the traditional Chinese tomb-sweeping festival. The practice means to honor the dead by visiting their gravesites, making offerings and clearing away weeds. Lydon and Ow will guide the crowd through various traditions—including burning fake money and laying out willow branches—at the resting place of some of the Chinese settlers of Santa Cruz. AM

INFO: 10am, Chinatown Bridge, 149 River Street, Santa Cruz. Free. 406-7472.

FOLK

ABBY LITMAN AND HANNAH CONNOLY

Something about the music of both Abby Litman and Hannah Connoly brings to mind a delicate bird on a high branch, fragile and new to the world. Such a bird might look like it would only have a quiet song to share, but as soon as it opens its beak, it releases a sound so pure and gorgeous that anyone lucky enough to hear it would feel it in their whole body. Litman and Connoly sing beautiful folk music, pared down to a few instruments and voices that appeal to a spiritual longing—the kind only music can address. JESSICA IRISH

INFO: 8pm, Lille Aeske Arthouse, 13160 Highway 9, Boulder Creek. $25/adv, $30/door. 703-4183.

ROCK

Santa Cruz Latin Collective

KALEIDOSCOPE MUSIC FESTIVAL

To celebrate and promote the release of their new album, Kaleidoscope, Santa Cruz-based rock band the New Horizons put together this festival-style night of live music featuring five area groups at the local Veterans Hall. The bill will also include funk, rock and hip-hop trio Santa Cruda, Santa Cruz-born, San Francisco-based genre-blending rock combo Floratura; the Santa Cruz Latin Collective (co-led by Jimmy Palafox, veteran vocalist-guitarist formerly of Sapo, a legendary SF Chicano band from the ’70s) and local psychedelic jam band Flat Sun Society. DAN EMERSON

INFO: 4pm, Veterans Hall, 846 Front St., Santa Cruz. $25. 454-0478.

SUNDAY 3/31

HOLIDAY

EASTER WITH VINTAGE FAITH

For non-Christians, Easter is about family, eating chocolate and a monstrous rabbit with a penchant for hiding eggs left to rot unless the children find them. Think about it. For Christians, Easter is the holiest day, the lynchpin in their religion, the very reason they believe and celebrate their faith, drawing both the devout and the only-go-to-church-twice-a-year crowd. Vintage Faith returns to the historic Rio Theatre to celebrate the holiday this year, a free-to-the-public event featuring complimentary treats and coffee from The Abbey, live music, fellowship and the joyful news of the Easter message. MW

INFO: 10am, Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. Free. 423-8209.


MONDAY 4/1

JAZZ

OMAR SOSA’S QUARTETO AMERICANOS

Cuban composer and pianist Omar Sosa is a progressive artist whose work is helping to expand the definition of Afro-Cuban music by combining other jazz styles, world music and electronic music to create an original sound built on his roots. With Quarteto Americanos, Sosa leads a combo assembled from his early days on the American scene in the ’90s. The band includes saxophonist Sheldon Brown, drummer Josh Jones and Grammy-nominated bassist Ernesto Mazar Kindelan. Sosa has been nominated for Grammy awards for four albums, three in the Latin Jazz category. DE

INFO: 7pm, Kuumbwa Jazz Center, 320-2 Cedar St., Santa Cruz. $47.25 /adv, $52.50/door. 427-2227.

TUESDAY 4/2

POETRY

LEE HERRICK AND DORIANNE LAUX

The Hive Poetry Collective’s name says it all: it’s about creating a swarm of poets and poetry lovers, building some buzz and producing a metaphorical honey (live poetry!) for all to enjoy. This latest bill features California’s Poet Laureate Lee Herrick and Pulitzer Prize finalist Dorianne Laux. Both poets boast bios chock full of publications and honors. Poetry is meant to be read aloud, heard and resonate with a crowd, and the opportunity to listen to these two luminaries present their work is like finding two queens living harmoniously in one beehive—a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence. JI

INFO: 7pm, Bookshop Santa Cruz, 1520 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. Free. 423-0900.

Kaleidoscopic Music

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California has a long tradition of music festivals. From Monterey Pop to Coachella, music fans have had many opportunities to enjoy the best that popular music has to offer, all in a festival setting. While its scale is more modest than its bigger and better-known brothers, the inaugural Kaleidoscope Music Festival aims to shine a light on Santa Cruz and its homegrown music scene. The festival happens Saturday, March 30 at the Santa Cruz County Veterans Memorial Building.

The festival is the brainchild of local musician and entrepreneur Jimmy Palafox, Head of Mountain Music Productions, Palafox says that the inspiration for the Festival grew out of enthusiasm surrounding the impending release of a new album from his band, The New Horizons. That album, Kaleidoscope “took about five years to complete, so I figured that I’d do a big celebration,” he says. “And I’d go about celebrating by choosing some of the best bands in the area.” The event’s lineup will include five groups: Flat Sun Society, Floratura, Santa Cruda, Santa Cruz Latin Collective and The New Horizons.

Working with a team of organizers including Julie Horner and Michelle Murphy, Palafox began only eight months ago on the largest festival project with which he’s been involved. The venue has a special meaning for him, as the Santa Cruz County Veterans Memorial Building was the site of the very first New Horizons gig.

“And that show was the very first event I ever put together, shortly after I finished high school,” he says.

Palafox says that planning and organization have all proceeded smoothly and without incident. “Getting everyone to come together in one place at one time was a little difficult,” he admits, “but everything has fallen into place.”

Membership in the five bands includes some overlap: Palafox, for example, is a member of both The New Horizons and Santa Cruz Latin Collective. “Here in Santa Cruz,” he explains, “it’s a small community of musicians. We all know each other, and our bands end up sharing [musicians].” The evening will feature six hours of music from the five bands, all of which are based in Santa Cruz. Palafox says that he and his co-organizers “hope the community will come out and listen to the different styles of music that Santa Cruz has to offer.”

Floratura

Tatiana Peña and Adrian “Treetop” Marquez teamed up as a musical duo in the late 2010s. “We started our musical journey together through protest,” says Peña. The duo settled in Santa Cruz in 2019, “With a bunch of songs to share, an album to record and a band to look for,” she says. By the end of that summer, Floratura had come together.

NO LIMITS Members of Floratura can play all the instruments. Photo: Daniel Gorostieta

Floratura is Marquez on guitar, Peña on mandolin, keyboardist Jack Reed, Noah Mogor on bass, and drummer Jacob Gilmore. The lineup shifted over time, but not in the conventional manner. “Our keyboardist started off as our drummer,” he says. “Our current drummer was our original bass player.” Floratura’s band members “played musical chairs” at practices; “everyone can play everything,” says Peña.

Floratura released an EP in 2023. The four-song Bucket of Seeds displays a good-timing, funky, late-period Grateful Dead vibe, yet the songs are tightly constructed. “Our drummer is really into statistics,” Marquez giggles. “He says that our music is one-third lyrical, one-third very composed music, and one-third improvised.” That equation adds up to a sonically pleasing whole.

Live on stage, the mix is a bit different. “On our recordings, all of the solos were improvised,” Peña says. “And in our shows, we take those improvisations way farther. A four-minute studio track might turn into a 13-minute song.” A restless sense of exploration is baked into Floratura’s recipe. “Some songs are really expansive; others we keep tight to the arrangement,” Marquez says.

The group is nearly done recording a full-length followup to Bucket of Seeds. Where the songs on the EP were all composed by Marquez, the 13-song Oasis Glow has the whole group composing.

 “Bucket of Seeds has a daytime, major tonality,” she explains. “The LP will have a beautiful, nighttime essence.”

Festival attendees are likely to get a taste of the music from Oasis Glow. “We’ve been playing some of those songs for some time,” says Marquez. “Live performance seems to be the most nourishing thing for the group, and the live arrangements fit that vibe into a record format.”

In the group’s earliest days, the musicians bonded over their interpretations of Grateful Dead classics. But these days, Floratura is careful not to let the band’s unique character get swept away by hewing too closely to that sound. “Some of our members are a little more fond of the Dead’s tone,” Marquez says, choosing his words carefully. “And some of them aren’t so attracted to it.”

His description of the sound: “Original music, sprinkled with a culture-adjacent, jam-bandy thing.”

floraturamusic.com

Flat Sun Society

Calling both Santa Cruz and Big Sur home, Flat Sun Society makes psychedelic music inspired by the jam band scene, but incorporates other musical elements. “Something that we’re always working on is finding that balance of improvisation and structure,” says guitarist Jake Padorr. “The magic is in the balance.”

BURNING SUNSHINE Flat Sun Society hails from Big Sur and Santa Cruz and jams psychedelia. Photo :Maddie Spears

The group was born out of the pandemic era; early gigs took place at the Henry Miller Library on an open stage. Padorr suggests that the group’s sound is in part a reflection of those roots. “People want to reflect, tune in a little deeper,” he suggests.

Fellow guitarist Hugh Allan says that when the group plays live, that balance is informed by the audience. “Some shows, we’ll jam a lot,” he explains. “Sometimes that can be successful, but there could be a bit of a disconnect.” When the band senses the latter is about to happen, the players lean more into song-based structures.

But not too far. “If we all just play songs,” Allan says, “we’ll feel like we didn’t explore as much as we wanted to.” In the end, what happens is a function of how the band feels, how the audience reacts, and how the band reacts to those reactions.

Padorr and Allan admit a shared fondness for everything from ambient to krautrock to Eastern music and space rock. “We have definitely delved into textural, droning sounds in our improv,” says Allan. “But we never play the blues!”

Yet for a band rooted in psychedelia, Flat Sun Society isn’t built on a foundation of electronics. Allan and Padorr are joined by Emilio Rios on bass, and a trio of percussionists: drummers Jack Reed and Jacob Gilmore plus hand percussionist Tubbyz (David Clark-Riddell). Gilmore does double duty, playing in Floratura as well. “Half of our bandmates were – or are – in that band,” Padorr says with a laugh.

Padorr says that the group typically plays renegade gigs and community artistic events. “Those are the environments in which we best express ourselves,” he says. Such all-night or all-day gatherings in nature seem to bring out the best in Flat Sun Society. “There are no rules as to how long you can play,  or even how entertaining you have to be to the audience,” he says. “The band grew out of the consistency of this crew of six of us jamming together.”

The multimedia nature of community events lines up neatly with the music that Flat Sun Society makes. “It’s really personal music, and we like playing on our home turf,” Allan says. “Because there’s an artistic community here that surrounds the music.” He describes the meeting of art and music as “a mutual transaction where we’re playing for our friends, and they’re there to see us and have their art displayed.” He says that the band takes inspiration from that art, and he hopes that the reverse is true as well.

Flat Sun Society has coined a term all its own. “We call it ‘thresh,’”says Padorr with a mischievous smile. “The heavy jamming should be ‘thrash,’ but for some reason it feels more like the harvesting of an experience. So we call it ‘thresh.’” flatsunsociety.bandcamp.com

Santa Cruda

Most bands found themselves taking a hiatus when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. With venues closing, opportunities for bands to play in front of audiences vanished virtually overnight. But some musicians found creative yet responsible ways to bring music to the people. Guitarist Bruno Proal recalls that he and fellow guitarist Shawn Yanez “started jamming outdoors at the corner of Rockview Street, right in front of the ocean.” The duo would return every Thursday, playing to the socially-distanced audience.

SANTA CRUDA

But while popularity is usually a good thing, in this case it had a negative effect, at least in the short term. “The police came and shut us down,” Proal recalls. “They had to, because of the number of people that were showing up.”

That could have been the end of things, but Proal and Yanez knew they had a good thing going. “So when things opened up,” Proal says, “I started booking us as a duo.” Soon they added a third musician, Nick Disalvo. “And then the band formed,” Proal says. “Now we’re a five-piece, full band.”

They playfully named the band Santa Cruda, which very loosely translates as “holy hangover.” Proal describes his band’s sound as a feel-good mix of “Cali reggae, mashups, hip-hop and even some rock.” He says that the group’s set is divided between original songs and covers. “But the covers we play, we make them our own.” And the band adapts to its surroundings: a brewery gig might feature a duo or trio format. “The trio sounds amazing because of our vocal harmonies,” Proal says. “And the full band plays bigger shows at places like Moe’s Alley.”

Santa Cruda’s highest profile shows to date have been a set at the 2023 Ink at the Bay Tattoo Festival with Eli-Mac and a sold-out show at The Catalyst. In between gigs, the group is hard at work creating new songs. “We’re in the collective process of writing new material,” Proal says. He emphasizes the band’s original music’s message of unity. “Music brings people together,” he says. “We put aside our differences, and hopefully the music brings understanding and love to people.”

Studio work is in Santa Cruda’s future; they look forward to making their first album. “But we’re a gigging band,” Proal says. “Our intention is to work and actually make a living performing. And it’s happening. We love what we do, and the response and support from the Santa Cruz community has been filling our hearts.” facebook.com/santacruda831/

Santa Cruz Latin Collective

While the Santa Cruz Latin Collective came together in 2017, its roots extend back to the early 1970s. The Bay Area has a proud history of Latin and Afro-Cuban music, and that music initially broke through in a big way thanks to a scene featuring four local bands: Sapo, Malo, Azteca and Santana. Sapo and Malo scored local, regional and sometimes national hits with their music, but by the late ‘70s their popularity had crested. Oscar Estrella had been a founding member of Sapo, and after that group broke up, he wrote “Nobody’s Perfect,” a song included on the debut album from ex-Malo guitarist (and brother of Carlos) Jorge Santana.

SCLC

In the years and decades that followed, Estrella kept in contact and sometimes made music with other former members of those groundbreaking Latin rock bands. And in 2017 he met a youthful fellow musician and serious fan of that ‘70s scene, Jimmy Palafox. “When I got out of high school,” recalls percussionist Palafox, “I wanted to put a Latin music project together.” His goal was to create a group that would pick up musically from where Santana had left off after their first three groundbreaking albums. He and Estrella began working together, initially as a studio project. “And then 2020 hit,” Palafox recalls. “We never got around to performing those songs live.”

But the duo continued to write songs. “That’s all we had to do during that time,” Palafox says with a laugh. “We wrote 12 or 13 songs.” Once the worst of the pandemic passed, they began assembling a group, adding bassist Noah Mogor (who’s also in Floratura), Flat Sun Society percussionist Tubbyz, former Malo drummer David George, vocalist Luis Felipe Argueta from Orquesta Latin Heat and other members of the Latin music community. “The band ended up being half young musicians and half music veterans from back in the day,” Palafox says. A schedule of live performances began in 2021. “We’ve already played about 60 shows,” Palafox says.

In addition to playing concert dates, the group has begun work on an album. “We’ve also started making a documentary film,” says Palafox. “We’re going to feature members of Santana, Malo, Sapo and Azteca talking about their histories and how all that is merging with Santa Cruz Latin Collective.”

Palafox says that he and his band mates aren’t in it for the money. “The documentary is going to go on YouTube for everyone to see for free,” he says. “Same thing for the album, which will probably come out next year.” He emphasizes that Santa Cruz Latin Collective’s goal is all about “reinventing the music in our own way, and keeping Latin rock music alive.” He says that with its emphasis on percussion, the group blends the blues with Afro-Cuban traditions. “It’s music to get people up and dancing,” Palafox enthuses. “This thing with veterans and younger people getting together to make music, it’s not a regular occurrence. It’s special.” facebook.com/SCLatinCollective

The New Horizons

2017 was a busy year for Jimmy Palafox. Not only did he graduate from high school; he launched two new bands: Santa Cruz Latin Collective and The New Horizons. “I had been writing original material,” he recalls, “and it was a kind of psychedelic rock. So I put a band together to perform all the songs I had written.”

NEW HORIZONS

Palafox grew up knowing Mexico City-born drummer Adolfo “Fito” de la Parra. A member of the classic lineup of blues rock legends Canned Heat, de la Parra was with that band when they played at Woodstock. An active musician since 1958, de la Parra remains active today, leading a current lineup of Canned Heat. And Palafox considers the drummer a friend and mentor. “He and I go back to when I was just 11 years old,” Palafox says. “Canned Heat had such an influence on me; their whole thing was to play the boogie and honor blues music. And that has had a lot to do with the development of The New Horizons.”

But while The New Horizons draw inspiration and influence from music of yesteryear, Palafox says that the group is very much focused on the here-and-now. “We didn’t want to be a cover band,” he explains. “We want to make original music that sounds like something from the past.”

The band’s music casts a wide stylistic net, and the fluid, ever-changing lineup of the group reflects that open-ended character. “We’ve always had people coming in and out of the band,” Palafox says. “When I started the project, my idea was to have music of many colors; that’s why our album is called Kaleidoscope.”

While The New Horizons concentrate on Palafox’s original compositions, the group’s choice of select covers – and the manner in which they treat those songs – provides clues as to its collective mindset. “One day we were performing at a gig in Santa Cruz, and we ran out of songs,” Palafox recalls. “Our bass player said, ‘Do you guys know Bob Dylan’s “Slow Train”?’”

The other band members replied with a shrug and collective “Yeah, sort of.” So they spontaneously launched into an off-the-cuff reading of the Christian-era Dylan tune from 1979. In the hands of The New Horizons, the song took on a reggae character. “We didn’t know what we were doing,” Palafox laughs, “but I had a tape recorder running.” After the gig, Palafox played back that recording; he and his band mates found that they liked it. “We should add that to our album,” one of them said.

And so they did. But for the studio recording – made just three days after that gig and featured on Kaleidoscope – the band made a point of actually learning the song. “We were literally learning it in the car on the way to the studio,” Palafox admits.

The band’s debut album was released in January, and Palafox says that he and his band mates are pleased with the results of their recording sessions. “The music has a Fito style of drumming: very heavy, kind of jungle-sounding,” he says. “And then a little touch of psychedelia, like Canned Heat was doing back then.” facebook.com/Thenewhorizonsband831

Music of Many Colors

The five bands on the bill for the inaugural Kaleidoscope Music Festival explore different corners of the musical landscape, but all share a love of and dedication to the spirit of making music together. “There’s a lot of great music here in Santa Cruz, music that a lot of people don’t know about,” says festival organizer and musician Jimmy Palafox. “And this festival is a great opportunity to come out and appreciate it.”

Kaleidoscope Music Festival

The New Horizons, Flat Sun Society, Floratura,
Santa Cruda and Santa Cruz Latin Collective

Saturday, March 30, 4-10pm, Veterans Memorial Building (848 Front St., Santa Cruz).Tickets $25 at Eventbrite

Allegretto Vineyard

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When wine tasting in Paso Robles, Allegretto Vineyard Resort is the perfect place to stay. It lies just off Highway 46 East – which over the years has evolved into a hub of action with an abundance of new wineries and tasting rooms.

But if you’re concerned about driving after imbibing on a few vinos, then stay right where you are in Allegretto. Owned by the Ayres family, this beautiful hotel has its own vineyards and makes its own wine. And there’s an upscale tasting room right there on the premises. And sitting in the hotel’s resplendent courtyard is a glorious spot in which to taste Allegretto’s magnificent wines.

One of our flights of wine had a fabulous Ayres Family Reserve 2019 Malbec ($80), and a definite favorite of mine. Aged in 25% new French and American oak barrels, it offers “refreshing flavors of mixed berry compote, black raspberry, and aromatic allspice.” It’s an absolute stunner!

Sign up for a tour of Allegretto’s vineyards, and you’ll really get the Full Monte on their lush property and bountiful fruit. Llamas and sheep also abound on the estate. The front desk will give you food pellets which the animals love, and will happily come to you to gobble some up out of the palm of your hand.

With its Tuscan-style architecture, museum-caliber artwork, spa, restaurant, and gardens, Allegretto is a simply stunning hotel to experience.

Allegretto Vineyard Resort Paso Robles, 2700 Buena Vista Drive, Paso Robles, 805-369-2500. allegrettovineyardresort.com

Walk and Wine

The Spring 2024 Downtown Santa Cruz Wine Walk is always hosted by favorite and familiar shops – with new shops to discover. The event is 3-6pm, Sunday, May 19. Tickets are $40, day of $45. Visit downtownsantacruz.com for info.

Marnie Stern

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The string-tapping method employed by adventurous musicians isn’t new, and it wasn’t devised by Eddie Van Halen. Some 200 years ago, composer Niccolò Paganini used the technique on his violin. Jazz guitarist Barney Kessel used one- and two-hand tapping techniques in the 1950s, and Harvey Mandel was tapping the fretboard of his guitar while a member of Canned Heat. Guitarists across the musical landscape – Stanley Jordan, Buckethead and Steve Vai, to name just a few of many – use tapping as part of their approach to their instruments.

But none of the aforementioned artists sounds much like Marnie Stern, nor she like them. Though Stern is perhaps best known for the comparatively mainstream “day job” she held down for the better part of the last decade, the electric guitarist is among the most compelling exponents of the unconventional tapping technique.

“I had picked up the guitar when I was around 19,” Stern recalls. “I just learned a couple open chords, but I didn’t really play much.” Her musical tastes weren’t exactly adventurous; certainly nothing that might hint at the direction she’d eventually take. “I didn’t listen to stuff that wasn’t on the radio,” she says. But after college – “I don’t know why,” she admits – Stern decided to take the guitar seriously. Yet not too seriously: “I didn’t take lessons.”

Instead, Stern figured it all out on her own. And her autodidactic method yielded unexpected results. “The reason I have such an unconventional approach,” Stern laughs, “is because I didn’t know what I was doing!” But she had clear goals. “I wanted to try and convey a lot of emotion,” Stern explains. “I was trying to use the instrument phonetically, [tapping] back and forth on single strings to convey intensity.”

Intensity is an apt word to describe a key quality of Marnie Stern’s original music. Her debut album, 2007’s In Advance of the Broken Arm is a jagged, overwhelming listen, combining dazzling guitar pyrotechnics, a clattering, thrash-like rhythm section and Stern’s squalling vocals. There was little else like it; melodic lines crisscross and occasionally intersect, and that intensity never lets up. A high-profile review in The New York Times described Stern’s music as “riotous,” “raucous” and “wriggly,” naming her very first release as that year’s most exciting album.

Over the next six years, the guitarist followed that release with three more, culminating in 2013’s The Chronicles of Marnia. Each album built on Stern’s prowess and reputation as a shredder par excellence. Remarkably, Stern characterizes those years as “maybe a little more mellow phase,” though it’s a safe bet that few would describe any of the music on Chronicles as mellow: her yelping vocals on “Year of the Glad” suggest an agitated monkey who just happens to know how to play the electric guitar with unparalleled mastery.

But Stern’s career trajectory took an unexpected turn when she abruptly placed her solo career on hold, joining the 8G house band on Late Night With Seth Meyers. Even against the unconventional backdrop of her music, such a move seemed odd. And in many ways it was. “We had to write eight songs a day… it wasn’t my style [of music] at all,” she candidly admits.

And applying her unorthodox methods to the needs of a general audience wasn’t always easy. Sometimes she’d put a gonzo guitar line onto one of the songs. “They’d say, ‘Nuh-uh; too weird. Too dissonant. Not good for TV,’” Stern says with a chuckle, noting that she had to be “checked,” and often.

So after having placed her own music on hold for eight years – an eternity in the career of most artists – Stern left Meyers’ show and relaunched her solo career. After “playing nice, happy music, I wanted to undo that,” she says. “I wanted to go no-holds-barred with my own stuff again.”

The fruit of that renewed focus and newfound freedom is the pointedly titled The Comeback Kid. Released last November, the album demonstrates that Stern’s heterodox approach to music is as sharp as ever. And though filled with musical in-jokes that most listeners couldn’t possibly understand, the music skillfully conveys Stern’s gleeful attitude. And that draws listeners in, even if they don’t get all of the obscure, Zappa-like references. “I’m aware of how wacky – and sometimes shrill and harsh – my stuff sounds,” she says. “I kind of like ‘taking the piss’ a little bit, and I’m not a person who takes myself too seriously.”

The lyrics on Stern’s early albums were the product of extensive effort. “I sat for endless hours working on lyrics,” she says. And those words often displayed the angst of a young woman. These days – at age 47 and with a young child – Stern is in a very different place. Stern’s vocals – often buried in the mix on those early albums – have taken on a more assertive character on the new record. “I’m in this very comfortable, happy period of family life, so the lyrics are very motivated by that.” Pausing for a moment, she shifts gears and adds, “But no one wants to listen to that!”

At her core, Stern is an instrumentalist. And with the exception of the drums (played by Arcade Fire’s Jeremy Gara), all of the sounds on The Comeback Kid come from Marnie Stern. For her tour in support of the album, Stern is joined by a second guitarist and drummer, but no bassist. “But then,” she points out, “there’s not much bass on the record, either.” Asked to sum up her live show in a few words, Stern doesn’t hesitate. “It’s very fun,” she says with a wicked smile. “It’s loud, and it’s real rocking.”

Marnie Stern with Wormsalt, 8pm March 26, Moe’s Alley (1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz) Tickets $18 advance/$21at the door.

An Evening with David Sedaris

Enter for a chance to win a pair of tickets to An Evening with David Sedaris at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium on Monday, May 6, 7:30pm. There will be 5 winners for this giveaway.

With sardonic wit and incisive social critiques, David Sedaris has become one of America’s pre-eminent humor writers. He is the master of satire and one of today’s most observant writers addressing the human condition. His most recent books include The Best of Me, a collection of 42 previously published stories and essays. A Sedaris story may seem confessional, but is also highly attuned to the world outside. It opens our eyes to what is absurd and moving about our daily existence. And it is almost impossible to read without laughing. A second volume of his diaries, A Carnival of Snackery, was released in 2021. There’s no right way to keep a diary, but if there’s an entertaining way, David Sedaris seems to have mastered it. At its best, this latest edition is a sort of sampler: the bitter and the sweet. Some entries are just what you wanted. Others you might want to spit discreetly into a napkin. Presented by MagicSpace Entertainment.

Drawing Date for this Giveaway is Monday, April 29, 2024.
Winners notified by email and have 48 hours to respond or forfeit.
Must be 18+ to win.

Pajaro Flood: One Year Later

Jerry Castro has lived in the same house on Cayetano Street in Pajaro all his life. His parents owned it before him, he then bought it off of them. His children and their children were also raised there. Now, more than a year after the Pajaro flood threatened to wash decades of memories away, Castro feels lucky.

“It was only my garage that got damaged. I was lucky that the water [only] came right up to there,” Castro says.

Some of his neighbors were not so fortunate, according to Castro, and their homes suffered significant damage. Those who owned their homes came back after the waters retreated to start the rebuilding process. Many renters did not come back, he says.

Castro was able to secure just over $5,000 from his homeowners insurance for repairs, which he says was barely enough. However, there are many residents in need of financial assistance, and even after a year, aid is still trickling in.

At the anniversary of the flood, residents here are seeing the town’s recovery slowly progress. However, the specter of the damage still lingers.

Fleeing The Flood

In the early morning hours of March 11, 2023, the levees of the Pajaro River gave way near Pajaro after atmospheric river storms drenched the area. Scenes of a town underwater were transmitted nationwide from a region where the population is predominantly Mexican immigrant farmworkers.

The day of the flood, Esperanza Esquivel left her one-bedroom apartment in the middle of Pajaro to safer ground with three children in tow.

As residents fled to nearby emergency shelters, local community organizations such as Community Action Board of Santa Cruz County, Catholic Charities, United Way of Santa Cruz County and Community Bridges headed up the relief efforts. Although Pajaro is technically in Monterey County, its proximity to Watsonville makes it a de facto part of the South Santa Cruz County community.

Esquivel said in May 2023 that she was turned away from the emergency shelter at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds after the flood and was left with few options. The home she rented for four years became uninhabitable, severely damaged by the flood waters. Furniture, appliances and her family’s personal effects were all lost to the destruction. 

Esquivel had received a little over $4,000 in FEMA assistance. She was forced to separate from her two eldest daughters and moved to Salinas with her youngest child. Now, almost a year later, she is back in Pajaro living at her previous address.

“Things are going well, although I’m scared because of the recent rains,” Esquivel says in Spanish.

She has now upgraded from her old one-bedroom dwelling to a two-and-a-half bedroom apartment in the same complex. She is now paying $2,800 in rent per month, double what she used to pay. Esquivel used to work in the area’s strawberry fields, but now works as a custodian, and says she is struggling to make ends meet as a single mother.

“You’re the only one that knows your struggles,” Esquivel says.

In the past year, over $14 million in financial relief was distributed to flood victims. Esquivel says that she did receive some aid in the form of debit cards and food donations in the immediate aftermath, but only up until she moved away. As the recovery of Pajaro continues, aid is still being distributed a year later.

More Money

Tony Nuñez-Palomino, communications manager for Community Bridges, says that, to date, his organization has distributed nearly $1.7 million in financial assistance. Undocumented residents are limited in the type of state and federal aid they can obtain, and the nonprofit has helped flood victims no matter their status.

However, he says there are residents in the area that have yet to receive any aid for damages.

“There’s people that still have outstanding losses with property, with home, with rent, and all that sort of stuff related to the flood that FEMA did not cover and  that their insurance did not cover,” Nuñez-Palomino explains.

Last month, Monterey County secured $20 million in relief funds from the state’s Office of Emergency Services, which is intended as direct relief for individuals, businesses and undocumented residents. Officials will begin disbursing the funds, called the Pajaro Unmet Needs Disaster Assistance Program, this month.

Monterey County District 1 Supervisor Luis Alejo, who is originally from Watsonville, says that Pajaro needs the funding boost.

“Some help has come, but there is more coming in these next few weeks, and I think that’s going to be a big help for the community of Pajaro as it continues through its recovery phase,” says Alejo.

In a state that relies on farmworker labor to keep the agricultural industry running, 75% of farmworkers are undocumented, according to the Center For Farmworker Families. Many of these workers were displaced by the Pajaro flood.

In June 2023, Gov. Gavin Newsom launched the Storm Assistance For Immigrants Project (SAI), a $95 million plan to provide aid for undocumented immigrants who do not qualify for FEMA aid. Under the project, individuals who were affected by the winter storms in 2023 can receive up to $4,500 in assistance.

Alejo says local officials were instrumental in creating the project.

“Monterey County was one of the first communities in the state to advocate for immigrants,” he says. “There were some really good things that happened that no other community, no other state had enacted for its flood victims.”

Beyond the needs of individuals, the recovery of infrastructure and institutions is also continuing in Pajaro.

Repairs and Resilience

Pajaro Valley Unified School District Superintendent Murry Schekman stands in a gutted classroom a little more than a year after floodwaters inundated nearly every room at Pajaro Middle School.

The flood displaced 450 students, alongside teachers and staff. With contractor Ausonio, Inc. now making the repairs, Schekman says students can still expect to return for the 2024-25 school year.

“We are on schedule,” he says.

The massive undertaking requires intensive cleaning and replacing flooring and sheetrock, as well as painting.

“Everything got muddy,” Schekman said. “Moisture rose, and ruined everything in the walls.” 

The students have been attending classes in Hall District and Ohlone elementary schools,  and Lakeview Middle School.

Now, the school boasts a new coat of bright yellow paint, and if Schekman has his way, will also soon have a new synthetic turf sports field. 

PVUSD is about halfway through its goal of raising the $2 million needed for the project, which Schekman describes as “the last project of my professional life.”

“This school is the center of this community, it has been around a long time, and the community deserves a field,” he said.

But as the school plans to welcome back students and the community begins to find normalcy, the question remains: Will the levees fail again?

The national attention on the floods helped spur action from state and federal officials and agencies to streamline the ongoing upgrade on the Pajaro River Levee. 

The $600 million project will give 100-year flood protection to the communities surrounding the Pajaro River–as well as Corralitos ad Salsipuedes creeks–which have suffered numerous devastating floods over the decades.

In August 2023, Assemblyman Robert Rivas authored Assembly Bill 876, which exempted the project from certain environmental regulations potentially shaving off years from the project.

“One year after the levee broke in Pajaro, the main message the community needs to hear is that this continues to be a priority for Monterey County,” Supervisor Alejo says

“And the stars are aligned today better than they ever have in the past. We have a commitment from the Army Corps, and we have a commitment of funding from the state, and we’re actually moving. The Pajaro Regional Flood Management Agency is moving to get this work done as soon as possible,” he asserts.

For Jerry Castro, the effect of the flood and the potential for another one looms in his mind.

“We’ll never be the same. But we’ll wait to see what happens in the next one,” Castro says.

The Editor’s Desk

Billionaire MacKenzie Scott donated $2 million to The Community Health Trust of the Pajaro Valley and another $2 million to Jacob’s Heart. For that, I salute her.

Letters to the Editor

Letters to the Editor published every wednesday
Pajaro residents are part of our larger community. They deserve the same opportunity to live a good life and the same dignity that EVERY resident of Monterey county deserves.

Los Straitjackets

Modern-day kings of instrumental surf music Los Straitjackets are touring to celebrate their 30th anniversary. The masked quartet comes to Moe’s Alley March 29.

Omar Sosa Plays Kuumbwa

Omar Sosa is dedicated to making music that promotes worldwide peace. Sosa studied percussion and marimba, later adding piano.

Things to do in Santa Cruz

Zzzahara pulls stories, experiences and emotions from reality and weaves them into dreams. Friday at The Catalyst

Kaleidoscopic Music

the inaugural Kaleidoscope Music Festival aims to shine a light on Santa Cruz and its homegrown music scene. The festival happens Saturday, March 30

Allegretto Vineyard

When wine tasting in Paso Robles, Allegretto Vineyard Resort is the perfect place to stay. Sign up for a tour of Allegretto’s vineyards, and you’ll really...

Marnie Stern

Marnie Stern’s debut album is a jagged, overwhelming listen, with dazzling guitar pyrotechnics. The New York Times named her very first release as that year’s most exciting album. Performing Tuesday, March 26, at Moe’s Alley

An Evening with David Sedaris

David Sedaris Giveaway
Enter for a chance to win tickets to An Evening with David Sedaris at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium on May 6. Drawing Date is April 29, 2024.

Pajaro Flood: One Year Later

Pain tempered with progress as the town recovers and prepares for the next one.
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