[ Features Index | Santa Cruz | Metroactive Home | Archives ]

Covello & Covello Historical Photo Collection The Classy Swanton House: This lovely structure stood about where the main post office is now on Front Street. There were several downtown area houses/hotels back then: the Franklin House, the Pacific Ocean House, the Santa Cruz House (right next to the Swanton House in the photo) and others. This Swanton House burned down in the big downtown fire of 1887. Bruce Bratton NEW POLITICAL PRESENCE. I'm sure you'll be hearing a lot about LOBA, the Locally Owned Business Alliance of Santa Cruz, in the next four weeks. Neal Coonerty of Bookshop Santa Cruz, Joe Marini of Marini's Candies, and Scott Daly, an optometrist on Cedar Street, started LOBA; Larry Pearson of Pacific Cookies, Lou Cavigilia of Clouds and Peter Pringle of the ID Building are some of the more involved members. The Garden Company, Whiting Foods, The Vault, Twissleman Enterprises, Artisans, the Beauregards, Palomar, Del Williams, Bartolo's Cleaners, Chef Works, Walnut Avenue Cafe and Sun Shops are some more members, just to give you a perspective. LOBA is obviously made up of family-owned businesses; they'll not just endorse City Council candidates, but they'll also spend money on their campaigns. LOBA is not anti-chain stores, they say, but is middle of the road politically. They're not taking sides on the supervisor race, and say they intend to keep LOBA "open and transparent." They're going to have a candidates forum on Tuesday, Oct. 15, at 8:30am at Clouds, and the public is invited. They'll announce their endorsements on Oct. 17, and may take positions on measures P and Q too. Neal Coonerty told me all of the above, you can check with him. WE LOST GORDON HASKELL. Good old Gordon died last Friday from a heart attack, just a day before one of his many letters appeared in the Sentinel. We disagreed on many issues in the last few years, but he was a good guy. SCAN MEETING 10/10. This is the annual fall membership meeting. It'll be at London Nelson Center starting at 6:30pm. They'll vote on endorsing school board candidates and state and local ballot measures, and on their steering committee. SCAN needs energy, unity, focus and bodies--don't miss this meeting. Call 458.9425 for info. KINGDOM OF SHADOWS. Hurry to see Mad Love at the Del Mar. It's an excellently and beautifully told story about a mad--as in crazy--queen, and the acting is flawless. Some women may not like it because it's about a less-than-perfect woman, but it's still well done. You get your money's worth from the new Hannibal Lecter film, Red Dragon. Anthony Hopkins, Edward Norton, Ralph Fiennes and Emily Watson (as a blind woman) just let it all out acting-wise. It's as good a sequel as I've ever seen, not great filmmaking, but good fun. Just A Kiss stars Marisa Tomei, Taye Diggs and Kyra Sedgwick and is another terribly wicked, witty New York City comedy about people you couldn't possibly care about. It's about cheating, sex and things like that. However it does have graphic art that knocked my socks off (I was wearing sandals). In answer to dozens of queries, Michael Moore's Bowling for Colombine opens at the Del Mar Friday, Nov. 1. WEDDING BELLS! The aforementioned Neal Coonerty will wed Ms. Lucie Rossi on Saturday, June 28, at an undisclosed location. Lucie, if you haven't met her, teaches school in Boulder Creek. I caught the two of them hugging in the frozen food section of a local grocery store several months ago, so I knew it was serious, but I didn't say anything. CRUZIO NEWS. It's not enough that Cruzio debuted their shockingly new and innovative home page this week, but they're repeating their very successful Small Business Fair the four remaining Wednesdays of this month. Tonight is about Growing Your Business, Oct. 16 is Dealing with Labor for employees and employers, Oct. 23 is on Ways to Make Money Online, and the last night, Oct. 30, is about exposing your art to a broader audience--art like print, digital, audio, public art, web and whatever. These workshops, which are at MAH, will probably all sell out, so call Cruzio immediately. I saw their new website last week and it's as inventive and useful as it is neat to look at. Take a look at www.cruzio.com and try some of their hundreds of community links. It's easy. THINGS I'LL MISS. I'll be in England when this issue comes out, but if I were here I'd go to "Seventh Sense y2k2." That's the world's nearly craziest, fabulously creative fashion show. I went last year, and you need to see it to believe the art and fun that goes into this event. It's Saturdays and Sundays, Oct. 12, 13, 19 and 20 at 8pm in the 418 Project at 418 Front St. Tickets go quickly at Chocolat and Madame Sidecar. I'd also go to the opening of El Teatro Campesino's own hometown production of Zoot Suit. As you probably know, Luis Valdez created this award-winning play back in 1977. It's been produced many places, but Teatro has never put on its own production. It opens Oct. 19 at Teatro's theater in San Juan Bautista. It runs through Nov. 24, Thursday-Sundays at 8pm, Saturdays at 2pm and Sundays at 3pm. There are previews starting Oct. 10 until Oct. 18. Call 831.623.2445. Bruce critiques films every other Thursday on KUSP-FM (88.9). Reach Bruce at [email protected]. [ Santa Cruz | Metroactive Central | Archives ]