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Pacific Avenue, Aug. 23, 1967: It is truly amazing what an earthquake and 35 years can do to change our downtown. At first glance it seems that only the Veterans Monument is still there. Questions: why didn't the Pure Food Center stay in business? Who owned Mannings Book Center (next to the Food Center)? What about the La France Self Service Cafeteria, which is about where the Benten restaurant is now? I must admit that we trudged through many, many small towns in England where they had closed off the main street, or parts of it, for pedestrian malls. They really work over there. Bruce Bratton THAT ELECTION DAY AND NIGHT. Aside from all that developer money that developers snuck into Primack's campaign, did anyone else notice that many locals who pushed and contributed to developing Wingspread were on Primack's support list? When you get someone like Pat Pfremmer, who's been so cozy with big business and developers in Bonny Doon for so many years, and team her up with Primack, it's no wonder they lost. Rumors now have it that Primack went ranting and raging into the Sentinel office demanding that they fire the woman reporter who wrote the story exposing Primack's secret funding. And that "Adios Mardi" ad that Central Home Supply ran ... what about that one? What a place we live in. THE NEW THE PRINT GALLERY. After starting the Print Gallery in Capitola in 1968, Dale Matlock has sold the business! Christopher Wilmoth, who's a UCSC grad (1979), now owns it and will retain the name and staff. It's been over at the Sash Mill for decades. They'll continue doing all the T-shirts, aprons, posters and stuff that Dale did all those years. Dale sez he's going to mess around with photography and some art things and not wear T-shirts for a while. PAUL HOSTETTER & FRIENDS. Robin Petrie, Shira Kammen, Kevin Carr, Peter Maund, Barry Phillips, Shelley Philips and Paul Hostetter are playing at Kuumbwa Sunday, Nov. 17, at 7:30pm. There isn't room to list all the instruments they'll play, but this is a rare chance to hear these musicians. Some instruments they'll pluck are santuri, accordion, kabosy and violine d'amore. The music will be from such exotic places as Gasperi, Galicia, Oklahoma, Auvergne, Sweden, Mississippi and Scotland. Hostetter self-sacrificingly changed the title of the evening to "A Party of Seven," but get tickets by calling or visiting Westside Stories, the bookshop out at Almar Plaza where the Mission Street Safeway is. KINGDOM OF SHADOWS, PART 1. You should definitely see Punch-Drunk Love, it's the only good film besides The Wedding Singer that Adam Sandler has made. When you go, wait through all the credits at the end and see who played Luis Guzmann's stand in ... Louis Rittenhouse!! I kid you not. Must be some other Louis Rittenhouse, right? I checked www.imdb.com, which is all about movies. They list Louis Rittenhouse as acting an even bigger part in a new film titled The Guy Next Door, starring Heather McClurg and Morgan Simpson. That crazy Louis does get around. I got to see Secretary before it left. Grand film, great acting by Maggie Gyllenhaal and James Spader. The content must have driven feminists nutty, but it's only a movie. Roger Dodger is another excellent film that's quirky, inventive, brilliant and much deeper than you think at first. Isabella Rossellini, Jennifer Beals and especially Campbell Scott do wonderful acting jobs. I hear that Campbell Scott is George C. Scott and Colleen Dewhurst's little boy. KINGDOM OF SHADOWS, PART 2. Spirited Away, the animation feature from Ghibli Studios, makes you realize just how unimaginative the American animation films are, and always have been. It's not only beautiful, but every kid in the Del Mar was spellbound and silent all the way through it. Don't miss it. The Ring has spots of scary genius in it. It also has Naomi Watts from Mulholland Drive, but she doesn't get to do much. Don't go if you're busy. Igby Goes Down stars Kieran Culkin--how many Culkins are there? It's a New York movie, and Susan Sarandon does great too. Go see it quickly if you haven't already. If we all get together and tell the Nickelodeon to get Naqoyqatsi, maybe they will. That's the last in the trilogy for which Philip Glass composed the scores for director Godfrey Reggio. They did Koyaanisqatsi and Powaqqatsi (Hopi words). Yo-Yo Ma plays cello for Naqoyqatsi, and friends tell me that alone is worth seeing this film for. FILMS, FILMAKERS AND A CHILDREN'S CHOIR. You can see two award-winning films, Sing! and Never Give Up, meet and hear the filmmakers in person and hear the Cabrillo Children's Choir all at the Rio Theatre Saturday, Nov. 16, at 6:30pm. Cheryl Anderson leads the Children's Choir and this concert is a benefit for them. The little rascals sing great choral music from Bach and Mozart to spirituals in Italian, Hebrew and German, and this is a great way to support their efforts. Get tickets by calling 479.6331. Call 462.3293 for general information on the choir. SAN FRANCISCO OPERA. Never in my 15-plus years of attending the San Francisco Opera have there been such exciting seasons as the ones the new director Pamela Rosenberg has created. Last year's operas were pretty good, this year's are exceptional and the next two years sound even better. Pamela has been bringing many unknown but great singers from Germany, where she directed for many years. She's also begun featuring many operas that have never been done in San Francisco. Leos Janacek's Kat'a Kabanova is on now, and the reviews are amazing. We saw Ariadne Auf Naxos, and it was mind-boggling in its depth and humor. Messiaen's St. François D'Assise made spiritual life almost understandable; Verdi's Otello and Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio had new life pumped into them. Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel opens Nov. 17 and Handel's Alcina starts Nov. 19. Tickets aren't as much as the Rolling Stones concerts, call 415.864.3330 Bruce critiques films every other Thursday on KUSP-FM (88.9). Reach Bruce at [email protected]. [ Santa Cruz | Metroactive Central | Archives ]