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Covello & Covello Historical Photo Collection Rare View of Real Cooper House: This unusual view of the Cooper House taken on Feb. 28, 1978, shows the Cooper Street side. Because of deadlines, I don't have it available, but I remember a photo showing the nutty mailboxes next to the side entrance. Those were for the many businesses inside. Patty's Bloomers, a flower business, had flowers all over those steps as a welcome greeting. The Cabrillo Music Festival and even Estival Festival in 1989 closed off Cooper Street and used this entrance as a stage. Bruce Bratton YAHOO YAPPING. It's now barely passed the rumor stage, but the omniscient and omnipresent Paul Lee tells me that building is already underway on whatever it is Yahoo is doing up there on the Lockheed property on Empire Grade that they bought. Paul sez they paid Lockheed $1.5 million dollars an acre for 300 acres. There are some other high-tech businesses in on the deal. We'll get back to this ASAP. Maybe we should have a big welcome-to-Santa-Cruz party? That would surprise them. THE REALLY BIG NIGHT. For the first time ever, a coalition of local nonprofit organizations are sponsoring a smoke-, alcohol- and drug-free New Year's Eve dance and party (titled DANCE 2001) for queer youth ages 14-20 and their friends and allies who are 23 and under. Being accepted by your peer group when you're a teen is very big ... well, it's serious stuff for anybody, but teens need extra assistance to get through those bad years. This group has hired free transportation, free refreshments, cool and hot FX and DJ Spiffy to make sure things are smooth. Donations go from nothing to $5. It starts at 8pm and goes to 1am. Donations go to the Diversity Center Youth Project. This is the first in a series of social events that will end up in a youth leadership summer camp this summer. The Community Foundation, the ADAM Foundation, Santa Cruz City Schools and P-FLAG are some of the organizations that are sponsoring this event--plus The Santa Cruz Area Radical Faeries, and you've got to love that name. If you have any questions or need free transportation to and fro, call 335.5861. Look at the event website at www.queerarts.com/dance2001. ECKHART TOLLE'S COMING! Maybe you haven't heard of him yet, but Eckhart wrote a book, The Power of Now. I'm only a third through it, and it's an amazing piece of work. He is not to be confused with Meister Eckhart, a German philosopher who died a long time ago. Tolle is a philosopher, too, but he is a teacher who uses words to guide readers beyond words. He's written about a way to stop freaking out about the past and stop worrying about the future and how to enjoy those moments of the present. Eventually, you get to learn how to stay in the present more and more, and your life just eases up a bit. An afternoon session with Tolle will take place 1-5pm at Holy Cross Hall, 170 High St., Santa Cruz, on March 25. Eckhart, who's from Canada, sells out every session he presents in the U.S. He's got lots of enthusiasts in Santa Cruz, and tickets will fly out the door to out-of-towners. They're on sale starting Tuesday (Jan 2) at Gateways Books at Pacific and Cathcart and at Thunderbird Books and the Pilgrims Way in Carmel. 'TIS THE SEASON, ETC. Dennis, master tonsorial artist at Captain Clippers in Felton, was the first to point out our county sheriff/coroner's Christmas wish list. All he really wants for Christmas, according to Sentinel want ads for Dec. 19, are 40mm grenade launchers. This shouldn't remind us of his SWAT-team concepts of the past. The sheriff could possibly use these for things like crowd stun control, or those pesky dum dum pellets, but I'll bet he's going to surprise us with some sort of nighttime spectacular from the roof of the county building. Get those grenade-launcher proposals in no later than 3pm, Jan. 9, 2001. SPIRIT OF FIRST NIGHT. One of the major ingredients in the success of First Night is that all of the entertainers and all of the production of the evening are paid. First Night is a nonprofit organization, and when you buy a button your money, all of it, goes into producing First Night. It's about all of us supporting the rich and diverse cultural life we enjoy so much in Santa Cruz. The very best of our performing and visual artists come alive on this night. If you don't--or can't--get involved by volunteering that night, don't just come down for the procession, which is always a near miracle, but buy a button and be a bigger part of the action. Buttons are for sale at Bay Federal Credit Unions, Cotton Tales, Paper Vision, Palace Arts, Coast Commercial Banks, Roy's New Leaf in Felton, Longs, Bookworks in Aptos and Bookshop Santa Cruz. Call 425.7277 or go to www.firstnightsc.com to answer any questions. FOCUS ON CUBA. The Cuba Study Group of Santa Cruz and Friends of the Santa Cruz Public Libraries are co-sponsoring an exhibit titled Focus on Cuba at the Central Branch, Jan. 2-31, 2001. It'll feature Cuban books, periodicals, music, art, photos and postcards. Then on Jan. 11 at 7pm in the upstairs meeting room of that very same library, there's going to be a special panel and a reception of local librarians and friends who visited Cuba in 2000. The evening is free, and you can bring your questions especially about that embargo. Call 427.5231 for information. ABOUT SAN JOSE. With housing and office space being at least as critical in San Jose as it is here, the San Jose City Council voted to put a park on a 6,050-square-foot lot. A San Jose Mercury article dated Dec. 18 (and supplied by Bob Hall) has all the facts. The lot is near San Jose State University, but as much as student housing is needed, a professor on the student housing board agreed that a park is more necessary. It's all about open space. The landowner started to build a two-story duplex there when the city said it didn't have the money to buy the land. Now that the city has realized the necessity of a park and invoked their power of eminent domain, the landowner said, "The city is going to pay for the value of the property." That of course is true--eminent domain means paying the land owner full market value plus something like 10 percent. The president of the University Neighborhood Coalition, Lisa Jensen, said of the landowner, "It seems a sad thing that people would be so focused on maximizing their financial reward. It's like being a Grinch. This neighborhood has no open space. A small park seems like a great idea. The land is empty. It's been empty." San Jose is going on to pursue more open-space projects that have emerged from their Strong Neighborhood Initiative, a massive Redevelopment Agency improvement program. This is all definitely worth looking at in 2001. We need that Downtown Plaza at Cooper and Pacific more than we need an office building. A bunch of dedicated folks got it together and saved the Del Mar Theatre, which will last for a very long time. We now have a chance to preserve some open space downtown, which will last forever. IN CLOSING. Metro Santa Cruz Calendar editor Hiya Swanhuyser reminded me of her self-sighted bumper sticker that read, "Your Proctologist Called--They Found Your Head." Don't lose yours and Have a Happy First Night or New Year's. Send in lots of material. I'm having a hip replacement Jan. 9 and will be laid up a while after that. As I almost always remember to do, thanks very much for your notes, whispers, confidences, press releases, emails and phone messages. Writing this column gets to be more fun every year, and it's been about 25 years so far. Thanks again, and one last word: just in case you possibly could have disagreed with any of my movie critiques, do be sure to see Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The music score, which hardly anyone mentions, is beautiful and composed by Tan Dun and played by Yo Yo Ma, and the rest of the picture is that good, too. Bruce critiques films every other Thursday on KUSP-FM (88.9) at 12:50pm. Reach Bruce at [email protected] or call 457.5814, ext. 400. [ Santa Cruz | MetroActive Central | Archives ]