You don’t have to work too hard to keep Santa Cruz weird. It’s always been weird and it always will be, we hope, despite the homogenized housing towers blanketing the downtown, right?
We are the Northern California capital of kitsch, but in a good way. This is a community that boycotted efforts to build a chain bookstore downtown and has favored independent stores over chains. (Jacob Bricca made a great documentary in 2006 about the bookstore battle, Indies Under Fire: The Battle for the American Bookstore.)
Despite the encroachment of the Internet and big box stores, we still have plenty of cool, retro and weird things to buy. John Koenig explores some of them in our Home and Garden section enclosed within.
The same section highlights the new endeavor by the former guitarist of the celebrated all-women band Pele Juju…she now builds environmentally conscious homes.
The first time we saw singer/rapper Mak Nova at a winery we thought, why isn’t she bigger? Well, she’s stepping onto a very big stage this week as the opener for funkster George Clinton at the UCSC Quarry, one of the best open theaters anywhere. She covers her bases in Lucille Tepperman’s inside story.
Crepe Cones may offer the best food deal in town, with fresh-to-order crepes like its banana-nutella and grilled cheese, for just $6. It’s right outside Bookshop Santa Cruz. Read about it in Mark C. Anderson’s Dining column.
We’re starting a new feature paying homage to the history of our great neighborhoods. This week, Kevin Samson takes a look at the Circles and what’s become of them.
Mushrooms are having a magic moment again. You’d better read Elizabeth Borelli’s Wellness column to catch the latest.
My horoscope told me to stay in bed with a pillow over my head or I’d be deported to El Salvador. Oops. That was somewhere else. Rob Brezsny gets the future right and poetic in our Astrology feature.
What’s your horoscope?
Thanks for reading.
Brad Kava | Editor
PHOTO CONTEST
SLO LIFE This snail is moving in on the Agapantha. Photograph by Marni Moore
GOOD IDEA
Cabrillo Gallery presents Student Exhibition 2025, showcasing student talent. This exhibition offers a wide sampling of exemplary artwork, including painting, drawing, printmaking, ceramics, woodworking, sculpture, small-scale metals/jewelry, digital fabrication, typography, graphic design, mixed media, and traditional, alternative process and digital photography. It runs April 28 to May 23. There’s a reception and art sale May 3, 3–5pm.
GOOD WORK
Finn Maxwell was selected as the 2025–2026 Santa Cruz County Youth Poet Laureate. Maxwell was chosen from the 2025–26 cohort of finalists for Santa Cruz County Youth Poet Laureate, which included Sylvi Kayser of Aptos High School, Mason Leopold of San Lorenzo Valley High School, Noemi Romero of Pajaro Valley High School and Xander Shulman of Santa Cruz High School.
Maxwell is a junior at San Lorenzo Valley High School. He writes short stories and poems, often inspired by his Boulder Creek home. His work has been recognized by the Scholastic Writing Awards and the Iowa Young Writers Studio and is present in The Malu Zine, Blue Marble Review and The Incandescent Review.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“It’s a good thing Jesus lives in our hearts. If he lived in America, he’d be in a prison camp in El Salvador by now.” —Feminist News
