Poetry Slam at the Crepe Place
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SANTA CRUZ — The Legendary Santa Cruz Poetry Slam has three rules.
No props. No music. No costumes.
Other than that ten randomly selected poets vying for $50 and a little street cred have free reign on the topic, the style and the delivery of their slam. Here in Santa Cruz, that makes for a wild and unpredictable poetry free for all.
“Poetry slam is all about connection,” said Richard Roberts, one of the poets. “It’s very much in the spirit of Santa Cruz.”
The Crepe Place hosted the slam last night at 8 (it didn’t kick off until closer to 9) for the third time in the last few months. After paying a $4 cover, the game was on.
The two hosts — both who teach creative writing courses at UC Santa Cruz — kicked the slam off by reading the list of poets that would read and then launching into a 10-minute skit that was part stand up routine, slam and snub on contemporary life (cell phones and green activists took the largest hit).
After huge applause, the regular slam kicked off.
Here’s how it works. As the poet reads, the audience is explicitly encouraged to vocalize how they feel about the performance. That means yelling, cheering and the occasional lampooning. But don’t let that scare you away. The grading is irrelevant and forgiving.
Five pseudo judges selected at the beginning of the slam and given the name of a pseudo country — the United Federation of Don Juanson, Norway, and the Communist Chinese to name a few — rate each poem with a completely arbitrary term that relates to a number. Think “amazingly amazing,” “hella good,” etc. This way there are no hard feelings.
The five numbers are added up and the poet is given a numerical score between 0-30. At the end, the poet with the highest score gets $50.
The slams were mostly about current events like the banking crisis, green living and hippies. At times they were funny, disappointing and awe inspiring. Some of these guys have legitimate talent with resumes that include extensive poetry tours and national competitions and some of them have never spoken to audience beyond themselves.
“There’s a girl over there who’s in high school, I’m 28 and there are people all ages in between,” said Erich McIntosh, another one of the poets. “It creates excitement for poetry for people who have never been exposed to it.”
To top the show off, Seth Walker, a Texan poet touring the west coast, demonstrated how the pros do it. He electrified the crowd with poems off of his latest spoken word album.
In the end, I give the slam a “legendary awesome.” You’ll have to see it for yourself to decipher that rating.
The Crepe Place, located at 1134 Soquel Avenue, hosts the Legendary Santa Cruz Poetry Slam irregularly. They usually have a deal on beer as well. Check their calendar for updates on the next one and other upcoming events.
Local artist transforms junk into guitars
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Robbie Schoen doesn’t play guitar. Like most people, he’d never made one either. But a few years ago, as he raced down Highway 1, the glint of a rusty catalytic converter on the side of the road caught his eye.
“It was saying take me home and string me up,” said Schoen, a Santa Cruz sculptor whose exhibit “Spare Guitars” is currently being shown at the Felix Kulpa Gallery & Sculpture Garden.
And that’s exactly what he did. With the help of a friend, who’s been repairing guitars for 30 years, Schoen fashioned that rusty piece of metal, once belonging to a GM car or truck, into a fully functioning electric guitar.
The first guitar, “Wreck & Roll,” was sold and a series was born. Of the 13 guitars he’s currently working on or finished, he has used shovels, skateboards, shredded tires, a parking sign, a satellite dish, an Ouija board and other objects.
“Probably the most popular is the Millennium Fender,” he said. It is furnished with a Star Wars Millennium Falcon toy he found in an antique shop. “It really captures peoples’ imaginations. People come in and say, ‘I had that toy when I was little.’”
These days, friends bring odd knickknacks that they’ve found in their home or in antique stores to him. His toilet seat guitar was made out of a toilet seat a friend who owns a secondhand material builder’s yard gave him. But he still keeps his eye out for just the right object for his next project.
“I’m constantly keeping my eye out for something that I can use,” Schoen said. “You just wait and eventually you’ll find something that fits right in.”
He has previously showcased his “Spare Guitars” series in San Francisco at The Dark Room. He has sold two for $2,400 a piece. One of these new owners, Isaac Frankle, who purchased a shovel guitar, has become something of a local sensation playing the shovel guitar on the Internet and at local venues.
“As sculptures they’re great, but when you find out they’re fully functioning guitars it’s really exciting,” he said. “You can go on YouTube and actually see the ‘shovel guitar guy.’”
Schoen hopes by recycling discarded objects into functioning guitars that he’ll enlighten peoples’ lives.
“When you come to a gallery, you’re pulled out of your routine then it [the art] hits you like a thunderbolt,” he said. “That’s what art is for.”
No word on whether a thunderbolt guitar is in the works, but donated junk continues to come in.
Check out “Spare Guitars” at the Felix Kulpa, located in downtown Santa Cruz on Elm Street. See the map below for the exact location.
This article was originally published in the Courant Times on Dec. 13, 2008. You can contact the author at daniel@cournalist.com.
Read more of Daniel Wilkinson’s work at his blog.
UCSC Ballroom Team Compete at Berkeley Ballroom Classic
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Tangroupe's choreographers, Brett Griswold and Jennifer Small, with the troupe's first place trophy
There is something unique about the look in a dancers eye after their tenth consecutive competition event, wild with adrenaline and the extreme physical exhaustion. At the UC Berkeley Ballroom Classic 2009, dancers from Stanford, UC Berkeley, and UCSC battled in dances such as Pasa Dolbe, Cha Cha, Foxtrot, Waltz, Tango, and many others, to prove their skill and the prowess of their competitive teams.
Each dance is divided into three sections: bronze, silver, and gold. Within these sections, there is a syllabus for the dance moves that can be done. For example, in a bronze level of a dance, there may be 20 dance moves allowed without automatically disqualifying you from the competition, in silver level there might be 30 moves allowed, and in gold there might be 40 moves allowed. Staying within the syllabus of moves for each level is key, because even the best dancers will be disqualified for using moves not designated beforehand.
UCSC, as they usually do, showed up with unorthodox training and two groups: the expected Ballroom Competitive Team and Tangroupe, the Argentinean Tango troupe. Throughout the competition, it was clear to this cournalist that while UCSC had a relatively small group, there was no question as to the enthusiasm and fervor of their support for their fellow UCSC dancers.
Throughout the 14-hour event, UCSC remained competitive, placing in the finals of most dances they participated in. Unlike what is known as the “Berkeley Army”, speaking on their massive competitive dance team of over 100 people, UCSC ‘s dancers all placed throughout the day, showing that UCSC’s team contains more than just a few all-stars.
While this was the Ballroom Classic competition, one cannot forget the small but spunky Tangroupe. One must not forget, that while most of this troupe does not participate in ballroom, it was Tangroupe that at this point was the reining formation champion, placing first the year prior. For hours they cheered their ballroom counterparts, waiting for their moment to compete.
Then bad news spread across the little tango troupe. The other teams that they had planned on competing against had canceled last minute. They would be unable to make it to the competition. Most teams would be excited, for they had just been given a 1st place position no matter what. However, this was not the reaction amongst the troupe. All the dancers were disappointed like a boxer, gloves on and in the ring, only to hear that the other boxer decided to not show. Essentially, the dancers in Tangroupe wanted to be challenged. Despite their disappointment, excitement for performing settled in and all thoughts of the competition faded. In their eyes, they were competing against themselves to prove their effort and their talent.
As the troupe did what they do best, the audience applauded, but not nearly as much as they showed reactions of surprise and excitement. President of Tangroupe, Matthew Grabowski spoke with the Cournalist afterward, stating, “I was really proud of our team. The competition was exhausting and everyone really pulled together and gave it their all. Our performance for the judges was the best I can remember giving. We were able to feed off the excitement of an audience of dancers, and their roaring reaction was a testament to our intense efforts.”
Following the formation competition, the troupe dominated the Argentinean Tango competition with Tangroupe couples placing first through first place out of six couples.
Suffice to say, Tangroupe may have won first of only one, but their performance demonstrated a serious reality for any team daring enough to challenge their 2-year hold on the UC Berkeley Ballroom Competition.
There are several video’s available of the performance. Here is one link: Tangroupe Formation Routine
UCSC Ballroom classes are from 8-10 p.m. on Mondays at the multi-purpose room of the East Field House. Tangroupe classes are 1-3 p.m. on Sundays at the same place.
Contact the author at sdharris@ucsc.edu.
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DISCLOSURE: Shawn Harris is a member of the UCSC ballroom team.
UCSC Tango Troupe Hosts All-Tango Showcase
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The house lights fell as a red glow emanated from the Porter Dining Hall stage, accompanied by the tune of around 300 eager audience members cheering for the coming performance of the UCSC Argentinean tango troupe called Tangroupe. Hosting a full house for their first all-out, hour-long tango performance, Tangroupe showed the campus what these dedicated dancers prepared while the normal person relaxes with the funnies on a Sunday afternoon. The show started off Tangroupe’s president Matthew Grabowski introducing the girls of the troupe as a small army of attractive women took the stage and proved that this was not just another student dance show.
During the show, Tangroupe demonstrated many different styles of tango in the “History of Tango” routine which was fully improvised and narrated by an assortment of the Tangroupe members, with styles ranging from extremely traditional to new and alternative forms of tango.
Argentinean Tango is a sensual dance, “a vertical expression of horizontal desire” as Tangroupe member Luis Flores boldly stated during the performance. Though this may be the case, throughout the night the audience was pulled through a series of emotions from jealousy and intensity to overwhelming humor. While the group embodies a primarily serious tone, they were able to make the audience erupt in laughter as the “tango clowns” made fun of the intense art form during their rendition of “Little Red Riding Hood”.
Starting only three years ago, holding rehearsals in racquetball courts, Tangroupe has come a long way with its title as 1st place tango troupe at the last competition with schools including Harvard, Berkeley, Stanford, and others. Despite the excellence of the group’s senior members, they still allow beginning dancers to join the performances and welcome new enthusiasm and talent. Needless to say, this performance demonstrated the group’s ability to adapt to a variety of skill levels and experience.
Tangroupe’s choreographers Brett Griswold and Jennifer Small were very pleased with the performance. When speaking with the Cournalist, Mr. Griswold said, “The show was a tremendous success for both the school and the tango community. All the rehearsing to the wee hours of the morning paid off, when the house lights came on at intermission all 300 seats were filled and people were standing in back,” followed by a statement by Ms. Small, “The show was a wonderful opportunity for students to showcase their love of tango with their family and friends. Without the dedication and passion of our dancers this show would never have been possible.”
After the performance ended, Tangroupe hosted what is known as a “Milonga”, a tango term for a dance party. During the milonga one could spot the most prominent tango dancers within the Santa Cruz community dancing the night away as beginners and veterans of this special art form filled the stage, contributing their piece to the ever-growing dance of tango.
Tangroupe is not stopping here, preparing for their competition in Berkeley, California on February 21st with hopes of keeping their title as the top tango troupe.
If you are interested in joining Tangroupe for lessons or performance, they meet at the East Field House Multi-Purpose Room at 1pm for beginners, 2pm for intermediate dancers, and 3pm for the team.
Groundation performs reggae, in honor of Bob Marley at the Catalyst: savage beating and elation ensues
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In honor of Bob Marley’s birthday, Groundation performed covers of Bob Marley at their sold-out show at the Catalyst. For years, Groundation has been in Santa Cruz for Bob Marley’s birthday, playing his songs and keeping his music and spirit alive.
The atmosphere inside the show was incredible, and if you’ve never been to a really good reggae show before, it’s something that must be experiences. Guys and gals of all ages and sizes, huge smiles plastered on their faces from ear to ear, bouncing and dancing and swaying and twhirling around with no start or end. In fact, the crowd made me realize just how long it had been since I had seen so many smiling happy people in one place. But these people were more than smiling and happy, they were ecstatic, euphoric, internally elated as the music lifted their souls to forgotten places that only ancient religious texts speak of.
The band itself consists of:
- Harrison Stafford – vocals, guitar
- Marcus Urani – keyboards
- ‘Iron’ Ryan Newman – bass guitar
- David “Diesel” Chachere – trumpet
- Kelsey Howard – trombone
- Te Kanawa Haereiti aka Rufus – drums
- Mingo Lewis Jr – congas, timbales, percussion
- Kim Pommell – chorus
- Stephanie Wallace – chorus
They are all extremely talented. Stafford’s voice replicates Bob Marley’s to a degree that is beyond belief. The chorus singers fill the air with smooth melodies and notes that speak to your soul. The guitarist is impeccable, fast, and melodic. The keyboardist is mastered.
If there is one thing that is a given seeing Groundation on Bob Marley’s birthday in Santa Cruz, it is the presence of marijuana. Standing in the crowd, every where you looked people were lighting up joints, blunts, spliffs, glass bowls, one hitters, everything you could imagine. I remember at one point looking around and seeing 10 different people to the front and sides of me smoking something or other. The air was so thick from marijuana smoke that you could easily get high just being in the audience.
Drawing sharp contrast to the smiling happy dancing pot smoking people all around me was a brutal beating that I witnessed. A white man in a white T-shirt standing next to me was tackled to the ground by a Latino man who brutally punched the white man in the face a few times. Blood poured out of his nose and mouth and onto the floor as he lay there unconscious. Meanwhile, the Latino man made a quick exit, handed the bouncer an undisclosed amount of money after whispering something in his ear, and was gone. I snapped two photos, one of the assailant, and the other of the man who was attacked after he had regained consciousness and was carried out of the Catalyst.
 the man who was attacked, face puffy and bloodied |
 the assailant, who brutally beat the man pictured left during the show |
The whole thing was a bit of a mood-killer, but I wasn’t about to let it ruin my night. The music, and the message, was just so much more powerful than a single senseless act of violence. If you’ve never seen Groundation, or if you’ve never seen really good reggae live, you simply must catch them next time they’re around. Thought I do wish that the bouncer at the Catalyst would call the cops on the criminal isntead of accept a $20. OH well.
Peter Lindener Stands in Defense of Freedom of Expression, Talks of Civil Disobedience
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Peter Lindener is not happy about the city council’s recent ruling that music and art cannot happen together. You probably don’t know Peter Lindener by name. You probably know him as “that saxophone guy from downtown”. Or maybe you’ve never taken notice, save for a brief moment walking down Pacific when you hear his bluesy notes and see him smiling back at you. That’s the Peter Lindener that downtown Santa Cruz used to know. But now Peter is rather upset because working musicians have been caught in the crossfire over the battle for a safe and respectable downtown. The Santa Cruz City Council recently passed a package of ordinances that places greater restrictions on where musicians can play their instruments and use a “display device”, such as a hat or guitar case to collect tips.
Among the most questionable restriction found in the ordinance package bars local musicians from performing within 10 feet of public sculptures and other works of art. In a recent email to city council (passed on to the Courant Times) Lindener expresses his outrage:
” …Don [Lane] pretty much spotted the concern of somehow art installations somehow being declared as incompatible with Musical performance… if the Musician happened to put out a place to put tips. …I chose to relocate to Santa Cruz because Pacific Ave has the potential to be one very nice place for musical collaboration with others one might meet on the avenue… I am concerned enough to feel like I would want to speak up for others who might feel more effected by this evenings revision of places considered suitable for making music in the City Of Santa Cruz.
I do feel it a bit ironic that somehow amid it’s not all so clear rationals for where musical performance might be considered permissible, Public Art and Music will not be allowed to coexist withing ten feet of one another, for exactly what reason, perhaps might in the end escape most all of us….”
Musicians have a right to raise concern over the ordinance, which explicitly labels as incompatible musical performances (for tips) with our many great public works of art. These are not the people urinating in public, panhandling aggressively, verbally accosting those walking by. Musicians are not the vagrants that these ordinances are designed to target. These are the people who are being unjustly caught in the crossfire. These are the very people who bring Santa Cruz its unique and wondrous charm and provide free entertainment to all of the downtown shoppers.
And so, I am inspired to hear Lindener announce to city council (via an email shared with the Courant Times) his intentions to explicitly disobey this new ordinance which he feels is an infringement on his constitutional rights:
…I am currently considering explicitly making music within the ten foot exclusion zone where Art and Music are not legally allowed to coexist, and to do so while placing a receptacle for tips, just to make my point…… I will be expecting to be cited, for that matter I will notify the authorities of this infringement myself, when cited, I will refuse to sign, and expect that the full consequences of the violation will then unfold. I will then expect prompt due process as I will decline any terms for release on bail. Then before the court I will question the constitutionality of these ordinances and then rest my case after submitting a copy of Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience also into evidence. One option the city would have could to refuse to cite me for my infringement, if so, we would document such, and the issues of selective or perhaps non enforcement would likely then at some point also follow………
These charged words bring to my mind the image of Rosa Parks, who refused to sit in the back of a bus for her belief in equality of life. She is widely regarded as a hero for standing up for the equality she believed in. And it is by the same logic, the same token of heroism that if art and music cannot co-exist legally in downtown Santa Cruz, Peter Lindener is preparing to act in defiance, to stand up for his basic beliefs about freedom of expression. And all he asks for, his one request of city council, is that art and music can co-exist legally, in the same place at the same time. He asks this of the same city council that never fully explained why they were banning musicians from public art.
In fact it was Ryan Coonerty who justified the the public ordinance 5.43.020, which bans working musicians from downtown sculptures. He stated at the city council meeting on Jan. 26 that this was a necessary ordinance so that the public can comfortably approach and enjoy the public works of art, which they can’t necessarily do if working musicians are performing in the immediate vicinity.
But are the musicians themselves not creating works of art, live and on the spot? Is the live music not more enjoyable than the sculptures themselves? Whereas the latter is subject to personal taste, the former is undeniable. And so, to draw the argument full circle, it is by the same logic that one could arguably contend that public sculptures should not be installed within 10 feet of performing musicians.
Some of the best music I’ve ever heard in my life I’ve heard downtown, from incredibly skilled and talented musicians. I understand the need for a safe, enjoyable downtown experience. But street musicians are the very reason that I and many others enjoy downtown Santa Cruz. Why were they targeted in the recent package of ordinances? How many people complained that they didn’t have access to sculptures because of musicians? How many would trade the musicians for the sculptures?
I have to hit the streets now, to find out the answers to all these questions. In the mean time, keep an eye out for Peter Lindener playing his saxophone in musical defiance of a city council who ruled that art and music cannot happen together.
A closer look at Eight Tens at Eight
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The idea was beautiful in its simplicity: eight plays, each ten minutes in length. Curtains draw at 8 p.m. sharp. This was the vision of Wilma Marcus, the artistic director who began the program known as “Eight Tens at Eight.” Today, fourteen years later, it is Brian Spencer who has taken the reigns as Artistic Director of the sellout show that has fast become a Santa Cruz tradition. And so, on a rainy Friday afternoon, I sat down with him to discuss the history of the show, the current production, and the future of the program.
Brian Spencer, artistic director of Eight Tens at Eight
He begins by explaining that originally, Eight Tens was open only to submissions from local playwrights. Slowly but surely, over the years, word of the event started to spread and they expanded their submissions. They started receiving submissions from all over the West Coast. As they continued to expand, and open the submissions to everyone, playwrights from all over the country made submissions. This last year, they crossed a major milestone when they put on their first international play, a submission they received all the way from Russia.
Submissions for Eight Tens at Eight tends to get hectic these days. Actors’ Theatre, the company that puts on the show, received no less than one hundred and fifty five plays submitted this past season. Because one written page roughly translates into one minute of showtime, submissions are limited to ten pages. However, Brian tells me that it is the first page which holds the most importance. Many of the plays will never be read past the first page.
Actors’ Theatre emlpoys the help of five readers, all with varying backgrounds in theater but none of whom are playwrights, to narrow down the entire pool of submissions to a mere 16 plays. When you have over a hundred plays to read, Brian explains, the first page needs to grab you. If the first page of a play doesn’t grab the reader, how is it supposed to captivate an audience? The first page is critical.
The sixteen plays that make it past the five readers are then passed on to the eight directors, each one of whom will be directing one of the final plays chosen. The directors vote on, and eventually arrive at a list of eight plays that will be produced for Eight Tens at Eight. But not all is lost for the eight plays that didn’t make the final cut. The eight runner ups are labeled “The Best of the Rest” and are read at a separate event.
To keep the event fresh year after year, the readers and directors responsible for the judging submissions are rotated and replaced. Sometimes, however, one or two are asked to participate again the following year. For example, two of the readers that participated this year were also readers last year as well. Because each reader and director may have intrinsic preferences for a certain genre, writing style, setting, etc. the rotation of readers and directors is seen as a necessary practice. This year, the plays selected by the readers and directors fell into a mix of genres. Two of the plays are dramas, one is an existential / character study, one is an experimental performance piece, three are comedies and one is a tragedy.
Sometimes there is friction between the playwright and director, especially if the playwright is local and drops in on rehearsals. Spencer related to me a situation that ocurred in the past in which a local playwright, who shall remain nameless, was unhappy with how a specific director was directing her play. She kept giving her input and disproval of the director. The situation continued to escalate and she was asked to leave by the director. On occasion, some playwrights have a hard time dealing with the fact that when a play is turned over to the Actors’ Theatre for production, the director takes full control over the creation aspect of how the play is brought to life.
Spencer related another situation to me in which he directed a play a number of years back. The playwright was so unhappy with how he directed it that the playwright did not talk to him for over a year. Eventually, the playwright said that he saw his play directed in San Francisco the way that he wanted it, and ultimately came to the conclusion that the play didn’t work that way and Spencer did a much better job with the direction.
Spencer assured me that such conflicts are quite rare, and only occur with local playwrights who drop in on the rehearsals. A much more common problem is getting the plays to a length of just ten minutes. Even though submissions are limited to ten pages, even a ten page play can exceed ten minutes of stage time. In such cases, cuts need to be made to the script. Such cuts are made to plays almost every year.
Unfortunately for Santa Cruz, the Actors’ Theatre has had to make an entirely different type of cut this year. The company, which traditionally puts on a full season that consists of Eight Tens at Eight along with three other plays for a full season, has had to cut two plays from the roster. So this year, in addition to Eight Tens, Actors’ Theatre will only be putting on one other play. Sadly, they cannot afford to put on a full season; ticket sales in this economy cannot support it.
Thankfully, Eight Tens at Eight is incredibly well insulated from a troubled economy. They sold out on opening night and they sold out on the following Friday as well, on the 23rd of January. The show will go on every Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday from now until February 15th. Tickets cost $17 for students and seniors, and $20 for general admission. If that is too pricey for your wallet, on Thursdays and Sundays they run a special: two tickets for just $25.
As for Brian Spencer, he’s looking forward to the future. Despite the fact that he has been with Actors’ Theatre for 25 years since its inception, this is his first year as the Artistic Director of Eight Tens at Eight, and he’ll be at it again next year, too. The way he sees it, ” This is the year for me to learn how to do it properly, and next year is when I will hone my skills and put to use everything I have learned.”
Actors Theatre Calendar -including show dates and times
Brent shows Santa Cruz the harmonium
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It was in India two summers ago that Brent found it. An Indian friend whom he was staying with during his travels took him to where they were sold, and helped him get a good price. Eighty dollars later he was the owner of a brand new, beautiful harmonium -an instrument that is as commonplace in India as the guitar is in America. It wasn’t by chance that Brent came to acquire a harmonium; he had been on the lookout for one, drawn to its portability and unique sound.
I’m at Brent’s house on the east side of Santa Cruz as he explains the history to me. We’re seated on the floor of his practice/meditation room, sipping yerba matte. He tells me that during his final days in India that his friend took him to Delhi to find the instrument. As a token of his gratitude, Brent gave his friend a plastic recorder. In India, the recorder is a very rare and foreign instrument.
Wearing a blue sweater and faded rainbow suspenders that seem to come straight from an old 50’s movie, Brent performs John Wayne Gacy, a song originally written by Sufjan Stevens. It is a powerful song, written about the serial killer clown who raped, tortured and murdered 33 boys in the 70s and buried them in a crawlspace under the floor of his house. The lyrics are as follows:
His father was a drinker
And his mother cried in bed
Folding John Wayne’s t-shirts
When the swingset hit his head
The neighbors they adored him
For his humor and his conversation
Look underneath the house there
Find the few living things, rotting fast, in their sleep
Oh, the deadTwenty-seven people
Even more, they were boys
With their cars, summer jobs
Oh my GodAre you one of them?
He dressed up like a clown for them
With his face paint white and red
And on his best behavior
In a dark room on the bed
He kissed them all
He’d kill ten thousand people
With a sleight of his hand
Running far, running fast to the dead
He took off all their clothes for them
He put a cloth on their lips
Quiet hands, quiet kiss on the mouthAnd in my best behavior
I am really just like him
Look beneath the floor boards
For the secrets I have hid
The muddy mash of tone from the harmonium and the high pitch of the recorder create a gloomy and eerie sound that properly sets the stage for grim lyrics that bring to life heinous deeds. Brent’s powerful voice echos through the room as he goes in an out of trance-like states, mourning, chanting and evoking a sense of vulnerability and sorrow in the listener that works all too well for the subject matter. With his harmonium, recorder and unique voice, Brent performs John Wayne Gacy with more raw emotion and lament than Sulfjan Steven did in the original.
Next, Brent performs a song that he wrote with his friend Johnathan Brent Davis. It is inspired by the diary of a boat captain who finds himself inside a hurricane. This he performs using not only the harmonium but a neon green and black Kawasaki keyboard that he found at a bus stop. The lyrics are haunting as he sings the the chorus, “Did I have a vision? I don’t know…”
Johnathan Brent Crosson has been now been playing the keys for 11 years, since he was 18. He is currently pursuing a masters degree in anthropology at UCSC. If you’re intersted in hearing him play,come to open mic night at Sub Rosa on Thursdays at 8 and you might just catch him.
Local Residents Denounce Israel’s War
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In a fiery discussion at the Resource Center for Nonviolence, local residents called for Israel’s immediate withdraw from the Gaza Strip. Stephen Zunes, a professor of politics at the University of San Francisco, began the packed event by denouncing Israel’s most recent invasion of the strip calling it “an illegal war by any number of international laws.”
He called for Israel to stand down, and to stop their occupation of the territory, which he referred to as a “big, open-air prison.”
“We’ve won on this before, and we’re going to win again,” Zunes said referring to convincing Israel to stop their invasion. “This is about human rights.”
After the lecture, the group watched “Dispatches: The Killing Zone,” a 2006 British report detailing the stark life of Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip. The Israelis have placed a land, sea and air blockade on the movement of people and supplies in and out of Gaza. Because of it, it’s often difficult for many Gazans to receive basic food and medical supplies.
The fighting began when Israel launched extensive airstrikes into the Gaza Strip in retaliation for a barrage of Hamas rockets that had been pounding Israeli border cities in previous weeks. Since then, Israel has pushed towards Gaza City with a ground force.
Since Israel invaded the Gaza Strip two weeks ago, the Palestinian death toll has reached 831, many of them women and children. Over 3,000 residents have been injured. Israel has reported 13 deaths.
Residents voiced shock and awe at the devastation being reported in the strip.
“In Rafah, an ordinary day is a day of war,” said Sami Abed, the co-founder of the Palestinian-Israel Action Committee of Santa Cruz.
It has been widely reported that Israel has focused much of their effort on destroying the underground tunnels Hamas has used to smuggle in food, supplies and weapons from Egypt since coming into power in 2006 burgeoning an already desperate humanitarian crisis.
The 15-day war has been met with widespread criticism across the world and the UN Security Council has passed a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire. Both Israel and Hamas have ignored repeated calls for a ceasefire.
Zunes ended his talk with an ominous warning of the coming days of the war. Though communication from the Gaza Strip will dwindle as the Israeli army continues their battering, “don’t confuse silence for peace.”
An Internal Dialogue with Art
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FIRST-TIME ARTIST SAYS GOODBYE TO PARENTS WITH ART
After 15 years of classes and countless hours spent with her hands in clay, Lea Watson has finally gone public. It couldn’t have come at a more meaningful time in her life.
While working on her ceramic sculpture, “Letting Go,” which is currently being featured at the Felix Kulpa, both her parents moved into full-time hospices — those stark facilities that represent the end of life. Read article…
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