Three professional sumo wrestlers traded the ring for the sand Thursday, taking in the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk and posing for photos ahead of Saturday’s World Elite Sumo event at Kaiser Permanente Arena.
Mat Weir
Posted inRecreation & Sports
‘Keep it sumo’: Ancient sport gets a California reboot in Santa Cruz
Professional sumo is making its California TV debut in Santa Cruz on Sept. 26, when the World Elite Sumo league brings a 12-man tournament – and a modernized, shorts-wearing take on the 2,000-year-old sport – to Kaiser Permanente Arena.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Four anniversaries, one night: Santa Cruz music fixture Rick Walker marks 60 years onstage
Local drumming legend and live-looping pioneer Rick Walker is celebrating four career milestones — 60 years as a percussionist, 50 as a pro musician, 30 as a live looper and 25 running the Y2K International Live Looping Festival — with a genre-hopping solo show at the Cayuga Stage this Saturday.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Willie Ito’s incredible journey from a WWII incarceration camp to Disney animation comes to life in ‘Hello, Maggie!’
At 92, legendary animator Willie Ito is still drawing on his childhood experience in a Japanese American incarceration camp to tell stories of hope. The former Disney, Warner Bros. and Hanna-Barbera animator will visit Santa Cruz on Wednesday for a screening of “Hello, Maggie!”, the animated short based on his childhood friend’s story of a boy who finds joy and friendship inside a World War II incarceration camp.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Santa Cruz says goodbye to Oliver Tree in emotional hometown celebration
Friends, family, fans and celebrity collaborators filled UC Santa Cruz’s Quarry Amphitheater to celebrate the life of Santa Cruz musician Oliver Tree in a three-hour memorial that blended music, comedy and heartfelt tributes. The emotional hometown farewell highlighted both Tree’s global impact and the lasting legacy he leaves in the community that shaped him.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Purrrrrrfest returns: Santa Cruz metal bands rock out to help black cats
Santa Cruz’s annual Purrrrrrfest returns Saturday to the Blue Lagoon, bringing four local metal bands together to raise money for the Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter’s Bogey Fund, which helps black cats find homes. The quirky benefit concert has grown into a beloved community tradition now in its sixth year.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
From Harbor High to global icon: Remembering the genius of Oliver Tree
Santa Cruz-based journalist Mat Weir, who has known Oliver Tree for 13 years, shares his thoughts on his tragic death and the legacy he leaves behind in his home city.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
From Westside workshop to world stage: Santa Cruz Guitar Company celebrates 50 years
A half-century after Richard Hoover co-founded Santa Cruz Guitar Company, the internationally acclaimed guitar maker is celebrating its roots with a museum exhibit, concerts and a one-of-a-kind guitar crafted from Santa Cruz redwood and sycamore.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
It’s ‘nerd Christmas’ in May as Free Comic Book Day returns to Santa Cruz
Downtown Santa Cruz’s comic hubs are rolling out the red carpet for Saturday’s national Free Comic Book Day, including an appearance by cartoonist Mike Kunkel of “Herobear and the Kid” fame at Atlantis Fantasyworld as it and Comicopolis celebrate the industry’s day in the sun.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Save the Bay event targets Trump plan for offshore oil drilling
A town hall and concert event set for Sunday at Vets Hall in downtown Santa Cruz will bring local politicians, environmental activists and musicians together to oppose Donald Trump’s plans to drill for oil and mine for minerals off California’s coast.
