Weekender: Gifting off the beaten path, Tammi Brown benefits and a nonprofit’s milestone

Hi friends,

Time for your annual reminder that local retailers depend on you and me to visit and spend money this time of year. Sure, Amazon is super convenient, but in the spirit of the season, let’s all be mindful of the power we have as consumers in our gift-giving habits. So, yes, buy your gifts from Santa Cruz County locally owned businesses this year. But also, as the recipient of holiday gifts, make sure your loved ones know your preference — “I’d like to have [insert cool little item here], like the one they have right now at [insert distinctive and hip local retailer here].” See how easy that is?

Now, on with the show.

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This Just In!

The masterful vocalist Bobby McFerrin comes to the Kuumbwa Jazz Center on March 10. Singer-songwriter Cat Power, known for her reinterpretations of well-known songs, will perform the set list of Bob Dylan’s famous 1966 Royal Albert Hall concert at the Rio Theatre in Santa Cruz on March 16. The bluegrass/folk band Brothers Comatose will be doing back-to-back dates April 26-17 at Moe’s Alley. And look for stand-up comic Jim Norton to perform at the Rio on March 8.

Be sure to check out Lookout’s carefully curated and constantly updated planning guide, Down the Line, for the staggering riches and amazing choices awaiting Santa Cruz audiences. It’s our look ahead at the best shows, concerts and events through the rest of the year at clubs, stages and venues all over the county.

Here they are, nine necessary know-abouts for the week ahead. It’s the B9:

Look for the odd places

If you’re eyeing a locally owned retail shop or two that you’d like to do business with this holiday season, then good for you. Spend until it hurts. 

But if not, might I suggest going out to find that eccentric, off-the-wall place to buy gifts? It can be awfully fun to get out in the community and find the random spot here or there to buy a gift. 

Let me give some examples:

Sure, a lot of locals don’t have a habit of visiting The Mystery Spot, but the local attraction’s gift shop is open for a hoodie or cap you can’t find anywhere else. How about Glaum Egg Ranch out in Aptos? Yep, Glaum’s Ranch Store is the place where you can see the egg vending machine — $4 gets you 15 fresh eggs — and find an egg-related (or otherwise) gift. While you’re out that way, head on a bit farther to Gizdich Ranch outside Watsonville where the famous pie shop has a few unique gift ideas, and you can do some antiquing at Gizdich, too.

When you’re out checking up on this season’s monarch butterflies, drop into the Natural Bridges State Beach gift shop, where you can score some cool monarch-themed merch (including the dope ballcap I just got, but that’s our secret). Sure, Hanukkah is almost over (until Friday), but there’s still time to check out the gift shop at Temple Beth El in Aptos. Lago di Como, the fine restaurant in Live Oak, has a fun little Italian Christmas market in an adjoining space at the East Cliff Drive restaurant site. 

Do you have any intriguing ideas for off-the-beaten-path places to find gifts? Drop me a line and we’d love to hear about it. 

A time for Tammi

Santa Cruz’s amazing jazz/gospel singer Tammi Brown is the woman of the hour at a benefit concert Sunday at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center. If you don’t already have a ticket, the show is sold out. Proceeds go to help Tammi’s medical bills after a devastating diagnosis of stage 4 lung cancer earlier this year. 

The good news is that there are other ways to help one of Santa Cruz’s most beloved musicians. Her GoFundMe campaign is still ongoing. And there will be another benefit “Tonight for Tammi” show, this one taking place in Carmel Valley’s Hidden Valley Music Seminars institute. The concert, like the Santa Cruz one, featuring a variety of all-star musicians, will take place on Jan. 26. Reports are that Tammi is still doing well in her recovery, and she will almost certainly be in attendance to the Sunday afternoon show at Kuumbwa. 

Happy 50th to William James

One of the more meaningful legacies of the late Paul Lee is the Santa Cruz nonprofit William James Association, dedicated to making life better for marginalized communities in many ways. The most high-profile mission of the WJA has been to bring art and music into California prisons with the Prison Arts Project. 

Fifty years ago, Lee and UC Santa Cruz’s founding provost, Page Smith first started the organization, and friends and supporters of the WJA will gather this weekend for a celebration marking the organization’s big half-century anniversary. 

The public is invited to join in the fun Saturday evening at 7 at the Resource Center for Nonviolence, at 612 Ocean St. in Santa Cruz, for a close-up experience with the positives that the WJA has brought about in the lives of the incarcerated.

Happy anniversary to one of Santa Cruz’s most meaningful nonprofits.

Earworm of the Week

Among the small subset of Native American singer-songwriters recording today, Bill Miller is a standout. Of a Mohican background, Miller grew up in a poor family on a reservation in northern Wisconsin and is an accomplished painter and player of the Native American flute. But I’ve been most moved by his songs, sometimes imbued with Native chants or rhythms, and almost always evoking a spirituality borne of struggle. One of my favorite songs — not just of Miller’s, but favorite songs, period — is the elegiac and galvanizing anthem “Listen to Me.” It’s a song that seems to come from a voice deep in the Earth, a voice of authority cutting through denial and delusion — “Listen to me/I am the thunder you refuse to hear.” It can work in many contexts, but in the realm of climate change, the song’s voice is almost godlike in its power to strike a deep chord, telling a primal truth. It’ll give you goosebumps the first time you hear it, and, if you’re at all like me, every other time you hear it after that. 

Santa Cruz County Trivia

Throughout the 1940s and ’50s, celebrities such as Jimmy Stewart, Ingrid Bergman, Grace Kelly and several others came to Santa Cruz County, all to visit one important person in their lives. Who was that local who welcomed the stars?

Last week: This one’s an easy one for Santa Cruz old-timers, perhaps not so much for younger folks. The most high-profile newspaperman in Santa Cruz in the 20th century, from his daily column “Mostly About People,” was, of course, the great Wally Trabing. Wally wrote for the Santa Cruz Sentinel for more than 40 years, first as a features writer, then a daily columnist, producing a staggering 7,000 columns in his career. 

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That’s all I got, friends. Come at me with comments, ideas, complaints, or thundering insights. Thanks to all Lookout members for your faith and support, and please, spread the word on what we’re doing.