Hi friends,
I took a walk on a bleak gray winter’s day down by the Boardwalk this week to gaze upon the structure of the massive and luxurious La Bahia hotel as it is progressing. You can blur your eyes and almost see the thing as it will be in its finished state, perhaps in this calendar year. Change is coming to Santa Cruz, and 2024 is the year when it’ll begin to take shape.
Now, on with the show.
This Just In!
New shows booked this week include a two-night engagement with the celebrated White Album Ensemble, the amazing collective of local musicians who have explored the Beatles’ catalog with deep-dive attention and respect. The WAE plays two “Unplugged” gigs in the intimate environs of the Kuumbwa Jazz Center on Feb. 16 and 17. Also, look for the great Canadian ensemble Cowboy Junkies to play the Rio Theatre on June 8. Former NPR anchor Michele Norris comes to the Cowell Ranch Hay Barn to talk about her new book on race and identity March 7. The surf-guitar giants known as Los Straitjackets hit Moe’s Alley on March 29. The local band Wolf Jett introduces their latest album at Kuumbwa on March 16. And comedian Connor Wood visits the Rio on April 6.
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:
MLK Convocation time
The Martin Luther King Jr. Convocation returns to Santa Cruz next week for its 40th year. The convocation celebrates the life work of Martin Luther King Jr. at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium. This year’s event takes place Wednesday, Jan. 31, at 6:30 p.m.
The keynote speaker at the 2024 convocation is Bryant Terry, a renowned chef and activist for food justice. The Memphis-born Terry is known for his advocacy of a vegan diet, and has written four cookbooks on vegan cuisine. His activism work has focused on the kitchen and the dinner plate, and his book “Vegetable Kingdom” won an NAACP Image Award.
Eggers event sold out
The Santa Cruz Public Libraries’ “Our Community Reads” program is underway, focusing on Dave Eggers’ nonfiction book “The Monk of Mokha.” There are several events scheduled over the course of the next four weeks designed to enhance your appreciation and understanding of the book, but the first of those events has proved to be the most popular. In fact, it’s already sold out.
The author himself, a well-known novelist and writer from San Francisco, is set to visit Santa Cruz to talk about the book on Tuesday, Jan. 30. But if you don’t already have a ticket, you’re out of luck. Eggers’ appearance was already moved to a bigger venue once to meet demand, but now his talk at The 418 Project in downtown Santa Cruz is full. Sure, there’s a waiting list, but it was more than 140 names long as of midweek. But if you’d like to make it even longer, you’re free to do so.
“The Monk of Mokha” is the story of a young man from San Francisco named Mokhtar Alkhanshali who decides to go back to his family’s native land of Yemen to revive the Yemeni coffee industry. And even though the Eggers event is sold out, there are plenty of other events to explore the themes of the book. The next one takes place next Friday, Feb. 2, when UC Davis professor Flagg Miller explores the cultural history of coffee in Yemen at the Scotts Valley branch of the Santa Cruz County public library. It’s free, but registration is required.
MAH’s History Forum for ’24
The Museum of Art & History in Santa Cruz has released its 2024 schedule of events, which looks back at the community’s efforts to save the glorious Del Mar movie theater (Feb. 7), Nina Simon’s setting of Elkhorn Slough in her new novel (April 16), the work of early 20th-century Santa Cruz painters Frank Heath and Lillian Dane Heath (June 13), the secrets of Arana Gulch (Aug. 24), and an awards presentation for those who have made outstanding contributions to the preservation of local history (Nov. 20). The events will take place at various venues around the county.
Earworm of the Week
For years, I’ve been a big fan of the Texas-born Mexican American singer-songwriter Tish Hinojosa, who was a semi-regular on Santa Cruz area stages several years ago. Her country-folk sound is dreamy, passionate and redolent of the Old West, with an insistent undercurrent — sometimes not so “under” — of Mexican romanticism. With the situation along the U.S.-Mexico border again dominating our political discourse, I recently returned to Hinojosa’s lovely 1989 story-song titled “Joaquin,” a ballad about a young man in Mexico poor in wealth but rich in the faith that he could make a better life for himself and his family in America. “Joaquin loves his homeland/But it can’t give him enough,” says the song’s chorus, attempting to give a human voice to the spirit that drives so much immigration into this country. Yes, there is a danger perhaps in overromanticizing immigrant experiences and motivations, but “Joaquin” comes from an artist who, though American-born herself, was the daughter of parents who lived that immigrant experience. Maybe she knows a thing or two about this story. Either way, “Joaquin” is a beautiful expression of the drive to give your children “dreams that come true.”
Santa Cruz County Trivia
We’re recently passed the 10-year mark now since the death of a beloved icon of the Pleasure Point surf community, an inexhaustible force of nature known for her prowess in the water, and her surf reports on the radio. Her given name was Robin, but everyone in Pleasure Point knew her by her nickname. Do you remember her?
Last week: For most locals, Nisene Marks is a beloved sanctuary for nature lovers in Aptos, a redwood-shrouded escape from your daily troubles. But before it was a state park, it was a woman’s name. Do you know who she was? Do you know what product was associated with Nisene Marks for generations? The answer is eggs. Widowed at a young age in the 1890s, Nisene Marks grew a small egg business in Salinas into one of the largest egg producers in the entire Monterey Bay area, allowing her the wealth to invest in real estate, including more than 10,000 acres of redwoods in Aptos, which her children donated to the state in 1962.
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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.