Hi friends,
Yep, that’s me, listening to John Prine’s “Summer’s End” on my back deck, feeling the sweet melancholy that comes with Labor Day. We’ll put a punctuation on the season next week, in fact, with our final Lookout Trivia Night of 2025. We’ve got some great categories (OK, you deserve a hint) and guests. Come see us next Wednesday evening at Abbott Square as we say goodbye to summer. I can’t promise that I won’t get emotional.
Now, on with the show.
THIS JUST IN
Science writer Mary Roach has made a nice career for herself talking about everything from cadavers to sex to digestion. Her new book, “Replaceable You,” dives into the world of human anatomy and technology. She’ll drop by the London Nelson Community Center on Oct. 23 in an event presented by Bookshop Santa Cruz. A few local holiday traditions will continue into 2025, including the “Music for the Feast of Christmas” at Holy Cross Church on Dec. 5-7, and the Kuumbwa Jazz Center’s “Windham Hill Winter Solstice” concert on Dec. 6. Stars of the contemporary Christian music world Drew and Ellie Holcomb have booked a date to play the Rio on April 22, 2026. Also in the new year, Mark Hummel’s Harmonica Blowout returns to Moe’s Alley on March 1. And Santa Cruz’s old friends, the always entertaining Antsy McClain & the Trailer Trash Troubadours, visit Kuumbwa on Nov. 2.
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.
Journalism’s story
Mark the date: Sept. 24. That evening we at Lookout, in collaboration with fellow journalism organization CalMatters, will host a screening of “Stripped for Parts: American Journalism on the Brink,” a documentary account of how hedge-fund ownership has eroded the newspaper industry, with a particular focus on Alden Global Capital, which has gobbled up almost every single newspaper in the Bay Area (including the Santa Cruz Sentinel).
The screening will be followed by a trenchant panel discussion on the state of hyper-capitalism overruling the values of community journalism. The panel will feature Lookout CEO Ken Doctor, as well as our managing editor, Tamsin McMahon, and CalMatters CEO Neil Chase.
The acute political crisis we face today in the U.S. is at least partly a result of the decline of vibrant, independent local news. Come on out to the Del Mar Theatre in downtown Santa Cruz to learn more about what’s happened to local journalism, and what some of us are doing to restore the values and traditions of the profession.
Welcome to Woodstockhausen
Pretty big weekend in the small experimental-music community here in Santa Cruz. The arts organization Indexical is hosting “Woodstockhausen West,” a three-day jam of “boundary pushing works in sound, image, and experiential assemblage,” if you have a taste for something outside the comfort zone. The event is to take place Friday through Sunday at a private home deep in the hills near Boulder Creek, with the literary name Tristam’s Shanty, all the better for this kind of programming.
MAH mural to be restored
The mural that has overlooked Abbott Square at the Museum of Art & History for nearly a decade, the work of the imaginative Santa Cruz artist Thomas Campbell, is set to be restored in time for the MAH’s 30th anniversary in 2026. “Community Quiltage” is a vital part of downtown Santa Cruz’s visual environment, and a great banner to what has become the city’s beating heart of social activity. The restoration is being made possible by the Edwin Austin Abbey Memorial Trust Fund for Mural Painting.
New local poetry
The Santa Cruz County Youth Poet Laureate Program is publishing a new book of poetry from teens around the county. The volume is to be titled “Waking Up: Teen Poems of Resistance and Resilience,” and the publication of the book will be celebrated with an event at the MAH on Sept. 14. It’s a pretty good peek into what’s on the mind of that next generation.
CHECK THIS OUT
Best 9: Top events for the week ahead in Santa Cruz County arts & entertainment, Aug. 28-Sept. 4
THIS WEEK IN A&E
Santa Cruz Shakespeare set to expand again, with six full productions slated for 2026
Santa Cruz Shakespeare announced Monday that it will expand its season in 2026, presenting six full productions, including a second show in the fall.
Loving fire with fire: Humor, horniness and happiness inhabit post-CZU film
Well-known performance artists and filmmakers Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens interpret their close encounter with the 2020 CZU fire with a new taboo-busting film that puts the fires into the context of “ecosexuality.”
Festival of Dreams to return to Santa Cruz in October
The Festival of Dreams, a weekend-long event devoted to a greater understanding of dreams and dreaming, is set to return to the Museum of Art & History in Santa Cruz in October.
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.