Hi friends,
There simply is no better time to learn about mushrooms — right now represents the ideal conditions for foraging, and there’s the return of the Fungus Fair. Get on board, everybody’s doing it.
Now, on with the show.
This Just In!
Country duo Jenni Muldaur & Teddy Thompson — both of whom come from folk music royalty — are set to perform live at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center on March 23. The fantastic Scottish folk band Breabach comes to Kuumbwa on April 2. The funk/jazz group Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe will drop in to perform at Felton Music Hall on March 7. The Santa Cruz Works event “Titans of Tech,” honoring innovators in local tech, has been rescheduled from its original date. The new date is Feb. 1 at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center.
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:
2024 at the MAH
The Museum of Art & History in Santa Cruz has announced its exhibition program for the year, which opens Jan. 19 with the Rydell Visual Arts Fellowship show.
The highlight for the upcoming year is a new show from celebrated painter Richard Mayhew, one of America’s foremost Black painters, who makes his home in Santa Cruz County. The show, “Inner Terrain,” is curated by local painter Kajahl and photographer Shelby Graham. It opens Feb. 1.
Other upcoming shows include a look into Filipino history in the Pajaro Valley (opening April 12), experimental landscape photography (May 24), a traveling exhibition of prominent Black artists (Aug. 23) and the return of the MAH’s “CommonGround” festival with location-based artworks all through Santa Cruz County (Sept. 13-22).
Man emerges from Box
Santa Cruz choreographer and performer Tom Brady is certainly one of the most ambitious and far-sighted artists in the area, and these days, he’s inviting audiences to share his latest vision.
“Man In the Box” takes place at Brady’s Westside dance studio, Satori, for three free performances this weekend. The show is a collaboration between Brady and fellow dancer Monica Newsam, as they make their way through an environment of 15-foot poles in a sculptural space combining visual panache, movement and Brady’s original music.
Brady, 77, has been in the Santa Cruz area for about 10 years. Before that, he ran a highly regarded dance company in St. Louis. “Man in a Box” is one of his most challenging pieces, demanding much of him as a performer. He debuted it in San Francisco in 2019. The show pushes him to achieve demanding physical tasks, which he does despite wrestling with rheumatoid arthritis. Video artist Zlatko Cosic is also on hand to add texture and dimension to the audience experience.
“Man in the Box” takes place Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. It’s free, but be sure to RSVP.
Anthony on the Wild West
In case you didn’t catch it, UC Santa Cruz history professor emeritus David H. Anthony III was one of the experts lending his voice to an engrossing 2023 National Geographic documentary, “What Really Happened: America’s Wild West.”
The series investigates how the real history of the settlement (you might say conquest) of the American West contradicts many of the myths of American expansion and “manifest destiny,” and there’s Anthony in the opening minute of the series’ opening episode, “Discovery of a Land,” pronouncing, “‘Frontier’ is a very loaded word.”
It’s really an absorbing and provocative series, and David Anthony adds an important dimension to the history. Check it out.
Smoke Chaser at Streetlight
Mark the date: The Santa Cruz band Smoke Chaser is celebrating its new album, “Alazapul,” (on Heroic Dose Records) with a free show Friday, Feb. 2, at Streetlight Records in downtown Santa Cruz. Not a bad way to spend Groundhog Day.
Earworm of the Week
If you’ve never heard of the dream-pop band Cigarettes After Sex, go ahead and listen to the featured song before reading the following. It’ll make sense afterward. I’ll wait … OK, welcome back: A few years back, when I first heard the ethereal, almost vaporous sound of Cigarettes After Sex, I thought, well, here’s a worthy successor to the 1990s cult fave Mazzy Star. Whoever is singing in this band has the same remote heartbroken mystique as Mazzy’s dark angel, Hope Sandoval. Who is she? In fact, the better question is: Who is he? The Cigarettes’ singer is Greg Gonzalez, a veteran artist from El Paso, Texas, whose breathy, quiet vocal style has fooled legions of pop fans into thinking he’s a woman. In these gender-fluid times, Gonzalez’s smoky feminine sound is a positive, giving his band a universal appeal, breaking away from heteronormative ideas of who represents the “I” and the “you” in a love song. Beyond all that, however, is Gonzalez’s exquisite songwriting. His “Falling in Love” is one of the most intoxicating melodies I’ve heard in a while. The production is as lush as a $100 chocolate cake, and with a nice set of headphones, this is the kind of song that can levitate you. If you like to play in the Chris Isaak/Cowboy Junkies end of the romantic pop pool, you may have just found your new favorite band.
Santa Cruz County Trivia
What long-defunct Scotts Valley venue once hosted concerts by Janis Joplin and the Grateful Dead, among others, and was a notorious hangout for Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters?
Last week: A 2011 documentary titled “Under the Boardwalk” showcased what well-known Santa Cruz phenomenon? It was the mighty ukulele. Nina Koocher’s film “Under the Boardwalk: A Ukulele Love Story,” tells the story of how the Ukulele Club of Santa Cruz mushroomed from a house party to a community phenomenon (still going strong today). You can watch the film here. It’s a lot of fun.
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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.