Hi friends,
Have to admit, I didn’t expect to see the name Steve Garvey — the single most despised professional athlete of my particular childhood — pop up on my U.S. Senate ballot in 2024. This funhouse political culture of ours can certainly deliver the cheesy ironies, huh?
Now, on with the show.
This Just In!
Nice show newly booked at The Catalyst: The fine Canadian indie-pop band Alvvays (known for their hit “Archie, Marry Me”) drops into town May 14. The Bay Area visionary bluesman known as Fantastic Negrito comes to Moe’s Alley on April 10. The U.K. piano jazz trio GoGo Penguin comes to the Kuumbwa Jazz Center on June 17. Acoustic jazz banjo master Alison Brown is due at the Kuumbwa on June 13. The popular blues guitarist Chris Cain is at the Kuumbwa on May 13. And also at the Kuumbwa, check out the Canyon Sisters, a Santa Cruz vocal duo introducing their new album March 30.
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:
Do you read me?
Would you like to communicate better with family, friends, co-workers, baristas and strangers in the Costco parking lot? Sure, you would. Who wouldn’t? As a journalist, I communicate for a living and I often feel clumsy or inadequate when I’m talking to someone.
Charles Duhigg is a journalist, too, and a prominent one. The Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and author of the bestselling “The Power of Habits” is a Santa Cruzan as well. And next week, he’ll drop in on his hometown bookstore, Bookshop Santa Cruz, to chat about his new book, “Supercommunicators.” (Those interested are also welcome to come by a free pre-reading reception for Duhigg at the Lookout offices downtown, an hour beforehand.)
The new book’s subtitle is “How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection,” and similar books have been around at least since the heyday of Dale Carnegie. But Duhigg’s exploration is in the context of a “golden age” of new understandings about neuroscience.
The book came about, he said, because of a pattern he had developed with his wife in which they would sometimes get upset with each other because they were misunderstanding how they were communicating.
“Every discussion is made up of multiple kinds of conversations,” he said. “And in general, these conversations fall into one of three buckets. There’s practical discussions, where we’re solving problems, we’re making plans. There’s emotional conversations, where I am telling you how I’m feeling, and I don’t want you to solve my feelings. I want you to [empathize]. And then there’s social conversations. And sometimes, what’s happening is that you are having an emotional conversation and your wife is having a social conversation. And that mismatch is really hard.”
Being conscious of the kinds of conversation you’re having, he said, is the first step on the road to being what he calls a “supercommunicator.”
“Some people can do this consistently,” he said. “They can kind of connect with almost anyone. And, it turns out, it’s just a set of skills they’ve learned. And anyone can learn those skills. And when you do learn those skills, they tend to become habits because our brains have evolved to grab onto them and make them into instincts.”
Charles Duhigg will read from his new book, “Supercommunicators,” on Tuesday, Feb. 27 at Bookshop Santa Cruz at 7 p.m., and he’ll be on hand for a pre-reading reception at Lookout’s office (just across the street from Bookshop), at 6 p.m. I hope to see you there.
Felicia Rice returns
Felicia Rice is a foundational name in the Santa Cruz County arts scene, particularly in the realm of fine-art printing. For decades, she created beautiful and intricate works of art. Her inspiration was the form of the book, and her tool was the letterpress.
In 2020, however, the CZU fires raged through her community in Bonny Doon, and she lost essentially everything, her home, her equipment, her priceless art books. Soon thereafter, she relocated to Mendocino.
Next weekend, Rice returns to Santa Cruz to unveil her latest art piece, which tells the harrowing story of 2020. “Heavy Lifting” is a collaboration between Rice and Mendocino poet Theresa Whitehill, and the two will be on hand Sunday, March 3, at UCSC’s Institute of the Arts and Sciences on the Westside of Santa Cruz. The event will feature a short film on the making of the accordion-style art book, followed by a conversation with the artists.
“We’ve been traveling for about a year with this project,” Rice said from her home and studio in Mendocino, “around communities that have been ravaged by fires, as far north as Seattle, but we have not been to Santa Cruz yet.”
She’s calling the event the “Heavy Lifting Listening Tour,” which suggests she is particularly keen on visiting with and hearing from others whose lives were radically changed by CZU: “The idea is to give us all a chance to reflect on the process of recovery — loss and recovery, crisis and renewal. What does it mean to be resilient? What is hope? And I’ve been using this tour as a way to process my feelings about my own loss.”
The book itself is what’s called a “nested accordion,” its “pages” connected together for display purposes. A companion book that features all the poems and artworks in full is available for $35.
The “Heavy Lifting Listening Tour” comes to the Institute of Arts & Sciences on March 3 at 3 p.m. It’s free and open to the public.
The day before, Rice will be visiting the newly opened Aptos Public Library in another event having to do with fine-art printing. She’ll be remembering Sherwood and Trina Grover, longtime fine-art printers from Aptos who for years operated their print shop, Grace Hoper Press, from their home near Seacliff State Beach. The library will host a celebration of the Grovers and their work, with a short talk by Rice, on Saturday, March 2, at 11 a.m.
Earworm of the Week
As we all careen into another presidential election year, it’s only natural to brace for yet another round of the ugly, willfully blind, hyper-partisan and increasingly absurdist mudslinging that passes for “debate” in this wounded nation. (Is the GOP front-runner and former president really hawking gold sneakers? Or did I dream that?) But there are still a few irreducible truths about the American political situation, and one of them comes via singer-songwriter Adia Victoria. Unlike so much mainstream music these days, Victoria’s gritty, blues-oriented sound comes from a specific place, her native region, which we call “the South.” So she’s got tons of credibility to put to use in her amazing call-to-action anthem “South Gotta Change.” The title kinda says it all, though from the perspective of the rest of the country, the Old Confederacy seems to be the homeland of the peculiarly conservative impulse to “double down” in the face of inevitable social change. Victoria reveals some painful truths about the South in her song, but there’s one refrain that applies to all Americans in a moment when our democracy seems to be sliding into darkness: “I love you/I won’t leave you/I won’t let you slip away.” That’s the part where all of us, Southern or otherwise, can join in.
Three Things
In lieu of a weekly trivia question, we will now offer up this highly subjective, weirdly specific new feature, Three Things to Love in Santa Cruz County. And yes, we’re open to your suggestions:
- Did you know there are bears in downtown Santa Cruz? A dozen of them, in fact — grizzlies, life-sized and three-dimensional. If you’re a habitué of downtown, you’ve probably walked past them a hundred times, or a thousand, without noticing. The bears encircle what’s known as the Flatiron Building, where Pacific Avenue meets Front Street (think Jamba Juice or Verve). And the reason you don’t usually see them is because you’re not looking up. There they are, about 30 feet up on a narrow ledge. Say hi next time you’re in the neighborhood.
- There’s a place in Santa Cruz County where the 21st century has not yet arrived. It’s Jack’s Cigar Store & Lunchroom in downtown Watsonville, a refreshingly throwback smoke shop that feels like a place where you might find the ghost of your grandpa. Just finding the store is an adventure — it’s kinda behind Main Street — but once you do, you’ll discover a portal to a time when tobacco was a gentleman’s pleasure. And if you come at lunch, get a sandwich, too — also at 20th-century prices.
- The brand-new Aptos library is super cool, y’all — I mean, architecturally speaking. One of the many fun elements of the new library’s design is a series of outdoor cut-glass panels on a maritime theme, from the imagination of the fine local artist Lea de Wit, especially vivid in the afternoon sun. You should visit — heck, you paid for it.
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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.