Student Lookout: Late-night slices, BLM mural repainting and the return of Miles Morales

Hey folks,

I hope you’re making the most of your last few weeks of the 2022-23 academic year. Yeah, I know there’s that whole “finals week” thing, but I believe in your abilities to persevere and breach the surface of the treacherous waters of academia unscathed.

I’m sure y’all are busy either preparing or temporarily decompressing, so let’s hop right to it.

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Let’s get it going …

Deals Download

Check out these student discounts:

• Students (and teachers) get 10% off at Well Within on Thursdays.
• HoM Korean Kitchen offers 15% off for students.
• Seymour Marine Discovery Center offers free admission to UC Santa Cruz students and 25% off for all student tickets.

BEST DEAL OF THE MONTH: Student tickets at Kuumbwa Jazz

Located in downtown Santa Cruz, Kuumbwa Jazz is a nonprofit providing Santa Cruz the full spectrum of jazz music through live performance and education. Check out an upcoming show and take advantage of discounted student tickets.

➤ Want to share these deals with your friends? Have them sign up for Student Lookout texts with this link.

Good Eats

Late-night Pizza My Heart ($$)

The most recognizable pizza place in Santa Cruz is open later than pretty much anything else downtown — until midnight — and can provide you with your late-night cravings as you cram for the home stretch. PMH has solid deals, too. Pick up a Frequent Muncher card and accumulate discounts — you’ll be able to get free menu items with every third slice. And a quick tip for full-pie orders: Ask for the pizza “well done” for a crispier crust and meltier cheese.

This week, Jessica M. Pasko — one of the local food writers filling in for Lily Belli while she’s on parental leave — talked about downtown Santa Cruz restaurants looking to make their COVID-era outdoor dining arrangements permanent. However, it won’t come without a price.

INSIDE SANTA CRUZ: Black Lives Matter mural repainting finally scheduled — with a restorative justice slant

Nearly two years after Brandon Bochat and Hagan Warner did burnouts over the Black Lives Matter mural in downtown Santa Cruz, the mural’s repainting is set for June 24. What is perhaps the most noteworthy about this event is that the vandals themselves are expected to assist in repainting.

A restorative justice approach has long been the prosecution’s desired route, and in a certain sense, that is what is going to happen. I spoke with SC Equity Collab co-founder Sean McGowen, who said that Black leaders and local leaders in nonviolence have begun meeting with Warner for victim-offender dialogue sessions. McGowen said he was a bit nervous beforehand, but that the process ended up being a positive experience for all involved.

Restorative justice — an approach to justice that seeks to get offenders to take responsibility, understand the harm they’ve caused, and give them a chance to redeem themselves — has gotten more attention in recent years amid a public backlash against law enforcement and mass incarceration. McGowen is optimistic about the approach’s outcome thus far.

“I could see that [Warner] was nervous coming into it, but by the end it feels like change happened. Hard truths were spoken, and he took it well,” he said.

If you want to read more, check out my full story here.

Around Town – Events

Did you know that we have an events calendar? BOLO, which stands for Be On the Lookout, is our hub for the best events in the county. See all the listings here.

Here are a few events you should check out:

Midtown Fridays, Friday, 5-8 p.m.

The Midtown Fridays Summer Block Party returns once again with a vibrant little festival filled with local food, artists, vendors and live music. These happen every Friday until Sept. 29, so you have plenty of time to check these out.

Seven Cups Echo + Memory Leaks Onto The Rug, Saturday, 8:30-10:30 p.m.

If you have time on Saturday and $16 to spare, come check out the latest entry in Indexical’s singular curation of unique exhibits. This weekend at the Tannery Arts Center, it’s a participatory installation that explores sound as it relates to an intimate tea ceremony. Attendees will be invited to drink tea and explore the ritual, process and movements of the ceremony as the artists alter the surrounding soundscape.

Gimme Gimme Disco, Saturday, 9:30 p.m.

Downtown, meanwhile, you can go to a polar opposite event. The popular disco night is back at the Catalyst, and ready for you and your friends to take some time away from the books. This is one of the rare weekends that disco and the 2000s party happen on back-to-back nights, so take your choice!

➤ Want more? If you’re still looking for great things to do, check out Wallace Baine’s Weekender here.

This week, I watched: “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” (2023), directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson

I am typically allergic to anything superhero, but after how much I enjoyed the first Spider-Verse movie back in 2018, there was no doubt I was going to see this — and it did not disappoint.

The incredibly gorgeous animation is back with the same charming humor, lively characters, wacky universe-jumping and near-perfect soundtrack that made the first once so memorable — and in my mind, objectively the best Marvel movie since the superhero craze took over. The conflict in this one, though, is much more centered on Miles Morales and the other universes’ spider-people. The dispute between these characters reflect a lot of the themes shown in Miles’ relationship with his parents, too. Struggling to find his place in the world, and in the multiverse, he feels that no one — not even other spider-men and -women — really understands him and his difficulty grappling with the weight of expectations both in his world and within the multiverse. The writers did a good job of not defining him by his rebellious phase, because it’s clear he understands his parents’ views. He just has to hide who he really is — and that’s what makes Miles such a great and popular character.

Maybe you’ve tried to be someone you weren’t, learned to accept yourself after rejecting what made you you, or maybe you’re still working through that. But I promise that every single one of you reading this has had times where you felt that you were all alone, and that no one really knew you. We’ve all been Miles — but definitely not nearly this cool.

This is a film that really should be seen on the big screen. The animation on display has to be some of the best and most innovative ever put to screen, and that’s not hyperbole. I might hate the superhero genre as a whole, but when that third Spider-Verse movie comes out, all I have to say is that I’ll be there no matter what.

Rating: 4 or 4.5/5

Puzzle Center

Got what it takes to decipher this word search puzzle? Put yourself to the test. If you enjoy these, check out our full Puzzle Center.

Lookout Job Board

Are you looking for a job? Check out our job board for Santa Cruz County openings.

➤ More local jobs: Browse more open positions on the Lookout Job Board.

That’s about all, friends. Good luck with your studies — you’re almost there! Take care until next week.

— Max