LOOKOUT PM: One, big, sprawling, uncontainable art show

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Since 2012, the Watsonville Film Festival (WFF) has made it a point to celebrate and uplift women behind, and in front...

Happy Thursday evening, folks.

Hope you have dodged and weaved the light drizzle that is taunting us with much-needed precipitation. This post by the National Weather Service sums up what isn’t quite happening, just yet anyway.

That rain! It's just sitting offshore teasing us. Come to us. Fill our cups. Please.#cawx pic.twitter.com/7PoU6kpkRX — NWS Bay Area 🌉 (@NWSBayArea) March 3, 2022

Anyway, we’ll see what happens over the coming hours. To those headlines….

‘This is now’: A sprawling canvas for the COVID times

A metal print called “Four Mile Flow” by Carlin Schelstraete. Credit: Via Visual Arts Network

Local art everywhere: “This Is Now,” at the Radius Gallery at the Tannery, downtown’s Curated By the Sea and the R. Blitzer Gallery on the Westside, is an exhibition featuring 150 local artists that comes as audiences grow more comfortable returning to venues. Wallace Baine with the details.

Big-name authors, ambitious music and art … and Boba Fett

Danny Quijano's — Danny Quijano’s “Malaga,” from the “This Is Now” exhibit. Credit: Via Visual Arts Network

BOLO Best Bets: In the coming days, Bookshop and UCSC’s Humanities Institute are co-sponsoring a couple of prominent back-to-back in-person events at the university, featuring big-name authors Erik Larson and Karen Joy Fowler. All signs point to a new era dawning finally and Wallace Baine and friends have their suggestions.

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Judges could order help for homeless Californians under Newsom plan

A scene at the homeless encampment at San Lorenzo Park on Dec. 23, 2021. — Credit: Kevin Painchaud / Lookout Santa Cruz

What it means: Gov. Newsom proposes a plan to help homeless Californians with severe psychiatric, substance abuse and addiction issues get into housing and treatment. More from the LA Times here.

➤ LOOKOUT’S UNHOUSED SANTA CRUZ SERIES

‘People are waiting — they don’t have their money’

Housing activists and rent strikers participate in a vigil for tenants who they say will not be covered by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s rent relief plan in Oakland on Jan. 29, 2021. Photo by Anne Wernikoff, CalMatters

How long are Californians waiting for rent relief? A new study says that California has sent rent relief to only 16% of applicants, who are waiting months. The state disputes the analysis, but according to its figures, only 41% of applicants have been paid. More from CalMatters.

Where do you hide a 500-foot yacht? Asking for an oligarch

Clamping down: A sanctions regime aimed at putting pressure on Russia’s wealthiest citizens has put a spotlight on the global mega-yacht trade. More from the Times here.

➤ WORK TO GIVE BACK BETTER: See all the most recent listings here.

Associate Director for Equity in Mental Health at UC Santa Cruz
Director of Student Health Services/Nurse Practitioner at Cabrillo College
Program Specialist I – Friends Outside Program at Santa Cruz Volunteer Center

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Will Russia bring its war on LGBTQ people to Ukraine?

Questions loom: Life for LGBTQ people in Ukraine had been improving, while Russian President Vladimir Putin has systematically attacked gay and transgender people. More from the Times here.

UC Berkeley could be forced to cut enrollment by 3,050 seats under high-court decision

Sather Tower at UC Berkeley. — UC Berkeley could be forced by a court order to roll back enrollment, forcing it to slash its incoming fall class by one-third, or 3,050 students. Credit: Josh Edelson / For The Times

What it means: The California Supreme Court declines to lift an enrollment cap on UC Berkeley, which might have to cut its incoming fall class by one-third. Thursday’s decision could have implications for other UC campuses, including UC Santa Cruz, although at Berkeley, the campus exceeded in its own projected enrollment cap, a fact that might set it apart. More from the Times here.