In Santa Cruz, the first weeks of August belong to The Dead. The Grateful Dead, that is. Events commemorating icon Jerry Garcia, one of the band’s founders, cluster around his birth and death dates, August 1 and 9. Performances by tribute bands China Cats and Shady Groove, Dead Dances, even a Cabrillo Festival orchestral extravaganza (See Dead-Centric Events) attest to the ongoing local passion for the Bay Area band 14 years after Garcia’s death from a heart attack.

The band may have its roots in the Haight in San Francisco, but it’s to banana slug territory that members chose to send their massive archives, gifting them to UC Santa Cruz in 2008. So what connects this locality to the Dead and vice versa….

The China Cats will perform at Don Quixote’s on August 1 and at the Cabrillo Music, Art, Food and Wine Festival on August 9. Events celebrating the Grateful Dead and icon Jerry Garcia are happening around town in the first weeks of August.
What: Dead Dance
When : 6 p.m. Friday, July 31
Where: The 418 Project, 418 [...]

Helené has come a long way from the time she had to dress up in a gorilla suit with her belly dance costume underneath. The artist, who dances Thursday (July 30) at Don Quixote’s with the Middle Eastern band Orient’al, remembers her early gigs for a Campbell agency called Cheesecake.

“I would have to show up and dance in all different kinds of places,” said the one-name solo performer and director of The Sisters of the Desert Sky dance company. “One time in ‘Cisco, we had a gig where we all had to be dressed as Star Trek characters….”

At first glance, Wende Stitt’s quilt ‘Iolani looks simple enough. A central red Hawaiian floral pattern is quilted out in white and surrounded by a white floral border. But closer scrutiny shows the border is actually appliqued handmade Hawaiian kapa (bark cloth) that mimics the center design, a commentary on Hawaiian sovereignty. The quilt won Best in Show at the Fifth Annual California Fiber Arts Exhibit, which closes Sunday (August 2) at the Santa Cruz Arts League Gallery….

For the Weekend of July 24-26.

Friday /// Saturday /// Sunday
PICK OF THE WEEKEND
Three surprises about Shipwrecked! subject
Poster for Shipwrecked! at Shakespeare Santa Cruz.
When Donald Margulies’ Shipwrecked! The Amazing Adventures of Louis de Rougemont (as told by himself) opens this weekend, audiences will learn all about the fabulist Rougemont, who claimed to survive everything from an [...]

For the Week of July 20, 2009.
Monday /// Tuesday /// Wednesday /// Thursday
PICK OF THE WEEK
Mary Roach goes Bonk at Capitola Book Cafe
Mary Roach, author of Bonk appears Tuesday at Capitola Book Cafe. Photo by Phyllis Christopher.
Sex. Science. Sex. Science. Author Mary Roach puts the two together with humor in her latest book, Bonk: The [...]

Sizzling. Soulful. Electricity crackling. Smooth. In the hands of Mads Tolling, the violin wails, smokes and sings. You almost want a cigarette after listening to him play. He’s that good.

Known for his work with the Turtle Island Quartet, with whom he’s won two Grammy Awards, the 28-year-old Danish jazz artist started his own group in 2007. The Mads Tolling Quartet comes to Kuumbwa Jazz Center on July 30 for a performance sure to shatter prejudices about what a violin can do….

Ask Shakespeare Santa Cruz Artistic Director Marco Barricelli why he cast J. Todd Adams as the mischievous Puck in William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, opening July 25, and he points to Adams’ physicality.

“I was sort of wide open in the search for Puck. I looked at all genders and ethnicities,” Barricelli said. “There are a lot of directions one could take it.”

But when the American Conservatory Theater graduate auditioned, Barricelli was struck by his athleticism. “He has a unique, buoyant physicality….”

You won’t find tomatoes in December or partially hydrogenated oils in the kitchen at Soif Wine Bar and Restaurant. What you will find is Chef Chris Avila preparing such stunning fare as a Wild Alaskan salmon tartare with creme fraiche, horseradish and crostini, the perfect pairing to a 2008 Chateau Puligny Montrachet Rosé. From the green bean salad with mission figs to the pan seared flat-iron steak, the dishes Avila creates at Soif are meant to complement the fruit of the vine. The actual pairing is left to wine experts John Locke and Patrice Boyle, with whom Avila owns the Italian restaurant La Posta in Seabright.

The Richmond native found himself in Santa Cruz in 1998 after falling for his now-wife Emily. Though busy, Avila took a few minutes from his schedule to answer some questions for Weekend Santa Cruz.…

Poster for Shipwrecked! at Shakespeare Santa Cruz.
When Donald Margulies’ Shipwrecked! The Amazing Adventures of Louis de Rougemont (as told by himself) opens this weekend, audiences will learn all about the fabulist Rougemont, who claimed to survive everything from an octopus attack to 30 years among a tribe of cannibals. Was this Victorian telling the truth [...]