The student cast of “Quartely Exhort” poses after holding its final rehearsal before the first show premiers Friday, Oct. 30 at Kresge Town Hall. Photo by Nita-Rose Evans.

Darkness falls as the group begins their rehearsal for the upcoming play at the UC Santa Cruz outdoor theater. Improvisational jokes flow in and out, and the best ones are added to the script by the stage manager. At one point, an actress falls into an emotional monologue about gay rights. This glimpse of seriousness in the light-hearted, comedic production reminds the audience about the serious issues at the core of the show.

“Quarterly Exhort” is a free show written, directed and produced entirely by UCSC students that will debut at Kresge Town Hall this Friday, Oct. 30 at 7 p.m.

Director Flynn Crosby explained that the initial aim of the project was both to inform and entertain. In addition to exploring issues surrounding gay rights, the show also examines the current budget crisis, the wars in the Middle East, and health care, issues that are pertinent to the modern viewer.

While the show was primarily written by Crosby and stage manager Brandon Bennett, Crosby explained that much of the material developed, grew and changed during rehearsals. Crosby will gauge the audience reaction to see if the show will go on in the future.

“It’s a collaborative show where everyone has been involved with the script,” Crosby said. “A lot of creative ideas and jokes come from improvisation.”

The show is segmented into different parts with a different actor leading each vignette, just like a news show. News anchors Deepika Singamsetty and Michael Fantauzzo lead the show while other actors explain sports, weather, news, theater and celebrity gossip.

“It’s a lot like a news show, but all in a funny, silly, ‘everybody should be laughing,’ sort of way,” Crosby said.

In addition to its pliable script, some other elements of the production have also been fairly mutable throughout the pre-premiere process. Last year, a show like this one would most likely have been produced through BarnStorm, a campus production company run by two UCSC graduate students that hosted 55 performances at The Barn during the 2008-2009 season — from plays to comedy nights and poetry slams.

Recent budget cuts, though, knocked BarnStorm and The Barn itself out of contention to host and produce this show. When asked why BarnStorm is not operating during fall quarter, theater department chair David Cuthbert said it was mostly due to the budget crisis.

“It costs well over $10,000 just for the TAs for BarnStorm to run,” Cuthbert said. “We hope that we will return [for] as many quarters as we possibly can, but with the budget we’re having to make cuts all around.”

While BarnStorm will be back in action winter quarter, for now Crosby has had to organize the show without its assistance, or the assistance of the UCSC theater department. This has made everything from finding adequate rehearsal space to marketing the show significantly more difficult, according to Crosby.

“The only real advantage to doing this outside of the theater program is being able to talk about the theater program openly,” Crosby said.

While putting the show together has proven difficult in some ways, Bennett said that it will still deliver essential messages to students about extremely important things happening both inside and outside of Santa Cruz.

“Here we live in a time when all of our open minds are heading in the same direction in a very close community,” he said. “We don’t always see what else is going on, and sometimes we get stuck. It’s important to know difference.”

Julie Kimball leads yoga students in triangle pose from the center of a circle in the Martial Arts room. Her style is influenced by Iyengar yoga, which often uses blocks and other props to reach different asanas, or poses. Photo by Morgan Grana.

Photo by Morgan Grana.

Bare feet stretch toward the sky while bodies twist and coil, heaving deep breaths all throughout the city.

Since the Beatles-induced Maharishi wave of the ’60s, yoga and Santa Cruz have cultivated an organic and intertwined relationship. Santa Cruz is home to roughly 20 different yoga venues, each with a varying technique and purpose. The compatibility of the practice with the town seems to stem from the general personality type that gravitates towards Santa Cruz.

Don Bard, a UC Santa Cruz faculty member and local yoga instructor, attributed the prevalence of yoga in Santa Cruz to the demographic of the student body at UCSC.

“I think there’s a lot of classes offered here because it’s a university town,” Bard said. “I think Santa Cruz draws environmental, spiritual, in-tune students anyways, because of the ocean and landscape.”

In a similarly organic process, many of the prominent yoga instructors who now work in Santa Cruz began their yoga exploration as students on the UCSC campus.

Julie Kimball is one such instructor. She has experienced the connection between yoga and Santa Cruz firsthand.

“What’s neat about Santa Cruz is people learn to learn here. There is nothing that feels better than being in that flow of purpose. In Santa Cruz that flow could be found in surfing, hiking, in the woods — there are so many ways to learn here,” Kimball said. “You add on yoga as a way to heal or add to that flow of purpose — I think that’s why we have so many yoga teachers here.”

If You’re Always Content, You Never Learn

Her bare feet padded across the mint-green mat. Kimball pointed to three red words scrawled on a whiteboard: “Sat Chit Ananda.” She repeated the words aloud to a room of students who smiled up from the martial arts room floor.

“Thank you for being here,” Kimball said.

Kimball arrived in Santa Cruz in 1974, and her journey into yoga began soon after.

“I wanted something exercise-related to do here, so I thought, ‘Well, I’ll try yoga,’” said Kimball, whose first yoga experience was in a UCSC physical education yoga class, much like the ones she now instructs.

After graduating from UCSC with a degree in German literature, Kimball embarked on world travels to Ecuador, Japan and India, where she received intensive yoga training.

In India, Kimball studied at the Iyengar Institute of Yoga under B.K.S. Iyengar, known as one of the foremost yoga teachers in the world and the founder of Iyengar Yoga itself. The practice is known for its use of props such as belts and blocks. It is also a form of Hatha yoga, which focuses on the structural alignment of the physical body through the development of asanas, or postures.

“Watching [Iyengar] teach students was really a kick,” Kimball said. “He was very hard on us physically, but I came to realize a lot of his physical harshness was designed to slap down that very large ego that many of us Westerners have. Once you hung with him long enough you’d realize it was a game to get us to be more sensory.”

Kimball subsequently embarked upon several return trips to study with Iyengar in India to hone her practice.

Eventually returning to Santa Cruz, she has been teaching yoga to UCSC students since 1982. Her classes are offered by the Office of Physical Education and Recreation (OPERS).

Eve Wheatley is a third-year Cowell student who has been practicing yoga since she was 15, most recently with Kimball.

“I’ve gone through a lot of different studios and a lot of different styles, and I’d say [Kimball] is one of the best teachers I’ve ever had,” Wheatley said. “She allows you to get inside of your body in a way that other yoga classes and instructors haven’t. I usually feel very calm after her classes. I leave looking around at the world, humming or whistling, like ‘Oh look at the birds,’ or ‘Look at those trees!’”

Classes with Kimball are more slow-moving than some of the other styles found on campus. They focus in on different parts of anatomy in correspondence with yoga positions.

Kimball said her teaching philosophy and yoga method stem both from her training with Iyengar and her time spent in Santa Cruz. She also draws inspiration from a great collection of literature she has studied, noting especially the book “Power of Myth” by Joseph Campbell.

Chris Spencer is a recent UCSC graduate and part time stand-up comedian who took Kimball’s class for three quarters. He continues to practice yoga almost daily and said Kimball was an enlightened teacher whose class inspired him to continue with yoga.

“I loved when [Kimball] would make jokes,” Spencer said. “She’d say something like, ‘There’s a lot of tension between India and Pakistan right now, much like the tension between the liver and the kidney. We’re going to do a stretch to lubricate our liver and kidney, and then hopefully Pakistan and India will get along better too.’”

Kimball’s method is to teach with the students, rather than to them. She describes herself as a “rebel” and says she understands that when told to do something, many naturally resist. Her method chooses to educate rather than coach.

“If you’re always content, you never take risks and you never learn,” Kimball said as she sat cross-legged, with perfect posture, at the end of one of her classes in the martial arts room on the UCSC campus. “I think it’s really important for students to learn to be comfortable with things they don’t understand — we’re used to things that are palatable, and we need to become comfortable, relaxed with things much bigger than us, because most things are.”

Endless World in the City

Ask anyone who knows a thing or two about yoga, and they will tell you there are literally too many different styles and strains of yoga to count.

“The first thing you’ll learn about the world of yoga is that it is huge!” Kimball said.

The UCSC campus alone offers Bikram, Warrior and Hatha yoga classes every single quarter, and other more specific types flutter through intermittently.

This quarter, OPERS offers five yoga classes, four of which are taught by Kimball.

Yoga classes taught through OPERS have historically been free of charge, but as of this quarter, budget cuts have resulted in a $10 fee per quarter, per student enrolled in the class.

According to Katie Taylor, the reception center supervisor and administrative assistant for OPERS, physical education usually offers between five to seven yoga classes per quarter.

“Yoga tends to be fairly popular. All yoga classes tend to be full and the instructors have additional people who want to take them,” Taylor said. “The $10 fee has not really affected yoga enrollment.”

In addition to the yoga programs on-campus, many other styles and studios can be found in the city of Santa Cruz. The One Yoga Center offers flowing, stronger styles of yoga; Village Yoga features Bikram hot yoga; other classes can also be taken at the Pacific Cultural Center, Mount Madonna Center and the Veterans Hall. In addition, small private practices dot the town and many larger gyms, such as 24-Hour Fitness, Gold’s Gym and Spa Fitness offer weekly classes (see guide on p. 20).

Yoga Center Santa Cruz is one of the largest and oldest venues for yoga in the city. Like Kimball, the center bases its practice on Iyengar’s yoga method.

Maya Lev has been the director of Yoga Center Santa Cruz for 13 years. Lev also started her yoga journey at UCSC, and like many, stumbled on her passion for yoga by chance.

“My instructor at the time introduced me to the idea that you could separate one part of your mind from another,” Lev said. “When I studied yoga it was really just by chance. I had a roommate who was enthusiastic about it so I tried it out. It’s become a lifelong project.”

Lev was a Kresge student who graduated from UCSC with degrees in psychology and women’s studies in the eighties. While at UCSC she also took classes from Kimball, who served as an inspiring mentor.

“I remember once we were doing a challenging pose in one of her classes, and [Kimball] said you could fall asleep in that pose. I thought, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’ But now I could fall asleep in that pose,” Lev explained. “If you choose to stick with it, [yoga] will benefit you in ways that are beyond your wildest imagination.”

Yoga instructors in Santa Cruz come from outside of the city as well.

Don Bard works full-time for the ocean sciences department at UCSC. He teaches yoga for Cabrillo College’s physical education department, a yoga class for the city of Scotts Valley Parks and Recreation, as well as a drop-in yoga class for staff, faculty and retirees three days a week at the Wellness Center on campus.

Bard emphasized yoga’s tendency to start as a physical activity, and blossom into much more.

“[Yoga is] a good way for people to meet their physical and spiritual needs,” Bard said. “I like that it’s a meditative practice. In my humble opinion that’s what yoga is all about. Yoga is a meditation.”

Abbey Asher runs the College Nine & Ten service learning program at UCSC. She stumbled into yoga as a way to de-stress after having children in her thirties.

She now teaches yoga on campus and at Yoga Center Santa Cruz. Asher also studied at the Iyengar Institute in India after a bit of encouragement from Kimball, and said it benefited her experience with yoga immensely.

However, unlike many yoga instructors, teaching yoga was never Asher’s goal.

“I fell into teaching, I didn’t really choose. Around the same time the university and Yoga Center Santa Cruz asked me, ‘Do you want to teach here?’ I thought, ‘Maybe it’s a calling,’” Asher said. “Now I love to teach.”

After her experiences teaching and getting to know the community, Asher said it’s no surprise that Yoga has such a strong following in Santa Cruz.

“Life is slower here. There’s a lot of alternative medicine here, there’s a lot of massage. . .this type of community encourages an alternative lifestyle. People are open-minded and searching for their spirituality here. People are interested in taking care of themselves here. People love nature here, love the outdoors. It’s that kind of a community.”

Yoga centers of various shapes and sizes dot the city of Santa Cruz. 1. Village Yoga offers a form of Bikram hot yoga. 2. Veterans Hall Yoga offers a multitude of styles depending on instructor. 3. One Yoga Center is home to flowing, strong styles of yoga. 4. Pacific Yoga Cultural Center is a mixed-use facility that offers the Ashtanga style of yoga. Illustration by Maggie McManus.

impassioned protesters marched to UC President Mark Yudof’s Oakland Hills mansion on Oct. 24. Many of those in the group yielded tombstones mocking Yudof’s previous assertion that being president of the UC is “like being manager of a cemetery.” Photo by Rachel Matsuoka.

Approximately 600 students, educators and workers hailing from UCs, CSUs, community colleges and K-12 schools from across the state came together in a day-long “mass democratic action” at UC Berkeley’s Pauley Ballroom on Oct. 24.

The group, calling the event the Mobilizing Conference to Save Public Education, met with the intent to figure out the next step to confront the budget cuts in California’s public higher education system. The group decided a statewide day of marches will take place on March 4, 2010.

Speakers that included students, parents, educators and workers kicked off the conference by introducing the problem at hand — the severe budget cuts and layoffs that are happening across all California public schools. The conference facilitators and speakers all stressed that there were larger matters at hand that encompass the budget cuts.

“That’s what this is about — the privatization of public education,” said Kathryn Lybarger, a gardener at UC Berkeley and member of the AFSCME coalition that attended the conference.

By raising tuition costs, cutting CAL grants and further limiting financial aid, many students of lower economic backgrounds will soon be unable to afford college, attendees maintained. Facilitator and UC Berkeley fourth-year Luis Angel Reyes also contended that the further privatization of public education has become a racial issue.

“Students of color have been fighting to keep the doors open to the university,” Reyes said onstage at the conference in one of the introductory speeches.“This is a historic movement. This is the beginning of a mass movement in the entire country.”

The floor was opened to anyone who wished to express their ideas for the next plan of action. There were a range of proposals, from the legislative to the demonstrative. Some proposals for an indefinite strike were made by UC Santa Cruz students during the open floor session and were met with cheers from the audience.

“A one-day strike is not going to shake the state,” said Brian Glasscock, a UCSC first-year. “An indefinite strike is the only way to win what we want.”

Other ideas that were brought to the floor were to march at UC Los Angeles or in Sacramento. However, due to the overall concern of losing visible support because of the potential inconvenience, it was decided that action on individual campuses would be the best course of action.

Since creating a show of unity was high on the list of priorities for the next demonstration, a date was agreed upon during the conference. After much deliberation and dissent, a decision was made to launch a statewide march on March 4 to occur at each respective campus so that more people may have the opportunity to participate.

Immediately following the conference a blend of roughly 100 UC students, educators and workers took their impassioned protest right up to UC President Mark Yudof’s mansion in Oakland Hills. The protesters marched through the neighborhood with signs shaped like tombstones, in reference to a quote from a recent New York Times article in which Yudof said that being the president of the University of California is like being the manager of a graveyard.

“There are many people under you, but no one is listening,” Yudof said in the interview.

In a UC student media meeting on Oct. 19 Yudof explained what he meant by the controversial “cemetery” joke. He commented that “people think the president of the University of California is all-powerful but it’s like being the manager of a cemetery. I get to talk a lot, but people aren’t listening to me … It didn’t mean they were dead, it didn’t mean there were cadavers. It just meant that … I don’t have a command and control; I need the cooperation of students and faculty. That’s all it meant.”

The protesters were met by police who had taped off the driveway to Yudof’s house. The gravestones, many of which read “RIP Quality Education,” were placed right outside the police line and on the hillside in front of the mansion.

Chants of “Shame on you! Shame on you!”  quickly turned into “Shame on Yudof! Shame on Yudof!”

Although some conference attendees were disappointed in the seeming lack of solidarity in the decision to stage a campus-wide march, facilitator Reyes said, “Remember, we’re starting from the beginning of a movement and we have a lot of challenges.”

“There’s a woeful lack of knowledge [of the situation] at my school,” said a student representative from UCSC at the conference. “We need to raise awareness first.”

(from left to right)

“Mowgli from ‘The Jungle Book,’ the live-action version. We relate to animals in the same way.”
Nando Jameson
Oakes, fourth-year
Business Management Economics

“Hayden Panettiere with her hair dyed brown. She’s all about animal rights.”
Sarah Ruttenberg
College Eight, first-year
Undeclared

“Seth Rogen, because he’s really funny. I just want everyone to think I’m that funny.”
Elam Sadeh
Porter, third-year
Environmental Studies

“Brad Pitt. I feel like we’d connect, we’d have a lot to talk about because there’s a lot in common.”
Evan Abt
College Ten, fourth-year
Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology

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Compiled by Maggie McManus and Rosario Serna.

Illustration by Joe Lai.

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Illustration by Rachel Edelstein.

Student journalists at Northwestern University are under fire — and for no reason other than their hard work and dedication to doing their jobs.

For 11 years, students involved in the Medill Innocence Project (MIP), a journalism program at Northwestern University, have been investigating the cases of death row inmates in the state of Illinois. The students’ work has been so successful that former Illinois Governor George Ryan cited the project when, in January 2000, he commuted all death row sentences in the state. The program’s efforts have helped prove the innocence of 11 Illinois inmates and led to their subsequent releases. But the most recent case taken on by the students has found them in boiling hot water simply for doing their jobs.

After members of the project raised concerns about a conviction decades old, Illinois prosecutors subpoenaed a number of the student journalists’ pieces of investigative information. Prosecutors claim that they want to see if students received better grades for finding enough evidence to prove suspects’ innocence.

Northwestern professor of journalism and MIP Director David Protess denies that students would have received differential treatment based on their findings and cites two people his students found who were indeed guilty.

Nonetheless, members of the MIP are being forced to turn over their program notes, grades, grading criteria, class syllabus, expense reports, audio and visual recordings and even their own e-mail messages to prosecutors.

Student journalists, like all journalists, need now more than ever to serve as watchdogs for both the public and private sectors. But that oversight duty and ability is compromised when prosecutors confiscate journalists’ findings simply because they don’t like what they hear. By subpoenaing notes and private exchanges, authorities are attempting to undermine the independence that makes journalism an important component of our free society.

In an October 25 New York Times article, Northwestern University said it was standing behind the students. Protess expressed concern about his students’ independence being chipped away at by prosecutors.

“It would destroy our autonomy,” Protess told the Times. “We function with journalism standards and practices to guide our work.”

In the state of Illinois, the applicable legal standards that would determine whether or not the students in the Innocence Project and their materials are protected are twofold.

First, the journalist must fit within the state’s definition of a “reporter” and must have his or her work published in a “news medium.”

In its shield law, Illinois defines a reporter as someone who is “regularly engaged in the business of collecting, writing or editing news for publication through a news medium on a full‑time or part‑time basis,” and loosely defines a “news medium” as any newspaper or other news source that is “issued at regular intervals whether in print or electronic format and having a general circulation.”

Second, Section 8‑907 of Illinois’ shield law also stipulates that any order to disclose protected information must only be granted in the event that “all other available sources of information have been exhausted and, either, disclosure of the information sought is essential to the protection of the public interest involved or . . . the need for disclosure of the information sought outweighs the public interest in protecting the confidentiality of sources of information.”

While it is questionable whether or not the students involved in the MIP fall under the designations of reporters whose work is regularly published in a news medium, it is equally questionable whether prosecutors adhered to state standards and truly exhausted every other means of obtaining the information before they subpoenaed the students’ information.

The journalists have already willingly provided for prosecutors videotaped interviews of critical witnesses recanting their initial testimony. The prosecutors are simply overstepping their boundaries by demanding to see the students’ additional work, instead of investigating the cases themselves.

The members of the MIP should not waiver in their commitment to solid journalism and investigative reporting. MIP members need to keep sending a fervent message to Illinois prosecutors: do your own homework instead of copying off of someone else. And in the meantime, don’t punish journalists for doing their jobs.

Surfers of all ages and abilities enjoy the waves at Steamer Lane in Santa Cruz, where the Cold Water Classic will take place starting November 2. Photo by Devika Agarwal.

Steamer Lane, simply “The Lane” to many locals, is one of Santa Cruz’s most visited surf spots. And for this reason, it comes as no surprise that this will be where the world-renowned O’Neill Cold Water Classic and accompanying Oakley Pro Junior’s competition will kick off on Nov. 2.

Over 170 surfers, many of whom are top-rated, will be competing in the week long event. Mark Prefontaine, who is the marketing manager for O’Neill Inc. and helped run the competition from 2001 to 2008, says that this year’s competitions will feature even more talented participants than in past years. He said the increase in talented participiants is due to the Cold Water Classic becoming a six-star prime event, the highest level of competition in the World Qualifying Series (WQS).

“Up until this year the Coldwater Classic had a four-star rating,” Prefontaine said. “But the six-star rating is the highest possible and allows for the best of the best to come out and surf because it gives more incentives to the surfers by awarding them with more points for the circuit.”

The Cold Water Classic started in Santa Cruz in 1987 and has since grown steadily to become one of Northern California’s most premier annual surf competitions. This year the competition went global, making stops in Australia, Scotland, South Africa and Canada.

“What we wanted to do was to take the idea of surfing in cold water, much like in Santa Cruz, and apply it globally,” Prefontaine said. “People have heard of the endless summer; surfing in warm water has been done. We wanted to flip that idea and chase winter instead.”

Santa Cruz is the final stop for the event, and is the place where the winner from all the stops overall will be crowned and awarded the $50,000 prize. Prefontaine believes it is fitting that the competition will end where it originally began and where O’Neill first began operating.

“We wanted to bring the event back to its roots at the end and award the winner there where the event originally began,” Prefontaine said.

The competition this year is thick with big names like Jordy Smith, Tim Reyes and Cory Lopez. Many locals, however, seem especially excited to see last year’s Cold Water Classic winner and local golden boy Nat Young compete in the tournament.

“It’s an awesome tournament! [I’m] really hoping to see Nat Young go home the winner again, too,” said Max Tom, a local, UC Santa Cruz alum and surfing fan.

Prefontaine said that Young definitely has a chance of repeating his success from last year.

“Nat is phenomenal, he has the skills to win this thing again,” Prefontaine said. “The Lane has such a weird wave and it takes time to pick up on its subtleties, but Nat has the edge in the fact that he is local and is able to surf there whenever.”

Los Gatos resident Brandon Balance went to the tournament last year and is looking forward to watching surfers ride the waves in ample company.

“It’s a huge tournament. The spot is filled with people. It’s really great and exciting to watch,” Balance said. “I’m definitely planning on going again this year.”

Prefontaine also believes that without the backing of Santa Cruz and the many Cold Water Classic fans, the tournament wouldn’t be what it is today.

“The Lane only hosts four contests a year, and it’s been really great to have the backing of the city to allow us to become consistently one of those contests,” Prefontaine said. “It’s important for us to have the relationship we have with the city because without it we couldn’t put on this event.”

Rare apple samples, including nibbles of the fiery red Grenadine variety, were offered to attendees at the Heritage Harvest Festival on Oct. 24. Photo by Morgan Grana.

Think of the last apple you ate. Was it from Washington, New Zealand — or nearby in the Monterey Bay?

Dedicated to the propagation and celebration of heirloom fruit trees, the California Rare Fruit Growers (CRFG) association is a resource for those interested in growing specialty fruits, or just finding out more about their favorite kind.

On October 24, the Monterey chapter of CRFG joined forces with the Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks (FSCSP) to host the annual Heritage Harvest Festival. The event awakened the rustic Wilder Ranch complex into a thriving space featuring wagon rides with draft horses, gasoline-powered washing machines, old-time music and not to mention 72 varieties of apples to taste.

“Our goal is to get as many people as excited [as possible] about apples they have never tried,” said Ellen Baker, the director of the CRFG Monterey chapter. “And the longer-term goal is to excite people enough to start growing their own.”

The unique characteristics of the Wyken Pippen, Sam Young and Winesap apple varieties stood out to taste-testers against the basic selection of common store-bought apples like Red Delicious or Fuji. The apples featured at the event were all grown in the Monterey Bay, each one with a story and a farmer’s symbolic thumbprint on it.

Dave Shaw, a member of CRFG, a UC Santa Cruz lecturer and a graduate from the the Center for Agriculture and Sustainable Food Systems (CASFS) apprenticeship program, explained the allure of growing rare fruits.

“It’s fun. It’s a hobby but also productive. It engages me with sense of place,” Shaw said. “You can’t get these on the market. There are some things money can’t buy.”

The apples found in conventional supermarkets have been selected for traits favorable for mass production and long-distance transport, such as durability.

But Shaw explained that there is more to think about in planting trees than production and consumption, noting how important the integration of social spaces and ecological spaces can be.

“When I’ve seen students plant fruit trees on campus, they transform spaces into places — it’s no longer an alienating institution, it’s their turf, it’s their home,” Shaw said.

Peg Danielson of FSCSP said that Saturday’s event was also aimed at forging a connection between community members and the land on which they live.

“It gives people a reason to come out and enjoy their parks,” Danielson said. “A festival like this brings the whole community together, and a lot of people are connecting with the animals, with the cultural history and each other.”

Randy Wildera, director of Strategic Development and Partnership for FSCSP, said that the Heritage Harvest Festival has remained a community cornerstone for over 20 years as locals become more interested in reaffirming their connections to the land.

Many proponents of the revival of rare foods into common and local diets see the practice as a means of resisting the homogenization of the global food market.

Each apple has a history and comes from a specific region, perhaps first discovered hundreds of years ago. Paired through this event with the use and protection of state parks, according to event coordinators, serves a greater overall purpose than personal enjoyment — it is a reflection of certain social values as well.

“The main thing is for people to keep caring and stay involved,” said Danielson, speaking of the jeopardized maintenance of the Santa Cruz State Parks, due to state budget cuts.

Organizers of the Heritage Harvest festival say it will have succeeded if it inspires individuals to further their relationship with the state parks and rare fruits.

“We have here a collection of biodiversity that is threatened to be lost,” Shaw said. “Cultural and biological diversity are inextricably tied. Preservation of culture means preservation of biodiversity.”

Photo by Alex Zamora.

The Red Room
Tiki masks, voodoo dolls and authentic shrunken heads — The Red Room is feeling the holiday spirit in a big way. The bar’s theme this year is “Voodoo,” and the atmosphere sets the stage for a superstitious Halloween. Signs inside the door read “Zombies made fresh daily,” and photos on the wall are dappled with fake blood. A full-sized coffin sits atop a doorway in the back, and the ever-present color red dominates the room, creating a spooky air. The Red Room is located next to Planet Fresh Burritos on the corner of Cedar and Locust.

Photo by Alex Zamora.

99 Bottles
Come during the day, and you’ll find a family-friendly bar (shocking, I know) with treats for kids including candy and a free kid’s meal. Come at night and the real holiday festivities will be underway. Live DJ Nick at Night will be providing the upbeat soundtrack for the numerous costume contests that will be happening throughout Halloween weekend. Beer gear such as hats, shirts and pint glasses from various breweries will be given away as well. You can wander in, win a hat, have a drink and meander right back out (to return again later, of course).

Photo by Alex Zamora.

The 515
Team Zissou is in Santa Cruz! The 515 sits on the corner of Cedar and Cathcart, and they’re bringing the nautical to Halloween. Colorful fish adorn the walls and windows, and a sign hangs out front on the balcony, wishing passersby a happy Halloween. The underwater theme is found throughout both bar and dining area, so the aquatic experience is complete. With a slew of nets, fish, portholes and a crew right out of “The Life Aquatic,” all that’s missing is the leopard shark.

Photo by Alex Zamora.

The Red
Upstairs from The Red Room is The Red. With the same theme as its downstairs buddy, The Red offers a larger space, complete with plush patterned couches, coffee tables and private booths. They even have a fireplace that burns in the evening and a projector screen that will have movies playing all night, not to mention all the alcohol you can afford. With a bar that long, no ghost nor ghoul will find themselves lacking in Halloween spirits.

Exploring movement and emotions, ‘Moving Voices’ leads audiences through a exploration of the inner self through a two-part produciton opening at the Barn this Friday. Photo by Devika Agarwal.

Movement without motion. A message conveyed without words. A language that speaks to the soul rather than to the ears. All these aspects and more accompany the experience that is the show “Moving Voices.”

UC Santa Cruz’s Barn Theater, the usual haunt of the student-produced BarnStorm, will play host to a unique set of theater arts department shows entitled “Moving Voices” for the next two weekends. The show is a collaboration of two directorial visions that explore various aspects of body movement and vocal work in performance.

Although the shows are considered a single program, they are separate artistic entities. The first is “The Splendor and Death of Joaquin Murieta,” written by Pablo Neruda and directed by Guzman.

“Our show is about going on a journey,” student director Yave Guzman said. “It’s about finding yourself and your strengths while on that journey.”

“This is not your traditional show,” Guzman added. “It’s creating a story — a language — as the show unfolds.”

This part of “Moving Voices” is a bilingual piece. While Neruda’s story was originally written in Spanish, Guzman has his characters alternate speaking in both Spanish and English.

“This [show] is a response to my own anger towards cuts aimed at theater that encourages fluency in another language,” said Guzman.

The second show of the set is called “The Spiral” and is inspired by a short story about a mollusk by Italian short story Italo Calvino. It is directed by UCSC student Matt Kedzie.

The cast plays as an ensemble and has developed individual characters named and inspired by Calvino’s stories.

Both pieces are steeped in movement and the exploration of physicality.

“It is about observing with all the senses,” actor James Tipton said. “[The play] is a growing and changing in awareness [for the audience].”

Kedzie had his actors heighten and dull their own senses to gain a better grasp of what the play was trying to achieve.

“We played with our senses a lot,” he said. “We had a deaf rehearsal and a blind rehearsal.”

The two directors said their choices when working on these shows were motivated by the concept of the show’s namesake — moving voices.

“They are words, but they are moving,” Guzman said. “[The words] force you to take up action. It moves your soul.”

Although similarities can be drawn between the shows there are differences in the performance aspects of the two pieces. According to Kedzie, the ensemble in “The Spiral” serve to draw the audience into themselves and reflect rather than weave a direct narrative.

“There is not a story you can easily follow, it’s not a linear theater piece we are used to,” Kedzie said of his show. “If you are an audience member, you get to see something different every night.”

Both directors agree that their pieces transcend traditional theatrical performances.

“We could do this on a street corner, it would still be powerful,” Guzman said.

The theater space itself, Kedzie added, changes the audience’s perception of the piece.

“It is only a theater piece because we are in a theater,” Kedzie said. “If we were out of a theater, it would be performance art.”

He said that the two pieces deal with issues that will hopefully be both inspiring and thought-provoking to audiences.

“These authors inspired us,” said Kedzie. “We hope to move other people with our voices.”

The directors encourage audience members to keep an open mind when attending the show in order to fully experience the range of emotions each offers. They said that “Moving Voices” will be an interesting experience and have a different effect on each person who attends.

“If they want to have a positive experience,” Kedzie said, “the audience has to come willing to experience a treat for the senses.”

~~~~~

Moving Voices opens on Oct. 30, 2009 in the Barn Theater at the base campus. Tickets can be purchased through the Barn.

Purple ribbons adorn the Walnut Avenue Women’s Center in commemoration of Domestic Violence Awareness Month. The Center is happy to have its state funding restored, but still has difficult decisions ahead. Photo by Kathryn Power.

Kristie Clemens (center) and administrative staff of the Walnut Avenue Women’s Center are responsible for making sure the money that has been restored goes to those who need it. Photo by Kathryn Power.

Throughout the month of October, domestic violence centers in Santa Cruz County have been celebrating Domestic Violence Awareness Month. But the celebration has been, at best, bittersweet.

Just over the course of this past month, domestic violence centers have seen a drastic change in scenario. Over the summer, Schwarzenegger cut all of the $16 million funding to California’s domestic violence centers.

Since then, centers like Santa Cruz’s Walnut Avenue Women’s Center (WAWC)and Watsonville’s Women’s Crisis Support (WCS) have made a case for why they need state support. The original cut meant a 50 percent reduction to the budget of WAWC’s Domestic Violence Department and a 33 percent cut at the WCS.

“We all came together in response to what happened and called on our allies in our community,” said Kristie Clemens, director of the domestic violence department at the WAWC. “Fortunately, we were received by the press and were able to have a voice and be heard and made a lot of phone calls.”

On October 15 the centers saw their efforts come to fruition when $16.3 million, was restored to the centers.

The allocation represents only a temporary solution, however. The money came on loan from the state of California due to cuts the made to its Vehicle Technology Fund, and the allocation will last for one year.

“It’s a Band-Aid solution,” Clemens said. “It will give us a year of funding, and we’ll hopefully be able to secure more money.”

In the meantime, while the centers wait and fight to secure money beyond the first year, either from governmental or private sources, the county’s two women’s centers are making difficult decisions.

While both centers have maintained many core programs including legal advocacy, counseling, education outreach and providing safe homes to those who need them, cuts have had to be made elsewhere.

WCS has opted to close its doors on Fridays. WAWC is now closed on Wednesdays and has had to let go of two staff members. Additionally, WAWC is considering a reduction in hours for its advice hotline, which currently operates 24 hours a day.

The reduction in hours and services has caused longer lines and delays on the days when WAWC is still open. It has also made work more difficult for volunteers and staff members, who are now doing more work than ever for significantly less money.

Emily Steiner, a third-year UC Santa Cruz feminist studies major, interns with WAWC. She said she is worried about the cuts being discussed to the 24-hour hotline, which she works regularly.

“I’ve had participants call and say it’s very helpful that they can call at any time,” Steiner said. “If they’re not able to call, they’ll lose that support.”

According to the Santa Cruz District Attorney’s Office, on Oct. 20 there were 21 domestic violence complaints called in to emergency dispatchers in Santa Cruz County, which brought the complaint total from Oct. 1 thorugh Oct. 26 to 423.

UCSC feminist studies professor Bettina Aptheker said that university students are not immune to the threat of domestic violence, noting that students and faculty alike have reported violence problems both on campus as well as in town.

“Santa Cruz has this reputation: we’re supposed to be laid back; a really cool place; everybody’s sort of an ex-hippie,” Aptheker said. “You could have an aging hippie who could be a very sweet guy in certain circumstances and could still be a batterer. It’s two different worlds.”

Dee O’Brien, a full time staff member at WAWC, agreed.

“I think we have to pay attention to [the fact] that it’s an illusion that Santa Cruz is so unique,” O’Brien said, “because it’s not.”

As domestic violence centers continue their search for funding, Steiner believes fighting, preventing and dealing with domestic violence need to be higher priorities for Santa Cruz County.

“I think this is something that needs to be addressed in this community,” Steiner said. “It’s something that’s overlooked.”

Additional reporting by CHP City Reporter Mikaela Todd

Students, faculty and staff gathered to discuss the dire budget situation in light of the recent student occupations. The event was hosted by the Student Union Assembly in an attempt to illuminate opposing viewpoints. Photo by Morgan Grana.

The Kresge Town Hall was filled last Wednesday night with roughly 200 faculty, staff, graduate and undergraduate students prepared to discuss future tactics in preventing furloughs, fee increases and layoffs similar to those that have ensued this year. The meeting, hosted by the Student Union Assembly (SUA), was held to form a coalition to address the current statewide budget crisis in wake of the last week’s occupation of the Humanities 2 building at UC Santa Cruz.

Victor Sanchez, the external vice chair of SUA and moderator of general assembly, decided to create this event as the first public dialogue on budget issues since the Sept. 24 walkout.

“Being the voice of all undergraduate students, we felt it was necessary to try to bring all sides together,” Sanchez said. “We know that there are people out there who don’t agree with the tactics that are being used and we also know that there are people who have interest in getting involved.”

On the night of Oct. 15, a handful of students affiliated with “Occupy California,” a radical student group that formed to resist budget cuts, barricaded themselves in the Humanities 2 building. The occupation took place after a dance party and was followed by several students damaging school property.

While some feel that illegal action is the best way to resist the budget crisis, others say they would like to be active against the cuts in a different way.

Cowell second-year Caroline Youlios attended the dance and felt that the occupation was ineffective in raising awareness among students.

“The guy in charge was trying to talk about the occupation and raise awareness through a megaphone and the kids at the dance were yelling at him to stop so that they could keep dancing,” Youlios said. “I would think that if students were attending a dance in order to create change, they would at least want to hear about what they are dancing for.”

City councilmember and community studies lecturer Mike Rotkin, who received a pink slip that will terminate his position at UCSC on July 1, hoped the meeting would clear any confusion about the issues facing the university. He also said that attendees should realize that faculty, students and staff are all in this together.

“The low-wage workers on campus don’t want the furloughs to happen and the students don’t want another fee increase, and people in my unit want to decrease the layoffs. If we don’t find some way of realizing what we are doing is a common effort, we are not going to be able to … conquer,” Rotkin said.

At the meeting, a calendar was established to that included dates of future events and ideas to help bring an end to the turmoil from the cuts. Some of the calendar items listed were the Berkeley Mobilizing Conference on Oct. 24, a general strike on May 1, and the Gould commission at UC San Francisco’s Mission Bay Community Center.

Rotkin has faith in the power of people coming together when there is a common force to fight against.

“We have a common enemy here, being the corporate body: the regents — who apparently have very little interest in undergraduate education and serving most of California’s citizens,” Rotkin said.

Sanchez noted that he thinks the reason no one has been able to come to an agreement thus far is because everyone involved in the budget crisis is pinning the blame elsewhere.

“We blame UCOP [the University of California Office of the President] and they blame the legislature,” Sanchez said. “Nobody wants to take responsibility for what is going on, but I think at the end of the day it comes down to the pressure that’s put on specific points that is really going to create creative change, because we are not going to budge.”

Those who attended the meeting agreed to come together in the future to resist the negative impacts from the state.

“You see a lot of emotion and energy behind this,” Sanchez said, “because the budget cuts are chopping away at a lot of people’s futures.”

Men’s Soccer
10/24 at Austin College (away) 2-1 (loss)
10/25 at University of Dallas (away) 2-1 (win)

Women’s Soccer
10/23 vs. Academy of Arts (home) 1-0 (win)

Women’s Volleyball
10/23 vs. Colorado College (away) 3-0 (loss)
10/23 vs. Chapman (away) 3-0 (loss)
10/24 vs. Millikin (away) 3-2 (win)

{Upcoming Athletics}

Men’s Soccer
10/30 at Chapman (away) at 7 p.m.
11/1 at Cal Lutheran (away) at 12 p.m.
11/4 at Holy Names (away) at 1 p.m.*

Women’s Soccer
10/30 at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (away) at 7 p.m.
11/1 at Chapman (away) at 12 p.m.*

Women’s Volleyball
11/3 at Dominican (away) at 7 p.m.
11/6 vs. Mills (home) at 7 p.m.*

*Indicates last regularly scheduled game of the year

(from left to right)

“Michael Jackson, King of Pop! Lots of tight leather jackets and tight leather jeans.”
Nik Cvetich
Second-year, College Eight
Undeclared

“‘Where the Wild Things Are,’ for sure. Because there’s all this hype for the movie and I’ve already seen like five people in the Max costume [at the Treasure Island Music Festival].”
Maggie Roberts
Third-year, College Nine
Psychology

“I work at a clothing store downtown. A lot of girls are going to be Lady Gaga. She’s a big pop star and it’s simultaneously sexy. Lots of girls are also going for the sailor costume.”
Paige Bellante
Third-year, Kresge
History

“Vampires. Too many people are obsessed with vampires because of “True Blood” and “Twilight.” It would be easy, too, all you have to get is little fangs.”
Nestor Rivera
Third-year, Kresge
Legal Studies & Psychology

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Compiled by Rachel Matsuoka and Nita-Rose Evans.

]]> http://www.cityonahillpress.com/2009/10/29/public-discourse-6/feed/ 0 http://www.cityonahillpress.com/2009/10/28/thrillin%e2%80%99-for-the-arts/ http://www.cityonahillpress.com/2009/10/28/thrillin%e2%80%99-for-the-arts/#comments Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:42:56 +0000 City on a Hill Press http://www.cityonahillpress.com/?p=6572

Over 200 ghoulish figures gathered downtown to dance as part of the Thrill the World event, which boasted 30,000 participants worldwide. Photo by Isaac Miller.

Hundreds of “zombies” congregated at Cooper St. and Pacific Ave. to Thrill the World on Oct. 24. Bloodstained and boiled dancers of all ages simultaneously got down to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” at exactly 5:30 pm, synchronizing with thousands of dancers from 34 countries and 250 cities worldwide.

“That was pretty much the most amazing thing ever,” said one of the hundreds of spectators, lined up on Cooper St. watching the spectacle.

This is the third year of the Thrill the World event, founded by Canadian dance instructor Ines Markelle, and the second time the dance has been organized in the Santa Cruz area. Last year, the international event set a world record for the Largest Thriller Dance with 4,179 dancers.

This year, a global entourage of over 30,000 thriller dancers shattered the previous worldwide record.

The sudden increase in participants was apparent at the local level as well. While there were only 10 participants for last year’s Santa Cruz event, 250 people attended this year, according to local event organizer, Quelddy Culver. In addition to hundreds of participiants, hundreds of spectators lined the streets to watch.

“Part of [the increase in participants] has to do with Jackson’s passing and the resurgence of his popularity,” Culver said. “But also, dancing is a language we can all speak.”

This message was clear to those who danced, and served as an inspiration to many.

“I’ll do anything for Michael Jackson,” said dancer Tiffany Worthington. “It is an awesome way to remember him. [This] is what he wanted, for us to connect everyone.”

The Thrill the World organization encouraged each local ensemble to collect money and contribute it to a local charity. The proceeds of Santa Cruz’s Thrill the World were donated to Mariposa’s Art, a local non-profit organization that focuses on art and education.

Culver, who has been organizing this event since June, felt donating to Mariposa’s Art was a worthy cause.

“With all of the funding they lost from state budget cuts, I thought [this event] was a perfect fit,” Culver said.

The $600 in proceeds, collected from participants and a makeup booth run by Mariposa, will help them run afterschool programs centered on the arts, music and leadership skills for K-12 students.

Jen Barker, a Mariposa volunteer who helped apply blood, guts and stitches to the ghouls and dancing dead, noted that the organization hoped to provide more than just thrills.

“Mariposa’s mission was to promote a healthy lifestyle, a good body image and big dreams,” Barker said.

Founded 11 years ago in Santa Cruz, Mariposa’s Art runs afterschool art, music and leadership development programs in Santa Cruz and Santa Clara counties for low-income elementary, middle and high school students.

Rachel Barron, development director for Mariposa’s Art and a 1998 graduate of UC Santa Cruz, explained that the money raised from this event will help fund the organization’s Art and Guitar Teach program.

“This program will instruct 30 high school students on how to teach music and art to elementary and middle school children,” Barron said. “For high school students it is an opportunity for a career-building internship, while the younger students get a positive role model; for both age groups it is an opportunity to use art as a tool to teach life.”

Both dancers and organizers were very satisfied with the event and the cause it will benefit.

“I had a great time,” Culver said. “It’s a perfect way to get people to dance while helping a charity.”