Here they are, nine necessary know-abouts for the week ahead. It’s the orange-and-black B9:
➤ Santa Cruz is known as a place that nurtures and supports artists and creative types. That’s an easy claim to make, but what does it really mean? How are creative people developed? Next Tuesday, the Rio Theatre welcomes an impressive literary pairing that might bring some insight into the roots of creativity and imagination, and where a commitment to creative self-expression really comes from. Graphic novelist Raina Telgemeier and cartoonist Scott McCloud come to town to talk about their new collaboration, “The Cartoonists Club,” a dazzlingly illustrated story of a quartet of middle-schoolers who come together to collaborate and encourage each other. Bay Area native Telgemeier is a phenomenon in the world of middle-grade lit, thanks largely to her award-winning graphic-novel memoir “Smile.” McCloud is famous not only for his work in the comics industry, but also for his incisive and enlightening ideas of the importance of comics in the arts, and how comics work. The pairing of these two powerhouse names in the world of comics comes to us thanks to Bookshop Santa Cruz. It’s an opportunity to reflect on the power of the most basic of visual arts — drawing — and its role in an increasingly complicated world.
➤ There are untold legions of people who have pushed the ball forward in the farm-to-table California-cuisine food revolution of the past half-century. But if there is a single person at the top of that pyramid, it might be Alice Waters, the founder of Chez Panisse in Berkeley and a pioneer in changing the conversation about food. The divine Ms. Waters, now 81, is planning a trip to Santa Cruz, where she will be at the Rio next Thursday, Oct. 30, to discuss her latest project, “A School Lunch Revolution.” Can we just make her America’s food czar?
➤ She is Rachael Price, famous for her work in the band Lake Street Dive. He is guitarist and vocalist Vilray Blair Bolles. As Rachael & Vilray, the two are drawing up a new template for contemporary jazz, smartly eccentric and yet starry-eyed in its romanticism. They come to the Rio on Saturday on the strength of a bold new album (that features a vocal from the great Stephen Colbert) titled “West of Broadway.” Well, Santa Cruz is certainly that.
➤ Though it’s part of the Halloween season, Stephen King’s “Misery” isn’t so much a horror story as it is a chilling character study on toxic fandom. So says our theater critic, Jana Marcus, of the play — adapted from the King novel by William Goldman — at Actors’ Theatre through Nov. 1. Though the supernatural is not involved, “Misery” is still an ideal accouterment to the spooky season. See it this weekend.
➤ They’re telling us the show is sold out, but I just gotta throw some love at the Hip Abduction, the unapologetically feel-good reggae band that, despite the fact that they’re from Florida, somehow captures a quintessential California groove anyway. I regularly use “We’ll Be Alright” and “Float” as a part of my mental-health regimen. And apparently, I’m not the only one. The Hips play to a full house Friday at Felton Music Hall.
➤ What is Land of Medicine Buddha? And what goes on up there in the Soquel Hills? This weekend is the ideal time to find out with the Medicine Buddha Festival, a free, open-to-the-public event at the enchanting site of LMB, with devotional rituals, guided meditations, a dharma talk, coffee/tea and even a free lunch. For the devout and the spiritually curious, it’s a wonderful way to spend a Saturday.
➤ Apple pie and hot dogs are fine, but no list of the greatest of all American foods is complete without what the old cookbooks used to call chili con carne. On Saturday, many of the local artists of the form — and I do mean artists — come together for the annual Chili Cook-Off at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. You’ll be dazzled by the variety and styles of chili, that’s “con” and “sin” meat, and tasting kits give you 8 shots at the best Santa Cruz County has to offer, beginning at 1 p.m., but come early to watch (and smell the aromas).
➤ The Colorado band Steely Dead is the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup of 1970s-style tribute acts, with the audacity to blend together two great but entirely unrelated bands in order to make a pretty tasty third thing. Combining the precision and arch attitude of Steely Dan with the free-flowing improv grooviness of The Grateful Dead is a tricky business, but audiences across the country believe these guys have found the right formula. They play Sunday at Felton Music Hall.
➤ For more than 30 years, the British band Stereolab has been consistently making memorable music that breaks new ground without abandoning what’s worked in the past. Led by guitarist Tim Gane and vocalist Laetitia Sadier, Stereolab has always displayed the knack of evoking the sophisticated pop of the 1960s while at the same time sounding completely contemporary. They come to the Rio on Friday.
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