Best 9: Top events for the week ahead in Santa Cruz County arts & entertainment, Oct. 2-9

Here they are, nine necessary know-abouts for the week ahead. It’s wake-me-up-when-September-ends B9:

➤ It’s October and in Santa Cruz County, for 40 years now, that has meant Open Studios, the moment when the community’s wealth of visual artists open their creative spaces to visitors like you and me. Open Studios features more than 300 accomplished artists from one end of the county to the other, for three consecutive weekends. It’s all free, and it affords art lovers the chance to see up close and interact with their creative neighbors, building genuine connections. If you’re looking for a taste of what to expect, the Santa Cruz Art League is hosting a preview exhibition, with a big event on Friday. Pajaro Valley Arts in Watsonville is also hosting a preview. Then it’s the first weekend of the event, focusing on the artists of South County (south of the yacht harbor), Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Make a plan: Find a few intriguing artists, visit them where they do their creative work, and support them by taking something home. You’ll not only get something glorious for your home, you’ll also have a newfound appreciation for the special place we all call home. 

➤ Yes, the Santa Cruz Comedy Festival lives, though under a new, kinda awkward name. “Laughtopus” is a two-day stand-up comedy show at Woodhouse Blending & Brewing that features a big bunch of young and hungry comedians with headliners Valerie Tosi (Friday) and Myq Kaplan (Saturday). These days, you can cry, rage and brood, or you can laugh. Let’s laugh. 

➤ Los Angeles guitarist Molly Miller just has that swing in her bones. You can tell it immediately through her chops that glide effortlessly between insouciant jazz and cutting blues/rock. You can check Miller’s guitar heroics out for yourself when she and her trio visit the Kuumbwa on Oct. 9.

➤ Accept no substitutes, there is only one genuine, OG, legendary surf rock band that performs in lucha libre masks. It is, of course, Los Straitjackets, the veteran rockers keeping alive the proud tradition of Dick Dale, the Surfaris, etc., while at the same time dragging surf rock into areas it’s never before explored. The ’Jackets are ready to blow minds at Moe’s Alley, Friday. 

➤ Big weekend for the Santa Cruz Symphony, which will be showcasing the otherworldly talents of its concertmaster, violinist Nancy Zhou, in a sure-to-be-sterling performance of Rimsky-Korsakov’s haunting “Scheherazade,” preceded on Saturday by a Middle Eastern-themed street fair outside the Civic Auditorium. The concert will be repeated Sunday afternoon in Watsonville. 

➤ Autumn arrives in style in downtown Santa Cruz on Saturday afternoon. That’s when the Harvest Festival takes over Church Street, setting up a wide variety of activities for the family, with lots of participation from local farms and businesses. 

➤ The Seymour Marine Discovery Center is the site for a big event on Friday that carries a familiar name. It’s not the NEXTies exactly, but an offshoot of the annual Santa Cruz awards party, honoring leaders in culture and entrepreneurship locally. This one is called “The NEXTies: Earth and Sea” and gives attention and love to Santa Cruzans making a difference in the realm of environmentalism. 

➤ Holly Near has worked a lifetime as a performer and artist to make a meaningful difference in the world. First emerging more than 50 years ago as a young folk musician in opposition to the Vietnam War, the Northern California native became an icon of a new genre of folk that took women’s lives seriously. Now in her 70s, Near is still fighting the good fight with song. She plays the Kuumbwa Jazz Center in a special show next Wednesday, Oct. 8. 

➤ We could all use a “Taste of Ireland” occasionally (is it dark and bitter like Guinness?). In the case of Sunday’s performance at the Santa Cruz Civic, Ireland comes to life through stunning displays of Irish dance, from folk to tap, all with that storytelling moxie that the Irish are all too famous for.