News

Libro Castro: Saturday, June 23

June 5, 2018 by Seb Frey

Libro Castro is a fundraising party and book launch to honor Castro Adobe stewards from the past and celebrate the recent progress toward opening the Castro Adobe, the first State Historic Park in the Pajaro Valley. The event will be 4-7 p.m. Saturday, June 23.

Tickets are now available. Cost is $75 per person, including food and drink, or $100 with food, drink and a copy of the book. All donations will be matched 1:1 by the James & Carol Toney Fund.

This year’s stewardship event honors the Paizis family, who owned and cared for the property from 1959-1963, and also celebrates the launch of the second edition of Suzanne Paizis’s chronicle of the Castro’s history: The Castro Adobe in the Twentieth Century: From Earthquake to Earthquake.

The event will pay tribute to John Paizi’s Greek heritage with assorted Mediterranean food. Wine from Storrs Winery, local beer, and made-to-order espresso and tea will be served.

Early 60’s period address is encouraged! The Castro Adobe site is fragile, so guests are encouraged to park offsite at the Strawberry Business Center at 125 Hangar Way in Watsonville. Free shuttles will be running through the evening, but some parking for mobility-impaired guests will be available at the Adobe. But guests who do take the shuttle will be given a free ticket to enter a raffle drawing.

Become an event sponsor!

Read a good book lately?

If you have some room on your reading list, I invite you to read my book Get It Sold! It's an easy read (just 110 pages!) and it tells you everything you need to know about selling your home quickly, easily, and at absolute peak pricing. I'll send it to you for free - no shipping charge either!

OK Send me a Copy!

African Dance comes to Aptos Library in June

June 5, 2018 by Seb Frey

The Diaspora Performance Project supports our community of Artists of the African Diaspora and provides opportunity for the development of new work, deep and meaningful connection to our community, and performances. All ages are welcome to these interactive and inspiring workshops. This program is made possible by the Tannery World Dance + Cultural Center.

Mandjou Koné: West African Dance

Workshop for all ages Saturday, June 9th at 2 p.m. at the Aptos Library. As a young girl Mandjou helped her Griot father keep his band alive by singing, dancing and playing instruments like the Djembe, Bala, Dundun, Kora and Tama. She is a popular dance educator and has been teaching and performing over the past twenty years throughout the US.

Nano Loubayi: Congolese African Dance

Workshop for all ages Saturday, June 30th at 2p.m. at the Aptos Library. Promoting Congolese dance is the focus of Nano Loubayi, dance teacher, choreographer and director of Bitezo Bia Kongo, his Congolese African dance company. Loubayi lives in Santa Cruz, California, frequently teaching traditional Congolese dance.

These events are part of the Santa Cruz Public libraries Summer Reading Program, Reading Takes You Everywhere. A reading and activities program for all ages. To register, visit santacruzpl.org/srp/.

Read a good book lately?

Ninth Annual Kitayama Brothers Farms Gerbera Festival

June 5, 2018 by Seb Frey

Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks today announced the ninth annual Kitayama Brothers Farms Gerbera Festival, a benefit for Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks, will be held Saturday, June 9 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Kitayama Brothers Farms is located at 481 San Andreas Road in Watsonville (next to Sunset State Beach).

The Gerbera Festival, part of the Monterey Bay Greenhouse Growers Open House event, features free greenhouse tours, potted Gerbera plants and cut flowers for sale, flower arranging demonstrations, a farmers market, tacos, local beer and a PopUp ParkStore.

All proceeds from the Gerbera Festival benefit Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks.

The Gerbera Festival is part of the larger Monterey Bay Greenhouse Growers Open House, a daylong event on June 9 featuring guided tours of four Monterey Bay flower farms, including Kitayama Brothers. Go to www.montereybayfarmtours.org for more.

Read a good book lately?

A Parable: When a Cheerleader Turns Quarterback

May 18, 2018 by Seb Frey

This parable has been provided by an anonymous author who requested it be posted for community discussion.

There once was a Cheerleader. She was nice, outgoing, and a snake charmer to her community. People just adored her. She enters her Senior year and learns there’s a football scholarship up for grabs so she joins the team as the Quarterback. The coach said, she’s been at every single game for the last three years as a Cheerleader, everyone loves her, the team will thrive on her energy.

The whole first quarter, everyone was having a great time. Players were everywhere and trying new plays. By the second quarter, they scored 0 points and their scores continue to gap away. The players asked her for a plan going into half-time. She came back to third quarter with signs and banners. By fourth quarter, not only were their score the fastest losing game ever but players were getting pulled out of the game for serious injuries.

So the community loved this Cheerleader because she was nice and learned every player’s birthday. And from what they saw, she gave the best school rallies. But most folks didn’t see the game or had their child as a player; but they only heard about her great energy and spirit even as a Quarterback. Of course, they all saw the great banners everywhere.

Now the game is over, players are dealing with serious injuries from her lack of competence on the field and causing them to get hurt. Now the game is over, the team was dropped to the bottom of the regional line up based on their games scores. Now the game is over, the stadium seats were left empty from folks who did watch the game and probably don’t want to buy another ticket again.

So how can this happen? How can a Cheerleader be put in a Quarterback position? Do you blame the Coach for putting her in? Do you blame the league for allowing it? Do you blame the players for playing with her? Do you blame the audience for watching the whole game unfold? But more importantly, who’s responsible for the injured players because the Quarterback put them in vulnerable positions?

Read a good book lately?

Santa Cruz Greenway Looking to Capitola

April 28, 2018 by Seb Frey

An indication of its popularity and momentum, Santa Cruz County Greenway is looking to Capitola, which is a key section of the Santa Cruz County Branch Line Rail Corridor. Greenway Capitola, a local transportation advocacy organization, is sponsoring a 2018 City of Capitola ballot initiative which aims to preserve and utilize the rail corridor and trestle for active transportation and recreation in the City of Capitola. The group is currently gathering paper signatures from Capitola registered voters.

To help educate the public about the ballot initiative and the rail corridor, Greenway is inviting the public for a short talk and question-and-answer session on Wednesday, May 2, from 7:00 to 8:30 pm at the Jade St. Community Center (4400 Jade Street, Capitola, California 95010). Attendees are encouraged to come early to meet near the tracks behind the Jade Street Park baseball field at 6 pm for a brief rail walk prior to the Q&A session at 7.

Greenway would like your help to spread the word – check out and share the event on Facebook.

Not able to make it to the meeting and trail walk on May 72? Then please join Greenway for a second walk at 10 am on Saturday, May 5th, meeting again behind the Jade Street Park baseball field.

Also, community members who are concerned with the future use of the rail corridor are also encouraged to attend the next SCCRTC (Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission) meeting at 9 AM Thursday, May 3 at Capitola City Hall to share your thoughts in an oral comment at the start of the meeting. It’s important that everyone on the RTC understand how vital the future use of the rail corridor is to the community.

Aptos Wine Wander Returns for 2018

April 25, 2018 by Seb Frey

Aptos Wine Wander Returns June 9th, 2018

The Aptos Wine Wander returns for 2018! This year, the event will be held on Saturday, June 9th, from 1 to 4 PM in Aptos Village. Come and join your community for a fun afternoon of mingling and sampling delicious, local Santa Cruz mountain wines and nibbles in the heart of Aptos. This event is sponsored by the Santa Cruz Mountain Winegrowers Association and the merchants of Aptos Village.

Tickets are limited, so purchase yours today! Tickets are $35 each, and can be ordered online here (scroll down and look at the bottom left of the page where you can click “add to cart”). Folks who went to the 2016 Wine Wander said it was a ton of fun and a great way to chat with friends and neighbors, new and old!

All proceeds benefit Rio Del Mar Elementary, Mar Vista Elementary and Valencia Elementary.

2018 Participating Wineries

Bargetto Winery
Burrell School Vineyards and Winery
Integrity Wines
Nicholson Vineyards
Stockwell Cellars
Windy Oaks Estate Vineyards and Winery
Wrights Station Vineyard and Winery

2018 Participating Businesses

Aptos Medical Aesthetics
Cantine Winepub
Jet Set Bohemian
Gravity Saddlemaker
Magnolia Fine Gifts & Apothecary
The Mulberry Gallery
Warmth Company

Read a good book lately?

Join the Curves Aptos Fundraiser for Leo’s Haven

April 24, 2018 by Seb Frey

Join the Curves Aptos Fundraiser for Leo’s Haven in the month of May! The good folks at Curves Fitness in Aptos are helping to raise the last $350,000 needed to build Leo’s Haven on Chanticleer Avenue in Live Oak, the county’s first all-inclusive playground (and one of the only such playgrounds in the entire U.S.A.).

Here’s how it works: go to Curves in Aptos and work out during the month of May – you do not need to be a member of Curves to do so, if you are participating in this fundraiser. You can pledge per workout or per circuit, or better yet, get other people to pledge you. Then, go in to Curves and work your butt off!

Deliver your pledges to the folks at Curves, and they will donate 100% of the money raised to Leo’s Haven. Last year, they raised $7,500 and are looking to do it again, and hopefully exceed that level.

Read a good book lately?

Whiskey Tasting for Aptos History Museum

April 23, 2018 by Seb Frey

Whiskey Tasting for the Aptos History Museum

Here’s a great idea for a fundraiser – a whiskey tasting! This coming Saturday, April 28th, you have a chance to taste five top shelf scotch whiskeys and help support the Aptos History Museum.

Deer Park Wine and Spirits (located in the Deer Park Marketplace) will conduct the tastings of a Glenfiddich 12 year old and a Glenfiddich 15 year old from Speyside, a Springbank 17 year old Sherry Wood from Campbeltown, an Ardbeg 10 year old from Islay, and a Jura 18 year old from the Highlands and Islands. This amazing tasting will include tasting notes, maps and will be accompanied by a kilted bagpiper.

This tasting is appropriate for novices as well as aficionados. Two tasting sessions begin at 3:00 pm or 4:00 pm and are limited to 20 persons per session. Reservations are required by 4:00 pm Friday, April 27th, (831) 688-1467. $25 donation benefits the Aptos History Museum.

Read a good book lately?

Spruce Up Your Garden With Rhododendrons

April 21, 2018 by Seb Frey

Starting at 7:30 AM on Saturday April 28, 2018 the Monterey Bay Chapter of the American Rhododendron Society will have a rhododendron plant sale at the Aptos Farmers Market at Cabrillo College, located at 6500 Soquel Drive, Aptos, California 95003. It’s been voted as the Coast’s Best Farmer’s market for several years.

Besides obtaining choice rhododendrons from Bay Laurel Nursery in Scotts Valley, as in past plant sales there will very likely be deciduous azalea series rhododendrons that were hybridized by Jerry Harris, who lives in Ben Lomond, California. At the California Chapter ARS rhododendron shows, Jerry Harris usually wins trophies with his deciduous azalea hybrids.

During the last few plant sales at the Aptos Farmers Market at Cabrillo College, they almost sold out, so please come early.

Information on the Monterey Bay Chapter, and the rest of the American Rhododendron Society can be found at:

Thornton Wilder’s Our Town comes to Santa Cruz

April 7, 2018 by Seb Frey

Our Town comes to Santa Cruz

Thornton Wilder’s Our Town comes to Santa Cruz this month at the Center Sage in downtown Santa Cruz! OUR TOWN, set in the early 20th century, has been described as “the record of a tiny New Hampshire village as created by the lives of its most humble inhabitants”. It invites reflection on how our country has changed over the past century. Yet the play is less about a particular time than about time itself, and the passing ephemeral quality of all life. Much like the inhabitants of Grover’s Corners, we too make breakfast, go to work, celebrate birthdays, get sick, get drunk, get married, raise children, and endure trouble. And yes, we also die.

Wilder’s play reflects his encounter with the Zen inspired Noh theater of Japan where Buddhist themes were played out on a largely bare stage. OUR TOWN’s staging is likewise spare: 2 ladders, 2 tables, several chairs. Much of the action is mimed and left to the imagination of the audience. It conveys in a Zen-like fashion a sense of the preciousness of human life in the face of cosmic immensity.

Thus the play evokes and celebrates the luminous, extraordinary, even the sacred quality of everyday life in every time and place. As the Stage Manager, whose folksy commentary moves the play along, puts it: “We all know that something is eternal. And it ain’t houses and it ain’t names, and it ain’t even the stars. There’s something way down deep that’s eternal about every human being.”

Now more than ever, amid the fears, turmoil, and toxic divisions of our public life, OUR TOWN lifts up a larger sense of perspective that gives significance and meaning to our individual lives and relationships. For we too dwell, as young Rebecca in the play reminds us, in “the United States of America…the Earth… the Universe, and the Mind of God.”

Tickets and Showtimes

The show runs April 6th through the 22nd on weekends at the Center Stage, 1001 Center Street, Santa Cruz. Show times are at 8 PM on Fridays and Saturdays, and on Sunday at 2PM. Tickets can be purchased online at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3205509 and are $25 general admission and $10 for anyone of limited means.

What's YOUR Aptos House Value?

Aptos Home Prices — Find YOUR Home's Value!

Interested to know what your Aptos house is worth in today's real estate market? Then head over to SellForSure.com for an instant, on-line evaluation of your Aptos home's value.

News

Read a good book lately?

Read a good book lately?

Read a good book lately?

Read a good book lately?

Related Posts On AptosCommunityNews

Read a good book lately?

Read a good book lately?

Read a good book lately?

Read a good book lately?

Tickets and Showtimes

What's YOUR Aptos House Value?