Arts + Entertainment

Designed with Japanese aesthetics, Iwasawa Oriental Art is an immersive experience. Taking center stage, a tatami mat is set with tea ceremony utensils. Curated antiques, some several centuries old, are displayed throughout in glass cabinets.  One wall features an impressive collection of abstract paintings by...

Santa Cruz County has been the backdrop for various horror movies, most famously “Lost Boys,” “Killer Klowns from Outer Space” and, more recently, Jordan Peele’s “Us.” But its deepest connection to Hollywood involves the ultimate master of the macabre. Back in the 1940s, director Alfred...

Wearing his trademark Stetson hat, George Shannon grabs a doughnut in the Billy Jones “Wildcat” Railroad workroom, jawing with the many volunteers who keep the Oak Meadow Park attraction safe for children. Shannon says he’s been a railroad volunteer for 20 years but people who...

In the Winter 2022 issue of BOMB Magazine, Joe Fyfe argues that abstract art emerged out of the desire to tap into more direct approaches to creation.  “The process became the subject matter,” he wrote. “There was seen to be a therapeutic value in the...

Karen Joy Fowler, the author of The Jane Austen Book Club and Recalling Cinderella, spoke in Saratoga on Saturday to over 50 attendees. Fowler, who lives in Santa Cruz, encouraged the writers in attendance to focus on making their settings interesting.  She told them to “set...

I accidentally arrived 30 minutes early to the opening-night showing of A24’s “Backrooms” at the Santa Cruz Cinema in downtown Santa Cruz. The room was dark, empty and silent. Every seat sat vacant, the screen blank and there were no previews. There were no conversations,...

When Karlis Treijs migrated from Latvia to the United States in 2016, he had dreams of making it big. And while he ended up in Silicon Valley, those aspirations weren’t about the tech world. Treijs instead was seeking success in the field of dance, something he’s...

On Dec. 7, at 2pm, Beyond Text Bookstore in Los Gatos will host a book signing with Ellen Kirschman, author of the newly released Call Me Carmela. This psychological thriller follows police therapist Dot Meyerhoff as she helps a young woman uncover her roots, while...

Heavy rains are a rarity in Los Gatos, but last week saw the community get quite the natural wash. And it put a serious damper on holiday shopping. But by Friday evening, no more droplets were falling—though it was still wet and cool—and hundreds turned...

The imminent reopening of the Los Gatos Theater is the perfect time to take a look back at the history of this major downtown site. The Los Gatos Canning Company occupied most of the block for 30 years before the construction of a movie theater....