Live in the Studio interview with members of Karen with a K. The interview covered thier beginnings as band, how they write their music, and some live performances!

Laura February Strange, who lives in Corralitos (South Santa Cruz County), wrote the "Musical Temper Tantrum" exploring, & poking fun at, the "Karen"-meme. As they describe themselves, it's a "A garage-rock musical, social satire. Titular character Karen (with a K) is a woman stumbling through a very bad day. Wearing her self-serving flaws like a gaudy, costume tiara, her current ordeals are conceived in a dozen or so songs written by Laura February Strange and performed by Strange Bedfellows.

Strange Bedfellows are group made up of veteran musicians Laura February Strange, Scott Kail, Jojo Fox, Jack Hanson and Orbrad Darbro plus vocalists Stephanie Madrigal, Bonny June and Judy Appleby." (source: karenwithak.net/about-the-show, accessed 10/31/2025)

An interview on "The Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club" with "DJ Spark Plug", airing Friday mornings on KZSC 88.1 FM Santa Cruz, California.

Jimmy's been a pro since he was 12, grew up in LA, then Chicago, the Sausalito since 1970; Jimmy saw Jimi Hendrix & B.B. King in the same week! Impacted him! Jimmy was Clarence Clemmons' musical director for 10 years; writes songs, but more instrumentals these days; the "Money Question" - Jimmy has managed to support himself with music through a diverse set of revenue streams: teaching, recording, touring, jingles, stage shows; he ran "Blue Star", a non-profit kids program, for 15 years; his National Steel guitar is named "Stacy", & was signed by John Lee Hooker; the song "Diamond Girl" is for his wife, Kelly; lead Clarence Clemons' band for years (which is how he got to play the White House!); lived in Maui for 6 years, but moved back into his wife's grandfather's house in mid-town Santa Cruz; Jimmy played with Lauren Rowan in the 1970's, in a band called "The Edge" - they are getting together for a reunion show later this year, and have Keith Greeninger & Dayan Kai opening up to expose his north Bay audience to these Santa Cruz known musicians; he has benefitted from a partnership with Jason Moffett, who has helped Jimmy with digital marketing.

An interview on "The Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club" with "Dangerous Dan" & "DJ Spark Plug", airing Friday mornings on KZSC 88.1FM Santa Cruz, California.

Gail Pellerin is California's 28th District Assemblymember.

AB 679 re: Sempervirens finally passed, & signed by the Governor! Assemblymember Pellerin introduced this bill in 2023 as one of her first bills as a Freshman Assemblymember, which, given the fires & VIP visits, meant it got a lot of visibility; at its first stop in the Water, Parks & Wildlife Committee they wanted to know why wasn't it state side, so Gail amended it but it failed because the cost was too high; in 2024 the concern was still about cost; Gail got public input, and this year put in a pair of bills, one limited to Sempervirens, and a companion bill for statewide; this year Assemblymember Pellerin sent 10 bills to the Governor & all of them were signed, including one authorizing nurse practitioners to sign off on death certificates (avoiding lengthy delays if the doctor is unavailable); ACR (= "Assembly Concurrent Resolution" on Suicide Prevention & Awareness; deep dive into upcoming special election and Proposition 50, an ACA (= "Assembly Constitutional Amendment") for a mid-decade redistricting; voters should be engaged!; ballot box drop-off for casting ballot; select committee on wine no longer exists! we are nearing the end of the first year of a 2 year legislative calendar, with "held over" bills = "2-year bills" still in play.

An interview on "The Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club" with "Dangerous Dan", "DJ Spark Plug" & "Golden Voice Gene", airing Friday mornings on KZSC 88.1 FM Santa Cruz, California.

California Senator Laird's district extends from San Luis Obispo county to Santa Cruz to southern Silicon Valley; last week staff retreat (n = 26!) - Laird has 3 offices: SLO, Monterey (with a satellite office in Salinas) & Santa Cruz - one of Senator Laird's staff is the longest serving staff member in the legislature: Tim Shelly; there's little going on in Sacramento now other than the Governor signing or vetoing bills - the legislative session ended a month ago....it was supposed to end at midnight, but went until 3am, at which point they put it on hold and came back Saturday - that day was Senator Laird's anniversary, & as the speeches went on & on, Senator Laird put his head down on his desk, which went completely viral; Measures B & C are Santa Cruz City, and are competing measures to provide money for affordable housing; we need this because affordable housing "does not pencil out"; the governor has until Sunday or Monday to sign or veto bills - for a bill to go into effect without a signature paperwork has to be filed by that deadline; anti-semitism in schools bill; Governor historically vetoes ~11% of the bills - the legislature has not overridden a veto since Jerry Brown was governor!...there are 700-800 bills on the Governor's desk..the governor issues a "legislative update" with 80-100 bills signed, and 20 vetoes; many bills are waiting until the last day, including a whole host on AI; Senator Laird has 1 that hasn't been acted upon, and it's a bill to override the state's limit on Sales Tax % for a city (or cities) in SLO county for a transportation tax - the governor has signaled opposition, not by smoke signals, but via his legislative staff - deep dive into working with staff, pre-submitting bills to avoid "veto bait".

An interview on "The Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club" with "Dangerous Dan" & "DJ Spark Plug", airing Friday mornings on KZSC 88.1FM Santa Cruz, California.

Call in interview with California State Assembly District 28 Assemblymember Gail Pellerin reguarding the legislative session formally ended on September 12, but it ended up going over onto Saturday, September 13th. Assemblymember Pellerin provided a report on the session's final days, including what passed, what didn't, the reasons for the extension, and what we are now waiting for the governor to sign or veto.

An interview on "The Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club" with "DJ Spark Plug", airing Friday mornings on 88.1 FM KZSC Santa Cruz, California.

arrived in Santa Cruz in 1976 for undergrad, after growing up as a foreign kid (Scotland) in New York...who didn't wear jeans; psychology & art therapy major; later, used art to help found and run the Gorilla Drive-In, with free outdoor movies...screened 178 movies over 12 years; how to maintain activism / optimisim without getting exhausted: use creative approach, allowing vision, and find other creative types; deep dive into large puppets and the "Art & Revolution" group in Santa Cruz; discussion of taking art and activism to digital channels. Pronounces his first name as "GRRRRRrrrrant!!"

An interview on "The Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club" with "Dangerous Dan", airing Friday mornings on 88.1FM KZSC Santa Cruz, California.

Overturned gasoline tanker truck yesterday on Highway 17, & discussion of things we'll have to explain to our grandchildren; One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) & Watsonville Community Hospital - do we need to worry? Yes! OBBBA guts federal support for rural health care; 70-80% of Watsonville's patients have their care paid for: if you cut federal support, cuts the federal $$ that would've supported the hospital; ironic, as 2025 is the first year in 6 years that they've broken even; "Gut & Amend", with OBBBA, most changes start on Jan. 1, but the cuts to Planned Parenthood kick in immediately; how to increase state support in the next few weeks? A special session? Gut & Amend (possible, as "there's a ton of budget bills that are empty shells"; Sept. 19 is the last day of the legislative session - the Senate dealt with 180 bills this week, with 300-400 remaining; the "Suspense File" is for all bills with a > $50,000 fiscal impact...300 bills...30% cut (weed them out); Suspense File cleared last Friday; John Laird's Pain & Sufferring bill to not end with death, but settle with heirs, has a sunset approaching; it's being held hostage until hard negotiations with the former speaker Fabian Nunez (& current speaker, Robert Rivas?), who said, "You thought this was the ransom call!?" (...& it was).

An interview on "The Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club" with "Dangerous Dan" & "DJ Spark Plug", airing Friday mornings on KZSC Santa Cruz, California.

Dmitri (accorion) & Matthew (fiddle) are part of a 5-piece Klezmer band, Baymele, that also includes 2 more fiddle powerhouses, Zoe & Rebecca, and Misha on cello - they met & started playing together 10 years ago; all live in the Bay Area, so the band name is both Yiddish (for sapling) and a play on the Bay Area; all have backgrounds in classical music, + a passion for Eastern European music, espeically Klezmer (Jewish) music; klezmer didn't always have titles, and the song we played they dug up in the Kiev, Ukraine, archives; "The Money Question" Not good, but there's interest, and they can make it work. "Most of us make most of our money through music.", with 3 of the 5 full time, most of the band members having their own CDs, & most involved in other music projects; they play a mix of originals & covers (including hidden gems); violins are essential to klezmer music: "You can tell how many people live ina house by the # of fiddles hanging on the wall!"; plug for KlezCalifornia festival coming up in Berkeley (CA) Sept. 12-14, 2025.

An interview on "The Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club" with "Dangerous Dan" & "DJ Spark Plug", airing Friday mornings on KZSC Santa Cruz, California.

This podcast includes 2 Bushwhacker's interviews with Santa Cruz Mayor Fred Keeley in August, 2025 - On August 1st, with "Dangerous Dan", and on August 29th with "Dangerous Dan" & "DJ Spark Plug".

August 1, 2025 description: Fred is the first directly elected Santa Cruz mayor - before him, the top vote-getter in a City Council election would be in line to be mayor, with the 2nd-most votes in line after that; with the City moving to district elections 2 years ago, the district system is working out for constituents (wiht one city council member for approximately every 10,000 residents); the mayor is stronger, serving for a 4 year term. Impact of chaos in Washington on Santa Cruz? disaster relief from FEMA (West Cliff, Wharf) going fairly well, but not sure if it will be problematic going forward; more problematic is that Santa Cruz declared itself a Sanctuary City, renewing this earlier this year; being careful: the federal government cannot dictacte what local police do - Santa Cruz won't obstruct, but wonn't assist; out of a $500M city budget, $95M = federal funds. Is ICE acdtive in Santa Cruz? Yes - they advise when they are coming in; the city has a good representative in Congress with Jimmy Panetta; Fed mpact via the state? It's complicated - with Governor Newsom and President Trump both strong personalities, where neither one will back off.

August 29, 2025 description: Recent Federal District Court ruling that the federal government cannot withhold funding from 30 Sanctuary Cities, including Santa Cruz; Santa Cruz is committed to being a Sanctuary City, where the federal government cannot federalize our police; building & construction downtown; background: California had not built enough housing over decades, so a new state law was passed where cities & counties were given a # of units to build, and it's not debatable (if not, "builder's mandate" would remove city from being able to deny permits; smart cities grow their downtowns, & grow up, up, up; but 15-17 stories was too tall for populace, 12 stories too tall, so settled on 8 stories, the height of the Palomar; 20% of the units will be "affordable" (shorthand for designation defined by the state / fed with r estimated income levels given local cost of living); cannot grow to affordability; Downtown Expansion plan completed 3 months ago; South of Laurel will take 3 more years; Murray St. bridge project? "It's a mess. Not the planning department's finest hour." - tthe city has responded to business complaints with the largest package ever of aid to local business, but it will take 2 1/2 years...replacing a bridge over a yacht harbor over the ocean is hard (& we're not at war, so the SeaBees can't knock it out in a week); UCSC admitting 2,000 more students this fall than ever - the University of California is (one of) the greatest public institutions of higher education in the country / world but, as Keeley learned when he was Speaker Pro Tem in the Assembly, whenever U.C. would arrive, they would announce, "We are constitutionally independent!" UC: "Some day we'll get there in terms of housing", but never happens; Mayor met with the Board of Regents, sued UC, won, and they've appealed - U.C. does have money to build the needed housing.

Interviews on "The Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club" with "Dangerous Dan" & "DJ Spark Plug", airing Friday mornings on KZSC Santa Cruz, California.

This year celebrates 100 years of Clifton Chenier, "The King of Zydeco"! Clifton Chenier's start in the 1950s as part of Rhythm & Blues Road Shows, with early albums on Elko, Celebrity & Chess Records; in the 1960s, with no recording congract, Clifton was playing dive bars; Chris Stracgwutz (of Arhoolie Records) was in Houston with LIghtning Hopkins when Lightning said, "Let's go see my cousin", and took Chris to a seriously dive bar where Clifton was playing as a duo, and Chris was struck by his blues; they agreed that night to record, with a single the next day (?) and an album the following week (?) at God Star Studios; Arhoolie relieased 13 albums of Clifton; in 2022 John realized that, had he lived, Clifton's 100th birthday was approaching; a zydeco DJ at KRVS suggested a tribute album, and John Leopold (former Santa Cruz County Supervisor & Former Managing Director, Arhoolie Foundation) reached out to Folkways, and Arhoolie, but no one bit; at a New Year's Eve (2022-2023) show in Santa Cruz, John was talking about the project backstage wtih Los Lobos, and Steve Berlin, the sax and keyboard player in the band, said "We love Clifton! We're IN!!!"; John reached out to Joel ('Joe-El") Savoy at Valcour Recrods and the project was on! John is Executive Producer, lining up money and helping pick tunes; Clifton invented the modern washboard (over-the-shoulders single piece of metal) instrument after drawing it in the sand for a machnest - Clifton's brother, Cleveland, would play it with church key bottle openers; Valcour has released a record on vinyl & CD, wtth all proceeds going to the University of Louisiana at Lafayette's Roots Music program, specifically Zydeco accordion.

An interview on "The Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club" with "Dangerous Dan" & "DJ Spark Plug", airing Friday mornings on KZSC Santa Cruz, California.