A recent trip back to California, where I spent the middle half of my life (the part between the Seattle bookends) and other smaller events have made me reflective of past events and places. My brothers and I stopped in Santa Cruz, briefly, where I had lived for years, and stopped by a nightclub I had spent time in, the Catalyst, and asked the bartender the current status of local things. I found out Club Zayante in the Santa Cruz Mountain had closed. When I got home I researched the Club, which was once of the hottest nightclubs in Central California to learn what happened. I found out the club had closed for financial reasons then burned down. But what I learned about the owner, Tom Louagie intrigued me. He had come out from the east coast on a romantic quest, to find the Cannery Row he had read in Steinbeck. He had the idea of moving there and living a literary dream from the past. He didn't know that that Cannery Row had died...
Violating the open meetings law, passing the collective bargaining legislation with protesters and Democratic legislators locked out of the hall, passing as a non-budget item with ten minutes notice but leaving some budget items in the law, Wisconsin Republicans destroy every semblance of democracy in Wisconsin. Strike!
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