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Los Angeles Times
3 days ago
- General
- Los Angeles Times
A California town called Freedom has a wild past as ‘Whiskey Hill'
FREEDOM, Calif. — I was driving home from a reporting trip to Santa Cruz County on Friday when I spotted the plain green and white highway sign, just off Highway 1. It had an arrow pointing north alongside the word FREEDOM. Jackpot! I slowed my aging Jeep, to the annoyance of the pickup driver behind me, just enough to take a not-great cellphone photo out my window before making my way home to the South Bay. As I wrote last week in this newsletter, I am willing to travel out of my way to report from a town with an interesting name. I had stopped in Freedom — a census-designated place with some 3,000 residents in southern Santa Cruz County — to do just that. The morning the newsletter on datelines landed, I awoke to a text from my colleague, friend and fellow California history nerd Gustavo Arellano: 'Whither Weed???' Meaning Weed, population 2,500, in Siskiyou County. I've been to Weed several times. I've even bought a few 'I [Heart] Weed' stoner-humor knickknacks for friends. Alas, I have never reported a story from there, I confessed to Gustavo. 'REVEAL YOUR SHAME!' he texted back. Challenge accepted. Here are a few colorfully named California places I have visited but from which I have not (yet!) earned a dateline: Rough and Ready in Nevada County; Likely in Modoc County; Butt Valley in Plumas County; Hayfork in Trinity County. And, yes, Weed. Though, I have earned datelines from Blackwell's Corner, Cool, Peanut, Weedpatch and Volcano. The unincorporated community blends right in with the adjacent, incorporated city of Watsonville. Looking for proof of Freedom, I found: Freedom Elementary School and the Freedom Branch Library. I also found an easy-to-miss metal plaque on an exterior wall of the Wooden Nickel Bar & Grill (which is on Freedom Boulevard but not technically in Freedom). The plaque recognizes the town's wild past as a place called Whiskey Hill, 'a tiny village where violence, hangings, drinking, and bull and bear fights were a part of daily life.' 'As the town became more civilized, the name was changed to freedom,' reads the sign, hung in 1982 by members of the Order of E Clampus Vitus, a fraternal organization that celebrates obscure local history. Georg Romero, a historian for the Watsonville-based Pajaro Valley Historical Assn. and a retired library director for Cabrillo College, was kind enough to dig into the archives and send me a few old newspaper articles describing how Whiskey Hill, then Freedom, came to be. In the 1860s, the hamlet of Whiskey Hill consisted of 'a dozen shacks, each of which contained a bar and dispensed firewater,' according to a July 1937 article in the Watsonville Leader newspaper. At one rowdy gathering, the newspaper claimed, 'a man was shot through the head, the bullet going in one temple and out the other. A serape was thrown over him and he was left to expire in a corner while the dance and merry-making went on.' The town also was known for its vicious bear and bull fights hosted for spectators who paid $1 for a seat in the shade and 50 cents for a spot in the sun. According to a 2007 column in the Register-Pajaronian newspaper by the late local historian Betty Lewis, a bear would be 'chained to a post in the middle of the arena, and an angry bull was let loose.' As the animals fought, brass bands played and clowns entertained. Ultimately, Whiskey Hill sobered up. In the summer of 1877, Lewis wrote, a small group of residents met at a local schoolhouse and decided upon a more respectable town name: Freedom. Email us at essentialcalifornia@ and your response might appear in the newsletter this week. Today's great photo is from Times photographer Robert Gauthier at ACA Groves farm, where a farmer is fighting to save the iconic California avocado. Hailey Branson-Potts, staff writerKevinisha Walker, multiplatform editorAndrew Campa, Sunday writerKarim Doumar, head of newsletters How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@ Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on
Miami Herald
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Miami Herald
More than 100 performers come together for this Brazilian percussion party
Music is a social art. How music is played and how it's shared is informed by the community in which it's created. In turn, in ways obvious and subtle, music reflects and shapes the community that produces it. It's a process that goes as far back as humanity has been creating sound, and it's at the heart of the work of Miamibloco, a Miami-based samba drumming ensemble comprising professional musicians and community music enthusiasts. In sound and spirit, it is modeled after the blocos de carnaval that parade through the streets during the Brazilian Carnival. Reflecting the diversity of South Florida, Miamibloco often blends Afro-Brazilian samba grooves and rhythms from next-door-neighbor sources such as Dominican merengue or Puerto Rican plena but also traditions as far afield as Moroccan Gnawa. Miamibloco's 80-member strong percussion ensemble Bateria Saideira, augmented by more than 20 guests, will be performing in its fifth annual 'Saideira Social' at the Miami Beach Bandshell at 7 p.m. on Saturday, May 24. Bateria is a percussion band or the rhythm section of a Samba School. Saideira is a casual term that translates as 'nightcap' (much akin to a drumming nightcap). Guests for the performance include Tato Marenco, a Colombian percussionist and gaita player (a traditional double-reed wind instrument), who brings into the mix the irresistible groove of Afro-Colombian bullerengue. Meanwhile, the samba drumming will be pushed up a notch by the presence of Brazilian master percussionists Boka Reis, from Salvador, Bahia; and Gustavo and Guilherme Oliveira, members of the rhythm section of the storied samba school Gremio Recreativo Escola de Samba Academicos de Salgueiro, which in 2023 was declared intangible cultural patrimony of Rio de Janeiro. A strong lineup of Miami-based musicians including Gilmar Gomes, Rose Max, Ramatis Moraes, and Afrobeta, round out the program. 'This show is a continuation of the idea of using the bateria as an orchestra to support different artists throughout the night and create the feeling of a mini festival,' says Brian Potts, founder, percussionist, CEO, and music director of Miamibloco. With a Ph.D. in Musical Arts from the University of Miami, Potts became passionate about Brazilian music and has been traveling to Brazil to study and perform for more than fifteen years. Having Reis and the Oliveira brothers in this performance 'means a lot to me personally,' he says. 'The way we play the drums is inspired by the samba schools of Rio de Janeiro, but in particular, it's inspired by the Salgueiro samba school,' he says. 'I've learned from Guilherme and Gustavo. I paraded with Salgueiro this year. Having them here and getting a chance to play with them is incredible for us. You are learning from masters, and it's the kind of thing that you can't learn from the books. It's experiential.' The chance to experience the samba schools' work in their home neighborhoods gave Potts insights that went beyond the music, arriving at the experience 'from a musician's perspective,' he says. 'I studied music all my life and was a classical percussionist, and then I went to Brazil and saw this incredible musical tradition. But the other thing that was very striking was its social aspect. You have 300 people playing in the bateria [the drumming ensemble, the engine room of the samba school], but when the samba school marches, you have 4,000 people in the parade. Potts say there is a rehearsal every week and different events. 'From having feijoadas (a bean and meat stew) to bringing in doctors and doing health events sponsored by the samba school for the community. They do a lot of good in terms of holding the community together and creating bonds between people. People grow up in these schools. Think of the bloco and all that it involves as a community-building technology.' He credits his partner SuOm Francis, a designer and urban planner who became Miamibloco's co-founder and Chief Operations Officer, for putting that technology to good use. 'She has a background in community building that has been huge in terms of constructing the community that we have now,' says Potts. He says when he began in 2017, he was inviting people to come and drum, mostly posting on Facebook to get interest. 'I never got more than like five to 10 people to show up at a time. I was working as a freelance musician, and it was hard for me to put too much time into the project.' After the disruptions caused by COVID-19, Miamibloco 'started for real in 2021, after the pandemic.' Francis says that she wanted to turn 'what was a small hangout thing into something by which you feel a sense of true belonging to a community. Something that's very special to me is that we have begun to have an impact on the other work that makes a bloco a bloco besides the music, which is community participation and not necessarily playing.' As for Miamibloco's going musically outside samba and incorporating other traditions, Potts credits Batuquebato, a group from Rio de Janeiro with which he has also performed. 'They are always experimenting with a bunch of different influences from all over the world,' he says. He adds that while most samba schools prepare during the year for fierce competition during carnival, Batuquebato is not competitive. 'They're focused on teaching people how to play drums, how to play with each other, and creating a community where there wasn't one before.' Music offers many lessons, from learning to play your part and understanding that no matter how seemingly small, it's necessary to the overall sound, to listening, a lost art these days. 'Creating musically interesting ideas by fusing other cultures with the sound of the bateria is amplified by the fact that you're bringing all these people together and creating community,' says Potts. 'That's the big inspiration for what we do.' If you go: WHAT: Miamibloco 5th Saideira Social with guests including Colombian gaita player and percussionist Tato Marenco, Brazilian master percussionists Bóka Reis, Gustavo & Guilherme Oliveira, and Gilmar Gomes, Rose Max & Ramatis Moraes, and Afrobeta. WHERE: Miami Beach Bandshell, 7275 Collins Ave., Miami Beach WHEN: 7 p.m., Saturday, May 24 COST: $47 at (Discount code VISITMIAMI ) INFORMATION: (305) 322-0875 and is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music and more. Don't miss a story at
WIRED
28-04-2025
- Climate
- WIRED
The Agonizing Task of Turning Europe's Power Back On
Apr 28, 2025 1:26 PM A massive blackout affecting Spain, Portugal and parts of France has been blamed on atmospheric conditions. Now engineers face the arduous task of getting the power back on. Photograph:At 12:30 pm local time on Monday, the power went out. Across Spain and Portugal trains, planes, and traffic lights abruptly stopped working. Reports emerged of people being stuck in lifts, and Google Maps live data showed traffic jams in big cities, including Madrid and Barcelona, as they became gridlocked. Major airports warned passengers of delays due to the blackout. Its cause is still unknown. The blackout is estimated to have affected the entirety of Portugal and Spain and small regions in France. 'Traffic lights aren't working. The streets are chaotic because there is an officer at every crossing,' says Gustavo, who lives in Madrid. 'Water doesn't reach flats at the top of buildings because the pumps are electric, and the very few shops that are open are only taking cash.' This is every electrical engineer's nightmare scenario, says Paul Cuffe, assistant professor of the School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering at University College Dublin. 'The reason we don't have widespread outages all the time is because system operators are very conservative and very proactive about using big safety margins to make sure this doesn't happen,' he says. Engineers plan for failures in grids or surges in consumer demand that could destabilize the power supply. 'These things are unusual, but to a power engineer the latent threat of it happening is always there.' Spain's electricity operator Red Eléctrica said in a post on X a few hours after the initial blackout that it had recovered power in some areas of Cataluña and Aragón in the northeast; País Vasco, Galicia, La Rioja, Asturias, Navarra, and Castilla y Léon in the north; Extremadura in the east; and Andalucía in the south. Experts believe that getting the grid back up and running in both countries could take between a few hours to several days, depending on the area. While the grid is powering back up, emergency services will likely be prioritized over things like stable internet connection, they say. There is a well-rehearsed sequence of steps that now happens, says Cuffe. They are going to be doing what is called a 'black start"—a process that gradually reconnects power stations to form a functioning grid again. Electrical supply and demand has to be balanced to avoid further blackouts, meaning as power stations come online, only portions of the grid can come online with them, with the country gradually powering up, step by step. There should be a team within the grid operator that plans for this and that has identified which generators to bring online first, he explains. 'You should be anticipating every failure that can happen and you should survive any one of them,' Cuffe says. From the control room, engineers should be able to tell what parts of the grid are definitely functioning so they won't be flying blind—but it will still take time. 'Even with a completely healthy grid, to do that black start could take 12 hours or 16 hours. You have to do it sequentially, and it takes a long time. I'm sure there are engineers in vans swarming all over the place as we speak trying to make all this happen. 'It's like assembling some hellishly complicated IKEA furniture.' The biggest issue is that without an established, obvious cause for the blackout in the first place, it will be difficult for engineers to know where to re-establish power first without triggering another outage. 'The challenge is to constantly match supply and demand,' says Ketan Joshi, an independent climate and energy consultant. 'You need to perform that balancing act, not just plugging everything back in there.' Joshi describes it as a blackout 'in reverse.' 'When a tree falls on a power line you end up chopping off a small chunk of the grid. It's a pain. A hundred homes get blacked out, a crew comes and they re-energize and reconnect the section that was disconnected,' Joshi explains. This is the same thing, but at an enormous scale. 'When you have a blackout like the one we are seeing in Spain and in Portugal, the challenge to map supply and demand becomes ridiculously complicated. Every time you connect up a new chunk of households, you have to perform that same balancing act. The generators that are producing electricity have to match the new demand that has suddenly come on to the grid.' REN (Red Eletrica Nacional) the main power operator in Portugal, gave a statement to the BBC saying that the outage was caused by 'extreme temperature variations in the interior of Spain, there were anomalous oscillations in the very high voltage lines (400KV), a phenomenon known as 'induced atmospheric vibration'.' Spain has yet to respond to this allegation. 'I scratched my head at that,' says Cuffe. Both of the country's grids may be run by national operators, he explains, but they are shackled together as a synchronized grid, which means if one side fails the other one does too—making it not entirely unexpected for one to blame the other. When it comes to propping the grid back up, both operators are on their own. The Iberian peninsula is an 'energy island,' says Jan Rosenow, vice president of global strategy at the Regulatory Assistance Project, a NGO advancing policy innovation and thought leadership within the energy community. Spain and Portugal's collective interconnection capacity with the rest of Europe—that is, how much of their energy they can draw from or send into the wider continent—is around 6 percent, far lower than the 15 percent target set by the European Union by 2030. 'There's a lot of speculation at the moment, but perhaps with better interconnection the problem would have been a lot less worse,' he says. In a press conference, Spanish president Pedro Sánchez said that the cause of the power cut is still unknown and warns against speculation. He claimed that the regions that have recovered power have done so with the assistance of connections with France and Morocco, and confirmed that the hydroelectric plants in Spain are back online. He claims that hospitals are unaffected by the power outage, and that air traffic had been 'voluntarily' reduced by 20 percent during this incident. He said that trains will be halted for security reasons. Blackouts in Europe do not happen frequently—a blackout across the whole of Italy in 2003 is the closest example that experts cite as having a similar scale to the one affecting the Iberian peninsula: a tree brought down a line between Switzerland and Italy, causing other lines close by to take over the power from the failed line and overload. This caused a blackout for 18 hours that plunged over 55 million people into darkness. At the beginning of the current blackout, things seemed more or less normal, says Daniel Borrás, head of editorial content at WIRED's sister publication GQ, who is based in Madrid. 'People understood that it would be a couple of hours, or something like that. Now the feeling is a little different because a lot of communities in Spain are recovering step by step, for example Cataluña and Galicia, and Pais Vasco are more or less working, but in Madrid it's basically still a complete blackout. A lot of people are in the streets and in the bars and the terraces drinking something and it's a very quiet mood.' The main issue where he is, says Borrás, is with people trying to come back into Madrid and finding themselves in terrible traffic because trains aren't running. 'No one has lost their sense of humor, and people are going out to enjoy some digital disconnection,' says Gustavo. He says he's on his balcony enjoying a good book and contemplating going out to buy candles. 'I'll need a couple of hours to decide whether I should get lavender vanilla spa or geranium.'
Yahoo
13-04-2025
- Yahoo
6 Best International Frozen Foods To Buy at Costco
Heading out to eat at an international restaurant can cost quite a bit if you're feeding your whole family. Luckily, you can take a trip around the world without leaving the country with these international frozen foods at Costco. Explore More: Trending Now: Known for the 'in bulk' offerings, international frozen foods are no different, offering a large number of serving sizes, so you can feed your whole family for the price of one takeout meal. Check out these six international frozen foods to buy at Costco and enjoy no-prep meals that will delight your taste buds. Price: $16.95 These dumplings are really easy to prepare with a stove-top steamer or in a skillet, and only take about 12 minutes. They're a savory blend of pork, spices, vegetables and soup broth in a beautiful dumpling. They are perfect as a side dish for an Asian-inspired meal or a quick and filling snack. Read Next: Price: $12.86 Pierogies are a traditional European dumpling particularly popular in Poland. Kasia's Pierogies are stuffed with Idaho potatoes, cheese and yellow onions, and are ready in just minutes. You can cook them in a skillet or boil them — Reddit users recommend cooking them in butter or bacon fat — and they'll be ready in about 6 minutes. They're great plain, but you can jazz them up with sauteed onions and bacon, or serve with sauerkraut or eggs. Price: $13.33 Elevate pasta night with Kirkland Signature Five Cheese Tortelloni. Filled with a blend of delicious cheese, these little pasta pillows are great covered in sauce, or you can turn them into a 'Caprese' salad for a yummy side dish. Price: $19.41 Crazy Cuizine Mandarin Orange Chicken contains 13 servings, so you can feed the whole family for way less than it would cost to get takeout. To prepare, you can either cook the chicken in the oven, on the stovetop or in the air fryer. Once the chicken is crispy, all you have to do is toss it in the sauce and serve with rice or vegetables. Price: $22.10 The Chef Gustavo Chicken & Cheese Enchiladas are cooked on a bed of rice and covered with salsa verde for a one-pan meal you can make in one hour. With 8 servings, you can feed the whole family and clean up in minutes. Price: $18.71 Take a trip to Thailand for the night with Green and Sunny Pad Thai. It's ready in 4 to 6 minutes in the microwave, and the package contains four trays — each an individual serving. The best part is that you can customize the spice level with the included chili powder sachet. This is a vegan dish, and you can keep it vegan or add your own meat for some extra protein. Disclaimer: Prices and availability accurate as of April 10, 2025 and subject to change. Prices may also vary by location. More From GOBankingRates 10 Best Spring Items To Buy at Costco Before They Sell Out4 Things You Should Do if You Want To Retire EarlyHow Far $750K Plus Social Security Goes in Retirement in Every US Region25 Places To Buy a Home If You Want It To Gain Value This article originally appeared on 6 Best International Frozen Foods To Buy at Costco
Los Angeles Times
11-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Phil tune up for their ‘dream' gig at Coachella
On Tuesday afternoon, the spring heat crackled over a near-empty Hollywood Bowl. The L.A. Phil had pulled down a sun visor over the stage for their rehearsals, where music and artistic director Gustavo Dudamel led the orchestra through a few heavy-hitter moments of their upcoming set this weekend. On Saturday evening, the Phil will trek out to new ground. They're finally playing the other verdant, globally recognized outdoor music venue that embodies the Southern California idyll — the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. For Dudamel, 44, who arrived in L.A. 17 years ago to lead the Phil, playing Coachella was 'a dream, ever since I started here' he said in an interview backstage at the Bowl. It's surprising that the two dominant music institutions of Southern California had never formally teamed up onstage before with an original set. But as Dudamel prepares to make his emotional exit to lead the New York Philharmonic next year, the timing was especially poignant. 'I think we were always waiting to see who would take the steps to say, 'Let's do this,'' he said about performing at Coachella. 'It's wonderful because of all the work that we have done at the Hollywood Bowl, playing every summer with so many artists with different styles. I think the road took us to this moment, to celebrate all of these years in such an iconic place where classical music is not usually part of the message.' The L.A. Phil is no stranger to pop music collaborations, and orchestras have appeared at Coachella before (film composer Hans Zimmer had an especially memorable set in 2017). But this first-time crossover continues a long tradition of the Phil's music directors sharing mutual curiosity with the city's other flagship music industries. 'It starts with Zubin Mehta decades ago. He left a piece of him with the L.A. Phil that we still embrace today. He performed with Frank Zappa, so he kind of broke that boundary,' said Meghan Umber, the L.A. Phil's chief programming officer. 'He started the first John Williams concert at the Hollywood Bowl. And then Esa-Pekka Salonen brought new music and all these composers and crazy ideas to the L.A. Phil. Then Gustavo just ripped the gates open.' 'Gustavo has been in this position for 17 years, and I think we started talking about Coachella 17 years ago,' added Johanna Rees, vice president of presentations. 'Frankly, I feel like we waited for the perfect time.' For Dudamel, a Venezuelan who famously came out of that country's vanguard El Sistema youth music program, and who opened his L.A. tenure with a free Bowl concert introducing the new Youth Orchestra Los Angeles, it fits with his lifelong value of bringing classical music to young audiences. This performance 'represents a journey of making music accessible to everybody, but also creating a culture where people don't feel that classical music is far away, not part of their lives,' he said. 'What we want is for that old music to embrace this moment.' After chaotic few post-COVID Coachella years at the pop headliner level — Kanye West and Travis Scott cancellations, Frank Ocean's divisive one-night return — there is something counterintuitively buzzy about seeing the city's flagship orchestra on the same stages. Coachella founder Paul Tollett 'obviously does such creative, unexpected things in the desert for this festival,' Rees said. 'You don't even know until you get there. So it was super exciting that people would only see this once, over two weekends. There's going to be people out there discovering an orchestra — what it looks like, sounds like, the emotional impact. I would say the majority probably are experiencing that for the first time.' Some pop-friendly guests, like the EDM composer Zedd and Icelandic jazz phenom Laufey, will join the Phil for one-off collaborations. While much of the program is under wraps, the rehearsals suggested a bombastic mix of festival-primed classical music and big swings across nearly every other genre at Coachella. 'It was a dream come true when Gustavo Dudamel and the L.A. Philharmonic, arguably the best orchestra in the world, reached out to me and asked if I would be interested in performing 'Clarity' live with them on the piano, in the midst of some of the greatest compositions of all time,' Zedd told The Times in an e-mail. 'As many of you may know, classical music has been a huge part of my life. At my fifth Coachella, bringing this special song to life in such an epic, cinematic way is just surreal.' Dudamel sounded enthused as well about the sequencing challenge, how to grab and hold a festival crowd who might be passing the orchestra en route to the bass-soaked Sahara Tent. 'We made this amazing arrangement, which goes through Strauss' 'Also sprach Zarathustra,' Beethoven's '5th,' John Williams, Stravinsky's 'The Firebird,' it's all there,' he said. 'It's the desire to really connect and make a journey that is well balanced. The classical piece that we play is inside of the song that they're singing after.' The orchestra, sadly, won't have much time to stick around for the weekend's revelry (they've got Vivaldi sets at Disney Hall the nights before and after). But there might be a pang of melancholy in the crowd too, among fans seeing the eminently charismatic Dudamel conducting at Coachella just as he wraps up his era-defining tenure in L.A. While he'll be moving to take the music and artistic director job at the New York Philharmonic, he'll leave Los Angeles as a uniquely open-minded, accessible and ambitious global capital for orchestral music — a legacy that any Phil successor will surely have in front of mind. 'This will forever be my family, always,' Dudamel said. 'But it's a high point where we have arrived, working with so many artists and making that a part of our identity.' 'Gustavo will not have the same title with us anymore, but that doesn't mean that we're abandoning that,' Umber said. A spirit of collaboration is 'now built into our core in a way that we'll always embrace.' 'This is the tip of the iceberg,' Rees added. 'We're getting into another phase, but all of the artists who are participating, he's talking about all these ideas with them. I mean, some of the artists are ready to go on tour with him now.' This big-hearted set also arrives at a fraught moment for the arts in America, as stalwart institutions like the Kennedy Center have suddenly been bureaucratically gutted and stained by culture war rhetoric from the Trump administration. This Coachella gig will be a glamorous evening playing to 125,000 rowdy young fans. But it's also an argument for how immigration can invigorate and inspire creation, including from countries such as Venezuela that have come under fire from the American government. It's proof of the arts' resonance in all corners of American life, that new and diverse crowds can be moved by an orchestra, and vice-versa. 'You see that art, especially in difficult moments, plays a very important action in healing,' Dudamel said. 'People are trying to divide us. In complex situations, we speak what we believe through the music that we have the chance to play. Art is important because it heals, it educates, it gives a space of inspiration for people. In any context — difficult, good, happy, sad, terrible, wonderful — that's important.'
