Last month, Santa Cruz NEXT had a little party at Surf City Billiards, and it was the first time either of the Red Bats had seen the place since it became a billiards hall. We were impressed. I found myself wanting to ask people to drape themselves over the tables for some of the shots, but instead I settled for urging people to “Look cool!” They did look cool.

Here’s the Santa Cruz NEXT blog post about that evening.

Take a closer look at the guy in the middle in the next-to-last photo and the woman on the right in the last photo. Don’t they look like they deserve a lifetime of marital bliss? You have just experienced Red Bat foreshadowing. Stay tuned…

UPDATE: Find out what happened to Crystal and Peter by clicking here!

This post is old news by now- once again, I’m reaching back into the ancient mists of July. Please forgive this overly busy Bat for the lack of posting during July when it was actually happening. And stop me if I’ve told you any of this before…

On July 5 (you know, the day after Independence Day, when you can expect to see beaches littered with debris from parties celebrating the American tradition of trashing the place) some devoted early risers from Santa Cruz NEXT, in conjunction with Save Our Shores, collected 257 pounds of trash and 62 pounds of recycling at Twin Lakes Beach. Here’s the Santa Cruz NEXT blog post about that day.

I was there to take photos of people picking up trash, making me once again glad to be a photographer, tasked only with lifting my camera and walking around. These folks were out at Twin Lakes at 7 am, collecting trash. And no, they did not go to bed early the night before. They partied like the rest of us (though presumably with less mess) but got themselves up at the crack of dawn to make Twin Lakes tidy again. Their enthusiasm at 7 am was very impressive. I hope they all went home patting themselves on the back, because they deserved that and more.

Here are some photos: