Send ideas to montereycountynow.com/events 26 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY FEBRUARY 5-11, 2026 www.montereycountynow.com Chinese, Japanese and Italian fisherfolk who later immigrated to the region and shaped it. [AS] 10am-noon Saturday, Feb. 7. Old Fisherman’s Wharf, Monterey. Free. (831) 238-0777, montereypl.libcal.com. CLIMATE COOKING Food plays a huge role in contributing to climate change—about a third of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions are linked to food. Yet at the same time, our food systems are most susceptible to our rapidly changing climate. Modern advancements in agriculture, factory farming and globalization have all changed the way we grow and consume food, but there are ways to look at what we buy and how we structure our meals that can lessen our footprint, maintain a healthy diet and also be absolutely delicious. MEarth hosts a workshop called “Cooking for the Climate: Plant-Forward Cooking” with health practitioner Emily Reistetter, where you learn how to incorporate knowledge about cooking with the season and selecting produce grown in specific ways. [KR] 11am-1pm Saturday, Feb. 7. MEarth, 4380 Carmel Valley Road, Carmel. $100. (831) 624-1032, tinyurl.com/MEarthCCooking. BLACK IS BACK Celebrate Black history and culture at the All Black Gala with CSU Monterey Bay. This year’s theme is “Still We Rise: Resistance, Resilience and Reclamation” with keynote speaker Phillip Agnew, who in 2019 joined the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign and became a senior adviser. He is a past co-director of Black Men Build, an organization which leads efforts to bring Black men into the movement for racial, social and gender justice. The event include an awards ceremony that celebrates Black Excellence exemplified by students, staff and community members. [AP] 4-6pm Saturday, Feb. 7. CSUMB University Center auditorium, 4314 6th Ave., Seaside. $20; donations welcome; RSVP required. (831) 582-3000, tinyurl.com/k4fsrmdt. CASH BACK Singer-songwriter Johnny Cash was an icon, not just of country music, but of the American culture of the 1960s, 1970s and beyond. His songs of universal themes of sorrow, redemption and moral struggle crossed all genres— “Ring of Fire,” “I Walk the Line,” “Folsom Prison Blues,” “A Boy Named Sue”—and made him beloved by fans everywhere. Singer James Garner, in Cash’s signature black suit and pompadour, and his band have faithfully recreated the performer and his band, the Tennessee Three, for the past 18 years in a fun, toe-tapping performance. This is your chance to experience Cash’s memorable songs all over again. [PM] 7pm Saturday, Feb. 7. Salinas Fox Theater, 241 Main St., Salinas. $38-$65. (831) 7588459, foxtheatersalinas.com. CELESTIAL VIEW For many, the work of space artist Chesley Bonestell was the first vision of what worlds beyond Earth might look like. Born in 1888, Bonestell was a painter and illustrator, famous for his incredibly realistic depictions of space exploration and what stepping on the Moon might look like. Each year, the Monterey Institute for Research in Astronomy (MIRA) presents a public lecture supported by funds from Bonestell, highlighting notable astronomical discoveries from the past year. This year, they host Steve Ritz, a professor at UC Santa Cruz, to give a lecture on what we can observe in space with the largest digital camera ever built. [KR] 7:30-8:30pm Saturday, Feb. 7. Monterey Peninsula College, Lecture Forum 102, 980 HOT PICKS Friday, Feb. 6 TOAD-ALLY COOL Maybe you’ve been hiking and kept your eyes and ears peeled for charismatic megafauna. News flash: Looking for tiny creatures at your feet can be far more fascinating than watching a deer frolic away. Amphibians are interesting little creatures that not only look cool, but live amazing lives with some out-there adaptations. Red-spotted toads drink water through their bellies; tadpoles go through metamorphosis to become frogs; territorial California newts become cannibalistic when food is in short supply (but OMG aren’t they the cutest?). Learn about the wonders of California’s amphibians and how to find them in a book talk by herpetologist Emily Taylor. She’s previously written on how to find snakes and lizards, and focuses here on sharing insights from her new book, California Amphibians and How to Find Them. (See story, p. 34.) [SR] 5:30-7pm Friday, Feb. 6. Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History, 165 Forest Ave., Pacific Grove. $10; $7/museum members; $5/children under 10. (831) 648-5716, pgmuseum.org. MUSICAL MEMOIR Not all conversations involve words; some are about listening to music, responding to lyrics that bring memories or feelings to the surface. Jazz at the Lincoln Center, directed by Wynton Marsalis, takes listeners back to the musical Golden Age with songs of Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Bobby Darin and others. The repertoire in this program (“Great American Crooners”) includes such hits as “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” “Misty” and “I Only Have Eyes for You.” [CJ] 7:30pm Friday, Feb. 6. Sunset Cultural Center, San Carlos and 9th, Carmel. $45-$84. (831) 620-2048, sunsetcenter.org. HIPPITY HOP We love Bad Bunny, and the fact that he’s going to be performing at the Super Bowl Halftime Show a little more than an hour’s drive away means we have to start the party somehow. Thankfully, it looks like Live@ Heirloom has us covered. They’re bringing two Bay Area hip-hop artists to Salinas: San Quinn and Turf Talk, with special guest CTru and DJ Mix n Spin. These guys know Bay and West Coast rap well, with a resume that includes collaborations with the likes of E-40. Bonus additions to the pre-gameday buzz are pizza and beer, which Heirloom also has covered. [SC] 9-11pm Friday, Feb. 6. Live@Heirloom, 344 Main St., Salinas. $20; ages 21 and up. (831) 998-8824, heirloompizzapie.com. Saturday, Feb. 7 MAN OF HISTORY When it comes to the saga of Old Fisherman’s Wharf, perhaps no one is more knowledgeable than Monterey Bay fisheries historian Tim Thomas. Monterey’s favorite tour guide describes the history of the iconic landmark along with tales of the ocean-loving people that populated Monterey’s coastline, from the Indigenous Rumsen to the whalers of the Azores and the Celebrate Black History Month at CSU Monterey Bay’s All Black Gala. Singer Skylar Walters, in her appearance at the 2023 gala, is shown above. BRENT DUNDORE-ARIAS, CSUMB Is that Johnny Cash? Yes, kind of—it’s singer James Garner, whose tribute show captures not just the music but also the look and style of the legend. He performs at the Fox Theater in Salinas on Saturday, Feb. 7.
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