This Santa Cruz Sign Man Keeps Heads Spinning

If you've driven by the corner of Seabright and Soquel avenues, you've probably seen Mick Helmel ablaze with motion, smiling, spinning, dancing, twirling, all to tell you about $14 haircuts at .

The 51-year-old former musician looks like some kind of speed freak, but this Iowa native says he has been clean and sober for 18 years. He moved to town two years ago, because of a woman.

They split up, but he stayed, even though he is, as he puts it, "accommodationally challenged, otherwise known as homeless." He surfs on friends' couches, while making $10 an hour, five hours a day, spinning his sign.

Sometimes he sings "Purple Haze" by Jimi Hendrix to give some music to his sign dance. Other times he talks to passersby or to himself about things such as the construction going on in the daytime on Soquel Avenue, which, in Iowa, would be done at night.

"There are two seasons in Iowa," he says. "Winter and construction season."

He's bounced between the Bay Area and the Midwest over the years, as have others in his family. His sister is the entertainment concierge at Livermore's Wente Winery, dealing with celebrities such as Bill Cosby.

He's 30 credits away from a degree in economics and international marketing, but he's not exactly using his training on this gig.

"No one taught me how to do it. You just figure it out."

He kisses the sign, spins it behind his back and over his head, like some kind of new Depression-era cheerleader.

He likes the work, which he's been doing for a year. He spins for 45 minutes and takes a 15-minute break every hour.

He's written songs, including "Laundry Day, Walk Away," about a woman who left him in a laundromat. In Davenport, IA, he played in the band Trudge, which was hard-hitting, like Slipknot, from Des Moines.

In San Francisco, he played bass in the band, Furious Malaise, with Chris Moog, son of the inventor of the synthesizer, Bob Moog.

He had a scene as a waiter in the movie, Howard the Duck, alongside famous musician, Thomas Dolby, who played the bartender.

He loves living in Santa Cruz, because of the natural beauty and the interesting people he sees.

He likes his job, because it is outdoors in a beautiful town that people come to visit from all over the world.

"No one comes from all over the world to see Iowa," he says. "Iowa stands for either 'I Ought to Walk Away' or 'Idiots Out Walking Around.'"