18 Jan 2018
Life Has Been Hell!
Last month, after a mandatory evacuation because of the Thomas Fire that destroyed 1,063 homes, which saw me fleeing to animal activist Gretchen Lieff‘s ranch near Santa Maria, and then flying to England to spend Yuletide at a 400-year-old cottage in Cornwall with Santa Barbara Polo Club sponsor Cat Pollon, I thought the disruption was […]
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Generous DeGeneres
Former Oscars emcee and TV talker Ellen DeGeneres put the generous in her name when she hosted local firefighters to a bash at her Montecito home, Villa di Lemma, to thank them for their help during the Thomas Fire. Ten members of Strike Team 2040A from various departments in Contra Costa County and three fire […]
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Montecito Mudslide
On January 12 at 5 pm, I received media clearance at the corner of Coast Village Road and Coast Village Circle from the SBPD to view the large-scale Thomas Fire Flood rescue and clean-up operations along CVR through Olive Mill Road to Virginia Road. The SBPD asked that the MJ emphasize to all readers the […]
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General Patton Desert Museum
As many times as I’ve been to Palm Springs and the desert towns, I’d never heard of the General Patton Desert Museum. It’s located off Interstate 10 about 30 miles east of Indio at Chiriaco Summit, which was the entrance to Camp Young command post for the Desert Training Camp (DTC). It was the largest […]
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School Updates
Several Montecito schools – Montecito Union, Cold Spring, Crane, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Laguna Blanca, All Saints-by-the-Sea – have resumed classes at various locations. “Getting the students back in school and on a regular schedule is a top priority, and MUS administration and staff have been working around the clock to bring this about,” […]
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Deep Dive from Blues Duo
Curtis Salgado harmonica and singing added color to both Robert Cray’s band and Roomful of Blues for years before he started making records on his own about 25 years ago. Five years after that, Salgado, who also has an attention-grabbing highly emotive blues voice, started playing with Portland-based guitarist Alan Hager. Just this week, the […]
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A Montecito “Boulder” Park
Please, let’s keep as many boulders that have clobbered our community as possible; place them someplace in Montecito (Manning Park, Toro Canyon Park, the Cold Spring area, the lot we traded with the Y next to MUS) and build a big, big awesome (think Awahnee) community stone house recreation center. Have several big outdoor stone […]
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MAW Draw
The Music Academy of the West has established an annual Alumni Enterprise Awards scheme to help budding musical entrepreneurs who’ve attended the Miraflores campus. The awards, ranging from $2,500 to $20,000, will fund original ideas in areas including artistic expression, audience development, and technology, based on scope and scale. Academy president Scott Reed says: “We […]
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Fire and Flood, Mud and Debris
The catastrophic fire and flood of 2017-18 has changed the face of a number of parts of Montecito for years to come. The mud and debris flow that came down the mountains behind us tossed cars around like Tinker toys and ripped homes off their foundations, filling the landscape with toxic mud and mold. Many […]
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Montecito Mudslide Latest
Thousands of firefighters, utility crews, contractors, and rescue workers have been working around the clock following last week’s deadly mudslides in Montecito. Now considered a search and recovery mission, three people remain missing as of press time; 20 people have perished, and the majority of Montecito residents remain under a mandatory evacuation as crews search […]
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Coming Together
Like all of us in the Montecito/greater Santa Barbara area, I have had a lot of personal reactions to the Montecito mudslide disaster coming on the heels of the Thomas Fire, from numbness to grief to fear to hopefulness and even gratitude. The latter came mostly last weekend in the wake of the community coming […]
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11 Jan 2018
Jazz Musicians Groovin’ High
The Jazz Ensemble at UCSB held its end-of-session concerts in early December, despite being the first day of the Thomas Fire with smoke in the air and evacuations. The 50 musicians and four vocalists range from professionals to students forming into seven mini-orchestral jazz bands. The bands are led by Jazz Ensemble director Jon Nathan […]
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Resist in Peace
At Christmas 1914, when World War I had already been raging for several months, an odd phenomenon occurred along the Western Front. Men from both sides briefly stopped fighting and fraternized. This “Christmas truce” is remembered as a freak occurrence. Some were punished for having engaged in it. Fighting resumed, and the war went on […]
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Midwestern Movements: SLSO Returns to SB
St. Louis has been in the news in recent years, for triumphs such as the Cardinals continued baseball dominance and the tragedy of the Michael Brown shooting in nearby Ferguson. But the city also happens to have a highly prized symphony orchestra, notable for both its history as the second oldest such ensemble in the […]
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Best Buys for a New Year
It was a challenging holiday season Montecito residents experienced under the cloud of smoke and ash created by the recent Thomas Fire, the largest such wildfire in California history; many of us were forced to spend weeks miles away, having been evacuated for a substantial part of December. Our hearts go out to those who […]
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Museum to Raise Big Bucks in Small Artworks
Small works of art from several hundred artists from around the country will be auctioned during “5X5: Celebrating Westmont College’s 80th Anniversary” at the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art on January 11-26. An opening reception Thursday, January 11, from 4 to 6 pm will start the online auction (westmontmuseum.org), which lasts until Friday, January 26, […]
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Fire and Flood in Montecito
It was a double whammy. First the fire, and then came the flood. And, in this case, it wasn’t so much a “flood” as a debris-laden runoff from the denuded hills above Montecito. The flow of boulders, mud, and timber that came crashing down, crafted a direct route from the burn area to the ocean, […]
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Tickets to Breakfast with General Hayden
General Michael Hayden, an expert on cybersecurity and a retired director of the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency, will speak at the 12th annual Westmont President’s Breakfast on Friday, February 9, from 7 to 9 am in the Grand Ballroom of Fess Parker’s DoubleTree Resort. Tickets cost $125 per person and go on […]
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Coast Village Road Emergency Community Forum
The Coast Village Association and representatives from the City of Santa Barbara will host an emergency community meeting to discuss cleanup and restoration of Coast Village Road and Coast Village Circle following the devastating mudslides affecting Montecito. Attendees from the City of Santa Barbara include Rebecca Bjork, director of Public Works; Paul Casey, City administrator; […]
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Enneagram Contemplation Amid the Groves
Richard Groves, the co-founder and executive director of the Sacred Art of Living Center, in Bend, Oregon, has been leading workshops and retreats in the Enneagram for nearly 30 years, including up to three times a year at La Casa de Maria in Montecito. An ordained Catholic priest, Groves conducted research for his doctoral thesis […]
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