Peggy Noonan, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist at the Wall Street Journal and a renowned speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan, will speak at the 14th annual Westmont President’s Breakfast on Friday, February 22, from 7 to 9 am in the Grand Ballroom of the Hilton Santa Barbara Beachfront Resort. Tickets cost $125 per person and go […]
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Last week many Montecito residents endured evacuations due to a series of several rain storms that hit our area, bringing much needed wet weather to the County. Montecito Water District reports that Thursday’s storm in particular brought significant precipitation over the Santa Ynez River upper watershed, and was seemingly concentrated over Jameson Lake, a key […]
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This week, drivers can expect full overnight closures for two nights on Highway 101 through a portion of Montecito as Caltrans crews finish the final touches on the bridge rail replacement project on Olive Mill Road. The work will allow for the removal of the wooden support structure underneath the existing bridge, according to project […]
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On Tuesday, January 22, over 100 Montecito residents gathered at Montecito Union School to hear from the Partnership for Resilient Communities, the group of private citizens who have set out to move forward with installing environmentally-friendly Swiss-made steel nets, which catch debris as it comes down the hillsides. “When the events of last year happened, […]
Lea másWith the stress and extravaganzas of the holidays a few weeks in the rear view mirror, Qigong and Tai Chi instructor Jessica Kolbe is collaborating with her yoga instructor husband Ray Kolbe in a daylong immersion this weekend for people to nourish and pamper their bodies, hearts, minds, and spirits. Among the activities beyond practicing […]
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The Mural Room conservation project in the Santa Barbara Courthouse received a prestigious award – the 2018 Governor’s Historic Preservation Award – one of only six awards in California. It honors preservation projects representing exemplary achievements on behalf of preserving California’s richly diverse heritage. “The California Legacy Foundation (CLF) is proud of the entire project […]
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The Santa Barbara Maritime Museum (SBMM) presented another of its nautical lectures, this time about the 1969 oil blowout and the birth of the environmental movement. Fifty years ago I was living in Europe, but even without cell phones we knew about the disaster in Santa Barbara, California. A blowout on Union Oil’s platform A […]
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Donors, partners, and supporters gathered at the Santa Barbara Courthouse for an unusual dedication ceremony – a 7-foot-by-9-foot American flag made out of fire hose sourced from the Montecito and Santa Barbara fire departments and used in the Thomas Fire. It was made to honor the First Responders of the Montecito mudslides by retired Santa […]
Lea másIt may be difficult to imagine being able to own real estate in an internationally famous town such as Montecito for under a million dollars, but it is indeed very possible. From a studio condo near the beach and Four Seasons Biltmore Hotel, to a two-story townhouse or an ocean view, single level two-bedroom condo, […]
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Musician Jon Batiste held an afternoon open interview and evening solo concert at UCSB on January 11, via the Arts & Lectures Programming, in conjunction with the UCSB Music Department, sponsored by KCSB FM, KCBX FM, and Potek Wines. Batiste honed his chops at age six as the drummer in a family band and tuned […]
Lea másJodie Hollander grew up in a musical family, and that is a largish understatement. Concert pianist father, cellist mother, two sibs each with the gift of drawing effortless gossamer from the violin; dinner conversation ran to the rhapsodic. Now imagine Jodie – a young girl whose double helix would later reveal itself as a ladder […]
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Paula Poundstone is the first to admit to a penchant for long-winded speeches, a tendency toward stream of consciousness rambling that would be confirmed by her colleagues on one of her longest-running gigs as a panelist on NPR’s top-rated show, the weekly comedy news quiz known as “Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me!” So the veteran […]
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Last January, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival considered cancelling the city’s premiere cinematic event in the wake of the Thomas Fire and the devastating Montecito debris flows before ultimately deciding to go ahead, partly as a healing offering. This Wednesday, SBIFF 34 kicks off with a locally-produced opening night film catalyzed by another Montecito-related […]
Lea másIt is difficult to decide whether to laugh or cry at a recent judge’s ruling denying the U.S. government’s right to use the census to count the number of U.S. citizens. Laughing because it is deceivers’ dream to have every action of this presidential administration – including masking the difference between citizens and illegals – […]
Lea másIf you do nothing else this week, pull out your pen and write a check to the Partnership for Resilient Communities, or go to the website (partnershipsb.org) to make a tax-deductible donation through the Santa Barbara Foundation. Contributions can be as low as $10 or as high as $250,000. The future of Montecito may depend […]
Lea másOccasionally, I find myself in a position that seemed like a good idea at the time, but in hindsight could have used a bit more forethought. For some reason these positions often involve water. Like the time I decided to jump off a roof and into Lake Winnipesaukee at Weirs Beach in Laconia, New Hampshire […]
Lea másQ. I have my own money and I inherited some more from my parents. I find I am very confused about what to do with it. I buy things I don’t really need, and I give to charity but mostly only at the end of the year. I want to do something bigger and give […]
Lea másYou probably know that the last four months of our calendar are wrongly named. “Sept,” “Oct,” “Nov,” and “Dec,” mean, in Latin, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th, whereas those months are actually our ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth. How did this happen? – and, even more to the point, why, for two thousand years, has […]
Lea másSusan Miles Gulbransen is a real Santa Barbara girl. She went to Santa Barbara High School and graduated from Laguna Blanca. After graduation, she attended Mills College as a History major, English minor, and went to UC Berkeley to get her secondary teaching credential. Already, I’m impressed! There is, however, a lot more learning she […]
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To Solvang for the memorial service for the late Gene Sinser, former board member of the Santa Barbara Symphony and ex director of the Montecito Fire District, who left us last month at the age of 85. The German Holocaust survivor, whose birth name was Gunther Zinser, was a longtime member of our rarefied enclave […]
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