The Arts Fund family held a Donor Appreciation Night recently in a most charming venue – the Spanish Garden Inn at 915 Garden Street. It’s owned by two artists, Rich Untermann and Gail Elnicky, who designed the facility some 17 years ago to give guests a true Spanish experience. They graciously opened their doors to […]
Lea más
And, we did it! CEO Rolf Geyling and Rebecca Weber were at the Santa Barbara Rescue Mission hosting a walkthrough of the newly finished women’s part of the $11 million renovation of the whole facility. It’s incredible. Last time I was there, the walls were gone and only studs left. The chapel, a new bathroom, […]
Lea más
The Christmas Bird Count [CBC] is the longest-running citizen science survey in the world, with origins dating back to December 1900 when ornithologist Frank Chapman asked people to count birds instead of hunting them for sport at Christmas time. This shift began an international bird species count to help birds repopulate that had begun to […]
Lea más
Theater rarely comes as simultaneously raw and virtuosic as Mouthpiece, co-created and performed by the two co-artistic directors of Toronto-based Quote Unquote Collective. Amy Nostbakken and Norah Sadava have fashioned an hour-long piece that combines spoken text, strenuous movements, a cappella harmony, and vocalizations to express the inner conflict that exists within one modern woman’s […]
Lea más
Peter Harper’s grandparents were musicians. They owned Folk Music Center in Claremont, which sold and repaired instruments and served as something of a gathering place for many people back in the day, and served as a pseudo daycare center for Peter when he was growing up. His mother, Ellen, is also a music lover, one […]
Lea másIs the drought over for a while?None of us knows.Is water security important?Of course. Is this security worth having your monthly water bills increase a quarter to a third more? If your average monthly water bill is $150, how happy will you feel if it goes to $200 a month, especially during normal rain times […]
Lea másThis is being written as much of Montecito is under a Mandatory Evacuation Notice. Tuesday, January 15, at 10 am sharp, Montecito Inn hotel guests were required to check out, as were Four Seasons Biltmore guests. Traffic continued to move along critical roadways for a while, but many of those roads began to be closed […]
Lea másCommunity Arts Music Association (CAMA) is deep in the midst of its centennial season that celebrates the major milestone with a crowded calendar of events. The 100th anniversary kicked off early in the fall with a gala honoring philanthropist Sara Miller McCune at the Four Seasons Biltmore, staged a red carpet reception before the annual […]
Lea másIt was Edward Gibbon – himself one of the world’s great historians – who said that History was little more than a record of “the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.” I don’t know about crimes, but you might put my own academic career, which included two degrees in History, among my personal follies and […]
Lea más
After the unexpected announcement by Prince Harry and his former actress wife Meghan Markle that they are quitting public life to spend more time in North America, the big question is where? It will obviously include Canada where they just spent six weeks on an island near Vancouver, and the Duchess of Sussex lived in […]
Lea másThe late Santa Barbara artist and poet Margaret Singer, who died at the age of 98 last year, is the focus of a new documentary by local director and documentary maker Louise Palanker. The 20-minute short “Margaret Singer: Seeking Light” tells how the Frankfurt-born citizen fled Nazism and lost her family in the Holocaust, moving […]
Lea más
It was a case of oil’s well that ends well when SOS California, the acronym for Stop Oil Seeps, celebrated the 12th year of its founding with a socially gridlocked bash at the University Club. Co-founder Lad Handelman, who describes himself as an “environmentalist” and has spent 16 years of his life supporting marine mammal […]
Lea más
Santa Barbara Maritime Museum kicked off its 20th anniversary year with a boffo bash at its depository on South Salinas Street when the Kieding Collections Chandlery was named in honor of Bob Kieding, 82, one of the founders and a premier sailboat racer. As part of the celebrations, the popular museum, which is located next […]
Lea másSanta Barbara director Andrew Davis, better known for his Hollywood action films, including The Fugitive, has returned to the world of documentaries with an intimate portrait of two renowned local photographers, Tony Vaccaro and an old friend Santi Visalli. In Mentors – Tony & Santi, Davis focuses on the warm supportive relationship between the twosome […]
Lea más
Six years after its world premiere at the Lobero, the theater she designed, animal activist Gretchen Lieff‘s award-winning documentary on Santa Barbara architect Lutah Maria Riggs, had a sold-out reprise showing as gale-force winds blew. Having attended the first event – I am even mentioned in the credits – it was nice to see such […]
Lea másThe film about the late Montecito actor Tab Hunter’s tumultuous relationship with Psycho star Anthony Perkins in 1950s Hollywood is nearly ready for blastoff! Allan Glaser, Tab’s companion for 35 years, who is producing the Paramount project Tab & Tony with J.J. Abrams and Zachary Quinto, tells me exclusively Brit Wash Westmoreland, 53, who directed […]
Lea másLucky’s, the achingly trendy nosheteria on Coast Village Road, is now By Royal Appointment! Queen Elizabeth‘s granddaughter, Her Royal Highness Princess Beatrice of York, the 30-year-old daughter of Her Majesty’s second son, Prince Andrew, Duke of York, and Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, dined at the popular steakhouse with her billionaire beau Edoardo Mapelli […]
Lea másOne of the most famous pieces of literature in the English language is about a talking bird. No, it’s not a parrot or a mynah – and I don’t mean Edward Lear’s accomplished Owl who eloped with a Pussy-Cat, and could sing and play the guitar while operating a sailboat. The particular bird I am […]
Lea más
Montecito Bank & Trust’s MClub, directed by Maria McCall, was traveling on one of their day trips to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library for the Pompeii exhibition to experience over 150 original, 2,000-year-old Pompeiian artifacts. Since I lived in “Napoli” for three years and visited nearby Pompeii several times, this was a must for my […]
Lea más
Breast Cancer Resource Center (BCRC) invited everyone to deck the halls for the annual tea and fashion show at the Four Seasons Biltmore. It’s always a heart-warming event because the models are breast cancer survivors and we celebrate their battle won over cancer. This year there were eight ladies strutting the runway: Karine Anderson, Debbie […]
Lea más