Introducing Anda

It was pores for thought when the Sense Spa at the Rosewood Miramar hosted a sunshine-drenched rooftop soirée when it introduced Anda, a new line of organic vegan products developed by Swedish Los Angeles-based cosmetologist Kerstin Florian and named after her late daughter.

“We are the first ones to have it, which is quite a coup,” enthused the 9,400 sq. ft.’s spa manager Rosa Chavez.

Among the crowd turning out for the lively launch bash were Catherine Remak, Dinah Calderon, Alixe Mattingly, Lucy Firestone, Amanda Lee, hostelry manager Sean Carney, and Lauren Bryson, new director of communications, who formerly worked at the Montage in Beverly Hills.

May I Have This Dance

Ensemble Theatre Company has left the best for last as it wraps up its 40th season at the New Vic.

Mark St. Germain‘s Dancing Lessons, directed by Saundra McClain, tells the story of two neighbors in a New York apartment building, one a former Broadway dancer with a severely damaged leg and a rare genetic disorder that prevents her from getting the necessary surgery, and an autistic professor of geosciences.

The interaction between the two principals, Leilani Smith, in the much praised ETC show Intimate Apparel, and Trevor Peterson, who was in Death of a Salesman earlier this year, is superb, with both roles convincingly played as the distance between them diminishes as he hires her for dancing lessons for an upcoming awards gala amid pathos and humor.

The final scene with both dancing together to Henry Mancini’s “Moon River” from Breakfast at Tiffany’s is almost tear inducing.

An utterly charming production that tugs at the heartstrings and shows that all is well with the world.

First Responders 

UCSB graduate Josh Elliott, a former editor on the Daily Nexus, is back on our TV screens with a Dick Wolf-produced Fox TV show First Responders.

Emmy winner Josh, 47, a former news anchor on ABC’s Good Morning America in 2011 before moving to NBC’s Today Show and CBS, focuses on real life heroes – firefighters, police officers, EMS technicians, and other first responders – as they face America’s emergency calls.

Josh, who was also a substitute anchor on ABC’s World News Now, where I used to be a commentator, married New York news anchor Liz Cho in a Montecito wedding in July, 2015.

Up for Rent

More than 20 years on from its Broadway debut, Jonathan Larson’s musical Rent has a new lease on life with the American Theatre Guild’s energized production at the Granada.

Loosely based on Puccini’s opera La Bohème, the show tells the story of young artists struggling to survive in Manhattan’s East Village under the shadow of the AIDS epidemic.

The Evan Ensign-directed show, with terrific choreography from Marlies Yearby, still dazzles two decades on.

Rob’s Reboot

Montecito actor Rob Lowe wants to lead a reboot of the NBC series The West Wing.

Rob, 55, starred in the political drama as Deputy White House Communications Director for four years between 1999 and 2003 before returning for the final episodes in 2006, and he’d love to see the show return to TV – with his own alter ego as president, a role originally played by Martin Sheen.

Stay tuned…

Let’s Do Lunch

Oliver’s, Craig McCaw‘s Coast Village Road eatery, is following the footsteps of Lucky’s and is opening for lunch starting next week. Point par, bon appetit…

SBC Food Rescue

The Community Environmental Council has received $116,000 from Cal Recycle to feed hungry students at City College and Allan Hancock College as part of an innovative food rescue program that also helps reduce waste and fight climate change.

The CEC coordinates SBC Food Rescue, a collaborative food recovery network for Santa Barbara County with support from private, public, and nonprofit sectors.

CEC’s partnership with the two community colleges in Santa Barbara will create more opportunities for the Foodbank and businesses with excess food, such as supermarkets, hotels, restaurants, and caterers, to safely provide donations to students who are struggling with food insecurity.

It will also keep an estimated 84,000 pounds of food out of the landfill. The City College Food Pantry currently serves more than 3,500 students per semester from the Santa Barbara Food Bank and the campus permaculture gardens.