Has the movie-going public gone crazy? It’s a question I’ve been asking myself, and a question that – in some way or another – has been making the rounds in public discourse for years. If you aren’t familiar with the Scorsese vs. Marvel fiasco that continues to plague the poor man many years later, I […]
Lea más
The following was written after having to evacuate rapidly, with no warning, at 1 pm on January 9, 2023, from the lower Mission Creek area, where I live. Sunday night, it was a bucolic stream. It turned torrential a few hours later and turned my street into a swift river. For the past five years, […]
Lea másGetting lost is nowadays becoming increasingly harder to do – even if you want to – because we now have electronic devices of all kinds to guide and direct us, and make it easier for other people to find us. Not surprisingly, the people who were most likely to get lost in times past were […]
Lea másMen Like Gods is a 1923 Utopian novel by H. G. Wells, which I was delighted to come across by accident in the library as a teen. An ordinary Englishman is swept up by scientific accident, along with a cleric and other countrymen, to a parallel world where all of our Earthly problems have been […]
Lea más
A Westmont professor’s work about media, digital technology, and the church resulted in an invitation to speak at the Vatican and meet with Pope Francis on November 11. Sociologist Felicia Wu Song lectured about “The Good News in a Digital Age: A Call to the Contemplative” at a plenary assembly of the Vatican’s Dicastery for […]
Lea más
The Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art features two artists whose work responds to climate change and our planet on the brink of perilous danger. The exhibition, Entangled: Responding to Environmental Crisis, runs from January 12 to March 25, 2023, and highlights the artwork of Madeleine Tonzi, a New Mexico painter, muralist and printmaker, and GATS […]
Lea más
The best time to join the Santa Barbara Audubon Society is at its annual Christmas Bird Count (CBC), where anyone from hobbyist to serious ornithologist can contribute data locally that is then forwarded nationally to track the various bird species, their migratory paths, and population findings. Birds have long been regarded as a barometer for […]
Lea másRestoration Hardware, the upscale home furnishing emporium, is coming to town! The chain, founded in Eureka in 1979 with 100 stores in 31 states and 6,500 employees, now rebranded RH, is taking over the old Lucca Antiques space in the Old Fire House building on East Valley Road. Its former longtime store on State Street, […]
Lea másLarry Feinberg, president of Santa Barbara Museum of Art, must be thanking his lucky stars he lives in our Eden by the Beach. Late last year, his wife Starr Siegele fell off a ladder at their Manhattan apartment breaking her pelvis in two places, shattering her left elbow, and breaking two arm bones. “She lay […]
Lea más
On Sunday night, a group of my Montecito neighbors gathered with animal activist Gretchen Lieff at her La Lieff tasting room in the Funk Zone with a three-man crew from U.K.’s ITV, led by Washington, D.C. news editor Alex Chandler, to watch the Duke of Sussex’s controversial half-hour interview with Cooper and give our thoughts […]
Lea más
The late Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin was a larger-than-life character with vocal talents to match. The singer, songwriter, and pianist, the daughter of a Detroit Baptist church preacher who died in 2018 aged 76, was admirably brought to life again in the American Theatre Guild’s electrifying Broadway production R.E.S.P.E.C.T. at the Granada with four […]
Lea másFormer college professor and administrator Dr. Mary Dwyer has been appointed interim president and CEO of the Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara. Dwyer, who led the renowned Institute for the International Education of Students through a period of extraordinary growth, succeeds Barbara Robertson, who recently announced her retirement after 22 of service to the organization. […]
Lea másMarissa Freeman, chief marketing officer of Union Square Hospitality Group, has joined the Dream Foundation’s board of directors. She will work closely with the marketing and communications team on strategy and creative direction as well as identify and establish relationships to broaden awareness about the 29-year-old organization and its mission across the country. A globally-recognized […]
Lea más
California Governor Gavin Newsom visited the Randall Road Debris Basin on Friday, January 13. The visit from Governor Newsom comes after a National Guard unit was deployed from Chico, CA, on January 12, 2023, to assist in clearing out rubble from the Randall Road Debris Basin in preparation for the upcoming storm. As a special […]
Lea másElevated, Luxurious Dental Practice Cosmetics, Implants, & Aesthetics Serving the Santa Barbara & Montecito Community Hlavaty Dental Arts737 Garden Street Santa Barbara, CA 93101(805) 564-3600www.hlavatydentalarts.com Nonprofit wellness organization whose mission is to build a healthy spirit, mind, and body for all. Montecito Family YMCA591 Santa Rosa LaneMontecito, CA 93108(805) 969-3288www.ciymca.org/montecito Premium personal training services including Private […]
Lea más
This coming Monday, January 9, marks the five-year anniversary of the Debris Flow in Montecito of 2018. We lost 23 community members in that disaster. Houses were obliterated, roads were covered in mud, and first responders – on active duty since the Thomas Fire broke out on December 4, 2017 – scrambled to evacuate people […]
Lea másLocated at the intersection of Hot Springs and Olive Mill roads, Casa Dorinda was dubbed “ground zero” for the events of January 9th. The Debris Flow occurred in the early morning hours when over 200 on-campus residents were still asleep and there was a skeleton staff of less than 10. The torrential waters skirted the […]
Lea másRichard Schultz, recently widowed, anticipated a quiet, uneventful winter at his home in Montecito, California. Instead he found himself confronted by two terrifying natural disasters – first, the Thomas Fire, the worst in California’s history at the time, burning 273,000 acres and over 200 Montecito homes, followed by the subsequent mudslide that left 23 people dead. […]
Lea más
I’m reluctant to report on our experiences with the January 9th flood. It was difficult because 45% of our home was damaged. We couldn’t even get into our property for a month to view the damage. Yet the final result turned out to be very successful. But we mourn the 23 people who died as […]
Lea másIt is always a pleasure to host artists in the Dear Montecito column. I feel that their stories and reflections help ground us, particularly when the current event landscape feels so urgent and so claustrophobic. As the opening to our 2023 column, I wanted to invite a young writer to use this space to reflect […]
Lea más