14 Mar 2023
A Talk with Leonie H. Mattison, PGI’s CEO and President
To celebrate local women of history, this column dedicates the month of March to them – their contributions, their stories, their inspiration, and opportunities to support. As a Black woman born in Jamaica, West Indies, growing up in Queens, New York City, and deciding to make Santa Barbara home 15 years ago, Leonie H. Mattison, […]
Lea más
Message from the Montecito Association: Who Owns the Creeks?
As a neighborhood association, we receive lots of questions, and some can be difficult to sort, particularly if they cross multiple jurisdictional lines. We encounter this often with Hands Across Montecito, when we work the area around the Hot Springs exit. In just a few steps on the tracks, you’re moving back and forth between […]
Lea más
Follow
Some people are said to be born leaders. But we don’t hear so much about born followers. However, born or not, the followers are the vast majority of any population, and they need good leaders – although, in a time of crisis, a leader may emerge who will lead everybody in the wrong direction. The […]
Lea más
Integrative Psychotherapy & Somatic Wellness Practices
From a somatic therapeutic perspective, stress, unexpressed anger, heartbreak, and grief are believed to be issues in your tissues that make up your internal state. The word “somatic” is derived from the root “soma,” which means “living body,” and your physical body can serve as a valuable guide when you listen to its messages. Somatic […]
Lea más
Reed to Retire
Scott Reed, who has served as president and CEO of Montecito’s Music Academy for 14 years, is stepping down next summer, I can exclusively reveal. The fourth president in the historic organization’s history, Scott, a UCSB graduate, has worked with the oceanside Miraflores campus for nearly 25 years, starting as an unpaid intern. He took […]
Lea más
A Dream Performance
State Street Ballet’s performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Granada was an enchanting show full of mishaps and mayhem. The William Shakespeare work, with rollicking music written in 1843 by Felix Mendelssohn – he composed the overture when just 17 – and inventive choreography by company founder Rodney Gustafson, transcended the two worlds […]
Lea más
Causing a Classic Ruckus
Ruckus, a sextet of talented period instrumentalists, were going for baroque at the Music Academy’s Hahn Hall when they played an all-Bach concert with flutist Emi Ferguson for Camerata Pacifica. Exhibiting an extraordinary display of period instruments including theorbo, baroque guitar and bassoon, viola da gamba, and harpsichord, the musicians, led by founder Clay Zeller-Townson […]
Lea más
Los Romeros Rock Lobero
It was certainly a family affair when Los Romeros, a guitar quartet featuring family members – Celin, Pepe, Angel, and Lito Romero – performed at the Lobero, part of the CAMA Masterseries. The family was celebrating its 60th anniversary and the historic theater its 150th birthday. The dynasty settled in Santa Barbara after legendary Spanish […]
Lea más
Lang Lang Plays Again
It has been a long, long time, eight years to be exact, since Chinese piano legend Lang Lang has played at the Granada. But it was clearly worth the wait as the man, described by The New York Times as “the hottest artist on the classical music planet,” mesmerized the sold-out audience at the concert, […]
Lea más
Harmonizing with Ladysmith Black Mambazo
After the Soweto Gospel Choir and Step Afrika! at UCSB’s Campbell Hall, courtesy of the Arts & Lectures program, it was time for the venerable Lobero, celebrating its 150th anniversary, to host Ladysmith Black Mambazo, a nine-member Durban-based South African male choral group, who have won five Grammy awards. The highly entertaining troupe, founded in […]
Lea más
A Gastronomy Gala
To Gala, a new Anacapa Street eatery, formerly known as Pacific Crêpes, where I would eat regularly when I first came to Santa Barbara in 2007 and churned out a column for the Santa Barbara News-Press, just a tiara’s toss away. Now it has gone from a decidedly French theme to Spanish-owned by chef Jaime […]
Lea más
Tomson Receives Hero Award
My congratulations to Montecito-Based former world champion surfer Shaun Tomson, who is receiving the Community Hero Award in San Diego next month at the 25th anniversary gala of Boys to Men Mentoring. For nine years, Shaun, 67, has participated in the 100 Wave Challenge as an ambassador, an event I have covered annually in these […]
Lea más
Kaganoff on Board
Former policy analyst Tessa Kaganoff, who went on to direct prospect research at UCLA, has joined the board of directors of the Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara. A native of Goleta, Kaganoff received a bachelor’s degree in psychology at Vassar College before earning a master’s degree in public policy at Duke University and an MBA […]
Lea más
Tade Made Deputy Director
Santa Barbara Maritime Museum has a new deputy director, Jessica Tade. Tade, who holds a Ph.D. in art history from UCSB, has worked for more than a decade for organizations either promoting the arts or providing access and opportunity to the community. Among other positions, she has served as the director of communications and marketing […]
Lea más
A Toned-Down Crowning
After being asked to leave their historic home, Frogmore Cottage, just a tiara’s toss from Windsor Castle, Prince Harry and his former actress wife Meghan Markle have been offered alternative accommodations at Buckingham Palace by his father, King Charles III. The tony twosome moved into the 10-bedroom property, just a short distance from Queen Victoria’s […]
Lea más
Montecito Home to Inaugural Student Film Festival
The inaugural Montecito Student Film Festival showcases the impressive work of undergraduate students from California colleges and universities with screenings on Saturday, March 25, in Porter Theatre. A jury of industry professionals and special guests will judge and award the top prizes, while polls determine the winner of the Audience Award. “Montecito has a robust […]
Lea más
Elizabeth Webb Woodworth: August 17, 1921 – February 20, 2023
Elizabeth (Betty) Webb Woodworth died of natural causes on Feb. 20, 2023, in Santa Barbara, Calif. She was born on Aug. 17, 1921, in Hamden, Conn., to Anne Pinkney Webb and Paul Webb. Betty was a people person who loved life, no matter the moment or the environment. Betty’s early years were spent in Spring […]
Lea más
Master Yun Delivers a Kick of Health and Happiness
Watch most Kung Fu movies and you’re sure to see the protagonist’s “master,” quintessentially depicted as the graying wise man, often cranky and whipping around a long beard. Meet Yun Chao Zhang, or Master Yun as everyone calls him, and he is nothing like those tired clichés, yet he is a master in the truest […]
Lea más
Inconspicuous Beauty
What a couple of weeks it has been in our beautiful town – rain, snow, and high winds! With the weather, I am still in the winter mode of craving warming and comforting foods and was drawn to the inconspicuous beauty of the celery root, bulbous on the bottom with bright greens on top. The […]
Lea más
March Madness 2023
Strangers in the Night by Heather Webb chronicles the heart-pounding love affair between Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner. Told from both Frank and Ava’s points of view, the book spans the whole arc of their tempestuous romance, from the slow burn, through the sizzle and the fireworks that ultimately blew the couple apart. This is […]
Lea más
