Much local ink was spilled after Santa Barbara Unified’s marathon School Board meeting, on March 11, where 85 teachers were tentatively axed. Much of the reporting touted Celeste Kafri, the Board’s newest Board Member whose focus on financial data was categorized as “a new way of thinking.” My interest was piqued, so I did a […]
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You may know that one of the first characters to appear, in what is generally considered to be Shakespeare’s greatest play, is the Ghost of Hamlet’s Father. He has not been dead for long, and Hamlet is still fuming at the callousness of his mother for having remarried (and to his Father’s brother!) so soon […]
Lea másMany Americans feel that the country is headed in the wrong direction. They feel they spend more and get less. Many factors feed this sense but here I want to focus on a nearly 60-year-old idea from late economist William Baumol called “Cost Disease.” There was rage in this recent election about inflation. But inflation […]
Lea másHK sends me a matched pair of lamps. One is a table lamp, and the other a swag chandelier – both designed in a swirling compilation of many styles to create so much grandeur that they cannot be anything but the embodiment of the 1970s. Seeing the photos, I imagine these lamps’ ‘friends’ – objects […]
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April is always a big time of year for the Parkinson Association of Santa Barbara (PASB). That’s when the very local, very grassroots nonprofit organization puts together its symposium, an annual event that’s at once a community builder, educational offering, and social gathering. Which makes it not all that different from the ongoing activities of […]
Lea más“Permission to move granted.” When I read that line in, I Know I Should Exercise But, the new release by Dr. Diana Hill and Katy Bowman, I was intrigued. To find out more, I went to a workshop they were hosting at Yoga Soup, where the authors put their movement where their mouths are. The […]
Lea másTrump Imposes100% Tariff on TelevisionsBreaking NewsIndependent Mind News ServiceDateline: April 5, 2025. 9:30 AM PDTMontecito, California President Trump announced on Truth Social today that he is imposing a 100% tariff on imported televisions as of April 2. Acting on a campaign promise he said, “LIBERATION DAY IN AMERICA IS COMING, SOON. FOR YEARS WE HAVE […]
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The Montecito Fire Department started its 2025 chipping and fire fuels reduction program on February 18, and continues for 10 weeks, concluding on June 23. Community members may schedule a complimentary Defensible Space Survey with a member of the Montecito Fire Prevention Bureau by calling (805) 969-7762 or emailing preventionmail@montecitofire.com. MFD has an interactive map […]
Lea másMental Crisis / Fernald Point — Sunday, March 16, at 09:46 hours Deputies were called when a subject experiencing a mental health crisis attempted to drive through a fence so they could park their vehicle on the train tracks. The individual was ultimately taken to the Santa Barbara Cottage Emergency Room by their family to […]
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Twelve graduating art majors will display their capstone art projects from April 3rd to May 3rd at the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art. A free public reception opens Twelvefold: Westmont College Graduate Exhibition 2025 on Thursday, April 3, from 4-6 pm. The exhibition offers diverse themes focused on identity, relationships, and place. The artists include […]
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It was a picture-perfect evening at the Santa Barbara Bowl for Westmont’s 64th annual Spring Sing, Picture This, on March 29th. Off Campus earned bragging rights as the sweepstakes winner of the musical skit competition between students from each residence hall. Their skit, “Champagne Problems,” was a Montecito whodunit mystery based on the classic board […]
Lea másScott Wester MHA is starting his new role as the President and CEO of Cottage Health on April 7. He was selected from a national search by Cottage Health’s executive search committee chaired by Steve Zola, prior Board Chair. Wester follows Ron Werft MHA, who recently retired as Cottage Health’s President and CEO having served […]
Lea másThe Montecito Trails Foundation (MTF) celebrated 60 years of operation in 2024 and is already doing collabs with its community partners in Montecito, Summerland and Carpinteria. Dedicated to maintaining the trails and working with environmental issues, they are the BTS foundation of people and volunteers who keep nature going for us in the back country. […]
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Shabbat Shalom! It’s time for the 13th Annual Mega Shabbat on Friday, April 4, at 6pm at the Chabad of UCSB’s Rohr Chabad Jewish Student Center, 779 Camino Pescadero. The event is free and open to all, but registration is required. Parking is the usual at UCSB, and the event is held outside on the […]
Lea másToday’s increasingly grey digital blandscape could be described as a bummer. Busybody machines that can paint cats, forge photos, and write crummy songs have us all hunching shoulders and shaking our little fists in excitement. Why? (etc.) The numbing Age of Machines is truly upon us and we couldn’t be more thrilled. In this context, […]
Lea másPianist-actor-playwright-producer Hershey Felder has appeared on stages across the world more than 6,000 times in original works focused on a single famous composer. His works include George Gershwin Alone, Beethoven, Maestro Bernstein, Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin, Our Great Tchaikovsky, and A Paris Love Story – Debussy. A few of his similar filmed creations have […]
Lea másOut of the Box, the local theater company that has been producing alternative contemporary musical theater for 15 years, soars all the way up into the heavens for its next show, Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812. Dave Malloy’s genre-defying musical adaptation of a scandalous 70-page segment from Tolstoy‘s famed 1869 novel War […]
Lea másRubicon Theatre Company’s New Play Development Program both sponsors and benefits from a reading of The Journals of Adam and Eve, a two-person play inspired by the biblical characters, Mark Twain’s sense of humor, and A. R. Gurney’s Love Letters. The play, written by nine-time Emmy Award-winner Ed. Weinberger (Taxi, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, […]
Lea másSinger-songwriter Janis Ian isn’t expected to pick up her guitar and sing at the Riviera Theatre on Sunday morning, April 6, but the audience will still get good glimpses in her life and songbook via a preview screening of the new documentary Janis Ian: Breaking Silence. The movie, written and directed by Varda Bar-Kar, makes […]
Lea másBouncer-bashful beware: You don’t have to be big, burly and buff to bound on over to Elings Park for the return of Big Bounce America, the biggest touring inflatable event in the world, featuring seven massive attractions. Everybody, even those with inflated egos, are welcome to wander through the giant array of inflatables, including a […]
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