Opera Santa Barbara presents Il Postino (The Postman), created by Mexican-American composer Daniel Catán, who is known for his sweeping, impressionistic music and bringing Spanish-language opera into the international repertory. Based on the Oscar-winning film of the same name, the story follows a poor and uneducated mail carrier who meets Chilean exile and poet, Pablo […]
The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra was founded by renowned conductor-pianist Daniel Barenboim and the late Palestinian scholar/author Edward Said 20 years ago to bring together outstanding young Palestinian and Israeli musicians in a collaboration superseding national and cultural boundaries. The group, Barenboim has said, was conceived as a project against ignorance and aims to promote understanding […]
The Montecito Vedanta Temple was not asked or notified about a planned event scheduled for last weekend by the Santa Barbara-Buddhist-Meditation Meetup, which was canceled before taking place. We were asked to run a clarifying statement about the temple’s policies to avoid any future issues. The Vedanta Temple welcomes people from all religions and denominations […]
Santa Barbara Spirituality Cafe’s second gathering, slated for 2:30-5 pm on Saturday, March 7, at 108 Northridge Road, will be the first meeting to move beyond administrative issues into the intention to share knowledge and interests, and inspire one another to be active in the community. The hope is to apply spirituality to some program […]
Amardeep Kaur leads a Kundalini Yoga & Gong Experience – featuring sound healing, mantra chanting, and movement to assist in centering, grounding, and “awakening to the indescribable ecstasy of life” – from 7-8:30 pm on Friday, March 6, at the Santa Barbara Yoga Center ($20)… Also this week at SBYC: Sequences for Well-Being in a […]
Sierra Nolan‘s free Yoga 101 Workshop: Foundations of Yoga is designed for first-timers, beginners or those who want to dig deeper into the yoga tradition and fine-tune their primary yoga asanas (poses). The two-hour session, slated for 1-3 pm on Saturday, March 7, at Divinitree Santa Barbara downtown, provides a non-intimidating environment to ask any […]
Visiting Nurse & Hospice Care of Santa Barbara’s 7th Annual PHorum features the return of Dr. Chris Kerr, neurobiologist and CEO & Chief Medical Officer for the Center for Hospice and Palliative Care in Buffalo, New York, whose new book, Death is But a Dream, celebrates our power to reclaim dying as a deeply meaningful […]
Santa Barbara meditation leader Radhule Weininger sent out a missive to her mailing list over last weekend, and also asked if I could find some space in my column for her thoughts on anxiety over the growing cases of the Coronavirus as well as the coming election. Here’s an edited version: “I am listening to […]
Santa Barbara Buddhist Meditation, which holds regular meditation and other gatherings at the American Buddhist Temple in Goleta as well as various Montecito locations and elsewhere, has a special offering for this Saturday night. Its Once-in-a-Leap-Year Forest Retreat is a three-hour excursion at La Cumbre Peak designed to briefly isolate participants from the “busyness,” noise […]
Shining Lion (aka Shane Rilling) and the Ojai-based World Peace Tribe guide a sacred ceremony to cultivate more love within this weekend at a private estate in Montecito. The event – in which the sacraments include Sacred Honey Bee, Mycelium, Cacao, Hape, Essential Oils, and more – is intended to cultivate community and create an […]
Sherman, who has facilitated twenty-three yoga-meditation retreats in Montecito before La Casa de Maria fell victim to the 2018 mudslide, will also lead a “MAPs I for Daily Living,” her first offering of the introductory course from acclaimed, scientifically-based UCLA program here in town since last summer. The MAPs I course provides insight into the […]
Barbara Rose Sherman is a Yoga Alliance Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher 500 who is also a Trained Mindfulness Facilitator through the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior and a UCLA Mindful Awareness Practices Affiliated Teacher. Now she’s bringing her experience in drawing from the two spiritual practices to a teacher training weekend available […]
Santa Barbara singer-songwriter Noell Grace’s evenings of original chants and simple songs have returned to her hearth and home for monthly gatherings. The events were originally private satsangs that morphed into Spirit Sings held at her home before expanding into fully public events at Yoga Soup a few years back. The gatherings came to a […]
After 10 years at other area locations, the Ojai Mardi Gras celebration marks its 30th anniversary back at the Ojai Valley Woman’s Club fittingly on Leap Day, February 29, as the venue hosted the first public event on Leap Day in 1992. This year’s Masquerade Ball carries the theme “Naughty Gras… Leap into your Fantasy,” […]
Dozen of local, national, and international dance artists are set to come together under one roof in Nebula Dance Lab’s sixth annual HH11 Dance Festival at Center Stage Theater this weekend (February 27-March 2). Artists both emerging and established present more than 30 different pieces over the course of the three performances, which include appearance, […]
Buddy Holly died more than 60 years ago in a famous plane crash that also killed Richie Valens and The Big Bopper. But it seems the early rock star just won’t stop touring. And the ongoing Holly performances aren’t even in the guise of tribute bands. Unlike Elvis and the Beatles, say, Holly hasn’t attracted […]
Katie Laris wasn’t moved much when she took in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time on Broadway back in 2014. Despite having enjoyed the original 2003 novel by Mark Haddon that is narrated in the first-person perspective by Christopher, a 15-year-old boy afflicted by unnamed Asperger syndrome, the veteran SBCC Theater professor […]
Elliot Wuu doesn’t have a direct memory of the first time he slept next to the bench while his older sister Rebecca practiced on the family’s piano, something his parents told him he started doing as a baby barely one year old. But he does recall frequently taking naps as a toddler while Rebecca, who […]
The midtown independent bookstore has four book signing events on tap this week, including psychotherapist, mediator and author Dr. Jennifer Freed – the force behind Santa Barbara esteemed AHA! Program – whose new book Use Your Planets Wisely addresses the nexus between therapy and astrology in such questions as “Who am I, really? What did […]
Fifteen-year veteran singer-songwriter Joshua Radin, who counts more than 1,500 placements of his music on TV shows, movies, commercials and other soundtracks dating back to his first song, comes to the Lobero Theatre on February 22 for a special acoustic show with friends Ben Kweller and William Fitzsimmons. We checked in over the phone earlier […]
Montecito’s Dawson Fuss, who too made it to the final round of four at Teen Star 2019, is also returning for another try at the crown this Saturday. The 10th-grader at Carpinteria’s Cate School has his own reasons for competing at the Arlington again. “It’s the biggest platform for young artists and singers in town, […]
Lauren Cantin, the Montecito-raised teenager who was famously pulled from underneath a four-foot pile of mud and debris after being buried alive for six hours in the early morning hours of January 9, 2018, has appeared on all sorts of big stages in the two years since her rescue. That includes performing a duet with […]
Yoga Soup’s weekend workshops begin with Relational Attunement, the theme for the next installment of the bi-monthly Authentic Relating Games. Leader Damian Gallagher will offer a series of “games” that offer experiences in “How Me transitions into We,” diving into the differences when we are attuned to each of us in the space as a […]
Mindful Meetup Santa Barbara, which has hosted a series of “Mindful Greets and Eats” where people gather at local restaurants to chat and engage in mindful eating among a group of other open-minded people, is taking a deeper dive this weekend: a Tantra Cuddle, aka Tuddle. The event, part of founder Steve in SB’s Sacred […]
Unity of Santa Barbara six-month engagement with Rev. Phil Smedstad – who was ordained as a Unity minister in 1976 and has founded churches in Hawaii and Texas and led others in Florida, New Mexico, and North Carolina, and now serves as a consultant – ended late last year. But his monthly weekend workshops proved […]
It’s not too late to join the Mission Street Buddhist Center’s new two-year program of long weekend immersions to fully explore the path of awakening – in fact, the entire program is geared toward entering the curriculum at any time. “Going for Refuge – A Journey Toward Trust and Immutable Confidence,” which takes place 10 […]
The Arts Fund is partnering with Beth Alexander and AM|Fitness for a meditation fundraiser comprised of three weekly brief meditation classes on Tuesdays that benefit the Funk Zone arts organization. Alexander, a fitness trainer and a nationally recognized health expert who has been featured by The Today Show, Shape, and PopSugar Fitness, is the creator […]
Radhule Weininger, Ph.D., and Diana Raab, Ph.D., are teaming up once again to offer a three-hour training in Mindfulness Meditation and Journaling this weekend. Raab, a longtime Montecito-based memoirist, poet, essayist, blogger and speaker whose latest book is titled Writing for Bliss: A Seven-Step Plan for Telling Your Story and Transforming Your Life, and Weininger, […]
The new Connect with Horses, Connect with Yourself Meetup finally has its first gathering this weekend: an introductory Self-Care & Self-Love Workshop in Santa Ynez that is open to anyone interested in deepening their self-love and creating sustainable practices for self-care via observing and interacting with gentled mustangs. Certified Equus and Experiential Life Coach Rebekah […]
Concurrently, Yoga Soup’s Empowered Presence with Kiaora Fox moves from Wednesdays to Thursday evenings, when Fox’s 5Rhythms practice offers direction to explore your edges, grow your movement vocabulary, break up your habits and create new found freedoms and fuller breath. Also new at Yoga Soup, an ongoing Sunday Night CommUNITY Class, a donation-based, open-to-all exploration […]
Popular Santa Barbara meditation teacher Radhule Weininger found herself needing to arrange for a new location for her weekly downtown gatherings after her longtime location at the Santa Barbara Natural History Museum was unable to continue to host. After a short stint at the Museum of Contemporary Art at Paseo Nuevo, Weininger’s weekly meditation night […]
White Lotus Yoga Center hosts its second weekend event of the year, a respiratory relief retreat called The Pranayama Conspiracy. The heart centered yoga retreat weekend workshop taking place February 14-16 is all about consciously honoring breath, which enlightened yogis have practiced and perfected for centuries. Co-leaders Ganga White and Tracey Rich will show participants […]
If a weekend seems like too big of a commitment, by the way, visitors are always welcome at Sunburst’s weekly meditation that take place every Sunday morning at the sanctuary that exists as a community of practice dedicated to personal and planetary awakening. No experience necessary, and beginners are welcome. You don’t have to do […]
Over the last few years, the Dive into Silence weekend retreat at Sunburst Sanctuary has provided respite for all sorts of seekers, including at least one Montecito resident who wanted to find some solace after all the nervous-system challenges of the Thomas Fire and debris flows in the winter of 2017-18. Others have attended as […]
Elsewhere in pop music, drummer Sammy Miller’s mission to bring jazz to the people via the young members of his seven-piece Congregation, finds the “evangelists of swing” making a proselytizing visit to Santa Barbara, where the Grammy Award-nominated, Juilliard-trained Miller and Co. will draw on a century of American songs to share the power of […]
Animal Liberation Orchestra guitarist/singer-songwriter Dan Lebowitz was thrilled to be interviewed by someone with the same last name, albeit spelled differently, for the first time in his two-decades long career. Perhaps even more than talking about the music itself – we learned that both of us can trace our roots through Ellis Island, pronounce our […]
Canadian cirque troupe FLIP Fabrique’s brand new show, Blizzard, takes the stage by, ahem, storm, as the small but exciting troupe of circus performers invites the audience to lose yourself in wonder in the middle of a winter storm amid artists who juggle, tumble, flip and spring around the snowflakes surrounded by the poetic beauty […]
Ensemble Theatre Company’s area debut of a musical adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma – which will run at ETC’s New Vic Theater on the same February performance dates at Never Not Once at the Rubicon (see above) – also has another close tie-in with the Ventura company. The musical version of the romantic comedy features […]
Carey Crim finished her original draft of Never Not Once – which gets its area premiere at the Rubicon Theatre Company this weekend – three months before the revelations about Harvey Weinstein exploded into the #MeToo movement in the fall of 2017. “So it became unexpectedly – and unfortunately – timely,” the playwright said over […]
Dave Cumes, M.D., leads a two-hour workshop that applies the Shamanic method of dream interpretation in which a psychological interpretation of dreams is seriously limited. To shamans, dreams are often “instructional” in nature and are a gateway to a field of non-localized space/time information through which our spirit guides help us. Cumes will help participants […]