Tag archives: covid 19

Lucidity Likes the Fall
By Steven Libowitz   |   April 2, 2020

Episode nine of The Lucidity Festival, which was slated to take place April 10-12 at Live Oak Campground, has solidified new dates for its Regeneration Earth-themed weekend: November 6-8. The aim is to keep things as close as possible to the spring selections, from music to workshops and more, although shifting schedules always create some […]

Surfing Cyberspace in Search of Loving Kindness
By Steven Libowitz   |   April 2, 2020

With COVID-19 concessions confining almost everyone to their homes, Santa Barbara meditation teacher Radhule Weininger, Ph.D., just keeps expanding her ongoing offerings to the community to gather, connect, and share silence and guided meditations together. The weekly schedule produced by the clinical psychologist and teacher of Buddhist meditation and Buddhist psychology now includes events on […]

Jessica’s Journey to Zoom
By Steven Libowitz   |   April 2, 2020

Carpinteria QiGong teacher Jessica Kolbe, another SBCC SEL we have profiled in these pages in the past, held out as long as possible in keeping her in-person classes going at the Linden Avenue beach, where people were easily able to stay more than six feet from each other, all the way through March 22. But […]

Next Up in NVC
By Steven Libowitz   |   April 2, 2020

Speaking of Nonviolent Communication, this week offers a chance for a free session with Sarah Peyton, a Washington-state based CNVC Certified Trainer who is also an international speaker and facilitator known for an ability to weave together neuroscience knowledge and experiences of healing that unify people with their brains and bodies. Peyton’s revolutionary Resonant Self […]

SBCC SEL in Cyberspace
By Steven Libowitz   |   April 2, 2020

What with all the online learning taking place in colleges, universities, and other educational institutions, it may not seem all that revolutionary that Santa Barbara City College’s School of Extended Learning is embracing the internet. Indeed, with the COVID-19 crisis, there was no choice but to go virtual. What is rather exciting is the breadth […]

Tecolote Book Shop’s Mary Sheldon
By Nick Schou   |   April 2, 2020

Don’t even try to tell Mary Sheldon about how COVID-19 is hurting local businesses. After all, the owner of Tecolote Book Shop in Montecito’s Upper Village has been a bookseller for 30 years, the last 20 of which had the misfortune of taking place after the unprecedented rise of online shopping spearheaded by Amazon. Technically, […]

Highway Widening Moves Forward
By Kelly Mahan Herrick   |   April 2, 2020

Despite the coronavirus pandemic, Caltrans has announced that the first phase of the highway widening from Carpinteria to Santa Barbara will begin the evening of Sunday, April 5. This phase of the project is called Highway 101: Carpinteria, and it will add a peak-period carpool lane to the freeway in each direction within the City […]

Small Business Help
By Kelly Mahan Herrick   |   April 2, 2020

Last week, the Santa Barbara City Council voted unanimously to pass a moratorium on evictions for both residential and commercial tenants through the end of May; a similar moratorium was passed by the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors as well, ensuring that residential and commercial tenants in unincorporated areas of the County are not […]

Remote Learning in Montecito
By Kelly Mahan Herrick   |   April 2, 2020

On Friday, March 13, it was announced that all 20 school districts within Santa Barbara County would close indefinitely in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, leaving over 67,000 students ­– and their parents – left to begin a homeschooling program. Administrators and teachers from both of Montecito’s public schools have been working around the clock […]

Wine Forever
By Douglas Margerum   |   March 26, 2020

I’m hoping you know my wines. I suspect many Montecitans know Marni and I as participating residents. I have been involved in the wine scene as a retailer, restaurateur, and now as a full-time vintner for some 38 years. I am the producer of Margerum and Barden wines and a consultant for many other wineries […]

Village People: Jett, Jim, Josh, Mike, and Fabian of Village Auto Repair
By Nick Schou   |   March 26, 2020

Last week – in the middle of the mess of coronavirus-related closures and several days of seemingly nonstop rain – the inevitable happened: I got a flat tire. The tire pressure light on my Prius had been on for a few days, so I did what any sensible busy person would do and swung by […]

Needs at Unity Shoppe
By Kelly Mahan Herrick   |   March 26, 2020

Unity Shoppe (Unity) is offering free food and other essentials to Santa Barbarans who are now unemployed or unable to work due to the spread and impact of the Coronavirus pandemic. To meet the overwhelming need, Unity has consolidated its offerings to food distribution alone and now estimates it is serving more than three times […]

Montecito & SB Real Estate Update Amid Covid-19
By Kelly Mahan Herrick   |   March 26, 2020

It goes without saying that the last few weeks have been a tumultuous time for everyone, and the global pandemic and associated social distancing and quarantines have had far reaching consequences for nearly every type of trade or commerce. The local real estate market in Santa Barbara and Montecito is no exception; here’s what’s happening […]

Montecito Business Update
By Kelly Mahan Herrick   |   March 26, 2020

With all “non-essential” business coming to a halt last week after Governor Gavin Newsom mandated a “shelter at home” order, many small businesses in both the upper and lower villages have modified their business plans in an effort to stay afloat and help the community during this unprecedented time. “Now is the time for us […]

Outreach for the Over-50 Set
By Steven Libowitz   |   March 26, 2020

Santa Barbara’s Center for Successful Aging wants to help combat the loneliness and isolation caused by COVID-19. So the center is extending its CareLine Telephone Reassurance Program as a free service to anyone 50 years and older, ensuring that one of its volunteers will call you every day (or on any schedule that you prefer) […]

Meet Your Voice
By Steven Libowitz   |   March 26, 2020

Holistic Health and Lifestyle Coach, yoga teacher and “Eat Here Now” author Britta Gudmunson, aka Britta GreenViolet, has long been using song to cultivate healing, confidence, and connection. She’s a song leader and co-founder of the inCourage Chorus, the low-stress, joy-filled non-audition community choir that has iterations at Yoga Soup and the Somatic Sanctuary in […]

Somatics In Cyberspace
By Steven Libowitz   |   March 26, 2020

Dharma Body’s Tuesday and Thursday in-person Somatic Meditations at its yurt temple atop Mission Canyon – which some call the “space ship” – and downtown at Yoga Soup have been put on hold in favor of virtual online meditations beginning this week. Now the space ship will come to you, leaders Timothy Tillman and Laura […]

Buddhism Online Breakdown
By Tim Buckley   |   March 26, 2020

All of Santa Barbara Buddhist Meditation’s in-person gatherings are on hiatus during the crisis with COVID-19, but at least the Tuesday Night Mindfulness Group has moved online. The evenings, that usually took place at Purnamaya Ayurveda & Sound Healing Center in Ventura and included a Dharma talk, sitting meditation and the opportunity to practice other […]

SDI for SBI
By Steven Libowitz   |   March 26, 2020

Alan Wallace – the founder and director of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies and the motivating force behind the development of the Center for Contemplative Research in Tuscany, Italy – returned stateside due to the COVID-19 pandemic and is spending time in a remote cabin in Colorado for the now-in-progress Contemplative Path Through […]

With TP Scarce, Will the Bidet Finally Make it Across the Pond?
By Les Firestein   |   March 26, 2020

For a smart species, humans can also have bizarre gaps in their logic. For example, the wheel was invented around 3500 BC… but wasn’t affixed to the bottom of luggage till 1970. In a similar brain fart of civilization, people have been duking it out over toilet paper at Costco, when, a few aisles over, […]