Play Bill
By Steven Libowitz   |   July 30, 2024

Bill Lanphar wasn’t the best-known singer-songwriter-guitarist who called Santa Barbara home. But he might very well have been the best-loved among his peers.  Lanphar, who had a rock band when he lived in L.A. before relocating to Santa Barbara and La Conchita, started playing music during open mic nights at Dargan’s Pub and quickly became […]

Going Out for Home Movies
By Steven Libowitz   |   July 23, 2024

Back in the day, mention of home movies got folks scattering as fast as they could. After all, who wanted to watch other family’s foibles or vacation videos on some flickering screen in a living room? But the term takes on a different meaning in the new “Santa Barbara Home Movies’’ series launching July 20 […]

 

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More from Montecito

The Rise of Brownlee
By Steven Libowitz   |   July 23, 2024

Lawrence Brownlee is one of today’s most celebrated bel canto tenors, in demand for opera performances as well as song cycle recitals with major orchestras across the country and around the world. He’s particularly praised for his interpretations of Rossini – his Grammy-nominated album Virtuoso Rossini Arias prompted famed New Yorker critic Alex Ross to […]

Return of the ‘Heroes’
By Steven Libowitz   |   July 23, 2024

Heroes, Tom Stoppard’s loose translation of Gérald Sibleyras’ 2003 French play Le Vent des Peupliers (“The Wind in the Poplars”), won the 2006 Olivier Award for Best New Comedy – the highest honor in British theater, equivalent to Broadway’s Tony Awards. A year later, the funny, heart-warming work – about three aging World War I […]

Carmen’s Charisma
By Richard Mineards   |   July 23, 2024

Carmen, Bizet’s classic opera, never loses its entertainment value. Having last seen it when it was staged by Opera Santa Barbara a year ago, the latest production at the Granada, courtesy of the Music Academy of the West’s Summer Festival, was a decidedly contemporary twist on the Spanish love story conducted by Daniela Candillari, principal […]

I Like Ike
By Richard Mineards   |   July 23, 2024

Broadway veteran John Rubinstein was a true tour de force in the New Los Angeles Repertory Company’s Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground by Richard Hellesen, presented by the Ensemble Theatre Company at the New Vic. Directed by multi-award winner Peter Ellenstein, the two-hour show, with simple but effective scenic design by Michael Deegan and Sarah […]

Warriors Gain Full NCAA DII Membership
By Scott Craig   |   July 23, 2024

Westmont Athletics has been granted full membership into NCAA Division II… a year early. The NCAA Division II Membership Committee told President Gayle D. Beebe and Robert Ruiz, director of athletics, that the Warriors had successfully completed year two of the NCAA probationary period and had been granted a waiver for year three of the […]

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  • It’s Chukka Time
    By Richard Mineards   |   July 23, 2024

    After a two-week lull, Santa Barbara Polo Club’s high goal season launched in luxurious style with the Ferguson Robert Skene Trophy tournament, the local bath, kitchen and lighting gallery hosting a fieldside lunch featuring Petrossian Beluga caviar and Lanson vintage champagne – founded in 1760 and holding a Royal Warrant from the time of Queen […]

    The Summer of Theater
    By Steven Libowitz   |   July 16, 2024

    Ensemble Theatre Company’s two upcoming presentations were already terrifically timely as they arrive within four months of November’s national election. That was part of the purpose behind ETC executive director Scott DeVine’s decision to schedule short productions of Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground and What the Constitution Means to Me as special events this summer. […]

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    Top Baseball Players Tryout at Carr Field
    By Scott Craig   |   July 16, 2024

    About 200 of the best high school baseball players from Southern California came to Westmont’s Carr Field to show off their talents in front of Major League Baseball scouts and coaches from Division I colleges June 24-26. Since 2010, Westmont has hosted the Area Code Tryouts, which are organized by the Milwaukee Brewers in this […]

    Racy July
    By Leslie Zemeckis   |   July 9, 2024

    ‘In Search of the Romanovs’ To know me is to know I love Russian history. In Search of the Romanovs: A Family’s Quest to Solve One of History’s Most Brutal Crimes by Peter Sarandinaki does an excellent job of reconstructing exactly what happened to the Tsar and his family on that fateful day in 1918, […]

    A Legacy in Art 
    By Steven Libowitz   |   July 9, 2024

    Lady Leslie and Lord Paul Ridley-Tree, considered one of Montecito’s premier philanthropic power couples, generously supported the Santa Barbara Museum of Art for more than a quarter of a century. To help fulfill SBMA’s mission to integrate art into the lives of people, the Ridley-Trees made major gifts to aid in acquiring art to build […]

    Media Arts and Tech 25th Annual Grad Show
    By Joanne A Calitri   |   July 9, 2024

    UCSB’s Media Arts and Technology Program (MAT) 25th Annual End of Year Show titled soft AI+ M: Realities Altered Realities Emerging, was a dual treat with students showing at UCSB and SBCAST. I attended the SBCAST show on June 6. The poster for the show quipped, “No AI was harmed in the generation of this […]

    Sun, Surf, Cinema and… Bruce
    By Steven Libowitz   |   July 9, 2024

    It was almost half a century ago, but I can still remember driving home after seeing Jaws in the movie theater on a rainy night in New Jersey – so much so that when we came to a freeway underpass that had flooded with several feet of water, I was happy that the police were […]

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