Farewell Block
By Richard Mineards   |   February 13, 2024

Long serving Santa Barbara Zoo President and CEO Rich Block is retiring in January after 27 years leading the 30-acre menagerie through the most transformative period in its history. Rich is the zoo’s second director succeeding the late Ted McToldridge, who retired in 1997. The zoo’s board of directors has formed a transition committee, and […]

In the Thirty Mile Zone
By Richard Mineards   |   February 6, 2024

Harvey Levin, who founded the celebrity news program TMZ in 2005, interviewed yours truly from his L.A. outpost via Zoom with a seven-man crew. Harvey is doing a documentary on Oscar winner Kevin Costner and his acrimonious divorce from wife Christine Baumgartner. Having written for this illustrious organ for 16 years, I was asked for […]

 

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More from Montecito

Symphonic Triplets
By Richard Mineards   |   January 30, 2024

Magnificent classical music reigned supreme with three impressive concerts in our Eden by the Beach, two at the venerable Granada and one at the Music Academy’s Hahn Hall. Kicking off the week was the Community Arts Music Association’s first concert of the new year with London’s 79-year-old Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Russian conductor Vasily Petrenko, […]

Surf’s Up at Rosewood
By Richard Mineards   |   January 30, 2024

Get out the Gucci surfboard! Rick Caruso’s Rosewood Miramar is launching a new surf club with the Gold Coast Adventure Company, owned and operated by local surf legend Adam Lambert. “Surfing is a storied tradition in Santa Barbara, and it was time for the resort to celebrate the iconic sport by offering guests a way […]

Flying High
By Richard Mineards   |   January 30, 2024

Actor and aviator John Travolta was the driving force behind Prince Harry being named a ‘Living Legend of Aviation’ because of a ‘strong emotional connection’ to the Riven Rock resident through the actor’s friendship with the late Princess Diana when the Duke of Sussex collected the honor at the Beverly Hilton this past weekend. Travolta, […]

New Members on Board
By Richard Mineards   |   January 23, 2024

The Music Academy has elected Montecito residents Susan Lichtenstein and Kelly Teich, and Santa Barbara resident Tom Orlando to the board. Lichtenstein is a retired senior vice president and chief legal officer, while Teich is president of Warner Group Architects, and Orlando is an industrial property manager. The organization also recognized two long-term board members, […]

Harry and Meghan to the Rescue
By Richard Mineards   |   January 23, 2024

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have adopted one of former TV talk show host Ellen DeGeneres’ ailing chicken, which was being bullied at her $25 million Montecito estate, just a five-minute drive from the Sussexes $14.5 million mansion in Riven Rock. Ellen, 65, updated her 139 million Instagram followers on the progress of Sinkie, so […]

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  • Having a Ball
    By Richard Mineards   |   December 19, 2023

    Novelist Jane Austen would have been in her element at the Music Academy’s Lehmann Hall when the Miraflores campus’ creative Auxiliary hosted the Aux Ball: Celebrating the Eras with 120 guests in their Regency finery, many donning tiaras, raising around $50,000 towards the SING! choral program for youngsters from first to ninth grade. Mally Chakola, […]

    Something to Celebrate A-boot
    By Richard Mineards   |   December 19, 2023

    Opera Santa Barbara took over the Paseo Nuevo’s Center Stage Theater when it staged Xavier Montsalvatge’s charming El Gato con Botas with singers from the Chrisman Studio Artists. Puss in Boots, to give it its English title, was a purr-fect production with director of the studio, Tim Accurso, on piano for the hour-long show, mezzo-soprano […]

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    A Tea-riffic Time
    By Richard Mineards   |   December 19, 2023

    To the historic Santa Barbara Club when Lobero Theatre Associates hosted its annual Christmas tea for 60 guests. The bounteous bash, co-chaired by Leslie Haight and Emily Johnson, focused on the organization’s youth events, including It’s Magic!, the Nebula Dance Company, and musician Derek Douget, a New Orleans musician who visits schools in the area.  […]

    The Sound of Flamenco
    By Richard Mineards   |   December 19, 2023

    Fiesta may be long over, but flamenco enthusiasts thronged to the Lobero for dancer Maria Bermudez’ Sonidos Gitanos, a 90-minute show showcasing the art of flamenco. Santa Barbara-based Bermudez, who was named an official Flamenco Ambassador by her hometown of Jerez de La Frontera in 2022, has promoted the dance art for more than 30 […]

    Island Life
    By Richard Mineards   |   December 19, 2023

    Carpinteria actor Kevin Costner and singer Jewel are reportedly an item. After the Oscar winner’s acrimonious divorce from wife Christine Baumgartner, he and Jewel were having fun on Virgin tycoon Sir Richard Branson’s private Caribbean Island, Necker, in the British Virgin Islands. The twosome were on the idyllic locale for a tennis fundraiser for Jewel’s […]

    Empty Bowls Runneth Over
    By Richard Mineards   |   December 12, 2023

    Empty Bowls, the popular fundraiser for the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County, staged its 26th event at the new $20 million Sharehouse in Goleta, with a record 750 guests being shuttled by the Santa Barbara Airbus from the Hilton Garden Inn, a short distance away. The 77,000-square-foot Foodbank property, which boasts 10 times the refrigerated […]

    Getting an Arise Out of Runners
    By Richard Mineards   |   December 12, 2023

    Everybody was certainly in the pink at Arise International’s third 5K run-walk along the beachfront at Chase Palm Park, which had a record breaking entry of 250 participants raising a record $50,000 for Bethel House, a women’s residential treatment program at the Rescue Mission. The monies will enable the facility to complete renovations on the […]

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