It was a sea of navy-blue blazers and Nantucket red pants when the Santa Barbara Yacht Club marked its 152nd opening day as the second oldest sailing mecca on the West Coast. Executive Chef Owen Hanavan laid on a heaping display of food – plank salmon, lamb chops, sausages, shrimp, eggs Benedict, eggs Florentine, and […]
Social gridlock reigned at Lee Stanton Antiques in the upper village when international British photographer Tim Street-Porter, an old friend, and artist and editor Annie Kelly promoted their new Rizzoli coffee table tome City of Dreams: Los Angeles Interiors. The 256-page book, which took two years to come together, features the designs of Frank Gehry […]
Campbell Hall at UCSB was the place to be when the popular Arts & Lectures program staged two more major entertaining concerts. The first was the Danish String Quartet, joined by Finnish cellist Johannes Rostamo, for the eagerly anticipated capstone to their Doppelgänger Project, which I have watched over the past three years at Campbell […]
Little Women, the American Theatre Guild’s musical version of Louisa May Alcott’s popular novel at the Granada, was an absolute delight. Based on Alcott’s life, the production follows the lives of sisters Jo, Meg, Beth, and Amy March, each determined to lead their lives on their own terms. The timeless, captivating tale – set at […]
Another day at Maison Mineards Montecito, another TV crew! This one from Germany’s ZDF network with a five-person team, two of whom had flown in specially and one producer, Mo Davies, who jetted in from London and knew many of my royal expert friends from dealing with them over the decades. Los Angeles-based producer, Melanie […]
Banker Henry Walker is the new president of the Santa Barbara Polo Club. Henry, who I have known for many years, is the patron of the FMB Too! polo team, a club trustee and member of the USPA since 1981. He joined the 117-year-old, Long Beach-based Farmers & Merchants Bank as a teller, and now […]
On a personal note, I remember Lynda Millner, the MJ’s longtime society columnist who retired in August 2022, after 27 years as a scribe for this illustrious organ. Her Seen Around Town column was a regular must-read chronicling the comings and goings of our rarefied enclave’s bustling social scene. Octogenarian Lynda leaves her long-lived husband, […]
Real Housewives of New Jersey alumna Dina Cantin is our rarefied enclave’s latest celebrity resident. She and her husband David Cantin have just snapped up a nearly 6,000 square foot five bedroom, five-and-a-half bathroom Tuscan-style villa for $16 million in Montecito. The tony twosome relocated to the Left Coast in 2015, settling in Malibu. Originally […]
The Lehman Trilogy, a Tony Award winning three-man show by Stefano Massini, adapted by Ben Power and directed by Oanh Nguyen, at the Ensemble Theatre Company’s New Vic is not to be missed! The three-hour-long production, with two ten-minute intermissions, chronicles the rise and fall of the Lehman brothers, a 160-year journey of three immigrant […]
Mega philanthropists Roger and Sarah Chrisman hosted a fun fête for supporters and friends on the 110 ft. gaff rigged schooner Mystic Whaler, which is now run by the Central Coast Ocean Adventures Foundation based in Oxnard, as an education vessel for young people aged 10 to 18 years. The tony Montecito twosome bought the […]
Our Eden by the Beach’s Community Arts Music Association ended its 105th International Series on a particularly high note when the U.K.’s 66-year-old Academy of St. Martin in the Fields – under the directorship of legendary Grammy Award-winning violinist Joshua Bell – played a sold-out concert at the Granada. The wonderfully entertaining show featured the […]
Roger and Robin Himowitz opened the doors of their charming Provencal-style Montecito estate to host a sunset soirée honoring former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich before he spoke at UCSB’s Campbell Hall, part of the popular Arts & Lectures program. Reich, 77, who studied at Dartmouth College, Yale Law School, and won a Rhodes […]
There are now more billionaires than ever, 2,781 in all, 141 more than last year and 26 more than the record set in 2021, according to the new 38th annual Forbes magazine Rich List. They’re also richer than ever, with $14.2 trillion in aggregate, up $2 trillion from 2023 and $1.1 trillion more than the […]
To Caruso’s, the five-star Forbes Travel Guide-rated oceanside eatery at the Rosewood Miramar, named after the Los Angeles billionaire and developer Rick Caruso, to try out a new three course menu for gourmands in a hurry. Although why you’d rush given the idyllic location and culinary excellence of Chef Shibani Mone is quite beyond me. […]
After postponing their concert in February given a mandatory evacuation warning because of heavy rain, the charmingly named Grammy Award-winning octet Roomful of Teeth with pianist-guitarist Gabriel Kahane, performed in a UCSB Arts & Lectures show at the Music Academy of the West’s Hahn Hall. The tony troupe is dedicated to reimagining the expressive potential […]
Santa Barbara resident and fellow MClub member Bobbie Kinnear gave a riveting talk at the Santa Barbara Natural History Museum about her father, Col. Robert Ernest Evans, a highly decorated B-17 and B-29 pilot, who flew more than 50 combat missions over Europe and Japan in World War II. In 1943 he famously served as […]
Terry Pillow, who runs the charming leather goods boutique Homer on Coast Village Road, now knows what brown can do for him! Terry, former head honcho of Ralph Lauren, Tommy Bahama, and Coach, is headlined in an eight-page feature in WM Brown magazine, a quarterly men’s lifestyle glossy, with photos taken by Montecito’s Dewey Nicks. […]
Santa Barbara Symphony maestro Nir Kabaretti hosted a Jazz & Juice party at the Montecito aerie of Chuck and Merryl Zegar. The sunset soirée featured New York-based singer Kristen Lee Sergeant, a certified sommelier working in Manhattan’s top eateries who founded a wine label with Grammy Award winning saxophonist Ted Nash, called Two Notes, now […]
Meghan Markle is going to the dogs! The Riven Rock resident’s new lifestyle brand, American Riviera Orchard, has listed a range of items in documents sent to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which includes dog food, bath soaps and blankets. The 42-year-old Duchess of Sussex also wants to market fragrance sachets, hand soaps, bath […]
There was a great deal of sole searching going on at the Lobero when State Street Ballet performed a highly entertaining version of Cinderella, choreographed by the company’s founder Rodney Gustafson. State Street Ballet’s Cinderella at the Lobero was celebrating its 20th anniversary. The production, with its stirring music by Sergei Prokofiev, was written in […]
The phone at Maison Mineards Montecito was red hot after Kate, the Princess of Wales, posted her candid video revealing she was being treated for cancer after visiting the London Clinic for major gastro-intestinal surgery. It finally put to rest the scurrilous rumors circulating fueling endless speculation about her long absence from royal duties which […]
Montecito winemaker Gretchen Lieff was awarded Woman Business Owner of the Year at the 10th annual BRAVO Awards lunch at Goleta’s Hilton Garden Inn. Gretchen, owner of the La Lieff winery in the Funk Zone and an avid animal activist, exclaimed: “A great surprise! But a nice honor.” The event, with the theme Rising Together, […]
Santa Barbara Revels’ 16th annual Pub Sing on St. Patrick’s Day was really up the creek! More than 60 warblers, including founder Susan Keller, joined in the merry mayhem at the Creekside Restaurant & Bar in Goleta singing a selection of Irish tunes, sea shanties, familiar folk songs, traditional favorites, and novelty ditties with Andrew […]
Social gridlock reigned at the Music Academy of the West’s Hahn Hall when VIP donors got a sneak peek at this year’s 77th annual summer festival “The Magic of Music.” Featuring 150 performances with more than 137 fellows between June 12 and Aug. 3, new academy president and CEO Shauna Quill outlined the many programs […]
Just four months after moving into Casa Dorinda, artist Victoria Furst Hines has lost no time in making her mark. Victoria, who with her late husband Carter ran a popular Montecito drapery business, has displayed 36 of her colorful works in oil, acrylic and watercolor, just a tiara’s toss from the home’s capacious dining room […]
Bobbi Abram is Santa Barbara City College Foundation’s new chief executive officer, starting May 1. Abram has spent most of her career as a leader in nonprofit and higher education fundraising and administration, and has served as executive director of the Pasadena City College Foundation since 2012. “This is an exciting time to be joining […]
The stars were out in abundance in our Eden by the Beach when perpetually youthful actor Rob Lowe celebrated his 60th birthday with a host of Hollywood stars who traveled up the 101 to help the 9-1-1: Lone Star star celebrate until the early hours with a live band. “I love the milestone birthdays because […]
Kenny Lee Lewis, bassist and backup singer for the Steve Miller Band since the early 1980s, has put together a five-piece band called THE FRENZ and secured half a dozen special guest singers and musicians with decades of combined rock history for a tribute show at the iconic Fillmore West in San Francisco and its […]
A tidal wave of generosity enveloped the Santa Barbara Channelkeeper’s sold-out 22nd annual Blue Water Ball at the Cabrillo Pavilion with more than 200 guests raising around $170,000 for the popular nonprofit. The boffo bash was emceed by the ubiquitous Andrew Firestone and 14 paintings by local artists, including Kelly Claus, Benjamin Anderson, Eric Foote, […]
Oscar winning actor Kevin Costner is again lending his oceanside estate on Carpinteria’s Padaro Lane for this year’s One805Live fall concert, which last year raised around $1 million providing equipment not available in normal budgets for first responders, including mental health support. At a socially gridlocked Honorary Board cocktail reception at the Montecito Club the […]
Society gadabout Rick Oshay and La Boheme dancers founder Teresa Kuskey teamed up with Scott and Karen Davis to host an Oscars bash at Rick’s Montecito estate while the 96th annual event was shown on giant TV screens around the gardens decorated with giant figures of the awards trophy. Among those noshing on the canapés […]
The Golden Days of Hollywood were remembered when the Santa Barbara Symphony under guest conductor Constantine Kitsopoulos, general director of the New York Grand Opera, performed an Oscar-themed concert at the Granada hosted by the vivacious Leslie Zemeckis. Leslie, a bestselling author and award-winning documentarian, as well as being a near Montecito neighbor and fellow […]
It was close, but there were more than enough cigars when golfers competed at the Sandpiper golf course, just a tiara or two’s toss from the Ritz-Carlton Bacara. Afterwards competitors adjourned to the tony hostelry’s Cohiba Lounge, which opened last August. There they not only partook of the pricey Cuban tobacco, they quaffed Johnny Walker […]
Montecito Bank & Trust celebrated its 49th anniversary by gathering with 11 local nonprofit representatives at the bank’s annual anniversary grants reception. Michael Towbes, the bank’s late founder, first started the anniversary grant program in 1993 to give back to the community. He wanted bank employees to have a voice in the direction of the […]
CAMA, the Community Arts Music Association of Santa Barbara. hosted its last concert of its current Masterseries with the 18-member Sphinx Virtuosi at the Lobero. The talented ensemble was founded in Detroit in 1997 to champion black and Latinx composers and musicians to bring more diversity to the arts. The tony troupe performed four commissioned […]
An old friend Ingrid Seward – longtime editor of the U.K’s. Majesty Magazine and prolific royal author/TV commentator – sends me her latest book My Mother and I: The Inside Story of the King and Our Late Queen, which has reached Number 4 in the British bestseller list. Ingrid who has written innumerable bestsellers on […]
Jim Morouse and Peter Schuyler have been selected as the 81st Persons of the Year, hosted by the Santa Barbara Foundation and chosen by past recipients. The dynamic duo will be honored for their volunteer contributions and service to the community at a lunch at the Hilton next month. “Jim and Peter exemplify what we […]
Santa Barbara Maritime Museum was even more magical than usual when it hosted the “Heist at the Harbor: An Evening of Mystery and Intrigue” gala for 120 guests, which raised around $100,000 for the harborside institution. The boffo bash, co-chaired by immediate past president Sigrid Toye and Cindy Makela, also celebrated benefactors Robyn Parker and […]
Lotusland – Montecito’s 37-acre botanical paradise which is limited by a conditional use permit to just 20,000 visitors annually – is going global thanks to a free arts and cultural app from Bloomberg, joining 380 cultural partners worldwide with an astonishing 29 million users. “It will certainly bring Lotusland to a considerably larger audience,” Executive […]
Just six weeks after its disastrous sprinkler mishap the venerable Granada Theatre was back to its sparkling self when the 27-time Grammy winning Atlanta Symphony Orchestra performed as part of the CAMA Masterseries. Conductor Nathalie Stutzmann, music director since 2022 and only the second woman in history to lead a major American orchestra, joined Chinese […]