Santa Barbara Dance Theater premiered four works by international guest choreographers to kick off its 44th anniversary season at the Hatlen Theatre. In addition to featuring the works of Jennifer Muller, Stephanie Miracle, UCSB dance faculty member Nancy Colahan, and artistic director Christopher Pilafian, the entertaining program also had original scores by renowned composers Ryan […]
More than 20 student artists were honored by the Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara during a presentation and reception at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, with each of them receiving a $2,500 scholarship and their artwork exhibited in the museum’s Family Resource Center. “We have held this event for 41 years now, and the […]
There was not a seat to be had at the 2,000-seat Arlington Theatre, with some selling for $500 a ducat on eBay, when Brad Pitt, an Oscar nominee for his role in Quentin Tarantino‘s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, was presented with the Maltin Modern Masters Award, adding to his Golden Globe, Critics Choice […]
Legendary violinist Itzhak Perlman, who has appeared in Santa Barbara many times over the years for CAMA and UCSB Arts & Lectures, celebrated this 75th birthday at the sold-out Granada for Stories of His Life and Career, accompanied by pianist Rohan de Silva. The charming two-hour A&L retrospective, which traced his career from a 13-year-old […]
After nearly half a century in Santa Barbara, culinary wizard Michael Hutchings, 70, and his pastry chef wife, Christine Dahl, are conjuring up a whole new menu for their lives, retiring and relocating to Charleston, South Carolina, I can exclusively reveal. Michael, who appeared on The Inn Crowd on KEYT-TV for five years, taping more […]
The History Channel’s popular reality show American Pickers, which was last here visiting Jim O’Mahoney‘s Funk Zone museum in June, is returning to our Eden by the Beach in March. The show is a documentary series where recycled and forgotten relics are rescued, while meeting characters with exceptional items across the country. The hosts, Mike […]
It was standing room only at the Ritz-Carlton Bacara when the late copper heiress Huguette Clark’s historic doll collection went up for auction, raising a hefty $1,750,000 for the Bellosguardo Foundation. With one doll, a two-foot-tall Bébé Jumeau made in France in 1892, selling for $90,000, the sale conducted by Stuart Holbrook of Theriault, an […]
Summerland was turned into a winter wonderland with real snow when polo playing hotel magnate Pat Nesbitt and his wife, Ursula, threw a spectacular holiday bash for 200 guests at Bella Vista, their sprawling polo ranch. The bustling beano, catered once again by the Biltmore, featured ballerinas from Los Angeles dancing to the Nutcracker, eight […]
The Rescue Mission, which has just undergone a $10 million renovation, was unusually oversubscribed when more than 300 guests turned up for the Thanksgiving Feast. The non-profit’s intrepid new chef Freddie Rashad acquitted himself admirably cooking 90 turkeys, 120 pounds of potatoes, 75 pounds of carrots, and 120 pounds of green beans, for the occasion […]
Santa Barbara author Jeanine Kitchel, who used to live and own a bookstore business in Mexico in the 1990s, has written a very timely new book, Wheels Up – A Novel of Drugs, Cartels and Survival. “Writing non-fiction was good for a travel memoir and my book on the Maya 2012 calendar phenomenon, but when […]
Rosewood Miramar Hotel owner Rick Caruso sure knows how to throw one helluva party! The billionaire mall magnate pulled out all the stops to turn his luxury property into a winter wonderland with his inaugural lighting of the ritzy hostelry’s 60-foot white fir tree on the Great Lawn, which had been trucked in from Mt. […]
Jim Brickman’s new album is a Christmas record – what else? – the seventh in his career that actually name checks the holiday in its title. Christmas Celebration is just that, a joyous journey through the carols, both classic and composed by the modern romantic piano sensation, pretty much like most of its predecessors. “I […]
Beach Boy Mike Love‘s former Santa Barbara estate is up for sale for $6,407,000. The spectacular 2.5-acre oceanfront property boasts five dwellings totaling 5,096 sq. ft. with six bedrooms and five and a half bathrooms on 200ft. of private bluff. Built in 1920, it is set on one of the single largest oceanfront parcels in […]
After working on fiction writing for 25 years and collecting a large stash of polite publishers’ rejection letters, Santa Ynez author Elayne Klasson has published Love Is a Rebellious Bird, a 320-page which traces a 60-year-old love affair, examining the age old question of why we love the people we do. Elayne, 72, who grew […]
Social gridlock reigned at the Margerum Wine tasting room at the Hotel Californian when owners Doug and Marni Margerum hosted a bustling bash for Santa Ynez Valley author Frances Schultz‘s latest book California Cookery & Southern Style, featuring 100 classic recipes by Stephanie Valentine, inspired menus and gorgeous table settings. Frances, a North Carolina native, […]
Too many cooks didn’t spoil the broth when Epicurean Santa Barbara celebrated its second anniversary at the Chase Palm Park Recreation Center with 120 guests. The food and wine social club, which has 150 members who attend around four events each month, featured four chefs and their culinary wizardry at the boffo bash. “Our goal […]
Luxury bling emporium Tiffany, which opened its doors at La Cumbre Plaza 12 years, is ditching the shopping complex in January, I can exclusively reveal. The iconic New York jeweler – which was just sold to the French conglomerate LVMH for 16.2 billion dollars – famed for its Tiffany blue boxes and the charming 1961 […]
Financial executive Christine Emmons, bank president Andy Chou, and former corporate leader Carl Perry have been elected to the board of directors for the Community Arts Music Association – CAMA – of Santa Barbara. Christine, wife of business entrepreneur Robert Emmons, was a financial consultant at Paine Webber, and went on to host the TV […]
Caroline Doiron, owner of the Village Gardener, is going to have her hands full over the next few weeks. Caroline, who regularly decorates the Christmas tree at the Four Seasons Biltmore with thousands of ornaments, has also taken on the daunting task, along with her team of eight designers, of installing and decorating Yuletide trees […]
Veteran art gallery owner Edie Caldwell, who used to have venues in San Francisco, Sausalito, and Rockport, Maine, before moving to our Eden by the Beach eight years ago, has just opened her latest locale on De La Guerra Street, just a tiara’s toss off State Street. The 800 sq. ft. gallery, which features Japanese […]
Prolific Montecito author Barry Siegel, a professor at UC Irvine, has just published his eighth book Dreamers and Schemers, which chronicles how Los Angeles’s pursuit and staging of the 1932 Olympic Games during the depths of the Great Depression helped fuel the city’s transformation from a dusty cow town to a world-famous metropolis. Barry, who […]
The 22nd annual Empty Bowls fundraiser at the Ben Page Youth Center was so oversubscribed there had to be three seatings for the simple soup and bread meals, which allowed the 1,000 participants paying just $30 to choose a hand-crafted bowl and, after dining, take the colorful ceramic home. The bustling event, founded by the […]
Renowned Croatian soprano Lana Kos, who was scheduled to sing in her debut at Santa Barbara Symphony’s Mozart to Mahler concert at the Granada, had to cancel at the very last minute because of bronchial problems. But luckily help was at hand locally with Anya Matanovic, who recently moved to our tony town and was […]
The La Cumbre Center for the Creative Arts using 7,000 sq.ft. of space in formerly empty stores in the sprawling shopping complex has just launched. The new project, with local artists leasing the spaces at a much reduced rent, is the brainchild of businessman Mike Cregan. “I was walking the streets of New York and […]
Dance Theatre of Harlem, celebrating its half century, put on a most impressive display when the company performed at a sold-out show at the Granada. The two hour show, part of UCSB Arts & Lectures program, consisted of four works, starting with a classical amber alert, Orange, featuring six dancers and music by Vivaldi, beautifully […]
English author Deborah Richards, a Santa Barbara-based equine therapist, recounts the nightmare when her daughter and stepdaughter began to experiment with drugs in her new book Shift & Shine. After escaping an early abusive marriage, Deborah fled the U.K. with her life and young daughter and met a successful songwriter, Jake Hooker, who co-wrote the […]
Records were broken when CALM – Child Abuse Listening Mediation – welcomed 330 guests to its annual Stepping Stones lunch at the Coral Casino raising a hefty $230,000, $80,000 more than expected. Speakers for the non-profit, which is just turning 50, were president and chief executive Alana Walczak and Dr. Andria Ruth, a graduate of […]
It was a record turnout when Montecito’s Our Lady of Mount Carmel School threw its 75th anniversary gala in the chandeliered ballroom at the Rosewood Miramar. The school, which started off with 30 students and now serves more than 200, raised around $200,000 for scholarships from the socially gridlocked fête for 350 guests co-chaired by […]
Elaine Weiss, prize-winning journalist and author of the blockbuster book The Woman’s Hour, was fêted at a bustling reception at Tydes at the Coral Casino after speaking on The Great Fight to Win the Vote at Campbell Hall, part of the UCSB Arts & Lectures series. Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is teaming […]
The bridle crowd were out in force at Tecolote when Santa Barbara author Deborah Kalas launched her first book The Wild Herd: A Vanishing American Treasure. The 146-page tome is packed with pictures of wild horses at play taken by Deborah, who splits her time between our Eden by the Beach and East Hampton. She […]
The elegantly dressed amazons were out in force at the Hidden Oaks Ranch when the charity Gwendolyn’s Playground, which is raising $4 million to build an all-inclusive play area, including disabled children, in partnership with the City of Santa Barbara and Parks and Recreation, at the Dwight Murphy Field, a tiara’s toss from the Santa […]
Surf movies, especially those with a Santa Barbara connection, have been a popular sidebar at SBIFF for many years. This weekend the genre steps to a fest of its own with the first annual event celebrating the “Santa Barbara Surf Culture” on film. The two-day fest, slated for full 12-hour plus schedules on both Saturday […]
On a personal note, I remember the legendary Hollywood icon Robert Evans, who produced The Godfather and Chinatown. Bob, who died at his magnificent Beverly Hills mansion aged 89, was also thrown into the spotlight when his fifth wife Love Story actress Ali MacGraw left him for actor Steve McQueen. He was also married to […]
Journal columnist Ashleigh Brilliant has published his first book in 20 years and the tenth in his series of original illustrated epigrams, known as Brilliant Thoughts based on his popular Pot-Shots newspaper series. The $25 soft cover volume, I Need More Time – And I Probably Always Will, has 400 of his epigrams in its […]
The party animals were out in costumed force when the popular charity Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Network threw its 31st annual benefit at the Carriage and Western Art Museum with nearly 300 guests raising around $150,000 for the Goleta-based facility and rescuing more than 3,500 animals annually. The fun fete, co-chaired by Gretchen Lieff and […]
If you have a yen for opera, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly at the Granada was definitely the production for you. Opera Santa Barbara’s 25th anniversary season opener was a cracker with artistic director Kostis Protopapas working musical magic with soprano Eleni Calenos in the pivotal role. She was joined by a superb cast, including tenor Harold […]
A cavalcade of uniforms from all branches of the Department of Defense, including a red and gold dress outfit – complete with spurs – worn by a former Royal Welch Fusiliers officer who attended Sandhurst, the British version of West Point, descended on the cavernous Hilton ballroom for the 23rd annual sold-out Military Ball organized […]
Santa Barbara Teen Star Sofia Schuster, a sophomore at San Marcos High, is widening her vocal horizons. The 15-year-old traveled down to Los Angeles to audition for the latest series of the ABC TV show American Idol in front of local, singer Katy Perry, Lionel Richie, and Luke Bryan. Sofia, daughter of ShelterBox USA president […]
Award-winning actress and opera singer Deborah Bertling has been appointed president of the women’s board of the Community Arts Music Association. Her extensive performance history throughout California has included dozens of plays, musicals, staged readings, concerts, feature films, and several Opera Santa Barbara productions. Deborah is also president of the Performing Arts Scholarship Foundation. In […]
To Tydes at the Coral Casino where the Biltmore’s new executive chef Michael Patria and Michelin-starred culinary wizard Erik Anderson from the new Truss Restaurant at the Four Seasons in Napa Valley, showed off their skills debuting a new dinner menu which is available through November 16. The menu, which marries Patria’s vision for the […]