Pumpkins, costumes, and candy, oh my. Yes, it’s almost All Hallows’ Eve and as always, Santa Barbara steps up this weekend ahead of the actual trick-or-treating time on Tuesday. We’ve chosen to highlight a few events with an eye toward something for everyone. The Library, SBPAL, Santa Barbara Parks and Rec, and the Santa Barbara […]
As recently as the early 20th century, a diagnosis of diabetes meant the certainty of a shortened life plagued with complications that would ultimately prove fatal. But thanks in large part to Santa Barbara’s Sansum Diabetes Research Institute (SDRI), the outlook has brightened considerably over the decades. SDRI’s founder was Dr. William Sansum, a pioneer […]
Chamber music is alive and well in Santa Barbara, if having three qualifying, locally-generated concerts in a single week is any indication. Camerata Pacifica, the ensemble series founded originally as Bach Camerata by flutist Adrian Spence in 1990 that has become widely respected and revered for the virtuosity exhibited by its world-class musicians and the […]
You can’t fault Elizabeth Roe for expressing unbridled enthusiasm for returning to the Music Academy for her first purely public performance in town since spending the summer of 2001 as a fellow at the institute. Jerry Lowenthal was her mentor and Michael Towbes her compeer during the idyllic eight weeks, and now she’s heading back […]
State Street Ballet (SSB) launches its 2023-24 season, its first under new leadership following the transition from founder Rodney Gustafson to new Artistic Director Megan Philipp and Cecily MacDougall as Executive Director. Philipp, who has been with SSB for a decade, is staging this weekend’s performances of Giselle, one of the most beloved ballets of […]
The project-based Moving Dance Company, whose recent works include View/Chew for the Versatility Dance Festival in Boulder, Colorado, and Washington, D.C., made its Santa Barbara debut with HOLOGRAM at last year’s Nebula Dance Festival. MDC returns to Center Stage on October 21 with This is Not Content, a multimedia show that explores the human experience […]
Environmental journalist Ben Goldfarb shares his research on the road less traveled – that is, one that examines how our road ecology is shaping the planet’s future for the worse – in a talk at the Community Environmental Council’s downtown Hub on October 24. In “Crossings,” Goldfarb, the award-winning author of Eager (about beavers), shares […]
AHA!’s (Attitude. Harmony. Achievement.) multi-faceted programs have been rapidly expanding nearly a quarter-century after the organization’s founding in response to the shooting at Columbine High School back in 1999. The proof is in the post-pandemic pudding, which emerged late last month when some of AHA!’s after-school programs got underway. “The demand for what we’re doing […]
If anybody isn’t clear about the direction the Santa Barbara Symphony has undertaken, let’s dispel any doubts: This is not your grandfather’s symphony. Not anymore. As in recent years, programs have become progressive, as a wide variety of musical genres, unusual instrumentation, and frequent collaborations are pushing up hard against the old-school focus on classical […]
CAMA Masterseries’ 40th anniversary season opens with a recital by a somewhat left-of-center duo, at least by instruments, as mandolinist Avi Avital and accordionist Hanzhi Wang team up to perform at the Lobero Theatre. The two are veritable virtuosos – Avital’s skill has been compared to Jascha Heifetz while Wang is the only accordionist ever […]
José Limón – or at least the dance company founded by the famed dancer and choreographer from Mexico who developed a technique that employs visceral gestures to communicate emotions – runs deeply through the new season from Santa Barbara Dance Theater (SBDT), the professional dance company in residence at UCSB. Which is not surprising, given […]
Neither Santa Barbara-raised electronic-pop-music pioneer Jimmy Tamborello nor Ben Gibbard, singer-songwriter-guitarist of the pop band Death Cab for Cutie, imagined that their collaboration 20 years ago would be anything more than an enjoyable one-off. But suddenly The Postal Service – so named because the pair put the project together by the U.S. mail, with Tamborello […]
Palliative care physician Michael Kearney, who is also a student of Native American traditions and Mahayana Buddhism, wove together his professions in three nonfiction books that merge mythology, psychology, spirituality, and poetry. The Santa Barbara resident’s just-published book, Becoming Forest – A Story of Deep Belonging, isa fable of a young Irish woman who finds […]
SBIFF Cinema Society screens a preview of Nyad at the Riviera, the dramatic biopic of famed distance swimmer Diana Nyad who, at the age of 60 and with the help of her best friend and coach, finally achieved her lifelong dream of completing the 110-mile open ocean swim from Cuba to Florida. The film, which […]
It was back in 2011 that UCSB environmental studies professor Dr. David Cleveland published his white paper indicating that 99 percent of the produce grown in Santa Barbara County was being exported elsewhere. That statistic alone wouldn’t be so startling given that agriculture and food is the number one industry in Santa Barbara County. The […]
Given the small and rather insular nature of the local theater scene, Santa Barbara’s Ensemble Theatre Company and Ventura’s Rubicon Theatre Company don’t often open productions the same week, let alone ones that kick off their respective seasons. What’s rarer still is that both of the plays are tackling exceedingly current topics that resonate in […]
Charley Crockett, a Texas original who draws from traditional hillbilly music, vintage soul, and R&B to give his old-school country twang an extra earthy feel, opened UCSB A&L’s season at the Arlington almost exactly a year ago. The Americana Music Awards’ Emerging Artist of the Year for 2021 heads back to the venue on Friday, […]
Club jazz gets its due at SOhO this week, with a series of local shows. M.O.B. Quintet reconvenes for an eclectic blend of Euro-Brazil progressive jazz and music from the 1970s ECM/Fusion era on October 8. Italian pianist Antonio Artese, who oscillates between our local foothills and the hills of Tuscany, hooks up again with […]
It’s appropriate that Santa Barbara gets the third stop on the Martha Graham Dance Company’s (MGDC) new tour, the beginning of a three-year celebration of the legendary dancer-choreographer’s work and legacy in anticipation of MGDC’s centennial in 2026. After all, Graham graduated from Santa Barbara High after her family moved here from Pittsburgh when she […]
When a child is removed from their home due to abuse or neglect, they are faced with something no youngster should ever have to go through: navigating a confusing world of court proceedings amid competing interests with their future hanging in the balance. The children are provided a lawyer, but their attorney likely has hundreds […]
A lot of the buzz surrounding Carmen is, naturally, centered around Sarah Saturnino, the young mezzo-soprano who makes her Opera Santa Barbara (OSB) and role debut as the fiery heroine of the title. Deservedly so, as Saturnino, who in April was chosen as one of the winners of Metropolitan Opera’s prestigious nationwide Laffont Competition, has […]
The NatureTrack Film Festival is back in a big way for South Coast folks as the nonprofit’s re-mounting of its nascent festival moves to Goleta’s Fairview Cinemas for a weekend packed with nature-centric movies spanning adventures and stories via feature film and documentaries October 6-8. With new curators in place, the fest promises to be […]
Santa Barbara musician Chris Shiflett, who gracious gives his hometown a Christmas gift each December via performance parties at the 300-max SOhO, shows up at the slightly bigger venue of the Santa Barbara Bowl (capacity 4,600) with his somewhat more famous band Foo Fighters on September 28, a late add to the venue’s schedule but […]
Love of Literacy Luncheon
Having books in the home has been proven to positively benefit children in many different ways. One 20-year study found that the mere presence of a home library, no matter how small, not only increases children’s vocabulary development and literacy, but also leads to increases in attention, academic success, and, eventually, job attainment. The Santa […]
Bernie Taupin, Sir Elton John’s lifelong lyrical collaborator, steps out from the 22nd row to share his account of the 55-years-and-counting creative relationship between the duo, and just about everything else in his adventurous life. Scattershot: Life, Music, Elton, and Me is much more than a companion piece to 2019’s biopic Rocketman,or John’s autobiography Me, […]
One805 was formed in the aftermath of the Thomas Fire and subsequent Montecito debris flows, when the planned thank you to first responders gathering called The Kick Ash Bash turned into the largest nonprofit event in Santa Barbara history back in 2018. The grassroots organizers quickly realized that supporting first responders could be much more […]
Nearly 30 artists from near and far are saddling up for the 13th annual SLOPOKE Art of the West Show on September 22-24 at Flag Is Up Farms in Solvang. Former longtime president of the California Art Club Peter Adams serves as the featured guest artist and juror for the fine art show – appropriately […]
Santa Barbara filmmaker Lee Abbott’s documentary Disaster at Devil’s Jaw explores the 100-year-old disaster when seven speeding U.S. Navy destroyers crashed into the ragged coastline at Honda Point. Abbott does the discussion/Q&A thing about the largest peacetime disaster in naval history after the film screens at Santa Barbara Maritime Museum on September 21…. Citizen McCaw, […]
Artist Anthony Sonnenberg’s current Santa Barbara Museum of Art exhibition WARES! Extraordinary Ceramics and the Ordinary Home explores expressions of power through decoration within various cultures. In the lecture, The Power to Be, Sonnenberg discusses how personal, social, and political power dynamics are expressed through decorative decadence and excess, including an over-embellished palace, an ornate […]
Santa Barbara native singer-songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Mendeleyev’s new album won’t actually be available in CD form for his concert at SOhO on September 21, as the record isn’t officially released until eight days later. But that won’t stop him from making this particular homecoming show into a special evening in every way. For one thing, it will […]
The title role in Jesus Christ Superstar was neither the first nor the last major part in a musical or movie for Ted Neeley, as he had a record deal at 22, played the lead role of Claude in both the New York and Los Angeles productions of the breakthrough rock musical Hair, and later […]
It was just last year that Santa Barbara based actor-dancer Michael Downey wrote and performed a one-person play titled The War Shirt, which was produced and directed by former Access Theater founder turned visual artist Rod Lathim for Marjorie Luke’s streaming series. The story explored Downey’s experiences as a gay man, his relationship with a […]
Local authors who have yet to chalk up sales enough to attract Chaucer’s but want to reach area readers might want to get in touch with the Santa Barbara Public Library, which offers a small display area at the Central Library downtown for Santa Barbara County writers to share their work. Get more details or […]
If your relationship to books runs more to reading than writing or discussing, it’s time to rejoice as Planned Parenthood’s massive annual book sale gets underway as this issue hits newsstands. Paying no attention to Kindle and its kind, the book sale forges on for a 49th year, once again at the spacious Exhibit Hall […]
Savie Health opened its doors in June of 2022 as Santa Barbara County’s first and only free health clinic for the uninsured. The goal was to serve the needs for those who aren’t eligible or can’t afford health insurance, might fall through the cracks of government programs, and find even the sliding fee scale of […]
Cue the fanfare! LotusFest is coming back to Lotusland, the spectacular public gardens nestled in the Cold Spring neighborhood of Montecito. The Saturday, September 16, afternoon affair represents the post-pandemic return of the event, which provides an opportunity to enjoy a treasured wine-and-beer affair ensconced in the lush green lawns surrounded by a wonderland of […]
There’s no doubt that The Granada Theatre has played a vital role in developing and extending Santa Barbara’s thriving music and performing arts landscape for many decades – especially since 2008, when the theater reopened after a massive multi-million dollar renovation. The result not only restored The Granada to its 1930s glory but established the […]
An art show at a downtown Santa Barbara gallery might seem to have little to do with a nonprofit working with systems of regenerative agriculture. As it turns out, though, one of the series in Holli Harmon’s To Feast on Clouds exhibit on display at Sullivan Goss – An American Gallery through September 25 is […]
In the two decades plus since the Santa Barbara Studio Artists (SBSA) launched their annual Open Studios Tour, several others have sprung up in the area, including the Mesa, Carpinteria, and most recently upper State Street. But the SBSA Labor Day weekend is still the granddaddy of them all, the largest and most prestigious event […]
Every literate person knows who Shakespeare was, but if a couple of his aging actor friends hadn’t taken it upon themselves to get all of the Bard’s plays published in a single, bound volume after his death in the early 1616, chances are nobody would have ever heard of Romeo or Juliet, or Hamlet, King […]