Tag archives: people
My friend Joan Curran and I were walking up State Street on a Tuesday afternoon when she called out, “Hey Nathan!” Sitting cross-legged on the curb was a casually clad guy with softly curled blonde hair and an array of beaded jewelry. As I squatted down to the pavement to behold his work, I immediately […]
My annual Black History Month is launched for 2025 with Wendy Eley Jackson MFA; a filmmaker, TV Director/Producer, and college faculty. She is the Founder and Executive Producer of Auburn Avenue Films with 30 plus years of television broadcasting and film experience in the industry. Jackson’s TV/Film work spans SONY Pictures TV, Turner Broadcasting, and […]
Sure, the discovery of fire was kind of a big deal for humanity. But little did we know that that was also the moment we discovered a way to light up our life every single day. As early man and woman sat around their newly-invented flame, the enticing aroma of (let’s just assume) woolly mammoth […]
It’s fair to say the path to everlasting love comes in many shapes, sizes, colors, and in some cases fabrics. Just steps away from the white sands of Montecito’s Butterfly Beach, there is a quiet beauty and tranquil ambiance lining the road to one such love story that sits on full display – many years […]
My brother Benjamin Tolan – and you can ask anyone who went to MUS, Crane or Laguna Blanca High School – is best known for his uncanny excellence in whatever he pursues. He can pick up any tune on the flute, saxophone, or piano in just a few listens and dominate in any video game […]
Dr. Frederic Wells Baum (Ted) of Carpinteria, California passed away on September 9, 2024, at age 95. He died peacefully in his own home, surrounded by his family. Ted was a loving and supportive father to five children and four grandchildren, an enthusiastic golfer, an aggressive doubles tennis player, a dedicated choir singer, and a […]
Nicole Belton’s art studio, located at 1019 West in Inglewood, feels like walking into a museum of trees frozen in time. Dream-like hills and extending branches captured in a submerged composition (Skyview Drive); a tree in a moment of transition, poised before fading into a muted, decaying terrain (Ash). For the past six years, Belton […]
Residents of Montecito’s Hedgerow neighbourhood may be closely familiar with the tunes of the Grateful Dead, as, between the years of 2019 and 2021, my garage became the headquarters for my brother Cosmo’s Grateful Dead cover band, Curly & Co., made up of a rowdy posse of high school and college-age boys who, when not […]
On a lark, Michael and Gabriella Salsbury walked into Madame Rosinka’s fortune-telling shopfront on Stearns Wharf in Santa Barbara. Rudderless and adrift on the open ocean of unspeakable parental sorrow, the couple were emphatically not looking to Madame Rosinka for the answers that had otherwise so eluded them. The Salsburys were not seekers after the […]
Dear Montecito, Four years later and here we are. This column started during the first COVID-19 lockdown, when I found out that half of my exams were being canceled. “Hey Gwyn… mind if I start a column?” And, well, you know the rest of the story! One hundred hours of phone calls, emails, and interviews […]
This week I spoke to Mason Lender, the 23-year-old founder of an alternative investing company powered by artificial intelligence. Mason grew up here in Santa Barbara, attending Crane Country Day School and Santa Barbara High School before packing his bags to start as an undergraduate in Statistics & Data Science and Global Affairs at Yale […]
Yes, there are people in the area you are more likely to have heard of than to have actually met. Jeff Bridges. Carol Burnett. Beloved local mononyms Ellen, Oprah, and Harry. Steven Gilbar is in this category, but with a caveat. The name rings a deafening bell, but where the hell have you heard it? […]
Preparing for her final year at Berklee College of Music, Makena Tate – a Crane Country Day School and San Marcos High School alum – reflects on how her relationship with music has changed over the years. Dear Montecito, Last month I Ubered to a gig and the driver immediately asked: “Why do you like […]
Have you guys read The Giving List? If not, you should go check it out. Lots of great nonprofits featured in there. And I should know – I covered some of those stories. Three years ago, I was given the opportunity to interview the team at the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation. Fascinating! Of course, […]
Come one, come all! Beatrice Tolan is getting ready to put on her first art showcase: HORSE$H*T. The exhibition opens May 2nd and continues until July 2nd. Join Beatrice at Elsie’s Tavern to see her new collection and join me below to hear about the creation process! Q. Thelast time I spoke to you, you […]
“I didn’t always know I wanted to be a doctor. Actually, I hadn’t really considered medicine until my sister was diagnosed,” says 17-year-old Natalie Martinez. Natalie and her family are Carpinteria locals. On the weekend, they enjoy hiking the Franklin Trail and visiting family in Ventura. But their lives were upended when Natalie’s 13-year-old sister, […]
This week I met up with Emily Stone, an MUS alumna and current graduate student at the University of Oxford. After earning her bachelor’s degree at Barnard College, Columbia University studying Environment Sustainability and Human Rights, Emily made the move to the U.K. to pursue her passion for conservation science. In our conversation, Emily introduced […]
When I read Editor-In-Chief Edward Kobina Enninful OBE’s final issue of British Vogue, which he dedicated to 40 women, I realized that it is fitting fashion designer Catherine Gee be featured in my Women’s History Month issue. From 2016 – with her hand-painted designs for the prints on her signature silk line of women’s clothes […]
Third-grader Tom Snow came home from school one day with the devastating news that most parents regard as the sum of their deepest fears. “I told my mom that I wanted to play the trumpet.” When the poor woman had regained her composure, she gently but firmly took Tom by the shoulders and aimed him […]
Dear Montecito! I miss you! I can’t wait to be home for Spring Break next week! I’m getting ready to finish my second year at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, and a lot has happened since the last time we spoke about my single “Oblivious,” which at the time was […]
