Tag archives: Speaking of Stories

‘Gone and Mostly Forgotten’: Essays Keep Memories of Little-Known Santa Barbara Authors Alive
By Steven Libowitz   |   May 6, 2021

Shortly after moving to Santa Barbara more than four decades ago, Steven Gilbar found he spent a lot of his off hours from his day job as an attorney doing things that are all about authors and writers. An avid reader, Gilbar has also published more than 20 books over the course of his writing […]

Back to the Future: Santa Barbara Filmmaker Revisits Wounded Knee
By Steven Libowitz   |   December 5, 2019

Santa Barbara documentary filmmaker/journalist Kevin McKiernan was a rookie NPR reporter in 1973 when he was embedded at Wounded Knee during the famous armed American Indian Movement (AIM) occupation in South Dakota that left two dead and scores arrested. Embedded himself, actually, as McKiernan had to circumvent government roadblocks surrounding the village and resort to […]

The Poet and The Prince
By Richard Mineards   |   October 17, 2019

Prolific Montecito author and former attorney Steven Gilbar has published his latest book, The Poet and The Prince: Stories of Forgotten Santa Barbara Writers. Steve, who has authored more than 20 books, including Literary Santa Barbara, and founded Speaking of Stories, which just ended a 25-year run this year, says his latest work is about […]

Coming Full Circle with ‘Generosity of Eye’
By Steven Libowitz   |   October 10, 2019

Julia Louis-Dreyfus is no stranger to the camera as the actress has starred as Elaine in the iconic sitcom Seinfeld and the title character in the just-concluded HBO hit VEEP, as well as several feature films. She’s collected 11 Emmy Awards, a SAG prize and a Golden Globe. But perhaps her most personal work appears […]

Hair Today, Song Tomorrow: 4Q’s with Cohen Choir Director
By Steven Libowitz   |   May 16, 2019

The idea of Conspiracy of Beards – the Bay Area-based all-male choir that sings its own original, a cappella arrangements of Leonard Cohen songs – was conceived of in a dream by a co-founder’s brother. San Francisco performance artist Peter Kadyk even journaled about the dream, which came complete with the choir’s name, before he […]

3Qs for ETC’s Jenny Sullivan
By Steven Libowitz   |   December 6, 2018

Long time Southern California and frequent Ensemble Theatre Company director Jenny Sullivan doesn’t want people to make same mistake she did, which was to wait until the last performance of The Legend of Georgia McBride when it ran at the Geffen Theater in LA in spring 2017. “It was so funny and so moving. I […]

Taking it to the Beats
By Steven Libowitz   |   November 1, 2018

Eddie Tuduri’s life turned upside-down when the same thing happened to his body during a surfing accident off Carpinteria back in 1997. The former drummer for The Beach Boys, Rick Nelson, Engelbert Humperdinck, and many other acts broke his neck and was paralyzed. But his recovery began as soon as he was transferred to The […]

BASSH One Giant Dance Party for All
By Steven Libowitz   |   March 22, 2018

Hector Sanchez appeared in so many of the pieces performed at last year’s BASSH – the theatrical showcase for local dance professionals and their protégés to show off their choreography in a wide variety of social dance genres – that one was thinking they might have to change the name of the two-decades old production […]

Time to Get Gorka’d Again
By Steven Libowitz   |   February 22, 2018

John Gorka is no stranger to the Santa Barbara music scene. The New Jersey-born, literate-but-fun singer-songwriter who started playing out in the late 1970s before moving to Minnesota in the 1990s has played at SOhO, done the Sings Like Hell thing, and made repeat visits to the Tales from the Tavern series in Santa Ynez, […]