Tag archives: Susan Keller

Santa Barbara Revels, under founder Susan Keller, held its 16th annual May Day Celebration at the Paseo Nuevo. Mica Basilici, the tony troupe’s song leader, taught fascinated members of the public spring-themed songs, while the Revels dancer leader Helen Pasley taught “Sellinger’s Round,” a May Day circle dance dating from 1670. The dancers also performed […]

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 […]

Just 96 hours after St. Patrick’s Day at Dargan’s, the popular Ortega Street Irish pub was bustling for the Santa Barbara Revels 15th annual Vernal Equinox pub singalong with guitarist Josh Jenkins and the group’s song leader, flutist Erin McKibben. The only thing “Dublin” more than Ireland’s capital city was the volume of rain that […]

Also at the SB Board of Supervisors hearing, local realtor and longtime resident Sandy Stahl was appointed to the Montecito Planning Commission, filling the vacancy left by Susan Keller, who was removed from the commission in January after nearly a decade of service.  Stahl has been a resident of Montecito since 1982, and has been […]

At the first hearing of the year of the Montecito Planning Commission (MPC), the commission was back in person for the first time since before the pandemic. Chair Ron Pulice thanked former Commissioner Susan Keller for her nearly 10 years of service on the commission; it was decided that election of the 2023 MPC Chair, […]

I must add my protest to Susan’s arbitrary removal from the Montecito Planning Commission (MPC).  As a 20-year resident of Montecito, who recently had an issue important to us and our neighborhood before the MPC, Susan Keller was one of two commissioners who took the time to listen to us, actually visit the site, and […]

I feel I must reply to the Journal’s article (“The MPC Shuffle”) of Jan. 26 regarding my removal from the Montecito Planning Commission, as it contained several errors. Additionally, there were important issues that I raised at the hearing before the Santa Barbara Board of Supervisors to which they did not respond, and which the Journal […]

In the County of Santa Barbara Board of Supervisors meeting that occurred on January 24, 2023, First District Supervisor and Chair Das Williams asked the board to approve the removal of Susan Keller from the Montecito Planning Commission (MPC). According to Williams, this request comes after two MPC members stated to him that they would […]

Tartan ruled supreme at the Lobero when Santa Barbara Revels founder and artistic director Susan Keller staged her 13th Yuletide production, a Scottish celebration of the Winter Solstice. Set in an imposing baronial hall in the 18th century, the entertaining show opened with a Scottish overture played by the Ben Nevis Brass Ensemble and the […]

The Scottish bagpipes sounded loud and clear at the University Club when Susan Keller’s Santa Barbara Revels celebrated its seventh annual Equinox concert celebrating the changing seasons. The al fresco evening on the Sola Patio combined selections from three centuries of Spanish and Mexican music of the New World, in an echo of the Revels […]

At last week’s Montecito Planning Commission hearing, commissioners voted unanimously to appoint commissioner Ron Pulice as the chair of the Commission. While there was some discussion about Pulice’s current non-resident status – he currently resides elsewhere in the county – it was decided that Pulice would be able to finish his term. Commissioners Susan Keller […]

A page from our Eden by the Beach’s own history comes to life when Yankee sailors meet Spanish Rancheros at Casa de la Guerra in the Christmas Revels at the Lobero Theatre. Based on actual events from the 1830s woven into a lavish theatrical experience, the Revels, now in its 14th season, featured a company […]

Susan Keller’s 13-year-old Santa Barbara Revels, after what seems an eternity of pandemic doldrums, is revving up for action and hosted an Equinox concert at the University Club for 80 guests. Susan also announced the group’s Yuletide concert, with a California 1830s theme, at the Lobero on December 18-19, its first live performance in three […]

We’ll leave it up to the listener to decide if the new CD from Mike Dawson & The Smokin Kills lives up to its title. But we can tell you that the guy fronting the band is the real deal: Dawson is the former longtime DJ, music director, and producer at KTYD, Santa Barbara’s classic […]

We are the residents of Linden Meadow in Carpinteria, a community of 40 homes immediately adjacent to the greenhouses located at 4801 Foothill and 1495 Sterling Road in Carpinteria. For the last few years, we have been regularly subjected to the heavy, skunky odors of cannabis growing in the greenhouses surrounding our area. The smell […]

A newly built pedestrian pathway along Hot Springs Road has sparked some neighborhood controversy, which was discussed at the Montecito’s Land Use and Transportation Committee meeting this past Tuesday.  Bucket Brigade founder Abe Powell, who was an integral part of the County-led road enhancement project, explained to the Committee that the impetus for the trail […]

The Santa Barbara County Executive Office is seeking to fill a vacancy on the Montecito Planning Commission, effective immediately. The vacancy is left from the departure of Charles Newman, who stepped down from the Commission at the end of his second term in December.  Newman was appointed to the Montecito Planning Commission in January 2017, […]

Given the lockdown, I spent Christmas Day virtually streaming a host of entertaining Santa Barbara events that I was unable to attend, as I have done annually for the past 13 years. Susan Keller’s Santa Barbara Revels Venetian Celebration, taped at the Marjorie Luke Theater, “was as close to a live performance as was possible […]

Every year, the December performances of Santa Barbara Revels are meant to mark the winter solstice, which represents the shortest day of the year, the deepest dive into darkness before emerging back into the light. So perhaps it was fitting that my conversation with Susan Keller, founder of and still the main force in the […]