Tag archives: UCSB

Movie lovers might only know Cheryl Strayed from the film version of her bestselling memoir Wild, which starred Reese Witherspoon in the adaptation of the book that offered alternating harrowing and hilarious stories from Strayed’s solo 1,100-mile trek on the Pacific Crest Trail as well as the personal journey that led her there. But the […]

If you haven’t yet checked out The Queen’s Gambit, deservedly one of the top-ranked shows on Netflix and one of the best original series in the streaming service’s catalog, now would be a good time to get started on the seven-episode series about a chess prodigy turned accomplished if tortured young woman. That’s because Scott […]

I started at UC Santa Barbara in 1976, almost on a whim. I thought I would attend UC San Diego, but my high school girlfriend had her heart set on UC Santa Barbara, and though she was a junior, my romantic ass decided to head north and wait for her. When she finally arrived at […]

UCSB’s popular Arts & Lectures series has obviously been scrambling during the pandemic lockdown to present its normal program of international acts and artists. I took the opportunity at the weekend to watch 21-year-old cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason and his pianist sister, Isata, play a virtual concert from their home in Nottingham, England, and couldn’t fail […]

One of the perks of the Santa Barbara Symphony’s decision to dive into digital rather than completely forgo its 2020-21 season is the opportunity to celebrate an important milestone for Beethoven, perhaps the most important composer in the classical music canon. The symphony is marking his 250th birthday with “Beethoven @ 250,” a chamber music […]

To say that 2020 has been a challenging year is the understatement of the century. We’re approaching a full year of being held hostage by a global pandemic that’s brought face-to-face social interaction to a near standstill. And with sheltering in place comes more reliance on gathering information and news from the internet, where the […]

Dawn Porter’s much-heralded documentary, John Lewis: Good Trouble, which chronicles the life and career of the legendary civil rights activist turned longtime Democratic Representative from Georgia, came out shortly before Lewis passed away last summer. The film, which features both rare archival footage and exclusive interviews with Lewis, celebrates his 60-plus years of social activism […]

It’s doubtful we’ll hear Blu Cantrell’s “Hit ‘Em Up Style,” which Rhiannon Giddens covered so memorably a decade ago as part of a genre-busting, talent-bursting display by her then-band The Carolina Chocolate Drops, the Grammy Award-winning outfit that blended acoustic instruments with a decidedly modern approach. Indeed, Giddens, an operatically trained singer, songwriter, fiddler and […]

Santa Barbara surfer and filmmaker Heather Hudson, creator of the groundbreaking documentary surf films The Women and the Waves, has a new film she’s sharing with local audiences. 93 – Letters from Marge is the story of surf pioneer and icon Marge Calhoun (1924-2017) told through letters she wrote during the last years of her […]

UCSB Theater’s new show is generating historical perspective for the challenges of the pandemic UCSB Theater’s Generations, a new piece devised for Zoom and directed by Anne Torsiglieri, aims to make the best of the bad situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, perhaps finding the silver lining in the seemingly endless sequestering. Fashioned as an […]

The election will be three days in the rear-view mirror when The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra Septet with Wynton Marsalis performing “The Sounds of Democracy” streams for free as part of UCSB Arts & Lectures’ Thematic Learning Initiative, its community conversation arm in conjunction with events. Led by trumpeter-composer Wynton Marsalis and featuring seven […]

The venerable Granada was socially gridlocked when the popular Danish String Quartet returned to Santa Barbara with the Danish National Girls’ Choir, under conductor Phillip Faber, putting on an entertaining UCSB Arts & Lectures concert. The Fab Four – violinists Rune Tonsgaard Sorensen and Frederik Oland, violist Asbjørn Norgaard, and cellist Fredrik Schoyen Sjolin – […]

By his own accord, UCSB Professor of Theater and Dance William Davies King has spent a lifetime collecting nothing, which he brought to light in his 2008 book Collections of Nothing. Cheez-It boxes, “Place Stamp Here” squares, hotel door cards, and the little stickers found on fresh fruit are examples of the valueless ephemera that […]

Humorist-author-comedian-actor Mike Birbiglia, who has enjoyed success as a writer, stand-up comic, director, and actor (including a recurring role in Orange is the New Black, shows up on your computers and other devices in a special stream for UCSB A&L as part of the House Calls virtual series. Birbigs will read from his new memoir, […]

Actor Paul Reubens developed his Pee-wee Herman character for a live stage show that premiered in 1980 after being workshopped at Los Angeles’ famed improv troupe The Groundlings. The character became a huge success, as Pee-wee would go on to appear in the TV movie The Pee-wee Herman Show and the feature film Pee-wee’s Big […]

Vivek H. Murthy, MD, the 19th Surgeon General of the U.S., began to focus his attention at the end of his tenure in 2017 on chronic stress and isolation as problems that have profound implications for health, productivity, and happiness. The author of the prescient book, Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a […]

Two MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellows, a Pulitzer Prize winner, an innovative winner of a Grammy for traditional folk music, and a world-famous nun who was the inspiration for an Academy Award-winning movie are all coming to town as part of an ambitious new series from UCSB Arts & Lectures called Race to Justice that launches […]

UCSB’s Department of Theater and Dance’s new season got underway last weekend with a reprise of its summer production of Immortal Longings, a serious take on deals on issues of power and corruption in Shakespeare adapted and directed by Irwin Appel. This weekend, Appel launches its first-ever Naked Shakes Solo Festival featuring renowned artists Debra […]

I don’t often meet other people with the name Stella. So not only was it surprising for me when I was put in touch with the author of today’s letter, but it was doubly interesting to learn that this Stella had also dipped her toe into the waters of journalism. Two Stellas, same industry? Stanley […]

UCSB Arts & Lectures is by far the area’s busiest arts organization, presenting in the pre-pandemic era upwards of 100 public events every academic year, not to mention add-ons in the summer. So, naturally A&L is stepping to the front of the line again as the COVID-19 crisis passes the six-month mark. After transferring its […]