Tag archives: Ukraine
After two years of pandemic restrictions, the Mary Craig Auditorium at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art echoed to the strains of music again when the Paris-based Arod Quartet, a Fab Four of players in their 20s, entertained. They shot to global fame – winning the coveted first prize at the ARD International Music Competition […]
I’ve been reading some excellent opinions in the Journal. Writers are challenging the Montecito Creek Water Company’s claim to the wonderful life-giving Montecito Hot Springs. These writers are right, we need to unite for the Earth, everywhere we can. I figure, if we’re taking on one water user, we’re taking on all water users. For […]
A great many things about the Russian invasion of Ukraine bother us, as well they should: the genocide, the war crimes, the images of starving children intermingled with dead bodies and urban wreckage that hasn’t been seen in Europe since the bombing of Dresden. Through it all, we in the U.S. have imagined ourselves tucked […]
Home Within, the audio-visual collaborative performance piece from Syrian composer-clarinetist Kinan Azmeh and Syrian-Armenian visual artist Kevork Mourad, was originally conceived of as an emotions-into-art response to the loss and longing of the Syrian conflict that has claimed more than 100,000 lives and sent about one-third of the Syrian people into exile. It grew out […]
As a longtime reader of the Montecito Journal, I am disappointed in your magazine under new ownership. I always looked forward to reading the Letters to the Editor. Not anymore. It appears you only publish letters about Montecito or ones that reflect the views of the left. Do you not understand that some of us […]
A boffo bunch of bibliophiles descended on Tecolote in the Upper Village to mark the publication of Steven Gilbar’s Little Book of Montecito Writers, a 160-page paperback including more than 60 authors, which derived from a talk he gave at the village library last summer. The book signing, which benefitted the Montecito Library, also featured […]
We must do more! What more can we do? These twin phrases have become a refrain throughout western civilization. We are profoundly aware that Russia is committing war crimes in Ukraine on a genocidal scale. We are tormented by a desire to do something “more” but uncertain what that could be. Or how “something more” […]
With Putin’s attack on Ukraine, many of us wrote to President Biden to ask him to cut off Russian oil imports, even if it meant a rise in prices and/or rationing. In my message I called on him to speak to the American people to sacrifice for a greater good. I talked of how my […]
Remember the 2018 devastating debris flow that changed Montecito forever? Those of us who lived here at the time do. Like it happened yesterday, with all the pain and loss and destruction it brought. But for those who made Montecito their home post-debris flow (or PDF as I like to call it), the knowledge of […]
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has captivated, as well it should, our general news coverage, our hearts, our minds, and our ability to clearly see the greater peril which is momentarily being obscured by the war. That is understandable on many levels when we see our fellow human beings, average Ukrainian civilians, targeted as victims of […]
As I write this, Putin is brutally attacking Ukraine. Do these things really still happen in the 21st century? Is it finally time to put an end to such unilateral behavior with a world government? The idea goes back to ancient times, when it was largely promoted by powerful emperors who wanted to expand their […]
The first battle of the Greco-Persian wars occurred in 490 B.C. in the town of Marathon, Greece. With Persians attacking cities all along the Greek mainland, and as Athenians braced for their own attack, Athenian General Miltiades took command of a civilian army and marched to Marathon to meet the Persian army. Using superior battle […]
It’s interesting that one person getting water from the Montecito Creek Water Company, Mr. Jon Emanuel, and not the company itself, responded to my letter advocating return of the Montecito hot springs by the ruins (Cliff Spring and Barn Springs) to the people. He claims I said things that are “factually incorrect,” yet he characterizes […]
A major battle broke out between a bunch of Irish fishermen from County Cork Ireland, and the pride of the Russian navy. You may have missed the news story, so it is worth spending some time looking at what happened, why, and what lessons we can take away from the exchange. The story begins with […]
