Santa Barbara’s original wine festival may also be her best. “It’s got those classic Santa Barbara vibes,” says Winemaker Mikael Sigouin, who’s been pouring at the annual wine fête for decades – as assistant winemaker for Fess Parker and Beckmen at first, and then as winemaker for his own label, Solvang-based Kaena, which he launched […]

After more than two decades helping thought leaders secure media coverage with outlets that include The TODAY Show, the New York Times and Oprah Winfrey’s platform, veteran mind-body publicist and marketing expert Jeanna Valenti has now shared her approach to conscious, values-driven promotion in a new book. The Yoga of Marketing: Balancing Heart, Mind, and […]

A matched pair of lamps in bright yellow glass standing three feet tall combines the history of glass, the history of the color yellow, and the 20th century history of stylish designer lighting. An object contains worlds! The lamps were manufactured by two entrepreneurial Pacific Coast brothers, Morris and Elliot Markoff, both born in the […]

Summertime… the season of sun. Okay, yes, the sun has been a little shy as of late, but I swear it’s up there. While the Earth’s own axis may be at maximum tilt on the solstice, it is also the moment where the local community gets a little tilted. Accountants become butterflies. Teachers become sea […]

Many years ago, I noticed a particular quality of “calm presence” in my friend David Barton and wondered if this was a result of his longtime tai chi practice. Deciding to check it out for myself, I studied a bit of Qigong, a lot of tai chi, and began a thirty-year relationship with this ancient […]

I first met Kelly and Katy Mooney a few years back at an event for WEV (Women’s Economic Ventures). I was impressed that two sisters, with very different professional backgrounds, had combined their collective years of work experience – Kelly as a successful tech entrepreneur and Katy as a lawyer turned career coach – to […]

Last month, I traveled to Kraków, Poland, where I was invited to speak at the International Wine Tourism Conference. I arrived expecting to find an emerging category that felt technically promising and logistically interesting while still finding its footing. I left thinking about something else entirely. Beauty. Ambition. The thrill of discovering a wine region […]

Dr. Leung is a fellowship-trained breast radiologist who has been practicing in Santa Barbara for the past 15 years. She earned her medical degree from Drexel University College of Medicine, completed her residency in Diagnostic Radiology at the University of Wisconsin, and pursued a fellowship in Breast Imaging at the same institution. She is board […]

“How was your Mother’s Day?” I asked a dear friend. “My kids slept until noon. Then woke up and TEXTED me if I could make them breakfast.” “How was your Mother’s Day?” I asked a client. “My daughter texted me a picture of her dirty laundry pile and asked if I could do it before […]

Anima: Theater of the Feminine Underground is a ritual performance art collaborative where women spend weeks or months workshopping material prior to each semi-annual performance. In the performances themselves, the artists bare their souls and share some of their secrets, dreams, yearnings, hard-won truths, and more in the course of a wide-ranging evening. The experience […]