On a deeply personal note, I remember Charles Ward, the longtime Texan publicist and promoter for the Santa Barbara Polo Club, who left us for more heavenly pastures at the age of 80 in his hometown of Dallas. We first met in 2007 when I moved to our rarefied enclave from Hancock Park in Los […]
It was the perfect pairing when Folded Hills winemaker Andy Busch, a former patron at the Santa Barbara Polo Club, debuted his 2018 Polo Syrah at his rustic Gaviota locale, which produces 3,200 cases of wine annually. The new vintage was made by winemaker Angela Osborne, who has now moved on to devote her time […]
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Hillside, the residential care community for adults living with intellectual and developmental abilities, celebrated the 77th birthday of its most senior resident, Barbara Williams, who has been living at the home since 1953. She has the double distinction of not only being the oldest resident, but the one who has lived at the 78-year-old home […]
“So much history. So little time.” That is Neal Graffy’s mantra. He recently profiled five of Santa Barbara’s most generous patrons: C. K. G. Billings and his estate Asombrosa, George Owen Knapp and Arcady, Frederick Forrest Peabody and Solana, David Gray and Graholm, and William H. Cowles and his Eucalyptus Hill. His audience was happy […]
Stan grew up spending summers at the Malibu Beach Club on Long Island, where he watched adults play gin rummy. His appetite for learning games was insatiable. As a young boy, he devoured books on poker, gin, bridge, and blackjack. He was allowed to run a poker game in the basement of his home, his […]
Carpinteria artist Robyn Geddes is not only putting paint to canvas, but pen to paper, launching a new monthly newsletter at the Santa Barbara Polo Club condos. Robyn, who I have known for more than four decades since he worked with Andy Warhol at The Factory in New York, is a board member at the […]
Alan Parsons, 72, who lives and works from a multi-million dollar recording studio on an organic avocado ranch in the Goleta foothills with his wife, Lisa, has been awarded an OBE — Order of the British Empire — for his work over the decades in Queen Elizabeth’s birthday honors list. “I actually heard from the […]
When most of America shut down last year, the Alzheimer’s Association was faced with a dilemma: What to do about its largest annual fundraiser, the Walk to End Alzheimer’s? Mass gatherings were obviously out of the question, but could they somehow restructure the event rather than calling it off? “The word ‘cancel’ never came up,” […]
Even the pricey horseflesh got upstaged at the Santa Barbara Polo Club when the La Boheme Dance company, colorfully dressed as courtesans from 18th century Versailles, held its cast and crew wrap party. The talented dancers, founded by director Teresa Kuskey Nowak, have participated in the Summer Solstice Parade for the past seven years, but […]
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The Endowment for Youth Committee is one of the oldest nonprofits serving the needs of African American students and the greater Black community on the Central Coast, with a history that dates back 35 years. But before Guy R. Walker stepped in as executive director in 2015, the EYC had struggled to continue as a […]
I went to the historic Rockwood Woman’s Club to speak to a record turnout of 80 guests for a Royal Tea. After British-born Janet Bullock, who served finger sandwiches and clotted cream scones on her Royal Crown Derby china, alongside dainty cups of Earl Grey tea, I regaled the club members — many wearing colorful […]
Prince Harry, Montecito’s latest celebrity resident, is apparently suffering an identity crisis. The Duke of Sussex, 36, may be known in major metropolitan areas like New York and Los Angeles, but when it comes to small-town America, he’s an unknown. Britain’s Daily Mail, for whom I used to scribe in the mid 1970s for Nigel […]
“La Primavera” means springtime and came from the annual season when hides and tallow trade ships arrived to do business in Santa Barbara — a big industry for many decades. The rancheros would join together for the cattle round-up and get together for a meal and a party with dancing and entertainment during those old […]
For more than 40 years, Human Rights Watch has enjoyed an international reputation for taking on and often accomplishing its mission to scrupulously investigate abuses to widely expose the facts and then relentlessly press those in power, ranging from governments to armed groups to businesses — all in the name of change. Its ability to […]
