news to yous
SKATE ANEW: There’s an exclusive VIP sneak-peek—and birthday party for Mikee Bridges—at the brand-new Alpine Ventura on Saturday, November 5.
Month: January 2006
Christmas Perils
On the surface, making a decent Christmas album seems like a fairly simple equation. Start with warm holiday sentiments, a solid voice that can carry an already written tune, and the occasional sound of sleigh bells. An orchestra always helps, as does a children’s choir. Add it all up and you’ve got yourself acceptable holiday fare. Or so you’d think.
Head of the Class
NEAR THE ATMOSPHERE: Bauhaus came to the Ventura Theater Saturday night and delivered both spectacle and substance, capturing the room with theatrical, energetic versions of its classic material.
Head of the Class
GOOD GROOVIN’: Far too few people were in attendance Sunday night when the Charlie Hunter Trio rolled into SOhO, but those lucky few who braved the 10 p.m. kickoff were rewarded with perhaps the most complete sound ever to come from a jazz trio.
Head of the Class
NOT SOME BORING TRIO: Center Stage Theater underwent a sonic remodeling on Monday, as the Headless Household-with Joe Woodard on guitar, Dick Dunlap on keys, and Tom Lackner on percussives, plus close to a dozen talented musical aides-dropped its annual December dose of jazz eclectico.
Q: Weren’t Santa Barbara and Ventura counties once one county? -Mary Kahn
On February 18, 1850, the state Legislature approved a plan to divide California into 27 counties, one of which was to be called Santa Barbara. The new county covered almost 5,500 square miles and stretched from the Santa Maria River, which marked the border with San Luis Obispo County, south to the border with Los Angeles County.
California Native Plants for the Garden
Los Olivos might seem like an unlikely address for a publishing house, but in this electronic age, anything is possible. Their latest publication, California Native Plants for the Garden, is also authored by one very local woman, Carol Bornstein, and two other Southern California residents, David Fross from Arroyo Grande and Bart O’Brien, a fifth-generation Californian from Claremont. Their collaboration has resulted in a beautiful, useful, and well-written book all about gardening with California native plants.
Going Native
The case for planting California natives has never had a stronger voice than that of the three authors of a new book on that topic.
I Yap Therefore I Yam
Christmas-New Year’s maelstrom. And I would wager every one of you is sporting a similar bite mark on your own behind as well. How’d it get there? Remember the federal spending bill passed by the Senate with a one-vote margin of victory during the Christmas vacation? That’s the one for which Vice President Dick Cheney had to cut short his visit to Iraq to cast the tie-breaking vote.
Riders on the Storm
Neck tans, aching shoulders, sandy wetsuits, ignored responsibilities, chilly mornings, evening glass, and waves in our backyard-the surf season returned to Santa Barbara in a big way during the latter part of 2005 and continued straight on into the New Year. Our normally quiet cobblestone point breaks and sleepy kelp-covered rock reefs did their annual transformation into legitimate surf spots. And the best part is that-with a little luck-this trend will continue with some frequency until the Ides of March have come and gone.