The Opera Santa Barbara Puccini Festival begins with Tosca on Saturday, February 18 and runs through March 5 at the Lobero Theatre. To get a feel for what to expect, we shot five important questions to Tosca director James Marvel (JM) and to Cindy Sadler (CS), who is making her OSB debut in Gianni Schicchi. For more info, call 898-3890.
The best way to see Soledadeez is at a live show, where the audience can really get a feel for the music. However, their soon-to-be-released, self-recorded album is lyrically enjoyable and chock-full of positive messages.
Cruising past the inconspicuous shop on De la Vina, it’s hard to imagine the wine-lover’s sanctuary within: Sean Larkins’s Vino Divino is a mini-universe of wine nirvana.
Steelhead trout are returning to Santa Barbara. Granted, the ones most immediately returning will be eight six-foot trout sculptures painted by S.B. artists, but these mark the first annual migration of the Santa Barbara Steelhead Festival.
Our CHEFS prepare the best Char-Broiled STEAKS, Vegetarian and seafood dishes, pastas, salads, and desserts in town! Daily lunch and dinner innovative gourmet specials. Discover Santa Barbara’s best kept secret tucked away inside the Lemon Tree Inn.
Long considered a favorite among Santa Barbara diners, Citronelle was voted one of six restaurants in the U.S. with perfect food by Conde Nast Travelers readers poll, as well as Best Restaurant in Santa Barbara by the L.A.
Since 1937. Dinner nightly at 5p. Join locals for Fine Italian Cuisine, also Steaks, Chops, great Salads & Desserts in our warm, convivial atmosphere. Don’t miss our Backyard Garden & Bocce Ball Courts!! www.arnoldis.com
by Ben Falk
Michelle was a traveler, flowing like the wind and water, living life following her dreams. She grew up near the ocean in California-Dana Point, Laguna Beach, Mission Viejo, Fallbrook, and Oak Park-and also lived in Colorado, Nevada, Oregon, and Arizona. And then she began to have dreams about Santa Barbara and the ocean.
As the month of January drew to a close, I was feeling giddy: the Film Festival was upon us. Never mind that the events of the designated 11 days would leave me sleep-deprived, blistered, and, likely, hung over (or as I call it in my world, overworked); the fun our town’s fantastic Film Festival packs is well worth a couple of sleepless nights and the cost of a pedicure and a packet (or two) of Morning Relief.
Buzz is gathering among our youth for a film that seems unlikely to be the Garden State or even Napoleon Dynamite of this year. It’s titled Thank You for Smoking, a wry phrase coined by the novel’s author, Christopher Buckley, the satirist son of the man who invented conservatism for our time, William F. Buckley.
