At Victoria Hall Theater, Saturday, March 4.
Deathtrap is Ira Levin’s best work, a play that set the standard for hip, high-velocity comic thrillers back when it premiered on Broadway in 1978. This production, which features Ed Giron in the central role as the cynical, murderous playwright Sidney Bruhl, cranks up the suspense and generates some real excitement in the reversal sequences.
This weekend Solvang becomes a foodie paradise during the 14th annual Taste of Solvang Festival. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday will be full of goodies like a wine tasting tour, a “walking Smorgasbord” with more than 50 stops, dancing, and live music. For tickets and information visit solvangusa.com or call (800) 468-6765 x105.
Thu., Mar. 16 SBCC Lecture Series: Features Corruption in American Life with UCSB Prof. Laurie Harris. 7:30-9:30pm. Room 14, Tannahill
Forty acres of land owned by accused arsonist Leonard Ross were auctioned off to defray the costs of the 1990 Painted Cave fire that destroyed nearly 500 homes and killed one woman. The county successfully sued Ross, 52, in civil court for starting the fire in furtherance of a grudge match with his downwind neighbor, whose home was the first to burn.
1Holdren’s has the best people-watching around, and cool chairs to boot. 512 State St., 965-3363.
Democratic gubernatorial hopeful State Treasurer Phil Angelides (pictured) made a pitstop in Santa Barbara last Friday, speaking with City College students and outlining for South Coast voters his six-point plan to preserve the coast from oil development. Angelides has been widely endorsed by California Democrats, already getting the nod from U.S. senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein.
Santa Barbara police arrested a 15-year-old boy on Tuesday for the lower State Street stabbing of a 14-year-old boy the previous Thursday. Both victim and suspect were students at El Puente Continuation School on East Gutierrez Street. Leaving school at 1:30 p.m., the victim was chased by a group of teenagers, then stabbed. He was treated for a minor wound to the stomach; his attacker was charged with assault.
CELEBRATIONS: The March program of Camerata Pacifica will be performed in Santa Barbara at 1 p.m. and 8 p.m. this Friday, March 17, in Victoria Hall. It will consist of three works: the Nonet in E-flat Major, Opus 139, by Josef Rheinberger; Between Tides, for Violin, Cello, and Piano, by Toru Takemitsu; and Jake Heggie‘s song cycle, Winter Roses. The featured musicians will be, in various combinations, Angela Niederloh, mezzo-soprano; Sarah Thornblade, violin; Donald McInnes, viola; Emil Miland, cello; Tim Eckert, bass; Adrian Spence, flute; John Steinmetz, bassoon; Steve Becknell, horn; and Vicki Ray, piano.
When you train racehorses, you’re undoubtedly used to taking chances. That’s why Bill and Roswitha Craig, who worked with racehorses in Baltimore, didn’t think twice before buying a 65-acre property in Solvang and planting some vines. Their gamble paid off, and six years later, in July 2005, the Craigs opened the doors to their winery: Shoestring.
Since 1998, the medical aid group Doctors Without Borders has released an annual list of the top 10 most underreported humanitarian stories of the year. Based on field reports from more than 70 countries, the list is calibrated according to the relative severity of various crises balanced against the coverage they were given by Western news organizations. In 2005, television networks in the U.S. broadcasted a total of roughly 14,000 minutes of evening news; together, the top 10 stories on the Doctors Without Borders list received a combined eight minutes of news coverage. I recently spoke with Nicolas de Torrente, executive director of Doctors Without Borders (also known as Medecins Sans Frontires, or MSF) about the list and about MSF from his office in New York.
