No god but God,
the religious scholar Reza Aslan challenges some of Western society’s most entrenched notions and prejudices about Islam. He argues that the core message of Islam as revealed by the Prophet Muhammad was and remains profoundly egalitarian, noting that during Muhammad’s lifetime, women, the economically and socially dispossessed, and religious minorities – Christians and Jews – were given radical new rights.
The artist known as Keb’ Mo’ was born Kevin Moore in Compton, California in 1951, and has carved out a unique career persona in the shadow of Taj Mahal. Acoustic country blues may be a basic part of his musical DNA, which he has championed on public radio and in Martin Scorsese’s acclaimed Blues project on PBS. But Mo’ freely wanders into other neighborhoods of idiom and medium, including theater. On his latest album Peace : Back by Popular Demand, he revisited activist songs from the ’60s and the ’70s. On Thursday, Mo’ returns to Campbell Hall, where he courted an SRO house in 2002.
Much like grunge’s goatees replaced new wave’s hair gel, it seems that as low-fi and emo firm up their cultural stance, they’re bringing back the full-blown beard. Here are 2005’s best albums that feature bearded vocalists.
When visiting the Santa Barbara Museum of Art to explore its new Portraits of Place exhibition recently, I stumbled across an unexpected treasure. In the concurrent exhibition Picture Stories: The Art of Europe and the Americas, hanging quietly on the wall of the Gould Gallery is a painting by Russian-born artist Wassily Kandinsky.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
