Architect Mark Lakeman will reveal the secrets of creating common spaces for human interaction, the centerpiece of Portland, Oregon’s ongoing City Repair Project. His slide show and lecture will draw on everything from public art to anthropology and show how new civic planning ideals have roots in Mayan social organization. See cityrepair.org and check out the talk tonight, Thursday, October 4, 7:45 p.m., in the downtown library’s Faulkner Gallery.
1) The first guest host of NBC’s Saturday Night Live appeared on October 10, 1975. Who was it?
Aren’t great artists always tortured?
That seems to be the case for one America Martin, a successful Los Angeles painter whose fans include such actors as Kirsten Dunst, Danny Devito, Giovanni Ribisi, Juliette Lewis, and Ted Danson. She’s coming to Koehler Winery in the Santa Ynez Valley for a gala on Saturday, October 6, from 3 to 6 p.m., which is how I stumbled upon her artist’s statement. Artists’ statements tend to be out there, but Martin’s is a real doozy.
By now, I hope you all are converts to the mulch movement. Its benefits are many: It keeps weeds down, helps maintain soil moisture, adds organic material to be broken down by soil organisms, and provides cover for other beneficial organisms. Fall is a good time to renew the mulch layers in your garden.
“We do not remember days,” wrote the Italian novelist Cesare Pavese. “We remember moments.”
There’splenty to love about fall fashion-boots, layered ensembles, tastefully placed faux fur-but as avant-garde and experimental clothing becomes more accessible and, in turn, more commonplace, so too do the fashion faux pas. Enter the scoodie: part scarf, part hoodie, and all bad news.
When legendary songsmith Ramblin’ Jack Elliott took to a makeshift stage behind Mattei’s Tavern in Los Olivos on a wet and windswept February night back in 2003, no one could realize the legacy he was launching. As the eternal troubadour interspersed musical highlights from a 50-year career with enthralling tales of Wyoming cowboys and New Orleans brothels, Elliott laid the foundation for what has since evolved into one of the most unique performance experiences Santa Barbara has to offer.
I HEART S.B.: I’m thrilled that Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of the Big Apple and presidential aspirant, likes Santa Barbara so much. In recent months, he’s graced us with not one but two visits. I was especially impressed with how Rudy worked the room at Joe’s Cafe last Friday-where he conspicuously did not eat either an Omaha, a French dip, or anything else-shaking hands with customers and hugging the kitchen help he would presumably move mountains to deport once elected.
When Belinda Carlisle was considering relocating overseas halfway through the 1990s, her choice of destinations came down to Australia and France. Australia’s isolation meant that France inevitably won out and, for the past 14 years, the Los Angeles native and her family have been happily residing there. Which is probably a good thing because, instead of currently savoring her sublime new solo undertaking, Voila-which explores French chansons and classic pop standards-listeners could very well have gotten a record on which Carlisle sings about pubs with no beer.
It’s the dirty little secret of my professional life. Sometimes, there are so many affairs to choose from that my What to Peep This Week? debate amounts to a panicky game-time decision, based on factors of debatable import, like: Will I have to get dressed up? Will there be quality refreshments/good music/valet parking (that one’s generally a deal breaker; my car remains a point of embarrassment)? Sounds shallow, I’m sure, but decision-making is simply not my forte. Facing choices-no matter how small-turns me into a ball of angsty stress.
