What is a vegetarian gourmet to do? Sure, there are casual restaurants that cater to vegetarians in town, but what about fine dining? Many of Santa Barbara’s excellent restaurants feature only a single vegetarian entree, if that, and many figure that grilled vegetables on top of pasta is a satisfying meal. One answer, an answer good enough to last several lifetimes, is to go to SpiritLand Bistro (230 E. Victoria St., 966-7759).
Nikki Fisher at Carpinteria Wine Co. (4193-1 Carpinteria Ave., 684-7440) so enjoys her job that she can make you feel a bit buzzed even before you imbibe-she’s both bright and bubbly. What’s more, she throws terrific tastings, with the next happening Saturday, July 14, at 2 p.m. (no reservations, $15 at the door). Fisher promises tastings of more than 60 wines and even a few up-and-coming winemakers on hand.
I’ve heard it said that if you lived through a trend the first time around, you should never, ever wear it again. Be that as it may, last Tuesday night I was cursing the day I’d ever decided to chuck those awesome hot pink leg warmers I used to wear to grade school.
The International Songwriting Competition is at it again, offering $150,000 in prizes, including a $25,000 cash/$20,000 merchandise package for the winner. We’re pretty sure it’s not a scam, but it does cost $30 per entered song. Unless, that is, you send them in before the July 16 early-bird deadline, when all additional songs are only $20. See songwritingcompetition.com.
“His farces are what I’d call ‘inspired silliness,'” said director Rick Mokler of Rough Crossing, the Tom Stoppard “comedy with music” that opens this week at Santa Barbara City College’s Garvin Theatre. Audiences will find themselves shaking with laughter at the simultaneous wit and utter ridiculousness of the show, which tells the story of a theatrical team that boards a trans-Atlantic ocean liner bound for New York and Broadway with a musical, The Cruise of the Dodo, that is nearly complete.
Janusphere Dance is Darion Smith’s company, but the New York-based dancer, choreographer, and Santa Barbara native runs it as a joint enterprise. The company’s West Coast premiere last weekend featured the work of four different choreographers and nine dancers, Smith among them.
Anyone who’s involved in the art world knows a Sonotube form intimately, for the cylindrical mailing devices are used to send and store everything from sketches to masterpieces. So when the Contemporary Arts Forum asked 35 artists across the world to fill a Sonotube with a piece and send it back with installation instructions, the artists responded with glee.
From The O.C. to Sex and the City, same-sex experiences among straight femmes are increasingly dominating the airwaves. According to Marie Claire, female bisexuality is “the erotic new trend (everyone’s trying it).” VH1 recently aired Women Seeking Women: A Bicurious Journey, in which four heterosexual married couples went to Hedonism Resort to see if any of the wives would make out with each other.
Excuse me, but aren’t comedies supposed to be funny? This one is not, though it has the right formal ideas. License to Wed is fashioned on the classical model, wherein lovers meet, run up against a forbidding social difference-Sadie (Mandy Moore) is a Muffie socialite kid, Ben (John Krasinski) is a cipher-unmask a hypocrite, and it all ends in (look out for the spoiler, kids) an unlikely blissful wedding. Shakespeare would have signed off on the pitch.
JAZZED IN THE NORTH: In her 1987 essay on Montreal, “The One That Got Away,” inspired travel writer Jan Morris extolled the city’s elusive wonder, noting that it has successfully “defied homogenization.” All these years later, Montreal is more heterogeneous than ever, and more French.
