Do This: Fourth of July
Celebrate your independence by choosing from the host of holiday options this Fourth of July:
Year: 2007
John Williams, composer and conductor, at the Santa Barbara Bowl.
Rows of white jackets greeted John Williams as he took the stage at the Santa Barbara Bowl Saturday night and the Music Academy of the West’s new season began. Williams, one of the most prolific composers of music for film, started things off boldly, with a fresh, sparkling performance of Shostakovich’s Festival Overture.
Forged in Iron: The Expressive Art of the Roof Cross Tradition in Chiapas, Mexico.
It is one thing to bless a house by moving one’s hands through the air, making the sign of the cross to protect it from disaster. It is another thing to make the sign of the cross visible and permanent, forged in iron and displayed on the rooftop for all to see.
Swinging into a SOhO-phonic Summer
Summer is here and the students have more or less fled, as have the official jazz concert series in Santa Barbara at the Lobero Theatre and Campbell Hall. Have no fear this year: The conventional summer jazz drought is taking something of a holiday, thanks to a regular flow of jazz at SOhO.
Blue Agave Offers a Fixe for Monday Blahs
It figures it would take a spot as chic as Blue Agave (20 E. Cota St., 899-4694) to find a guest chef like Roberto Cortez to design its special Prix Fixe Summer Dinner Magic Mondays.
The 20th Annual Santa Barbara Wine Festival
Chef Michael Hutchings, a Santa Barbara culinary legend, owned the acclaimed Michael’s Waterside from 1983 to 1993. But that’s just part of his story, which is filled with work in kitchens from Paris to Disneyland (the exclusive Club 33).
Wine & Weiners
Actually, the two go together like chocolate and peanut butter. Local winemaker Christian Garvin of Oreana Winery and weenie-slinger Vinnie Regina of the new Lettuce B. Frank restaurant and Doghouse fame will team up for the second year in a row to host another hot summertime event.
Norah Jones and M. Ward at the Santa Barbara Bowl
As a new summer season dawned on a distinctly chilly Santa Barbara last Friday night, two of this decade’s most revered musicians took to the Bowl’s recently refurbished stage. While Norah Jones’s genteel blend of pop, soul, and country has the songstress sitting pretty as one of contemporary music’s most finely polished jewels, M. Ward is unashamedly a diamond that resides happily in the rough.
High-Priced Country Clubs and Solvang Theater
Coral Casino Price Going Up: When the Four Seasons Biltmore opens the Coral Casino club to new memberships later this year, expect to find that the price has skyrocketed. Although Biltmore officials say nothing has been decided, I hear from reliable sources that the “deposit,” in lieu of a membership fee, could be around $75,000.
Give a Little
•The Snowy Plover Docent Program is holding a volunteer training session this Saturday, June 30 from 9 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Participants will learn how to help protect the endangered bird, which makes its home on the beach. Call 880-1195 for details.
