Aly Comingore and Potato
NEW FRIEND FOR MUSIC MAVEN: When Aly Comingore took over as The Santa Barbara Independent’s pop culture editor in 2008, we tossed her straight into our newest fire: the creation of a yearly guide to Santa Barbara bands, whose fifth annual Comingore-curated incarnation starts here. “It just keeps growing, which is the best-case scenario,” said Comingore of the contest that combines online voting and a battle of the bands, the winner of which plays this week’s New Noise Santa Barbara festival. While dealing with this year’s issue, Comingore found solace in adopting a Lhasa apso from Deserving Dogs Rescue & Rehabilitation. Though he was already named Juicy — “That name bothered me on many levels,” she explained — Comingore rechristened the fluffy brown-and-white dog Potato, a nod to a “very tangential character” in a short story by Miranda July.
