ON Culture | Authors, Art, and Men in Tutus

This edition of ON Culture was originally emailed to subscribers on April 26, 2024. To receive Leslie Dinaberg’s arts newsletter in your inbox on Fridays, sign up at independent.com/newsletters.

ON the Walls

Brad Nack’s annual *100% Reindeer Art Show* is back at Roy on December 15. | Photo: Brad Nack

The herd is back. Brad Nack’s annual 100% Reindeer Art Show: One Night Only is next Friday night (December 15) at 6 p.m. at Roy Restaurant. If you know, you know: This is a much-anticipated, one-night-only opportunity that local collectors swarm to mingle with friends and check out Nack’s most recent herd of reindeer. Each piece is uniquely colorful, uniquely layered, and uniquely Brad. Click here for details.

This a big month for small shows, including the always must-see 100 Grand Show at Sullivan Goss (the “small” in this case indicates cost, with 100 works of art for $1,000 or less), which is on view through December 31 and features work from an incredible roster of talent: Meredith Brooks Abbott, Whitney Abbott, Scott Anderson, Douglas Andrews, Alyssa Beccue, Kit Boise-Cossart, Ken Bortolazzo, Hilary Brace, Liz Brady, Lisabette Brinkman, Hilary Brock, Donna Brown, Phoebe Brunner, Jane Callister, Nell Campbell, Chris Chapman, Patricia Chidlaw, Kelly Clause, Connie Connally, Rafael Perea de la Cabada, Tom de Walt, David Diamant, Kris Doe, Pausha Foley, Jon Francis, Valori Fussell, Kevin Gleason, Robin Gowen, Colin Fraser Gray, Inga Guzyte, Linda Hale, DJ Hall, Bay Hallowell, Lauren Hanson, Lynn Hanson, Holli Harmon, Kelly Hildner, James Hodgson, Stephen Holland, Carolyn Hubbs, Nathan Huff, Deanna Hunt, John Iwerks, Cynthia James, Ben Kendall, Maia Kikerpill, Mary-Austin Klein, Kathleen Klein-Wakefield, Onno Kok, Wosene Worke Kosrof, Julika Lackner, Daniel Landman, Dave Lefner, Dan Levin, Michael Long, Ruth Green & Lynda Weinman, Hugh Margerum, Virginia McCracken, Susan McDonnell, Kerry Methner, John Nava, Jami Joelle Nielsen, Christopher Noxon, Amber O’Neill, Tom Pazderka, Angela Perko, Chris Peters, Gail Pine, Hank Pitcher, Frances Reighley, Maria Rendón, Chris Rupp, Linda Saccoccio, Sharon Schock, Paul Schurch, Leslie Lewis Sigler, Kerrie Smith, Libby Smith, Eliot Spaulding, Ginny Speirs, Catherine Steininger, Nicole Strasburg, Andrew Thill, James David Thomas, Susan Tibbles, Dug Uyesaka, Sue Van Horsen, Sarah Vedder, Wanda Venturelli, Nina Warner, Frank Whipple, Monica Wiesblott, Sara Woodburn, and Sara Yerkes. Many of the works have red dots already, but it is still fun to look at, and it’s an excellent overview of the Santa Barbara art scene.

Another small show with a wide range of artists (“small” in size this time around) on view until December 15 is a fundraiser for Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art titled 5×5: Westmont College Celebrating 85 Years. It features 680 separate 5″x5″ pieces lining the museum’s available walls. Click here to view the exhibition online and bid on works. And click here to read Josef Woodard’s review of the show.

Dana Hooper, “Rhode Island Reds,” oil, 5×5, on view at Marcia Burtt Gallery | Photo: Courtesy

Marcia Burtt Gallery’s Holiday Exhibition is on view through February 4, 2024, with her excellent roster of gallery artists displaying a variety of distinct approaches to realism and abstraction in landscape vistas, floral still lifes, and arboreal studies. Click here for hours and details.

ON the Web

A screen shot from “Transmissions” No. 7, spotlighting the Boom Boom Room’s open bike rides. | Credit: Kevin Tran

Filmmaker Kevin Tran just finished Episode 7 in his series of Transmissions videos for the Independent, and they are so much fun to watch, I really encourage you to check them out. So far, he’s turned his camera on Haven and the Boom Boom Bike Room, DJ Javier, Third Window Brewing Company, Salt Water Divas, Dante Elephante (who has generously provided the music for the entire series), Rascal’s Vegan, and Lighthouse Skate Shop. The throughline of the series is ostensibly to showcase people, places, and ideas of interest in the 805, but Kevin is now a young father who grew up in town, was in New York for a while, and has returned to S.B., so he brings a unique and welcome perspective on what it means to be in that stage of life here in this town. Stay tuned, we’ve got a great list of new and interesting videos coming your way in the series.

ON the Page

Melinda Palacio and Shauna C. Murphy at the Santa Barbara Public Library Local Author Book Fair | Photo: Leslie Dinaberg

Loads of authors, and an impressive crowd of readers, gathered last weekend for the S.B. Public Library Local Author Fair. You can read my story here. And speaking of bookish pleasures, the Los Angeles Times featured a reader’s getaway in Solvang that sounded just heavenly. I hope someone invites me to one of these some day. Read the story, titled “Make Your Next Vacation a Book Retreat,” here.

While he no longer lives in Santa Barbara, Steven Crandell has deep roots in town, including an outstanding athletics career at Santa Barbara High and Stanford, work with the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, and as the author of his dear (now-deceased) father Larry Crandell’s charming biography, Silver Tongue: Secrets of Mr. Santa Barbara. Always an entertaining and kind-hearted soul, Steven has a great series on LinkedIn called “Confessions of a Supermarket Cashier: The story of how strangers become friends in the checkout aisle,” which documents his life working, you got it, in a supermarket in Washington State. Click here to subscribe. I’d love to hear what you think.

Also worth checking out, especially for those who love art history, Santa Barbara reader and proud aunt Andie Adler shared a bit about her niece Olivia Swarthout‘s new book Weird Medieval Guys: How to Live, Love, Laugh (and Die) in Dark Times. It was released in the U.K. this fall (Olivia lives in London) and comes out in the U.S. in February. Meanwhile, here’s the scoop from CNN.

ON the Stage

Paquita, Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo | Photo: Zoran Jelenic

Great gifts come in envelopes, and tickets to shows are one of my favorite things to give and receive during the holiday season. One show I’d highly recommend is the world’s foremost all-male comic ballet company, Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, which returns to the Granada on January 25, 2024, thanks to UCSB Arts & Lectures (A&L). Celebrating 50 years of men in tutus, the Trocks do an incredible job of meshing razor-sharp humor with breathtaking pointe work. Click here for more information. A late add to the A&L season, Americana favorite Sierra Ferrell is coming to Campbell Hall on March 10. Click here for tickets. Shows at the Santa Barbara Bowl are starting to go on sale as well (another great gift idea); click here to buy tickets to Willie Nelson & Family (April 25), Cody Jinks (May 18), and Brothers Osborne (May 31), with many more to come.

*Sounds and Stories of a Greek Christmas* is at St. Barbara Greek Orthodox Church on December 9. | Photo: Courtesy

When it comes to holiday-themed entertainment, our cups are certainly overflowing this month. Josef Woodard does a great roundup of the musically themed holiday offerings in last week’s ON the Beat column (read here), but there’s another worthy show this weekend — Sounds and Stories of a Greek Christmas — featuring soprano Anastasia Malliaras, Opera Santa Barbara Artistic & General Director Kostis Protopapas, and the award-winning San Marcos High School Madrigals under the direction of Eleni Pantages. It takes place on Saturday, December 9, at 4 p.m. at the St. Barbara Greek Orthodox Church (1205 San Antonio Creek Rd.). It’s a beautiful building to visit, and best of all, the concert is a benefit for the local chapter of AHEPA, which provides college scholarships and supports community cultural events. The program will include “traditional songs and carols of the season as well as selected hymns from the Byzantine Christmas liturgy,” says organizer Minos Athanassiadis. Click here for more information. Visit this link to purchase tickets.

ON the (Small) Screen

*Napa Ever After* is a new Hallmark holiday movie written by UCSB lecturer Wendy Eley Jackson. | Photo: Courtesy

I’m a sucker for a Hallmark movie this time of year, and one of their newest films, Napa Ever After, has a double Santa Barbara connection. As Debra Herrick explains in her story, the film was written by UCSB lecturer Wendy Eley Jackson, who works in the Department of Film and Media Studies, and the story was inspired by none other than winemaker Iris Rideau. While the film is set in Napa, rather than the Santa Ynez Valley, the male star, Colin Lawrence, hails from none other than Virgin River.

ON the Calendar

The Trust for Historic Preservation is holding a FREE Historical Wedding Experience on Sunday, December 10. | Credit: Courtesy

f you’ve ever wondered what it was like to attend a wedding in the Santa Barbara Presidio Chapel way back when, on December 10, the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation is offering a new, free, family-friendly program, the Historical Wedding Experience. Designed to transport you back in time to witness an early 19th-century Spanish wedding and immerse yourself in the magic of a bygone era as shadows on the Chapel walls come to life, the event will be held at noon, 12:30 p.m., 1 p.m., and 1:30 p.m., with free refreshments and activities in the orchard before and after the screenings. There’s even free parking in the parking lot at 117 E. Canon Perdido St. Click here for more details.

For a complete calendar of events this week and beyond, visit independent.com/events.