This edition of ON Culture was originally emailed to subscribers on March 28, 2025. To receive Leslie Dinaberg’s arts newsletter in your inbox on Fridays, sign up at independent.com/newslettes.
ON the Stage
The Flaming Lips and Modest Mouse will grace the Santa Barbara Bowl stage on September 5, which means I’ll be singing about “Vaseline” for at least the next six months! Can’t wait … Also recently announced and on sale are Dwight Yoakam on July 11, and CAAMP, coming our way on July 18. See sbbowl.com for tickets and details.
Tickets just went on sale for Outside Lands, the favorite summer festival taking place in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park on August 8-10. Headliners include Tyler, The Creator; Hozier; and Doja Cat, as well top tier talent like John Summit; Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals; Vampire Weekend; Gracie Abrams; Doechii; Glass Animals; Jamie xx; Gesaffelstein; Bleachers; Ludacris, Jorja Smith; and the Bay Area’s own Still Woozy. View the full lineup here and click here for tickets and more info.
Additional festivals on the horizon are San Diego’s Wonderfront Music and Arts Festival May 16-18, with a lineup featuring Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals; Daniel Caesar; Foster the People; Janelle Monáe; Jason Mraz; 4 Non Blondes; and more. Cali Vibes, in Long Beach June 7-8, features performances by Kid Cudi, Cypress Hill, Ludacris, Steel Pulse, Collie Buddz, Dirty Heads, Iration, Rebelution, Stick Figure, Slightly Stoopid, J Boog, as well as other stars of the reggae, hip-hop, ska, and punk genres. Beachlife Festival, in Redondo Beach May 2-4, features John Stamos with The Beach Boys, Lenny Kravitz, Sublime, and Alanis Morissette, as well as Train, O.A.R., Pretenders, CAKE, Mt. Joy, Jackson Browne, Aloe Blacc, and many more (full lineup listed here). Shabang Music & Arts Festival is also returning to the Central Coast May 2-3 at Dairy Creek Golf Course, set against the rolling hills of San Luis Obispo. The lineup is a powerhouse mix of indie, alternative, and electronic artists, including Jungle (DJ Set), Wallows, Goth Babe, Odd Mob, Kream, Briston Maroney, Slow Pulp, OMNOM, Aluna, Almost Monday, Linska, Kryptogram, Gudfella, and more.
Other shows of note that are now on sale include Mary Chapin Carpenter and Brandy Clark at the Lobero on June 16. Nashville-based singer/songwriter A.J. Croce will play songs from his own repertoire and new album Heart of the Eternal, along with the greatest hits of his father, Jim Croce at the Lobero on June 24. International punk band Gogol Bordello is coming to the Arlington on July 25. Led by Ukrainian frontman Eugene Hütz, the band has lit up stages around the world alongside System of a Down, Primus, Rancid, and Dropkick Murphys. Elton John fans will be happy on April 13 at SOhO, when The Tribe returns to Santa Barbara with its re-creation of Elton John’s classic album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.
A symphony of acrobatics, bathed in an ever-changing palette of dramatic, expressive lighting and sound hits the stage of the Lobero on April 8, when UCSB Arts & Lectures presents the sensational Circa with their next-level circus performance Humans 2.0.This contemporary Australian next-level circus features 10 phenomenally athletic performers pushing their physical limits to previously unimagined extremes. Click here for tickets and additional info. Later that week on April 10 at the Granada, A&L brings celebrated choreographer Akram Khan with his dance troupe to tell the story of GIGENIS: a testament to the enduring resonance of tradition in a rapidly changing world. A showcase of Indian classical dance, UCSB Arts & Lectures joins the Grand Théâtre de Provence, Paris’ Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., The Joyce Theater in New York, and Sadler’s Wells in London in presenting this exclusive engagement. Click here for more information and tickets.
ON the Page
I am so happy to report that the “Lunch With An Author” literary series with Mandy Jackson-Beverly has found a new home in town at the Santa Barbara Club. These always engaging author events — held at the Belmond El Encanto from March 2023 until recently — bring a diverse but consistently fascinating group of authors to town, offering a deeper level of discussion than a typical book talk. (Read my write-up of a lunch with Gillian Flynn here for an example.)
First up in the new series is Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and narrative nonfiction writer Edward Humes, whose latest book is Total Garbage: How We Can Fix Our Waste And Heal Our World. The lunch takes place on Thursday, April 10 from 12:30-3 p.m. For more information and reservations, see https://bit.ly/4i0yqhj. Also on the schedule are Maggie Shipstead (Great Circle) on May 15, Ann Hood (The Stolen Child) on September 11, and Ivy Pochoda (These Women) on November 13. More announcements to come.
There are now 13 books in Dav Pilkey’s Dog Man series, and the graphic novels from the creator of the Captain Underpants series that ruled my son’s early reading stack are still atop the bestseller list as the most checked out item systemwide for the Santa Barbara Public Library. Other fascinating facts found in the library’s 2024 year in review: The most checked out adult fiction book and e-audiobook was The Women by Kristin Hannah (who filled up the Granada with a recent lecture), with Funny Story by Emily Henry as the most popular ebook. I read and recommend both of those titles, but I had to look up the subject of the most checked out adult nonfiction: Outlive by Peter Attia, MD. It’s “an operating manual for longevity,” which draws on science. Not exactly my leisure-time jam, but I am fascinated by library fun facts like “14 book detectives provided 686 volunteer hours of assistance locating patron holds last year.” Read about all that and more here.
We had so much fun at last year’s Literary Trivia Night at the Faulkner Gallery. Taking place on Friday, April 11 from 6-8 p.m., you can either come with a team or join up with other attendees to play. The group size is limited to six. They will have all new questions and refreshments and wine will be served. Tickets are $20, and all proceeds go to support the library. Click here for more information and registration.
Children’s book author Robin Yardi has a whale of a signing coming to Chaucer’s on April 6 at 2 p.m. Kids can explore whale specimens from the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History and ask a docent their big blue whale questions following Yardi’s reading of her new picture book — I Know the Whale — which touches on the grief and beauty of death and loss, wonder at the scientific and spiritual unknown, and the space to embrace big questions and feelings.
ON the Harbor
Santa Barbara’s rich heritage as the birthplace of deepwater diving gets a long overdue tribute when Santa Barbara Maritime Museum (SBMM) unveils a Deepwater Diving Monument on Saturday, April 5, at 4:30 p.m., next to the Santa Barbara Harbor and SBMM. The monument will depict a professional diver from 1982, wearing a Kirby Morgan® Superlite® 17 Diving Helmet, a revolutionary design that set the world standard for commercial divers. This iconic figure will stand as a symbol of Santa Barbara’s pioneering role in shaping the global diving industry.
ON the Walls
Famed artists Colin Campbell Cooper (1856-1937), Leon Dabo (1864-1960), and Lockwood De Forest (1850-1932) will transform the front gallery of Sullivan Goss into a historic parlor for the months of April and May. All three artists became signatory members of the National Academy after studying art abroad, making their names in New York and traveling the world. The oldest piece in the show, titled In Good Company, is a landscape from 1876 painted by a young De Forest on the deck of a dahabiya as it sailed up the Nile.
On April 3, the Tamsen Gallery opens Reminiscence, a solo exhibition of new works by Loan Chabanol. The series of paintings is a journey of nostalgia, deep reflection, and personal memory for the French-American painter and actress. Born in Paris, she was an artistic child who spent her early years studying with artist Bernard Bistes. See tamsengallery.com.
Also downtown on first Thursday, April 3, the new Art & Soul gallery opens The Tea Papers, a new collection by multidisciplinary artist Mick Victor, whose artistic approach is a fusion of mediums, combining oils, acrylics, paper, canvas, pencils, charcoal, photography, and found objects — each playing a role in his layered storytelling. On view through April 27, in addition to the opening reception with the artist on April 3, the gallery is also hosting The Art of Tea: A Ceremony of Taste and Tradition (April 5, 1-3 p.m.), a Demi-Wreath Workshop (April 13, noon-2:15 p.m.), Earth & Soul: A Celebration of Connection and Nature (April 22, 6-7:30 p.m.), and a Conversation with Artist Mick Victor (April 25, 5-7 p.m.). For more information see artandsoulsb.com.
ON the Podium
The Justice for All programming initiative by UCSB Arts & Lectures has added several spring events: engineer and former NASA astronaut Jose Hernandez on Reaching for the Stars: The Inspiring Story of a Migrant Farm Worker Turned Astronaut (April 29); Yale Professor, scientist, and host of The Happiness Lab Dr. Laurie Santos on Thriving Through Crisis: How to Foster Happiness When the World Feels Overwhelming (May 7); and anthropologist and 2024 National Book Award–winner Jason De León on Uncovering the Stories at the U.S.-Mexico Border (May 15). Click here for tickets and more information.
ON the Calendar
This is no April Fools Day prank, they are rolling up the streets of Solvang on April 1 to celebrate the fifth birthday of peasants FEAST. The family-owned restaurant (and one of my favorite places to go before PCPA shows at the lovely outdoor Solvang Festival Theater a few blocks away) turns five on Tuesday, April 1, and the team will be celebrating — and thanking all of their friends, family, and fans — with an afternoon block party on a closed section of Copenhagen Drive in downtown Solvang, between peasants FEAST and peasants DELI & ARCADE. They’ll have a D.J., food, drinks, arcade games, and all sorts of fun going on from 4-7 p.m. Click here for more information.
For a complete calendar of events this week and beyond, visit independent.com/events/.
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