Another whirlwind of a year has flown by me. Between keeping up with our stories every week; jumping on board to write a few of my own; and handling the marketing, promotions, and events for the Independent, I often find myself with multiple projects on my desk, the year flying past me as we move onto the next issue or event, and then, all of a sudden, the year is at an end. Even as I write this, I’m somehow always thinking, “All right, what’s next?”
And being in the mix of the business department, I’m already thinking well ahead into next year’s issues, weeks, events, and covers. And as I take a look back on what I got to do this year, I feel excited to know that all of these projects and more will keep me busy in 2026.
This year was filled with so many new options in our Burger Week (where I had a small feature) and Burrito Week, and introducing Sandwich Week was one of my favorite decisions. The Indy stepped even further into the food and drink corridor this year when we did our Cheese the Day! tasting event, where I got to meet and work with winemakers and chefs from across Santa Barbara County who were leading the night. I also got to put together our Backyard Brunch event, where the Brasscals played as everyone had food and drinks from Goleta and across the county. The proceeds from the brunch go toward our Mickey Flacks Journalism Fund — and there is nothing I would rather be doing than enjoying some wine, beer, and food in beautiful spring weather at a historic place like the Rancho La Patera and Stow House.
Over in the Arts & Entertainment world, the Indy Awards honoring the theater community (which you can watch a recording of here) remains a favorite high-spirited and fun event to put together and be a part of. This year, I also got to work on a brand-new art and technology symposium that took place in October called Brave New Work, which Leslie Dinaberg expertly dissected and explained here. Getting to meet and hear from world-renowned artists, scientists, and technologists actively working in the field was eye-opening — and we cast art projections onto the wall of our Public Library, which was an immersive and one-of-a-kind experience (you can read Joe Woodard’s experience too).
Right after, I got to celebrate our amazing local businesses at Best Fest (find the recap of the event here), which was expanded with more space, more vendors, and more people to celebrate with. Alongside the rest of the Indy staff, I got to close out the year with our Local Heroes — and though I didn’t do a writeup for the cover story, I got to coordinate and put on the Local Heroes Luncheon we host every year to celebrate the people in our community who make it so great (you can also hear what they said at the recording here).
And as 2025 comes to a close and I think about the great work our staff has done, lots of our great coverage and many of our stories come to mind as favorites. The collective piece from early this year about the effect of Trump’s policies in his first 100 days here in Santa Barbara, along with the endless reporting our staff has done on Sable Oil Company throughout the year, always providing clear and comprehensive details. For me, the deeper look into every issue that comes to Santa Barbara is matched in our immigration reporting primarily done by Ryan P. Cruz — from keeping track of immigration-related arrests along the Central Coast (now more than 1,000) to the grants going toward immigrant support services.
I have also enjoyed our Arts & Entertainment coverage throughout the year, including the profile on SBMA’s Director Amanda Cruz by Ella Heydenfeldt, Joe Woodard’s review of Samara Joy’s jazz at the Granada, music reviews by Xavier Pereyra on Disclosure and Nick Welsh’s riveting piece on Paul McCartney, to name a few. I had the pleasure of covering a few concerts and productions myself this year, including Out of the Box Theatre’s Natasha, Pierre, and The Great Comet of 1812, where I got pulled up on stage during the cast’s dance; jamming out to the funky groove of Khruaughbin at the Bowl; and I got to interview Aly and AJ, some of my favorite pop icons since I was young, before their concert at the Arlington. I also got to announce Santa Barbara’s favorite piece of public art (which, spoiler alert, was Lament by Nancy Gifford), as well as covering the celebration of Juneteenth at Plaza Del Mar Park. A few other flash shoutouts go to our Poet Laureate George Yatchisin, Roger Durling for both profiles on Hank Pitcher and Dereck Harrison, as well as Leslie Dinaberg’s story on Bloomsday and every theater review by Maggie Yates.
Simply too many to name! See you in 2026 at our events and in our pages.
