Is HBO’s Comedy Fest Moving to S.B.?
HBO’s Comedy Arts Festival is leaving Aspen and may be moving to Santa Barbara next spring.
Charles Donelan
Recent Stories
The Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra at the Lobero Theatre
What a pleasure to hear the music of Aaron Copland as performed by the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra. The original 1944 score of Appalachian Spring remains very moving, full of memories and longing for lost innocence. Copland wrote the piece for dancer Martha Graham, and, so the story goes, Graham is the one who titled it.
Davis Birks: Strata and Susan Manchester: New and Recent Works on Paper. At Edward Cella Art+Architecture.
Edward Cella has two compelling shows running concurrently this month, and both artists exhibit fully realized potential. For instance, it’s exhilarating to look for references in the art of Davis Birks-is that Agnes Martin, Robert Smithson, and Cy Twombly?-but after the initial, giddy rush of contact with such apparent visual intelligence wanes, a second aesthetic awareness of the artist’s firm conviction kicks in.
Kimberly Ford Sings Her Sea Story
Next Thursday, the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum will host a CD release party and performance by Kimberly Ford, a jazz singer with a connection to the ocean. It’s a beautiful CD and the making of it is a great story-a classic Santa Barbara tale of persistence, community, and creative integrity. The format for the event includes continuous screenings of a film collaboration Ford has done with Emmy-winning underwater filmmaker Mike deGruy and a live performance by Ford with her band.
Tierney Sutton at the Lobero Theatre
Every so often, Santa Barbara plays muse to an artist on the verge of major stardom. Tierney Sutton, a Los Angeles-based singer who had a Grammy nomination this year, maintains a special relationship with our city through annual shows at the Lobero Theatre. Sutton was back on Saturday, leading her usual band and accompanied by long-time friend and associate, trumpeter Jack Sheldon.
Anissa Mack: On Loan at the Contemporary Arts Forum
The objects created by Anissa Mack currently on display at the Contemporary Arts Forum are all about near misses and moments after-things that didn’t quite happen, and things that just happened. They are treated with a wry New England sensibility that’s filtered through Mack’s casual intellectual command of the vocabulary and tradition of contemporary art-making.
Lightning in a Bottle Gets Loose
When serious “Burners” get talking about their big event of the year, the legendary Burning Man festival, one group comes up over and over again-the Los Angeles-based Do LaB, led by the brothers Fleming, Jesse, Josh, and DeeDee, and their partner, Dream Rockwell, of the Lucent Dossier Vaudeville Cirque. This loose association of artists and creative engineers will converge on Santa Barbara County this weekend for a three-day festival of all that is cutting edge and green in the world of performance art, electronic and other music, and environmentally friendly outdoor activity.
Irvin Mayfield and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra. At UCSB’s Campbell Hall.
“Trumpet-playing band leader from New Orleans” must be one of the world’s most intimidating job descriptions. Who could possibly fill the giant shoes of Louis Armstrong and Wynton Marsalis? Yet Irvin Mayfield-experienced and savvy at the young-for-jazz age of 30-steps up to the billing with style.
Hold the Horn High
The New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, or NOJO, is a 16-piece big band that plays an incredibly broad and soulful range of jazz styles, all the way from the earliest sounds of the traditional second line funeral marches to the caterwauling pedal point of Charles Mingus and Duke Ellington.
SBMA’s The Dwight and Winifred Vedder Collection
On April 28, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art will open one of its most exciting and personal exhibitions of the year when it unveils the 13 works recently donated by Winifred Vedder and her late husband, Dwight Vedder. The Vedders are ranchers who have grown avocados here in Santa Barbara County for several decades. They began collecting art in the late 1970s when they met Los Angeles art dealer Louis Stern, who took them to the great art auctions and helped them get started.
