Matt Kettmann, Author at The Santa Barbara Independent

Uncategorized By Matt Kettmann | Thu Jul 20, 2006 | 12:00pm

Fighting for Money

A Chat with Eugene Jarecki, Director of Why We Fight

Why We Fight is a thoroughly indicting documentary about the rise of the United States’ military-industrial complex, a term coined by President Dwight Eisenhower in his farewell address. Though a military man, Eisenhower did not use the term lightly. Rather, his usage is in the form of a warning, specifically that “we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”

Uncategorized By Matt Kettmann | Thu Jul 13, 2006 | 12:00pm

3 Q’s With A Pearl Jam Fan

Pearl Jam, with Sonic Youth supporting, returns to the Santa Barbara Bowl tonight, July 13. If their last appearance a couple years back is any indication-you remember, that last-minute Tuesday night benefit show for one of the Ramones whenChris Cornell, John Frusciante, Jack Johnson, and other ¼ber stars joined Eddie Vedder and his crew onstage-the concert will go down as one of the year’s highlights. Many tried in vain to get tickets for the show, so we decided to ask a Pearl Jam fan-namely Indy staffer Shannon Kelley Gould-about her travails.

Uncategorized By Matt Kettmann | Thu Jul 06, 2006 | 12:00pm

Three Questions With… Steve Shelton

Santa Barbara’s Steve Shelton and the Jack Ball Trio release A Fool’s Hearty Wisdom this Saturday, July 8, 8 p.m., at Center Stage Theater. The album is impressive both lyrically (Shelton was first a renowned poet) and instrumentally, with the likes of Wayne Peet on keys and Tom Lackner on drums, plus the occasional appearance of Roberto Miranda on bass and Josh Shelton (Steve’s son) on trumpet.

Uncategorized By Matt Kettmann | Thu Jun 29, 2006 | 12:00pm

The Perfect Speed

Seeing Santa Barbara on a Segway Tour

After more than a decade of having friends and family come visit, it wasn’t until recently that I discovered the perfect method for touring Santa Barbara. I’d led visitors on drives around town, but while we covered a lot of ground and grabbed some great views, all the exotic shrubbery, ornate architecture, and friendly faces along the way got lost in a 35 mph blur.

Cover Story By Matt Kettmann | Thu Jun 29, 2006 | 12:00pm

The Lord Hath No Mercy

On September 1, 2002, Jasper Akii was trying to sleep in his family’s grass-thatched hut, located on the dusty, war-torn plains of Northern Uganda. For as long as the 11-year-old boy could remember, his small village of cassava farmers and cattle herders had struggled with the daily disruptions of a 20-year civil war between Ugandan government forces and a rag-tag band of dreadlocked, machine gun-toting rebels known as the Lord’s Resistance Army. But only during late summer of that year had the outfit – led by its charismatic, bloodthirsty “prophet” Joseph Kony – begun to terrorize the villages scattered throughout the Lira District, where Jasper lived.

By Matt Kettmann | Thu Jun 22, 2006 | 12:00pm

Reggae Reissue

Sometime during college, I fell deep into a Bob Marley phase, listening almost solely to the reggae legend while I studied his life with monkish dedication and searched like a pilgrim to uncover the rarities of his work. One day, that search led me to Amoeba Music on Haight Street in San Francisco, where amid thousands of CDs and cassette tapes, I located Bob Marley and the Wailer’s double disc One Love at Studio One 1964-1966. It was like nothing I’d ever heard, with Marley’s whiney voice lingering over rocksteady rhythms, occasionally breaking into slow ballads or flipping the other way into rapid ska beats.

Uncategorized By Matt Kettmann | Thu Jun 22, 2006 | 12:00pm

Rebirth of the Milpas Mecca

Introducing Legends Bar and Lounge

The off-State Street bar can be a wonderful thing, with neighborly crowds, familiar bartenders, strong drinks, a mellow vibe, and music that plays at a level where conversations can actually occur. It can, however, also be an unsavory place, where fights erupt over the next jukebox song, shifty characters occupy dark corners at all hours, and the bulge in the pocket of the guy on the next stool is more likely a shank than a cell phone. For Legends Bar and Lounge – located at 512 North Milpas Street near Haley – both of these descriptions ring a bell: The Eastside drinkery’s past life as The Mecca was shadowed by shady regulars and knife-y notoriety while its present and future as a neighborhood watering hole/live music hub is already the stuff of, well, off-State Street legends.

By Matt Kettmann | Thu Jun 22, 2006 | 12:00pm

Jam It Up

A Conversation With T.C. Boyle

In the wide, wild world of contemporary fiction, there are few names higher on the list of literary superstars than our town’s very own T. Coraghessan Boyle. For the last 25 years, T.C. Boyle – the 57-year-old New York native who emerged with constant creativity and prolific grace from the prestigious Iowa Writers’ Workshop in the late 1970s – has bombarded readers around the world with characters as colorful as any in the history of literature.

By Matt Kettmann | Thu Jun 15, 2006 | 12:00pm

Stripped Down & Chorally Cool

Naked Voices, UCSB’s Contemporary A Cappella Group, Drops a CD

Last February, on the Film Festival’s closing night, a dozen or so college students meandered onto the Arlington’s stage amidst an announcement about a cappella music. “Oh great, a cappella,” I grumbled, in chorus with my equally dismayed friends, figuring we’d be treated to an unbearably boring – if not plain embarrassing – set before the movie screened. To me, a cappella meant slow, beat-lacking love songs and show-offish vocal acrobatics, a style that hadn’t appealed to me since my Boyz II Men days back in junior high (which I admit sheepishly).

Uncategorized By Matt Kettmann | Thu Jun 08, 2006 | 12:00pm

One Night Stand of the Week

S.B. DRIVE-IN

In this age of DVD players, hi-def cable TV, and multiplexes on every corner, the drive-in movie theater should be little more than a fading relic of our country’s past. But we Americans are a sentimental lot, which accounts for the surprising fact that drive-in theaters are actually a stable force and, in some
of our country’s corners, a growing trend.

Author: Matt Kettmann