Woops! In last week’s cover story about our newspaper’s annual Indy Awards for shining stars in Santa Barbara theater, we forgot to include a comprehensive list of the winners. So here’s that list, because we’re firm believers that late is better than never. Congratulations again to all the Indy Awardees, and keep up the good work!
By working successfully in both theater and film, playwright and director Neil LaBute has realized something few artists, even very talented ones, have ever accomplished. In the process, LaBute has used the experiences to enrich and reinforce one another, drawing material gathered while working in one medium to nourish the other.
First it showed at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, then at UCSB’s Human Rights Festival. Now God Grew Tired of Uswinner of both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at the 2006 Sundance Film Festivalis being presented by HopeDance Media.
Cruisin’ for a Court Bruisin’? The City of Santa Barbara may be laying itself wide open to be sued for discrimination due to an unfair voting system. The potential charge: that its at-large system of electing the city council raises an almost insurmountable barrier for a Latino to win a council seat, although Spanish-surnamed people make up more than 30 percent of the city’s population.
Aussie natives The Phoenix Foundation contributed six songs and three instrumental pieces to the already buzzed-about Miramax film, Eagle vs. Shark, said to be an Australian Napoleon Dynamite. The band takes Velvet Jones by storm this Wednesday, June 6, at 8 p.m.
684 Feet
May 31, 1859
The hands of London’s clock tower, Big Ben, are set into motion for the first time.
No matter what you have planned for the evening, the fun has to start somewhere. And, in a town stuffed to the gills with bars, restaurants, wannabe L.A. lounges, and somewhat seedy dives, deciding where to warm up your engines can be daunting. When the rat race releases its daily grip on your soul and the brain in your stomach pains for libations and platters of food, the questions begin to swirl among the happy hour set: Downtown?
It turns out that talking about balance in a wine becomes a subjective undertaking pretty quickly. Some winemakers consider their wines balanced if they prove to taste integrated in their youth; if there is an ample amount of fruit, oak, and spice in a given wine, then it is, in their eyes, balanced. Other winemakers consider a wine to be balanced if it adheres to certain principles, such as if it is varietally correct. Does it possess a reasonable, but not high, amount of alcohol?
The Damazo Majak Foundation and Arts Aids Art are bringing a contemporary exhibit of South African art to benefit families afflicted with AIDS in Cape Town. The event, which will be at the Unitarian Society of Santa Barbara from 1-3 p.m. on Saturday, June 2, features Sudanese-born activist Anna Akot as well as glass-beaded dolls, wearable beads, and other artisan jewelry that range from $6-$250.
