Have you ever dreamed of saving money by getting rid of your car-or your family’s second car-along with auto loan payments, insurance payments, and maintenance costs? I know I have. But when I figured in the cost of taking a cab to go shopping and renting a car for a trip to the countryside, it didn’t quite pencil out.
The choice has been around for years now, but for whatever reason, those who choose to fuel their vehicles with earth-friendly biodiesel gasoline tend to hail from the “hippie” set. Catch a car puttering past on biodiesel and there’s a good chance the driver will have a big beard, a taste for tofu, and a Grateful Dead album playing at high volumes rather than a three-piece suit, a $60 haircut, and a healthy stock portfolio.
For Australian singer/songwriter Fiona Kernaghan, the how of her emergence as a musical force is just as intriguing as the why. As part of the first family of Australian country music, her evolution in the business can be attributed, at least in part, to a monster truck. And not just any monster truck; it was a record-setting, jet engine-powered truck that went by the name of Waltzing Matilda.
With its title taken from a line in a Sylvia Plath poem (“Tulips”) and a character’s dog named after Jack Kerouac, one might expect For Sheer Love of Me to be some kind of derivative, American-influenced postmodern trifle. Yet this excellent play, well directed by Mikko Viherjuuri and beautifully acted by the cast of four, is anything but a meta-fictional exercise.
One of the chronic problems confronting downtown bike commuters is bicycle parking. There just aren’t enough bollards, streets signs, and bike racks to get the job done. And not many people want to leave their high-end bikes-or even their modestly priced machines-affixed to paint-scraping surfaces or exposed to the vagaries of the elements, not to mention would-be thieves.
SOhO GOES POP: Chris Barron has come a long way since bursting onto the mainstream music scene in the early ’90s as the lead singer of Spin Doctors. From being nominated for a Grammy and gracing the cover of Rolling Stone to overcoming a vocal paralysis that threatened to end his singing career, Barron has truly seen all that rock stardom has to offer.
We are surrounded by the basic ingredients for human survival, but most of us don’t even know it. That’s one conclusion to be drawn from the new book Chumash Ethnobotany by Jan Timbrook, curator of ethnography at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.
These Hawaiian reggae-rock boys have come to call Santa Barbara home and become regulars on the State Street scene. Luckily for us, they’re hosting their debut CD release party at Velvet Jones on Saturday, June 16, so head on down to get a live taste of their album, which mixes up drum-and-bass roots with ample guitar rocking, soulful lyrics, and a heavy-duty infectious energy.
Eracism: The Fund for Santa Barbara is sponsoring a workshop regarding the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. 10am-2pm. Casa de la Raza, 601 E. Montecito St. Call 965-8581.
The Summer Solstice Celebration urgently needs about 200 volunteers to help out on Saturday, June 23, the day of this year’s annual parade. Helpers are needed to work the T-shirt booths, the beer garden, and numerous other duties. So be an official part of the fun this year and sign up by calling 965-5535, 965-3396, or email artstaff@solsticeparade.com.
