Give a Little
•Domestic Violence Solutions for Santa Barbara is looking for volunteers to help mentor kids and lend a hand with ongoing weekend activities. Any and all persons interested are encouraged to call 682-7229 x303 for details.
Month: August 2007
Planetarium Shows
The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History offers up a slew of day and evening lineups for stargazers of all ages. With a rotating roster of shows like “Secrets of the Sun,” “Twinkle, Twinkle for Little Stars,” “Exploring the Summer Sky,” and the Spanish language “Cielos Veraniegos,” there is sure to be something to satisfy everyone’s inner astronomer. Show times and admission prices vary, so call 682-4711 x405 or visit sbnature.org for details.
Pink Pearl Apples
When it comes to apples, a lady is fine but a pearl is a jewel, at least when you’re talking Pink Pearls. Unremarkable on the outside, you cut them open to find a wonderfully whirled world of pink and white. Briskly tart, they’re probably best baked in something, like the clafouti (custardy baked goodness), suggests Sally Schmitt from the renowned Apple Farm in Mendocino County. And she knows her apples, although they’d also make a striking applesauce and be delicious with a sharp cheddar like Keen’s. You can buy them at the Windrose Farm booth at the Saturday Farmers Market.
Joseph Edward Nida 1940-2007
Ihad the same first impression that many others had when meeting the estimable Joe Nida, a 6ʹ4Ê° behemoth of a man, with a deep baritone voice and an intimidating scowl. My first true interactions with him were under unusual circumstances. My father, who was the same age as Joe, had just passed away unexpectedly. In circumstances like that, the reaction of most people is to stay away from and not “bother” the suffering person. Joe thought differently.
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s Peter Hayes Talks Rock and Rebellion
If 1967 presented America with the mythic “Summer of Love,” when a young generation decided to “turn on, tune in, and drop out” due to the government’s unnecessary war in Vietnam, perhaps we can sum up the present American zeitgeist as the “Summer of Angst.” In the midst of the current mess in Iraq, today’s youth has to wonder not only whatever happened to their rock ‘n’ roll, but whatever happened to the notion of a democracy “of the people, by the people, and for the people”?
Places to Go, Things to See
Gullible’s Travels: Ah yes, those Sunday travel sections that lead the unsuspecting to believe that heading out to see the world is just a bowl of cherries. Well, take it from me, it can also be the pits.
The Nanny Diaries
Inexplicably, the makers of The Nanny Diaries, in adapting this phenomenally popular novel for the screen, have chosen to change virtually everything about it, from minor details, to significant aspects of the characters, to the story arc itself.
Zoot Suit, presented by El Teatro Campesino.
An American classic is currently showing in San Juan Bautista, just four hours’ drive north of Santa Barbara. A play with music, Zoot Suit is a construct of fact and fantasy recounting the story of the infamous “zoot suit riots” that took place during World War II when U.S. sailors and Marines attacked any Mexican youth wearing the strange attire.
A German Beer Garden in the Heart of a Phantom Zone
When I get hungry for old Santa Barbara, I drive a kind of lost highway out to the Dutch Garden. You’ll find it (not them) on a stretch of road at the bottom of San Marcos Pass, the delta of automobiles washing down from Lake Cachuma, where State Street turns without fanfare or notice into Hollister Avenue, that tipping point of consciousness between S.B. and greater Goleta-land completely off tourist itinerary.
Dazed Dogs and Dog Days
GIVE IT BACK: At first I thought I was just feeling sorry for myself. But then I read that scientists just discovered a vast, empty intergalactic hole of nothingness about one-billion light-years wide. Translated into terms we can comprehend, that’s roughly six-billion-trillion miles. No stars. No gas. No dust. It’s so empty, they don’t even have dark matter there. Worse yet, cell phone reception really sucks.
