August 2007

Angry Poodle By Nick Welsh

Light Blue Dog

SILLY SEASON: As usual in Santa Barbara, the fight is about water. This time, it’s about how high the seawater will rise if and when Greenland’s vast prehistoric ice sheets melt as a result of global warming. A group of well-intentioned eco-agitators has decided the best way to get the public’s attention about global warming is to paint a light blue line-1,000 feet long-on Santa Barbara’s downtown streets and sidewalks showing exactly where the new shoreline would be if the water level were to increase by the projected 20 feet.

Books By Charles Donelan

The Dangerous Book for Boys

Conn and Hal Iggulden have come up with an idea so great and obvious it’s hard to imagine why no one thought of it before. The Dangerous Book for Boys is a big red hardback full of information about the sorts of things 10-year-old boys obsess over, from building a tree house, a really good paper airplane, and a homemade bow with arrows, to reading a compass, identifying constellations in the night sky, and even knowing basic English grammar.

Living By Indy Staff

Quiz: Making a list and Checking it Twice

Arts & Entertainment By Ellen O'Connell

Santa Barbara Art Studios

Entering Santa Barbara Art Studios is leaving the industrial section of town and walking into a perfumed and quiet cocoon-a shrine to imagination. The exhibitions aim to give expression to the commonplace in an exceptional manifestation: photos of the undersides of leaves, faces caught out of focus, boats listing haphazardly in the waves.

Briefs By Indy Staff

Residents Speak Out Against Drilling Proposal

A meeting about Venoco’s slant drilling proposal drew nearly 130 people to Carpinteria City Hall on 7/30. Most speakers said

Arts & Entertainment By Indy Staff

Summer Punctuators

VIVA LA M’SICA: Summertime in Santa Barbara is delineated by several tidy, perennial punctuators, tied to the calendar and to events. We get a seasonal harbinger with Memorial Day, otherwise known as the weekend that I Madonnari descends on the Old Mission parking lot in its artful chalky glory. Summer Solstice wends and slithers its way up State Street, marking the official arrival of summer, and July 4th rears its less flamboyant head soon after.

Living By Kempa Aberg

How to Speak Flamenco

My first experience hearing flamenco guitar was at Malibu Beach in 1960. While sitting on the sand watching the surf and strumming the few chords I knew on a Tijuana guitar, a dark, suave fellow majestically appeared. “Hola, I am Arnoldo from Sevilla, Espa±a,” he said. “Por favor, may I play for you a little flamenco?” “Fantastic,” I told him, though I didn’t know a flamenco from a flamingo.

Living By Rachel Weight

Honorary Vaquero Bob Williams

Born and raised here on the Central Coast, this year’s Honorary Vaquero Bob Williams traces his roots back to his ranching family’s migration to Nipomo in the 1870s. A childhood spent raising sheep and cattle on the Wybrant Ranch in Nipomo for the area’s Future Farmers of America club led Williams to a profession in cattle feeding.

Briefs By Indy Staff

Officials Complete Investigation of Fire’s Cause

In related Zaca news, officials completed their investigation last week of the incident that sparked the fire on 7/4. An

Theater By Charles Donelan

Pump Boys and Dinettes.

Set on Highway 57 between Frogs Level and Smyrna, North Carolina, Pump Boys and Dinettes celebrates the sassy self-possession of rural service station employees and diner waitresses everywhere. The show was written by a working band and is performed concert-style, with all the pump boys playing instruments and both dinettes singing.

Month: August 2007