sharing your favorite photos, stories, and memories of Montecito’s beloved Second Living Room, P.11
A preview documentary screening at the Music Academy brings visibility to endometriosis while inviting audiences to help carry the story forward, page 8
5 Montecito Reads – Creek crosses unlikely paths with his past, as the present ties his hands
Beings & Doings – “Well you can tell by the way we use our walk, gonna douse your flames and wind your clock…” Second Annual Disco Inferno approaches.
End Endo – A new doc to screen at MAW shines light on endometriosis, an unspoken condition that affects a vast proportion of the world
Letters to the Editor – A new home for Carlos the Bear, praise for Last Light, and thoughts on climate disaster responsibilities Community Voices – As ICE activity escalates locally, Laura Capps asks how Santa Barbara and the Sheriff’s Department can protect public safety
14 The Society Edit – Free People opens in Montecito, plus the SBMA Ambassadors celebrates its members old and new
16 On Entertainment – The Shark is Broken works well on stage, plus Shrunken Heads Production Co. cuts loose in their upcoming show
18 SBIFF – The McHurley Film Center is unveiled in time for SBIFF and many Montecito-linked movies at this year’s festival
22 Your Westmont – High school students have a new pipeline to STEM careers, engineering students offer cutting-edge research, and women’s basketball wins
24 Petite Wine Traveler – Inside the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, where blind judging, diversity, and discipline shape America’s wine standards
26 An Independent Mind – A wide-ranging conversation with Bret Stephens on liberal democracy, Trumpism, Israel, and the danger of simple answers
28 Stories Matter – February reads deliver chills, courtroom suspense, second chances, historical intrigue, and powerful reflections on roots and resilience
29 Elizabeth’s Appraisals – A taste of vintage haute couture all nicely boxed up in one collection
30 Spirituality Matters – Mindful concerts, kirtan chants, contemplative workshops, and retreats invite stillness, presence, and deeper listening this February
31 Ernie’s World – Kiwis, hobbits, and wee dolphins…Pat and Ernie take a little time in New Zealand to enjoy the small things in life
33 Sheriff’s Blotter
40 Calendar of Events – 1st Thursday delights, evenings with the ballet, the Colors of Love, plus more coming this week
42
Classifieds – Our own “Craigslist” of classified ads
Hot Topics – A message from Chief Neels on Montecito Fire’s proactive efforts and its 2025 Annual Report
27 Curator’s Choice – Leonhart Fuchs’ De Historia Stirpium
43
Mini Meta Crossword Puzzles
Local Business Directory – Smart business owners place business cards here
Every now and then, a story comes along that refuses to stay put. It lingers on your nightstand. It sneaks into conversation. For us, Last Light in Paradise is one of those stories, and we’re delighted to let it loose, one chapter at a time, in the pages of the Montecito Journal. Well, at least the first six chapters for the time being – then you can purchase the book at one of our local beloved bookstores (Chaucer’s, Tecolote, and Godmothers) or from the QR code below.
This book marks a first for us… Last Light in Paradise is the inaugural book published by MJ Media Group. Yes, we’re dipping a toe – perhaps a barefoot run – into the world of book publishing, guided entirely by our belief in a novel that is as cinematic as it is soulful, as local as it is timeless.
Set against the luminous backdrop of 1930s Santa Barbara, this is a tale of love and loss, mystery and reckoning, populated by unforgettable characters and infused with the kind of atmosphere that feels both dreamlike and deeply true. We invite you to settle in, turn the page, and join us at the edge of paradise… just as the light begins to change.
by Michael C. Armour
Chapter 5
He parked downtown and walked the block to the Sea Farer, enjoying the fog and the quiet emptiness of the town. He ate dessert at the small, nearly empty diner that looked out across an empty lot to a solitary pine tree and a dimly lit sign that read, Starlight Motel. There was no motel. A suspicious fire had burned it back to dirt and wild grasses that overlooked the small cove beach below. He ate the chili and cornbread and watched the fog roll past the sign.
The movie house was three blocks down, so he left his truck and walked, listening to the sound his boots made on the empty street. There were only a few people in the dark theater, and he liked it that way. As the movie played, he tried to watch, but all he could think about was Europe and Sandrine and her child. The movie in his head became the movie up on the screen, the shards of black and white light became his bittersweet memories.
A gunshot in the movie woke him. He tried to focus. In front of him, a woman stood, edged out of her row and began walking up the aisle. She was alone and tall and silky in the dim light. As she passed him, he could smell her perfume. He watched the sway of her dress as she went by. He tried not to turn and look at her. When he did, she was gone. He turned back to the movie and couldn’t figure out what had happened. It starred Coop. Creek liked Coop, liked that he seemed to be what he played, without too much posing – for a guy who had to wear makeup to earn a living.
The movie ended five minutes later, and he got up stiffly and left. The movie doors opened to a fog so thick he could barely see across the street. The buildings were enshrouded in silence. Heading for his truck, he heard the slow groan of an engine that wouldn’t start and knew before he saw the coupe that the battery would die. He walked by and was about to offer help when he saw that it was her, the woman from the movie with the nicely flowing dress. He walked on.
He heard the car door open, then close. Heard the clicking of high heels. He stopped. There was a phone booth beside the movie house, and he watched her step in and pick up the receiver. She held it up and worked the cradle, looked at it and tried again. A moment later, she left the booth and walked back to the car. He walked toward her. They met beneath the streetlamp.
Montecito Reads Page 344
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BREAKFAST | LUNCH | DINNER
by Jeff Wing
Fire Station # 62...and Sharkey’s Market (ca. 1960s) (courtesy photo)
“Life begins at the hop, boys and girls.”
– Colin Moulding, XTC
Another unreasonably sunny south coast day and Lillie Avenue is lazily abuzz. I’m standing in front of the Carpinteria-Summerland Fire Protection District’s Station #62, chatting with Gail Kvistad and firefighter Brian Lombardi. The subjects are Lillie Ave’s timeless vibe, and of course disco.
“People walk by here every day,” Lombardi says, gesturing. “There’s always people stopping to ask questions. My kids go to school right across the street. This station is a fixture of our community. It’s kind of like Mayberry.” Summerland’s reputation as Anytown by the Sea has not been overstated.
As we speak, Gail cradles with one arm her adorably grizzled chihuahua, Mojo. I hesitantly make as if to pet him and think better of it. “It’s okay, he’s friendly,” she assures me. But Mojo is staring at me with that deadpan expression small dogs use to such frightening effect. “Go ahead,” says Mojo’s face. I demur.
We’ve met to talk about the second annual Disco Inferno, a mad mirror ball rave-up disguised as a Santa Barbara South Coast Firefighter Foundation (SBSCFF!) fundraiser. The fest is happening Feb. 22nd, from 4-10 pm (or until you dervish-drop from exhaustion) at The Hangar at Bella Vista Ranch, 2800 Via Real in Summerland.
Brian is President of the Foundation, Gail one of its founders, alongside PowerPals Arlene ( Montesano) and Ursula (Nesbitt). Santa Barbara South Coast Firefighter Foundation’s sequin-flinging dance cyclone is the no-holds-barred event of the season, and what a cause. But, like… Disco
Inferno? Talk about thumbing your nose at fire! This is irony on the order of a Pompeiian following dinner with a Chocolate Volcano.
“The guys called me,” says Gail of the event’s origins a couple years past. “They have their own union (IAFF Local 3368), but their dues alone couldn’t necessarily respond to all the things that the community needed, and the things they knew needed doing.” Gail cracks a sudden grin.
“So I called Arlene and Ursula because we’d already been meeting to do a Disco Inferno to help all the fire departments and I said, ‘We’ve got to dedicate it to these guys!’ That’s how the whole thing started.” Yes, this will be the second annual Disco Inferno convened on behalf of the CarpSummerland Fire District. Publicity photos preceding last year’s Inferno feature the aforementioned power planners Gail, Arlene and Ursula – posing in their Studio 54 finery and wearing those brilliant bring it on smiles not typically associated with civic responsibility.
But the mirror ball mayhem is helping plow regional public gratitude back into Carp-Summerland Fire District’s (CSFD) needs-based priorities. Because disco fiends should be called out when spotted in the wild, due diligence obliges me to here identify Disco Inferno’s polyester-clad,
Beings & Doings Page 374
by Zach Rosen
At a moment when conversations around health are both deeply personal and publicly fraught, conditions that live quietly inside the body often remain the least understood. Medicine itself is built on privacy –doctor-patient confidentiality exists for good reason – and when pain carries even a hint of stigma or embarrassment, silence can become the default. It is far easier to endure quietly than to explain, advocate, or insist on being believed.
Endometriosis has long existed in that silence.
The disease occurs when tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside the uterus, often attaching to other organs and causing chronic pain, inflammation, fatigue, and, in many cases, infertility. It is progressive, under-researched, and notoriously difficult to diagnose, with confirmation typically requiring surgery. For generations, its symptoms have been minimized, normalized, or dismissed altogether – written off as “bad periods,”
“girl problems,” or pain that women are simply expected to tolerate. Yet one forthcoming documentary hopes to shift that longstanding narrative.
On Friday, February 6, at 6 pm, the Music Academy of the West will host a special preview screening of End Endo (working title), a documentary-in-progress that aims to bring clarity, compassion, and momentum to a disease long dismissed as “just part of being a woman.” Presented by The Endometriosis Collective and Belle Hahn, the evening is both a first look and a call to action – an invitation for the community to help carry an unfinished film, and an unfinished story, across the threshold toward change
At the heart of End Endo is Samantha Jaye Lang, a young filmmaker whose life was abruptly re-routed by endometriosis. She was first diagnosed at 17, just days before the world shut down for the pandemic. The diagnosis itself required surgery – the only definitive way endometriosis can currently be confirmed –
and even then, Lang recalls fearing that nothing would be found. “My biggest fear the entire time going in was, am I making it up?” she says. “The first thing I asked when I woke up was, ‘Did they find anything?’” The answer was sobering: more than 22 lesions were removed during that first operation.
Though often labeled “minor,” the surgery took nearly a year to recover from internally. Lang pressed forward anyway, graduating high school and heading to college to study documentary filmmaking and journalism. Doctors told her she likely had years before the disease would return. Instead, by her second year, the pain was back – and worsening. She ignored it as long as she could. “I was finally out of the pandemic. I was living my life. I was in college. There was no way,” she says. Eventually, her body forced the issue. She could no longer get out of bed to attend class.
Lang took medical leave in March of 2023. By June, she was back in surgery. This time, doctors removed additional lesions and diagnosed her with adenomyosis-endometriosis embedded in the muscle of the uterus. The only definitive treatment is hysterectomy. “Being in my early twenties, that’s not really how I thought my future would be,” she says. “It forced me to think about things I didn’t expect to think about yet. Do I want kids?
Can I have kids? How do I plan a future if my body is so inconsistent?”
Those questions about identity, possibility, and the grief of a future suddenly rewritten form the emotional backbone of End Endo. But the film is not a retreat into despair. In life’s meandering yet meaningful way, Lang began working on the documentary. “It’s surreal because if you told me a couple months after taking medical leave that I would be co-directing a doc… I’d be like, not true. I can’t get out of bed, not true, wouldn’t
Carlos the Bear was pacing back and forth while twiddling his claws. He was worried but thinking objectively. He had time, having been verbally told the new owners wanted to sell and that he had until March 1st to vacate the premises. Not a lot of time. His needs were few. A place to hibernate, eat and sleep…
Oh, the things he’d accomplished in his furry life: building loudspeakers; working for a record label – they won a Grammy while he was there – and reviewing audio equipment. As sad as it was, Carlos knew those days were over. So, he packed up his test lab and stereo and began to clear house, not knowing where he would move.
Although a bit overwhelmed, Carlos knew there was hope.
Montecito had been this bear’s home since 1977, all his friends live here, and he didn’t want to leave without giving a growl out for new digs. So he put another ad in the MJ with hopes someone would have a den he could rent.
Michael Edwards, AKA Carlos the Bear (805) 680-0239
I’ve never written a letter to a Book before, but...
I’m enjoying each weekly chapter in the Journal, it’s great to see that the narrative has resurrected the ancient art of the interior monologue.
It has made an otherwise “invisible” part of human existence – which we never actually see or acknowledge, either in ourselves or in others – now visible. Our internal struggles for clarity, in the face of our existential dilemmas, have no words, but only “pre-verbal” inklings. We can learn to speak these inklings aloud, of course, but only when no
one’s around.
Which I often do.
External “actions,” based on our amorphous, internal decisions, are observable. One can see an “action” in progress.
But the silent conversations we have with ourselves are the winding, invisible roadmaps guiding us toward these actions.
We calibrate our compasses in such silences.
Ursula Le Guin, the Sci-fi/Fantasy writer preceding the Harry Potter conglomerate, once wrote about what writing “is”:
“The writer’s job is to put into words what cannot be said in words.”
Thank you for reminding us of the invisible.
LeeAnn Morgan
So many climate disasters are happening, where we see the same story – families lose homes, roads are washed out, crops are destroyed, insurance rates spike, and taxpayers foot the bill, all while oil and gas companies rake in profits.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Climate superfund legislation – already law in Vermont and New York – would require the fossil fuel companies most responsible for this crisis to pay their fair share for the damage they knowingly caused. Instead of taxpayers shouldering the cost, the companies that profited from creating this mess would help fund the rebuilding of roads, homes, schools, and critical infrastructure.
That’s why I’m calling on local elected officials to support legislation to hold polluters accountable. This January’s Make Polluters Pay Week of Action is about shifting the cost of climate chaos off our communities and onto the polluters. It’s about fairness, because if you break it, you should buy it.
Sincerely, Elizabeth Boyd
by Laura Capps
I’d like to speak about the escalating federal immigration enforcement. I respect the Chair’s request for us to not unnecessarily wade into national issues, but what is happening with ICE is an issue affecting the people we represent on a daily basis. ICE is here on any given day, in our neighborhoods on our streets, causing disruption and in some cases, violence.
Over 350 people are now gone – most without due process, leaving behind loved ones to suffer in trauma.
Safety is our number one job, and I am worried about our safety. Especially for our immigrant community. But for all of us too.
When these raids happen, the agents are masked with guns, innocent bystanders are outraged. It’s alarming. They can’t believe what they are seeing. So, like Alex Pretti, they take out their phones.
What’s to stop a federal agent from turning on them?
When the big raid happened in Carpinteria, and 200 people gathered to protest, ICE used smoke bombs and flash bangs on them. It got out of hand. We all know, it could have been worse.
Our local law enforcement has years of experience and training. They receive de-escalation training. They are members of the community. I’m proud to be their colleague and support their courageous work.
ICE has more than doubled their ranks in less than a year, from 10,000 agents to 22,000. They do not receive the kind of exceptional training that our local law enforcement receives. By some accounts, they are barely trained.
Like tens of thousands of community members I have attended protests recently, including a beautiful vigil last night at Stearns Wharf in solidarity with the
people of Minnesota – full of light. They have been entirely peaceful. I brought my son last night, not worried about our safety – because this is Santa Barbara. And this is America. Will that change? What do we do if federal agents arrive?
It’s been up to nonprofits to be leading know-your-rights and de-escalation sessions. Every protest has been entirely peaceful thanks to the work of the COMMUNITY Volunteers.
Our District Attorney has spoken out to keep the peace and keep the temperature down. So has the SB City Chief of Police.
I’ve asked our sheriff directly and I’m publicly asking him now – how can he and his team be a part of keeping our community safer against federal agents? What more can be done?
It’s an open-ended question and I am looking for any kind of constructive answer. But we do need an answer.
Thank you,
Laura
Capps, Santa Barbara County Supervisor, District 2
Executive Editor/CEO | Gwyn Lurie gwyn@montecitojournal.net
President/COO | Timothy Lennon Buckley tim@montecitojournal.net
Managing Editor | Zach Rosen zach@montecitojournal.net
MoJo Contributing Editor | Christopher Matteo Connor
Art/Production Director | Trent Watanabe
Graphic Design/Layout | Stevie Acuña
Administrative Assistant | Jessica Shafran VP, Sales & Marketing | Leanne Wood leanne@montecitojournal.net
Account Managers | Sue Brooks, Tanis Nelson, Elizabeth Scott, Joe DeMello
Features | Jeff Wing
Proofreading | Helen Buckley
Contributors | Scott Craig, Chuck Graham, Mark Ashton Hunt, Dalina Michaels, Robert Bernstein, Christina Atchison, Leslie Zemeckis, Sigrid Toye, Elizabeth Stewart, Leana Orsua, Jeffrey Harding, Houghton Hyatt
Arts and Entertainment | Steven Libowitz
Gossip | Richard Mineards
History | Hattie Beresford
Humor | Ernie Witham
Our Town/Society | Joanne A Calitri
Health/Wellness | Ann Brode, Deann Zampelli
Travel | Jerry Dunn, Leslie Westbrook
Food & Wine | Melissa Petitto, Gabe Saglie, Jamie Knee
Published by:
Montecito Journal Media Group, LLC
Montecito Journal is compiled, compounded, calibrated, cogitated over, and coughed up every Wednesday by an exacting agglomeration of excitable (and often exemplary) expert edifiers at 1206 Coast Village Circle, Suite G, Montecito, CA 93108.
How to reach us: (805) 565-1860; FAX: (805) 969-6654; Montecito Journal, 1206 Coast Village Circle, Suite G, Montecito,
by MJ Staff
Maybe it was a touch of brioche French toast and some morning laughs on a lazy weekend, or a Saturday prime rib before the big show… or remember the time the whole family got burgers after the hike?
As surely as the unforgettable meals they serve, Lucky’s – “Montecito’s Second Living Room” – is endeared to our collective memory. The beloved classic steakhouse has now been group-hugging our community for 25 years.
We know you have plenty of cherished memories of Lucky’s; we do, as well. And we would be grateful for the privilege of sharing your memories with our readers. Help us celebrate our friends’ 25th anniversary by sending in photos and stories of your Lucky’s memories.
Lucky’s birthday bash is tentatively set for the end of February and will bring together their loyal longtime staff, legendary founders, and devoted patrons. Let’s all share what we love about Lucky’s!
Even Carol agrees that we should bring on the celebration… (courtesy photo)
The deadline to submit photos and stories is Sunday, February 22. Please send them to letters@montecitojournal.net
- San Ysidro Ranch is setting the stage for romance throughout Valentine’s
News Bytes Page 324
(805) 565-4896
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by Christina Atchison
In January, Montecito Fire published its 2025 Annual Report, recapping the department’s successes, challenges and opportunities to better serve the Montecito community. To view the full report, visit montecitofire.com or scan the QR code. Fire Chief David Neels shared the following message with the community. Fire Chief Neels
Each year, our organization’s objectives are to offer a robust level of service within our community, provide regional cooperation, and maintain a focus on wildfire preparedness and organizational development within the Montecito Fire Department. Our personnel remain committed to protecting the community while adapting to evolving risks and operational changes.
Throughout the year, Montecito Fire Department personnel responded to more than a dozen mutual aid incidents across the western region. These responses underscore the importance of strong interagency relationships and highlighted our role as a dependable regional partner during significant emergency events. The Palisades and Eaton fires reinforced the reality of large-scale wildfire threats erupting at any time of the year and prompted meaningful reflection and action within our district.
In the aftermath of these fires, we experienced a substantial increase in community interest and concern regarding wildfire preparedness. In response, the department continued our proactive outreach efforts and met with multiple community and homeowner’s associations. During 2025, we completed 135 property visits to provide site-specific wildfire mitigation recommendations. These efforts complemented our comprehensive Wildfire Preparedness Community Meeting held on June 26, which brought together local public safety agencies and community support organizations to share information, resources, and strategies.
Professional development remained a foundational priority. Several well-earned promotions took effect in January, and additional promotions followed in June. These advancements reflect the depth of talent within our organization and our commitment to leadership development. Each of our promoted members has been recognized in this report. We were also proud that our newest members successfully completed their probationary processes in
June and November of 2025. Additionally, one of our firefighters completed the paramedic training program at Allan Hancock College, further strengthening our advanced life support capabilities.
Operationally, a major milestone occurred on May 13, 2025, with the closure of South Coast Dispatch and our successful transition to the Regional Fire Communications Center. This change, along with the upgrading of our radio communications infrastructure, has improved interoperability, reliability, and closest-resource model response.
As Fire Chief, I am proud of the dedication, professionalism, and adaptability demonstrated by the members of the Montecito Fire Department every year. Their efforts, combined with strong community partnerships and regional collaboration, continue to enhance our ability to protect the community we are honored to serve.
-David Neels, Fire Chief
by Joanne A Calitri
Fashionistas will be stoked that there is a fabulous Free People clothing store in Montecito. The brand, a very familiar landmark on State Street, has upped its game for our town.
The store, located at 40 Los Patos Way, is basically in a farmhouse, which matches the brand well.
The Montecito store held its opening on Saturday, January 31, from 4-7 pm. When I arrived, the store was filled with serious shoppers, many who knew the brand and headed to
buy their favorites. To the delight of many, the store is two levels, with cozy couches near the dressing rooms, and an outdoor patio for lounging and chatting with friends. Buyers had their goodies packed in reusable bags with a Valentine theme.
The clothing items are arranged by color, with lace and silks mixed in dresses, skirts, pantaloons, blouses, kimonos, and sweatshirts. They are layered with color matched real suede jackets, silk scarves, suede bags, belts, and delicate lingerie. On both floors is a swimwear line with very teeny bikinis and elegant one-piece swimsuits, swim cover-ups
and hats. Towards the cash wrap is lip balm, sunglasses, and high-end jewelry in glass display cases. For the home, there are scented candles, sachets, and small items of décor.
After cruising the store on my own, I met with the store manager, Brittany Balyn, who is a self-made e-commerce and social media marketing influencer and mom with over 500K followers across all platforms. She told me that she is a huge fan of Free People and did a career pivot to be this store’s manager, saying, “I love it, everyone is so supportive of each other and the community, and it’s female driven.” Balyn is supported with a team of ten women on staff. We next talked about what makes this store unique for Montecito. She explained, “Montecito has items you cannot find at any other Free People physical store. We have cashmere, real leather, suede and fur jackets, purses and belts, dresses that you view online, brands like LoveShackFancy and
“The dancers and musicians manage to combine a high-gloss finish with a convincing air of spontaneous excitement.”
The Independent (U.K.)
“Sheer physical energy and beauty.” The New York Times
The National Dance Company of the Republic of Guinea Les Ballets Africains
Fri, Feb 6 / 7:30 PM / Granada Theatre
“Liu can do the impeccable glitter, but his playing is more than pyrotechnics. It is powerful, polished, and emanates from a disciplined mind.”
The Telegram
the
Thu, Feb 12 / 7 PM / UCSB Campbell Hall Program includes:
Ligeti, Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Ravel, Albéniz and Liszt
Special Double Bill
Mahal and Patty
Tue, Feb 17 / 7:30 PM / Arlington Theatre
“A multi-instrumentalist wizard… While often described as a blues musician, he’s more of an international griot.” Datebook on Taj Mahal
“Sometimes with tenderness, with family and loss, sometimes with fierce poignant critique, her wordplay is profound, challenging and unrivaled.” – Robert Plant on Patty Griffin
“[Jlin creates] something frenetic and physical but also heavy with emotion, like chamber music breaking out on the dance floor.” Stereogum
“Third Coast Percussion is blurring musical boundaries and beguiling new listeners.” NPR
Coast
Thu, Feb 19 / 8 PM / UCSB Campbell Hall
WEDNESDAY, FEB. 11 AT 8:40PM AND FRIDAY, FEB. 13 AT 2:40PM
TICKETS/PASSES: HTTPS://SBIFF.ORG
by Steven Libowitz
After the leather-jacketed Fonzie literally leapt over a shark while waterskiing in a famously foolish episode of Happy Days, the absurd scene birthed the phrase (and industry concept) “jumping the shark.”
The damning term is applied when a creative endeavor has so run out of gas it wanders untethered into vibrant twaddle wholly divorced from its original animating spark. Once the shark is jumped, even loyal, long-suffering fans defect.
But in the new play opening at Ensemble Theatre this week, the shark itself is the problem. Bruce, the mechanical shark constructed for the filming of Jaws, won’t always even swim, let alone jump – or execute most of the moves director Steven Spielberg wanted, leading to the three actors at the heart of the film –Robert Shaw, Roy Scheider, and Richard Dreyfuss – spending long hours stuck on a small boat in the waters off Martha’s Vineyard waiting for Bruce to work.
The Shark is Broken, the hit Broadway play making its West Coast premiere at the Ensemble from February 4-22, is less about Bruce balking than it is the booze-fueled battles of will and ego that befall three actors stranded together on a boat just offshore at Martha’s Vineyard. The show is a sharp, spectacularly funny behind-thescenes vignette on the making of the now 50-year-old iconic film.
The fish-(not)-out-of-water tale was written by Shaw’s son, playwright Ian Shaw, who developed the script from personal stories, interviews, and his father’s “drinking diary” from the set, with a story that encompasses hierarchical struggles, philosophical discussions, and vulnerable reveals.
“I was drawn to the honesty between these three actors at three very different points of their respective careers, and to the tremendous amount of humor,” director Pesha Rudnick said about making her ETC helming debut with The Shark is Broken. “To me, the spine of the play is the impact of the relationship of these three people on the final product. Their competitiveness, their humor, their process fueled the specificity of these three characters, Quint, Hooper, and Brody. The chemistry between them and the circumstances actually led to what ultimately became the brilliant parts of Jaws.”
Rudnick was founding artistic director of the LOCAL Theater Company in Boulder, Colorado – where she produced, developed, and directed more than 40 new works. She also helmed productions at the American Repertory Theater, the Kennedy Center, and La Jolla Playhouse, among others, before joining UCSB’s Theatre Department in 2021. She did quite a bit of her own research before casting began, including re-watching the movie, and “getting very intimate with the research and the stories from the shoot.”
“It was chaotic from the start; obviously the production element, but they were also getting new script pages every single day. They had not agreed to a final script. There were seven different writers who were taking stabs at it. It was, if I can say it, a s–- show.”
Fortunately, the play isn’t. Shaw balances the insanity with lots of character development and behind-the-scenes fun.
“Over the course of the play, you get to see the film in production three times,” Rudnick said. “Each time, you see the impact of the relationship, the conflict, and the banter on the actual art. I hope that by the end, you’re convinced that it was only
Entertainment Page 354
Ian Shaw AND Joseph Nixon
by Steven Libowitz
Less than a week ago chain link fencing still surrounded the entrance to the former Fiesta 5 Theatre, and big dumpsters perched on either side of the entryway on State Street. Passerby at that time would have been well within their rights to doubt SBIFF’s McHurley Film Center – the lavishly remodeled new facility for the festival and far beyond – would be ready in time for the full-scale launch of the 41st SBIFF installment on February 5. But as Monday’s packed official ribbon-cutting once again proved, underestimating the film festival (whose whitehot energy turns our little burg into Hollywood North, Sundance South, and foreign film nirvana for 11 days in mid-winter) is a foolish endeavor.
After all, this is the festival that invariably secures more current Academy Award nominees than one could reasonably imagine, thanks in part to its fortuitous timing. But SBIFF is also a globally known soirée that just keeps raising the quality of the movie conversation, continually broadens its community connections, and creates magnetic new events to meet the moment.
The McHurley Film Center is a hub for all of that, a gleaming new home for screenings decked out in red carpet, red seats and, often, red walls; a spotlit movie nexus which will double as cinematic museum and gathering space. As executive director Roger Durling said Monday night, the realization of the “long-gestating dream” – now taking its place alongside the approachably gorgeous Riviera Theatre – gives SBIFF almost total control of the screens needed for the festival. The exception to this festival screen hegemony is the stately Arlington Theatre. The old-world movie palace will fittingly show Oscar-nominated Best Picture nominees for free daily during the festival – often with filmmakers on hand – and serve as the site for all of the honoree evenings and panels.
Speaking of Oscar nods, it’s been several years since I gave up even trying to count all of the nominees who will be swarming our town for the occasion. The cadre of acting honorees this year is dizzying. It includes the earth-shaking get (secured in early January) of that male nominee triumvirate from One Battle After Another, the Tinseltown Triad appearing on a single night. Never mind the annual Best Event of the Fest Virtuoso Awards boasting – with the late addition of Sentimental Value’s Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas and Sinners’ Wunmi Mosaku – eight current award hopefuls. Add the all-nominated Artisans participants, the Directors Awards, the various panels (writers, producers, women’s, international features and the brand-new casting directors) – and the number exceeds by multiples the total number of my fingers and toes. But as always SBIFF is much more than glitz and glamour, with the film slate this year boasting more than 45 world premieres and 80 more U.S. premieres from some 50 countries, with very worthy films featured in every segment and section to suit almost any cinematic obsession. A big benefit is the chance to catch on the big screen a plethora of foreign films that might never actually see theatrical distribution in the States, not to mention the tremendous opportunities across genres to hear from a
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majority of the filmmakers and/or stars immediately following screenings. (A few are highlighted below.)
Extra exciting this year for our readers is the fact that all three features in the Santa Barbara Features section, each having their world premieres, are deeply connected to Montecito. We profiled Relatively Normal in the last issue. Read on for more about Imbalance and Stand By, Mother
The marquee at McHurley is the only thing still missing from the new SBIFF Film Center – no matter since it always only reads Santa Barbara International Film Festival during the fest – but the projectionists, ticket booth, concession stand, and all are ready and raring to host the film enthusiasts that throng to SBIFF every year. As they say, see you in the dark.
The old adage “Write what you know” applies to Imbalance, Dale Griffith Stamos’ feature film debut having its world premiere this weekend at SBIFF. The film is about potential professor-student relationships at a college, and Stamos knows a thing or two about the classroom. The French professor-turned-writer has been teaching Story Structure at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference, and other writing courses at SBCC and the former Adult Ed. Oh, and she also had a brief romance with one of her professors as an undergraduate at UCSB.
“It was harmless and fizzled out within a couple of months. Nothing came of it,” said Stamos, a 12-year resident of Montecito. “But it was a very different time, when that was very common, and nobody thought there was anything terribly wrong about it. As one character in the film says, ‘You bring minds together, sometimes bodies follow.’”
Stamos was inspired not only by ethics but the “concept of reason in conflict with passion,” which is at the heart, if you will, of Imbalance. The principal characters, the esteemed and highly ethical 50-year-old philosophy professor Elizabeth (SAG winner and multi-Emmy-nominated Sharon Lawrence) and her 38-year-old TA and advisee Richard (Nicholas Gonzalez) develop unexpected feelings for each other.
Due to the shifting cultural landscape of higher education during the #MeToo movement and stricter Title IX regulations, Sharon is devastated by the moral dilemma of dealing with the attraction and Richard’s pursuit, and the mind-first professor is so thrown by the unexpected passion that she considers sacrificing her own ethics on the altar of love.
Their shared expertise in philosophy adds a deeper dimension to the issue, and to the characters’ discourse from dispassionate points of view. That aspect of the screenplay did not necessarily follow the dictum “write what you know.”
“It’s not my field. Philosophy intimidated me when I took a class in college,” Stamos said. “That’s why I wanted to delve into it. I literally read books on philosophy for six months before I started writing. Luckily, there were philosophy teachers who came to my first play performance, and they told me that I hadn’t screwed anything up in that area.”
The provocative piece was originally written almost 20 years ago as a theatrical play, one of many by Stamos that have been produced in L.A. Then dubbed Dialectics of the Heart, it also starred Lawrence and Gonzalez. Several years ago, in the wake of #MeToo, and following several short films that won awards on the festival circuit, Stamos decided to update it as a screenplay.
“I realized that the subject matter was even more relevant,” she said.
As it happens, aging the characters not only serendipitously made it possible for
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“Last Light in Paradise is drop-dead perfect. In all my years of investigating for the United States and the President–this is the kind of novel you go to for truth, heart, and the deep pleasure of a master storyteller.”
– Richard C. LaMagna
Former Director of Counternarcotics White House National Security Council and former Deputy Chief of Intelligence DEA HQ
– Fannie Flagg
Now available at Chaucer’s Books, Tecolote Book Shop and Godmothers
by Scott Craig, photos by Brad Elliott
Westmont has partnered with the San Marcos High School Health Careers Academy (HCA) to guarantee graduates have a path to a bachelor’s degree. The Santa Barbara Unified School District approved the memorandum of understanding that assures those academy graduates who meet specific academic criteria admission to Westmont, with at least $15,000 in institutional aid.
“This partnership is a tremendous opportunity for our students and a powerful example of what local collaboration can achieve,” said San Marcos Principal Dare Holdren. “Our Health Careers Academy is preparing the next generation of healthcare professionals, and this agreement gives our dedicated students a clear, supportive path from high school to a top-tier college right here in our community.”
The collaboration provides a direct pipeline for students interested in pursuing careers in science, technology, engi-
neering, and mathematics.
“This agreement reflects our commitment to expanding meaningful pathways for every student,” says Hilda Maldonado, superintendent of Santa Barbara Unified School District. “Through this partnership with Westmont, our Health Careers Academy students gain access to a worldclass education close to home and a powerful opportunity to pursue careers that strengthen our community.”
The academy, which began a quarter of a century ago and is fundraising to build a new facility, fills the vital need for medical professionals in the Santa Barbara community. “This partnership is designed to foster and support homegrown talent and strengthen our regional healthcare infrastructure for years to come,” says Irene Neller, Westmont Vice President of Enrollment, Marketing, and Communications.
Two Westmont engineering students presented their research findings at the American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME) Annual Meeting in November at Memphis.
Senior Celeste Marquez of Goleta and junior Peter Velgersdyk of Minnetonka, Minnesota, had rare opportunities as undergraduates to work on peer-reviewed papers.
“This is quite an accomplishment for our students,” says Dan Jensen, director
of engineering. “Westmont’s undergraduate engineering students have had 37 co-authorships on peer-reviewed publications in just the last four years.”
Marquez’s research focuses on bridging the gap between advanced fluid mechanics analysis and how fluid dynamics is usually taught to engineering students.
“The goal was to make learning more interactive and immersive, helping students better understand concepts that are hard to visualize with traditional teaching methods,” she says. “I created a computational fluid dynamics simulation that highlights key ideas and allows students to explore them in greater depth.”
The simulation was then adapted for use in a virtual reality headset using OpenFOAM, ParaView, and a Valve Index to support future educational games and activities.
Marquez says she benefitted greatly from being exposed to presentations of graduate research that offered a glimpse of her future as an engineer. “Sharing my research was as valuable and exciting as hearing about everyone else’s innovative research approaches and applications,” she says.
Velgersdyk’s research explores how different AI tools can support the four-step design innovation process: discover, define, develop and deliver. “It evaluates systems like ChatGPT, Miro Assist, CADscribe and Stable Diffusion to understand where AI genuinely strengthens creative thinking and where it introduces limitations,” he says. “The main goal is to understand how these tools fit into the design process and how engineers can use them thoughtfully and effectively to create new designs.”
He built a custom AI tool that uses OpenAI’s GPT technology to come up with design ideas inspired by nature. After giving the tool a simple description of what a product needs to do (its basic function), the AI suggests creative, nature-based ways that function could be achieved. “It quickly produces a clean, visual mind map,” he says. “When we compared it to standard ideation techniques, the group using the tool generated more ideas and pushed their thinking further, which was exciting to see.”
Velgersdyk says the conference was energizing, pushing him to communicate more clearly. “It was encouraging to see
Gritty.
“In
by Jamie Knee
Each January, the historic halls of the Cloverdale Citrus Fairgrounds transform into one of the most important tasting rooms in North America. Long tables draped in white cloth line the space, and these are covered with thousands of carefully poured glasses. Judges arrive and don white lab coats, ready for days of focused evaluation at the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, the largest and most respected wine competition in the country.
In January 2026, I returned for my fifth year as a judge, joining more than 50 industry professionals, to evaluate over 5,500 wines from more than 1,000 wineries. It is an experience that blends discipline, community, and deep respect for the craft of winemaking.
Each year, returning to Cloverdale feels like a professional homecoming. Many of us have not seen one another since the previous competition. We reunite at long tasting tables, catching up between wine flights before settling into the serious work ahead.
This sense of continuity matters. Over time, panels develop trust, shared language, and consistent standards. It strengthens the integrity of the judging process and reinforces the collaborative spirit that defines the Chronicle. The San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition stands apart for its commitment to diversity and representation. Its judging panels reflect the evolving wine landscape, with a broad mix of backgrounds, generations, and professional paths.
Judges include wine journalists, sommeliers, retail and restaurant buyers, educators, winemakers, and hospitality leaders. The panel reflects a rare balance of seasoned industry veterans and rising voices, with strong representation from women and younger palates shaping the future of wine. This diversity ensures wines are evaluated through multiple lenses: technical excellence, consumer appeal, market relevance, and cultural context. It is a forward-thinking model that recognizes how wine culture continues to change.
All wines are tasted blind. Judges know only the category and sometimes the price range. There are no labels, producers, or regions revealed. This keeps the process fair, objective, and focused entirely on quality.
To give you a sense of what a typical day of judging looks like, my
- 10:00 PM
AND SATURDAY 7:30 AM - 12:00 PM
panel brought together a thoughtful mix of perspectives: myself; a veteran winemaker whose career spans back to 1999; and a respected educator in viticulture. Together, we worked through a full day of tasting that included, for example, 10 Port-style wines, close to 50 white blends, more than 50 Merlotled blends, and a handful of meads. It’s focused, collaborative work, with each wine discussed carefully as we calibrate our palates and perspectives throughout the day.
Each flight requires concentration, detailed notes, discussion, and consensus. We assess balance, structure, aromatics, typicity, and overall pleasure. Every medal reflects thoughtful evaluation and collective judgment. Wine judging is mentally demanding. Palate calibration, pacing, and discipline are essential. It is professional work grounded in experience and responsibility. Wine competitions play an important role in guiding consumers. With thousands of wines on the market, medals help drinkers identify bottles that deliver genuine quality and value.
- Packaging: Nola Grace 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon, California
- Specialty: Castello di Amorosa 2024 Late Harvest Gewürztraminer, Anderson Valley
- Sparkling: Piper Sonoma Brut Méthode Traditionnelle
- Rosé: Lewis Grace 2025 Estate Rosé, El Dorado
- Red: Pianetta 2022 Syrah, El Pomar District, Paso Robles
The competition is led by Bob and Scott Fraser, along with Cary Fraser, Alexandra Alvernaz, and an exceptional team of staff and volunteers. Their organization, consistency, and attention to detail allow judges to focus entirely on evaluation. Behind every smooth tasting flight is careful planning, coordination, and hospitality.
Great wine is not always expensive. A well-earned medal offers reassurance and encourages exploration. For younger and less experienced wine lovers, these signals are especially meaningful.
For producers, recognition can open doors to new markets and visibility. For judges, the responsibility is taken seriously.
The final day brings the Sweepstakes, when judges select top wines from each major category: Sparkling, Rosé/Blush, Specialty, White, and Red. In large categories, finalists can number more than 20.
This stage tests memory, instinct, and professional judgment. Seeing a wine you supported in blind tasting rise to the top reinforces the strength of the process.
- White: New Clairvaux Vineyard 2025 Viognier, Tehama County
After nearly a decade on professional wine panels, I continue to value judging for its rigor and purpose. Each glass represents years of work by growers and winemakers. Each score carries real impact. Returning year after year is both an honor and a responsibility.
Wine lovers can experience the excitement firsthand at the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition Public Tasting on March 7, 2026, at Fort Mason Center in San Francisco. It is an opportunity to explore award-winning wines, meet producers, and experience the diversity of American wine in one setting. Cheers to the wines, the people, and the shared pursuit of excellence.
Jamie Knee is a Global Wine Communicator, Wine Media Personality, and International Wine Judge & Educator, named one of the “Top 50 Most Influential Women in Wine.” Follow her @petitewinetraveler.
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by Jeffrey Harding
Ijust interviewed a very interesting man. Bret Stephens is a world-famous Op-Ed columnist with the New York Times. Among many awards, Stephens won a Pulitzer Prize for his writing while he was at the Wall Street Journal I watched several of his talks and he is a very engaging and inciteful speaker.
Stephens will speak at the Westmont President’s Breakfast on Friday, February 27 at 7 am at the Hilton Santa Barbara Beachfront Resort. Tickets may be purchased at westmont.edu/breakfast.
Like many Jewish people, the experiences of his family through pogroms and the Holocaust inform his world view. His grandfather’s family fled a pogrom in Moldova and his grandmother’s family fled Nazi Germany. Born in NYC to secular Jewish parents, he was raised in Mexico City where his father ran a chemical company. Stephens was educated at the University of Chicago and
the London School of Economics.
After a turn at Commentary, a journal of Jewish affairs, he joined The Wall Street Journal and wrote editorials for WSJ Europe. In 2002 he joined The Jerusalem Post in Israel as editor-in-chief. In 2004 he rejoined the WSJ as the “Global View” columnist writing about foreign affairs. In 2017 he joined the NYT where he continues to write. In 2013 he received the Pulitzer Prize “for his incisive [WSJ] columns on American foreign policy and domestic politics, often enlivened by a contrarian twist.” There is much more to his resumé. He doesn’t shy from controversy.
I began the interview querying why he chose journalism as a career. An interesting answer:
“[F]or all of the profession’s challenges, there are few careers that allow you to have one foot in the life of the mind and one foot in the life of action. And journalism is one of those careers. So, it has great compensations, even though it might not be as remunerative as other professions.”
Stephens sees himself as a conservative in the Reagan mold. He describes himself as being on “the conservative wing of the [classical] liberal church:” free markets, free trade, individual liberty, free speech, and a free press.
“I think that the best way of preserving a liberal political order is through traditionally conservative means. So, for example, intact families tend to produce more responsible citizens. Churches and synagogues and other civic or religious institutions instill a moral sensibility that’s important for the overall well-being of society. Private enterprise and free markets also develop personal habits, like thrift, responsibility, sociability, that are equally important for decent societies to flourish.”
He supports America’s engagement with the world as being necessary for democracy at home and abroad. He writes frequently about Israel and the Middle East. Stephens has been an ardent supporter of Israel and identifies as a Zionist.
He sums up his philosophical approach this way:
“Last night I listened to a talk from the documentary maker Ken Burns. One of the things that he mentioned is a sign he keeps in his office with the words, ‘It’s complicated.’ I think those are words to live by whenever you’re trying to explain politics or think about politics and political, economic, and social phenomena. I’m always a little suspicious of any kind of orthodoxy because it will inevitably fail to take account of the full range of human experience and reality, and then there’s just no good formulas there. There are good instincts, but there are never perfect formulas.”
I quoted him one of my favorite epigrams by Thomas Aquinas: “Beware of the person of a single book.” “Yes,” he said, “that’s very true.”
Stephens has been a harsh critic of Donald Trump and his Administration.
He doesn’t pull punches. He had just gotten back from Davos (World Economic Forum), a conclave of the rich, powerful, and famous. From what I had read about Davos, this year nobody was talking about deals. The main topic was President Trump.
Stephens’ op-ed piece on Davos was titled “An Unhinged President on Magic Mountain.” His article started with a synopsis of Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain. I’ll let you read the piece, but in it Stephens writes, “The underlying spirit of Davos this year is fear.” He also noted in the piece that Trump’s speech “sounded, in places, as if it had been ghostwritten by Mario Puzo.”
But, despite his long-standing criticism, he has a realistic view of Trump.
“[H]e was one candidate who was talking all too candidly about issues which America’s elites didn’t want to discuss. For example, the toll of immigration, the failure of elite institutions, the corrosive effects of left-wing identity politics. Of course, he has his own rightwing identity politics, but those were all really legitimate issues, and he was one political leader who had the guts to go there, and he was rewarded for it.”
“[T]o be an effective critic of Trump you also have to have an appreciation for the things that he got right. Immigration. The border. Those kinds of things; and also a perception that for many Americans, the experience of the 21st century has been an experience of decline. And I don’t think that those of us who live on the golden coasts of the country sufficiently appreciated that fact.”
We discussed a lot of issues relating to Trump including the ICE raids (“I think it’s going to cost them the midterms”), J.D. Vance (“colossal opportunist”), Iran war (?), Mamdani (“true believer…or rank opportunist?”).
I believe his talk here will be one of the most informative we have had and you will go home with a lot to think about. Thanks to Westmont to making this happen.
genuine interest in our research on AI in design,” he says. “I’m grateful for how much this experience strengthened both my technical abilities and my confidence in communicating and working with others.”
After losing an overtime heartbreaker at Biola, Westmont women’s basketball (15-5, 11-3 PacWest) has strung six wins together, including an inspired 79-43 win at home Jan. 31.
Over the course of those six victories, the Warriors have averaged 74.0 points per game while limiting their opponents to an average of 42.8. “Obviously, we’ve been able to build momentum,” said Kirsten Moore, Westmont’s head coach. “I’m excited, not just for the wins, but for how we’re winning them. Our players are focused on the things it’s going to take to finish strong this year.”
The game also saw the return of
junior captain Madi Bogan, who has been out with an injury for the last 23 months. She ended the game with five points, two rebounds and a steal in six minutes of play.
“She’s grateful to be part of a program that cares about her, has loved her through it, and is grateful to God for the opportunities she has,” Moore said. “That gratitude has helped her have the grit to get back from the hard road she’s been on the last two years.”
German physician and botanist, Leonhart Fuchs published De Historia Stirpium (On the History of Plants) in 1543. The celebrated and much reprinted work was a foundation of modern botany. Fuchs’ herbal tome was illustrated with full page woodcut illustrations. Unusually for that time, it gave credit to the artisans who had drawn the plants, cut the wooden blocks, and colored the finished plates. The artists’ self-portraits appeared on the final leaf. The herbal reference described and illustrated 400 native German and 100 foreign plants, both wild and domestic, and featured detailed discussions of their respective medical uses. Included were the first record of New World plants like maize, cactus, and tobacco.
by Leslie Zemeckis
‘A
Simone St. James is back with another taut, chilling thriller. A Boxful of Darkness is everything one expects from St. James – horror, humor, and twists galore. Two decades ago, six-year-old Ben went missing during a game of hide-n-seek with his three older siblings. The house has been locked up ever since, a painful reminder of the game gone wrong. Now Ben is back, a ghostly apparition that appears at the family home, asking for them to come home. What follows is so scary you won’t want to read this at night. Set in the eerie town of Fell, New York, the backdrop of her novel The Sun Down Motel, Simone delivers a haunted house story that has heart, painful memories, and a vengeful ghost or two.
‘Her Cold Justice’
Her Cold Justice by Robert Dugoni pits a ruthless prosecutor, and witness to her own parents’ murder, against a determined defense attorney as they battle over the fate of a young man accused of committing a gruesome double homicide. This is the third in the Dugoni series but can be read as a standalone. This legal thriller is smart and tense, set in Seattle seemingly awash with a decades-long culture of corruption, conspiracy, and the railroading of hapless victims.
‘Where
Dip into the heartfelt garden of emotions in Where the Wildflowers Grow by Terah Shelton Harris, the story of an escaped felon who takes a second chance in life when an unexpected opportunity arises. Leigh has spent her entire life surviving, an attribute drilled into her since she was a young girl living off the grid. When she stumbles on a small town in Alabama, she meets a charming flower farmer with a past of his own. Amongst the blossoming seedlings he offers her a place to heal. Leigh can’t quite bring herself to reveal her true identity to him, even as the pair fall in love. This is a beautiful story of intergenerational trauma, overcoming the past, and redemption. You’ll root for Leigh the entire time, even as it seems her own roots will be cut out from under her.
‘The First Time I Saw Him’
complicated when Bailey’s grandfather, Nicholas, appears to suddenly die and Hannah and Bailey find themselves on the run, unsure if they are headed towards even greater danger. Will they ever see Owen again? Dave is a talented author who keeps you guessing all the way until the end.
Sofia Robleda ’s historical fiction
The Other Moctezuma Girls is a fascinating tale of a noblewoman in sixteenth-century Mexico. Even if you haven’t seen the ancient cities that anchor her fiction, their soaring pyramids and secret rituals (I have climbed plenty of the pyramids she writes about) you will feel like you have been transported in time. When Isabel’s mother, an Aztec empress, dies, she leaves clues Isabel must follow to unlock her future and discover the remote mother and Spanish father she never really knew.
AAnother excellent thriller is The First Time I saw Him by Laura Dave This is a page-turner. Five years ago, Hannah’s husband Owen disappeared, leaving her to raise his daughter, Bailey. They are doing the best they can when suddenly Owen reappears – only to vanish once more. Things quickly become
mesmerizing book about trees –both botanical and lineal – is When Trees Testify by award-winning plant biologist Beronda L. Montgomery . In the book, Montgomery traces the history of Black Americans and their botanical ties to the trees that are both painful reminders of their ancestors’ enslaved past, and empowering symbols of resilience, nourishment, and literal healing. Part memoir, part history, this is a compelling look at some overlooked history in our country that needs revisiting.
by Elizabeth Stewart
The year was 1973 when my father had the bad taste to buy my mother a makeover session at Elizabeth Arden’s Red Door, located at 919 N. Michigan Ave on the Magnificent Mile. Not only was Elinor secretly insulted, but she was set to be disappointed, and boy howdy was she ever. Formerly a light brunette, she came home a raven-haired Carmen with red lips and a beehive. Elizabeth Arden, born Florence Nightingale Graham, opened her first salon in 1910. She was a pioneer in creating an exclusive place where a woman could reinvent herself, and many Chicago ladies made a monthly trip. Over the following decades, the Red Door salon expanded to multiple locations across the United States and internationally, offering facials, massages, body treatments, and salon services that set industry standards. My mother, though – a practical woman who didn’t wear jewelry or makeup – didn’t buy any of it. Most women didn’t tire of finding new ways to transform, something Miss Arden relied on; but after visiting the Red Door for a makeover in 1973 Elinor was boiling mad. Elinor’s next move was to find herself a hat at nearby Marshall Fields, and she picked a Dorée of NY cloche that covered her whole head. I don’t have the hat, but I have the Dorée hatbox!
And so does our reader LM have a Dorée box, and she has, in fact, a desirable collection of vintage hat boxes. Her Dorée box ($48 at Etsy) is one of her favorites, because in an era where lady’s accessories were advertised in mellow pastels, the Dorée box is arrestingly red, black and white. Other names to watch for are boxes from Leslie James, Don Anderson, and Claude St-Cyr. LM’s elegant hat boxes were found at garage sales, thrift and estate sales, their whimsical themes harkening back to a more innocent era. Classic Paris scenes feature fashionable shoppers of bohemian
Paris, and mustachioed gendarmes.
Hat boxes are today found for sale at prices I didn’t believe (as I have formerly thrown many away): Gage Original, $56; MCM Bagmaster with zipper, $60; Knox NY men’s round box, $48; Octagonal Coralie box, $42; 1920s men’s Dobbs box, $100; Resistol men’s 1940s, $50; an 18th century wood box with brass hinges, $200; a scoop top leather top hat travelling box, $200; a 1930s flat bottom round train case hat box, $60; a wig box train case, $75; and an eight-sided men’s Dobbs Fifth Ave New York box, $48. You’ll never find vintage hat boxes in perfect shape, because if they exist today, they have been through 75 plus years of protecting a hat.
Dorée, the hat company that created my mother’s cloche turban hat (worn in 1973 under duress), was a middle market commercial manufacturer (1940-1970 peak) creating good, crafted Fedoras, turbans, cloches, mushrooms, buckets, berets, sparkly cocktail, or net hats, and feather and fur hats. Felt could be wool felt or fur felt. Dorée was a company, not a designer, unlike the New York Big Three: Mr. John (folllowing his business split with Frederic Hirst and their John-Frederics label of
nearly two-decades) was the Christian Dior of hats from 1948-70, designing for Gone with the Wind, Dietrich, Monroe, Bacall, and Gloria Vanderbilt, to name but a few. French born Lilly Daché was the queen of NY draped turbans and provocative halfhats. Halston started his career under Daché as Roy Halston Frowick before he became just Halston, years before he burst into fame with his Jackie Kennedy pillbox worn to JFK’s inauguration 1961.
The other queen of hats was Sally Victor who hatted first ladies Eleanor Roosevelt and Mamie Eisenhower. Hat and hat box collectors just missed Hats Off: Halston Hats from the Masterson Collection at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, featuring Halston’s designs from his stint at Bergdorf Goodman (LM has a 1959 box). When asked “why hats?” Halston said “sculpting hats taught me how to think about fashion in three dimensions.”
LM has a Schiaparelli box, Italian boxes, London boxes, as well as I. Magnin, Lord & Taylor, and Saks recognizable signature styles. She also has a subsection of boxes that picture American cities: New York, Dallas, St. Louis, Miami, and Memphis. But perhaps the overarching motif of LM’s hat box show are those that reference charming Paris, such as the square City of Paris box from the San Francisco City of Paris Department Store, closed in 1972. She has displayed her Paris boxes with that icon of French haute-kitsch taste, the French poodle – who also stars on figurines, compacts, purses, ashtrays, jewelry, and scarves. Not to mention that LM’s husband proposed with a vintage Eiffel Tower themed ring box!
Elizabeth Stewart, PhD is a veteran appraiser of fine art, furniture, glass, and other collectibles, and a cert. member of the AAA and an accr. member of the ASA. Please send any objects to be appraised to Elizabethappraisals@ gmail.com
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by Steven Libowitz
Music & Meditation – founded by Santa Barbara pianist and composer Antonio Artese in collaboration with Carpinteria-based meditation guide and qigong/tai chi teacher Jessica Kolbe – had a trial launch last November at Weinman Hall on the campus of the Music Academy of the West featuring the two founders. After selling out the initial show, Music & Meditation is back for a full four event series, subtitled Music and Mindfulness for Our Times, with the motto “Quiet the mind, let the music in.”
Over the course of a single hour and in an intimate setting, the series melds live performance of classical masterworks, intentional silence, and guided meditation. These thoughtfully combined elements encourage reflection, presence, and deep listening in a fast-paced world. Each event is curated to unfold as a carefully shaped arc of attention, interweaving the encounter’s three aspects to produce a unified experience – one that invites audiences into a shared practice of stillness that deepens listening and amplifies the intrinsic expressive power of the music.
“Our intention is to offer Santa Barbara a place of clarity and beauty,” said pianist Artese in a statement. The idea emerged following Artese’s having attended Kolbe’s classes for several months. “With a quiet mind, every note resonates more fully, and the music reveals its most human and profound side.”
The new series adds additional musicians to the menu, with the opening concert on February 10 featuring cellist Ani Aznavoorian. No stranger to the Miraflores campus, Aznavoorian is the longtime principal of Camerata Pacifica, and as of this past summer a freshly-minted Music Academy faculty member. The cellist will be joined by Artese in solo
and duo repertoire that includes pieces by Bach, Rachmaninov, Shostakovich and Italian cellist/composer Giovanni Sollima, with the idea of exploring the relationship between virtuosity, inner stillness, and the human voice of the cello.
The upcoming events take place March 6 with Santa Barbara Symphony concertmaster and newish UCSB violin faculty member, Juilliard-trained Jessica Guideri; April 10 with longtime local harpist Laurie Rasmussen; and May 12 with flutist and UCSB professor Jill Felber.
Each event with these locally cherished musicians will likely be a very different experience than a typical concert, Kolbe said last weekend.
“Antonio told me that when people arrive at a performance they’re distracted, still thinking about other things, not quite settled in, so they’re not fully present at the beginning of a concert,” she said. “But he noticed how quickly he could get into his body right away at class and quickly felt connected to everything in his surroundings.”
Kolbe will guide the 15-minute meditation at the start of each event, opening with resonance from a crystal bowl, which also closes the afternoon.
“We do deep breathing, noticing physical sensations, the earth below and sky above, and everything in between,” she said. “It’s about guiding people to a calmer state to fully take in the music –to hear it on a different level.”
It’s a circular experience, Kolbe said.
“[In turn], music helps us remember
For couples and individuals
March 7 and 8, Cabrillo Pavilion, Santa Barbara
Transform your relationship in 2026
that harmony begins within ourselves.” Visit www.musicandmeditationsb.com
SoCal-based kirtan singer Govind Das, the co-director/owner of Bhakti Yoga Shala in Santa Monica, heads north to Yoga Soup on Saturday, February 7, when he’ll be joined by the Montecito-raised tabla player and multi-instrumentalist/singer/composer Jóss Jáffé for a special one-night kirtan event. The uplifting and heart opening practice employs mantra and music as an expression of devotion and prayer and has become a popular participatory spiritual practice because of its joyful, open-hearted, meditative, and communal expression. All are invited to join in the call-and-response chants, move about the room, and enjoy the spiritual community.
Embracing Life’s Invitation, subtitled “Learning to live fully in the presence of death, aging, and change,” takes place at Yoga Soup on Tuesday, February 10, where participants in the contemplative and experiential workshop will learn to “live as if this were the last moment you had.” The workshop is not about urgency, productivity or self-improvement, but rather about dropping the fantasy of later in favor of a gentle and honest practice of telling the truth about time, change and what genuinely nourishes us now.
Leader Carley Hauck, a former longstanding senior faculty member at Stanford University and Stanford’s Center for Integrative Medicine, roots the experience in her immersive study with Frank Ostaseski through his One Year to Live course, retreats on conscious dying, and her own longstanding Buddhist practice. She’ll offer practical contemplative and somatic practices to meet impermanence, grief, and transition with self-compassion, while creating a clear intention and living vision of how to bring this wisdom into your days, your choices, and the life that is asking to be lived now.
Visit www.yogasoup.com
Sunburst Sanctuary is summoning spiritual seekers to its upcoming Relax Renew Recharge Weekend Retreat, where the experience is intended to transform previous challenges into strength, energy, and spiritual radiance. The weekend, slated for February 27-March 1, includes yoga, meditation, revitalizing sound baths, immersion in Sunburst’s stunning scenery (spanning 4,000 acres filled with gardens and trails), a felt sense of community, and wholesome nourishing meals prepared on site.
Details and registration (by February 18) at https://sunburst.org/relax
Psychedelic social club District 216 – the mindful community dedicated
to connection, healing, learning, and expanding consciousness through art, music, wellness, and psychedelics – has a couple of upcoming weekly events that even those who haven’t dabbled in mind-altering substances might find valuable. The next Reflection Circle, on February 11, is a confidential gathering around stories, insights, challenges, hopes and questions, creating space to process non-ordinary states of consciousness with care, presence, and community support. Guided by Elizabeth Wolfson, a local licensed professional facilitator, participants are invited to reflect, listen and share in a supportive, non-judgmental environment designed to help translate experiences into grounded, purposeful living.
The February 25 District House Conscious Connections Roundtable focuses on “Safety, Trust & Setting: Creating Containers Where People Can Actually Be Honest.” The space will be given over to thoughtful conversation, guided by genuine curiosity around the topic, with a diverse community of people interested in exploring consciousness, creativity, wellness, and the human experience. This is exploration and conversation without pressure, performance, or pretense. This gathering – focused on creating safe containers – will serve as one itself.
Visit www.district216.com
Dr. Lee Moberly is offering a six-week interactive workshop series covering Multi-Dimensional Spiritual Healing at Unity of Santa Barbara beginning February 15. The series will explore the comparative similarities, differences, efficiency, and effectiveness between various healing modalities – including Near Death Experiences, Christ Consciousness Healing, Shamanic Healing Journeying, and Past Life Recall, among others –with the goal of helping the participant to expand and choose the most beneficial methods on their personal healing journey.
That same Sunday afternoon, Unity also hosts the one-day event Healing through Connection with Jina Carvalho. She holds degrees in Psychology and Performing Arts and is Director of Communication for the psychology nonprofit PsychAlive. org. Carvalho is also co-founder of the Santa Barbara Response Network (SBRN), a grassroots volunteer nonprofit dedicated to offering Psychological First Aid and compassionate support for resilient recovery from traumatic incidents including disasters, suicide and violent injuries. The workshop will include poetry and mindful presence, narratives, reflection, and healing to guide participants in gentle practices for grounding, connection and building resilience.
Visit www.unitysb.org
by Ernie Witham
We were about to embark on the journey of a lifetime. Like Polynesian voyagers hundreds of years ago, using crude navigational methods like following flocks of tired, hungry birds… Hoe maui, kore matau, kahore maui (“paddle left, no right, no left” in Maori”)… we were heading for the last large habitable landmass, New Zealand (not counting Iceland, of course, which could soon see a new Trump Tower. “I meant to say Greenland!”).
First, though, we had to navigate LAX by following masses of people using their own crude navigational tools like early iPhones... (“Turn left, no right, no left!”) in search of their check-in desks.
We found ours, and except for a minor glitch in that Pat forgot to put junior after my name on our reservations (which is required, even though I’m older now than some of those early Polynesians), we made it to TSA.
Pat, who looks totally trustworthy, made it right on through, but TSA stopped me and made me take off my hoodie. I struggled with the tight-fitting garment, which made my undershirt come practically off as well so that I flashed everyone in line with my pale non-Ahnold-like torso. “Look away kids or you’ll go blind!”
I finally made it through the scanner and met up with Pat. “What was that all about?” she asked. “Huh?” That’s when I realized when I took my sweatshirt off, I lost my hearing aid! I figured it must
be on the floor somewhere and probably stepped on. I told security who did the TSA shrug, except one guy who looked all around, shaking his head sadly until he said, “Wait, is that it?” And there it was in the corner of a large gray tray all by itself, like early New Zealand in the vast Pacific.
The second day of our journey we found some more little things in life – Hobbit Holes. Hobbiton, built by Peter Jackson for the Lord of the Rings (LOTR) movies, is built into a hillside on a remote sheep ranch. Jackson found the spot while flying around in a helicopter. He needed a spot with little to no traffic or noise. Now huge tour buses leave the starting point every 10 minutes with dozens of fans. Our guide pointed out some of the clever filming tricks they used in construction, like the fact that some of the hobbit holes had really small doors. This was to make Gandalf look tall compared to the Hobbits. There were other holes that had large doors to make the Hobbits look small. Pat and I had our photo taken at one of the large holes, overlooking the Green Dragon Inn, where we would get a free ale at the end of the tour. “I’m going to ask for a Gandalfsized one.”
Our guide asked LOTR trivia questions. Being an expert of movie lore, I quickly shouted out the answers. “In what age is the Lord of the Rings set?” “Ooh ooh ooh, the stone age!” “Ah no, it’s the Third Age.” “What type of bread did Sam and Frodo eat on their journey?” “Ooh ooh ooh, gluten-free!” “Seriously? No. It’s Lembas.”
The next little thing we got to see were Kiwis. Not the fruit, the birds. Kiwis are the national bird, but there aren’t many left. Before people, they had no natural predators, so kiwis never learned to fly, making them easy game. “E mama, te kiwi ano I tenei po?” (“Oh mom, kiwi again tonight?”)
We got to see some at a kiwi hatchery. Sorta. “You see anything?” Kiwis are nocturnal, so the display area is really dark so they think it’s nighttime. “Something moved.” “That may have been me. I dropped my sunglasses.” “Sunglasses? No wonder you can’t see anything.”
Our final little adventure happened in Akaroa Harbor on the South Island where we were in search of Hector’s dolphins (they don’t belong to Hector, that’s just their name). Less than five feet long, weighing the same as a Super
Cuca’s burrito, they are the smallest dolphins in the world. They’re fast but barely break the surface. Apparently they never learned to fly either.
After all these adventures, we were hungry, so Pat suggested, what else, a little lunch. Kiwi anyone? (This time the fruit… please don’t eat the birds.)
Ernie Witham has been writing humor for more than 25 years. He is the author of three humor books and is the humor workshop leader at the prestigious Santa Barbara Writers Conference.
season 2026, inviting couples to celebrate love amid its iconic rose gardens and lavender-lined paths. Now through the end of February, the intimate Speakeasy at Plow & Angel glows with a dramatic installation of 12,000 illuminated hearts, plush velvet booths, and live music, paired with a newly launched Valentine’s cocktail menu. Signature offerings include the Rose of Rio and Sakura Clover Club, alongside refined classics and indulgent dessert cocktails served late into the evening Valentine’s weekend.
On February 14, the Ranch’s legendary Stonehouse Restaurant will host exclusive Valentine’s dining experiences. A romantic three-course brunch features free-flowing champagne and live guitar on the garden patio, while the evening unfolds with an intimate four-course prix fixe dinner, enhanced by live music, a harpist, and a floral workstation. Together, these offerings create a month-long celebration of love infused with the timeless elegance and charm for which San Ysidro Ranch is known and celebrated.
- Feb 6, 11 am – 4 pm: Poppy Store at Montecito Country Mart Sweets & Trunk Show. Join for a Valentine’s Crafts event with Sally Splash
- Feb 14, 11 am – 4 pm: Valentine’s Day at porch in Summerland. Afternoon event with three brands showing their wares in a pop-up store – Ojai Wild, Jessica Foster Confections, and Jodi G Jewelry.
After rumors on Next Door, Montecito Inn owner Danny Copus made a press statement to Noozhawk stating that, “Next month, the hotel rooms will undergo redecorating for more modern luxury design, so furniture, artwork, carpet, etc. The hotel’s 61 rooms will be updated in stages to continue to accommodate guests.”
Art lovers are invited to Held in Motion, an engaging artist talk featuring Clara Berta and Chenhung Chen at Rubenstein Chan Contemporary Art
(410 Palm Ave., Unit B3) on Saturday, February 7, at 1 pm, with a reception to follow. Visiting from Laguna Beach, Berta will discuss her intuitive process behind large-scale abstract works and share how her art has appeared in Super Bowl commercials and an award-winning documentary. She describes building each piece through layered movement until reaching balance between color, form, and space.
Los Angeles-based artist Chenhung Chen will present her 2020 Vision collage series. Inspired by the liberating of birds from captivity during the pandemic, the works use materials such as barcodes and everyday lockdown detritus. She will also discuss her water-inspired abstract paintings, which capture the ever-changing energy, texture, and emotion of the ocean. The afternoon promises insight, inspiration, and celebration. RSVPs are encouraged at rubensteinchan.com/rsvp.
The SB Museum of Natural History announced this week that Matthew Adams has been appointed its new Board of Trustees Chair, along with new board of trustee members David Telleen-Lawton and Hank Mitchel. Adams served on the trustee board and works as the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Partner at Mission Wealth. Telleen-Lawton has a long career in nonprofits and has served as a volunteer since 2007 at Channel Islands Naturalist Corps, was a board member on the SB Audubon Society and
the MIT Enterprise Forum. Mitchel is an ordained Episcopal priest serving in Westlake Village, CA, and a volunteer Naturalist with the Channel Islands Marine Sanctuary, past president of the SB Maritime Museum, and docent at SB Museum of Natural History.
It’s open call for lifeguards at Carpinteria Beach and public swimming pool. Tryouts start February 7 through March 7. The beach tryouts consist of a 500-yard continuous swim, and the pool requires a 300-yard continuous swim. Interviews are online. The lifeguard coordinator role is for experienced lifeguards to mentor and supervise the City of Carp Aquatics Division. 411: https://carpinteriaca.gov/become-a-lifeguard www.governmentjobs.com/careers/carpinteriaca
Max, the beloved Great Horned Owl, has passed away; he was 27 human years old. Max served as an Eyes in the Sky Avian Ambassador for the SB Museum of Natural History. A celebration of his life will take place on Saturday, February 7, 3-5 pm, at the museum’s Fleischmann Auditorium. Max remained in captivity his whole life, as he had fallen from his nest at an early age and was “imprinted with humans” – thus putting his life in the wild at risk. Adopted by the museum, Max fostered orphaned Great Horned Owl chicks, helping them return to the wild, and played as well a key role in the museum’s education programs.
411: https://tinyurl.com/SBMNHGreatMax
The Montecito Trails Foundation and Backpacking Barista host a Superbowl Hike of the Santa Ynez Trail on February 8, 8 am – 12 pm. All hike volunteers will have craft coffee during the hike, and everyone has a chance for a Superbowl square giveaway run by the Los Padres National Forest (LPNF). Everyone can enter the square online with a $20 donation to win one of four prizes. All proceeds go directly to much-needed revamp of the LPNF public info website, www.HikeLosPadres.com, which provides updated info on water availability, GPS, camp and trail conditions, and intel on planning any public adventure in the LPNF. The website was launched 2013 and sorely needs to be updated!
In other big news, majestic Highway 1 through the Big Sur Coast has reopened after three years of closure following the January 2023 storms.
411: https://lpforest.org
The issues around the construction of Carpinteria’s Surfliner Inn continue. The draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) is available for public review prior to the slated public EIR meeting to be held on Wednesday, February 18, 5:30pm at Carpinteria City Hall. If it’s anything like the public meeting that gathered for the Carp bluffs development, we can expect a huge crowd in person and online, with questions taking up most of the evening hours. The public may comment on the draft EIR through March 9 at 5 pm. The report is available in hard copy at City Hall, 5775 Carpinteria Ave., and the Carpinteria Community Library, 5141 Carpinteria Ave. It is also available online: 411: https://tinyurl.com/CarpSurflinerMeet
Magnolia Pearl, in-case fine jewelry that is gold and silver. We also have pearls, precious gemstones by Emily Shapiro and Iwona Ludyga Design, and we are the second California location and one of six in the U.S. to carry swimwear. We are offering a luxury concierge experience that includes private styling and events. Just let us know you’re interested, and we’ll take care of setting it up. We definitely have something for everyone.”
I asked about the Free People store on State Street DTSB. She said, “The Free People on State Street will turn into a Free People Movement store in June, and another larger Free People Movement store is opening on State Street. So there will be three Free People stores within 15 minutes of each other.”
Just as we finished the brief interview, Balyn’s mom and dad came in to shop! So we recruited her mom, Diana Rabbe, to model a suede jacket for our readers. Enjoy!
It is always such a pleasure to cover the SB Museum of Art Ambassadors’ New Members Luncheon, held annually in January. The group, formerly titled the SB Museum of Art Women’s Board, officially has been renamed in 2026 to reflect both its mission and open-to-all member policy.
This year is an especially important year for the SBMA Ambassadors as they celebrate their 75th Anniversary, being founded in 1951. Their annual fundraising event, this year titled, “MidCentury in Motion,” will celebrate their 75th on April 26 at the Cabrillo Pavilion Ballroom. Sponsorships and tickets are available on their website.
The new member luncheon was held at the University Club SB, with a formal program to welcome the new members and a seated lunch.
The program welcome and toast was by new SBMA Ambassador President Deb Joseph, who shared, “Today, we warmly welcome our vibrant incoming active members and honor our
incredible sustaining members, who have been with us for 20 and even 25 years. Your dedication is truly inspiring. Today, we also mark the 75th anniversary, and the evolution of the SBMA Ambassadors, our past, our present, and our future. Your presence here is a testament to the enduring legacy of our beginnings, from the SBMA Women’s Board in 1951 and evolving into who we are today; SBMA Ambassadors in 2026. Our mission is the same, our vital role in the support of the Santa Barbara exhibitions and education programs continues onward. Please raise your glasses high! To our growth, community, and shared passion for the arts.”
The new members joining this year were introduced with a brief bio. They received flowers and chocolates as a welcome gesture. The new members are: Karena G. Akhavein, Tamara Kaye-Honey , Joanne Ohlman , Colleen Pizarev, Josh Ramirez, and Eileen White Read Akhavein is a writer, podcaster, and educator with a career in fashion retail, magazine editing and interior design. She is a docent at Lotusland and has served as the VP Marketing for the SB Newcomers. While in the San Francisco Bay area, she supported the Lycée Français, San Francisco Ballet, Opera, and Zoo.
Kaye-Honey is the founder and creative director of House of Honey, a female-led design studio in Montecito, with locations in Pasadena and Brooklyn. Following the Los Angeles fires, Tamara co-founded The Soft
Landing Project, a nationwide initiative that provided furnishings to more than 900 families rebuilding their homes. She moved to Montecito from Nova Scotia over a decade ago.
Ohlman volunteers with SB Newcomers, Meals on Wheels, St. Vincent’s SB, and Flower Empower. Her career in HR saw her in executive roles for Salesforce, Gilead, Novartis, and Coca-Cola.
Pizarev comes from a long line of artists. Her art business – Second Act Artworks – donates all proceeds from her paintings and drawings to various charities. She was one of five students selected to study under San Francisco master artist Robert K. Semans and continues to paint and draw with him. Her board and volunteer works includes UCSB’s Alumni Awards Gala, the SB Junior League for 42 years, the Mission Canyon Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and the Community Friends of SB Auxiliary.
MRamirez is a top real estate professional with Berkshire Hathaway Home Services, specializing in luxury properties in Montecito and SB. A SB native, he is passionate about the arts and has served on the boards of the Music Academy of the West helping secure its new downtown location and represents the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in the sale of the historic McCormick House.
White Read is a former Wall Street Journal business journalist and has directed strategic communications at the Center for American Progress. Her board and nonprofit work is extensive, which includes the Music Academy of the West, Human Rights Watch, the SBMA, co-founding Hands Across Montecito, and serving as a master gardener and trustee of the SB Botanic Garden.
The SBMA Ambassadors fundraising efforts are well noted throughout the museum’s exhibitions and programs. The Ambassadors’ support this fiscal year has been as lead sponsors of The Impressionist Revolution: Monet to Matisse from the Dallas Museum of Art and Encore: 19th-Century French Art from the Santa Barbara Museum of Art exhibitions. Till next week loves…. Xx JAC 411: https://sbma-ambassadors.org
Joanne A Calitri is a professional international photographer and journalist. Contact her at: artraks@ yahoo.com
Tent Violation / Butterfly Lane/RR Tracks
Saturday, January 24, at 08:56 hours
Subject was found in a tent in violation of 369i(a)(1) PC and issued a citation. He was advised that he could not camp there, and he said he knew and he would move.
Tent Violation / Depot Road
Saturday, January 24, at 10:20 hours
Subject was found in a tent in violation of 369i(a)(1) PC and issued a citation. He was told he could not camp there. He said he was cleaning up and leaving the area.
Meth/Public Urinating / 300 block San Ysidro Road
Saturday, January 24, at 10:20 hours
Subject was reported urinating on the sidewalk on San Ysidro Road and was contacted some distance down the block. After being contacted, subject admitted to having a meth pipe on him. A subsequent search resulted in a meth pipe with a usable amount of residue being located. Subject was arrested and booked for narcotic related offense.
“I can take you to a garage. Or, take you home. My truck is up ahead.”
She looked at him for a long time before she said, “Okay. Thank you.”
He waited, thinking. Then, feeling silly, he said, “Which?”
“Which?”
“Option.”
“Home.”
“Sure,” he said. He pointed up the block. “It’s up here. Or, I can come back and pick you up. Why don’t I do that. Come back and pick you up.”
“Yes. Thank you.”
He hesitated for a beat. She was dressed in a white silk dress and brown heels and had no wrap to cut the chill. She was way out of place, and he could tell this was scary for her. “It’s okay. I’m okay. I’m just a regular … I’m not a …”
She only stared at him, waiting for what he might say.
“I’m not a road dog. I live here.”
“Road dog?”
“Vagrant.”
She smiled now.
He reached into his pocket, pulled out the wallet and showed her the shiny badge.
“Oh, my. Perfect, then.”
He got the truck, drove back, and leaned over to open the door. He didn’t want to get out and hold it for her. She stepped in, and he put it in gear and drove off.
“Where we taking you?”
“Oh. By the estuary.”
“So be it.”
They drove in silence along the coast road beneath the fog-laced pine and palm trees. A quarter mile past the gates to the big villa and beyond the crime scene down by the beach, she pointed to the side of the road.
“Here?” he said.
“Yes. Up there.”
She indicated a house across the street from the sea, set back at the end of a small sandy driveway. She stepped out but turned to him and held his stare.
“Why did you leave the movie?” he asked.
“I don’t like the ending.”
“She dies.”
“Yes.”
“I saw you, once. In Barcelona,” he said, then laughed, adding “from up in the cheap seats.”
She stared at him, harder now. He was impressed by her.
“Still,” he continued, “I can say I saw a ballet. I saw the great American ballerina.”
“That was a while ago.”
“It was in Eighteen. The autumn of ’18.”
“I was a girl. Just sixteen.”
“All I know is, I sure as hell couldn’t do what you all do.”
Again, she held his eyes, but she smiled now. It set off a starburst of nerves inside him. He felt stupid and bold at the same time.
“I mean,” Creek said, “all that runnin’ and jumpin’. The other part, all the poses, nobody could do that. That’s one in a million.”
“The jumping and running are important, too.” She had vaguely imitated him, and it made him smile.
She wouldn’t take her eyes away from his. “Spain,” she said, “how funny. Can I pay you?”
He stared at her, grinning, shaking his head. “Nobody charges for things like this.”
She took the insight, but she held his look. “Thank you, then. For doing this. Good night.”
She closed the door, turned away, and began walking down the drive, but rushed back before he could drive off and knocked on the window. He leaned over and rolled it down.
“I know I will see you again,” she said. “And, I do owe you something. For the kindness.”
He studied her, beguiled, and smiled. Finally, she smiled back.
She turned and headed into the shadows of the driveway. He was a ways down the road when he saw her in the rearview mirror steal back across the road and head off down the beach. He decided to let her keep her secrets and kept on driving. She had been famous in Europe where balleri nas mattered, and his squadron had carried the poster of her for three long
years, tacking it to countless walls as they traveled with reassignments. He couldn’t believe he had just run into her on a foggy street in America. And not just any street. Two days in one week, beside this particular beach. While it was odd, things felt a little redeemed by the serendipity of her, how she seemed to freshen the air after the stink from yesterday.
He would see her again. He had to. Nobody in his life had looked at him like she had or landed so quickly past his defenses. And she had left without so much as a word about what she had seen. But she had not looked away. And he needed to know about that, about how a woman who looked like her, famous as she had been, could hold your eyes, make no small talk, drive alone on a cold night to see a movie, hitch a lift with a stranger, and disappear into a misty, moonlit beach without once asking for a coat or a cigarette or a shot of whiskey. Or his name, he thought, wondering exactly how he was ever going to see her again as she had told him she would.
Later, after he had given the horses some night feed and nodded to the ghost of his departed goat, he pictured every part of the evening, from the time he looked up and noticed her float up the aisle to the moment she stole across the road in his rearview mirror and vanished into the night. Then, he fell into a deep sleep.
Something startled him awake in the dark hours of morning. He rose and shuffled to the kitchen, half asleep as he brewed coffee, then took the cup and went out to the porch to read. It was a magazine with articles on the death of Bonnie and Clyde, the ravages of the Dust Bowl, and a new board game called Monopoly that rewarded greed.
Then a piece of a dream surfaced, and he knew why he had come bolt upright from sleep. Pony’s feet. They were laced with cuts. In the swelling and the white bloat, they might have passed for cracks in swollen skin. But they weren’t. In the dream, Pony was running. A flock of large shadowy things were chasing him, knocking him about as he ran for his life.
And Creek knew from this that the latticework on Charlie Russell’s feet was not the result of salt, dry skin, and bloating, but of cuts. He had run or slid hard on coarse ground. Then more details of a morning clarity assailed Creek: The body washes up beneath a famous villa. Someone watches from a high window. The sheriff twice twists his wattled neck to look up to the villa – nervously? Protectively? A lawsuit by the Indian reservation, contests the eminent domain deal and the movie people’s right to prevent entry. The rush to be rid of the body. The black dirt beneath Pony’s fingernails, a thing that could mean the difference between a rind of dirt or engine grease and the ebony tar you smoked to make the world turn dreamy. The bruises and bloody wire. A killer puma. A boat that did not make land. A head horribly absent.
It fell to him in the cold morning to see the cold truth – he could not avoid it. Without a boat, without a hard look at any evidence, he had to poke his nose in this enough to call it one way or the other. And he didn’t feel good about that.
Tune in next week for Chapter Six of Last Light in Paradise
Michael C. Armour is author and original artist of bestselling Smithsonian children’s books Orca Song and Puma Range, and has been an award-winning writer/director for CBS documentaries, and many print and TV commercials for Honda and other companies. He comes from three generations of ranching, has been a horseman and motorcyclist most of his life, and has worked for years with released inmates under the direction of the Santa Barbara Superior Court and the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Office.
Scan the QR code to purchase the full book online, or pick one up at your local bookstore: Tecolote in Montecito, Godmothers in Summerland, or Chaucer’s in Santa Barbara.
be able to. It’s just very full circle for the film itself, but for me personally.”
End Endo documents what happens when personal loss is redirected toward collective purpose. “I don’t have control over what’s happening in my body,” Lang says, “but creating this documentary has been a way to take back some control.”
That reclamation extends beyond storytelling. Alongside her father and family, Lang helped found The Endometriosis Collective, a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing research and collaboration around the disease. Central to the Collective’s mission is a scientific advisory board composed of leading researchers and clinicians from around the world –many of whom are themselves impacted by endometriosis. Their goal is to move beyond decades of stagnation. “There hasn’t been meaningful advancement in treatment in many, many years,” Lang notes. “We need to understand the basic anatomy of why this happens.”
Endometriosis affects at least one in ten women globally, with some recent estimates suggesting the number may be closer to one in seven. Despite its prevalence, treatment remains largely trial-and-error. “Every doctor has told me, ‘Try this birth control, try that birth control,’” Lang says. “They don’t have answers because they don’t have research.”
The Collective exists to change that reality through shared data, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and sustained funding.
Helping guide End Endo from a personal story into a broader cinematic and cultural conversation is co-director Soraya Simi, a veteran documentary filmmaker (Row of Life) whose work is known for balancing gravity with hope. When she joined the project, the film was already deeply personal. Simi’s role has been to widen the lens without losing intimacy. “This could very easily be a doom-and-gloom story,” she says. “But the question we keep asking is: What do we actually have the power to change?”
The film features candid, behind-thescenes portraits of well-known women who have learned to live – and work hard – alongside chronic pain, including Amy Schumer, Julianne Hough, Brittany Brown, Janel Parrish, and Folake Olowofoyeku. Their stories complicate familiar narratives of success, revealing what often goes unseen beneath public achievement. End Endo also incorporates rare archival material from Marilyn Monroe’s estate, reframing her life through the lens of a disease that contributed to years of pain, infertility, and ultimately tragedy. Her story serves as a historical counterpoint – evidence of what happens when women are not believed. Still, the film resists framing endometriosis solely as a women’s issue. “This
is a human issue,” Lang emphasizes. “It affects my dad, my brother, my mom. Everybody should care, because whether you know it or not, you probably know someone who has this.”
Friday’s screening marks an important milestone, but not a conclusion. End Endo remains in post-production, with months of editing ahead. The event at the Music Academy of the West will be the first time an audience sees the current cut – rough, unfinished, but already resonant. Proceeds from the evening will help fund the next phase of production, moving the film closer to its goal of premiering on a national stage and fueling the research work of The Endometriosis Collective.
For Lang, the project has become both compass and lifeline. “This film is bigger than me,” she says. “It’s for everyone who’s been told the pain is in their head. For everyone who thinks their period is supposed to hurt. When we come together – and we will – we can actually create change.”
The story of endometriosis is still being written: in the editing room, in research labs, and in conversations long overdue. Friday night offers Montecito an opportunity to be part of that story at its turning point – not as passive viewers, but as collaborators in what comes next.
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these three people at that time in history that could have made what we ultimately saw on the screen in the final movie.”
Although the story behind The Shark is Broken is more than 50 years old, sharing it on stage now couldn’t be more timely, Rudnick said.
“At a time when our country feels quite unmoored, and as we become more digitized and rely more on robots, it’s even more important for humans to be together and in community. Shared spaces where we laugh together and reflect on humanity are vital. The theater is one of the few places that keeps that sacred.”
Visit www.etcsb.org
Shrunken Heads Production Company has been a scrappy student-run musical theater organization at UCSB for more than 20 years. Now, with the support of the UCSB Department of Music, the company makes the leap to larger-scale shows with a production of Footloose: The Musical – while still remaining independent of UCSB’s Theater degree program. The show features music by Tom Snow and lyrics by Dean Pitchford – both Montecito residents – the iconic earwig of a title song composed by Montecito’s rock star Kenny Loggins. Footloose: The Musical is an appropriate vehicle for the big step up, as it’s all about pushing the limit, defying authority, and working toward achieving goals of artistic freedom and connection.
The production boasts a 35-plus cast and a live orchestra for all four shows at Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall from February 6-8, the opening night performance followed by a prom-themed gala with more live music, curated Footloose-inspired refreshments, and a reception with the cast and creative team in the courtyard, where you can dust off your own dancing shoes and cut loose.
Visit https://tinyurl.com/UCSBFootloose
extensive arts and entertainment coverage
DATE OF HEARING: FEBRUARY 18, 2026
PLACE: PLANNING COMMISSION HEARING ROOM
123 E. ANAPAMU STREET, RM. 17 SANTA BARBARA, CA 93101
IMPORTANT NOTICE REGARDING PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
The following methods of participation are available to the public.
1. You may observe the live stream of the Montecito Planning Commission meetings on (1) Local Cable Channel 20, (2) online at: https://www.countyofsb.org/1333/CSBTV-Livestream; or (3) YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/user/CSBTV20
2. If you wish to provide public comment, the following methods are available:
• Distribution to the Montecito Planning Commission - Submit your comment via email prior to 12:00 p.m. on the Friday prior to the Commission hearing. Please submit your comment to the Recording Secretary at dvillalo@countyofsb.org. Your comment will be placed into the record and distributed ap propriately.
• Attend the Meeting In -Person: Individuals are allowed to attend and provide comments at the Montecito Planning Commission meeting in -person.
• Attend the Meeting by Zoom Webinar - Individuals wishing to provide public comment during the Montecito Planning Commission meeting can do so via Zoom webinar by clicking the below link to register in advance. Register in advance for this meeting: After registering, you will receive a c onfirmation email containing important information about joining the webinar.
When: February 18, 2026 09:00 AM Pacific Time (US and Canada) Topic: Montecito Planning Commission 02/18/2026
Register in advance for this webinar: https://santabarbaracounty.zoomgov.com/webinar/register/WN_6cxPiRqKReSWTeU8 -aoTcA
OR PARTICIPATE VIA TELEPHONE:
Dial (for higher quality, dial a number based on your current location):
Webinar ID: 161 177 8983
The Commission’s rules on hearings and public comment, unless otherwise directed by the Chair, remain applicable to each of t he participation methods listed above.
The Montecito Planning Commission hearing begins at 9:00 a.m. The order of items listed on the agenda is subject to change by the Montecito Planning Commission. Anyone interested in this matter is invited to speak in support or in opposition to the projects. Written comments are also welcome. All letters should be addressed to the Montecito Planning Commission, 123 East Anapamu Street, Santa Barbara, California, 93101. Letters, with nine copies, and computer materials, e.g. PowerPoint pre sentations, should be filed with the secretary of the Planning Commission no later than 12:00 P.M. on the Friday before the Montecito Planning Commission hearing. The decision to accept late materials will be at the discretion of the Mont ecito Planning Commission.
Maps and/or staff analysis of the proposals may be reviewed at https://www.countyofsb.org/plndev/hearings/mpc.sbc or by appointment by calling (805) 568 -2000.
If you challenge the project 23CUP-00034, 24CDH-00025, 24ORD-00029, or 24ORD-00030 in court, you may be limited to raising only those issues you or someone else raised at the public hearing described in this notice, or in written correspondence to the Montecito Planning Commission prior to the publi c hearing.
In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, if you need special assistance to participate in this hearing, please contact the Hearing Support Staff (805) 568 -2000. Notification at least 48 hours prior to the hearing will enable the Hearing Supp ort Staff to make reasonable arrangements.
* This is a partial listing of the items to be heard at the Montecito Planning Commission Hearing of February 18, 2026.
23CUP-00034
24CDH-00025
Exempt, CEQA Guidelines Section 15305
Hearing on the request of Montecito LLC to consider the following:
Montecito LLC Walls
1410 N. Jameson Lane
Joe Dargel, Supervising Planner (805) 568-3573
Kathleen Volpi, Planner (805) 568 -2033
• Case No. 23CUP-00034 for a Minor Conditional Use Permit to allow an as-built concrete masonry (CMU) and plaster soundwall that varies in height from 6’-7” to 7’-10” at the south and east side setbacks of the property, and an entrance gate in compliance with Article II Coastal Zoning Ordinance Section 35-123.1;
• Case No. 24CDH-00025 for a Coastal Development Permit to allow an as -built CMU & plaster soundwall that varies in height from 6’-7” to 7’-10” at the south and east side setbacks of the property in compliance with Article II Coastal Zoning Ordinance Section 35-71.3.1, and;
• Determine the project is exempt from CEQA pursuant to State CEQA Guidelines Section 15303, as outlined in the Notice of Exemption.
The application involves Assessor Parcel No. (APN) 009 -251-001, zoned Single-Family Residential (20-R-1) located at 1410 N Jameson Lane, in the Montecito Community Plan area, First Supervisorial District.
MONTECITO COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION
RECORDING SECRETARY (568-2000)
Published by Montecito Journal, February 5, 2026
wildly gyrating Event Committee members. They are Brian Lombardi, Jim Nigro, Gail Kvistad, Arlene Montesano, Ursula Nesbitt, Greg Hons, and Pat Cockrum. If you see these otherwise respectable citizens on a madly flashing dance floor, approach with caution.
Brian proudly clarifies what the CSFD union’s charitable arm has long been doing for the community at large, and for the District’s brothers and sisters in arms. The local IAFF chapter, like station #62 itself, has been a pugnacious do-gooder, punching way above its weight. The effort of raising and applying those hardwon funds has been happy but arduous work for local 3368, the additive nature of the Foundation’s work on their behalf immensely gratifying.
“We would do so many little things with our union charity,” Brian says. “We helped out with scholarships for junior lifeguard and other kids’ programs within the community. We have a big toy drive,” he gestures at a container of playthings in the station kitchenette, the off-season donations continuing to arrive from a continually generous surrounding community, “...and then we have the Avocado Fest. We would raise five or ten thousand dollars and it would get us to the next year if we were lucky. We love helping our community, and we weren’t really growing. It was such a blessing that we met the ladies!”
Station #62 is one of those Norman Rockwell firehouses you might see in a movie about the Heartland’s Golden Age, backdrop to a small-town parade shot in “Americana Slo-Mo” – kids clutching little American flags, prom queen waving from the back of a convertible.
But a tour of #62 is an eye-opening lesson in doing superheroic work with the resources at hand. Living, sleeping, meeting, first-responding, the station sleeps four with submarine-like compactness. The place so neatly abuts Highway 101 you could just about reach out and touch
ORDER FOR PUBLICATION OF SUMMONS OR CITATION: CASE No. 25CV06178. Notice to Defendant: John Coons: You are being sued by Plaintiff: Danielle Loveall. You and the plaintiff must go to court on February 23, 2026 at 9 am in Department 3 of the Superior Court of California, Santa Barbara, 1100 Anacapa Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101 If you do not go to court, you may lose the case. If you lose, the court can order that your wages, money, or property be taken to pay this claim. Bring witnesses, receipts, and any evidence you need to prove your case. Name and address of the court: Superior Court of California, County of Santa Barbara, 1100 Anacapa Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93121-1107 Filed January 9, by Sarah Sisto,
the traffic from a south-facing window. There is no exaggeration in this description. In the ‘60s, Station #62 shared the lot with Sharkey’s Market. The legacy is both charming and limiting.
“Basically, this piece of equipment is custom,” Brian says, gesturing at the station’s engine. The engine’s parking bay dates to when Station #62 was fashioned around the Sharkey’s footprint. Engines have evolved and grown since then. This engine has been tailored to fit the allotted space. It adds to the Robert Altman persona of the place. Why hasn’t some screenwriter put pen to paper about #62 and its intrepid crew? “We’ll pull it in for you,” Brian says of the engine.
As I watch, the firefighter backing the engine in executes a meticulous parking job that could be a NASA docking exercise in orbit. The fit is nearly surgical, the space at either end of the vehicle measurable in fractions of inches.
“We have a deck gun on this one that actually has to pop all the way down,” Brian says. I’ve no idea what a deck gun is but the point is obvious. Parking the engine means slipping a custom-folded letter into an unforgiving envelope. The uniqueness of the station brings Brian back around.
Deputy Clerk. Published January 29, February 5, 12, 19, 2026
AMENDED ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME: CASE No. 25CV060204. To all interested parties: Petitioner ROBYN SUZANNE ROSAS-RENNER filed a petition with Superior Court of California, County of Santa Barbara, for a decree changing name to ROBYN SUZANNE ROSE. The Court orders that all persons interested in this matter appear before this court at the hearing indicated below to show cause, if any, why the petition for change of name should not be granted. Any person objecting to the name changes described above must file a written objection that includes the reasons for the objection
“Every morning we have the same beautiful day talk with people walking by. It’s pretty cool. We would never want to lose that.” Having said that, he gestures up and down the street. “It’s a very linear piece of property, but you can make it work.” At this, Gail jumps in.
“So there was land donated for a training facility that is down towards the McCormick’s, down the road here,” she says. A local benefactor has graciously made land available to the Department.
Brian explains their current dual training options – the tower visible from the Shipwreck playground at Chase Palm Park, and the Allan Hancock College training complex in Lompoc.
Were they one day able to build a training complex in the Carp-Summerland district itself, that would address both District firefighter travel, and the small matter of a rapid response should an emergency arise during an actual training session. But talk of station houses and proximal training facilities is overshadowed by “family” support considerations, and we circle back to the Disco Inferno, and what resources stand to be unleashed by this second annual dance bash.
Brian would rather keep human details off the record, but the
at least two court days before the matter is scheduled to be heard and must appear at the hearing to show cause why the petition should not be granted. If no written objection is timely filed, the court may grant the petition without a hearing. Filed January 13, 2026 by Sarah Sisto. Hearing date: February 13, 2026 at 10 am in Dept. 4, 1100 Anacapa Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101. Published January 22, 29, February 5, 12, 2026
ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME: CASE No. 25CV06655. To all interested parties: Petitioners Cynthia Hawkes and Paul Arria filed a petition with Superior Court of California, County of Santa Barbara, for a decree changing their
Carp-Summerland Fire District hopes always to be there when struggling fellow firefighters need support. The airborne toxic event produced by a thousand immolated Malibu Teslas and their lithium batteries? Physical and mental wellness, firefighter family tragedies –there is no end to the detailed array of needs with which a smallish firefighting org wrestles. Putting out fires is both a literal and figurative description of their protecting “community” in every sense of that word.
And the staples go without saying; Carp-Summerland bike riders and skate kids without helmets or pads, those perennial Junior Lifeguards. If there are two more homespun heroes than this firefighter and his Foundation-driving disco impresario pal – Brian Lombardi and Gail Kvistad – lemme know. These two are Carpinteria-Summerland personified.
“Hattie Beresford was my eighthgrade teacher,” Gail says of the beloved local historian and MJ columnist, her remark issued in the confidential tone of something divulged to the lunch posse after 4th period chemistry. I can almost see the 8th grader in Gail as she says it.
“We’re blessed to have this great job,” Brian says with feeling, and Gail concurs. “It’s nice to be able to raise the money to actually give it to the kids that you know, and see those kids growing up over time, and see them around the neighborhoods.”
“I mean,” says Brian, “it’s the coolest thing during summertime when you see the red and blue, everyone’s riding their bike to go to Junior Lifeguards. I mean, it’s big.”
“Oh yeah,” Gail says. “It’s huge!”
WHAT: Disco Inferno WHEN: Feb. 22nd, 4 - 10PM WHERE: The Hangar at Bella Vista Ranch, 2800 Via Real in Summerland TICKETS?: https://tinyurl.com/ CARPSUMMERLAND
daughter’s name from --Arria to Leila Summer Hawkes-Arria
The Court orders that all persons interested in this matter appear before this court at the hearing indicated below to show cause, if any, why the petition for change of name should not be granted. Any person objecting to the name changes described above must file a written objection that includes the reasons for the objection at least two court days before the matter is scheduled to be heard and must appear at the hearing to show cause why the petition should not be granted. If no written objection is timely filed, the court may grant the petition without a hearing. Filed January 12, 2026 by Stephen Rebernik. Hearing date: February 23, 2026 at 10 am in Dept.
5, 1100 Anacapa Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101. Published January 22, 29, February 5, 12, 2026
FICTITIOUS BUSINESS
NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MCLUB, 1106 Coast Village Road, Suite E, Santa Barbara, CA 93108. MONTECITO BANK & TRUST, 1010 State Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on January 8, 2026. This statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the Office of the County Clerk. I hereby certify that this is a correct copy of the original statement on file in my office. Joseph E. Holland, County Clerk (SEAL). FBN No. 2026-0000040. Published January 15, 22, 29, and February 5, 2026
FICTITIOUS BUSINESS
NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/are doing business as: OUTPOST IV; OUTPOST COFFEE & KITCHEN; OUTPOST, 955 Embarcadero Del Mar, Suite F, Isla Vista, CA 93117. SIPS AND BITES LLC, 955 Embarcadero Del Mar Suite F, Isla Vista, CA 93117. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on January 8, 2026. This statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the Office of the County Clerk. I hereby certify that this is a correct copy of the original statement on file in my office. Joseph E. Holland, County Clerk (SEAL). FBN No. 20260000052. Published January 15, 22, 29, and February 5, 2026
the actors to reprise their roles, the age shift had the effect of removing some of the power discrepancy.
“Now, it’s not really a story of any kind of predation, but more of a workplace romance between two consenting adults,” Stamos said. “But it’s nonetheless forbidden and that endangers their jobs.”
While more nuanced, the imbalance of power is still present, and a considerable plot point.
“Once you have the hierarchies, even if it’s slight power over somebody else, you have entered into that dangerous territory,” Stamos said.
But the writer-director took pains to make clear that she’s not coming down on either side of the issue on the morality of such relationships.
“I’m not making a social-political statement. I am an advocate of #MeToo and Title IX, but people at colleges tell me they have to walk on eggshells. I wanted to show the gray zones of ethics, that things aren’t always black and white, even though it might make people angry on either side of the issue. We’re human and things can get muddy. Ultimately, my film is a love story, pure and simple.”
The movie is also chock full of local color. Most of the exteriors were filmed at Riviera Park, which as the original campus for UCSB emulates a current university setting, while the classroom and the lecture hall scenes take place at SBCC. The character Elizabeth’s house is in Goleta, and belongs to a retired UCSB chemistry professor, while the Black Sheep is very clearly the restaurant where some of the action takes place. Meanwhile, Montecito resident Karin delaPeña Collison, who heard about Imbalance at Stamos’ SBCW screenwriting workshop, portrays Elizabeth’s friend and fellow philosophy prof. And the musical score is by San Luis Obispo’s David Arkenstone
Stamos is ecstatic to have her first full-length cinematic effort premiere at SBIFF, with screenings on February 10 & 12.
“It’s my hometown,” she said. “All my folks and people who know me can easily come. SBIFF is a wonderful festival that I’ve loved for years and wanted to be a part of. So I’m beyond excited.”
Video projection has often been a part of Kerrilee Gore’s original experimental and immersive theater productions, which she stages at her own downtown underground theater called The Black Box. But now the first-time filmmaker has had her debut narrative feature – the upbeat children’s fantasy/musical/environmental feature film Stand By, Mother – accepted into this year’s SBIFF. It is a turn of events that surprised even her.
The Montecito resident – who moved here with her husband, Depeche Mode founding member Martin Gore, in 2010 – made the movie with no commercial intentions. Rather it was simply meant to be a video document of a theater show she’d written with her young girls while on tour with Martin to stay creative while on the road. The show ran several times at The Black Box and starred two dozen largely inexperienced local kids, who, along with their families and friends, loved the experience.
The concept is a mysterious book coming alive in the hands of a boy named Felix, who gets taken on a magical and musical journey without ever leaving his garage. Quirky, extravagantly-costumed characters dance, sing, and do aerial arts, all with the goal of educating Felix about the planet and the dangers it faces in the ever more dire environmental crisis. The result is a charming eco-fable both performed by and intended for kids. Recycling, water conservation, endangered species, the dangers of plastics and other eco-topics are addressed through vignettes with a bevy of different, colorful characters.
The idea was to bring the climate crisis to life in a playful, delightful way that makes the medicine go down with a spoonful of sugar; inspiring through enchantment. The original intent was only to document on film what had been a fun theatrical show for her kids, their friends, and Gore’s acquaintances in the greater Montecito community. The Gore girls are in the film, too, as Izzy Galaxy and Lola the Love Bug.
“I wrote characters for all kids I knew, characters that – one way or another – are based on their personalities,” Gore explained. “They had no acting experience whatsoever, and no background in theater. There’s something sweet and authentic and charming – and it’s a very different way to tell an environmental story. But it’s not polished or professional.”
In other words, don’t expect high production values (it was shot by a high school crew) or big budget special effects. Gore was just trying to capture the original show on film before the kids all got too old to play the parts.
“I’m a very new director, very new to film, and I did it very quickly, just a five-day shot,” she said. “My film experience has been shooting surrealism that doesn’t have to
make sense, just something dreamy as a visual treat. I was only trying to create something that could be used as a visual tool to share with schools, a proof of concept that might work as educational episodes. I never thought it would get into the festival.”
What you can expect in Stand By, Mother is something akin to a children’s version of many of Gore’s experimental theatrical productions; a far lighter and younger cousin to her long-running show When the Lights Go Out.
“Honestly, it’s kind of all I know, and how I love to present people and vignettes,” she said. “Most of the kids had the capability to pull it off. It’s a unique way to tell an environmental story, and I wanted something different than the typical fast and overstimulated stuff on kids TV, something slower, with pauses and room for your own imagination. Which is also why I used more abstract music.
The music came from two more Montecito residents; her husband Martin, who contributed four songs, and film composer Bobby Tahouri (Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part 1, Iron Man, and Rise of The Tomb Raider), who wrote the score. That alone is reason to check out the movie, although some of the scenes are absolutely adorable.
Mainly, Gore wants young people to take in the message via the easily digestible medium, and maybe go home and discuss how to be more eco-friendly with their families.
“We all need to be aware of the environment and what’s happening. We all need to step up and do our part. I want kids to see this and be inspired and maybe think about what they can do. If even one of them walks away thinking ‘maybe I don’t need that plastic toy,’ I’ve succeeded.”
Kerrilee Gore also wrote and directed one of the short films in the Santa Barbara section of the festival. The film is screening with the narratives, although it’s a re-telling of a harrowing true-life experience that happened to her when she was just 20. Gore and a friend were carjacked and kidnapped by a two-time felon coming out of an L.A. nightclub, an experience she hadn’t talked about with the other survivor in almost two decades as their lives drifted apart. When they reconnected relatively recently, Gore decided not to go over the details by phone, but arranged instead to film separately what each woman recalled of the terrifying incident.
The Memory Experiment shows how their accounts vary dramatically through recreation of the event shot entirely inside of the car. While actors portray Gore and her friend, as well as the criminal, the actors don’t speak. The dialogue is entirely composed of the unedited audio recordings recounting the event, with titled cards relaying the differences. It’s an unusual approach to storytelling that works in surprising ways.
The idea occurred to Gore when she told her husband she’d just seen the former friend and fellow kidnap victim in a post on Instagram.
“He said, ‘You’ve never told me that there was anyone in the car with you that night,’” she said. “I was shocked, wondering why my brain had done that. It got me thinking about memories and how we recall or forget things.”
Her idea found legs when she received the recording of her friend’s version.
“It was, ‘Oh my God, this is not how I remember her at all.’ And when she saw my version, she got really emotional and told me that she thought she blocked a lot of it out.”
Just like the actual event, which ended with both of them unharmed and the perpetrator in prison for life, the story after the making of the film also has a happy ending.
“We’ve reconnected and it’s been amazing,” Gore said. “I love her. She’s so great, and it’s wonderful to be back in each other’s life.”
Stand By, Mother plays February 10 & 13; The Memory Experiment screens February 7 & 9.
A pair of Santa Barbara shorts I previewed are part of seven Santa Barbara Documentary Shorts world premieres that screen February 11 & 13. The Other Roe, directed by UCSB professor and philanthropist Wendy Eley Jackson, succinctly shares the story of the largely forgotten sister case to Roe v. Wade, the one called Doe v. Bolton that was a companion to the Supreme Court’s now overturned landmark ruling legalizing abortion in 1973. The 12-minute short briefly explores the overlooked history of Atlanta attorney Margie Pitts Hames through the eyes of her daughter Donia Hames Robinson and best friend Ann Rose, focusing on her groundbreaking work on Doe, which was argued on the same day as Roe v. Wade and ensured availability and accessibility.
Cody Westheimer’s To My 14 Year Old Self is a four-minute film about fulfilling his lifelong dream of swimming with wild orcas in Norway. The film, which is a component of Westheimer’s local school presentations, is part of the composer’s ongoing ocean-inspired project that includes an upcoming musical installation and an orchestral work centered on whale calls.
Academy Award nominee and Emmy/Golden Globe/ BAFTA winner Judy Davis (Husbands and Wives), BAFTA winner Miriam Margolyes (Harry Potter franchise), two-time Academy Award nominee Jacki Weaver (Silver Linings Playbook, Animal Kingdom) and rising star Elijah Tamati (Deep Water) star in Holy Days, which is based on the acclaimed comic novel by Dame Joy Cowley. The February 5th first SBIFF screening is the world premiere of the feature debut of writer-director Nat Boltt (Riverdale). Cast and others will be on hand. Holy Days opens commercially on March 27.
The Romanian box office phenomenon The Yellow Tie, which tells the story of Sergiu Celibidache, who survived exile, homelessness and persecution during WWII to becoming the then-youngest conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, was co-written and directed by his son Serge Ioan Celebidachi. Double Oscar nominee and Emmy, BAFTA and SAG winner John Malkovich stars, along with two-time Oscar nominee Miranda Richardson and Sean Bean. Released in Romania in November, the movie spent weeks at No. 1 and by the end of the year had outperformed every major Hollywood franchise with the sole exception of Avatar: Fire and Ash. The North American premiere is Friday, February 6.
In the dramedy Bookends, the venerable actor F. Murray Abraham – Oscar winner for Amadeus, most notably – portrays a grandfather who shows signs of cognitive decline, although the actor still has all of his faculties at 86. The story is about Nate, who copes with a bad breakup by moving in with his grandparents in a retirement community. The seniors meddle in his affairs more than he would like, but when his grandmother refuses to acknowledge her husband’s early dementia, Nate struggles between his desire to flee, family responsibilities, and an unexpected romance with his grandparents’ doctor. The world premiere is Monday, February 9.
Steal This Story, Please! emerged from the essential six-film Social Justice series dubbed “People Have the Power” to claim the annual award. The film tells the story of trailblazer journalist-activist Amy Goodman, who has faced down armed soldiers, smooth-talking politicians, and riot police to report some of the most consequential stories of our times. The founder of daily news program Democracy Now!, Goodman’s commitment to truth-telling spans three decades of turbulent history, even more vital in our current fact-obscuring times. Goodman will be interviewed at the Fund for Santa Barbara Social Justice Award reception from 5-7 pm on February 7, Steal This Story, Please! screenings are on February 6-7.
Parrot Head alert: Santa Barbara’s (once-again) ubiquitous Academy Award winner Jeff Bridges narrates Occupational Hazard: The First Coral Reefers, a feature documentary that traces the origins and evolution of Jimmy Buffett’s original Coral Reefer Band during the 1970s and early 1980s in its Florida Keys’ heyday. Will Bridges be on hand at the February 9 & 13 world premiere screenings?
Going for Home is a heartwarming tale of resilience following last January’s tragic wildfires nearby. Two-time Oscar Documentary Short winner Eric Simonson directs the feature about how a Little League team becomes an unlikely local anchor after the devastating Eaton Fire leaves thousands of families displaced. The team’s improbable season helps to carry the community beyond the loss through courage, resilience, and teamwork – both within the team and the larger racially and economically diverse city – revealing the redemptive, almost mystical power of baseball to heal. (As a once-beleaguered Red Sox fan, I’m a believer.) The world premiere is up against the Super Bowl (Feb. 8), but screens again on February 14.
by Steven Libowitz
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5
1st Thursday – First things first. When the year’s inaugural First Thursday falls on the first day of the year (aka a federal holiday), that leading First Thursday gets furloughed. So it is that February’s First Thursday – known less confusingly as February 5th – becomes the introductory First Thursday of 2026. That said, it’s also the leanest First Thursday in a long time, not because of lessthan-wintery weather, but more likely heavy competition from the first day of SBIFF. For those hearty souls who eschew movies or need a break from screenings in the 70+ degree heat, here are some alternative “to-do” highlights, courtesy of First...well, you know. LIT: Love, Illumination, Transcendence is the all-encompassing title for the life-spanning new installation from Rod Lathim, Santa Barbara’s multi-hyphenate right brain institution, the artist-producer-writer-director whose longstanding local benchmarks include his having founded and written for Access Theatre, getting the Marjorie Luke up and running as a top-flight, touring artist-worthy theatrical and concert venue, production of culturally needle-moving documentary films, and creation of stirring art in several media. Speaking of which, the medium that currently captures Lathim is neon; not the inert noble gas, but its voltage-excited, photon-flinging alter ego whose entrapment in moldable glass tubing effectively makes the gas a malleable and expressive matériel d’art. Lathim’s spiritual path and dazzling perspective are illuminated by his striking sculptures of light, many of which can be seen in his largest exhibition to date, opening this very night at Art & Soul Gallery, practically next door to the SBIFF-conscripted Arlington theatre, on State above Victoria.. Idyll Mercantile (703 Chapala) celebrates its fifth anniversary in “the only way that feels right” – a First Thursday Pickle Party. The after-hours affair boasts live music from DJ Donny Bru and a smattering of pickles and briny snacks and not-so-briny drinks… Sip, shop and mingle with Santa Barbara ceramic artists Hannah Croshaw and Isaih Porter at Soul Sucker (814 State, STE 38), which venue we believe is new to First Thursday. LouBud Wines will be pouring, a DJ will be spinning and there are Soul Sucker anniversary and Lunar New Year Giveaways for the first 50 guests… Old standby Sullivan Goss (11 E. Anapamu) has the opening reception for visionary landscape painter Phoebe Brunner, who marks her sixth solo show at the gallery.
WHEN: 5-8 pm
WHERE: Lower State Street and side streets
COST: free
INFO: (805) 962-2098 or www.downtownsb.org/events/1st-thursday
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5
We’re Not in Kansas Anymore – Emily – No Prisoner Be is the latest project from the mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, who is appearing once again at the Granada under the auspices of UCSB Arts & Lectures. Expect an innovative collaboration between the multiple Grammy-winning visionary singer and the genre-defying string trio Time for Three. The semistaged song cycle, composed by Pulitzer Prize and Grammy winner Kevin Puts (whose 2022 opera The Hours was a critical smash and record-breaker at Met Opera) sets 24 of Emily Dickinson’s poems to music, blending classical, folk, and contemporary styles in a mesmerizing showcase for the Kansas-born DiDonato and the endlessly creative Grammy and Emmy-winning ensemble, whose two violinists and double bassist also sing. Emily – No Prisoner Be features evocative lighting and stage design, enhancing the immersive experience and its magnetic themes of identity, freedom, and nature through the lens of one of America’s greatest poets and four of its contemporary musical masters.
WHEN: 8 pm
WHERE: Granada Theatre, 1214 State Street COST: $50-$135, students free INFO: (805) 899-2222/www.granadasb.org or (805) 893-3535/www.ArtsAndLectures.UCSB.edu
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 6
Hi, Hi Mr. ‘American Pie’ – It blew my mind the other day when I realized that Don McLean’s massive 1972 hit first reached No. 1 less than 13 years after the “Day the music died” plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie (“La Bamba”) Valens and the Big Bopper (“Chantilly Lace”), a span that has now been eclipsed more than four times over as of 2024. “American Pie,” which seemingly came out of nowhere for the ‘60s folk revival troubadour, was a shocking eight-and-a-half minutes long, which held the record for the “longest” No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 for nearly half a century (Taylor Swift broke it in 2021). But it’s not the only hit McLean produced. Indeed, “Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)” and “Castles in the Air” are gentler but equally enduring classics, if not as lucrative for the singer-songwriter, who reportedly still earns more than $300,000 a year in royalties from “Pie.” McLean’s songs will likely be around for centuries – but that may not be the case for the singer-songwriter, who returns to the Lobero at age 80. That is, he’s already outlasted Holly by some 58 years.
WHEN: 7:30 pm
WHERE: Lobero Theatre, 33 E. Canon Perdido St.
COST: $65 & $80 ($130 VIP tickets includes premier seating and a pre-show reception with drinks and hors d’oeuvres)
INFO: (805) 963-0761 or www.lobero.org
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 6
Les Ballets Africains – The national dance company of the Republic of Guinea heads to the Granada in the next installment of UCSB A&L’s impressive series. This promises to be a vibrant evening highlighting traditional rhythms, striking choreography, and the dynamic interplay of movement and sound, all from a West African nation some 6,000 miles away. The ensemble, which has earned international acclaim for precision and artistry that transcend mere entertainment, offers a powerful blend of music, dance, and storytelling that celebrates the country’s rich cultural heritage. Featuring demonstrations of spectacle, acrobatics, comedy and drama, Les Ballets Africains delivers the multilayered intensity of traditional polyrhythms, and the power of African percussion as the backbone of its performances. The traveling company, more than 40 dancers, singers, and musicians in all, shares a living tradition through a program that celebrates the depth and diversity of West African performance, rooted in history yet constantly evolving.
WHEN: 7:30 pm
WHERE: Granada Theatre, 1214 State Street
COST: $40-$85, youth $19
INFO: (805) 899-2222/www.granadasb.org or (805) 893-3535/www.ArtsAndLectures.UCSB.edu
‘Colors of Love’ – Buy your honey a dozen roses? Or take him or her to the 12th Annual Colors of Love , a multicultural dance performance open to audiences of all generations? The program just gets timelier every year as it features professional dancers and live musicians presenting a variety of styles, including Argentine Tango, Samba, Belly Dance, Latin, Flamenco and other cultural dances. Audiences experience the power of artists coming together in unity through dance and live music in a welcoming environment where everyone belongs. Terrill Williams Carter and Tracy Hui are this year’s featured singer and musician, while the artists and dance companies include founder of producer Transform Through Arts Yulia Maluta & Tango L’Amore, Just Baila, Destined for Dance, 805 Irish Dance, Ellen Chang and many others, with Beth Amine serving as emcee. So, roses or dance colors? Seeing as they’re a week apart, probably both.
WHEN: 7 pm
WHERE: Center Stage Theatre, 751 Paseo Nuevo, second floor
COST: $35 in advance, $40 at the door; students $25, children (K–12) free with a paying adult
INFO: (805) 963-0408 or https://centerstagetheater.org
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11-FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 13
FestForums – Founded in Santa Barbara back in 2015, the biggest convention completely dedicated to all things festivals and events returns for its 9th event (three were canceled due to Covid) this week with a slate that marks FestForum’s further growth and expansion. The three days are packed with panels, discussions, deep dives, lectures, and plenty of social gatherings. Featuring more than 125 speakers in all, topics will range from sustainability, safety, and social impact to marketing, ticket sales, and team building – the whole shebang aimed at assisting the assembled industry leaders – representing all kinds of festivals – to create, grow, promote, protect, and enhance their own events. This year’s honorees include Van Warped Tour while the annual concert at SOhO boasts Doobie Brothers’ Jeff “Skunk” Baxter , Talking Heads keyboardist and guitarist Jerry Harrison and his daughter Aishlin , and Steve Miller Band guitarist-singer-songwriter Kenny Lee Lewis , among others.
WHEN: February 11-13
WHERE: Mar Monte Hotel, 1111 E Cabrillo Blvd.
COST: $499-$999
INFO: https://festforums.com
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 6-SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 7
Some Enchanted ‘Evenings’ – We were thoroughly entertained at the last installment of State Street Ballet’s Evenings, the series of intimate in-studio performances featuring original works choreographed and performed by the company’s professional dancers. The range of styles and artistic vision displayed was remarkable and consistently thrilling, an encouraging sign for the company’s commitment to developing the next generation of choreographers, and fostering collaboration with the dancers’ peers. The current program includes new works by Aimee Le, Amber Hirschfield, Brenna Chumacero, Ethan Ahuero, Maria Rita Rapisarda, Nathaniel Tyson, Ryan Lenkey, Saori Yamashita, and Tigran Sargsyan. It’s only relatively recently that SSB has opened the opportunity to experience the performances to the general public, providing all with a rare window into the creative process that’s also incredibly fun. Audience members are welcomed with complimentary wine and hors d’oeuvres before the performance, also available during intermission, and followed by a curated post-show Q&A with the choreographers. With the evening Evenings already sold out, a third show has been added in the late afternoon.
WHEN: 4:30 pm & 7:30 pm Friday, 7:30 pm Saturday
WHERE: Gail Towbes Center for Dance, 2285 Las Positas Ave.
COST: $35 in advance
INFO: www.statestreetballet.com
This entertainment calendar is a subjective sampling of arts and entertainment events taking place in the Santa Barbara area for the next seven days or so. It is by no means comprehensive. Please also see my feature stories elsewhere in this issue for more events. In order to be considered for inclusion in this calendar, please submit information – including hi-res photos –by 12 noon Wednesday eight days prior to publication date. Email: slibowitz@yahoo.com.
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Jimmy the Greek Salad with Feta
arugula, radicchio, endive and sauteéd onion
Sliced Steak Salad, 6 oz.,
arugula, radicchio, shrimp, prosciutto, cannellini beans, onions
Chopped Salad
reggiano parmesan, balsamic vinaigrette
roquefort or thousand island dressing Arugula, Radicchio & Endive
Prime Filet Steak Frites, 6 oz.
Mixed Vegetable Frittata w/ Gruyere
tortillas, melted cheese, avocado and warm salsa
Huevos Rancheros, two eggs any style
Corned Beef Hash & two poached
Prime Filet 6 oz. Steak, & two eggs any style
with avocado
Home Made Spanish Chorizo Omelet
Wild Mushroom and
Smoked Salmon
with spinach, tomato,
California
with julienne ham and hollandaise
Classic Eggs
choice of hash browns, fries, sliced tomatoes, fruit salad
• Eggs and Other Breakfast Dishes
toasted bialy or bagel, cream cheese, olives, tomato & cucumber
Cambridge House Smoked Salmon
Waffle with fresh berries, whipped cream, maple
with fresh berries, maple syrup
Brioche French Toast
Fried Calamari with two
Lucky Chili with
Matzo Ball