Hollywood’s inevitable fatal attraction to the 9/11 tragedy was, thankfully and remarkably, delayed by a cushion of several years.
On one level, this is merely a film about a neighborhood. A prizewinner at Sundance, and with the kind of topic you would knee-jerk expect to win there, it tells the story of a Mexican-American 14-year-old pregnant girl, her tough-looking older gay cousin, and their kindly, aging uncle, the 13th child from a Jalisco family of 22.
Like life, the path to learning is not always straight and steady. Just ask Osiris Casta±eda, founder of Youth CineMedia, a program that teaches at-risk youth how to create and develop mixed-media projects.
Tucked away from the outside view of La Colina Junior High, the small, fenced-in, and somewhat neglected classroom is one of many La Cuesta continuation school sites.
The four-line poem above appears-trust me-in its entirety. When poet/painter/singer Neal Crosbie offers this piece at a reading, an expectant pause hovers as we wait for more-but we’ve already heard everything the piece wants to offer in its jaunty tease about poetry itself.
Oak Park’s ethnic festivals have become a Santa Barbara institution during the past few decades. The first was the Greek Festival in 1974 (still going strong), which was followed by the Italian and German festivals (neither of which has survived to the present).
In reaction to the wave of mid-’90s pop and ska bands billing themselves as full-on punk, Los Angeles’ Pistol Grip formed to remind true fans of the genre how hard bands like The Clash and Stiff Little Fingers could rock.
his week, by cosmic coincidence, the Lobero Theatre hosts two of America’s most important musical heroes, each from divergent corners of our cultural pageant. On Friday, Dr. John returns to the venue he turned into a saucy party zone two years ago.
When one day faced with the question, “Where were you when World War III broke out?,” I will smile and flash back to last Friday night at the Bowl, my mind flooded with the sounds of sweet reggae music.
As usual, the first band at last Tuesday’s Bowl show opened to an embarrassingly small crowd. But rather than complain about our hallowed venue’s early start times-that’s the way it is and ever shall be-it’s about time we adapt and learn to be on time. That’s especially the case when the concert’s first chapter is a show-stealing band such as Spearhead, led by the poetically prophetic Michael Franti.
If you’re reading this, then you know what “Dawg” music is, and that David Grisman (a perfect last name for this varmint) is the inventor and main force behind the ragged style of bluegrass mixed with blues mixed with turpentine mixed with folk.
