AS GREEN AS IT GETS:
Citrix Corporation and Bermant Development Company pledged to build to the highest green standards when they construct a new industrial park and retail space on airport property owned by the City of Santa Barbara in Goleta.
Year: 2006
Toxic Landfill
After much hand-wringing and second-guessing, the county Board of Supervisors agreed to allow as many as 150 dump trucks per day to rumble through Guadalupe to the Santa Maria landfill, where they will dump as many as one million cubic yards of polluted soil from the nation’s biggest oil spill. Critics were on-hand in large measure to decry the lack of public process and to warn that if the soil is too contaminated to remain on the Guadalupe Dunes-where it now is-then it’s also too polluted to dump in Santa Maria’s unlined landfill.
Top Five Beach-Blanket Bites
1. If you can refrain from eating them the second you get in the car, the trek to the beach is just about perfect to give the Corn Pups from The Doghouse a chance to cool. 730 Milpas St., 962-3808.
The Young Ones
Academy Festival Orchestra
At the Lobero Theatre, Saturday, July 1.
It was somewhat unsettling to note that the most revolutionary work on this program was also the oldest, by almost a century. Ludwig Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Opus 55, “Eroica,” still has the power, after more than 200 years, to make you sit up and listen, to make you feel as if you are hearing something
brand new.
Reading Can Be Dangerous
Anna in the Tropics, presented by PCPA.
Shows through July 15 at the Marian Theatre in Santa Maria, then at the Solvang Festival Theatre from July 21 through August 6.
When he was writing Anna in the Tropics, said Cuban-American playwright Nilo Cruz, he “just loved the notion of illiterate cigar-rollers quoting Don Quixote and Shakespeare by heart. This play is about the need for culture, the need for literature. Art should be dangerous.” Anyone who watches the wonderful new production of Anna in the Tropics at PCPA will feel that Cruz is right about this danger. Literature does have the power to unleash secret longings, and can even unsettle the status quo.
GOLETA’S REELECTION BIDS:
One day after the Goleta City Council put the finishing touches on the young city’s draft general plan, three of its original city councilmembers announced their candidacy for a second term. Self-described calm and rational Margaret Connell stood beside provocateur Jack Hawxhurst and soft-spoken Cynthia Brock at Stowe Park for the kickoff of their campaigns. The three emphasized they are not running as a slate, but support each other’s platforms.
OJAI WANTS YOU
Ojai Artists for Peace is seeking contributors to its September art show Vision of Peace. Submit your “visualization of peace” in whatever medium by contacting Lys Poet at lysg@mindspring.com.
Rocks and Rooftops
ROCKS IS ROCKIN’: An increasingly steady provider of live music these days is Rocks, located where De la Guerra smashes into State Street. This weekend proves no different, with Rikka Z this Friday, the Santa Barbara/Ojai pro photographer who plays the prettiest country music around. Playing with her will be Reds regular Matt McAvene, whose visual art will also decorate the stage’s backdrop. Next up, on Saturday, July 15, is the cock rock of Shades of Day, who are hitting up clubs near and far in support of their debut album Mayday. Opening for them is T.J. Russell, the son of legendary Leon Russell, so prepare for a memorable weekend. Â-Â--Matt Kettmann
The Born Identity
THE ACADEMY KNOWS BEST: Today, Thursday, July 13, is Community Welcome Day at the Music Academy of the West’s Miraflores campus. All the events are free. (For a complete Music Academy schedule, check your program booklet, call the box office at 969-8787, or visit their well-designed Web site at www.musicacademy.org.)
Also on Thursday, the Academy young artists will play a free Community Concert (2 p.m.) at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, a free Chamber Music Sampler (7:30 p.m.) in Lehmann Hall at Miraflores, as well as one of its spectacular Picnic Concerts the next night, Friday, July 14, at 7:30 p.m., in Abravanel Hall (not free).
Whither Santa Ynez?
The draft Santa Ynez community plan was unveiled to decidedly mixed reviews at Tuesday’s county Board of Supervisors meeting, with Supervisor Brooks Firestone being the plan’s biggest booster. Seventy-two square miles of his 3rd District are covered by the plan, including the three unincorporated towns of Santa Ynez, Ballard, and Los Olivos. Not everyone shared Firestone’s enthusiasm about the work of the Valley Planning Advisory Committee. Several valley residents-from ranchers to homeowners to a spokesperson for the Alisal Guest Ranch-expressed outrage at a map marking potential public access through their properties to rivers or mountains. Others objected to 60 units of high-density housing for very low-income workers proposed along Highway 246. Most of the projected need for additional housing was accounted for in the form of worker housing on ranches, mixed commercial-and-residential properties in town, and second units.
