Beer Goggles Quiz
Beer Goggles Quiz
Year: 2006
TOSS A PHONE, GO TO JAIL:
Due to a new state law that went into effect last week, people who dispose of old cell phones by tossing them into the trash risk fines as high as $25,000. From now on, cell phone retailers must accept the recycling responsibility for old phones; businesses that fail to devise recycling plans could be shut down.
Daddy Boot Camp
Impending fatherhood is exciting but can be a bit overwhelming as well – especially for first-time dads. To help expecting pops make a smooth transition into fatherhood, Cottage Hospital offers a course in daddy boot camp. Participants will learn parenting lessons from veteran dads (and babies); gain understanding about the needs of new moms; and learn creative solutions to the unique problems facing new fathers.
Eating Contest of the Week
Dog House Hot Dogs
I was halfway through the fifth hot dog when the nausea began to set in. The heat was unbearable – pushing 90 degrees in a parking lot just off Milpas. I hadn’t eaten all day in hopes of leaving my stomach race-ready for the first annual hot-dog-eating contest at the Doghouse, and now my mind was swimming in the brutal July sun, lost in a sea of cheap keg beer and orange and brown balloons. There was a kid to my left – probably half my age – still struggling to finish his first wiener. To my right was some guy named Jesse, just in from San Francisco via Cape Cod, sweating his way fast and furious through dog number four. I heard the emcee call out, “Eight minutes!” and I munched on, each chew a simultaneous attempt to stuff more pig product down my gullet while resisting the urge to projectile vomit.
Citizen’s Alert
Thu., July 6
Congresswoman Lois Capps: Leads a screening of The Great Warming and panel discussion. 6:30-8:30pm. First Presbyterian Church, 21 Constance Ave. Call 730-1710.
Boards Merger
Longstanding rumors came true last week when locally based surf industry giant Channel Islands Surfboards (CI) was bought out by an East Coast snowboard company. Living in the tenuous times of the post-Clark Foam shutdown, Al Merrick – the mastermind behind arguably the most famous surfboards in the world – announced last Thursday afternoon that his privately held multi-million- dollar international business is now owned by Vermont native Jake Burton and his equally world-renowned snowboard company, Burton.
Q: Who Was Nathaniel Potter?
Dr. William D. Sansum, a pioneer in diabetes research, is a familiar name to most Santa Barbarans, if for no other reason because of the medical clinic that bears his name. Less well known is the man who preceded Sansum in Santa Barbara, a medical pioneer in his own right, Dr. Nathaniel Bowditch Potter.
Melting and Jamming
JAPAN JAM: The High Sierra Music Festival in Quincy, California, has been the coming-out party for many a band. Following last year’s event, the buzz was all about a group from Japan called Meltone. The quartet left a lasting impression playing on top of an RV in between stages. Ripping into an extra-funky version of Deodato’s “Also Sprach Zarathustra” (better known as the theme from 2001), Meltone had the crowd in the palm of their hand. “At High Sierra the audience really cut loose,” exclaimed front man Shinichiro Tomita.
CARP. MAYOR HANGS IT UP:
Carpinteria Mayor Donna Jordan (pictured) announced that after 16 years in public office she won’t seek re-election this fall. Jordan a congenial slow-growther, professional tutor, and registered Republican was part of the council majority that slowed down development plans for the Carpinteria Bluffs long enough for Carpinteria activists to raise the $4 million necessary to buy the land for the community. Jordan explained her hearing loss has gotten bad enough to interfere with her ability to perform effectively.
Neon Golden
Shiba Ward: New Works
At Sullivan Goss: An American Gallery, through August 2.
Shiba Ward paints big things in small pictures. The freight trains, factories, train stations, and urban scenes Ward finds chiefly in downtown Los Angeles are cropped and focused to their essence in his panels, which typically measure less than 8½ by 11 inches. The best of them are jewel-like – intense and multi-faceted. In “The Original” (2006), a lone figure stands outlined in bright white beneath the awning of an aging Los Angeles coffee shop. The vertical slice of red signage just above his head spells out the establishment’s name, “Philippe,” in white neon, and it is repeated in yellow and red neon script on another sign running horizontally even farther above.
