{1} “A Song for You,” by Whiskeytown, from Return of the Grievous Angel
{2} “Hot Burrito #1,” by Raul Malo, from The Nashville Acoustic Sessions
{3} “Brass Buttons,” by the Lemonheads, from Lovey
{4} “Hickory Wind,” by Grant-Lee Phillips, from Virginia Creeper
{5} “Sin City,” by Dwight Yoakam, from Just Lookin’ for a Hit
Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway star in a film written by Aline Brosh McKenna, based on the novel by Lauren Weisberger, and directed by David Frankel.
Here is a movie in which insider knowledge gets you a lot more comic bang for your buck – actually a rare occasion in the bland, homogenizing domain of American studio movies. If you’re a fashionista, or someone with even a casual knowledge of who’s who and what’s what in fashion, certain lines of dialogue will have more weight, and the punch lines more gusto. The rest of us couture-challenged shlubs will side more with our hapless heroine, Andy (Anne Hathaway). An aspiring journalist in N.Y.C., she is hired as a go-fer assistant for the influential fashion magazine Runway, and she brings a dismissive skepticism about the seemingly indulgent and narcissistic world of high fashion.
SURREAL ESTATE MOMENT: Turns out that Santa Barbara’s standing in the USA Today poll of “overvalued” real estate markets in America has a good- news/bad-news component. Yes, our real estate market is now officially 73 percent overvalued, but that pales in comparison to the 104 percent in Naples, Florida. Meanwhile, “growth” is the buzz word/dirty word in town: We have the pro-growth faction, the no-growth bunch, and now a group of quasi-anarchists, the anti-growth folks, who are advocating knockin’ stuff down and restoring our precious vacant lots. Stay tuned for more (anti-) developments. Meanwhile, back to the music :
Stuart Wilson’s photo of a striped fly on a poppy
The local nonprofit New Beginnings Counseling Center will take center stage on PBS this week, when the station KCET airs its popular Friday-night television program California Connected.
The City of Santa Barbara’s street-sweeping program has proven so successful in its four years in operation – scooping up 1.9 million pounds of debris and gunk from city streets and curbs each year – that public works administrators want to expand into the Mesa and the upper Mesa. While generous with their praise, councilmembers urged caution when it came to what Councilmember Grant House termed “street sign pollution.”
Unconfirmed rumors have been swirling in the past few weeks of a great white shark swimming in the waters off well-known surf break Rincon Point.
The first class to graduate from Cesar Ch¡vez Charter School was showered with accolades that sometimes moved them to tears, while students warmly remembered their classmates, teachers, and parents. The audience for the Wednesday evening ceremony included Mayor Marty Blum and City Councilmember Grant House, who was one of the school’s founders.
Summer is the perfect time to free yourself of inhibitions. That said, picking up a case of crabs may not be on your list of things to do this season, but relax: The kind of crabs to which we’re referring are from our local fishery, and make for some fine summertime snacking. Other Santa Barbara shellfish worth checking out include sweet, succulent spot prawns; ridgeback shrimp; and farmed oysters, mussels, and clams.
After more than a decade of having friends and family come visit, it wasn’t until recently that I discovered the perfect method for touring Santa Barbara. I’d led visitors on drives around town, but while we covered a lot of ground and grabbed some great views, all the exotic shrubbery, ornate architecture, and friendly faces along the way got lost in a 35 mph blur.
