Looking Up
LOOKING UP: The Santa Barbara City Council took an early step toward resolving upper State Street’s identity crisis by appropriating $192,631 to hire consultants.
Year: 2006
Fruity Farmers Market Finds
If you blinked, you missed spring in Santa Barbara. Fortunately, the flavors of the season are bursting out at the Farmers Markets.
Blistering Hike
Beware the Poison Oak
All that late rain was great for the shrubs of the chaparral and riparian woodlands that make up our local flora. It resulted in great displays of spring flowers, but there is one native that most of us could do without: poison oak (Toxicodendron diversilobum), which is widespread in most of the plant communities in our backcountry. Enjoying such outdoor activities as hiking and rock climbing can lead to an irritating encounter with this shrub.
Crime Ring Uncovered
CRIME RING UNCOVERED: Santa Barbara police are investigating charges that employees of a local telemarketing company accessed and used stolen identity information. Undercover Santa Barbara officers had an auto theft warrant for Anthony Smith, 41, a former employee of a foreclosure telemarketing company known as both the Approval Agent and the Help Project, located at 401 N. Milpas Street.
No Buddha, No End of Buddhas
Buddha Abides
At Caruso Woods Fine Art, through June 17.
The first precept offered to lay order members by Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh begins thus: “Aware of the suffering created by fanaticism and intolerance, I am determined not to be idolatrous about or bound to any doctrine, theory, or ideology, even Buddhist ones.” The curators and artists of Buddha Abides, now at Caruso Woods through June 17, seem to have taken a similar artistic vow.
Divers Down
DIVERS DOWN: For the first time in at least 20 years, Santa Barbara Harbor officials orchestrated an ocean floor cleanup in the murky waters below Marina 3 last weekend. An extensive team of volunteersincluding dozens of scuba divers and support boaterstook part in Operation Clean Sweep, hauling up 4,012 pounds of muck-covered garbage.
Boyle’s Bunch
Speaking of T.C. Boyle
At the Lobero Theatre, Monday, May 22.
Old-time storytelling tradition blended with biting pop culturalism-what could be better fodder for a Speaking of Stories evening? And who’s a more fitting author than our very own T.C. Boyle, the master of weaving modern life’s quirks and extravagances into otherwise timeless yarns? Monday night’s spoken story buffet spanned Boyle’s illustrious, short story-laced career, from 1977’s “The Champ” and 1988’s “Zapatos” to “Swept Away,” from 2005’s Tooth and Claw, “La Conchita,” his meditation on the mudslide that appeared last December in The New Yorker, and the unpublished “Hands On.”
Homeland Securities
AMERICA, AMERICA: First, to create some closure, the following two student recitals fall within the purview of this week’s column. This might be the last of them, or perhaps not:
Mitsuru Kubo, viola, in a bachelor of music senior recital on Thursday, May 25, at 8 p.m. in Karl Geiringer Hall. Kubo will play works by Felix Mendelssohn, Paul Hindemith, William Walton, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Passion, Poetry, and Power
Chicana Author Ana Castillo Deftly Explores Human Themes
Though renowned as an unabashed activist writer, Ana Castillo said she is also well known for guarding her privacy. Even so, next Thursday, May 25, as the UCSB’s annual Edwin and Jean Corle Memorial lecturer, Castillo will speak candidly about her craft, or what she describes as working with filigree to artfully arrange words into poetry, prose, essays, plays, children’s books, journals, blogs, or speeches.
It’s a Family Affair
On Saturday, May 27, from 9:30 a.m.-6 p.m., the Central Coast Doula Association-along with SBParent.com; the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric, and Neonatal Nurses; and Laurel Springs Retreat-will present “Birthing a Family,” a daylong event meant to share perspectives of birth as an integral element of family life. The featured speaker will be internationally known Elizabeth Davis, who has been a midwife, author, women’s healthcare specialist, educator, and consultant for more than 25 years. There will also be a lunch, book-signing, silent auction, and fathers who will share their insight into birth and the family journey. The event takes place at Laurel Springs Retreat. For more information, visit www.centralcoastdoulas.com.
