Year: 2006

Top Three Reasons to Care About UCSB’s State of the Arts Conference

The University of California’s first-ever State of the Arts conference goes down at UCSB this weekend, May 18-20, as the annual event of the UC Institute for Research in the Arts, a program that gives grants to UC faculty and students for projects that will make significant artistic and cultural impact. Like most conferences, much of the weekend-which is being attended by folks from all over the state-will be taken up by panels and lectures, but there’s also some seriously experimental art going down too. Here are three reasons to take note. See www.ucira.ucsb.edu for more.

Pain at the Pumps

Expect to continue forking out heaps of cash for gas since there doesn’t seem to be much hope that petrol prices will drop back down into the $1-or even $2-range anytime soon. Of course, taking alternative transportation is the best solution for avoiding pain at the pumps, but if that’s not an option, check out autos.msn.com/everyday/gasstations.aspx?zip=&src=Netx. The site lets you know where in your area you can fill ‘er up for the least amount of beans. Just enter your zip code to see a map of your town and a listing of all the gas stations’ prices from the lowest to the highest. The site is updated every evening to keep you up-to-the-minute on the ever-changing price of gas.

A Weekend in the Country

PICKIN’ TIME: Call ’em Paisley Moments. No, it has nothing to do with the Artist Formerly Known as Prince, but the artist presently known as Brad Paisley, an immensely likeable country star making his Santa Barbara debut at the Bowl on Friday. Beyond his singing and songwriting skills, he is one wicked, go-for-broke, modern-day Telecaster master. His fourth and latest album, Time Well Wasted, features several Paisley Moments-snippets of his knuckle-busting guitarist splendor-like those on “The World,” “I’ll Take You Back,” and the style-surfing instrumental “Time Warp.”

CONSIDER THE ALTERNATIVES

Several hundred people turned out on Mother’s Day for a special installment of the weekly Arlington West war memorial. The three-month-old MotherHearts organization-a group of local women dedicated to promoting peace and restoring the original anti-war sentiments of Mother’s Day-held its first official public event Sunday on the sand by Stearns Wharf.

OPERA ON THE GO:

Opera Santa Barbara presents this season’s final Opera on the Go with an open forum for leading contemporary composers Stephen Schwartz, Jake Heggie, and Daniel Cat¡n on Wednesday, May 24, at 5:30 p.m., to prove to Santa Barbarans that opera is not dead. Far from it, these accredited and lauded maestros will attempt to counter problems with the current opera stigma in America, where many find the art form Eurocentric, static, and old-fashioned. Peter Frisch will moderate the night’s event at Victoria Hall Theater. Call 898-3890.

Cheating the System

‘Affordable’ Homebuyers or Subsidized Landlords?

One out of four people buying affordable homes-at deep discounts, thanks to county assistance-may be cheating the system, according to a report presented Tuesday to the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors by auditor/controller Bob Geis. Coming under Geis’s magnifying lens were affordable units included in multi-family housing developments by property owners as stipulated by the county. Intended as a means of maintaining a minimum stock of affordable housing, such units may not be resold at market value for a specified number of years; the duration of the affordable tag varies according to where and when the units were built. In more than one case, auditors knocking on doors found renters in the place of subsidized absentee homeowners who collected rent while living elsewhere.