Free the Evil Weed? When I was a young court reporter here in the early 1960s, I covered a trial where a middle-aged man was accused of (gasp!) possessing half a joint. His old lady ratted him out and cops-North County, as I recall-found a half-smoked marijuana cigarette in his robe. The jury found him guilty and the judge sent him to prison.
In the studio recording Julie Christensen’s new album, producer Tom Lackner raised his arms in exhilaration and guitarist Joe Woodard smiled coyly from a resting place against the studio wall. For the past few hours, the pair had been trading instrumental scrutiny on Christensen’s latest recording, the gestation of which the Headless Household colleagues are currently overseeing.
At the Contemporary Arts Forum. Shows through October 29.
One of the great things about the Contemporary Arts Forum is how many different things one can see at any given time in the adjoining spaces of its galleries.
At UCSB’s Campbell Hall, Wednesday, October 4.
There was something equally charming and maddening about Madeleine Peyroux’s performance at Campbell Hall last Wednesday night. Dressed in a flowing gray dress and flip flops, with wavy hair hanging loose to her shoulders, Peyroux looked more like a European hippie than a modern-day Billie Holiday…
At Sullivan Goss, An American Gallery’s Cooper and Vollmer Galleries. Shows through October 18.
Painters are all great in their own ways, but it’s just so easy to like Hank Pitcher best. He genuinely gets it, “it” being the ocean, the sky, sunlight, people, where we live, why we love it here, and plenty more.
When I think of Helena Hale, the longtime actor and professor of speech and English at Santa Barbara City College who died one month short of her 86th birthday on May 28, it’s easy to envision her rather like the sculptor Louise Nevelson, who was the subject of the second of Helena’s one-woman shows. Nevelson, with her “darlings,” bowler hat, fabulous improvised clothes, one cigar a day, and eyelashes that “preceded her into the room,” embodied Helena’s flamboyant, glamorous persona.
Harvard professor and L.A. Times opinion columnist Niall Ferguson could not have been happy when, in June 2005, European scholar Tony Judt published Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945, an epic 15 years in the making that’s destined to be the definitive account of post-World War Europe.
At the Santa Barbara Bowl, Saturday, October 7
With a career that spans more than 40 years, dozens of classic songs to his credit, and an enormous and loyal fan base worldwide, Paul Simon could afford to coast. But he’s not. He’s growing, and Surprise, his recent collaboration with “sonic landscaper” Brian Eno and producer Tchad Blake, has resulted not only in a fine album, but also in one of the most enjoyable and moving concerts of this season.
The Whitefoot Meat Market and six adjoining Milpas Street businesses could soon be razed and replaced with a brand-new Longs
Santa Barbara police officers tasered a 66-year-old man with the word “Trick” tattooed on his forehead after police say the
