For more than a century, Santa Barbara has been home to a thriving artistic colony of stunning diversity. Painters, sculptors, ceramists, metal and leather workers, and other artists and craftspeople have chosen to make this city their home. Numbered among them was Julius Starke (pictured far left), who did wondrous things with wood.
News-Press newsroom staffers will vote on forming a union September 26-unless new hurdles loom. There are 37 reporters, photographers, editors, and others eligible to vote, union leaders said at a press conference today, September 5, at Storke Placita, adding that they are confident of approval of more than the necessary 50 percent plus one.
Barney takes on Kyra Phillips’ bathroom screw-up on CNN, proposes the first Santa Barbara Ugly Awards, attacks Riviera speeders, gives the whereabouts of Jacko’s big cats, and discusses some of the latest News-Press news.
Rounding up the collected wisdom of Travis J. Armstrong and “Dr.” Laura.
A short, rather dark video of Karl Denson on Thursday night.
The following is an email sent out yesterday by Josh Eymann, owner and operator of The Hard to Find Showspace in Goleta, which will be closing after the November 8 Xiu Xiu show. It’s a bluntly honest, at times painful, and thoroughly moving swan song for one of the only all-ages venues on the South Coast. Read on.
TERROR BY TEDIUM: It was hardly the trial of the century. It only felt like it lasted that long. In point of fact, last Friday’s courtroom proceeding-an institutionally contained spasm of political perversity-took just six hours start-to-finish. At issue was the ballot language in support of Measure D 2006, the proposed quarter-cent increase on an existing half-cent sales tax that will fund $1.6 billion worth of freeway widening, commuter rail service, bike lanes, mass transit, road repairs, and more pork than all the public works directors throughout Santa Barbara County could ever hope to eat.
Word hit the streets today that November 8 will be the last hoorah for The Hard to Find Showspace, out in Goleta. (And with the billed act being San Jose/Seattle’s Xiu Xiu, it’ll be quite a send-off.)
As one of the only all-ages venues currently existing on the South Coast, it will be sorely missed. Owner Josh Eymann provided a thoughtful note as to why in his sayonara email, and we are trying to get his permission right now to post it here.
This Saturday and Sunday, September 2 and 3, there’s a big bash going down this weekend on a ranch outside Carpinteria, with proceeds going to Planned Parenthood. It’s free–save for whatever pocket change you can give to the cause–but attendance is limited to the first 500 who show up. To be part of the White Trash Weekend, click here.
Former News-Press editor Jerry Roberts has accused lawyers representing Wendy McCaw, the Santa Barbara News-Press, and its parent company Ampersand of leaking the fact that McCaw filed a $500,000 claim against Roberts that will be handled through arbitration, rather than the court system.
