Celebrate Coast Village Week

Celebrate Coast Village Week

RIFA Worries

Specials, raffles, and an immersive art walk… the Coast Village Week has something for the whole family to celebrate! Come see what’s in store inside (Story starts on page 5)

A Montecito home is found to have a Red Imported Fire Ants infestation… county officials are on the case and have this to say, page 12

Mission DarknessTM

With the increasing need to keep one’s data safe, this Westmont grad is ensuring that electronic devices are shielded, page 14

Advice for what matters most, when you need it most

Congratulations to Stephen Hepp for being named to the Forbes “Best-in-State Wealth Advisors” 2024 list, published on April 3, 2024. Rankings based on data as of June 30, 2023.

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Wealth Management Advisor Portfolio Manager

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The Bull Symbol and Merrill are registered trademarks of Bank of America Corporation. A Portfolio Manager can help clients pursue their objectives by managing on a discretionary basis his own Personalized or Defined Strategies, which may incorporate individual stocks and bonds, Merrill model portfolios, and third-party investment strategies.

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INSIDE THIS ISSUE

5 Our Town – Plenty to celebrate for Coast Village Week, Summerland is hosting another block party, plus other details from Our Town

6 Beings & Doings – Flowers cover the Earth. Mikey Putnam gathers them with both arms and revolutionizes their proffer (jeez!)

8 Montecito Miscellany – Polo’s patriarch, The Way of the Lotus, some pre-Fiesta fun, and more miscellany

10 Letters to the Editor – The MJ gets a special visitor, plus input on Rosewood Miramar expansion, Gwyn’s editorial, and Casa Dorinda Tide Guide

11 The Giving List – For 125 years, the Family Service Agency has been helping the familial unit meet their basic needs, and is planning for the next 125 years

12 News Bytes – A Red Imported Fire Ants infestation is found in Montecito and President Biden announces his withdrawal from the race

Your Westmont – Alum starts local

company in the digital age, and a charity

tourney for

16 On Entertainment – Friends and family play for Bill Lanphar, fiddles and flamekeeping in Ventura, and salsa in Oxnard

18 Brilliant Thoughts – Listening to Ashleigh’s musings on tunes and lyrics is music for the mind

20 This Week at MAW – David Robertson whorls through town, rabbits and moons with the Sing! chorus, plus other happenings

22

Reel Fun – A provocative new movie from Catherine Breillat that blurs boundaries and obfuscates what’s right and wrong

24 Elizabeth’s Appraisals – Thirsty for some history? These two beer bottles found in a ceiling joist have plenty to tell.

26

Montecito Health Coach – Whether a moment in time or a lifetime – this is how we define friendships

28 An Independent Mind – Biden has stepped down and with Kamala as the likely nominee, Jeffrey has some thoughts on her policies and past

30

Travel Buzz – Traditional Turkish cuisine, the Natatorium memorial and more in wacky Waikiki

32

Petite Wine Traveler – From Miroir d’Eau to iconic châteaux, take a tour along the Bordeaux region and see what sips there are along the way

34 Foraging Thyme – Nothing says summer like this heirloom tomato basil tart – bursting with flavor and nutrition

44 Calendar of Events – Jazz on the terrace, JÜPITER on stage, summer games on a rooftop, and the final pre-Fiesta events before the main affair begins

46 Classifieds – Our own “Craigslist” of classified ads, in which sellers offer everything from summer rentals to estate sales

47 Mini Meta Crossword Puzzles

Local Business Directory – Smart business owners place business cards here so readers know where to look when they need what those businesses offer

Our Town Coast Village Week Celebration

Coast Village Week will be Saturday, Aug. 3, through Saturday, Aug. 10, with an Art Walk to take place on Thursday, Aug. 8, from 4-7 pm (photo by VirTour Media)

by Joanne A Calitri

Executive Director of the Coast Village Association Beth Sullivan invites everyone to the upcoming Coast Village Week, Saturday, August 3 through Saturday, August 10.

Sullivan mentioned, “After a successful launch of this event in 2023, the Coast Village Association is proud to announce the First Annual ‘Coast Village Week,’ a weeklong celebration that will showcase the very best that Coast Village has to offer! There are exclusive promotions at the retail shops, Designer Trunk Shows, restaurant Happy Hours, raffles, and prizes. Whether you’re a long-time resident or a first-time visitor, Coast Village Week is your chance to experience the unique charm of our community. Mark your calendars, invite your friends, and prepare for a truly memorable experience.”

The celebration starts with a kickoff party on Saturday, August 3, and Sunday, August 4, sponsored by the Rosewood Miramar Beach. There will be an ice cream social at Rosewood Miramar Beach’s Pink Truck near Renaud’s, and a Rosé Garden (where parents and other adults may take a break from shopping) located between Olive Mill Plaza and Maison K.

Raffle prizes are a one-night stay at the Montecito Inn with dinner for two; and a one-night stay at Rosewood Miramar Beach and dinner for two at AMA Sushia. Also there are products and Gift Certificates from Daniel Gibbings, Drybar, Good Lion, J. McLaughlin, Johnny Was, Kathryne

Designs, Lily, Los Arroyos, Lucky’s, Mad Dogs & Englishmen, Montecito Country Mart, Montecito Med Spa, Silverhorn, The Tennis Shop, Tre Lune, and Whiskey & Leather.

Happy Hours

Folded Hills Winery: 4-6 pm, select wines by the glass $12 with a complimentary charcuterie board

LOCAL Montecito: 3-6 pm, specials daily; try the Coast Village Week Mai Tai cocktail

Shop Highlights

Angel: Trunk Show, call store for details

Allora By Laura: Trunk Show August 8-10, with designer, Peter Cohen, browse his entire Fall 2024 collection and order

BASKE California: August 3-10, 10% off any purchase; summer shoes at 40% off

Cashy’s Playpen: August 3-10, free doggie treats with a $100 purchase

Daniel Gibbings: August 3, champagne and snacks as you shop

Homer Maker: August 3, Meet artist, Rafael Adón and shop his apparel line

Johnny Was: August 3-10, sale section at 30% off

Kathryne Designs: August 3-10, 10% off all books including our coffee table books

K. Frank: August 3-10, spring & summer clothing, shoes, jewelry, and accessories 30% off

Our Town Page 344

Beings & Doings

Feral, Verdant, Romantic and

Ethereal: Mikey

Putnam’s Walk through the Cosmos has been a Gift to Us All

by Jeff Wing

The facts are strange. Our Earth is a largish dirt-covered rock, adrift in an endless, freezing vacuum and handily located next to an enormous lamp which ceaselessly dumps life-enabling energy onto our hills, valleys, and fleabag motels. For about 430 million years our dirt-covered rock has been busily sprouting a kingdom of living flora whose thankless role has been singular: to turn the sun’s energy into stuff that can be eaten. While the workings of Nature are plainly mechanical, for reasons unknown to us (but wildly theorized by theologians and poets), this grandly anointed “Plant Kingdom” exhibits a nearly hallucinogenic variety of gorgeous colors and textures, “…[a] view that seems to want to be seen” as a lovely old Peggy Lee song puts it. This cornucopia of stirring beauty was likely not much appreciated by the roaming beasts that, for eons, blankly ate the stuff for sustenance.

When the human race finally showed up –with its opposable thumbs, proto-language, and not-terribly-impressive cave paintings of poorly drawn bison being hassled by stick figures – the news was good. Here at last was a creature capable of being deeply stirred by the ineffable. Certain of these human creatures would prove sensitive to the emotive power of the plant kingdom’s complex beauty and, more significantly, to the fact of beauty itself. Mikey?

“When I was younger and living with my aunts in Santa Barbara,” says Mikey Putnam, “they always had a crazy garden. They would grow these six-foot tall cosmo flowers, and I just remember wandering through the cosmos in their garden – Alice in Wonderland in a little forest of flowers. It was something that I was always drawn to. I would pick little flowers with roots out of the ground at the Wilcox property and plant them in my aunts’ yard. I was just obsessed with flowers my whole life.”

Michael Putnam Designs. To Say the Least.

Mikey Putnam is a globally renowned artist who takes as his medium the petals, leaves, stems (and lesser-known botanical ephemera) that leap out of the topsoil and beg to be exalted. He and his crew travel the world, leading workshops, glorifying weddings, and designing heart-seizing

installations. As a teen, he lived for a time in Okinawa. “My time there shaped my idea of florals, my idea of composition. Seeing Ikebana, seeing the varieties – just seeing the patience that people put into florals there; it’s really embracing the natural shape of the flower, embracing what it is and not trying to fight against it.” The guy means it. Putnam’s genius, or intuition, is to give every floral element in an arrangement its soliloquy. The perceptual spaces around his flowers showcase the starkly beautiful eruptions than can give his arrangements the anarchic elegance for which he’s known. Mikey Putnam’s “flower arranging” is a delicate mimicry of the bounteous bursting forth of the plant kingdom – of life itself. His website Putnam Designs offers a summary glimpse of what he does, and for whom; his portfolio there a cornucopious scrapbook of his work for clients like Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, Martha Stewart, Cartier, and a young newlywed with the unusual name Gwyneth His Putnam Flowers Instagram account is a garden of unearthly delights with 361,000 adoring followers. Since around 2014 Putnam’s polite dismissal of floral arranging’s established order (such as it was) has captured a massive following, to whom his combinatorial intuitions represent a startling and ongoing evolution in the art form. “My work is very wild, very organic, very feral,” he says. Okay, but success on this scale, driven solely by this fractious world’s communal love of beauty, gives rise to three questions. “How? How? How?”

Floral Artist and Designer Mikey Putnam in his tool shed (courtesy photo)

THROUGH

Montecito Miscellany

In Memory of Polo’s Patriarch

by Richard Mineards

Polo patriarch and former U.S. ambassador to Jamaica, Glen Holden, who died in April at the age of 96, was honored with a memorial service at the Santa Barbara Polo Club on the eponymously named Holden Field with 600 guests flying or driving in to honor his memory led by his son Jeep Holden at the weekend.

Glen’s former fieldside box, which he shared with his late wife Gloria, a high school sweetheart who predeceased him in 2019 – and where I would often be invited to sit with my late friend Cat Pollon – was festooned with white roses for the occasion.

Among those eulogizing Glen were Chuck Lande, Jonathan Burrows, and Madison Richardson Glen, who quit playing polo late in life, competed with the late Prince Philip, husband of Queen Elizabeth, King Charles III – then Prince of Wales, and the Maharajah of Jaipur, the monarch’s godson.

tributions to the sport, Glen was inducted into the museum of Polo and Hall of Fame in 2002.

Among the crowd turning out were Curtis Skene, John Muse, Richard and Annette Caleel, Chris and Mindy Denson , Paige Beard , Justin and Amanda Klentner, Ben Soleimani, Pat and Ursula Nesbitt, Mike Uretz, Si Jenkins, Robert and Robin Fell, Wes and Victoria Ru, and Nigel Gallimore

He also played host to Prince William and his wife Kate soon after their marriage as part of the Club’s 100th anniversary celebrations, which I covered for NBC News.

Glen’s success on the field was only outdone by his contributions off the field, saving the club financially by personally guaranteeing its debts while serving on the board of trustees.

In recognition of his outstanding con-

Dance, Play, and The Way of the Lotus

Lotusland’s annual gala is undoubtedly one of the social highlights of the year with the 500 tickets sold-out months in advance.

This year’s 30th annual bash Lotusland Celebrates: The Way of the Lotus, co-chaired by the tony triumvirate of Merryl Brown, Ashley Adelson, and Lisa Bjornson Wolf, raised a whopping $1 million for critical support for the 37-acre 34,400

plant garden’s care and operations, sustainability programs, and conservation of rare and threatened plants.

Miscellany Page 424

CHECKUPS

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The group gathering on the polo fields to honor the late Glen Holden (photo by Priscilla)

Jeep Holden, Glen’s son, with his fiancée Nancy Schaak and Wayne Jobson (center), record producer for Ziggy Marley (photo by Priscilla)

Chuck and Margarita Lande (photo by Priscilla)

Letters to the Editor

Blessings from Blessings

Dear Montecito Journal, Thank you. Woof woof! My dog friends saw me in the paper and now they all want to be Top Dogs too! Blessings

The Need for Affordable Housing

Montecito needs affordable housing. The Miramar is doing it the right way. Hardworking employees deserve the chance to live near their jobs. That basic fact is what’s behind the Caruso company’s plans for the Miramar hotel. Caruso is offering to create 26 attractive apartments for their employees at very modest rent levels – for many employees less than $900 for a studio and less than $1,400 for a two bedroom. And, contrary to some of the misinformation circulated in our community, workers at the lower end of the income spectrum will be able to access all 26 units at these rental levels. For Montecito that means fewer cars on the road and new neighbors with solid jobs who have vested interest in our community. For the employees themselves this opportunity could be life changing. It’s inevitable that a small number of critics are trying to tarnish this proposal. This is a long-term investment that will honor our community. I personally am grateful that the Caruso Group will be the developer of record. As part of a high-quality Santa Barbara – based development community for 40 years I can’t recollect ANY regional development group with the class, experience, reputation and financial strength to match Caruso – not to mention their ability to weather the worldwide banking uncertainties.

Wayne G. Siemens

The Many Fallacies of the Rosewood Miramar Housing Plan, Part II

In the MJ July 11-18 issue, I pointed out the first three of several fallacies of the Rosewood/Miramar project proposal, where the plan includes 26 units of “affordable housing” for employees. This housing – in a 40 foot-high, three story building on the east side of the property, tucked between the freeway and a large parking lot, very close to Oak Creek flood

zone – is said, by its developers, to justify a new high-end two-story Shopping Mall/ Luxury Apartment complex and restaurant, with a massive 20-foot-deep underground parking facility, on the west side of the campus. This intrusive commercial development is to be plopped into a long-standing residential area, near homes, a venerable church, and a senior center. I showed the income bands for the various categories of employees served by “affordable housing” in our county (less than $59k = very low income; $60-95k = low income, and $96-142k = moderate income.) The Rosewood/Miramar’s intention is to divide up their housing into roughly a third of the units for each of the income brackets. I gave examples of various sorts of jobs over there in each bracket.

To recap, the first fallacy they have tried to foist on our community is that the housing is mostly for the benefit of the lowest earning employees, such as housekeepers, bellmen, valets, gardeners, custodians, line cooks, busboys, and the like. It is not. In fact, out of about 125 employees at that level, only 9-12 of them, a small percentage, will have space allocated in the new housing. Two-thirds of the units are designated for workers making $60,000 to $142,000 salaries, ie., more than $28.80/hour. That would be managers, supervisors, administrators, executives, and other white-collar employees. As far back as summer of 2023, Rosewood reps spoke about their lowest blue-collar workers as justification for their grandiose development.

The second fallacy is that “they need the new mall to pay for the housing.” This is also untrue, inasmuch as they could easily fund the housing through a) the rents they will charge employees; plus, b) ongoing revenue from the hotel operations which, even if 40% of rooms are unoccupied, generate a million dollars per week in gross receipts; c) the owner, Mr. Caruso, has large reserves of cash from his several other lucrative Southern

Calif. shopping mall businesses where rents are highest in their class; or d) borrowing the funds (less than $10 million) from one of his existing creditor institutions, or his extensive credit lines, or from his other limited partners.

The third fallacy is that they are not taking government subsidies for the project. No, of course not, up front, since Caruso Affiliates is a “for-profit business,” not a “non-profit.” They are not even eligible for subsidies! They did not mention that. However, once completed, they can apply for the LowIncome Housing Tax Credit, tax write-offs, depreciation, and many other deductions

MONTECITO TIDE GUIDE

Executive Editor/CEO | Gwyn Lurie gwyn@montecitojournal.net

President/COO | Timothy Lennon Buckley tim@montecitojournal.net

Managing Editor | Zach Rosen zach@montecitojournal.net

MoJo Contributing Editor | Christopher Matteo Connor

Art/Production Director | Trent Watanabe

Graphic Design/Layout | Stevie Acuña

Administration | Jessikah Fechner

Administrative Assistant | Kassidy Craner VP, Sales & Marketing | Leanne Wood leanne@montecitojournal.net

Account Managers | Sue Brooks, Tanis Nelson, Elizabeth Scott, Natasha Kucherenko

Contributing Editor | Kelly Mahan Herrick

Copy Editor | Lily Buckley Harbin

Proofreading | Helen Buckley

Arts and Entertainment | Steven Libowitz

Contributors | Scott Craig, Ashleigh Brilliant, Kim Crail, Tom Farr, Chuck Graham, Stella Haffner, Mark Ashton Hunt, Dalina Michaels, Robert Bernstein, Christina Atchison, Leslie Zemeckis, Sigrid Toye, Elizabeth Stewart, Amélie Dieux, Houghton Hyatt, Jeff Wing

Gossip | Richard Mineards

History | Hattie Beresford

Humor | Ernie Witham

Our Town/Society | Joanne A Calitri

Travel | Jerry Dunn, Leslie Westbrook

Food & Wine | Melissa Petitto, Gabe Saglie, Jamie Knee

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Montecito Journal Media Group, LLC

Montecito Journal is compiled, compounded, calibrated, cogitated over, and coughed up every Wednesday by an exacting agglomeration of excitable (and often exemplary) expert edifiers at 1206 Coast Village Circle, Suite G, Montecito, CA 93108.

How to reach us: (805) 565-1860; FAX: (805) 969-6654; Montecito Journal, 1206 Coast Village Circle, Suite G, Montecito, CA 93108; EMAIL: tim@montecitojournal.net

The MJ offices had a special visitor this week

The Giving List Family Service Agency

by Steven Libowitz

It’s been a landmark year for major anniversaries in Santa Barbara. The Granada Theatre launched its yearlong Granada 100 celebration in the spring. The Summer Solstice Parade held its 50th festival on the first day of summer. And Old Spanish Days Fiesta is in the midst of its centennial celebration as this issue hits newsstands.

Another local nonprofit is also marking a major milestone in 2024, one that dates back even further than those cultural organizations. The Family Service Agency turns 125 this year, which is nothing short of an astounding anniversary in the world of nonprofits, and has been helping people in town since its humble beginnings back in 1899, when a small group of concerned citizens gathered in the halls of Santa Barbara’s Chamber of Commerce to organize ways to help fellow community members in need.

Back then, relief came in the form of clothing, firewood to heat their homes, and assistance to cover medical bills. A

The Family Service Agency meets the needs of all age ranges within a family (courtesy photo)

few years later, FSA’s Milk Fund Program launched, providing milk to children and expectant mothers suffering from nutritional deficiencies from 1917-46. Nowadays FSA has a full array of services to meet its clients’ needs.

But while the specifics may have changed with the times, the organization’s purpose has remained steady: FSA exists to help

The Giving List Page 374

Play. Learn. Discover.

News Bytes Red Imported Fire Ants Found in Montecito

by MJ Staff

The Santa Barbara’s Agricultural Commissioner’s Office is working to eradicate an infestation of Red Imported Fire Ants (RIFA), Solenopsis invicta, at a property in Montecito. The infestation was confirmed to have spread by a shipment of nursery stock brought by a licensed landscaper from a wholesale nursery in Riverside County, according to the County of Santa Barbara. The Santa Barbara County Agricultural Commissioner’s Office is collaborating with the California Department of Food and Agriculture, as well as the University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) and the Riverside County Agricultural Commissioner’s Office to conduct regular surveys on the property impacted by the infestation. “Our team is working hard to eradicate the infestation,” shares Public Information Officer Kelsey Buttitta . Working alongside licensed exterminators based upon UCCE guidance, the Santa Barbara County Agricultural Commissioner’s Office team is treating the infestation by “drenching it with a product containing the active ingredient bifenthrin followed by a bait containing the active ingredient s-methoprene,” Buttitta explains. While the last infestation took two years to eradicate, Deputy Agricultural Commissioner Stephanie Stark says, “We are hopeful we can eradicate the infestation this year…After eradication, we will monitor annually for up to 5 years.”

RIFA originates from the lowlands of South America, primarily in Brazil and Argentina. These ants are highly aggressive and defend their nest/colony by biting and stinging threats such as humans, pets and livestock. When stung, RIFA venom can cause pustules on the skin that can scar and are dangerous and even fatal to those with sensitivities or allergies to the venom. RIFA are unique due to their aggressive nature, but can easily be mistaken for native fire ants and Argentine ants due to their similar color and size. Foraging RIFA may clog irrigation lines and short-circuit electrical systems, as well as interfere with native wildlife such as lizards and young birds in nests. The first documented interception of RIFA in California was at a border station in 1984. Since then there have been periodic outbreaks in multiple counties throughout the state, limited

to private properties with rapid eradication efforts. In 1999, a state-wide eradication effort began, ending four years later in 2003. Some counties in California have continued localized eradication efforts aimed at controlling RIFA infestations.

RIFA poses a major threat to the California economy with its impact on the nursery industry, whose value was estimated at $2.6 billion in 2002. In 2023, the Santa Barbara County Crop and Livestock Report shared that nursery products were the second most valuable to the county’s agricultural economy after strawberries, with a value of $122,301,000. If RIFA are accidentally shipped in potting soil to a new location, quarantines may be put in place to prevent the spread of infection to other nursery products. If under quarantine, plants cannot be shipped without the costly and labor-intensive process of applying pesticides to the products. RIFA stings can be highly dangerous for field workers as well. The nursery industry’s economy can face immediate impacts due to these risks. Currently, there are no RIFA quarantines in Santa Barbara County. This infestation, which is contained to a singular property in Montecito, is the only known case. Community members who believe they may have found RIFA are encouraged to contact any of the Santa Barbara County Agricultural Commissioner’s Offices or bring in a sample.

President Biden Withdraws from Presidential Race

On Sunday July 21st, President Biden announced his withdrawal from the 2024 Presidential race in a letter shared on social media. Biden shares, “It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President. And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down.” Biden also announced his endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris to become the Democratic Party’s nominee, running against Republican nominee and former President Donald Trump. Harris said she received Biden’s endorsement with honor and that she plans to “earn and win” the Democratic nomination. Harris has received endorsements from many Democratic politicians thus far, including Rep. Nancy Pelosi, former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as well as California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

ARSHA KOTLYA R

ESTATE GROUP

M

Your Westmont

Local Company Stops Hacking, Tracking

by Scott Craig

The growing concern about personal information and privacy in the digital age has led a company based in Santa Barbara to develop products protecting consumers. MOS

Equipment, founded by Westmont alumnus Ryan Judy (’08), manufactures Mission Darkness™ faraday bags, tents, and lockers that block radio waves, including cell phone signals.

“A lot of people don’t want their movements always logged or their information shared between their device and every wireless access point they pass,” Judy says.

After graduating from Westmont, he began working in security technology, primarily airport passenger and baggage screening, at a company based in China. He then started his own business in digital forensics focusing on phone and criminal forensics.

While in China, he learned how its government collects data on everyone, including journalists, to gain access to

their locations and activities. “We’ve joined with Google, so they send our phone bags to journalists operating in countries where they may be tracked on their devices and located, compromising their human rights,” Judy says.

Modern vehicles with keyless entry and push-to-start technology are also vulnerable to a key-fob relay attack. “If you hang your keys on a wall in your house, cheap, readily available devices can go on the other side of the wall outside, grab that signal and boost it back to the vehicle where someone else can open it,” he says.

Mission Darkness™ sells faraday bags for key fobs to consumers.

Products that shield radio frequency assist law enforcement officials when they confiscate laptops and cell phones as evidence. “They want to block signals so nobody can remotely wipe the evidence on the device, allowing them to keep the device charged and live,” he says. “To maintain the chain of custody with digital forensics, data can’t enter the device after the capture or seizure.”

A charged device allows law enforce -

ment to use a tool such as GrayKey to crack the password and gain access to its contents.

The Navy’s special operations force recently purchased a round of Mission Darkness™ Cybercylent faraday tents, portable shielding rooms (6’x6’x7’) that create a secure environment.

He recalls being a pioneer in duplicating CDs and DVDs on campus for clients such as Santa Barbara indie band Gardens & Villa and theater professor John Blondell during his days as a student. “Drummer Levi Hayden (‘07) came to me and said, ‘Hey, I heard you

Your Westmont Page 394

Judy continues to work with fellow Westmont alums on other ventures, including Jon Rogstad (‘05), with whom he co-founded One Page Inventory that manages ecommerce supply. He and Alec Avedissian (‘08) co-founded Rareform, which repurposes vinyl billboards into bags and other accessories. Judy came to Westmont with a curious mind and an entrepreneurial heart, and he credits the richness of his education and many of the connections he’s made for his success.

The Santa Barbara Neuroscience Institute Brain and Spinal Tumor Program

Our board-certified neurologists and neurosurgeons use clinical research and advanced technologies to provide care tailored to each patient’s needs.

NEUROSURGERY TEAM:

SERVICES INCLUDE:

• Brain and Spinal Cord Tumor Management

• Open and M inimally Invasive Craniotomies

• Skull Base and Pituitary Tumor Surgery

• Surgical Epilepsy Management

For more information, please contact the Santa Barbara Neuroscience Institute’s (SBNI) Nurse Navigator at 805-450-8820 or visit cottagehealth.org/tumorcare.

Richard Chung, MD, PhD

Thomas Jones, MD, Medical Director, SBNI

N. Nicole Moayeri, MD, Medical Director, Neurosurgical Oncology Program Akinwunmi Oni-Orisan, MD

Brian Walcott, MD

Alumnus Ryan Judy shows off Mission Darkness™ bags in his Cybertruck (courtesy photo)

On Entertainment Play Bill

by Steven Libowitz

Bill Lanphar wasn’t the best-known singer-songwriter-guitarist who called Santa Barbara home. But he might very well have been the best-loved among his peers.

Lanphar, who had a rock band when he lived in L.A. before relocating to Santa Barbara and La Conchita, started playing music during open mic nights at Dargan’s Pub and quickly became part of singer-songwriter circles that have supported original music in town for decades. Over the years, he formed many long-lasting musical

Covering the Music of and for Bill Lanphar” on July 26 – boasts nearly two dozen of his former colleagues and compatriots, all of whose lives, musical and otherwise, were touched and enhanced by knowing Lanphar.

Play Bill comes to Carpinteria’s Alcazar Theatre on July 26

alliances, making appearances at such singer-songwriter friendly venues as SOhO, Cold Spring Tavern, the Cambridge Drive Concert Series, MichaelKate Interiors and Palm Loft Gallery in Carpinteria.

Lanphar, who passed away in 2019, was especially appreciated for the subtleness of his always melodic songs which penetrated in their simplicity and humanity. He was also a treasured colleague in duos, trios, and larger ensembles.

Now, Bill’s brother Tom and a whole host of his musical colleagues have put together a tribute concert for Lanphar at the Alcazar Theatre, just down the street from the Palm Loft in Carpinteria. The lineup for “Play Bill:

Among them are Antara & Delilah, the folk-pop duo that delighted local audiences for more than a decade, releasing five albums before disbanding when Delilah moved to Maine. Lanphar was part of the band whenever the duo played as more than a twosome, and Antara later formed a trio called Telltale with Lanphar and Heather Stevenson, who will also be appearing at the tribute.

“Bill wrote the most incredible songs, just consistently heartfelt and melodically catchy,” Antara said. “The way the three of us sounded singing harmony was even more amazing than it had been with Delilah.”

The attraction of Telltale was so strong that Antara, who herself relocated to Arizona a decade ago, found herself frequently driving back just to sing with Lanphar and Stevenson, the trio making plans to record and play some public dates before Lanphar died.

So like many of the local musicians, Antara jumped at the chance to be part of Friday’s concert, where she, Delilah and Stevenson will be singing four of Lanphar’s songs, as well as one she wrote for him.

“His music deserves to be heard and deserves to be played,” she said. “The fact that all these people would come together to play his music should tell you how important he was to that community, and how vital his music continues to be.”

Meanwhile, Tom Lanphar and Bill’s son Dustin are putting together a band with Roy Donkin (founder of Cambridge Drive) and others to recreate Bill’s early effort, a 1970s rock band called Sundown. Other local singer-songwriters including Bruce Goldish, Susan Marie Reeves and Arturo Tello (Palm Loft organizer) will offer their versions of songs from Lanphar’s later catalog.

“It’s when I hear other people interpreting his songs that the beauty of his songwriting really comes out,” Tom Lanphar said. “It’s one of the best ways to keep his music and his memory alive. When we sing his songs, we’re really connecting to him.”

The Alcazar concert will also be the first time his music has been played at the theater by anyone, as previous song circles were held in much smaller venues.

“With their renovation and modern sound system, it’s a dream for me to have his music played there,” Lanphar said.

Bill’s brother said that he hoped the larger venue will also serve to introduce Bill’s music to a wider audience who might never have heard his brother perform.

“It would be beyond fantastic if we could expose new ears to his music,” he said.

The concert is in a way a fitting tribute to a man who would have been too shy to

ever want it while he was alive.

“He was never one to want the spotlight, more bashful and reserved in public,” Antara said. “But he was always super generous in supporting other people. It’s amazing that we’re all coming together to play his music.”

Going South

Continue motoring down the 101 this weekend for more musical adventures, including the first installment of the 2024 Ventura Music Festival, the seaside city’s long-running boundary-busting fest that extends to various venues and genres. Grammy winner and 12-time IBMA Fiddle Player of the Year Michael Cleveland brings boffo bluegrass to Olivas Adobe Historical Park with his seven-time Instrumental Group of the Year, Flamekeeper, on July 25. Friday’s left turn features the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, one of the country’s finest (and including members of our own Santa Barbara Symphony), performing Bach’s wondrous “Brandenburg Concertos No. 2-5,” led by Margaret Batjer, at Ventura College Performing Arts Center. “Counterpoint II,” the latest collaboration between pianist Conrad Tao and choreographer-dancer Caleb Teicher, explores the intersections between their artistic worlds at VCPAC on July 27, with the venue also hosting Bach, Baroque, and Brunch. A Classical Edge Concert with VMF Artistic Director Nuvi Mehta and renowned pianist and composer Greg Anderson, on July 28. Visit www.venturamusicfestival.org/events. In the nearby city that is the focus of my all-time favorite bumper sticker (“Oxnard – More Than Just a Pretty Name!), The Oxnard Salsa Festival returns for its first post-pandemic gathering on July 27-28 at Plaza Park in the Oxnard Historic District. The fest pairs spicy food and savory street tacos, burritos and other classic Mexican fare, including a salsa tasting lounge, with salsa dancing to half a dozen live salsa and Latin jazz bands from Southern California all weekend. To cool things off there’s the nearby ocean breezes as well as multiple bars with margaritas, craft beers and plenty of non-alcoholic choices, plus a plethora of kid-friendly activities. Visit https:// oxnardsalsafestival.com

Michael Cleveland and his Flamekeepers will fiddle up a storm at the Ventura Music Festival (courtesy photo)

Brilliant Thoughts

by Ashleigh Brilliant

In a once-popular song, written in 1935 and attributed to Billie Holiday, these words occur: “You came, you saw, you conquered me.” I doubt very much if whoever wrote the lyrics realized that they were quoting, or misquoting, a message originally said to have been written, 2,000 years earlier, by none other than Julius Caesar.

One reason for its fame was its brevity. After winning a certain battle, Caesar supposedly reported: “Veni. Vidi. Vici.” (“I came. I saw. I conquered.”)

Most popular songs seem to have been about romantic “Love.” But you have to admire how cleverly some songwriters found new ways of saying the same old thing.

A good example was Cole Porter. In one song, called “You’re the Top,” the beloved is compared with a whole list of otherwise unrelated items, each considered in some way to be the best of its kind. And it helped when they could also be made to rhyme. Thus we had:

You’re the Nile

You’re the Tower of Pisa

You’re the smile on the Mona Lisa

You’re sublime

You’re a turkey dinner

You’re the time of a Derby winner

You’re the nimble tread

Of the feet of Fred Astaire

You’re an O’Neill drama

You’re Whistler’s mama

You’re Camembert.

But even some songs that are not about Love have the power to move me. One of these was first published in the summer of 1940. Written by Jerome Kern, it was called “The Last Time I Saw Paris.” Most people who hear it today probably have no idea of the circumstances. It was the first year of World War II, in which the U.S. was not yet involved. But the Nazis had already overwhelmed France, and Paris was under German occupation. Paris had been a favorite destination

of American tourists, but such visits were now prohibited. This song struck a chord in the hearts of many who remembered how things used to be, since now there was no certainty that they would ever be like that again. It reminisces about things like the treelined streets and the sidewalk cafés. And the last line was particularly poignant: “No matter how they change her, I’ll remember her that way.”

Of course, certain songs have had powerfully emotional appeal for generations long past. “La Marseillaise,” which we know today as the French national anthem, was written in 1792, at the time of the French Revolution –but originally had nothing to do with the city of Marseilles, on the south coast. It was written in Strasbourg, on the eastern border, where France was at war against enemies bent on suppressing the Revolution. The name came from the fact that the song was first heard in Paris, sung by volunteers arriving from Marseille.

Another song stirring deep emotions – “Home Sweet Home,” was written by John Howard Payne, an American who himself may be said to have never really had a home. He spent much of his life traveling. In his last ten years he served as the U.S. Consul in Tunis in North Africa, where he died in 1852. But his song became emblematic of every thought conjured up by the words “There’s No Place Like Home.” One indication of its power is that, during the American Civil War, Union soldiers were forbidden to be heard singing it, because it worsened homesickness, leading to desertions.

There is another expression of sadness at thoughts of home, which occurs in the Old Testament – and it has an interesting connection with an American folk song. At one time, the people of Israel (which they called Zion) had been taken as captives to Babylon. This long period of exile is commemorated in the 137th Psalm, which begins:

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down.

Yea, we wept when we remembered Zion.

We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.

The idea of hanging their harps was that there was too much sadness for singing.

In the modern version, which is called “There Is a Tavern in the Town,” and which is mostly a farewell (presumably to friends the singer has been drinking with) we find these lines:

“Adieu, adieu kind friends, adieu adieu – I can no longer stay with you –

I’ll hang my harp on a weeping willow tree –

And may the world go well with thee.”

And since I too must, at this point, say adieu to thee, dear Reader, I can only hope that, until next time, the world will go well with thee.

Ashleigh Brilliant was born in England in 1933, came to California in 1955, to Santa Barbara in 1973, then to the Montecito Journal in 2016. Best-known for his illustrated epigrams, called “Pot-Shots,” now a series of 10,000. email: ashleigh@west. net. web: www.ash leighbrilliant.com.

This Week at MAW The Whorls of Robertson

by Steven Libowitz

The Music Academy of the West launched a directing fellow position three years ago, but MAW still doesn’t have something similar for conductor trainees, despite offering five to six orchestral concerts every summer. If they ever decided to create such a position, luring David Robertson to direct it would be a great idea. The Malibu-raised Robertson has served as chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, music director of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, and currently Director of Orchestral Studies at Juilliard, not to mention the fact that he is one of the more in-demand guest conductors in the land.

But even more than his vast experience, his love for teaching is combined with a particular ability to connect with musicians, whether amateur or professional (the New York Times made special note of the orchestra’s players “lighting up with smiles at the conductor” in his most recent guest shot last October).

Although the players in the Academy Festival Orchestra will have changed, smiles and enthusiasm are also likely when Robertson, who first led the AFO at MAW in 2007, returns for this Saturday’s concert at the Granada.

“I use the expertise of everyone in the orchestra who are the artisans, almost as a project manager, to utilize all their knowledge and talent and to come up with something that is a unified vision,” Robertson said. “That requires both a certain flexibility so that you don’t outright negate anything that the players are suggesting to you through their music making, but with such a detailed knowledge of the score that you know where there are possibilities for expansion and where things can’t change. When the whole group is playing together, what everyone works towards is an overall vision of the piece that takes into account the uniqueness of the piece and the uniqueness of the players.”

That excitement will also be sparked by the spectacular program that calls for the fellows to be fronted by violinist Leila Josefowicz for John Adams’ “Violin Concerto” followed by Prokofiev’s “Symphony No. 5 in B-flat Major, Op. 100.”

While Robertson has a close connection to Adams – the world premiere of the conductor’s “Whorls and Eddies” was conducted by Adams with the LA Phil last April – it’s the superstar violinist who has made the concerto, originally written for the late violinist Jorja Fleezanis, one

of her signature pieces, having performed it more than 150 times.

“No one plays it like she does,” said Robertson, who has been the conductor for at least two previous performances of the piece with Josefowicz just this year. “One of the most exciting experiences you can have in music is to listen to her play this piece, which in itself is a phenomenal narration, like an actress doing a scene that covers all sorts of different types of word play and styles. Leila plays it in a way that sounds as though she’s making it up on the spot, but it’s so perfectly precise and together with the orchestra that it becomes a spellbinding experience.”

Robertson paired the Adams with the Prokofiev symphony, another piece he loves performing.

“It’s one of those works that really does light up the landscape of the human soul in a way that is both remarkable and an unflinching glare into darker corners.”

Thursday, July 25: It’s mid-summer, so there’s been a hiatus on petulant children who don’t want to do their homework or other chores. That is, unless you’re coming to see Maurice Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges (The Child and his Enchanted Room), the one-act opera with libretto by the poet Colette. The ballet-opera is a fantastical story in which a naughty child – whose toys and furniture have taken the brunt of his temper tantrum – receives his punishment when the abused items in his room come to life to take their revenge; think what happens to Sid in Toy Story or a dark version of Beauty and the Beast or Alice in Wonderland. The armchairs dance together to escape the child, taking the bench,

Superstar conductor David Robertson directs the Academy Festival Orchestra this Saturday (photo by Chris Lee)

A Salacious French Drama Hits the Screens Just in Time for Summer

f you’re at all familiar with the French provocateur, , you’ll know that the 75-yearold master does not shy away from the taboo. In fact, she embraces it with gusto and sincere pathos. It’s what makes her films wildly compelling, even if they make you squirm, gasp, or look away in shock and shame. It’s true, her films are not for everyone, but her uncompromising look at complicated people, and her daring exploration of women’s sexuality, have cement-

And now, after a 10-year hiatus, the brilliant Last Summer, a Queen of Hearts. Léa plays Anne, a cool and collected lawyer that defends minors in sexual assault cases. She lives in a beautiful mansion in the countryside outside Paris with her wealthy caring husband, Pierre, and their two adopted daughters. But their idyllic summer is bound to take a turn when Pierre’s troubled 17-yearold son, Théo, comes to spend the sweaty months with his once-distant father, in hopes that some stability will set him on a good path. How wrong they all are.

You may see where this is going. Before you can say “Now Anne, think about this for a second…” the established lawyer and her husband’s son start an explosive, highly inappropriate, and scandalous affair, one that threatens the fabric of the family, Anne’s career, and most importantly Théo’s well-being.

Now, it may sound like a familiar set up, but a Lifetime movie this is not. Rather than play into the archetypes a film like this might suggest, Anne does not seem to be wanting for more passion. Pierre isn’t the neglectful husband. In fact, Anne remarks she likes how his body shows its age. Anne doesn’t express signs of repression or some deranged proclivity towards youth. She’s not a woman on the verge; she’s a highly accomplished, deliberate, if not a little distant, professional woman with an amazing life. And although we know what will happen between Anne and Théo – this is a Breillat movie after all –the telltale signs aren’t there. There’s hardly a hint that she could even be susceptible to Théo’s advances and boyish adolescence. So what drives Anne to make a choice she can never come back from? Uncontrollable lust? Control? A perversion lurking under Anne’s surface? Breillat refuses to psychologize and give a tidy explanation.

And unlike many of Breillat’s previous films, which can feel dark, cynical, and even nihilistic, Last Summer is able to retain a light, airy, and even occasionally funny atmosphere – like a breezy Parisian afternoon in the country, which in a way, makes it even more unnerving. It’s not sensational. And while it’s not as salacious, gratuitous, or in your face as her other films, it is still in its own way, confrontational. Especially in its depiction of power dynamics and the fragility of youth. The hypocritical Anne knows all too well how it works for young sexual assault victims; how often they are ignored or not believed; how damaging it can be to their psyche; how easy it is to manipulate. Who would believe a habitual troublemaker like Théo, anyway?

Breillat does what she does best, and expertly complicates our own feelings on the matter, blurring boundaries, obfuscating what’s right and wrong, causing us to question where our allegiances lie. Who are we really rooting for? We should know the answer to that. But Breillat, the seasoned provocateur, has other plans. What she does show is that lust is like a dangerous drug; it can be as destructive as it is intoxicating.

Last Summer is playing at the Riviera Theatre starting July 19th

writer and filmmaker. When he isn’t writing, watching movies, and working on projects, you can be sure he’s somewhere enjoying a big slice of vegan pizza.

Last Summer is playing at the Riviera Theatre starting July 19th

Christopher Matteo Connor is a

PLACES TO LIVE. PLACES TO LOVE.

Elizabeth’s Appraisals

Blob

Top Beer Bottles

by Elizabeth Stewart

found two “blob top” straight-sided, shorter-necked low-shouldered amber/brown 23-ounce glass bottles wedged between the ceiling joists in his 1890s house below APS. They were each slightly different and covered with 134 years of dust gathered in their final horizontal resting place amid the lathe and plaster. GJ had been installing a new ceiling fan a few months ago in the ground floor bathroom when these bottles saw the light of day after a century and a half. GJ’s house is one of the few original old homes in the “Hawley Heights,” a ‘speculation’ acreage with plans for many houses designed by entrepreneur Walter N. Hawley, who wanted to capitalize on the local land boom in 1887, a boom that disappeared after the early 1890s. And we have two remnants of that era in those two old bottles. What beverage did they contain?

tops,” which were globs of blown glass. These were not sealed with a metal top, but with a stopper; the ‘blob’ was functional because when these bottles were shipped by train or wagon, they had to be extremely sturdy, so as not to chip. GJ is right to point out they are both different in the necks, and this is because by 1890, the U.S. beer brewing industry was huge, and bottle companies made special bottles for various breweries. One of the big bottle firms was Reed & Co., who also made the same 27-ounce bottle, most similar today to our “Bomber” bottles holding 22 ounces, “Belgian style” (1/6 of a U.S. gallon) called a deuce deuce or Double Deuce by “Zythophiles” – lovers of beer.

The bottles contained 23 ounces of beer each (compared to modern longneck bottles which contain 12 ounces; a ‘shorty’ will contain 7 ounces), which had a higher alcohol content by volume than today’s average beer. Drinkers in 1890 really DRANK. The average alcohol content today is 5-6% by volume; the beer contained in these two bottles had an alcohol content of 5.5-7%. Beer was considered safer than water because of the prevalence of waterborne diseases; the alcohol used in the brewing of beer purified the water used. In both England and the U.S. in the 1890s more than 70% of the beers sold in bottles were mild ales. Lager came into style at this time because of the influx of German immigrants to the U.S. Draft beer was mostly sold in kegs.

So, we have stronger beer in larger servings in 1890; it is assumed that the drinkers whose lips last touched these two bottles were up on ladders working on the ceiling joists while drinking. But their ages might have indicated stamina: the average drinking age in much of California at the time was legislated by municipalities or counties; it was 16 years. In other counties it was the advanced age of 18 years. Thus, we have young, tough, drinkers perched on GJ’s roof 134 years ago.

Beer was not bottled widely in the U.S. before 1873; the beer bottle was invented in the early 1700s in glass form, resembling wine bottles with long necks and sloping shoulders, “stoppered” by a plug. Beer was kept in kegs, stored in barrels, and until 1870 served at room temperature. By the very end of the 19th c., beer bottles began to look like modern bottles cast in a mold (not blown glass) with short necks and low shoulders, but GJ’s bottle is “transitional” as it is almost all cast in a mold but for the “blob

The color? They became brown before the modernization of the beer bottling industry because brown glass blocks out UV rays that make beer “skunky” (and also glass blocks out oxygen to keep beer fresher). Not as effective, but a signature of European bottlers, are the green glass bottles. Shorter, less voluminous brown bottles were made post-1930s to compete with the growingly popular beer can. Similar to GJ’s bottles, Coca Cola in the 1890s bottled Coke in the same shaped bottle but at 8”, also brown glass. Quite an evolution from 1800 BC when workmen between the Tigris and the Euphrates sipped beer through straws from Sumerian jars.

You might ask what “shoulders” on a beer bottle are for. The beer bottle was designed with that shape for a reason; upon that internal slope would rest captured residue and dregs (pre-filtering technology), so that when you pour the beer it is ‘cleaner.’

The value of the pair is $100, but the story is more valuable.

Elizabeth Stewart, PhD is a veteran appraiser of fine art, furniture, glass, and other collectibles, and a cert. member of the AAA and an accr. member of the ASA. Please send any objects to be appraised to Elizabethappraisals@ gmail.com

These two beer bottles are nearly 150 years old

Lil Buck

Jon Boogz

Montecito Health Coach

A Reason, A Season or A Lifetime: How We Define Friendship

by Deann Zampelli

Irecently had an email exchange with a man who was interested in renting our vacation home for a stay with his grown sons. His wife had died the week before and as she loved the beach, he felt it would be a wonderful way to honor her. I offered what I hoped were words of comfort, as I often write about loss in my work.

As the days unfolded, shards of grief would surface. “Her memorial is tomorrow,” he said. “Is it wrong that I just want it to be over with?” This began a series of exchanges in which we discussed loss and bereavement, among other things. I let him know that his feelings were completely natural and that a memorial (in any form) isn’t just to remember a person, but to commemorate a moment in time. A “before” and “after” which can often give permission for the heart to move forward. Not that grief is linear,

but for many, the closure this type of ceremony offers can be the beginning of healing itself.

After this last email, I began to wonder what the odds were that a complete stranger would book a vacation at the home of someone who has a background in grief counseling and psychology.

Why were this man and I connected at this exact moment in time?

A few days later, my question came full circle when I had the great pleasure of having dinner in Barcelona with friends from home, Renee Dektor (local singer, songwriter, sound circle wizard and Reiki practitioner) and her daughter, Amelia

During our hours and hours of eating, drinking and talking until we were almost bounced off of our table (ok, we were actually bounced off of our table) she shared an expression with me about friendship that I had never heard before.

“Reason, Season, Lifetime.”

This suddenly made so much sense to me. There was a reason the grieving man

from Colorado messaged me about our home when he did.

When I asked Renee if it was alright if I mentioned her and Amelia in this article by name, she immediately agreed then texted, “Which one am I?” I didn’t even have to think about it before I answered, “Duh. You are all three.”

Renee and I have known each other for years, our paths crossing through Cold Spring Elementary School, numerous mutual friends and now in the wellness community. We never run out of things to talk about, and I always feel that I have so much to learn from her. However, we aren’t (yet) the kind of friends who make plans one-on-one.

I feel we have many reasons we need to know one another; we have been through many seasons together already (raising young children, disasters and loss in our community, friends moving away and more) and that we will continue to cycle through this process throughout our lifetimes

Being an avid researcher, I needed to find the origin of this expression she shared and while it seems to be a bit murky, most agree that it stems from a poem by Brian A. “Drew” Chalker in which he wrote, “People come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime.” A bit anticlimactic, but nonetheless meaningful. It made me dive deeper into the labels we assign to different platonic relationships and the values that unknowingly get applied to them in the process.

“These are my oldest friends.” I say when introducing Cecilia and Katie, who I have known respectfully since I was 5 and 12. “This is my best friend,” I say when talking about Helene. We often laugh at the juvenile undertone of the term but feel no less inclined to use it.

Then I have my high school friends, my college friends, my grad school friends, my work friends. Each knowing me in a different incarnation of myself. I realized that various relationships not only hold different meanings, but they give us permission to let out different sides of ourselves.

Katie and Cecilia have always brought out the silly and mischievous side to me so I am always ready to laugh with them and say things that my 14-year-old self would have said.

My high school friends have always seen me as “The Comedian” in the group, which creates an easy lapse into irreverent humor and stupidity. But I could tell my BFF that I just offed someone, and her first question would be how she could best protect me (or where we could hide the body.) I am my most honest self with her. Her actions have shown my unconscious mind that I am safe enough with her not to “be” any version of myself other than the one I am in that moment.

That is a powerful gift. And while some of us also have the good fortune to be friends with our romantic partners and/ or our children, it is something quite profound to receive that kind of love and loyalty from someone who isn’t legally or ethically required to give it.

It turns out that having close friendships is also beneficial to our health. According to the American Psychological Association, people who have close friends are also less likely to die from all causes including heart disease and a wide range of chronic illnesses.

So, there you have it. Friendships are a powerful thing. Hold onto to the ones you have, and embrace the ones yet to come, regardless of the reason, the season, or the lifetime.

Trained at Duke Integrative Medicine, Deann Zampelli owns Montecito Coaching & Nutrition and has a broad range of clients working on everything from nutrition to improving their marathon pace. She also has a Masters in Clinical Psychology and has been a resident of Montecito since 2006.

An Independent Mind

It’s Kamala!

by Jeffrey Harding

In my last article two weeks ago (“The Thing You Can’t Unsee”) I said that Biden would go and he did. Biden immediately endorsed Kamala Harris. Most Democratic leaders and potential rivals quickly capitulated to Ms. Harris. She’s the Democratic presidential candidate.

I also said that based on polls, middle-roaders, about 70% of the electorate, consider themselves conservative or mostly conservative. I wished for a moderate Democrat candidate to oppose Trump, but that was shot down after Joe endorsed Kamala.

The New York Times agrees with me: “Ever since Donald J. Trump won the presidency, Democrats have stuck to a winning electoral playbook: From congressional races to presidential ones, they’ve nominated well-liked, moderate candidates who could appeal to nearly any voter who disliked Mr. Trump and his allies.”

Kamala is a leftist Progressive. I’ve reviewed her career and have a pretty good idea what she will propose for her policies. During the election, like Joe, she will try to appeal to centrist voters. But, like Joe, in office she will fall back on the Progressive policies she has supported during her entire political career.

She achieved political prominence due to her gender and race. And Willie Brown . She identifies mostly as Black and secondarily as Asian Indian. I’m not belittling her achievements as a law student, prosecutor, California Attorney General, senator, and VP. But she was at the right place at the right time.

I’m sure Kamala did well at my alma mater UC Hastings College of the Law. She passed the California bar which used to be one of the toughest in the nation when I took it. Then she worked in district attorney offices in Alameda and San Francisco as a prosecutor which isn’t an easy niche.

During 1994-1995 she and Willie Brown dated. Willie, also a Hastings grad, was the most powerful politician in San Francisco. They lasted only a year but Willie appointed her to some cush state commissions and continued to support and mentor her.

There is a lot of right wing stuff floating around about her being some kind of Manchurian Candidate commie. I have reviewed some of this material and it is untrue. Since the assertions trace back to the radical ‘60s when I lived in San Francisco, I had a lot of experience with radicalism in those days. It’s easy to create an alternate history by connecting dots that don’t exist and weave Kamala into it. But it is a fantasy. If you doubt this,

contact me and I will supply you with the reality.

I don’t mean to claim that Kamala is incompetent. As a graduate of Howard and Hastings, she has solid academic credentials. And she is smart and ambitious. In an era dominated by white politicians, she took advantage of her gender and race to boost herself into political prominence.

The problem with Kamala is that she is a Progressive and those policies will be bad for our economy and the welfare of our citizens. Welfare statism is at the top of her list. During the 2020 presidential campaign she was labeled as the most economically illiterate of all candidates.

Her policies are even to the left of Biden. By some estimates they would require $40 trillion of new spending over the next decade. Those programs include universal healthcare (i.e., Medicare-like government run healthcare) and the Green New Deal described as a “new national, social, industrial, and economic mobilization on a scale not seen since World War II and the New Deal era.”

She wants taxes on corporations higher than what Biden proposed, relief of student loan debt, increased death taxes, tax cuts for “the people that work and tax increases on the rich,” a Rent Relief Act which gives renters a tax credit, and national rent control. She strongly supported the American Rescue Plan of 2021 and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, both being wasteful cornucopias of pork, handouts, and subsidies, and the Infrastructure and Investment Act and the Chips and Science Act,

both are what economists call “industrial policy” (your tax dollars go to companies that are politically favored by the government). And there is more.

The spending will increase the federal deficit and cause higher interest rates, more inflation, and a weaker dollar. Ditto with high taxes on corporations, the entities that create jobs. She wants confiscatory taxes on the “rich” such as entrepreneurs who have made our lives better. I suspect a wealth tax will be proposed. There will be more regulations on businesses that will slow the economy and lead to unemployment as higher operating costs cause cutbacks. Government subsidies to businesses will, if history gives us any guidance, lead to wasted capital as bureaucrats make political choices rather than wise investment choices. It’s not hyperbole to say it’s the path to Greek-like bankruptcy. Instead of hurling insults about candidate Harris, it would be more effective to criticize her policies which would lead us to welfare statism and failure.

Jeffrey Harding is a real estate investor and long-time resident of Montecito. He previously published a popular financial blog, The Daily Capitalist. He is a retired SBCC adjunct professor.

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Travel Buzz

What’s up in Honolulu and Wacky Waikiki?

by Leslie A. Westbrook

Plenty, as usual, it turns out.

Before checking into my second Hawaiian hotel (one of four on my eightnight islands foray), I had a fantastic brunch/lunch at Istanbul Hawaii, a delightful Turkish restaurant opened five years ago in the Kamake’e Corridor of Ward Village. Turkish native Chef Ahu Hettema, along with her mother Nili Yildirim (who was in Turkey at the time of my visit), and with help from Ahu’s husband, have created a stunning, colorful, bustling dining option in an unfamiliar (at least to me) part of Honolulu. Located across the street from Whole Foods market (and with free parking), the high-rise building where the restaurant is located also houses a hip clothing boutique and other snazzy shopping opportunities. Interior design by Chef Ahu is a riot of color. Indoor tables are adorned with the traditional Turkish scarves that women customarily braid into their hair to alert the opposite sex they are ready to date. Even the chandeliers are designed and constructed by talented Ahu, a fine artist who paints with spices. The small bar and visible bustling kitchen, lined with colorful spices and ceramic tagine pots, add to the festive atmosphere. Dishes are served on traditional copper platters; Chef Ahu is in the process of working with a ceramicist to design custom plates.

Sunday brunch/lunch with three friends was a great choice, as the menu begs for sharing. We began with the mezze plate –an array of tasting dips served with fresh toasted pita that included house made hummus, baba ganoush and olives, and an amazing lentil soup. My longtime artist friend Masami Teraoka and I shared a whole Mediterranean branzino (flown in twice weekly) served with a Greek salad of Maui onions and tomatoes; his daughter Eve and her mom Lynda went for the weekend brunch items (crunchy waffles and French toast with fruit). Everything

SUNDAY THRU THURSDAY AM - PM 7:0010:00 FRIDAY AND SATURDAY AM7:0012:00AM SUNDAY THRU THURSDAY 7:30 AM - 10:00 PM FRIDAY AND SATURDAY 7:30 AM - 12:00 PM

was delicious and finger licking good. We attempted, with the chef’s help, to read our coffee grounds fortune - Turkish coffee and caffeine-free “coffee” made from roasted date pits was a wonderful discovery. Turkish desserts included a fantastic, not-overly sweet baklava, halvah, hatay künefe (chef’s fave) made with cheese, clotted cream, pistachios and crispy filo noodles and a new dessert the chef was testing, a sort of sticky rice pudding that also won everyone’s approval. I am only sorry I didn’t get to try the lamb tagine. Beef eaters take note: the holy cow is aged onsite for over 100 days. Istanbul Hawaii is an ethnic sparkling gem worth seeking out.

Kaimana Beach Hotel – Waikiki

My friends dropped me off at the beachfront Kaimana Hotel (the former New Otani that opened in 1963). Under new local ownership for the past five years, the 122-room, nine story hotel boasts a beachy-cool vibe. The location, at the far quieter end of Waikiki (although this is not a quiet hotel) is superb. The popular onsite restaurant, Hau Tree, is one of just a few Honolulu restaurants (like Duke’s of Hawai’i) that sits at the sand’s edge. The pastas stand out here, as do lamb chops, the coconut cake, and house made ice cream and sorbets, thanks to Chef John Taube IV, of Nomad Restaurant Group. Stunning ocean views – from my corner 5th floor room overlooking the beach to the historic (long shuttered) Natatorium and the curving coastline of Waikiki – had me “oohing and awing.” I signed up for a free, stand-up paddleboard lesson the next morning – after the partial solar eclipse. My SUP lesson was basic, but sufficient for this first-timer. I hauled my board and paddle out into the aquamarine-colored waters of popular Kaimana beach. Nearby swimmers warned me to watch the rocks, so my paddle-out was more of a sit-down than a stand-up affair – enjoyable, just the same. It was here, talking to a local also enjoying the water, that I learned about the fascinating

D’ANGELO BREAD

Some of the delicious mezzes from Istanbul Hawaii

Beautiful views from the Kaimana Hotel

C

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Near Cottage Hospital, this California cottage has a 2 bed/2 bath home, plus 1 bed/1 bath rental unit & 1-car garage.

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Petite Wine Traveler

Bordeaux Bound:

A Wine Lover’s Cruise Adventure

by Jamie Knee

Having just returned from hosting an enchanting wine river cruise in the heart of Bordeaux, I am brimming with stories and memories. This famed wine region, celebrated for its luxurious offerings, revealed itself in all its glory as we navigated the picturesque Garonne and Dordogne rivers. Each bend in the river opened a new chapter in the Bordeaux wine story, and I was privileged to share this extraordinary experience with fellow wine and travel lovers.

On the Left Bank, where the Garonne River meets the Atlantic Ocean, lies a region steeped in viticultural history and natural beauty. This area, with its gravelly soils, is renowned for producing wines of power and structure – think cabernet sauvignon. Our journey began here, in the Médoc region, home to legendary châteaux with centuries-old history. While the grand estates were awe-inspiring, it was the smaller, family-owned wineries that truly captured our hearts. Their wines, rich with the essence of the terroir, offered a more intimate connection to the land and its traditions.

Crossing to the Right Bank, we discovered a softer, more seductive side of Bordeaux. The Merlot-dominated wines of Saint-Émilion and Pomerol, with grapes planted in clay soils, were a revelation, and some of my favorites. We biked through picturesque vineyards, sampling wines that ranged from elegant and refined to bold and opulent. The medieval town of Saint-Émilion, with its charming architecture and underground cellars, provided a magical backdrop to our wine-filled days, enhancing the allure of every sip.

The Entre-Deux-Mers region, aptly named “between two seas” for its location between the Garonne and Dordogne rivers, is acclaimed for its

crisp, dry white wines. This picturesque area boasts charming wineries that craft delightful blends of sauvignon blanc and sémillon, striking a perfect balance of fruit and acidity. These refreshing wines paired exquisitely with the region’s fresh seafood and vibrant cuisine, making our culinary adventures as unforgettable as the wines themselves.

Beyond the vineyards, Bordeaux itself was a feast for the senses. We strolled along the riverfront, admiring iconic landmarks like the Place de la Bourse, Grand Théâtre, and the Miroir d’Eau, a 37,000 square foot reflecting pool. One of the trip’s highlights was a visit to La Cité du Vin, best described as an amusement park for wine lovers. This stunning architectural marvel offered a fascinating exploration of the world of wine through interactive exhibits, immersive films, and wine games. The rooftop tasting center provided breathtaking views of the city while we sipped on a variety of wines from around the world.

Another gem was the Bordeaux Wine School, where I took wine classes in 2019. During the visit, we explored their wine bar, Le Bar à Vin. Located in an 18th-century building opposite

the Grand Théâtre, and renovated by architect Françoise Bousquet, this wine bar exuded elegance and intimacy. The contemporary furniture, combined with a beautiful tapestry by Marc Saint-Saëns on the theme of the vine, created a stunning ambiance. The extensive wine list was dedicated entirely to Bordeaux’s many appellations, and generous pours of delicious Bordeaux wines for around 5 euros was simply unbeatable.

A favorite part of our journey included a delightful visit to my friends Nathalie and Jérôme ’s winery, Château Boutinet, on the Left Bank in Villegouge. We explored the vineyards, petted the sheep, and tasted in their yurt, which serves as both a tasting room and a yoga studio. They produce several wines, with merlot being their specialty, but one of my all-time favorites is their clairet. Made of merlot, this unique Bordeaux wine is dark pink in style, full-bodied, and deep-colored – a specialty of the region that showcases Bordeaux’s versatility. I’ve been eager to see more of this wine in the States.

As we cruised the Garonne and Dordogne rivers, we joined the vibrant Bordeaux Wine Festival (Bordeaux Fête le Vin), a joyous celebration of the region’s rich winemaking heritage held every June. This event offered a legendary wine tasting tour, taking us through 80 appellations with expert insights at every stop. We enjoyed unique tasting workshops and master classes at the Bordeaux School, indulged in yummy crêpes at the Gastronomic Village, and explored historic tall ships like the Belem and El Galeón. The festival was a fantastic opportunity to reconnect with winemakers I’ve met on past visits, and through my Petite Wine Traveler platform.

For those of you who think Bordeaux is out of your budget, an important point to highlight is that 95% of Bordeaux wines are not classified, meaning they aren’t all from fancy estates and aren’t super-expensive. Bordeaux offers great value if you know

where to look. With over 7,000 estates producing more than 500 million liters of wine annually, there are plenty of affordable and delicious options to explore. With some great deals to be had locally at Montecito’s Bottle Shop or The Liquor & Wine Grotto.

For wine lovers, Bordeaux is a destination that offers endless discovery and enjoyment. This region, with its rich history, diverse landscapes, and world-class wines, continues to captivate and inspire me. As a host of wine excursions around the world, I am always excited to explore and share new wine regions. Join me on the next adventure, and let’s savor the finest wines together.

Jamie Knee is a global wine communicator and travel writer, has hosted 100+ winemaker interviews, international wine judge, and holds multiple wine, sommelier, and educator certifications.

Jamie at the Bordeaux Wine Show

Just one of many châteaux while cruising on the Dordogne River

Playing Pétanque and sipping wine from EntreDeux-Mers

Embrace the Omakase experience at the exclusive 13-seat bar at AMA Sushi and indulge in a culinary experience built around trust and spontaneity between our chef and guests. Each evening, our team presents the freshest ingredients, perfectly paired with a selection of wine, sake, and innovative cocktails. We welcome you to choose between two distinct dining styles: our traditional Edomae-style omakase at the sushi car or opt for a la carte and prix fixe, both offered on our outdoor patio. Whichever you choose, we invite you to indulge in a unique and memorable dining experience. For reservations, visit rosewoodmiramarbeach.com or call 805.900.8388 @amasushimiramar facebook.com/amasushimiramar 1759 S Jameson

Lily: 10% off all purchases made in store

Mad Dogs & Englishmen: 50% off all rentals all week

Maison K: Saturday, 20% off dresses; Sunday, 10% off blouses; Monday, 20% off belts; Tuesday,10% off sweaters; Wednesday, 20% off dusters; Thursday, 10% off textiles; Friday, 20% off pillows; and Saturday, 50% off all diamonds

Montecito Med Spa: 25% off all services and products during Coast Village Week

Montecito Collective: $75 gift card with the purchase of $500 or more Montesano Market & Deli: August 3 and 4, Bellini Bar 9 am – 5 pm

Peregrine Galleries: 10% of each purchase to the buyer’s charity of choice, and refreshments

Silverhorn: August 3, visit Silverhorn’s extraordinary loose Gem Collections, natural gems, and crystals. Owner Michael Ridding and Silverhorn’s gemologist, Susan Schafer, will be on hand to give complimentary consultations. And all week, view the collection of this summer’s “Go To” Earrings, The Huggie, in 18kt gold and take advantage of special promotional pricing.

Tennis Shop: complimentary can of tennis balls or pickleballs with the purchase of $100 or more

True Love Always: Sip and Shop with a 20% Sale on Select Fine Jewelry Waterhouse Gallery : August 3, Meet artist Rick Garcia in a special appearance

Whiskey x Leather: 15% off one item! In store Happy Hour Wednesday through Friday from 3 pm – 6 pm, and on Saturday, August 10: In support of woman-owned Santa Barbara businesses, meet Rachel pouring her special Muna coffee from 11 am – 3 pm.

Coast Village Art Walk: Thursday, August 8, 4 - 7 pm, designed to be an immersive experience with art by local artists, a live ‘70s and ‘80s cover band provided by Rosewood Miramar Beach, food, and refreshments along CVR. More details in next week’s issue!

411: Instagram: @coast.village.road www.coastvillageroad.com

The 2nd Annual Summerland Business Block Party

The 2nd Annual Summerland Businesses Block Party is on Saturday, July 27, from 11 am to 4 pm. Chairing the event are local business leaders

Aimee Miller , owner of Home Crush; Marie Ferris , owner of Juniper; Leslie Person Ryan , owner of Farm to Paper and Sweet Wheel Farms; D’Arcy Cornwall , President of Summerland Beautiful; and Chelsie Williams for the gift basket give away.

This family and all ages party will be held along Lillie Avenue Summerland, with many of the retail shops and restaurants participating, namely, Arrediamo, Beach Club Athletics, Bikini Factory, Botanik, Godmother’s, Home Crush, Indian Summers Boutique, Inn on Summer Hill, Juniper, Farm to Paper/ Letter Perfect, Porch, Red Kettle Coffee, Rusty’s Pizza, Santa Barbara Bird Sanctuary, Summerland Antique Collective, Summerland Beach Café, Summerland Salon & Spa, Summerland Winery, Sweet Wheel Farms, The Nugget Bar & Brill, The Sacred Space, The Well, Tinker’s Burgers Restaurant & Catering, and the White Caps Beach Club.

Home Crush and Juniper are sponsoring two live bands, the Rankin File Band and the Mint Dolphin Band, starting at 11am through 6pm, at the patio area of Home Crush.

Rusty’s Summerland is hosting a Spin to Win for gift cards and more with local artisans who make wellness products, clothing, jewelry, pet gifts, cutting boards, coasters, and organic California honey.

Red Kettle is hosting a Makers Market from 10 am to 3 pm with pop up local vendors and live music by Janelle Beckman and Yen Seay.

The Taste Makers Market (@ tastemakersmarketsb), an epicurean Pop-up market, will be at Home Crush with dozens of the best epicurean offerings from local chefs, mixologists, and artisanal bakers.

The Red Cross Blood Mobile will be outside Home Crush at Lillie and Olive taking much needed donations. They are gifting a movie ticket to donors, and giving blood also earns you a raffle ticket for winning a Dodge Ram 1500 sponsored by The Red Cross Blood Drive.

The annual Summerland Gift Basket give away contest is worth $2,200 of goodies from the Summerland participating businesses. To enter, come to the Summerland Block Party, take photos of it and post your photos to Instagram with the tag @summerlandca.visit and tag the business you visited. No limits on entries! Winner is announced at the Summerland Winery at 5 pm.

411: Instagram: @summerlandca.visit, @homecrushshop

Foraging Thyme Heirloom Tomato

by Melissa Petitto

Ifeel like I say this about a lot of fruits and vegetables, but I seriously wait all year for that perfect summer tomato! Growing up in Alabama with an incredible farm in my backyard, tended by my dad, the summer tomato holds great nostalgia for me. Walking into my backyard, salt shaker in hand, plucking a sun warmed and ripened tomato and eating it like an apple, that is the taste of summer. Eating seasonally is easy here in the Central Coast and wow how nutritious and flavorful it is to do so. Tutti Frutti Farms has some exquisite and colorful heirloom tomatoes in right now, go take advantage! This fruit has many nutritional benefits including its Vitamin C and beta carotene content. These are both antioxidants that help improve our immune system. Lycopene, another antioxidant, is found in abundance in the tomato and is shown to help prevent many types of cancer. Lycopene has also been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease, as well as support brain health, and protect against metabolic syndrome. Tomatoes are also high in fiber and help prevent constipation. The tomato is a versatile ingredient and can be used raw and cooked. Let’s take it into the kitchen!

Tomato Basil Tart

Yield: 6 to 8 Servings

2 each sheets thawed vegan puff pastry

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 each garlic cloves, minced

4 each heirloom tomatoes, different colors

½ tablespoon sea salt

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

½ cup basil chiffonade (little ribbons)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment.

1. Slice the tomatoes in ¼ inch slices and lay them out on paper towel lined baking sheets. Salt and pepper them and allow them to sit for 15 to 20 minutes or until a lot of the moisture has been transferred to the paper towels.

2. Arrange the puff pastry on the prepared baking sheets. Brush them with the olive oil and spread the garlic evenly over each one.

3. Lay the dried tomatoes on top of the garlic and olive oil, arranging the different colors in overlapping lines and leaving ¼ inch border around the outside of the pastry.

4. Transfer to the preheated oven and bake 25 to 35 minutes or until golden brown and crispy.

5. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with the basil. Slice each tart into 4 pieces and serve hot or room temperature.

finished her 10th cookbook, and is an expert on nutrition and wellness.

Heirloom tomatoes are full of color and flavor (photo by mercedesfromtheeighties via Wikimedia Commons)

Melissa Petitto, R.D., is an executive chef and co-founder at Thymeless My Chef SB, was a celebrity personal chef for 16 years, just

“Natatorium.” The saltwater swimming pool on the beach of Waikiki once served as “a living memorial for people to take part in its long history of indigenous swimming traditions and Olympic legacy.” Dedicated in 1927, to honor 10,000 citizens of Hawai’i who served in World War I, The Natatorium was conceived as more than a war memorial, according to its website. Designed by renowned architect Lewis Hobart, The Natatorium’s grand Beaux-Arts archway leads to its ocean-water swim basin. The stunning architectural wonder includes bleachers and bathhouses, friezes, pediments, statuary, and cornices. Sadly, one of only a few ocean-water natatoriums left in the world – the only one of its kind in the United States – is closed to the public. Johnny Weissmuller once performed there, but the place has been mired in government red tape for years.

While hotel luaus can sometimes be tacky, The Lū‘au at Waikīkī Beach Marriott Resort & Spa was a riveting performance

that save them many thousands in taxes. Furthermore, they will not pay any TOT to the county on apartments rented over 31 days. There are teams of accountants who are figuring out how to do this, rest assured. Do not doubt that they are proficient at serving their own financial interest.

spent $25-$30+ and 30 minutes of your time. So some people think this is “a cool idea,” or “convenient?” Not me. I’ll opt for Pierre’s, Renaud’s, or even Starbucks! Or my Keurig at home!

Leslie A. Westbrook is a Lowell Thomas Award-winning travel writer and journalist who loves exploring the globe. A 3rd generation Californian., Leslie also assists clients sell fine art, antiques, and collectibles via auction. www.auctionliaison.com

Speaking of history, hotel luau shows can be hokey. I hadn’t been to one of Hawaii’s touristy luau dinners for decades. Talented Oahu ceramicist Lynda Hess drove over from her east side home to join me. We took a leisurely stroll along Waikiki’s main drag before finding the Waikiki Beach Marriott (there are several Marriott hotels in the area) where we enjoyed a delicious and filling buffet dinner that included poi and kalua pig while watching and filming amazing performances by the band, singers, and hardworking dancers – from hula hands and swaying hips to intense dances from throughout Polynesia. A highlight was meeting a delightful family of four from Mill Valley with two charming young sons (5 and 7). Watching the rapture on Paolo and his little brother’s mesmerized faces as World FireKnife Champions – including a hair-raising live fire performance by an 11-year-old boy/keiki – topped off the buffet meal and drinks and was worth the price of admission. Not only did the performers dance their youknow-what’s off – they draw Sharpie pen tattoos and made wrist leis for guests prior to their three-hour dinner show and even graciously posed with guests for photos after the show.

The Details

Kaimana Hotel – Beachfront high-rise on a fantastic local’s beach (“Kaimana” is Hawai’ian for ‘local’). Free activities include SUP and surf lessons (free surfboards), yoga on the beach, and more. Fun shop with cool gear, barista coffee bar and fresh pastries on site (Provisions). Two awesome “aunties” – Lani and Tina – run the jammed-packed Russell’s Convenience Store with greeting and postcards, stamps, pre-packaged food (yummy salads), fun coconut shell bras for $5, and more. I toured one of several spacious penthouse suites, a relative bargain at $1,499. Regular room rates hover (depending on season and capacity) at around $250 making this one of Waikiki’s more affordable on-the-beach options. Istanbul Hawaii – Tasty Turkish cuisine on Oahu. www.istanbulhawaii.com

Pā‘ina Waikīkī, The Lū‘au – Launched summer 2023, The Lū‘au at Waikīkī Beach Marriott Resort & Spa, produced by Hawaii’s largest, longest-running entertainment company (Tihati Productions), runs Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday & Sunday, 5-8 pm. Prices start at $125 for the three-hour performance, dinner, and drinks. www.painawaikiki.com

Olay’s Thai Lao Cuisine – Highly recommended by Banning, Kaimana hotel front desk’s team member. www.olaysthaihawaii.com

The Fourth Fallacy Caruso’s reps often repeat is that the project is “ >70% Affordable.” Again, this is open to interpretation. That figure is true if you look at how many front door keys will be needed for the housing versus the lux apartments: 26 vs. 8. But is it fair to compare 17 compact studio units, three small one-bedroom units of 450-750 square feet each, and a small number of two-bedroom units, with eight Luxury Apartments varying from one to three bedrooms, and 1,000 to 2,000 square feet each? Total square footage for the 26 “affordable” units is about equal with the eight “market rate” apartments. So if one were to go by square footage, now the ratio is more like 50%/50%.

If you look at the units economically, the affordable units will generate about $45,000 per month rent, and the “market-rate” apartments will bring in about $180,000 per month, making them more than 4 times more valuable to the owner. Now we see the ratio, economically speaking, is 20%/80%. So, telling people that your project is 70% affordable is not quite telling the complete story.

The 5th fallacy, a “selling point” of the west end project, is that of a “grab and go coffee shop.” To begin with, there already exists a cafe in the main building where you can get coffee “to go” if need be. Secondly, to get your coffee at the proposed new eatery, you will have to drive down a ramp to underground valet parking, exit the vehicle, give your car to the valet there, go up an elevator to the restaurant, wait in line or sit at a table, order your coffee, pay for it, add cream and sugar, walk back to the elevator, go down to the valet area, give the valet your ticket, wait for your car (which may be parked on the other side of the hotel, 10-15 minutes away, depending on staffing), pay the valet $10-20 for parking fee, wait for your car, then get back in the vehicle. By then, the coffee is dead cold, and you just

One of the great ironies of this project, and the 6th Fallacy I will mention, is that the number of NEW, LOWPAYING JOBS CREATED by the new retail Mall, restaurant, and luxury apartments above, (jobs such as valet parking, waitresses, janitors, housekeepers, maintenance men, more shop girls, etc.) will definitely exceed the number of new “affordable housing studios” being built on the east side of the hotel!

By adding 30-50 more low-paid workers in the retail mall, the new restaurant, and apartment buildings, Caruso is actually WORSENING the affordable housing crunch in our region!! They are creating far more very low-income jobs than the new housing is even designed to accommodate!! So far from solving the affordable housing dilemma, as another MJ letter-writer suggested last week, they are actually aggravating an already congested traffic and roadway situation, burning more gasoline, causing more pollution!

The reality of this project is that the affordable employee housing is a smokescreen to squeeze more profit out of every square foot of their property. Caruso is willing to bring a commercial mall with more traffic, congestion, and multi-story buildings to a quiet neighborhood and to a hotel that used to be known for its cottage-style architecture and atmosphere. The proposed retail mall of 12 high-end shops, in addition to the 10 luxury shops already existing in or near the main building, is designed for outsiders, for wealthy guests that want “an L.A.-like Shopping Experience.”

If the housing was to be built on its own, with the appropriate genuine interest in serving employees – as a stand-alone – then it would be acceptable and welcome. But it is not. It is a bargaining chip.

So if one can see sense of these fallacies and incongruities, and run the figures, it makes no sense to claim that the new retail mall and apartments are Letters Page 414

Fiori Felici Floral Designs at Juniper

Felice Peardon, a Montecito local and founder of Fiori Felici Floral Designs, will host a pop-up on the front deck of Juniper Boutique for the Summerland Block Party on Saturday, July 27th, from 11 am to 4 pm. Peardon began Fiori Felici Floral Designs, meaning ‘happy flowers’ in Italian, as a startup in COVID during the summer of 2021 and creates luxury floral arrangements for homes, offices, special events, and gatherings – specializing in orchids and fresh cut flowers in vintage vessels. In January of this year, Peardon began incorporating her floral arrangements with her love of sea glass collecting and will debut her new sea glass creations at the pop-up. Fiori Felici will showcase flower arrangements in sea-glassed vessels, as well as picture frames, mirrors, furniture, greeting cards, serving trays, vintage sea-glassed crystal bowls, votive candle holders, and more. Fiori Felici will also offer custom and commissioned orders for “like items.” Items that contain sea glass, shells, ceramics, and rocks were all collected on Santa Barbara beaches and curated and designed by Peardon. For more information, follow @fiorifelicisb on Instagram and Fiori Felici Floral Designs & Seaglass Creations on Facebook.

Brian Storr and Rosina

Garcia Join SB Museum of Natural History

Brian Storr MBA is the newly appointed Chief Financial Officer for the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, as of May 2024. Storr was previously with the ABC-CLIO Goleta company in three positions, the Vice President of Finance & Manufacturing, Director of Manufacturing, Logistics & Strategic Analysis, and Director of Business & Financial Services. His experience range

includes finance, transportation, telecommunications, and publishing. Storr is a volunteer with the American Youth Soccer Organization Santa Barbara. He received his MBA from the University of Pittsburg Katz Graduate School of Business and his BA in Government from Dartmouth College.

Rosina Garcia is the Director of Education at the SBMNH and its Sea Center. She started in her new role January 2024. Happy to take on this new position, she posted on her LinkedIn page, “The Teen Programs department is a main reason I accepted the position I’m in now. I am so proud to work with outstanding teens – my favorite colleagues – and witness their growth into scientists. Come work with me and be part of our amazing teen programs.”

Prior to the SBMNH Garcia worked on research with other educators on Young Stellar Objects for SASA and was a Science Teacher at San Diego Unified School District for five years. She simultaneously worked as the Program

Coordinator at the Birch Aquarium at Scripps San Diego and as a Paleontology

Volunteer at the San Diego Natural History Museum. At Birch she created their first bilingual summer camp.

Garcia holds a MA in Science Education from Duke University and a BS from UC San Diego.

“We are thrilled to welcome Brian and Rosina to our team,” said SBMNH President & CEO Luke Swetland . “Their expertise and passion will be instrumental in advancing our mission of connecting people to and inspiring curiosity for our natural world.”

411: www.sbnature.org

Tim Lister Awarded NASA Grant for the ESA’s Hera Mission

Tim Lister PhD, Senior Scientist at the Las Cumbres Observatory, Goleta, has been awarded a grant from NASA to join the European Space Agency’s Hera Mission, as one of 12 U.S. participating scientists.

On September 26, 2022, the world’s first planetary defense test mission was carried out by NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART). In the test, a spacecraft impacted Dimorphos, the smaller secondary (approximately 500foot diameter) asteroid of the near-Earth object binary system (65803) Didymos. That impact successfully changed the orbital period of Dimorphos.

Lister led the observations of the DART mission, part one of the Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment collaboration between NASA and the ESA. His team utilized the LCO telescope global network, captured the impact, and continued observations with data collection through March 2023. His findings

were published in The Planetary Science Journal, May 31, 2024. In 2023, he was honored for his work with having an asteroid named after him [See MJ Vol. 29 Issue 29, July 20-27, 2023].

The ESA Hera mission is part two of the collaboration. Hera is scheduled to launch on a SpaceX Falcon-9 rocket in October 2024, and rendezvous with Dimorphos in October 2026, to begin a six-month investigation. Hera will carry 12 instruments, including two CubeSats [like drones] and a radio science experiment.

Lister and his team will use the LCO 2-meter Faulkes Telescope South at Siding Spring Observatory, New South Wales, Australia. Its multi-channel imager will measure light curves to determine whether the DART-induced change in Dimorphos’s orbit time has remained constant or changed, and whether the impact caused wobbling or tumbling in its orbit.

I met with Lister at the LCO offices for an interview:

Q. What will you do for the Hera Mission?

A. NASA has participating science programs for missions not being done by NASA, and it puts out a call for participating scientists to apply for them. I put in a proposal saying what I wanted to do for the Hera mission. Hera has a science team already of European and International scientists. When you apply, you have to demonstrate that you’re adding something in terms of a resource or expertise. In our case it’s the LCO telescopes to make observations of the asteroid. LCO was very fortunate to be part of the DART mission.

For Hera, we have a large 2-meter telescope in the southern hemisphere in Australia where the asteroid is at the

Brian Storr new CFO for the SB Museum of Natural History (courtesy photo)

Rosina Garcia Director of Education for the SB Museum of Natural History & Sea Center (courtesy photo)

LCO Senior Scientist Tim Lister PhD (photo by Joanne A Calitri)

couch, stool and wicker chair with them. Also enacting vengeance are the grandfather clock, teapot and even the fire that leaps out of the hearth, and shepherds ripped from the wallpaper. Seeking refuge outside, the child only finds the animals and trees similarly aligned against him before he finds his compassion. Acclaimed director Mary Birnbaum helms the intimate production at Hahn Hall featuring 14 of the Lehrer Vocal Institute fellows, with William Long conducting the singers and four instrumental fellows. In a rare post-performance piece, Birnbaum discusses the opera with the audience after its conclusion. (Hahn, 7:30 pm; $65)

Friday, July 26: Fourteen fellows are featured in tonight’s Fellow Friday’s concert, with a program that includes Andy Akiho’s percussion-powered piece “to wALk Or ruN in wEst harlem;” Britten’s late-career “Canticle V: The Death of Saint Narcissus, Op. 89,” based on a poem by T. S. Eliot and performed by tenor Jackson Allen accompanied by harpist Chai Lee; and Joan Tower’s brass quintet “Copperwave,” among other works. (Hahn, 7:30 pm; $45)

Saturday, July 27: Mosher Guest Artist Lawrence Brownlee already dove into his musical past in recital and led a master class for vocal fellows earlier this week. Now, the tenor winds up his residency behind the scenes, as the coach and inspiration for a program called “Uprising / Rising Up” based on his Grammy-nominated album Rising. The singing will be done by the seven LVI vocal fellows who weren’t in Thursday’s opera, who have this afternoon assignment along with vocal pianists Deven Shah and Tzu Kuang Tan, collaborating on just shy of 23 songs – ranging from Amy Beach and Damien Sneed to Schubert and Strauss – that echo Brownlee’s album in exploring search, discovery and celebration of the human spirit. (Hahn, 1:30 pm; $65)

Sunday, July 28: Sing! Sing! Sing! – The budding artists of the Music Academy’s Sing! Chorus – drawn from hundreds of Santa Barbara County youth participants – have already served as the children’s chorus for MAW productions of Bizet’s Carmen and Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges earlier this summer. Tonight, a six-day immersive experience with the renowned Young People’s Chorus of New York City culminates in a combined performance featuring YPC of NYC, Music Academy’s Sing! chorus, and the YPC National ensemble Concinamus in a new venue for MAW. The wide-ranging 90-minute program includes a traditional Chumash blessing, An African spiritual, and South African song, along with selections from Bernstein’s

Leila Josefowicz will play the mesmerizing “Whorls and Eddies” by John Adams at the AFO performance (photo by Tom Zimberoff)

Mass, a Beatles tune, and the world premiere of “Rabbit on the Moon” by Yuka C. Honda. The Sing!-sters will also appear at Old Spanish Days “La Fiesta Pequeña” pre-show on the steps of the Old Mission. (Marjorie Luke Theatre; 7 pm; $10)

Monday, July 29: The final week of MAW 2024 gets underway with the finals of the Duo Competition in which five instrumental fellows covering flute, violin, cello, trombone and percussion team with collaborative pianists to claim the top prize. (Hahn, 4 pm; $55)

Tuesday, July 30: In one of the festival’s late summer favorites, the six solo piano favorites, who wound up their competition a few weeks ago, perform pianistic fireworks in a concert-only format for savoring and astonishment. (Hahn, 4 pm; $40)

Wednesday, July 31: A baker’s dozen of the summer’s sensational fellows are featured in the final Salon Series concerts of the festival. Rounding out the repertoire in the intimate environs are “Four Songs” by André Previn, plus Beethoven’s “Quintet for Piano and Winds in E-flat Major, Op. 16,” and the opening movement of Mendelssohn’s “Octet in E-flat Major, Op. 20.”

(Lehmann, 7:30 pm; $45)

people who are experiencing hardship so that they can stabilize and provide better lives for themselves and their families.

“The bottom line of FSA is that we meet people’s real needs, their basic needs for the times, whatever that might be,” said Chief Executive Officer Lisa Brabo. “And we adjust as conditions change.”

Some of the parallels are almost eerie. FSA was there to help people with shelter, food, clothing and financial support during the devastating Santa Barbara earthquake in 1925, adapting to provide assistance that people needed. Almost 100 years later, the agency did the same thing during the COVID pandemic, helping people through the crisis by providing everything from financial assistance to mental health services.

During the Great Depression, providing direct financial relief for families was a challenge, so the agency instead created employment opportunities; men chopping trees for firewood and repairing shoes, while another group collected vegetables from local farms and delivered them to needy families.

The same approach guided the nonprofit during the recent series of natural disasters, to which FSA was quick to respond.

“This organization stays relevant because we’re totally tied and connected to the community,” Brabo said. “We provide for people’s core needs, from physical wellness such as food, clothing, jobs, a good home environment, housing, and healthcare, to an array of mental wellness services. What we see through history is that there is a different emphasis on specific core needs depending upon what’s occurring around us. From the very beginning, we have stuck to those core needs and simply adjusted them according to the times and what’s happening.”

One of the ways FSA has evolved to be more efficient in its services is to develop the concept of whole person care, an approach that is patient-centered and takes into consideration the optimal physical, behavioral, emotional and social wellness of every individual as well as families.

mental health counseling. Currently, FSA is in 55 school campuses throughout the county, assisting students with social and emotional issues so they can stay in school and succeed. FSA also has a long history in mental health service to seniors, launching a support group for adults 55 and older called the Worry and Concern Clinic, group counseling for older adults where they can share their common concerns.

“Right now, we are working internally to better integrate our programming so that we can do the best job possible with people who contact us to meet every need that we can,” Brabo said. “And we are always working very proactively to make sure we have the public and private organization partnerships to make that happen, whether it’s helping our clients in learning English as a second language and or finding an open slot for counseling.”

Part of FSA’s proactive work is getting out ahead of the age boom, the so-called ‘silver tsunami’ where an exponentially larger percentage of our population will be older, which requires a different method of meeting evolving needs.

“We have increased our programming for older adults, and then people caring for older adults,” Brabo said. “Families are much more dispersed now than in the past, so there isn’t the same level of social connection and engagement in everyone’s lives. Loneliness, isolation, and anxiety are much more significant issues for older adults. So now we have services that address those issues, including creating an ombudsman program to advocate for the needs of people in long-term care facilities.”

Financial sustainability has been a key to FSA’s success and longevity, and the organization of course taps into every public source of funds that they can because that’s steady and strong even in difficult economic times. But it doesn’t cover everything.

“What private funds do is they plug the holes, because not every need of families fall within the guidelines of public funds,” Brabo said. “The private funds also help us innovate, to come up with new approaches like our patient mental health navigation, which is a pilot project.”

Libowitz has covered a plethora of topics for the Journal since 1997, and now leads our extensive arts and entertainment coverage

“We’re trying to meet that totality of the need for the family, whether they’re older or they’re a young family with young kids or somewhere in between, because we know that needs change as the family changes,” Brabo said. “But it’s actually not new for us.”

Indeed, FSA has been providing mental health counseling since the 1950s with programs that support couples, older adults, and children, and since the 1980s has been providing school-based

As it celebrates 125 years of service, FSA is looking to the future.

“We’re proud of our history, but we’re looking forward to serving the county for the next 125 years, and doing that in a very integrated, holistic way, so that whatever needs a family or a senior has, we can find a way to meet it. We’re taking everything we’ve learned and applying it to do an even better job, and to be even more responsive to the community’s needs going forward.”

Steven

Okinawa to City College to Manhattan

“I grew up in Santa Barbara most of my life, on and off. After Japan I moved to Santa Barbara and I lived with my aunt and her wife here. They’ve lived there for 50 years.” Nineteen-year-old Mikey Putnam returned to the States at loose ends but soon figured out what he thought he wanted. “I started to go to Santa Barbara City College, and I was there for two years, and I transferred to FIT.” FIT is NYC’s Fashion Institute of Technology. Not to be confused with MIT. “They have one of the best interior design programs in the world,” Putnam says. “I loved textiles, I loved furniture, I loved space, I loved transforming space. It was always something that I had such a passion for. And as a creative, I thought that it was a career that I could definitely excel in.”

He plowed through school, the arguable glamor of interior design tamped somewhat by its manifestation as homework. “The last year of my studies at FIT, I was kind of in the middle of my thesis. I really started to pick up floral design as a hobby just because I loved it. I always had a connection to flowers.” Putnam got a job in a furniture store to help put himself through school.

“This designer from Kravitz would come in to just get stuff for their projects. And she was like, would you ever want to intern?” Putnam grins ruefully. “I thought it was that Kravitz, as in the textile company? She brought me into the office,” he laughs, “and then I realized it was Lenny Kravitz. He has an interior design firm in New York. It’s called Kravitz Design…” Over a couple years, what started as an internship turned into a job.

“I was going to school and working there basically. And I realized that, you know what? I need to do something with my hands. I need to be creative. I was tired of being on a

computer, I’m very tactile. I decided to just pick up flowers.” This smallish whim would, as they say, change the course of Putnam’s life. “On the weekends I would play with flowers. I’d go to the flower market in New York, and I would just play and I would take photos of my work. I started a silly little Instagram…” When his boss, the Rock G*d Lenny Kravitz, noticed Putnam’s floral proclivities, he was supportive.

…it was like, hello from Vogue…

“Lenny would start sending me on little runs to deliver flowers to some of his clientele. His firm would be like, can you make an arrangement and send it to this person or this person?” Putnam threw himself at flowers in his spare time, posting to Instagram, creating for Kravitz’ clients. Several months of this and the Fates came bumbling in like giddy, loveable drunks.

“I remember waking up one morning, this was nine months into doing flowers, and I get this email from Vogue. And it was like, hello from Vogue! And they wanted me to do this little editorial project with them.” Putnam still sounds flabbergasted. A little. “I was so nervous. I was freaking out! I was like, ‘Is this real? I don’t know what this is!’” More or less the same reaction you or I have when Vogue calls, dear reader. “So I did it, obviously.” What that first gig lacked in glamor it more than made up for in Destiny announcing itself like a fireball tearing through the ceiling and setting fire to the couch. I’ll have to give Putnam the floor here. Yeah, a Smart Car figures in this origin story.

“I was living in New Jersey and I had a little Smart Car, and I would drive my Smart Car to school, and then I would drive my Smart car to Kravitz’ design firm, which was in Soho. Or in the mornings I would go and hit the flower market. But I remember making that arrangement for Vogue in the back of my Smart Car. It was in the middle of a blizzard in Times

Square when the Vogue offices were there, and it was almost white-out conditions. And I was just freezing! Making this little arrangement in the back of my Smart Car with the back popped up.”

Bloomin’ History

The rest is you-know-what. Today Putnam conducts workshops in Southeast Asia, Europe, Central America, Japan, Korea, China. And so on. Yeah, we’re still talking flower arranging. In Putnam Designs’ offshore work, though, they are adding full design services, too.

Phaidon Press, iconic publisher of beautiful books on art, architecture, design and fashion, have published two color-soaked tomes by Putnam: the best-selling Flower Color Guide and Flower Color Theory. These are the sorts of resplendent, functional books you see in museum bookstores, and, like, everywhere else.

Mikey Putnam’s gift is an organic outgrowth of his own deep instincts about (and frank infatuation with) beauty – his loving and visionary sense of how best to capture and optimize the gorgeous stuff that surrounds us and swaddles the world. His floral expressionism is beloved across the planet. Or as his website states in buttoned-down business patter, Putnam Designs is a creative floral and design studio headquartered in New York City with extensive experience on projects both domestic and abroad. Cool enough, and Mikey Putnam is still headed for his zenith. But the real sparks fly in the opening chapters of self-discovery. Beginnings are fraught, and lovely.

“I had a small team. We were poor, but we just loved what we did. Four or five years in we started getting more celebrity clientele, and we got asked to do Gwyneth and Cher’s weddings…” He sighs. And who wouldn’t? Life, apparently, favors the mad leap. And mad leaps, even as they continue bearing fruit, spur warming reminiscence.

“I was so young, and I was having fun, and it was chaotic, and I was all over the city, here and there meeting all these really cool people.” Putnam looks at me with impossibly piercing blue eyes. Just sayin’.

“It was New York, and it was fun and crazy and tiring. And it was awesome.”

Global HAL 9000: All Digital Eggs in One Basket

Inthe history of business has there ever been a company more aptly named than CrowdStrike? The “100 percent cloud-based” cybersecurity solution firm with digital tendrils interweaving global service sectors is fabulously living up to its name, the “struck crowds” sleeping on airport floors and growing long, unwanted beards – even the children. You don’t have to be a technophobe to see that the human race’s almost childlike, bandwagonesque excitement – over, say, AI? – should be tempered. Did anyone see this coming? Yup. E. M. Forster’s macabre short story The Machine Stops remains a bizarrely prescient forecast of our current and future sorrows, predicting the internet, social isolation, and our extinction-level reliance on technology. Forster’s story was written in 1909. Read it and weep.

Santa Barbara Navy Corpsman Lopez in Vanuatu

Jeff Wing is a journalist, raconteur, autodidact, and polysyllable enthusiast. He has been writing about Montecito and environs since before some people were born. He can be reached at jeff@ montecitojournal.net

Vanuatu is a tiny South Pacific nation made up of some 80 islands spread over 800 miles. Senior Chief Hospital Corpsman Carlos Lopez of Santa Barbara, California was there recently, giving a class on infection prevention control to the Port Vila Central Hospital staff there. It’s all part of the Navy’s Pacific Partnership, now in its 20th iteration, which came about in the wake of the December 2004 tsunami that swarmed parts of South and Southeast Asia. The mission since is about leveraging partner nation militaries and NGOs to expand disaster relief capacity in these far-flung Pacific nations. This recent joint project even included musical performances by Vanuatu Mobile Force, Japan Self-Defense Forces, and U.S. Navy band members. Senior Chief Hospital Corpsman Lopez, thanks for so terrifically repping Santa Barbara in your global work, and thanks for your service on humanity’s behalf. Maybe the world’ll be okay.

Workshopping nature’s bounty in Summerland’s Sacred Space (photo by Kristine Lo_kristinelo.com)

Putnam in Seoul: a seemingly complex world united by its simple love of beauty (courtesy photo)

moment. We are making observations of the asteroid for the first time since the DART mission finished, and before Hera launches and rendezvous with the asteroid. That information increases our knowledge of the Didymos system and feeds into the Hera Mission planning.

We are making these new observations in June, July, and August 2024, as it has come back close to Earth. There will be another opportunity in 2026 when it comes close to Earth again. We are going to be doing what we did for DART, measuring the brightness of the asteroids in their orbit, checking if Dimorphos stayed in its new orbit from the DART impact, and if Dimorphos is wobbling in its orbit.

What is the time frame of the mission for you?

Five years in total. When we launched DART, it was a very fortuitous alignment of the Earth and the asteroid, so a quick 10-month travel time, and Didymos was very bright.

For Hera, not as fortunate. Hera will launch on a SpaceX Falcon-9 rocket from Florida this October 7th, but it will take till October 2026 to get there. It will launch the two CubeSats and then go into orbit around the asteroid system and stay there for six months making observations.

What data do you hope to find?

LCO is to first make new measurements of the orbital period since we stopped in March 2023. DART changed the asteroid orbit by 33 minutes. As we have not been able to look at the asteroid since March 2023, we want to know if that has stayed as such or changed. The most favored expectation is the asteroid will probably stay at the same orbit period from DART, and that DART changed the shape of the asteroid, and likely set it wobbling like a badly thrown football. With DART we only saw one side of the asteroid and the view smashing into it. Hera will provide detailed information

from both sides of the asteroid. To predict our next direction, we need a model of its full shape, weight, what it is made of, and the deflection of it by DART.

Who is in charge of defense for Earth from any incoming asteroids?

The goal is we are trying to protect the whole planet. It is an international project, so naturally any attempt at deflection has to be an international effort.

The 2023 Near-Earth Object Preparedness Plan sets what we are doing to find these things, what would happen if we found an incoming asteroid that posed a risk, and what we might potentially do about it.

NASA established the Planetary Defense Coordination Office in 2016 to oversee planetary defense efforts such as DART, and surveying and characterizing Near-Earth asteroids.

The United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs endorsed the creation of IAWN [International Asteroid Warning Network] and SMPAG [Space Mission Planning Advisory Group]. LCO is part of IAWN.

Small asteroid impacts are more like a local civil defense issue similar to hurricanes. For very large asteroids, it has been discussed to use a nuclear explosive device to deflect the asteroid. People in general are not very keen on that but it remains a possible option if we needed it.

411: https://lco.global/news/lco-scientist-timlister-wins-major-award-from-nasa/

can duplicate some CDs? Our band needs 300 so we can sell them and give them out.’ Using equipment in my dorm room, mostly computer towers, I could pop one in and duplicate a bunch of them. I also had a printer that could print on the surface.”

His CD-making assistant in 2006, Amanda Lyon Benenati (‘08), now serves as vice president of marketing at MOS Equipment. “She’s been an incredible soldier through the years,” Judy says. “She’s my right-hand person.”

Swing for a Cause

The Westmont Golf Classic, a charity golf tournament started in 2008 to raise funds for student scholarships, returns Friday, Oct. 4, at the Glen Annie Golf Club, 405 Glen Annie Road in Goleta. Registration is $200 per golfer and includes: 18 holes of golf with cart; tri-tip BBQ dinner, on-course games, raffles and awards. Additional dinner guests are $50 each. To register, or for more information, please visit westmont.edu/golf-classic.

The classic, formerly known as Will’s Tourney, was held annually from 20082019 to celebrate the life of alumnus Will Wiersma (‘06), who died in a tragic car accident less than five months after graduating.

economic backgrounds can pursue a life-changing education.

There are several sponsorship options available for the tournament at westmont.edu/golf-classic/sponsorships. For additional questions, please contact Toni Ramos at (805) 565-6050 or tramos@westmont.edu.

Joanne A Calitri is a professional international photographer and journalist. Contact her at: artraks@ yahoo.com

Check-in begins at 10:30 am, and the tournament kicks off at noon with a shotgun start. The tri-tip and chicken barbecue dinner will be served at 4:30 pm at the Frog Bar and Grill at the course.

Players are welcome to sign up individually or with a group. The course is in excellent condition, offering spectacular views of the Pacific Ocean and testing players of all skill levels. All money raised will support students at Westmont, where students of all

Your

Westmont supporters at Glen Annie golf (photo by Brad Elliott)

Vice president Reed Sheard tees off (photo by Brad Elliott)

Scott Craig is manager of media relations at Westmont College

The LCO 2-meter Faulkes Telescope South at Sliding Spring, New South Wales, Australia (photo courtesy of LCO)

(Condensed Notice for Publication)

NOTICE INVITING SEALED BIDS

2024 MANHOLE REHABILITATION

BID NO. 2024-02

MONTECITO SANITARY DISTRICT

PUBLIC NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Montecito Sanitary District (“District”) will receive sealed bids, electronically, for its BID NO. 2024-02, 2024 Manhole Rehabilitation (“Project”), by or before Wednesday, August 14, 2024 at 4:00 p.m. through its PlanetBids portal. All associated documents, including bonding information, shall be submitted with the bid. Bidders must be registered on the District’s PlanetBids™ portal in order to submit a Bid Proposal and to receive addendum notifications. Each bidder is responsible for making certain that their Bid Proposal is actually submitted/uploaded with sufficient time to be received by PlanetBids prior to the bid opening date and time. Large files may take more time to be submitted/uploaded to PlanetBids so plan accordingly. The receiving time on PlanetBids’ server will be the governing time for acceptability of bids. Telegraphic, telephonic, electronic, and facsimile bids will not be accepted. Bidders are responsible for obtaining all addenda from the District’s PlanetBids portal. If any Addendum issued by the District is not acknowledged online by the Bidder, the PlanetBids system may prevent the Bidder from submitting a Bid Proposal.

Bids shall be valid for sixty (60) calendar days after the bid opening date. The date and time for receiving bids shall be extended by no less than 72 hours if the officer, department, or Project Manager issues any material changes, additions, or deletions to the invitation later than 72 hours prior to the bid closing. Any bids received after the time specified above or any extension due to material changes shall be returned unopened.

Project Description: The Project entails the rehabilitation (lining) of 93 existing sewer manholes. All locations of the manholes are within the Montecito Sanitary District Boundary and the County of Santa Barbara.

Project documents for the work are available to prospective bidders through the District’s PlanetBids Portal website at www.montsan.org/bids.

In accordance with the provisions of California Public Contract Code § 3300, and Business and Professions Code § 7028.15(e), the contractor and any subcontractors shall be licensed by the contractors’ state licensing board and registered with the California Department of Industrial Relations at the time the contract is awarded. Failure to possess the specified license shall render a bidder’s bid as non-responsive and shall bar award of the contract to any bidder not possessing the specified license at the time of the award.

Pursuant to California Civil Code § 9550, a payment bond is required to be submitted for all projects estimated in excess of $25,000.00.

The proposed project is a public works project subject to the provisions of Labor Code § 1720 thereby requiring the Contractor to pay the prevailing wage rates for all work performed under the Contract. In addition, the Contractor shall be responsible for compliance with the requirements of Section 1777.5 of the California Labor Code relating to apprentice public works contracts.

The District reserves the right to reject any and all bids.

There will be a mandatory pre-bid conference on Monday August 5, at 10:00 a.m. at the Montecito Sanitary District Board Room, 1042 Monte Cristo Lane, Santa Barbara, CA 93108. Bidders must attend this pre-bid conference as a requirement for submittal of a bid proposal.

If you have any questions, please contact the District’s Engineering Manager, Bryce Swetek, P.E., at bswetek@montsan.org

MONTECITO SANITARY DISTRICT

John Weigold General Manager PUBLISHED:

• PlanetBids: July 24, 2024

• Montecito Journal, July 24 and July 31, 2024

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS

NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/are doing business as: Gold Coast Creative, 1475 Sterling Ave, Carpinteria, CA 93013. Erika M Pruett, 1475 Sterling Ave, Carpinteria, CA 93013. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on July 10, 2024. This statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the Office of the County Clerk. I hereby certify that this is a correct copy of the original statement on file in my office. Joseph E. Holland, County Clerk (SEAL). FBN No. 2024-

NOTICE TO BIDDERS

Bids open at 2:00 PM on Thursday, August 15, 2024 for:

SANTA CLAUS LANE STREETSCAPE IMPROVEMENTS PROJECT - PHASE 1A FROM PADARO LANE TO SAND POINT ROAD IN THE 1ST SUPERVISORIAL DISTRICT

COUNTY PROJECT No. 720783

General project work description: Road Improvements and Reconstruction. Retaining Walls and Multipurpose Path

The Plans, Specifications, and Bid Book are available at https://www.planetbids.com/portal/portal.cfm?CompanyID=43874

The Contractor must have either a Class A license or any combination of the following Class C licenses which constitutes a majority of the work: C-8, C-12, C-13, C-31, C-50, C-51

Submit sealed bids to the web address below. Bids will be opened available at the web address below immediately following the submittal deadline.

PlanetBids

https://www.planetbids.com/portal/portal.cfm?CompanyID=43874

Complete the project work within 150 Workings Days

The estimated cost of the project is $ 9,300,000

An optional pre-bid meeting is scheduled for this project on Tuesday, August 6, 2024, at 10:00 AM near Santa Claus Lane and Padaro Lane intersection This project is subject to compliance monitoring and enforcement by the Department of Industrial Relations (DIR).

A contractor or subcontractor shall not be qualified to bid on, be listed in a bid proposal, subject to the requirements of PCC Section 4104, or engage in the performance of any contract for public work, as defined in this chapter, unless currently registered and qualified to perform public work pursuant to Labor Code (LAB) Section 1725.5. It is not a violation of this section for an unregistered contractor to submit a bid that is authorized by Business and Professions Code (BPC) Section 7029.1 or by PCC Section 10164 or 20103.5 provided the contractor is registered to perform public work pursuant to LAB Section 1725.5 at the time the contract is awarded.

Prevailing wages are required on this Contract. The Director of the California Department of Industrial Relations determines the general prevailing wage rates. Obtain the wage rates at the DIR website https://www.dir.ca.gov/

Inquiries or questions based on alleged patent ambiguity of the plans, specifications, or estimate must be submitted as a bidder inquiry by 2:00 PM on 08/09/2024. Submittals after this date will not be addressed. Questions pertaining to this Project prior to Award of the Contract must be submitted via PlanetBids Q&A tab.

Bidders (Plan Holders of Record) will be notified by electronic mail if addendums are issued. The addendums, if issued, will only be available on the County PlanetBids website, https://www.planetbids.com/portal/portal.cfm?CompanyID=43874

By order of the Board of Supervisors of the County of Santa Barbara this project was authorized to be advertised on 06/04/2019

Christopher Sneddon Director of Public Works

Published July 24 and July 31, 2024 Montecito Journal

0001630. Published July 17, 24, 31, August 7, 2024

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS

NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/are doing business as: Tre Lune; Tre Lune Ristorante; Tre Lune Restaurant; Tre Lune Ristorante - Bar 1151 Coast Village Road, Montecito, CA 93108. Quattro, INC, 114 E. Haley St. Suite O, Santa Barbara, CA 93101. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on July 1, 2024. This statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the Office of the County

Clerk. I hereby certify that this is a correct copy of the original statement on file in my office. Joseph E. Holland, County Clerk (SEAL). FBN No. 2024-0001565. Published July 10, 17, 24, 31, 2024

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME: CASE No. 24CV03463. To all interested parties: Petitioner Paul Douglas Seaman filed a petition with Superior Court of California, County of Santa Barbara, for a decree changing name to Paul Bouchard. The Court orders that all persons interested in this matter appear before this court at

the hearing indicated below to show cause, if any, why the petition for change of name should not be granted. Any person objecting to the name changes described above must file a written objection that includes the reasons for the objection at least two court days before the matter is scheduled to be heard and must appear at the hearing to show cause why the petition should not be granted. If no written objection is timely filed, the court may grant the petition without a hearing. Filed July 15, 2024 by Preston Frye. Hearing date: August 30, 2024 at 10 am in Dept. 4, 1100 Anacapa Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101. Published July 24, 31, August 7, 14, 2024

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME:

CASE No. 24CV03344. To all interested parties: Petitioner Gisselle Berenice Sanchez filed a petition with Superior Court of California, County of Santa Barbara, for a decree changing name to Gisselle Berenice Monterroza Gonzalez. The Court orders that all persons interested in this matter appear before this court at the hearing indicated below to show cause, if any, why the petition for change of name should not be granted. Any person objecting to the name changes described above must file a written objection that includes the reasons for the objection at least two court days before the matter is scheduled to be heard and must appear at the hearing to show cause why the petition should not be granted. If no written objection is timely filed, the court may grant the petition without a hearing. Filed July 10, 2024 by Terri Chavez. Hearing date: August 23, 2024 at 10 am in Dept. 4, 1100 Anacapa Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101. Published July 24, 31, August 7, 14, 2024

simply “to help pay for the employee housing!” No, the plan for this project is purely to make hundreds of thousands of dollars more each month for Caruso Affiliates!

This is not about how the current operators of the Miramar resurrected the old buildings. It is not about what they had to go through to rebuild and reopen the hotel. It is not even about the hotel today, or the raft, or an Easter brunch, and what kind of job they do as a hotel now. It is about commercializing a new area in Montecito. We have designated areas here already for retail enterprises!

All the coffee and Prada sunglasses in the world are nothing if we lose the charm and appeal of Montecito to outside commercial developers.

During the Vietnam War, a U.S. Army Major once said that “...we had to destroy the village in order to save it.” Let’s all hope that village in today’s case is not Montecito!

I urge you all to take a good look at this situation, and Reject this commercial addition as being unrealistic, disingenuous, and harmful to the character and living conditions of the broader neighborhoods near the hotel.

Cliff Ghersen Neighbors of the Miramar

Suggestions for Miramar

Regarding the Miramar Hotel’s proposed expansion, I want to suggest that the regulatory bodies in Montecito and S.B. County consider dividing owner Rick Caruso’s ambitious plans into two separate subject areas and treat them separately. This is because the one – additional housing, is non-controversial, while the other – 12 stores built on a quiet street corner one block from the beach – could possibly transform a traditional seaside residential neighborhood into a locus of traffic congestion and noise.

Permit me to step back a bit. I’m a fan of Mr. Caruso’s philanthropy and shopping areas in Los Angeles. Along with several friends of mine, he raised tens of millions of dollars to construct the landmark modern Catholic cathedral, Our Lady of the Angels, by Pritzker Prize winning architect José Rafael Moneo Vallés. At USC, he built what is to me one of the most beautiful churches in America, the $29-million USC Caruso Catholic Center, with exquisite stained-glass windows by the renowned Judson Studios and an enormous wooden cross created by sculptor Christopher Slatoff, and Stations of the Cross painted by plein air artist Peter Adams. I love visiting there, one of the most serene, peaceful, and spiritual places in the giant, hectic city.

Like everyone else in L.A., I have enjoyed shopping at The Grove for decades and especially appreciate the decision to locate it next door to the historic Original Farmers Market. It’s a center of L.A. life. And that brings me to the vast difference between The Grove and what Mr. Caruso is proposing for the beachy Miramar residential neighborhood. His housing plan will fit right in, and it allows Montecito to get credit from the state of California for building affordable housing. But – and this speaks to Mr. Caruso’s recent comments at an economic forum about the need to revitalize State Street – why does he not consider moving his “upscale mini mall” concept to State Street, a commercial area vastly different from the quiet corner next door to the 124-year-old sanctuary of All Saints By the Sea Episcopal Church? Investing in an upscale shopping area with stores such as Zegna and other respected international designer brands in downtown Santa Barbara could be Mr. Caruso’s contribution to State Street’s revitalization.

Eileen White Read

To Gwyn Lurie:

As a weekly reader of the Montecito Journal, I always look forward to the prospect of a Gwyn Lurie editorial. Your writing and insights are wonderful. The recent “Lead or Get Out of the Way” bolsters that evaluation.

With much appreciation,

Bob Levine

Drawing Distinctions

Thanks, Gywn, for your always illuminating voice as you make sense of chaos! Your careful and insightful drawing of the distinction between protest and pogrom should be mandatory reading for the entire nation. It is so unfortunate that added to our homegrown prejudices, we are now dealing with immigrant prejudices and hatreds toward those from other countries as well. The Hatfields and the McCoys had nothing on this current crop of haters.

Regards, Hattie Beresford

Thoughts to Share

Gwyn, I want to compliment you on your well-written, thoughtful and persuasive editorial; and to commend you for having the courage and integrity to speak up when many of my fellow liberals are hesitating to do so, for fear of being thought to be politically incorrect. (And I, like you, speak from a personal history of impassioned political protest.) I hope

your editorial is shared with some of the student protestors. Thank you again.

Gail Stassinos

Lions and Leaders

I read your article on the miserable cowards that call themselves leaders at many of our once revered universities.

It was excellent. Thank you, CEO Gwyn. You should be running Harvard instead of that plagiarizing phony. Columbia and UCLA were so disgraceful.

“The wicked flee when no man pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion.”

You are that lion, CEO. Keep it going.

Henry Ohrtman

The Saga of Casa Dorinda, Retirement Home from Hell, continues...

Upon my arrival home from Cottage Hospital, Irma from Casa Dorinda’s Medical Center (a witch on wheels with a capital B) never listened to the fact that I told her not once but twice: “The first thing I want is to take a bath and wash my hair.” She left. I was happily and peacefully installed in my lavender bubble bath w/ classical music when the phone rang. The next thing I know, the witch is in my apartment and I said, “Get

the hell out of my apt. I told you I want to take a bath and wash my hair.” I prep my products to wash my hair, the phone rings again. No message. When I came out of the bathroom with nothing but a towel around my hair, I walked into the living room, not a stitch on and there she is again, with a man standing behind her. I should have said, “Enjoy the view everyone, It’s free!”

Moreover, I discovered signs that someone had come into my apartment, because the living room balcony door and screen doors had been left wide open to squirrels and birds. And as I turned to enter the dressing room, I noticed the double-door cabinets with pairs of shoe fillers tied with a satin ribbon always facing forward. The first set was facing backward, something I never do. But now I have a sign on my door, whereby whoever pulls that stunt again will necessitate my deducting $50 from my $6,133 monthly rent.

My first four years here starting Jan. 1, 2009, were the Casa Dorinda I’ve always known with friends who lived and died here. New people moving here have no idea what it was like versus what it has become.

I have lived in Manhattan, France, Greece, and Canada. Never have I been subjected to such a hellhole in my 86 years.

Sincerely, Ms. Renée Templeraud

Nearly 20% of the nonprofit public garden’s annual expenses.

Hosted by Montecito actress Jane Lynch of TV’s The Weakest Link, special guests included Chez Panisse restaurant owner Alice Waters, photographer Firooz Zahedi, art patron Beth DeWoody, magazine mogul Jennifer Smith , celebrity crimper Frédéric Fekkai, and film and TV personalities Joanna Kerns and Real Housewives star Dina Cantin, Bella Hahn, Xorin Balbes and Truman Davies, John and Connie Pearcy, Christopher Toomey, Mahri Kerley, and Robert Weinman. Luminaro dancers brought the

Reflective Pond in the Japanese Garden to life with ethereal grace, sitarist Esha Shrivastava added depth to the breathtaking display of blooming lotuses in the Water Garden, and in the Palmetum –Grounded, Works Inspired by, Connected to, and Reclaimed from Lotusland – showed the resilience of nature in a special exhibition featuring 17 regional artists.

A matching challenge from Lotusland Celebrates Champions Eric, former head of Google, and Wendy Schmidt for the philanthropic paddle raise contributed to the resounding success of the evening.

A blooming success indeed!

Cheers to the Birthday Boy

Yours truly marked the 21st anniversary of his half century with a dinner garden party for 12 hosted by company chairman Susan Josephson at her East Valley Road home, just a tiara’s toss from Pierre Lafond. The Gala-catered surf and turf bash featured a160-pound bluefin tuna caught off the coast of Catalina the

day before by chef Jed Goldsmith, and innumerable bottles of Taittinger and Veuve Clicquot champagne.

Guests included film producer Steve Quale , winemaker Gretchen Lieff , entrepreneur Andrew Schmoller, Homer owner Terry Pillow and his wife Kelly, Lisa Blades, Tom and Sherrie Cipolla – who leased their estate out for the TV filming of Meghan Markle’s new Netflix series – and Brian and Patti Herman.

Classical guitarist Chris Fossek, an old friend, serenaded us throughout the evening.

Quite delightful...

Viva La pre-Fiesta

Society gadabout Rick Oshay and Teresa Kuskey, bubbly founder of the La Boheme Dance Company, hosted their fifth annual Viva La Fiesta at Casa de la Guerra, with more than 200 guests.

The fab fête featured Teresa’s colorful dancers who led our Eden by the Beach’s summer solstice parade, and festive dancers including 2020 Jr. Spirit of Fiesta Alexandra Nocker, with ubiquitous KEYT-TV reporter John Palminteri as emcee.

Former Spirit Jack Harwood, the first

male chosen in fiesta’s 100-year history, joined the Flamenco Santa Barbara Group, Zermeño Dance Academy, Garcia Dance Studio, and dashing singer-flamenco dancer Timo Nuñez, on the entertainment list with ubiquitous DJ Darla Bea and Mezcal Martini providing the evening’s music. Supporters dancing the night away included fun-loving Franciscan friar Larry Gosselin , Oscar Gutierrez , Adam McKaig, Robert Adams, Fritz and Gretchen Olenberger, Peter and

Event committee having a celebratory moment (photo by Isaac Hernandez de Lipa)

Guests celebrating the birthday boy (photo by Susan Josephson)

The Hahns with Alice Waters (photo by Isaac Hernandez de Lipa)

Rebecca Anderson and David Jones (photo by Isaac Hernandez de Lipa)

Just needs a candle (photo by Susan Josephson)

2020 Jr. Spirit of Fiesta Alexandra Nocker performing (photo by Gilbert Cruz)

Host Rick Oshay with some familiar faces (photo by Priscilla)

Hostess Teresa Kuskey and La Boheme celebrating Viva La Fiesta and the dance group’s 10th anniversary (photo by Veronica Slavin)

Dinner is served (photo by Susan Josephson)

Kathryn Martin, Lisa Osborn, Mark Whitehurst and Kerry Methner , Judith Smith-Meyer , Richard and Amanda Payatt, Monte Wilson, David Bolton and Gonzalo Sarmiento, and Joan Rutkowski.

Vino on the Plaza

Oenophiles and gourmands were out in force when the sold-out California Wine Festival, which was comprised of two different events, celebrated its 20th anniversary with a rare and reserve wine tasting at the Hilton’s Plaza del Sol, kicking off the event for 350 guests sampling 200 wines from more than 70 vineyards and 30 eateries including Convivo, and Finch & Fork.

Described by Montecito resident and festival partner Blaine Lando, who happens to be my neighbor, as “an event for the senses,” the second part of the event on the beach opposite Chase Palm Park the following day showcased more than 90 suppliers, exhibiting their wares to

thousands of fans.

A portion of the proceeds went to the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County and over-imbibers were given free rides by Uber.

I’ll drink to that.

Anniversary on the Farm

Montecito rocker Adam Levine and his wife Behati Prinsloo celebrated ten years of marriage at the weekend with family and close friends in Mexico.

The 45-year-old Maroon 5 singer and former model Behati, 36, marked the milestone with 150 guests at the Flora Farms in San Jose del Cabo where they were married.

The tony twosome have three children, daughters Dusty Rose, 7, and Gio Grace, 6, and a one-year-old son.

NBC has announced Adam is returning to The Voice for the first time in six years for season 27 of the singing competition show.

Buns & Birdies

Photographer Christie Jenkins became a media darling in the ‘80s appearing on 200 TV talk shows promoting her tome BUNS: A Woman Look at Men’s, a groundbreaking photo book followed by five calendars.

In the ‘90s she took her new TV show concept, Dancing with the Stars, to the BBC on the advice of composer Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, with ABC licensing it for U.S. broadcast.

She moved from her home in Carmel, where she ran a photography gallery, to Montecito just as the Thomas Fire hit and designed a 2018 holiday card to support the Montecito Firefighters Fund.

Jenkins now resides in Carpinteria with her celebrity photography gallery and is presently working on her next project benefitting 16 equine charities.

POLO: Men & Horses 2025 Calendar is due to thunder off the presses in due course.

Each calendar subject chooses the charity he wishes to support, and checks go out in that player’s name.

Jenkins plans myriad printings, with sponsors to be featured on the back.

House on the Market

The Montecito estate where models Bella, Gigi and their singing brother Anwar Hadid grew up, has hit the market for $8.85 million.

The 7,000 square foot Mediterraneanstyle estate had had a number of owners and updates since the Hadids lived there, according to Architectural Digest

The estate has five bedrooms. 5.5 baths, a media room, swimming pool, spa and cabana.

A Suits Deal

Riven Rock resident The Duchess of Sussex has netted a handsome six figure sum from the sale of her TV series Suits to broadcasters around the world.

The series ended in 2019, but recently enjoyed a resurgence on Netflix. Now it has been sold to more than 240 outlets around the globe, with repeat fees lining the pockets of its stars.

NBC Universal, which manages sales of the series, is remaining tight lipped about the actors and their royalties, but it has been estimated Meghan Markle could have earned $200,000 from Netflix alone.

This comes on top of whatever she was paid per episode playing the fiery paralegal Rachel Zane from 2011 to 2017 when she quit to get engaged to Prince Harry

Outsiders in the Ring

More than 40 years after their hit film

The Outsiders, Rob Lowe has shared a unique story about how he would spend his downtime on set with Tom Cruise.

Both The Outsiders and another 1983 classic – Risky Business – helped put Cruise, 62, on the map after his first role in 1981’s Endless Love and Taps, and 1982’s Losin’ It

Montecito resident Lowe made his feature film debut in The Outsiders after a handful of TV series, and they were joined by a slew of future stars like Matt Dillon, Emilio Estevez, Patrick Swayze, and Ralph Macchio

Rob, 60, appearing on The Rich Eisen Show was asked if he had a good Tom Cruise anecdote.

He recounted how Cruise was “so competitive” and how he once knocked him out when they were sparring at their hotel.

He admitted how there was “so much testosterone” there because of their ages and “being stuck on location.”

Rob said they both wore head gear and mouthpieces for the sparring sessions, but they were “fighting for real.”

“Tom is jacked. I’m like a pipe cleaner. I hadn’t started working out yet, so I looked like Karen Carpenter.

And Tom is like this beast, but I hit him hard and rang his bell. The next thing I know, I woke up and was coming to on the floor. He completely knocked me out... It was like Fight Club!”

Director McKnight

Longtime Santa Barbara commercial real estate expert Gene McKnight has been named director of Village Properties Commercial Group, a new division of the region’s largest independent real estate company, Village Properties. McKnight has more than 30 years of experience in the commercial and real estate industry, focusing on investment sales, triple-net-lease properties both locally and nationwide, and tenant and landlord representation.

He’s the founder of McKnight Commercial, a Santa Barbara-based firm specializing in brokerage and investment advisory services and has worked with many of the region’s leading investors.

Sightings

Former Bachelorette host Jesse Palmer at the Rosewood Miramar... Former TV anchor Maria Shriver at Pierre Lafond... Former TV host Conan O’Brien noshing at Bettina in the Montecito Country Mart.

Pip! Pip!

From musings on the Royals to celebrity real estate deals, Richard Mineards is our man on the society scene and has been for more than 15 years

Happy patrons and pourers (photo by Priscilla)

The sun was out and the tri-tip was cooking (photo by Priscilla)

The audience liked what they were hearing (photo by Priscilla)

Christie Jenkins polo calendar in the works (courtesy photo)

Gene McKnight name director of Village Properties commercial group (courtesy photo)

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Calendar of Events

by Steven Libowitz

ONGOING

Free al Fresco Music – We’re down to the last two shows for 2024 Concerts in the Park, the much beloved summertime frolic featuring free live music on the Great Meadow in Chase Palm Park. Perch on chairs or sprawl on blankets adorning the gently-sloping hill facing the permanent concrete stage amid palm trees and ocean views. July 25 brings local luminary Latin jazz band Mezcal Martini, who are in the midst of a bunch of local outdoor gigs. Next week (August 1): Dark for Fiesta week. WHEN: 5 pm opening act, headliner 6-7:30 pm

WHERE: 300 W. Cabrillo Blvd.

COST: free

INFO: (805) 564-5418 or www.santabarbaraca.gov/gov/depts/parksrec/ recreation/events/parkrec/concerts.asp

Rancho La Patera’s Music at the Ranch concert series is going strong every Tuesday night at the tree-lined lakeside space near the Stow House, where picnics (responsible alcohol use allowed), blankets and low-backed chairs make for a cozy scene. Out of the Blue, which has offered up classic rock covers with keen musicianship and a lively stage presence for more than a decade, play songs from the ‘60s-’80s on July 30.

WHEN: 5:30-7:30 pm

WHERE: 304 N. Los Carneros Road, Goleta

COST: free

INFO: (805) 681-7216 or www.goletahistory.org/music-at-the-ranch

The 2024 Downtown Santa Barbara Live Music Series comes to a close this week with a final show on July 31 on the 700 block of State Street (between Ortega and De La Guerra) featuring Nathan & Jessie, a duo boasting a unique blend of jazzy folk and blues on resonator guitars and accordion and interplay between male and female vocals. Grab dinner or a treat from a neighboring restaurant or bring your own food and set up your chair near 718 State Street to soak up the sounds and the summer vibes.

WHEN: 5:30-7:30 pm

WHERE: 718 State Street

COST: free

INFO: www.downtownsb.org/events/summer-music-series

THURSDAY, JULY 25

Summer Jazz: Ted on the Terrace – Grammy Award-winning composer-saxophonist Ted Nash takes his annual turn as the teaching artist in SBCC’s Summer Jazz program, where students in the collaborative workshop compose and perform jazz pieces that have been Inspired by works in the Santa Barbara Museum of Art’s recently-opened major exhibition A Legacy of Giving: The Lady Leslie and Lord Paul Ridley-Tree Collection. Nash, who was last in town 11 months ago for a world premiere performance of his updated Transformation suite with the Santa Barbara Symphony, conducts, supports and solos in the concert that has become a summer favorite on the museum’s front terrace. Also on view inside the museum: In the Making: Contemporary Art at SBMA, featuring works from 1965-2023, the exhibit provocatively mixes artists who shared interests in optical effects, fantastic otherworldly landscapes, allegory and history, abstract paintings’ expressive power, and the aesthetic appeal of mathematical graphs and constructions.

WHEN: 5:30-7 pm

WHERE: 1130 State Street

COST: free

INFO: (805) 963-4364 or https://sbma.net

SATURDAY, JULY 27

JÜPITER Jam – Santa Barbara-based indie-pop singer-songwriter JÜPITER lands at the Lobero Theatre for a special EP-release concert with a series of special guests. Among the local team supporting JÜPITER, who plays ukulele and other instruments and also surfs and dances, are Jared Nels – the powerful singer-songwriter-guitarist whose American Idol audition was aired on season 18 – and musicians from the Santa Barbara Symphony, as well as members of Selah Dance. The evening encompasses live musical performances, aerialists, dancers and acrobats in a fusion of symphonic melody, movement and vocals. Presented by Earl Minnis, Will Breman serves as band director with music arranged by Alex Epstein and artistic direction by Jeff Schultz

WHEN: 8 pm

WHERE: Lobero Theatre, 33 E. Canon Perdido St.

COST: $45/$60 ($83/$103 VIP tickets include premium seating, t-shirt and a photo with the artists)

Summer Screenings After Sunset – The uber-popular UCSB A&L free summer films series takes place every Friday evening under the stars at the County Courthouse Sunken Gardens, with a 2024 theme of “Sun, Surf and Cinema.” This week (July 26): The 2002 surf rom Blue Crush, starring then 19-year-old Kate Bosworth as a pro surfer who is up before dawn every morning to conquer the waves, but finds herself thrown when she agrees to teach a football quarterback how to surf, forcing her to deal with fears that are holding her back both in and out of the water.

WHEN: 8:30 pm

WHERE: Santa Barbara County Courthouse Sunken Gardens, 1100 Anacapa St.

COST: free

INFO: www.ArtsAndLectures.UCSB.edu

FRIDAY, JULY 26

Pseudo ‘King of Pop’ at Casino – Re-experience the career of Michael Jackson with the MJ Live Tribute Concert, which features a cast of impersonators and team members dedicated to providing a genuine Michael Jackson concert experience to celebrate “The King of Pop.” Boasting a company of talented singers, an entourage of dancers, and a series of special effects, the MJ Live Tribute performance delivers a nonstop onslaught of the late singer’s greatest hits, including “Billie Jean,” “Beat It,” “Smooth Criminal,” “Black or White” and many more with the energy and excitement of the late legendary superstar.

WHEN: 8 pm

WHERE: Samala Showroom at the Chumash Casino Resort 3400 E. Hwy. 246, Santa Ynez

COST: $35-$50

INFO: (800) CHUMASH (248-6274) or www.chumashcasino.com

SUNDAY, JULY 28

La Recepción del Presidente! – The final pre-Fiesta event is an ever-popular way to get ready for the omnipresent Old Spanish Days celebration that hits town midweek for five days. Celebrate the history and excitement of Fiesta 2024 by joining this year’s El Presidente Brian Schwabecher in immersing yourself in the theme of ¡Viva el Centenario! – marking 100 years of the fabulous folkloric festival. Savor a delicious Mexican-themed buffet dinner, sip cocktails, wine and more, and enjoy performances by the 2024 Spirit and Junior Spirit of Fiesta (Georgey Taupin and Aleenah Soriano) before dancing the night away as the sun sets just yards away over the Pacific Ocean. Fiesta attire is highly encouraged but not required, but reservations by 12 noon on July 27 are. Viva!

WHEN: 5-10 pm

WHERE: Hilton Santa Barbara Beachfront Resort, 633 E. Cabrillo Blvd.

COST: $200

INFO: (805) 962-8101 or www.sbfiesta.org

MOXI Afterparty – With the Paris Olympics launching yesterday for 16 days of sports immersion, MOXI partakes of the Olympic spirit for its latest edition of Afterparty, its annual extravaganza that turns the Wolf Museum of Exploration + Innovation into an adults-only affair. Dubbed Summer Games, tonight’s gathering offers a series of competitions to determine who in your squad can jump the highest, and who has the best aim; to name just two. This fun-filled event offers grown-ups a chance to channel their inner child, play like an athlete, and party like a champion with podium-worthy activities across all three floors. All of MOXI’s interactive exhibits will be open – including the current “Measurement Rules!” entries – and many will be tricked out with a sports twist. Moxi’s iconic rooftop Sky Garden will feature a dance marathon with DJ Gavin Roy Presents, and live music from the Brasscals – all set against panoramic rooftop views of the city and ocean. Quench your thirst with beer from Validation Ale, sip wine or cocktails at bars on each floor, and fuel up at Dave’s Dogs hot dog station. Let the games begin!

WHEN: 7-10 pm

WHERE: 125 State St.

COST: $35 in advance, $45 at the door

INFO: (805) 770-5000 or www.moxi.org/afterparty

WEDNESDAY, JULY 31

Plastic oh no (Banned?) – CEC’s Environmental Hub is closing out its annual Plastics Free July by hosting the Santa Barbara premiere of Plastic People, the landmark feature documentary that chronicles humanity’s fraught relationship with plastic, and one woman’s mission to expose shocking new revelations about the impact of microplastics on human health. Acclaimed author and science journalist Ziya Tong takes a personal approach both by visiting leading scientists around the world and undergoing experiments in her home, on her food, and her body. Tong’s collaboration with award-winning director Ben Addelman serves as an urgent call to action for us to rethink our relationship with plastic. The doc, which premiered at this year’s SXSW Film Festival, earned a rave review from Variety’s Owen Gleiberman, who called Plastic People: “One of those essential state-of-our-world documentaries…. I urge you to see it, to ponder its message, to consider what it’s saying about how microplastics have invaded our food, our water, our air, and, quite specifically, our bodies.” The film is presented in partnership with Santa Barbara Channelkeeper and the Unitarian Society of Santa Barbara Earth Advocates. Light refreshments will be served.

WHEN: 6 pm

WHERE: 1219 State St.

COST: $5 suggested donation

INFO: (805) 963-0583 or https://cecsb.org/events

WEDNESDAY, JULY 31

Fiesta Finally Arrives – As always Fiesta Pequeña (“Little Fiesta) kicks off the annual Old Spanish Days celebration with a spectacular show of dance and song on the beautiful makeshift stage in front of Old Mission Santa Barbara, a site that dates back much further than Fiesta’s own milestone 100 years. The Mission stays lit up in all its colorful splendor for the extravaganza featuring lively musical and dance performances, covering everything from Flamenco to Mexican Folklórico, early Californian styles and more. All of Santa Barbara’s flamenco dance schools and teachers are featured as well as dozens more from near and far. It’s a fabulously fun, festive and family-oriented way to celebrate 100 years of Fiesta. (Blankets and chairs may be set up starting at 6 pm)

WHEN: 8-10 pm

WHERE: 2201 Laguna St.

COST: free

INFO: (805) 962-8101 or www.sbfiesta.org

WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO

By Heidi Schreck | Directed by

AUGUST 15-18

CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING (805)

ESTATE/SENIOR SERVICES

MOVING MISS DAISY

Full Service SAFE Senior Relocation and Estate Liquidation Services Including: Packing and Unpacking, Estate Sales, Online Auctions and our own Consignment Shop! We are Licensed, Bonded, Liability Insured, Workers Comped, Certified by The National Assoc of Senior Move Managers (NASMM) and The American Society of Estate Liquidators (ASEL).

Glenn Novack, Owner. 805-770-7715 info@movingmissdaisy.com MovingMissDaisy.com Consignments@MovingMissDaisy.hibid.com

TRESOR

We Buy, Sell and Broker Important Estate Jewelry. Located in the upper village of Montecito. Graduate Gemologists with 30 years of experience. We do free evaluations and private consultation. 1470 East Valley Rd Suite V. 805-969-0888

PHYSICAL TRAINING & THERAPY

Stillwell Fitness of Santa Barbara In Home Personal Training Sessions for 65+ Help with: Strength, Flexibility, Balance, Motivation, and Consistency

John Stillwell, CPT, Specialist in Senior Fitness 805-705-2014 StillwellFitness.com

GOT OSTEOPOROSIS? WE CAN HELP

At OsteoStrong our proven non-drug protocol takes just ten minutes once a week to improve your bone density and aid in more energy, strength, balance and agility. Please call for a complimentary session! Call Now (805) 453-6086

AUTOMOBILES WANTED

We buy Classic Cars Running or not. Foreign/Domestic Chevy/Ford/Porsche/Mercedes/Etc. We come to you. Call Steven - 805-699-0684 Website – Avantiauto.group

AVAILABLE CAREGIVER

Trusted, Experienced Caregiver, CA State registered and background checked. Vaccinated. Loving and caring provides transportation, medications, etc. Lina 805-940-6888

ELECTRICIAN

Montecito Electric Repairs and Inspections Licensed C10485353 805-969-1575

Bouchard Electric Lic #794284 C-10 415-499-2203

TILE SETTING

Local tile setter of 35 years is now doing small jobs only. Services include grout cleaning and repair, caulking, sealing, replacing damaged tiles and basic plumbing needs. Call Doug Watts at 805-729-3211 for a free estimate.

AVAILABLE FOR RENT

Montecito Home. $30,000 per month. 4 BD 4 BTH – attached Nanny’s Quarters + Guest House. Minimum of 2 years lease. (310) 498-0315. PRIVATE CHEF AVAILABLE

In Home. Chef Bradley Mark 50 yrs. local experience Lv. msg. (805) 403-1769 Serve Safe Cert. #6168504

Casa L. M. Landscape hedges installed. Ficus to flowering. Disease resistant. Great privacy. Licensed & insured. Call (805) 963-6909

PET/ HOUSE SITTING

Do you need to get away for a weekend, week or more? I will housesit and take care of your pets, plants & mail. I have refs if needed. Call me or text me. Christine (805) 452-2385

SB SHOE & HAT REPAIR

SB Shoe Repair & Grand Central Hat Makers

Leather Goods & Hats

· Sizing

· Cleaning

· Refurbishing

· Maintenance

· Orthopedics

· Shaping

· Alterations

· Shining

· Custom experiences

334 Anacapa St, Suite 2. PH: (805) 453-0799

Mon / Fri 9-6 P.M. Sat 8-2 P.M.

CARPET CLEANING

Carpet Cleaning Since 1978 (805) 963-5304

Rafael Mendez Cell: 689-8397 or 963-3117

SOBER COMPANION

No one is better suited to help you or your loved one stay sober.

I provide round the clock care, on-call service and transportation. Very discrete/NDA (707) 606-8580

SANTA BARBARA CEMETERY PLOT

Ocean view plot off of Bluff Ave. Island Edition-C #83 $50,000 For info Mrs. Ella (805) 455-0731

DOG & HOUSE SITTER

Longtime Santa Barbara resident, retired, active 70 yr old woman. Experienced with house sitting and dog sitting. Prefer 1 small dog or 1 cat. Trustworthy, tidy, pet lover. References upon request. (805) 451-3415

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

K-9 PALS need volunteers to be foster parents for our dogs while they are waiting for their forever homes. For more information info@k-9pals.org or 805-570-0415

It’s simple. Charge is $3 per line, each line with 31 characters. Minimum is $10 per issue. Photo/logo/visual is an additional $20 per issue. Email Classified Ad to frontdesk@montecitojournal.net

ByPeteMuller&FrankLongo

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ByPeteMuller&FrankLongo

ByPeteMuller&FrankLongo

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