13 minute read
Fitness Front
Michelle Ebbin is a renowned wellness/massage expert, and the author of four books. She appears regularly in the media to discuss the benefits of natural therapies and healthy living. She lives in Montecito with her husband, Luke, and three boys. Instagram @MichelleEbbin We Can Dance I love to dance but I know that dancing does not come naturally to everyone. However, as the world is brain involved in executive function, long-term memory, and spatial recognition. Most importantly, I believe, reeling from all the terrible news and dancing feels good and can lift your people are suffering from cabin fever spirit instantly. (and Wildcat remains closed!), dance Since the pandemic started, dance of any kind, from ballet to break dancchallenges have become a ‘thing’ on ing to drunk dancing, is something social media and options for online that everyone can do in the privacy of dance-based workout classes have their own home to help reduce stress, exploded. On the video sharing app both physical and mental. Whether TikTok alone the #DanceChallenge you were born to dance, like to dance, has drawn more than eight billion or have two left feet, dancing right views and kids everywhere are TikTok now could do you some good. dancing with multiple generations in
Why? Dancing helps your body sync. As a former dancer, I’m loving and brain. In fact, according to the all the online, on-demand and live Harvard Medical School Mahoney dance classes to help me burn off Neuroscience Institute, dance has some steam and calories. Here are a such beneficial effects on the brain few of my favorites, including two that it’s now being used to treat peoamazing Santa Barbara instructors: ple with Parkinson’s disease. Other studies show that dance increases levWhitney Hoover – Whitney is a forels of the feel-good hormone serotonin mer ballet, jazz, contemporary, tap, and helps develop new neural conand hip hop dancer who moved to nections, especially in regions of the Santa Barbara after working at fitness
Gardens Are for Living
With an extensive background in dance,
Whitney Hoover is opening a new studio in Paseo Nuevo
studios in Los Angeles, including Tracy Anderson Method and Body by Simone. She combines her extensive knowledge of physiology and exercise science, Pilates, ACSM and Functional Range Conditioning certifications, and dance background into a workout that is both challenging and super inspiring. I love her online workouts as the exercises are geared to developing long, lean ‘dancer’ muscles. Whitney is opening a new studio in Paseo Nuevo that I can’t wait to visit. Until then, she has a wonderful digital studio available online with new classes weekly. More info: WhitneyHoover.com
Josette Tkacik – Josette is a graduate of the Juilliard School, a former dancer at the Joffrey New York, Alvin Ailey, and other ballet companies, and one of the most successful Zumba fitness instructors in the world. Josette is passionate about empowering people through positive energy and health, incorporating music, dance, and community, and her signature and globally known class is always packed in Santa Barbara. Featured on NPR, Forbes, and other news outlets, she’s been declared a “Medical Miracle” as she completely healed herself of rheumatoid arthritis with no pharmaceutical treatment whatsoever. Josette is offering three free livestream classes/week, videos on demand, and a seven-day course called “Heal; Becoming Extraordinary.” More info: JosetteTKacik.com
Josette Tkacik offers three free classes/week online and a workshop called “Heal; Becoming Extraordinary”
od and “practice of self study” with a huge celebrity following that incorporates cardio, meditation, and therapeutic yelling. I love this class because it combines great music, challenging exercises, and dance-like movements that encourage a strong, lean, resilient body, with heart-clearing, emotional releasing sound therapy (i.e., screaming). You have to try it! More info: TheClass.com
Ryan Heffington – Ryan is a two-time Grammy-nominated choreographer, dancer and owner of The Sweat Spot in Los Angeles. His daily Instagram Live dance classes are FAB-U-LOUS and have been helping me sweat and smile throughout this whole pandemic. No dance experience is required and you’re guaranteed to have fun! More info: @Ryan.Heffington on Instagram
If you’re not into online dance classes, all you have to do is turn on some great music and start dancing! In the great words of Men Without Hats, I leave you with this…
“We can dance if we want to, we can leave your friends behind
‘Cause your friends don’t dance and if they don’t dance
Well they’re no friends of mine
I say, We can go where we want to, a place where they will never find
And we can act like we come from out of this world
Leave the real one far behind, And we can dance” •MJ
Two Classic Old Montecito Properties (This is a trust sale, offer deadline is June 11th)
Tucked away in the Lower Village on two parcels that total 2.5 acres, this classic Montecito property plays host to a pair of historic homes. Passing beneath the property’s ivy arch is like stepping back in time, revealing a turnof-the-century charmer sprinkled with period details from a bygone era. Constructed in 1890 and equipped with good bones, the 2,882-square foot main house is ripe for a restoration. Architecturally sound and wellmaintained through the decades, the coastal cottage offers a flexible floorplan and endless natural light.
Beyond the main house’s sprawling 1-acre plot lies a second residence – a charming, 922-square foot barn structure that was built in 1982 and converted into a separate home. Situated on an adjacent 1.5-acre parcel, the idyllic pied-à-terre has been reimagined as a lightfilled space with soaring ceilings, downstairs kitchen and bath, and upstairs loft bedroom. Encircled with fragrant roses and foxgloves, the barn house includes a stunning garden with raised planter beds and citrus trees.
Suding / Murphy Group
Paul Suding, Bridget Murphy & Sean McIver 805.455.8055 info@sudingmurphy.com DRE 00678264 | 01233441 | 02017526
LETTERS (Continued from page 11) bridge over 101 joining North & South Jameson Lanes... for pedestrians wanting to traverse 101 to and from the beach?
LeeAnn Morgan
Good Perspective
Thank you very much for the series of incisive articles on the social/economic history of the United States by Rinaldo Brutoco. As he clearly stated, our country’s original sin, slavery, and the Civil War it brought us as well as the Native Americans “trail of tears” still today haunt the nation’s conscience and ongoing economic inequities. The current Republican national leadership in the country, in word and deed, pour salt on these wounds on a regular basis. We have what I would call a “cold civil war” that continues fostered by lies, deceit, and real “fake news,” both online and in some parts of our radio and TV media, in service to the national leadership. As Mr. Brutoco noted, the nation must face, in his words, this moral stain and work to heal it before it consumes us in an ugly and violent upheaval. My hope is that the November national elections will bring a major political re-alignment that will put the country on to a path to social justice and an economically productive green future that all Americans can be proud of and share in.
Sincerely,
Barry Gordon
Desalination Makes Sense
Thank you to Nicholas Schou for starting a series of articles that will help us to navigate the complicated and sometimes contentious debate on how to move forward with securing adequate water for Montecito. I totally agree with past board members of the MWD that conservation should be a big part of our equation and goal, but with more drought years surely in our future, we need to look at sus
J ARROTT &
CO.
REAL E S T A T E INV E S T MENT S
SPECIALIZING IN 1031 TAX-DEFERRED EXCHANGES
AND TRIPLE NET L EASED
MANAGEMENT FREE INVESTMENT PROPERTIES WITH NATIONAL TENANTS
CALL
Len Jarrott, MBA, CCIM 805-569-5999 http://www.jarrott.com
tainable, reliable, and hopefully local solutions.
Although I realize that desalination has its drawbacks (and I am looking forward to Nicholas addressing this in more detail) it makes more sense than allowing wealthy individuals to dig private wells or to pay dearly for State Water Project resources when there just is not any water to be allocated. We all need to educate ourselves on the source of our water, the possibility of innovative as well as environmentally sound solutions, and how to best work together as a community to solve a problem that affects us all.
Holly Sherwin Montecito
For the Birds
Santa Barbara Audubon Society (SBAS) thanks Joanne Calitri for her March 19th “Three Billion Birds Lost” article highlighting the dynamic new partnership between SBAS, UCSB Arts & Lectures, and the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History that made it possible for us to bring Dr. Ken Rosenberg, renowned scientist, to Santa Barbara.
Thank you for sharing with your readers the alarming scientific news of the unprecedented decline in numbers and diversity of birds. It is critical to inform the greater public about these science data. With such information, people are then empowered to make active decisions in their lives each day to protect birds and their habitat.
Now, more than ever, birds are in the news, and nature lovers, scientists, and journalists alike are showing us how to appreciate and enjoy the wonders of birds during these stay-at-home/social distancing times. As aptly entitled in David Sibley’s recent New York Times article, “7 Tips for Watching Birds During the Spring Lockdown,” each of us can study nature from home by noticing birds, listening to their songs, looking at a bird’s bill, thinking about what a bird is doing, watching for activity patterns, being curious, and drawing and writing notes.
SBAS protects area birdlife and habitat and connects people with birds through education, conservation, and science. Together, we are stronger. By uniting our three local stellar nonprofit organizations to host Dr. Rosenberg, and by Ms. Calitri sharing Dr. Rosenberg’s exciting talk to a wider audience, we elevate much-needed outreach and education to protect birds. Generous local SBAS chapter members bolster SBAS’s ability to survive and thrive. We just received one of our largest donations ever; the donors welcome others to also enthusiastically dive in and support SBAS. Montecito Journal readers, we invite you to please join us at SantaBarbaraAudubon.org, and if you have any questions about large donations and how they would be used to support education, conservation and science, please feel free to contact me direct.
Katherine Emery, PhD Executive Director Santa Barbara Audubon Society
Ralph’s Corner Green
With the sad passing of my friend Ralph Riskin I want to share the story of his contribution to The Corner Green we all enjoy today.
As Dana Newquist noted in his recent MJ remembrance, Ralph was a car-guy and shortly after moving to Montecito in 1989 stopped in the Union 76 station that occupied the corner, befriended everyone there and got permission to use their lift on weekends. Ralph lost one of his favorite hangouts in 1991 when Union Oil removed the gas station and left a vacant, contaminated site that others then tried unsuccessfully to acquire for a park. Hearing that they had dealt with Union’s real estate department, Ralph had the brilliant idea to instead approach their insurance department for whom the site was a headache. At first, like the others before him, he tried unsuccessfully to get them to sell or donate it. But when that failed, he took a different tack and, after much persistent backand-forth, convinced the department head to verbally agree to simply let the community use the site as long as they maintained it.
Over the next year Ralph arranged for a local landscape contractor to donate a lawn and irrigation, asked friends to donate wrought iron benches, Pierre LaFond to provide water and trash removal and, since East Valley Road is state highway 192, obtained required CHP approval. In a wonderful testament to his efforts the Union Oil executive with whom he so persistently negotiated surprised Ralph at the opening to offer his congratulations. Thus, what eventually became The Corner Green was born.
In 1993 the Montecito Community Foundation was able to purchase the site from Unocal and redeveloped the site, now The Corner Green, with the beautiful improvements and rebuilt it again following the 1/9 debris flow adding the memorial plaque to those lost.
The next time you visit The Corner Green give a thought of thanks to Ralph.
David Green Montecito
This is in response to Thomas Parker’s letter in MJ 21-28 May 2020. Seeing as Thomas has an entirely different take on what is going on in the Michael Flynn case than what I’ve been reading, I’m wondering if he has myopia or is simply trying to throw us off the trail as to what is really going on, or I’ve been reading more fake news, which is so prevalent in the MSM today. This following is an excerpt of one of the recent articles I just read, I’ll walk you through it real quick: “Richard Grenell had just declassified an email from former National Security Adviser Susan Rice, an electronic message sent to her about an Oval Office meeting with former President Barack Obama. That email had all the fixings of nefarious activity and plotting to entrap Trump National Security Adviser General Michael Flynn, in their efforts to undermine President Trump. Obama administration officials including Rice and then-FBI Director James Comey et al. are implicated in the now-public corruption.” It seems incongruous to me to believe that Thomas, being that close to the goings on for so long, would not have an inkling as to what the agenda was. Richard Grenell concluded his article with the promise that there was going to be a lot more to come out. If that’s the case you can just visualize the CYA that’s going on; hopefully Thomas is not involved. I could nitpick with a lot of what Thomas wrote, but for brevity’s sake I’ll take issue with just his last paragraph. (1)”Previous to this current administration, the Rule of Law was the guiding principle of our democracy...” WHAT!? WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP!!! He comes across as one of those Obama “yes men” who have massive motes in their eyes caused by CDS, Trump Derangement syndrome I presume. (2) ...”and our system of justice. Our beloved country was founded upon.” WRONG, WRONG ,WRONG Thomas. When asked by a citizen after the Constitution was ratified what kind of government they had given the people, Benjamin Franklin responded a “Republic if you can keep it.” Based on a thorough understanding of Democracies throughout history All of the Founders abhorred democracies. In case Thomas hasn’t noticed, we “Pledge allegiance to the Flag and to The Republic for which it stands.” Perhaps it’s been so long since Thomas recited the “Pledge” that he’d forgotten it.
I too took an oath to defend the country against all enemies, “foreign and domestic,” and it appears to me, as of late, that the FBI has an awful lot of dirty laundry that needs to be looked into.
Larry Bond •MJ
