'Cornerstone of our Community'

The Giving List 14-21 OCTOBER 2021 VOL 27 ISSUE 42

SERVING MONTECITO AND SUMMERLAND

Lotusland is giving its buildings some overdue love, with hopes of matching the beauty of its gardens, page 32

‘Cornerstone of our Community’ After 32 years, Little Alex’s lease will not be renewed, setting off strong pushback from long-time patrons. Story starts on page 5

Our Choice for District 4

The battle for Santa Barbara City Council’s District 4 seat has been intense, but incumbent Kristen Sneddon is showing us the leadership we need, page 8

On High Alert

The Alisal Fire offers a sobering reminder of how vulnerable the South Coast is to fire; plus, the DUI “hunter” makes 100th arrest of 2021, page 6

An Instant Classic

The cars? Impressive. The crowds? Large. It was a perfect weekend for the Montecito Motor Classic at the Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club, page 18

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MONTECITO JOURNAL

14 – 21 October 2021

14 – 21 October 2021

• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

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Inside This Issue

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R E W O P Y M I AM Join Cottage Rehabilitation Hospital Foundation on a journey to find the power that we all have within us. A night of entertaining and uplifting stories of perseverance and the power of the human spirit.

5 In the Know Little Alex’s has been a centerpiece of the Coast Village Road community for more than three decades, so as they are removed from the Country Mart by their landlord, the community is raising its voice 6 Village Beat The Alisal Fire offers a sobering reminder of the South Coast’s fire vulnerability, while the DUI “hunter” is paying dividends 8 Election 2021 Why Kristen Sneddon has earned our endorsement for a second term as District 4 representative for Santa Barbara City Council 10 Letters to the Editor The letters are pouring in and it’s quite apparent that Montecitans want to save Little Alex’s from being jettisoned from the Country Mart 11 Community Voices Redistricting in Santa Barbara County hinges on community participation 12 Celebrating Art Marlene Miller’s exhibit, Borein and His Circle of Friends, is a visual masterpiece 14 Kismet Sara Miller McCune’s affection for live theater began on Broadway, with Kismet leaving a lasting impression 16 On Entertainment 83-year-old Charles Lloyd has played at the Lobero Theatre countless times — but this next one stands out from the rest 18 Montecito Miscellany The Montecito Motor Classic brought out throngs to the Polo Club, while the annual Forbes “rich list” has plenty of Montecito connections 20 Dear Montecito Stella Haffner takes a look at the growing divide between the arts and sciences 22 Perspectives by Jerry B. Brown Psychedelics and Mystical Experience: A catalyst for healing in contemporary psychedelic research

The Optimist Daily Health & Security: This is how butterflies could make our future security systems unhackable 23 Brilliant Thoughts Offering some fruitful thoughts . . .

Robert’s Big Questions Robert Bernstein asks a simple ques tion: Are we all humanists?

24 Travel Buzz A trip to New York City was good for Leslie Westbrook’s soul, offering a glimmer of whatever the new “normal” will look like 26 Ernie’s World He’s got some gripes, and wonders if there might be an app for that 27 Farr Out How studying Earth’s past climates can educate us about its future 28 Far Flung Travel Taking on the Caliente Mountains, a west-to-east uplifting mountain range in San Luis Obispo County 29 Our Town Rod Lathim and Chris Gocong find a bond over art — and it’s hard to miss 32 The Giving List Lotusland is giving its buildings some overdue love, with hopes of matching the beauty of its gardens 33 Your Westmont After four years plagued by challenges, the class of 2020 celebrates Commencement in person; more than 30 students offer summer research findings 34 Mini Meta Crossword Puzzles 35 Monthly Music Meta Crossword Puzzle Solutions 36 Calendar of Events From the Danish String Quartet to the NatureTrack Film Festival, a look at the week ahead around town . . .

38 Legal Advertisements 44 Santa Barbara by the Glass Rusack Vineyards launches new lineup of wines, focused on a “really aromatic white wine style” 46 Classified Advertising 47 Local Business Directory

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14 – 21 October 2021

In the Know

by Nick Masuda & Kelly Mahan Herrick

Little Alex’s Is Out at Country Mart Despite Community Uproar

The Briner and Santamaria families have been integral in helping Little Alex’s thrive despite staying committed to an affordable menu (Photo by Nick Masuda)

3,000 PROJECTS • 600 CLIENTS • 30 YEARS • ONE BUILDER

J

ust a few weeks after Cava leaving its longtime post on Coast Village Road, another community cornerstone is being shown the door by its landlord, as Little Alex’s has been told it needs to vacate the Montecito Country Mart

by November 22.

Jim Rosenfield, the retail center’s landlord, delivered the news via a letter, with no personal contact made over the decision to part ways until the afternoon of October 12, when Rosenfield left a message for one of Little Alex’s owners, Dan Briner.

Rosenfield did offer an explanation to the Montecito Journal.

“Always trying to balance preservation of building, lifestyle, offerings, and upgrades,” said Rosenfield, who also owns similar country mart concepts in West Los Angeles (Brentwood) and Marin.

“We’re committed to preserving the use,” he said, adding that the new business slated to open in place of Alex’s is a casual, family-friendly Mexican concept, but it will remain local, the new tenant is a Santa Barbara restaurateur.

For Briner, he’s worried that yet another “old-timer” is being jettisoned, pointing to his wife, Lynette, as the key to the restaurant’s success, as she has been primarily responsible for day-to-day operations at Little Alex’s for the past 32 years.

“We are just the latest in a long line of owners that have been forced out,” Dan said. “That’s concerning. I guess he was just hoping that he’d outlast us — I guess he did.”

Kristen Sneddon, the District 4 representative on Santa Barbara City Council, which presides over Coast Village Road, says it is concerning that long-time local business owners such as Little Alex’s and Cava have failed to reach agreements, either on rent hikes or needed improvements to the business, albeit the physical structure or underlying direction.

These two closings come after Giovanni’s was shuttered in January 2019 after 32 years, while the Read ‘N’ Post also recently closed in the Country Mart.

And there have been many others that have left the Country Mart, including Kendall Conrad, Intermix and Xanadu, the latter becoming a public dispute

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In the Know Page 424

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• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

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Village Beat

by Kelly Mahan Herrick Kelly has been editor at large for the Journal since 2007, reporting on news in Montecito and beyond. She is also a licensed realtor with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, and is a member of Montecito and Santa Barbara’s top real estate team, Calcagno & Hamilton.

Alisal Fire is a Sobering Reminder of Lurking Dangers

A

t this month’s Montecito Association Board Meeting, the Board of Directors touched on many community topics, including fires, crimes, transportation, the holidays, and more.

During community reports, Montecito Fire Chief Kevin Taylor, reporting from the front lines of the Alisal Fire, said the 13,000-acre fire (as of press time) was a good reminder for everyone to stay vigilant during high wind events. The fire is burning between the 2007 Gaviota Fire and 2016 Sherpa Fire burn scars, with hopes that the younger fuel in those scars will aid the 800 firefighters battling the blaze. Chief Taylor reported that there are three engines and 10 firefighters from Montecito working on the Alisal Fire.

Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s

Lieutenant Butch Arnoldi reported on the crime statistics for the last month. Reported crimes include petty theft and vehicle burglary on Padaro Lane; residential burglary on Ortega Ridge; prowling/trespassing on Channel Drive; catalytic converter theft on Danielson Road; residential burglary on Ortega Ranch Lane; residential burglary on Finney Street in Summerland; toolbox stolen on South Jameson; residential burglary on Danielson Road; residential burglary on Macadamia Lane; and jewelry stolen from Casa Dorinda.

There were also numerous DUI arrests thanks to Deputy John Valente, who we told you about in September (MJ #27/39). Valente is a former California Highway Patrol officer, serving 26 years on the force, where most of his time was spent on DUI and drug vio-

lations. The “DUI hunter” racked up several arrests in Montecito in the last month, including on Channel Drive, on Coast Village Road at Middle Road, and on Hermosillo, which marked Valente’s 100th DUI arrest for the year.

Arnoldi also reported that the Board of Supervisors, at a hearing last week, approved the awarding of a $25,000 SAVE-21 Grant, which reimburses the county for 90% of the costs incurred when removing abandoned non-commercial watercraft from county beaches. Throughout the state of California, public agencies having jurisdictions over navigable waterways and the surrounding lands have been plagued with an increase of abandoned vessels and other navigational hazards, mostly due to outdated boats that are at the end of their useful lives. The abandoned vessels present a navigational hazard to the boating public and eventually sink or come to shore, becoming a hazard to the public.

The lieutenant also discussed bear activity in Montecito, as well as mail theft occurring in the Toro Canyon area. “Please take all precautions to get to your mailbox before the bad guys do,” he said.

Montecito Union School Superintendent Anthony Ranii reported on campus facility improvements that are slated to begin next summer. We’ll have an in-depth report

Sheriff’s Deputy John Valente had his 100th DUI arrest for the year earlier this month on Hermosillo Road. Valente, a DUI specialist, has more than 1,100 DUI arrests in his career.

on the improvements, as well as how they are being paid for, in next week’s edition.

MA Board Member Robert Kemp reported that the nominating committee had interviewed seven Montecito residents who would be great contenders for the five open seats opening up on the MA board. The ballots will go out in November.

The Association is working on a com-

Village Beat Page 354 354

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• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

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Election 2021

by Nick Masuda

The Race for District 4: Why Kristen Sneddon is Our Choice

T

he showdown for Santa Barbara City Council’s District 4 seat has been an unexpected, no-holdsbarred battle between challenger Barrett Reed and incumbent Kristen Sneddon, who, in the face of Reed’s intense criticism, has chosen to focus on her own strong record as a councilmember, and turning up the heat on her current councilmates.

Sneddon, a Santa Barbara City College professor, has refrained from political flame-throwing, except for her tough love challenges leveled at the city’s leadership to rise to the many challenges they face. At the same time, Sneddon continues to be a strong advocate for Coast Village Road, the environment, truly affordable housing and finding a long-term solution to a homelessness problem that has grown exponentially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As the race winds down to November 2, the Montecito Journal endorses Kristen Sneddon for a second term as a city council member.

Our support for Sneddon is based not only on her strong record on council and her skill at navigating the inner workings of City Hall, but on her increasingly courageous voice to challenge the status quo in a city that could use some shaking up.

The race between Reed and Sneddon has brought some key issues to the forefront, most of which the candidates agree upon — although Reed, who serves on Santa Barbara’s Planning Commission, says Santa Barbara has moved away from its roots, directly calling out Sneddon’s contribution to the “problem” — his word, not ours.

Instead of responding directly to her opponent, Sneddon has identified the root of council’s problems as failed leadership at the top. Having just finished her freshman campaign as a councilmember, she firmly believes that change is in order.

“I will say leadership, and I will leave it there,” said Sneddon. “I think it’s clear that we are rolling in different directions; we’ve had issues.

“I think we’ve had a lack of overarching vision.”

Reed and Sneddon both believe there is a need for a Business Improvement District for Coast Village Road, a venture that has had mixed results in Santa Barbara, with State Street succeeding and Milpas Street failing.

They also agree that CVR, which has long provided millions in tax revenue for the city of Santa Barbara, receives too little love in return — “it’s not a two-way street,” Sneddon quipped.

We could not agree more.

They agree that the business permitting process in Santa Barbara is abominably prohibitive, and that slow-moving (if that) adaptive reuse ordinances have prevented progress being made at sites such as the old Macy’s building at Paseo Nuevo and Sears at La Cumbre. Reed points at city council for not being aggressive enough; Sneddon suggests that the internal legal mountains they climb make the process impossible. They also agree that reuse needs to be the priority downtown, not building up.

They also know that the culture at City Hall is in need of a major overhaul, as indicated by high-profile and sudden departures by city leaders, as well as accusations of misogyny and sexual harassment grabbing headlines — and concern. Reed was critical of the lack of a message coming from the

Kristen Sneddon receives the Montecito Journal’s endorsement for the District 4 seat on Santa Barbara City Council

council amid these lingering issues, while Sneddon pointed to privacy concerns that prevented that statement from happening — “we were advised legally not to make statements.” But that doesn’t mean she was happy about it, pointing to repeated requests to mandate equity training for everyone on council and at City Hall. We hope that next time these issues arise, Sneddon and other leaders will speak out more vociferously.

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14 – 21 October 2021

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• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

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Letters to the Editor

If you have something you think Montecito should know about, or wish to respond to something you read in the Journal, we want to hear from you. Please send all such correspondence to: Montecito Journal, Letters to the Editor, 1206 Coast Village Circle, Suite H, Montecito, CA. 93108. You can also FAX such mail to: (805) 969-6654, or E-mail to letters@montecitojournal.net

Renew the Lease for Little Alex’s

D

ear Mr. Rosenfield, I’m writing to ask you to please reconsider renewing the lease for Little Alex’s.

Your website says the “Montecito Country Mart is a place for the entire family and the best way to experience Montecito — as a local would.”

So please let’s keep a very local and beloved place open for the locals and the “entire family.”

As a 38-year resident of Montecito, I have loved and frequented Little Alex’s often. Its low-key vibe and delicious food is my go-to weekend breakfast spot, and their chicken soup has cured many a cold over the years.

I am deeply saddened to hear that you don’t feel they are a “fit” for the Mart. Montecito is not only an upscale destination for L.A. tourists (and beyond), it is also a home to a community that values mom-and-pop businesses, and tasty authentic food.

Losing Read N’ Post was a big loss.

They really provided something needed whereas I’m not even sure what the new Montecito Mercantile that replaced it offers.

I do hope you’ll be hearing from so many of us who share this view, and that you’ll reconsider. What makes a community charming is diversity. I love Lucky’s, Tre Lune, etc. and I love Little Alex’s.

Who am I? The daughter of an L.A. producer who grew up in Beverly Hills and is about as privileged as it gets — so pretty much your ideal customer — please reconsider and renew their lease.

Sincerely, Jill Martin

Carlos Makes a Run for It

When the lightning storm hit, Carlos, The Bear, had been curled in his bivouac reviewing on his phone,

for the umpteenth time, the video that was posted on the Montecito Journal’s website of him walking through a backyard in the hedgerow district near Montecito’s Laguna Blanca School, earlier that week. Thinking this a good time to vamoose to a better hiding place, he made a run for it. He knew it was risky, lightening and all, but after his brush with the authorities as he had fled the school area, he knew this was the right thing to do. After all, who is going to be watching for a bear with a storm like that going on!

Carlos had only been following his instincts by plying the creeks in search of food and maybe an affordable den when he had gotten tired and decided to take nap. Awakening after dawn, and near a school, no less. He knew he was in a bad spot. What’s a bear to do?

Now, safely domiciled in a temporary den above Mountain Drive, he was reading the Montecito Association’s newsletter. Cava had closed and Little Alex’s was set to close come November. This saddened him because he knew how human cubs loved Alex’s and their parents too; so affordable. And with Cava closing, where could an adult enjoy a happy hour drink and people watch?

Carlos worried about the gentrification of his beloved little village.

So many changes, so fast, were almost unbearable.

Michael Edwards

Losing a Community Staple?

Montecitans should know that Little Alex’s, a staple of Montecito for over 30 years, has been asked to leave the Montecito Mart. Apparently a higher rent wasn’t the issue.

It doesn’t take a huge leap of the imagination to believe that an affordable restaurant with good food catering to a wide variety of patrons will be

replaced by something more upscale, catering no doubt to the wealthier elites among us.

As many of us know, during the mud debris flow, Little Alex’s compassionately brought food to feed the incredible support people who worked so hard to save us.

Although Montecito is unquestionably among one of the more rarified places to live, everyday spots like Little Alex’s help to make us feel more grounded and a part of the greater community.

What a loss.

John Fink

new businesses that have opened it the Mart of late, it seems likely that Little’s’ will be replaced by some high-priced boutique selling fancy merchandise that’s irrelevant to the daily lives of those like our family, who have purchased essentials in that shopping center for many years.

This decision by Mart ownership reflects a lack of understanding of (and care for) what our community needs and values. We respectfully request the decision be revisited, and that “Little’s” be allowed to continue providing the excellent and essential service it has for the past 33 years.

Mike and Diana Wilson

‘Deeply Disappointing’

We recently learned that after 33 years in business, our favorite restaurant in Montecito has been told to close its doors by the owner of the Montecito Country Mart on Coast Village Road. This decision is deeply disappointing. Our extended family has been a frequent customer of Little Alex’s for decades. The restaurant is conveniently located – easy to include during errands. It has consistently provided excellent quality at a reasonable price. Over the 30 years we’ve lived in Montecito, we’ve probably eaten a Little Alex’s meal over 1,000 times.

And our reliance on the establishment we affectionately call “Little’s” has only increased during COVID, as we juggled daily support logistics for three generations living under one roof. From the very first days of the pandemic, Lynette Briner (Little’s owner) kept the doors open, shifting her focus to safe and efficient take-out service — including a well-conceived online ordering system. She continued providing quality food to her many loyal customers, and employment to her team. While others folded, she kept her business afloat and paid her rent.

Now it appears her reward for these many years of service to our community, and resilience during the pandemic, will be termination of her lease. The reason given is that her establishment doesn’t fit with the upscale image that Mart ownership is looking to create. Based on the other

MONTECITO TIDE GUIDE Day Thurs, Oct. 14 Fri, Oct. 15 Sat, Oct. 16 Sun, Oct. 17 Mon, Oct. 18 Tues, Oct. 19 Weds, Oct. 20 Thurs, Oct. 21 Fri, Oct. 28

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14 – 21 October 2021

Community Voices

by Glenn Morris & Megan Turley

Redistricting in Santa Barbara County Hinges on Community Participation

T

he right to vote is one of our most foundational rights as Americans – we have the right to be equally and fairly represented. Our county is redistricting, which means that we are assessing current Supervisorial district boundaries and redrawing all five districts based on the federal 2020 Census to account for changes in the county’s population and to comply with the California Fair Maps Act. This process relies on community members weighing in on what the County of Santa Barbara Board of Supervisors’ Districts should look like.

Redistricting happens every 10 years following the federal Census and requires all voting districts to be roughly equal in population. Measure G, a county ordinance passed in 2018, requires that this decennial process be led by the Santa Barbara County Citizens’ Independent Redistricting Commission (SBCIRC): a nonpartisan commission made up of 11 Santa Barbara County residents.

SBCIRC’s mission is to determine the county’s supervisorial district borders based on community-submitted maps to satisfy the state’s legal requirements, and to accurately represent and enfranchise our county’s diverse communities.

We are honored to be the chair and vice chair of this commission. The SBCIRC’s top priority is to get our diverse communities engaged. We know that it is in the county’s best interest that residents in every neighborhood and community share thoughts on what your Supervisorial districts should look like.

What do you believe are your “communities of interest” – areas throughout the county where the population shares common social or economic priorities?

This could be a neighborhood surrounding a business district or school, an area with common interests in a geographic or ecological landmark, or a neighborhood that shares a language other than English. By defining your communities of interest, your input will help the SBCIRC properly consider the impacts of changes to a district’s boundary. Submit your thoughts on local “communities of interest” via email at redistricting@countyofsb.org or SBCIRC’s website at drawsantabarbaracounty.org.

Get more involved by drawing maps and asking others to do the same. This allows you to have an even more direct impact on this process. It’s easier than you think; residents can use the county’s online mapping tools available at drawsantabarbaracounty.org or physically draw maps using paper templates that are available at our meetings or can be downloaded from the website and mailed to the commission. Residents can draw the county’s five districts or just one. These maps, along with the explanation of why residents drew the lines where they did, will help to inform us of your priorities and identities that should be preserved and represented on the county’s Board of Supervisors.

Unfortunately, the delays in releasing the Census data that informs these maps severely limits the time for reviewing and adopting a final map. We only just received the official data. Despite these challenges, the state set a deadline of December 15, 2021, for our county to adopt a final map.

It is a sprint for the next few weeks – that’s all the time you have to draw and submit maps for the Commission’s consideration. The deadline for map submissions is October 18, to provide the Commission enough time to select a final map by December 15, 2021.

The final map will decide a great deal – including how residents vote, which communities they vote with, and which county Board of Supervisor will represent them following the June 2022 election, and in all elections for the next decade.

We cannot accomplish our goal of creating the most fair and equitable County district map without your help. Get started today by visiting drawsantabar baracounty.org •MJ

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• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

11

Celebrating Art

by Hattie Beresford

Borein and His Circle of Friends

Maynard Dixon’s 1927 Wild Horses of Nevada reveals his development of a true modernist style

A

congenial and festive crowd gathered in the lovely courtyard of the Santa Barbara Historical Museum to celebrate the opening of guest curator Marlene Miller’s exhibit, Borein and His Circle of Friends on Thursday, September 22. The balmy warmth of the evening was matched by the warmth of the response to the exhibit and the new book, Edward Borein: Etched by the West, which Marlene and Warren Miller had commissioned to be written by one of the foremost authors on the art of the American West, B. Byron Price.

Edward Borein’s mother knew she had an artist on her hands when at the age of 5 he drew two black horses pulling a hearse in Oakland. School textbooks, apparently, were made for sketching scenes of cowboy life, and he left home to become a ranch hand at age 17, learning the trade by day and sketching at night. For the next thirty years he wandered the West, drifting from ranch to ranch from Mexico to Montana, making artist friends, and developing his art. In New York, he learned and perfected

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12 MONTECITO JOURNAL

“It’s hard to do a really good job on anything you don’t think about in the shower.” – Paul Graham

the art of etching and his illustrative talent began appearing in many magazines of the day.

In 1920, during a time spent back in Oakland, Ed met Lucile Maxwell and two days later proposed to her. He was 49 years old. Married in June 1921, Ed and Lucile decided to move to the growing artists’ colony of Santa Barbara and ended up spending the rest of their lives in the small city by the sea.

Thanks to Marlene Miller’s vision and passion, Santa Barbarans are able to visit incredible works of Western art in a beautifully curated and designed exhibit that presents the art in a stunningly subtle manner, highlighting each piece without distraction. The exhibit was made possible through the generous sponsorship of Eleanor Van Cott, Louise Clarke, and John Carbon.

One part of the impressive exhibit

Art Page 474

Ed and Lucile (second and third from right) pose at the Harmer Studios complex where they lived for a time starting in 1921 (Santa Barbara Historical Museum)

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• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

13

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“L

ove is a game that two can play and both win by losing their heart.” – Eva Gabor For Sara Miller McCune, her first crush wasn’t sitting across from her in a classroom or a neighbor from the Queens, New York block she grew up on — her heart belonged to Broadway, a lifelong love affair that has now spanned seven decades.

And she didn’t always need a front-row seat to engage in her passion; it was borne out of afternoons in the “nosebleeds,” where sightlines were still spectacular, even mesmerizing. For young Sara, live music and the aura of living in the moment in a golden era of Broadway provided soul development that was seeped in the arts.

And those early years saw her see dozens upon dozens of shows in New York’s most famous corridor. It was a lesser-known, but award-winning show that left the lasting impression — so much so that the uber-successful Sara is bringing Kismet to Santa Barbara for a three-night-only run at the Granada Theatre on October 22-24, fulfilling a lifelong dream of bringing the Tony Award-winning production back to life.

The theater has been and always will be Sara’s muse.

“The wonders of the theater, they’ve never ceased for me,” Sara said.

From high above the stage in 1954, Sara watched the likes of Alfred Drake, Henry Calvin, Doretta Morrow, and Beatrice Kraft, all members of Kismet’s original Broadway cast that would win the Tony Award for Best Musical in that magical year.

And while the acting left an impression, Sara was captivated by the blend of the live orchestra and ballet companies, bringing fictional Baghdad in the time of Arabian Nights to life right before her very eyes.

She was enamored by Kismet’s inventive lyrics, providing her an opportunity for first-hand experience of a culture from halfway across the world.

“I hadn’t ever heard anything like it,” Sara recalled. “I was in a trance.”

The original production was adapted by Charles Lederer and Luther Davis from the 1911 play written by Edward Knoblock, with Robert Wright and George Forrest also providing some original music, mostly adapted from the wellknown Russian composer Alexander Borodin.

Sara Miller McCune will bring Kismet to life in Santa Barbara with the three-night-only production set for October 22-24 at the Granada Theatre

The brain trust might not have been on stage, but their work in bringing the storyline of a young woman meeting and falling in love with a young caliph was a “love story any young girl wanted to see,” Sara said. “Every romantic teenager wants to be whisked away by Prince Charming.”

“I was so lucky to experience Broadway during a time of so much innovation. It was truly a golden era.”

In many ways, Kismet stoked the Broadway fire for Sara, who would spend her teenage years and into her early 20s eating $1 meals in Times Square so that she and her friends could see up to three shows in a week.

Live theater wasn’t optional for Sara, it was a way of life.

“There’s nothing like it,” Sara said.

“The feeling you get when you walk into a theater, it’s something so special.”

And she hopes that by bringing Kismet to her long-time adopted backyard along the South Coast, that there might be another young teenager here that falls in love.

“For someone, a passion could be borne with this show.”

If You Go

What: Kismet When: October 22-24 Where: Granada Theatre Cost: $10-$156 Info: https://ticketing.granadasb. org/15635/15647 •MJ 14 – 21 October 2021

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• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

15

On Entertainment Into and Out of the Void with Charles Lloyd

by Steven Libowitz

T

o interview Charles Lloyd, you’ve got to be willing to abandon your list of questions and simply surrender to wherever it is that the master musician wants to go. The saxophonist’s career dates back to the 1960s when the Memphis-born musician was part of the San Francisco scene, sharing bills at the Fillmore with the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Jefferson Airplane and reaching fame as one of the first jazz artists to sell a million copies of an LP with 1967’s Forest Flower, which came out the year after the first release under his name as a quartet which featured Keith Jarrett, Cecil McBee, and Jack DeJohnette. But it wasn’t long before Lloyd wound up in Big Sur, the better fight off burnout with connection to nature and the combination of earthly and heavenly that still inspires him decades later.

In conversation, Lloyd, who has lived in the hills of Montecito with his photographer wife, Dorothy Darr, since emerging in the 1980s, takes twists and turns and trips down metaphorical paths that seem far from the original subject but never with a false note. In other words, pretty much like his concerts, where the saxophonist preaches in a way that both stimulates the mind and soothes the soul.

These younger guys want to play with someone who was there.

I have experience and I also have beginner’s mind. That keeps me going forward in a way to find the ineffable, which is what I’m looking for. I have to be on the forefront as an artist because we were not wired for mediocrity.

— Charles Lloyd But this time, Lloyd seems more agitated and faster-paced than usual.

“Well, yeah. I’ve got cabin fever,” Lloyd said. “I’ve hardly played live in public in the last couple of years and I need to go and do my work. That’s why I’m here.”

That hiatus comes to a close on Saturday, October 16, when Lloyd, now 83 and a NEA Jazz Master, brings his latest quartet featuring four-time Grammy-nominated pianist-composer Gerald Clayton, bassist Reuben Rogers, and new drummer Justin Brown to the Lobero Theatre for something like the 20th time at his favorite hometown haunt. What follows is a highly edited excerpt of our conversation last weekend.

Q. With another personnel change, I’m wondering how you decide who to play with these days? What makes these guys the right group for you for this time and place?

A. I’m working in something that’s ancient and modern, so you can’t just take anyone out there. I have to have these sages who can dance on a lot of shores. A lot of people may be interested in that, but the ability to do it is another thing. These guys waited a long time to play with me, been in the wings for a while. What we’re doing here is getting the work done, and these people who come to play with me, they have some kind of a notion that they want to be in this place because this is where that gets expressed.

These younger guys want to play with someone who was there. I have experience and I also have beginner’s mind. That keeps me going forward in a way to find the ineffable, which is what I’m looking for. I have to be on the forefront as an artist because we were not wired for mediocrity.

When I listen to you now, and think about your concerts that I’ve heard, I am imagining that the way you let people, or at least an audience, into your world is through the music. You’re inviting us to explore your present state of your mind and body and join you in the search in real time. And the extent of how much we’re going to be enjoying the concert is connected to how much we’re willing to surrender our own minds, to just be in the experience and what’s going on. Does that fit?

That’s beautiful. Yeah. Surrender is key. You know, when people come to my concerts, if they can manage to leave that stuff outside, and just be the seeker and the sensitives. All the great masters, they are able to take indi-

16 MONTECITO JOURNAL

Charles Lloyd will make a return to the Lobero Theatre on October 16

viduality and connect with the universal. And in the best moments, that’s what’s going on. I’m like an extent ecstatic. I’m a seeker and I’m looking for something that, uh, will reveal the true self. I have to remain joyous because my spirit is about that.

I’m also imagining that when you’re playing your mind is a hell of a lot slower and blanker than it is right now. That it’s where you find your purpose and your peace.

Every time before I play, I have a case of the nerves or something, because I don’t know that I can do this. That happens every time. And then when I step out there, I get across the chasm and I put that thing (his saxophone) in my mouth, and I start telling that story, I see Dorothy in the wings trying to get me off the stage because it’s been two hours. It’s not anything I can talk about in words. If I could, then I wouldn’t be trying to play it on the flute or the saxophone.

I’m in the zone, and there are no impediments.

You’ve often talked about playing music as truth telling or at least the seeking. Do you ever reach that goal where your soul is laid completely bare, if that fits? Or is it more about the seeking?

Yeah, it’s the journey. I never really got good enough to quit… I’m just thankful and blessed that I can continue to live in my lifetime with my creativity and go swim in the water and hike in the mountains and have these quantum mechanic ideas come to me. I’m still just trying to see what that is.

SBCC Theatre Pulls the ‘Ripcord’ on 75th Season

Theater critics can be wildly random in their reviews of new plays, but the writers for The New York Times and Washington Post wrote second-person leads about the same plot twists and left turns in David Lindsay-Abaire’s 2016 play Ripcord that are about as divergent as the work’s two main characters.

The bitter, cantankerous Abby, who has always enjoyed a quiet room to herself at the Bristol Place Senior Living Facility, is suddenly paired with the new arrival Marilyn, an incessantly cheerful chatterbox, and sparks fly. A simple seemingly harmless bet between the women with the winner earning bedchoice rights to the room quickly escalates into a dangerous game of increasingly difficult physical challenges that tests the adversaries’ tenacity and reveals truths about deeper issues, including facing fear and handling anger.

“The gotcha moments arrive right on schedule in the expertly engineered situation comedy,” said the Times. “You can see each little successive climax of triumph hurtling toward you from a distance, beaming with self-delight, and when it reaches its destination, you laugh contentedly, not because you’re surprised, but because you aren’t.”

Au contraire, said the Post: “Bet you can’t keep ahead of the twists in the sitcom play [about] sweet and sour roommates who don’t get along [whose] competitive schemes zing the play in unexpected directions.”

Whether they found surprise or satisfaction in the progression of the plot, both critics loved the play, an Odd Couple romp that turns into a heartwarming story, and SBCC Theatre chair Katie Laris believes local audiences will too when Ripcord makes its area debut as the first offering in the SBCC Theatre Group’s 75th anniversary season. She pointed to Lindsay-Abaire’s versatility as one of its main attractions: The playwright won the Pulitzer for his harrowing drama Rabbit Hole and penned the drama Good People, but also wrote

“Trust your instincts.” – Estee Lauder

On Entertainment Page 314 314

14 – 21 October 2021

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14 – 21 October 2021

• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

17

Monte ito Miscellany

by Richard Mineards

Richard covered the Royal Family for Britain’s Daily Mirror and Daily Mail, and was an editor on New York Magazine. He was also a national anchor on CBS, a commentator on ABC Network News, gossip on The Joan Rivers Show and Geraldo Rivera, host on E! TV, a correspondent on the syndicated show Extra, a commentator on the KTLA Morning News and Entertainment Tonight. He moved to Montecito 14 years ago.

The Engines Were Revving

Allen Grant’s 1963 Lola MK6 GT now valued at $25 million received the Armand Hammer Foundation Award (Photo by Priscilla)

Monte Wilson and C.J. Ward with Mark Alfano, chief of staff at Armand Hammer Foundation, and his 1963 289 original Cobra (Photo by Priscilla)

H

orsepower of a very different kind took over the Santa Barbara Polo Club when the 9th annual Montecito Motor Classic, with more than 200 exotic and luxury cars on display, was staged on the expansive fields.

“We could have had a great many more but had to cut off the applications given fire regulations,” says Dolores Johnson, founder. “But it is still an extraordinary collection of cars and marques.”

The undoubted star of the show among all the Rolls Royces, Bentleys, Ferraris, Maseratis, Lancias, Porsches, and McLarens was a 1963 Lola GT Mark VI, the prototype of only three manufactured, which featured in the U.K.’s Festival of Speed at the 12,000-

acre stately pile, Goodwood, owned by an old friend, Charles Settrington, 11th Duke of Richmond, a few years back.

“I’ve had innumerable offers for it, but would never sell,” says owner Allen Grant of Palm Springs.

“Auctioneers tell me it could fetch as much as $25 million, but to me it is priceless. Absolute perfection.”

Other auto gems on display from Montecito residents included former Tommy Bahamas honcho Terry Pillow’s 1956 Jaguar XK140, Montecito Bank & Trust president George Leis’ 2015 Porsche 911, Dana Newquist’s 1932 Buick picnic car, and Robert Lieff’s Citroen.

The Best in Show award went to cell phone billionaire Craig McCaw for his Mercedes Benz 300 SL road-

“La Bestoni” built from a firetruck by Gary Wales (Photo by Priscilla)

18 MONTECITO JOURNAL

The 2021 Montecito Motor Classic brought out throngs of people, as well as unique vehicles from all over the world (Photo by Priscilla)

ster, while KEYT-TV anchor C.J. Ward announced the innumerable other winners of the event sponsored by the Armand Hammer Foundation and the Montecito bank.

A hat contest, judged by Journal writer Lynda Millner, saw first prize go to bubbly Nina Terzian with a colorful floral hat and toy racing cars in the brim, created by Arlene Larsen of the Magic Castle. Rebecca Brand was runner-up, with both winners getting vouchers from jewelers Silverhorn.

Others checking out the stunning autos included Keith Hudson, father of singer Katy Perry, Ginni Dreier, Anne Luther, Monte Wilson, Hiroko

Miscellany Page 404

Nina Terzian, winner of the inaugural MCC Hat Contest, designed by Nina and Arlene Larsen (Photo by Priscilla)

John Fishpaw, Mark Halper (standing), Kat Halper, and David Alvarez beside Halper’s award-winning 1971 Porsche 911 (Photo by Priscilla)

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14 – 21 October 2021

• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

19

Dear Montecito

Stella Haffner

by Stella Haffner

The Divide Between Art and Science

Dear Montecito,

Last week we spoke about the importance of scientific curiosity and developing a sense of adventure. This week, I think we’d do well to examine the divide between science and arts disciplines.

When discussing the separation of arts and sciences, it is hard not to address the elephant in the room.

This elephant is better known as “the decline of the arts.” Now, given the overexposure of this issue, no journalist wants to touch this topic with a 10-foot pole (or perhaps we should start calling them “corona sticks”). But because I am neither a very practiced journalist nor willing to leave out a key part of the picture, I think this is as good a place to start as any. As you may know, the decline of the arts refers not to a deterioration of any art quality but instead it refers to the academic pessimism that humanities students are jumping ship for the much more marketable — supposedly, much more employable — STEM fields.

And as an arts-to-science convert myself, I began to wonder whether there is any stock in this.

It does appear to be true that student admission into the humanities has dropped, with American colleges estimating a 30% reduction since the early 2000s. However, these sorts of statistics usually seem to be where the conversation starts and ends. But as someone who has spent

a good deal of her degree punching about with numbers, I’m here to tell you that these statistics aren’t everything. In fact, they seem to be pointing the blame at the wrong thing entirely and thus worsen the problem.

A quick scroll through online discourse on the decline of the arts would have you believe that students no longer favor the humanities because of a systemic push towards science. This discourse exercises the explicit argument that students are choosing STEM, but also employs the much more nefarious implicit argument: to choose STEM is to abandon arts. This is the real rot. How can we ask students to engage equally with different disciplines when they operate within this collegiate sphere’s wild contradiction — we can’t expect students to bail us out when we emphasize collaboration and interdisciplinary learning while simultaneously segregating academic achievement based on discipline.

This is one of the few times I think the United States demonstrates a more intellectually progressive position. In this country, students attend classes for a wide variety of subjects to complete their general ed courses, and by extension, these students are exposed to a wide variety of classmates. In the UK, you only attend classes within your discipline, and it is very rare for students to straddle faculties, in large part because the

academic system makes it infeasible. The divide is so much a part of our university life that it seeps into the student culture prompting such comments as (I kid you not): “Oh what? They study chemistry? What did you guys even talk about?”

This is what I mean when I say the disciplines have been segregated. Not only is our time on campus structured so we have minimal contact with other disciplines, but our time off campus is shaped by this as well. This is the key element that is absent in the “decline of the arts” op-eds, the acknowledgement that a science-arts divide is baked into our culture, not the result of a push-andpull from one to another. Until we reframe these disciplines and stop marketing them as antagonistic forces, we will only worsen the divide.

I’m of course not trying to construct a straw man here. There is utility to organizing courses by where they fall in the academic sphere; no one is pretending that a film student would enjoy a biochemistry lecture.

Equally, we must acknowledge that many of these subjects have their roots in similar places. The con-

struction of a good faith argument, due process, and academic integrity didn’t emerge spontaneously in each different discipline but were curated in the seed of academia.

In the same way, students learn convergent skills regardless of their major – we are taught to be curious, encouraged to be thorough, pushed to be inventive, especially when deadlines turn the corner too quickly. Creativity is essential for scientific innovation and analytical thinking is key to enlightenment within the humanities.

To put this all briefly: we cannot continue to treat arts and sciences as completely divorceable entities while expecting better results within a student’s university education. We must change our thinking to move forward.

Oh, and while we’re at it, can we get rid of this right-brain, left-brain nonsense? That was stirred up by some personality science charlatan and has been sticking like chewing gum to psychology’s heel ever since.

Stop it.

Yours, Stella •MJ

Lost in the Weeds?

A Neuroscience Perspective on Cannabis Ronald See, a researcher at the forefront of creating experimental models of drug relapse and addiction, speaks on the benefits and harms of cannabis.

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14 – 21 October 2021

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14 – 21 October 2021

• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

21

Perspectives

by Jerry B. Brown

Academy Fellow Jerry B. Brown, Ph.D., is an anthropologist who teaches and writes on psychedelics in religion. His new course “Psychedelics: Past, Present and Future” begins on October 26, 2021.

Psychedelics and Mystical Experience

A catalyst for healing in contemporary psychedelic research

I

t is well-established that mystical experiences have historically played a pivotal role in indigenous shamanism and world religions (the miracles surrounding Moses’ Ten Commandments and Jesus’ baptism

by John). What is less well-known and quite unexpected is the discovery that mystical experiences are the catalyst for healing in contemporary psychedelic research.

Both the Johns Hopkins and NYU studies on the impact of psilocybin on cancer patients found that “In both trials, the intensity of the mystical experience described by patients correlated with the degree to which their depression and anxiety decreased.”

In other words, researchers have predictably occasioned mystical experiences –faith-based “flights of the soul” traditionally thought to be beyond the scope of empirical science – in clinical settings by administering high-dose synthetic psilocybin.

Furthermore, it turns out that these experiences hold the key to positive patient outcomes in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy.

Let this enigma sink in for a moment.

Mystical Experience Questionnaire

Our understanding of the five common elements in mystical experience is originally based on the insights of William James (The Varieties of Religious Experience, 1902) and Walter T. Stace (Mysticism and Philosophy, 1960). These elements were incorporated into a 30-question operational definition of mysticism, the Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ30) utilized in the Johns Hopkins psilocybin studies.

The five common elements of mystical experience are: — Unity/Sacredness – deep sense of unity with all of existence.

— Positive Mood/Ecstasy – deeply felt sense of well-being.

— Time Transcendence/Eternity – entering a timeless dimension.

— Authoritative/True Self – understanding one’s authentic self.

— Ineffable/Indescribable – difficult to put into words.

Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy

Beginning in 2006, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine has been conducting the first federally-approved psy-

22 MONTECITO JOURNAL

chedelic research since the 1970s War on Drugs, administering psilocybin to human subjects including studies of personality changes and of psychedelic therapy for treating tobacco/nicotine addiction and cancer-related distress.

In 2016, Johns Hopkins undertook the largest ever study of psilocybin in treating chronic depression and anxiety among patients with life-threatening cancers. In this randomized, double-blind, cross-over trial, 51 patients were given a low placebo-like dose versus a high dose in two sessions with a six-month follow up.

In a Journal of Psychopharmacology article, Roland R. Griffiths, known as the grandfather of the Psychedelic Renaissance, and colleagues report that “High-dose psilocybin produced large decreases in clinician- and self-rated measures of depressed mood and anxiety, along with increases in quality of life, life meaning, and optimism, and decreases in death anxiety.”

Some 70% of the cancer patients rated the high-dose psilocybin session as among the top five “most meaningful” and “spiritually significant” life experiences. In addition, their post-session mystical experience scores served as statistically significant predictors of therapeutic efficiency in reducing anxiety and depression.

The daughter of one study participant noted that “This opportunity allowed my dad to have vigor in his last couple of weeks of life — vigor that one would think a dying man could not possibly demonstrate. His experience gave my father peace. His peace gives me strength.”

These outcomes prompted Griffiths to observe that “It’s very common for people who have profound mystical-type experiences to report very positive changes in attitudes about themselves, their lives, and their relationships with others” and to exclaim that “As a scientific phenomenon, if you can create a condition in which 70% of the subjects achieve positive, lasting results… in one or two sessions!”

Inner Self-Healing Intelligence

This research confirms that mystical experience can alleviate anxiety and depression. “How” this healing takes place is the theoretical Holy Grail of the new science of psychedelics.

Griffiths concludes that “the psilocybin experience enables a sense of

Health & Security

This is how butterflies could make our future security systems unhackable

T

hough fingerprint recognition may make us feel like we have control over our privacy when it comes to our electronic devices, much like other modern security labels, our fingerprints are vulnerable to the possibility of being replicated.

A team of scientists at the Institute of Physics Belgrade is now working on a unique authentication label made from tiny fragments of butterfly wings.

By zeroing in on the wings of a butterfly, which are covered in hundreds of thousands of tiny chitin scales, arranged like overlapping roof tiles, researcher Dejan Pantelic realized something: Each tiny scale features a lattice with a mesh-like structure that is as unique as a fingerprint.

The idea is to attach a butterfly scale to an object and then enter the exact visual details of the scale into a database to ensure the item is not a fraudulent copy.

Importantly, these butterfly “barcodes” are so tiny and fragile that attempting to tamper with them would do visible damage. What’s more, because the scales are three-dimensional, copying one is virtually impossible.

According to the scientists, the unique scales can be sourced from any species, including those considered pests. The captured butterflies are held with food and water until their life cycle ends. The work then begins on collecting the scales using a secret process that ends with the tiny flakes suspended in an alcohol solution.

World Health Organization Approves Malaria Vaccine for the First Time

This week, in a momentous feat for modern medicine, the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) has finally approved the first malaria vaccine.

The new immunization, made by GlaxoSmithKline, is specifically targeted towards protecting children and prompts the immune system to fight off Plasmodium falciparum, the deadliest malaria pathogen.

In clinical trials, the vaccine had a 50% efficacy rate against severe malaria. Unfortunately, this drops to nearly zero by four years after inoculation.

According to Dr. Mary Hamel, who leads the W.H.O.’s malaria vaccine implementation program, the severity of malaria infection is “a reliable proximal indicator of mortality,” so a vaccine with 50% efficacy against severe infection will have a positive influence on mortality rates.

A modeling study found that if the vaccine were rolled out in countries with the highest rates of malaria infection, 5.4 million cases and 23,000 deaths would be prevented in children younger than five each year.

•MJ deeper meaning, and an understanding that in the largest frame everything is fine and that there is nothing to be fearful of.”

How the brain expands from normal consciousness to encompass this “largest frame” is visually shown

by Carhart-Harris’s magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain’s neural pathways before and after ingesting psilocybin mushrooms.

Psychedelics allow us to leave the “brain’s default-mode network,” the brain’s everyday information highway, and to travel into areas of the mind only available in expanded states of consciousness, clearing the way for mystical experience.

Brain’s Neural Pathways:

Before and After Magic Mushrooms Mystical experiences arise when

“Timing, perseverance, and 10 years of trying will make you look like an overnight success.” – Biz Stone

the doors of perception are flung wide open so that the spiritual self can surface from the depths of the psyche, empowering us to heal and understand that in the cosmic scheme of things “all is well.” As the psychiatrist who developed psychedelic psychotherapy in the 1950s, Stanislav Grof has guided over 4,500 LSD sessions. Based on his unparalleled experience with LSD and encyclopedic knowledge of the psychedelic literature, Grof observes that “Entering these [holotropic, transpersonal, mystical] states activate an inner self-healing intelligence, which automatically guides the process to unconscious material that has a strong emotional charge and is close to the threshold of consciousness. It then spontaneously brings this material to the surface for processing.”

•MJ 14 – 21 October 2021

Brilliant Thoughts

Robert’s Big Questions

by Ashleigh Brilliant

Born London, 1933. Mother Canadian. Father a British civil servant. World War II childhood spent mostly in Toronto and Washington, D.C. Berkeley PhD. in American History, 1964. Living in Santa Barbara since 1973. No children.

Best-known for his illustrated epigrams, called “Pot-Shots”, now a series of 10,000.

Email ashleigh@west.net or visit www.ashleighbrilliant.com

Fruitful Thoughts

S

everal years ago, when I was on icy, unfamiliar ground (if you must know, it happened in Upstate New York, in the hills, near a resort called Mohonk, where I’d just given a speech about my work) I slipped and fell, breaking my right shoulder. One result was that, although I recovered pretty well, I’m right-handed, but now can’t reach quite as far with my right arm as I can with my left. Among other consequences, this limits my freehand fruit-picking, though of course, there are all kinds of tools, which I never had to use before.

But a line by Robert Browning (probably the line most remembered from a long poem called “Andrea Del Sarto”) now somehow has a more personal meaning for me: “Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp – or what’s a Heaven for?”

The matter of reaching for fruit does indeed take us back almost to Heaven, at least to the Garden of Eden. Most people who are at all familiar with the Biblical story of Adam and Eve know that all our troubles can be traced to a certain forbidden fruit which Eve was first tempted to eat, and she then induced Adam to join her, both thereby defying God’s will.

That fruit is generally thought to have been an apple, but the “Book of Genesis,” in which this account appears, makes no such specification. For all we know, it might have been a peach or a plum.

This did not stop somebody from labeling the prominence in our neck the “Adam’s Apple,” on the theory that a piece of that forbidden fruit was embedded in Adam’s throat — a somewhat sexist rationale, since Eve was equally, if not more, guilty — but anatomically justifiable, since this bump tends to be much more prominent in men than in women.

But when it comes to reaching for fruit, surely top honors must go to that ancient Greek storyteller Aesop, whose tales we might quite literally describe as “fabulous.”

Many of us know his fable about the fox who sees a very tempting cluster of grapes hanging from a vine. He tries again and again to reach it — but this is not the story whose moral urges, “If at first you don’t succeed . . .” No, the fox is out of luck, and finally slinks off, 14 – 21 October 2021

by Robert Bernstein

Degrees from Physics departments of MIT and UC Santa Barbara. Career in designing atomic-resolution microscopes. Childhood spent in Europe and the East of the US. Passion to understand the Big Questions of life and the universe. Duty to be a good citizen of the planet.

muttering to himself the best consolation he can think of: “Well, they were probably sour anyway.” To him, and Aesop, we therefore owe the expression “sour grapes,” connoting a poor loser.

But our culture has much more pleasant associations with fruit, particularly fruit pies. Everybody knows the expression “As American as apple pie,” which somehow, as recently as World War II, got wrapped up with “Mom,” giving us an unbeatable combination of symbols for Americans to fight for in any future conflict.

Unfortunately, our expression “apple-pie order,” meaning tidy and well-ordered, (which, when you come to think of it, is not particularly an American characteristic) apparently had nothing to do with apple pies, but originated from a misunderstanding of a French expression meaning “neatly folded.”

And we mustn’t forget the cherry — first endeared to us by Parson Weems’ cherry tree fable about the young George Washington, who “could not tell a lie.” Then it became the ultimate test of a good wife, with the song whose chorus asks of a prospective mate: “Can she bake a cherry pie Billy Boy, Billy Boy?” Billy assures us that, despite her extreme youth (which is stressed in every response), she has amazing culinary skills: “She can bake a cherry pie quick’s a cat can wink his eye -(She’s a young thing, and cannot leave her mother.)”

Cherry pies may be quite common — but, if you live in my neck of the woods, don’t look for a raisin pie.

My friend Sol often reminisced about his mom’s wonderful raisin pies, and I thought it would be fun to surprise him with one. But the surprise was mine, when I could find no local bakery, or any other possible source, which made or sold such a thing. I finally appealed online and had to have one privately made.

But, if I may conclude with Billy Boy, you may be interested to know that, in the song’s finale, he’s asked exactly how old his cherry-pie sweetheart is, to which he candidly replies: “Three times six and four times seven, twenty-eight and eleven – She’s a young thing, and cannot leave her mother.”

•MJ

Are We All Humanists?

A

horrific attack by fanatical Muslim Americans in San Bernardino in December 2015 raised concerns that there would be counterattacks against innocent Muslims. In typical Santa Barbara fashion, we had a solidarity rally to show support for Muslims. Local Imam Yama Niazi welcomed people, noting the presence of Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, and many Christian denominations.

I looked at the crowd in De La Guerra Plaza and noted how many were members of our Humanist Society of Santa Barbara. I shouted out “Humanists” to add to his list. He instantly responded, “We are all humanists!” I was delighted.

I am not sure if he knew that there was such an organization. He just knew that any reasonable person would be a humanist. I would like to agree.

Many people think that religion based on the Ten Commandments is essential for a “moral” society. But is that true? I have asked people who say this what they mean. Their answer: “Don’t Kill. Don’t Steal.” That is two. What about the rest? Some commandments are not acceptable in the modern world. Like the commandment to only worship the God of Abraham. We no longer close all stores on the Sabbath. And there is no longer any legal prohibition on having sex with someone who is not your spouse (pre-marital sex).

Meanwhile, the Ten Commandments miss a lot. Where is the commandment to protect the environment? To protect human rights? To participate in democratic governance? To treat other living things humanely? Or even to wash your hands before eating?

Could you create a better list? The American Humanist Association offers “The Ten Commitments”: — Altruism: I will help others in need without hoping for rewards — Critical Thinking: I will practice good judgment by asking questions and thinking for myself — Empathy: I will consider other people’s thoughts, feelings, and experiences — Environmentalism: I will take care of the Earth and the life on it — Ethical Development: I will always focus on becoming a better person — Global Awareness: I will be a good neighbor to the people who share the Earth with me and help make the world a better place for everyone — Humility: I will be aware of my strengths and weaknesses, and appreciate the strengths and weaknesses of others — Peace and Social Justice: I will help people solve problems and handle disagreements in ways that are fair for everyone — Responsibility: I will be a good person—even when no one is looking— and own the consequences of my actions — Service and Participation: I will help my community in ways that let me get to know the people I’m helping How do you feel about each of these Commitments? Does this seem like a superior basis for ethics? Do you disagree with any? Are any missing? How do you feel about the tone? Note that each Commandment begins with a threatening figure demanding Thou Shalt (Not). Whereas each Commitment is an invitation personally to affirm what sort of person “I” want to be.

The Imam opened his speech saying: “I’ve been a Muslim all my life.” We may look at a diverse kindergarten class and marvel at the Hindu and Christian children playing together. What does this mean to be a Hindu child? Would we refer to a child as an epiphenomenalist? A topologist or botanist? Clearly, one must have some maturity to decide on a world view or identity.

How many of us have stayed with the religion of our birth by pure inertia?

I freely admit that I consider myself to be Jewish by heritage. And if I hear an anti-Semitic comment, I become very Jewish. But that is very different than my value and belief system.

“Nones” are people who don’t identify with any religion. Nones are the fastest-growing “religious” demographic now in the U.S. Better to be “none” than to be a member of a religion you disagree with. But is it also worth taking the time to affirm what we do believe?

We just had a Humanist Society talk by UCSB professor Dr. Ann Taves: “NonOrdinary Experiences of Non-Believers.” It seems that non-believers have just as many such experiences as believers. But they interpret them very differently.

I am the first to raise my hand and say that I do not understand the true nature of reality nor of consciousness. As a Humanist, I use this as a starting point to explore many possibilities. How about you?

•MJ

• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

23

Travel Buzz

by Leslie A. Westbrook

Jazz, Pizza, Art and Old Friends: What More Could a Gal Ask For?

Gianni Valenti in his jazz club, Birdland

Arturo O’Farrill and his Afro Latin Jazz band will be performing at UCSB on October 15

“N

ew York City is back!” I exclaimed to Gianni Valenti over a drink at Birdland, the 70-plus-year-old jazz club and theater cabaret that he’s owned for the past three-plus decades, on 44th Street in New York City.

“It’s half back,” he corrected me, adding that his longtime landlord was very understanding of the economic climate during the pandemic and helped with the rent. Most of Valenti’s staff has returned to the fabled jazz club in the heart of the theater district, but on what would normally be a packed night — a Sunday with the terrific regular Sunday night band, Arturo O’Farrill and his Afro Latin Jazz band — the sultry restaurant and club was only half full.

Still, that didn’t keep enthusiastic

and fawning fans from coming up to Arturo (who teaches at UCLA and divides his time between New York and Culver City) during the break to express their love and gratitude for the killer music and messages. Lucky for us, O’Farrill (who is Cuban/ Mexican/Irish/German) will be performing with his hot Latin fusion full orchestra and the Villalobos Brothers, marrying the richness of Mexican son jarocho folk music with the intricate harmonies of jazz and classical music, this Friday, October 15 at Campbell Hall as part of UCSB Arts & Lectures reopening.

You won’t want to miss this show that also celebrates O’Farrill’s new album Fandango at the Wall, which has an accompanying documentary that is airing on HBO Max and was filmed

at the San Diego/Tijuana border wall as well as in the state of Veracruz, Mexico.

The Grammy-winning pianist and composer’s orchestra was deemed “one of the best jazz orchestras in existence” by The New Yorker. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree: O’Farrill is the son of noted Cuban composer/arranger/conductor Chico O’Farrill. A transnational project that prompted the album, a book, and the documentary, Fandango at the Wall was inspired by the annual Fandango Fronterizo Festival at the Tijuana-San Diego border.

In fact, if you are on the fence about this concert, O’Farrill the elder once said, “The mixture of jazz and AfroCuban music is a very delicate marriage. You can’t go too much one way or the other. It has to be a blend. But you have to be careful with how different styles come together. Otherwise, music labeled Latin jazz could end up being like Glenn Miller with maracas, or Benny Goodman with congas.

Latin jazz is much deeper than that.’’

If that isn’t enough to convince you, the concert is being presented

in association with the Santa Barbara Women’s Political Committee (full disclosure, I am a member).

But back to the Big Apple and Birdland.

Gianni is an impresario force of nature – he’s franchised and/or opened Birdland Jazz Clubs throughout the world (Umbria, Italy, which was really hit hard by the COVID shutdown; Melbourne, Australia; and Tokyo). One can only hope Santa Barbara would be so lucky to have a much needed, great jazz venue.

Gianni, a native New Yorker, knows everybody in the jazz world.

The photo lined walls of the bordello red decorated club attest to that.

My favorite male jazz crooner, Tony Bennett, even popped in recently and signed a photo to Gianni, despite the effects of his Alzheimer’s disease.

“I wasn’t really sure what he was writing,” the jazz promoter said and sharing, that much to his delight, Bennett had inscribed Gianni’s name.

Buzz Page 304

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14 – 21 October 2021

• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

25

Ernie’s World

off?” Then he smiled. “I can substitute a gluten free bun!”

“Does anyone ever order a glu

by Ernie Witham ten-free bun with a 1,500-calorie Ernie has been writing humor for more than 25 years. He is the author of three humor books lunch?”

“Not sure. I can ask Alexa on my and is the humor workshop leader at the prestigious Santa Barbara Writers Conference. phone.”

My wife ordered a salmon salad.

“What kind of dressing?”

“The one it says it comes with.”

“Cool.”

“Water?” we asked. “Over there, self-service.” “Silverware?” “Over there.” “Napkins?” “Over there. ately, technology irritates me. light out when you come to bed.”

We’ll call you when you can come It’s not just because I can’t Lunch has become annoying. The up and get your order.” remember all (or any) of my other day we went to a sandwich “Do I have to bag it myself?”

1,200 passwords. “It’s getting late place at the mall. “What can I get “No, I’ll do that and, oh, here is the dear, maybe you should call it a you?” tip window coming up.” night.”

“I’ll have the bacon cheeseburger This is another technological tick“Nope. Technology is not beating special with chili fries.” off. Every time you pay for anything me again.” I typed in zzzzzzz9999999 “’Kay.” He searched and final- with a credit card these days, you get and waited. The password window ly pressed an icon on his comput- a tip window. When we go for coffee, hesitated and then... it shook from er screen. “And I’d like the bacon I always order the house blend and side to side indicating wrong. I took well-done.” “Sorry, there’s no but- they hand me an empty cup. Then out my 12-gauge shotgun and aimed ton on my screen for that.” “Can the tip window comes up. at the computer.

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own boarding pass, so I did. When I got to the airport and headed for the counter to check my bag, an attendant asked if I had my bag tag.

“Not yet,” I told her.

“The self-service bag tag kiosks are right over here.”

I looked at the bag check counter a short distance away. There were four young ladies standing there looking idly official. “Don’t they usually do that?”

“This way saves valuable time,” she said For whom, I wondered, as I spent at least 10 minutes reading all the screen instructions and giving this inanimate object more information than most of my relatives know. Finally, it spit out my bag tags, and I fastened them on and took my bag to the counter. “ID and boarding pass.”

“I just gave all that to the machine.”

She waited so I gave her all the info, then she asked me to lift my bag onto the scale. “Any questions?” she asked. “How do I know which gate?”

“There are arrival and departure screens right over there. Next.” There was no one behind me. They were all still trying to figure out the self-serve bag tag kiosk.

So, it shouldn’t have surprised me when I went to CVS the other day and saw the new self-serve checkouts.

Arrggg! But when I went to get some ear wax remover (don’t ask), it was locked up. I had to go all over the store to find someone to unlock the cases.

“I can’t believe people steal ear wax remover?”

“I hear that,” she said. “But people open boxes, use the product, buy some beer and split. We caught a guy putting on hair gel and deodorant the other day. Said he had a date, like that made it okay.”

I looked across the aisle. “Why aren’t the fast-acting laxatives locked up?”

“Because by the time the crooks figure out the new self-pay checkouts for their beer, we have evidence on them if you know what I mean.”

Be afraid, people. Be very afraid. •MJ

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14 – 21 October 2021

Farr Out Earth’s Past Climates

by Tom G. Farr

Sea level was so low during the last major ice age, that San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, and Anacapa islands — all in the Channel Islands — were connected

M

ost people know that Earth’s climate has changed periodically over the last couple of million years. Ice ages have come and gone along with wetter and drier periods in the more temperate zones.

Picture two miles of ice on top of Canada and the northern United States, glaciers snaking down from the Sierra Nevada, lakes dotting the Mojave Desert including one 600 feet deep in Death Valley, and similar conditions in the Sahara.

People were around during this period and had to adapt to these changes, which occurred about every 50,000 years or so. The last ice age wound down about 15,000 years ago and it’s no coincidence that during the stabler climate since then, agriculture was developed, and cities grew. As the deserts dried out over the last 10,000 years, people had to move to survive; it’s during this time that the ancient Egyptians migrated toward the Nile River.

Geologists early on in Europe and later in North America recognized a repeating pattern of glacier deposits buried under younger sediments.

Because it was so difficult to get good dates for the boulders that make up the glacial moraines and other material the glaciers deposited, geologists just gave these various signs of old ice ages names and assigned them a relative-age order.

So, in Europe we have the youngest deposits named Riss and Würm and older ones named Günz and Mindel, all named after rivers related to the glacier deposits. In North America, it was unknown if our ice ages matched up with Europe’s, so we gave them our own names, like Wisconsin for the youngest and Illinoian and Sangamon for older ones. The Sierra Nevada got its own chronology from Sherwin and Tahoe to the youngest, Tioga.

Finally, in 1930, a Serbian mathemati14 – 21 October 2021

cian named Milutin Milankovitch published an analysis of changes in Earth’s orbit that he projected back in time and predicted that they could explain the cycles of the ice ages. These so-called Milankovitch cycles fall into 3 classes: 1) Eccentricity, which is a measure of how circular or oval Earth’s orbit is, which varies on about a 100,000-year cycle; 2) Obliquity, the tilt of Earth’s axis, which varies between 22 and 24 degrees every 41,000 years; and 3) Precession, which is the wobble of a top as it spins, which tilts the Earth toward and away from the Sun over about 20,000 years.

Right now, Earth’s orbit is circular and our Northern Hemisphere tilts toward the sun in the northern summer, but when that changes, more snow and ice can start accumulating at northern latitudes, eventually triggering an ice age.

It took a while to verify Milankovitch’s claims as we needed good dates of the ice ages. The first dates were developed on coral reefs in Papua New Guinea where sea-level drops caused by all that water being locked up on land in ice sheets stranded the corals. When the ice melted, the corals grew again. Tectonic forces continuously lifted the island so that a rhythmic series of coral steps were preserved. Small amounts of uranium trapped in the corals allowed them to be dated by its radioactive decay, as discussed in my last article.

More recently, deep-sea cores have been obtained in ocean basins all over the world that clearly depict the cycles of ice ages and interglacial times. These have also allowed us to determine how the timing and intensity of the ice ages have varied all over the globe. Dating of the layers in the cores uses various radioactive isotopes, but inference of the temperature of the ocean water at those distant times uses other, stable isotopes.

It turns out that oxygen has a natural, stable (non-radioactive) isotope with two extra neutrons, called O18. In the

1950s, scientists found that cold water evaporates less with the heavier O18 so that ocean water during the ice ages had heavier O18. That was then trapped in the shells of plankton and other animals that fell to the sea floor and became the sediments scientists cored. Thus, we could produce a nice graph of age versus temperature from the deep-sea core.

Ice cores on the polar caps in Antarctica and Greenland have produced the same information, though in their case, the water has more of the lighter O16 that evaporated from the cold oceans. An additional problem on the ice caps, though, is that there’s no material to date, so the ages must be estimated by other means.

Now we know that there were strong ice ages about 400,000, 320,000, 120,000, and 15,000 years ago and weaker ones around 200,000 and 60,000 years ago.

We’ve also seen how Europe and North America were pretty much in sync, but Northern Africa, including the Sahara was offset in time and followed changes in the Monsoons to the east.

It turns out Mars has also gone through ice ages of its own. Scientists studying small changes in Mars’ orbit have been able to project changes back a few million years there, too. Currently, Mars’ axis tilts about the same as Earth’s (25 degrees) and it goes through seasonal cycles like Earth — you can see its polar caps expanding and contracting with the seasons. However, its obliquity (the tilt of its axis) has ranged a lot more than Earth’s — up to about 35 degrees, meaning almost the whole planet was engulfed in ice at various times. When this was discovered, it answered a lot of questions about landforms near Mars’ equator that looked like they had formed under ice. They had and were preserved after the ice retreated.

Less is known about past climates of our other nearby planetary neighbor, Venus. Its present atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide and is very thick; pressure at the surface is about 90 times that of Earth. However, there is some evidence that in its distant past, Venus may have had liquid water on its surface.

Exploration of Venus will have a renaissance soon as three spacecraft were just approved to learn more about Venus’ past and present — two from NASA and one from the European Space Agency.

NASA’s DAVINCI+ will concentrate on the atmosphere where there is still evidence of a watery past. VERITAS will map the surface and search modern and ancient crust for signs of current and ancient activity. ESA’s EnVision will complement NASA’s studies of atmosphere, surface, and subsurface. The three should launch about 2030.

A third body in our solar system has recently been discovered to have a “climate”: Saturn’s moon Titan has an atmosphere of nitrogen and some methane that’s about 1.5 times as thick as Earth’s and, due to its distance from the Sun, the temperature is just right

• The Voice of the Village •

for methane to evaporate, condense, and flow like water in rivers and lakes on its surface. We still don’t know enough about how conditions may have changed over time at that remote location, but there is some indication that the very slow changes in Saturn’s orbit may have led to climate changes for Titan. More detailed investigations would need to be done to learn if Titan ever had an ice age. To help answer those questions, Dragonfly is a new NASA/Johns Hopkins University mission (https://dragonfly.jhuapl.edu) that will land a helicopter on Titan in 2027 to investigate its atmosphere and surface.

Meanwhile, we can see the effects of the ice ages in our local terrain. It turns out tectonic forces have conveniently caused the Central Coast to rise continuously over the past million years or so, while sea level has dropped and risen during the ice ages and interglacial intervals. The uplift was slow enough that the ocean was able to carve beach platforms, which then became terraces as the land continued to rise.

Nice profiles showing off flights of wave-cut terraces can be seen at Gaviota State Park and El Capitán State Beach as well as on the Channel Islands.

Speaking of the Channel Islands, it turns out that sea level was so low during the last major ice age, that San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, and Anacapa islands were connected, forming what has been named Santa Rosae Island, which was only about five miles from the mainland. Humans apparently took advantage of that and settled the island during that recent low stand. As the most recent ice age warmed up and the ice sheets melted, sea level rose by about 300 feet and the islands took their current form.

Human evolution and movements were certainly shaped by climate changes over the past million years or so.

As humans spread out from northeast Africa, they were assisted or stymied by the recurring ice ages and concurrent sea-level changes. One of the more interesting findings is that humans may have migrated to North America via a land bridge spanning the Bering Strait between Russia and Alaska during the last ice age. There is still some controversy over this and an alternative has been proposed where these early North Americans could have instead made their way by sea, following what has been dubbed the “kelp highway” just offshore.

Archaeologists are now using scuba and other high-tech gear to search for signs of early humans migrating along the now-drowned shelves that would have been coastlines during the ice ages, including around the Channel Islands.

Something to think about when looking across the channel or anchored at the islands is that this could have been one of the earliest crossroads of North America.

•MJ MONTECITO JOURNAL

27

Far Flung Travel

by Chuck Graham

Embracing the Loam

S

now flurries, hail, and intermittent rain was just enough to dampen the top layer of loam along the serpentine spine of the Caliente Ridge, the Caliente Mountains being a west-to-east uplifting mountain range in the remote southeast corner of San Luis Obispo County.

While mountain biking up the winding Caliente Ridge Road, a dense canopy of smoky gray storm clouds swirled above aided by chilly, piercing gale force winds. As I ascended well above the sweeping Carrizo Plain National Monument and the Selby Campground, I left behind the semi-arid grasslands pushing upward into a forest of juniper woodland scrub, surrounded by one of the most sparsely populated regions of California.

Mountain Forecast

It was a crapshoot gauging weather reports, especially in one of the more remote regions of the state, but there appeared to be a small, favor-

able weather window for mountain biking the 16.9-mile, out-and-back route out to Caliente Mountain and its Wilderness Study Area (WSA).

At 5,106 feet tall, Caliente Mountain is the highest peak in San Luis Obispo County. Ecologically, Caliente Mountain is botanically rich with juniper woodlands and Tucker’s oak groves. Wildlife abounds from roadrunner and mountain quail to blacktailed deer, black bear, and mountain lion. Endangered California condors are nearby and occasionally soar overhead in the afternoon thermal updrafts.

The WSA encompasses 35,600 acres of the 250,000-acre Carrizo Plain National Monument. While mountain biking above the grassland biosphere, there was a distinct realization that this incredible monument not only encompasses the sweeping grasslands, but also two mountain ranges bordering this unique biome.

The contrast in ecosystems was stunning and noticeable as I continued my ascent toward the Caliente

Tule elk at Painted Rock in the Carrizo Plain

Ridgeline. From that knife ridge a whole new perspective morphed into the complexities of California Coastal Ranges surrounding the Caliente Mountains. The Sierra Madre Mountains cloaked in dense chaparral dominated the western horizon, the Cuyama Valley and Highway 166 separating the two ranges. To the southeast, Mount Pinos stood taller than any other peak in the region.

At 8,847 feet, it’s the highest peak in the Los Padres National Forest.

To the east, on the other side of the

Carrizo Plain, the seemingly barren Temblor Range jutted prominently from the grassland floor above the San Andreas Fault.

I had also noticed an extreme dip in temperature now hovering in the low 30s. However, with storm clouds still billowing in the north and bands of rain pelting the Sierra Madre to the southwest, I still felt as if I could make it to the Caliente summit and beat any inclement weather.

Far Flung Travel Page 344

Re-elect

KRISTEN SNEDDON for SANTA BARBARA CITY COUNCIL Steady & Experienced Leadership!

A proven voting record of:

KRISTEN SNEDDON for CITY COUNCIL

• Ensuring public health & safety — led efforts to update and fund Community Wildfire Protection Plan • Funding increased repair & replacement of roads and water/sewer lines • Planning for water security • Protecting open space, parks & important views • Preserving neighborhoods from over-development • Supporting economic rejuvenation & leading efforts to revitalize State Street • Alleviating homelessness by working with social services, law enforcement, & housing providers Re-Elect Kristen Sneddon — for Santa Barbara’s Future.

Election Day is November 2nd

28 MONTECITO JOURNAL

“Kristen Sneddon led efforts to update and fund the Community Wildfire Protection Plan and fought for funding for improved dispatch and roadway improvements to help us keep you safe. SHE EARNED THE SUPPORT OF OUR LOCAL FIREFIGHTERS.” — Justin Kiel, Santa Barbara City Firefighters Association

Your ballot must be postmarked or returned by Nov 2.

Vote-by-Mail between Oct. 4 and Nov. 2!

“Kristen Sneddon was most certainly and effectively AN ADVOCATE AND FRIEND FOR OUR COMMUNITY in the aftermath of the debris flow.

The city is better functioning as a result of her service, without question, Kristen has been thoughtful and responsive. I am grateful for her service.“ — Bob Ludwick

Paid for by Kristen Sneddon for City Council 2021, PO Box 20153, Santa Barbara, CA 93120

14 – 21 October 2021

Our Town

SBMM

by Joanne A. Calitri

Joanne is a professional international photographer and journalist.

Contact her at: artraks@yahoo.com

Neon Art by Rod Lathim and Chris Gocong — It’s a Gas

Santa Barbara Maritime Museum

Surfing Exhibit Closing Oct. 30

Artists Rod Lathim and Chris Gocong in front of their work, “Bowie,” with Commen Unity owner Isaac Gonzalez (Photo

by Joanne A Calitri)

O

n October 9, Rod Lathim and Chris Gocong premiered their collab art — large-scale abstract acrylics on canvas with neon light accents — at Commen Unity, a new Funk Zone barbershop and art gallery owned by Isaac Gonzalez.

Lathim, no stranger to our town for his prolific work to establish live theater as the founding artistic director of Access Theater and chair of the board of the Marjorie Luke Theatre for years, is doing neon art designs. Gocong, a graduate of Carpinteria High School and former NFL linebacker with the Philadelphia Eagles and the Cleveland Browns, is now doing art as well.

“The cool part about the space is that everyone who sits in my chair has something in common, so instead of looking at what divides us, let’s look at what we have that unites us, and I called it ‘Commen Unity.’ My art is hair. I’ve been cutting Chris’s hair for 10 years, Rod recently sat in my chair, and I introduced them,” Gonzalez said. “I’ve been in this space for six months; it is my vision.”

The collab artworks are titled “Bowie,” “Imperfection,” and “Memento Mori.”

“Rod and I met to talk about my acrylic skull portrait titled ‘Memento Mori,’ and our artistic energy just flowed,” Gocong said.

“We put the neon coming off the canvas, which changed the piece, and gives it energy,” Lathim added. “I think the work is bigger than we are. It’s 52 feet of glass, and was a challenge, we did it together. To me, neon is not just color; it’s energy, electric current combusting gas to create light that has a color to our eye, which duplicates the energy aura human beings have and is the most fun in art I have had.”

They plan to continue to do art together. Next up are abstract portraits with the neon taking the lead, and new works individually.

The bent, colored neon glass in the art is by the famed neon worker Roxy Rose who learned the craft from her father. Lathim credits the woodworking, welding, and soft-sculpture work to Don Scott, Bill Muneio, Russ Carter, Alan Kasehagen, and Christina McCarthy.

Other works by Lathim at the exhibit are “Saxoflow,” a real saxophone with white and blue kinetic light via beaded neon that uses a rapid pulse transformer pushing the light through looped glass; “Rainbow Arch” made of six different colored rectangular neon tubes in progressive size; “Trio”; and “Euphonic Jubilation,” a mini tuba with beaded neon.

A self-taught artist, Gocong was used to sketching with pencil, and picked up a paint brush two years ago to funnel the excess energy he still has from playing football.

His noted exhibit works: “Passing Through” with bids to raise funds for Compassionate Care Carpinteria; “EverythingIsFine,” an acrylic “drip” process on canvas; and two female portraits titled “Vibing” and “You See Right Through Me.” The opening drew many attendees, who enjoyed music by DJShai, libations, and connecting. Event sponsors were Abel Ramos with Compass, Opal Restaurant, WaveComm SB, LP Café, Oku, and Santa Barbara Trapeze Co. •MJ 411 Gocong: www.saatchiart.com/chrisgocong Lathim: www.rodlathim.com https://hairbyisaac.com @isaac.j.gonzalez 14 – 21 October 2021

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• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

29

Buzz (Continued from page 24) It should be noted, residents with the “Key to NYC” vaccination proof passholders – out-of-towners can show their vaccination card which is compared with your ID — was in full effect at the nightclub, as well at museums (all with timed entrances) and other indoor venues I visited during my week-long stay.

When I mentioned I was going to hear the premiere of jazz trumpeter Terence Blanchard’s Metropolitan Opera Fire Shut Up in My Bones, Gianni noted, “I’m surprised Terrance isn’t here tonight, he’s usually here listening to the artists.” (Just my luck to miss him.)

The rooftop at the Met Temple of Dendur at New York’s Metropolitan Museum

A First . . .

Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones was the first work by a Black composer to be presented at the Met. I happened to be there during opening night. Based on New York Times columnist/author Charles M. Blow’s memoir (of the same name) and featuring a libretto by Kasi Lemmons, I checked on ticket prices to the Lincoln Center premiere, which holds 4,600 fans.

They ranged from $85 (too far away to see) to $400 (too rich for my pocketbook), with nothing much in between available. Then it was announced that the opera would be livestreamed for free in a park in Harlem and in Times Square. I decided to check out Times Square with friends. To watch an opera on a big screen with even bigger screens was rather distracting.

My friend, Bloomberg Opinion writer Mark Whitehouse quipped about one particularly large screen with flashing promos for the Army, Navy and Air Force: “That’s a U.S. military recruitment center, I almost signed up for the Army!” However, the sound was very good, as were the free seats, despite the smaller-than-wished-for screen amidst competing mega-screens. *Ironically, I sat next to a woman at Manny’s French Bistro on the Upper Westside the afternoon before the premiere

Watching Fire Shut Up in My Bones in New York’s Times Square

30 MONTECITO JOURNAL

who works at Lincoln Center for the Metropolitan Opera guiding the hoi poloi.

She bought $85 tickets in the gods – and opera glasses – for her friends informing me, “The best sound is up there. True opera buffs sit there and know this due to the chorus and orchestra blending off the 24-karat gold ceiling.” Who knew?

Getting There

I had a funky start to this journey.

It was not surprising that my back went out the morning of my departure to NYC: I hadn’t lifted a suitcase in over a year and a half. I should have done “suitcase curls” at home during the COVID-19 lockdown and before lift-off.

Thankfully, the American Airlines ticketing agent at Bob Hope Airport in beautiful downtown Burbank said, after I mentioned my back went out: “We’ll have someone meet you at your gates. Do you need assistance now?”

“Thank you, no, I think I can make it…” I muttered, expecting a short walk (not the long one I encountered) to the last gate at the compact airport.

So began my glorious fall journey to New York City — to see art, friends, visit museums including a lovely ferry ride to the Noguchi Museum in Long Island City (sublime); most of a day at MoMA to see the amazing Cezanne drawings show; and wandering the huge Metropolitan Museum where there’s never enough time or energy to take it all in.

Back be damned! I thought to myself, I had places to go and people to see. Or so I thought… At my first stop to change planes in Dallas, I was met at the gate by a nice man who escorted me to a very uncomfortable electric cart with narrow seats for up to six weary travelers. My seat companion (a woman wearing a back brace) informed me that Rick Steves recommends wearing a backpack with successive days of weight increase to get ready for a journey.

Why hadn’t I thought of that?

We changed transport and cart driv-

ers three times at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport. On the flight, I encountered great seatmates (contemporary video artist Bill Viola’s editor and his boyfriend) and was thrilled to be chatting with (masked) strangers again.

A stunning nighttime descent into the city with a full harvest moon hanging high in the sky made for a glorious descent into the city that never sleeps.

My last airport helper, 20-year-old Wilber, at the refurbished La Guardia Airport, wheeled me in a chair to baggage claim and to my awaiting car transport into the city.

“I’m a skateboarder!” the kid told me as we whizzed up and down an unrecognizable airport Terminal B, pausing briefly to watch the amazing million-dollar dancing water ceiling fountain with special effects projected into the droplets, part of the airport’s $8 billion (yes with a b) much needed redevelopment.

Young Wilber quoted President Joe Biden: “If I took you and blindfolded you and took you to LaGuardia Airport in New York, you must think I must be in some third world country,” Biden said on February 4, 2014.

Biden would now be mighty amazed by the improvements to date at the airport that’s a quick 20-minute ride into Manhattan.

So began my first real journey – on a plane – since COVID. It was a full week – a perfect week.

I was able to connect with a couple of old friends and even make a couple of new ones. I took a Saturday train ride along the scenic Hudson River to the town of Beacon for a sunny fall day outdoor lunch at The Roundhouse (which also has an adjoining hotel), with friends old and new, with lovely views of a river and waterfall. We didn’t have time to visit Dia Beacon Art Foundation, but did visit an artist friend’s studio/loft.

Fortunately, my back was fine in a day or so, and I was able to hit the ground running and I walked until my shoes were stretched out. On the food front, I ate great pizzas from trendy Marta (delivered by friends)

“You don’t need to have a 100-person company to develop that idea.” – Larry Page

and paper-thin ones outdoors at the very New York Vezzo. The day my back was still out, I ordered delicious traditional Sicilian food that did not disappoint (panelle, grilled stuffed artichoke, pasta with fungi) delivered from a place that looked absolutely charming from the pictures, called Norma in Murray Hill.

Ladies lunch at MoMA on the sixthfloor café deck was lovely and delish (great potato chips with onion dip) and provided respite after copious Cezanne. A casual pub dinner in a quiet outdoor tent with a hilarious waitress at Tavern on Jane in Greenwich Village (once owed by Trip to Bountiful playwright Horton Foote) with theater friends, playwright Gregory Murphy (The Countess), and his wife Ludovica Villar-Hauser (Parity Productions) was a personal highlight — where the indoor bar-pub (entered gingerly on a skip to the loo) was jumping — just like the old days.

New York, New York: I love you, I miss you, and I can’t wait to come back for all that jazz… and more!

To Learn More

Birdland Jazz Club: www.birdland jazz.com Paper-thin pizzas from two very different places: Marta in the ultrahip Redbury Hotel, on East 29 Street – martamanhattan.com (tip: order the $22 Fungi with Hen of the Wood mushrooms); Vezzo, a neighborhood joint where you might get yelled it to “hurry up and order, we’re closing soon” but it’s worth it. Part of the downtown (and Brooklyn) thin crust pizza group. www.nycthincrust.com Norma, Gastronómica Siciliana: www.normarestaurant.com Tavern on Jane: Burgers, salads, strong drinks, and such, www.tav ernonjane.com Day trip: Beacon, New York is a $23, 90-minute train ride from Grand Central. For lunch (great lobster rolls) by a waterfall: The Roundhouse – www.roundhousebeacon.com; visit Dia: Beacon, Dia Art Foundation. www.Diaart.org •MJ 14 – 21 October 2021

On Entertainment (Continued from page 16 16))

absurdist comedies Fuddy Meers and had hits with Wonder of the World and Kimberly Akimbo, and also wrote the book and lyrics for Shrek, the Musical.

The playwright himself revealed in notes that he was endeavoring to combine the spirit of his comedic plays with his acquired craft for drama, and found himself influenced by such classic two-hander advanced-age classics I’m Not Rappaport, Lettice and Lovage, and The Gin Game. “Those plays are really funny, but what I loved about them was that they were incredibly human. They had big throbbing hearts in the middle of them.”

Apparently, he succeeded on all counts, at least according to Laris.

“It’s fascinating how it toggles between the really specific realism that Rabbit Hole embodied and the kind of dreamlike surrealist plays of his earlier period,” Laris said. “It’s a very funny and beautiful story about two women who are very different making a bet that brings them closer together and basically creates an incredible organic friendship.”

Veteran Santa Barbara/SBCCTG actresses Ann Dusenberry, who lives in Montecito, and Leslie Ann Story play the warring women who eventually wind up as friends, chosen, Laris said, for their skill and willingness to themselves be daring, as the action moves around different locations and requires “flying” for the first time in SBCCTG’s history.

“They’re on stage for virtually the entire show and there’s a ton of technical and acting demands,” she said.

But it’s the audience who will likely be flying out of the theater with a lighter heart, the director said.

“At the end of the day, it’s really about people connecting, which is why it’s a really appropriate play for the moment.”

(SBCCTG’s Ripcord plays at the Garvin Theatre on campus October 13-30.

Call (805) 965-5935 or visit www.theatregroupsbcc.com.)

Wilco? We’ll Go

Not that anybody needs any more reasons to attend a Wilco concert whenever Jeff Tweedy and cohorts come to town, that is if intelligent heartfelt alt-country singer-songwriter meets crafty subtly experimental soundscapes floats your musical boat. (If it doesn’t, perhaps check your pulse or the contents of your metaphorical heart.) But us longtime locals also get a special

Wilco will play the Santa Barbara Bowl on October 20

thrill knowing that one of our neighbors is part of the crew putting together the magical mix, which in this case rears to keyboardist Mikael Jorgensen, who has been helping to augment, manipulate and often shape Wilco’s sound as well as co-write songs for just shy of two decades now. Your correspondent has even more connections in that Jorgensen honed his skills in New Brunswick and Chicago — home to this writer’s two alma maters in Rutgers and Northwestern — prior to moving to Ojai in the early 2010s. By the way, do yourself a favor and check out The Expandards, Jorgensen’s duo with vocalist Isaac Koren of the Kin and Koren Brothers bands, whose EP of seriously slowed down songs from the Great American Songbook basically reinvents the material. Also, plan to show up at the Santa Barbara Bowl on time for the 7 pm show on Wednesday, October 20, to hear opener Faye Webster, the infinitely intriguing indie folkie whose fourth album is called I Know I’m Funny Haha. Tickets and info at www.sbbowl.org.

•MJ

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14 – 21 October 2021

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31

The Giving List

he built Knapp’s Castle in the Santa Ynez Mountains; and the 23 years that it was co-owned by New Yorkers

by Steven Libowitz E. Palmer and Marie Gavit, who soon hired famed architect George Washington Smith to construct a perimeter wall, pavilion, stable, swimming pool, bathhouse, and several other outbuildings.

That latter part — the buildings on the property — has a lot of Anderson’s attention at the moment. That’s because they’re very much in need of attention themselves as upkeep and renovation have taken a backseat to taking care of the gardens.

The timeline since Lotusland Foundation was created shows the repairing of walking paths, remedying of cycad fungal infections and root rot, designing the Australian garden, restoring the topiary garden, creating planting beds for cacti, and renovating the water stairs and the Lower Bromeliad, Insectary, and Japanese gardens. But there’s barely a mention of building maintenance — which isn’t as glamorous as the gardens and lotus plants, but vital noneThe cactus garden at Lotusland theless to Lotusland’s operations. nyone who’s visited Lotusland course, a huge part of what we are “One of our current goals is to give over the past quarter-century and why we’re here,” said Rebecca the beautiful buildings on the propknows that the gorgeous botan- Anderson, Lotusland’s executive erty the much-needed attention and ical garden in the Montecito foothills director. “But there’s also lots of inter- investment because they really are boasts 37 acres of natural wonder that esting information that dates back to showing their age and kind of failing encompass more than 20 distinct gar- before her time, and the property in our need for their functionality,” dens and exhibitions. Most folks who has a very rich history, a very long Anderson explained. have walked the grounds are aware history of growing things, including To that end, Lotusland commisof how Lotusland remains a person- that the exotic plants we see and love sioned a reserve study, which looked al expression of its former owner, today date back, many of them, to the at all the buildings on the property the opera singer and spiritual seeker 1880s when this was all a nursery.” and the entirety of the infrastructure Madame Ganna Walska, penchant for Indeed, it was 1882 when Ralph and came up with a $7 million figure the dramatic, the unexpected, and the Kinton Stevens purchased the pri- in what might be called deferred whimsical in spaces that range from vate estate to house his home and a maintenance, or as Anderson pretowering forests to gentle ponds to commercial nursery that he named ferred to put it, “needed investlush cacti to rare flowers — after all, Tanglewood. ments.” the ©2018 official name of the place still PR“We ics805 A Political Firm have seed catalogs from then Page 1 “We of 1 didn’t do this before because bears her name. that show some of the incredible the focus was on the gardens all People are likely also cognizant of things he was experimenting with this time,” she said. “What’s wonthe differences between Lotusland during that time,” Anderson said. derful about this moment in time is and the Santa Barbara Botanic “He was part of a group of plantsmen that the garden is thriving. It’s been Garden, not in the least of which is who would try to grow new things beautifully cared for and stewarded. that the former specializes in native on the land, trading seeds with each But now that the gardens are really plants while the Montecito spread other and the ship merchants coming where we need them to be and don’t cultivates exotic species from all into the Harbor.” need as much attention, we’re turnaround the world.

There’s also the short span when ing our gaze to the property and the But people may not be aware of the the present-day Lotusland served as buildings.” nearly 60 years that the property was a guest ranch and a private school; Anderson stressed that the structures a different sort of nature preserve the brief period that the property themselves are also timeless works of even before Walska waltzed in to was owned by George Owen Knapp, art, not meaningless buildings. swoop up the place in 1941. the president of Union Carbide who “They’re really treasures and exam“The Ganna Walska story is, of three years later unloaded it when ples of pristine architecture from an

Building Love at Lotusland

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era that’s celebrated and replicated all over town,” she said, name-checking the Spanish colonial revival home designed by Reginald Johnson (who also designed the downtown Post Office) that serves as Lotusland’s offices and the George Washington Smith-designed water bath house and abalone-lined pond among others. “We’re so fortunate to have these incredible specimen buildings along with our specimen plants to preserve.”

Bringing the infrastructure up to the gardens’ level of care is the goal, Anderson said.

“The living collections and the non-living collections — the tile, the grotesques in the theater garden, the sculptures — we need to conserve all of those things to maintain the really exceptional experience that visitors have when they come here.”

Also behind the scenes is such programs as seed propagation and preservation in hopes of repatriating them to their countries of origin — including of a South African cycad that’s extinct in the wild — and serving as a spiritual sanctuary that came into prominence when Lotusland was allowed to stay open as an essential service during the height of the pandemic.

All of that takes funding, of course, and visitors to Lotusland may also not be aware of how the nonprofit finances work. While abundance abuts the space in the Montecito foothills on all sides, Lotusland itself is still somewhat struggling to make ends meet, due not in the least to the restriction to just 15,000 visitors every year, compared to, say, the Santa Barbara Zoo’s 500,000.

“There’s this idea that we’re affluent because the gardens are big and in Montecito,” Anderson said. “But the truth is that while we do have wonderful numbers of supporters, we are still a small grassroots organization, one that’s only 28 years old. There’s been a number of champions along the way, and we wouldn’t be here without our community volunteers and supporters. And we won’t be here in the future without more like-minded people who are devoted to this beautiful place.”

Lotusland’s website is www. lotusland.org. Call Rebecca Anderson at (805) 969-3768 ext. 104.

•MJ

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14 – 21 October 2021

Your Westmont

Gardens Are for Living

by Scott Craig (photography by Brad Elliott) Scott Craig is manager of media relations at Westmont College

Finally, Class of 2020 to Celebrate with an In-Person Graduation

Gardens Are for Living The class of 2020 will celebrate Commencement on Carr Field October 16

G

raduates of the Westmont class of 2020 will finally be able to walk across the stage on Carr Field to get their diplomas during Commencement. It’s not easy to turn back the hands of time, but Westmont will be welcoming back to campus more than 180 Westmont graduates (of the 298 who are eligible) from the class of 2020 for the traditional, formal Commencement they missed due to the pandemic.

These resilient graduates will celebrate with all the regalia, bagpipes, the Westmont Orchestra and robed faculty under a giant tent on Carr Field on Saturday, October 16, at 9 am. The event is not open to the public. Each member of the class of 2020 will be given one parking pass and allowed to bring four guests. The campus will close to the public on Saturday from 6 am to noon for the long-anticipated ceremony.

“This is their moment,” says Mary Pat Whitney, Westmont director of public events. “We have been working to ensure that graduates are able to commemorate this milestone and celebrate their tremendous accomplishment, even if it is nearly a year-and-a-half late.”

The class of 2020 persevered through several challenging events, including the Thomas Fire, deadly mudflows, and then the pandemic. The students were forced to complete their final semester virtually and an in-person Commencement was put on hold.

While other universities and colleges held virtual or drive-through ceremonies, Westmont officials pledged to hold an in-person Commencement to celebrate the graduates.

Marcus ‘Goodie’ Goodloe, a Martin Luther King Jr. scholar, senior fellow for ethics and justice at Dallas Baptist University’s Institute for Global Engagement and a member of the Westmont Parents Council, will speak at Commencement.

The program includes student reflections by Hendrik Struik and Odile Ndayishimiye Uwineza.

The provost’s office will give the Faculty Scholarship Award to Nathan Tudor, who earned a 4.0 GPA while earning a degree in religious studies at Westmont. Edee Schulze, vice president for student life, will deliver the Dean’s, Dave Dolan and Kenneth Monroe Awards to outstanding graduates.

To celebrate the class of 2020’s one-year reunion, the Alumni Office will hold a Cap and Gown Pickup Party, with graduates and professors gathering Friday night under the tent on Carr Field. Designed to feel like the Senior Celebration, the event includes a DJ, raffles and food. Later, the evening will shift to a time of worship led by musicians from the class.

On Saturday afternoon, Homecoming 2020/2021 will feature a children’s fair, a young alumni tailgate, men’s and women’s soccer games, and the annual All-Alumni Awards Celebration. This year’s awardees are Alumnus of the Year

14 – 21 October 2021

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MONTECITO JOURNAL

33

Far Flung Travel (Continued from page 28)

My moment on the summit was brief. Foreboding weather had arrived, quicker than I had anticipated. Visibility was almost nil. The canopy of dark clouds had engulfed not only the summit, but the entire eight-mile-long Caliente Ridge. I ran with my camera pack back to my bike. From there a mixture of snow showers, rain, and a couple of bouts of hail mucked up the trail just enough to make mountain biking impossible on the rolling ascents.

Downhills were a grateful reprieve from the mudslinging, allowing me to ride fast enough for the loam to spin off the treads. That meant eating plenty of dirt, my eyes already welling up with moisture and more than enough dirt finding my nostrils.

Grassland Descent

As I raced along Caliente Ridge as best I could, I anticipated my first grassland visual. What would I see first? I needed something I knew well, a point of reference to energize me, pushing me through the mud, while dipping below a clouded canopy and a warm sleeping bag awaiting at Selby Camp.

The ridge descended sharply, as I startled a perched golden eagle. The first thing I saw was the gritty row of angular sandstone slabs at Selby Rocks. My eyes welled up from the frigid, mountain air as I S-turned down the Caliente Mountains. Puffy clouds hovered above Soda Lake, and I was forced to pull off into several turnouts reveling in the jaw-dropping grassland vistas.

At each pullout my camera was in one hand and binoculars in the other, long lines of tule elk herds browsed the tan, beige, and brown ecosphere below. Suddenly I wasn’t cold anymore, and the mud was soon forgotten.

•MJ

Caliente Mountain is botanically rich with juniper woodlands and Tucker’s oak groves.

The view from the Caliente Mountains in San Luis Obispo County

Dirty by Nature

tions of the route. Reluctantly I left my bike beneath a juniper and hiked the rest of the way.

The summit was a triangular shaped uplift of lichen-covered sandstone and at its apex lied what was left of a WWII lookout for Japanese planes potentially aiming for nearby oilfields. It collapsed over a decade ago, weather-beaten and in shambles, but a sign-in box was there for peak baggers to scrawl their names into, a moment in time on a far-flung meridian.

Once within the WSA, the dirt road melded into a rolling single-track trail.

First, I buzzed by a repeater station, then a bedraggled old cattle camp and finally a unique contraption at the bottom of a gully that ended up being a corrugated metal platform that works as a cistern, essentially a water source for any thirsty, mountain wildlife.

As I approached the summit, the trail became more challenging to ride, more sand in the steeper sec-

The moisture had dampened the top layer of loam sticking to my tires like cement. Even pushing my bike was a real effort, to the point where my bike would not budge at all, dirt caking the treads until I removed enough muck to continue forward. That only allowed about 10 paces at a time before I was forced to remove more dirt. Sometimes I elected to carry my bike as my trail shoes collected an inch of mud along my ridgeline slog.

Mini Meta

Last Week’s Solution:

By Pete Muller & Andrew White For each of the first five mini crosswords, one of the entries also serves as part of a five-word meta clue. The answer to the meta is a word or phrase (five letters or longer) hidden within the sixth mini crossword. The hidden meta answer starts in one of the squares and snakes through the grid vertically and horizontally from there (no diagonals!) without revisiting any squares.

PUZZLE #1 1

2

3

B F F S

F R U I T

D O N N A

R O K E R

M O S S

FRUIT

C H R O AM W I L E

E X I T S

S T I E G A H S

WITH

D A W G

L E T H E

A B B I E

B R A T Z

S A T E

P A I L S

WHITE

I N N I E

1

2

1

4

6

6

7

7

7

8

Down 1 Princess's headwear 2 Pleaded with 3 Christian of "American Hustle" and "American Psycho" 4 The "A" of IPA 5 Docs for dachshunds

5

2

3

1

2

Down 1 Vicious 2 Half of a well-known tech pair 3 "I'm ___ Standing" (Elton John number) 4 "This is the WORST!" 5 Castaway's signal

2

1

6

7

7

7

8

8

5

6

Across 1 Toon snoozer's noise 4 Winter temps, often 7 "No biggie" 8 Starbucks order 9 Nail polish brand

2

5

9

Down 1 Birthstone that comes in many colors 2 Many a world tour venue 3 Nix 4 Famous English odist 5 Start of many battle cries

S O L O S

H O L D

M I C A

D E C O R

A T O N E

B U N K S

S P A S

COCONUT

4

5

Down 1 First word of Carroll's "Jabberwocky" 2 Refuse to 3 PepsiCo CEO Nooyi 4 Do some road trip prep 5 Really put one's foot down

META PUZZLE

3

4

Across 1 With 5-Across, mission-oriented group 5 See 1-Across 6 Stage work often not in English 7 Rushed 8 Kills the high-tech way, as a bug

3

Across 1 Tinder user's picks?

6 Gained victory in 7 "As a result ..."

8 Play casually, as a guitar 9 Mozz sticks, e.g.

5

8

E L I O T

6

PUZZLE #5 4

L G B T Q

9

Across 1 Pharmacy involved in the U.S. Covid vaccine rollout 4 Southern side dish 6 Half of a well-known tech pair 7 They can be clicked and dragged 8 Text that may be replaced by an emoji

PUZZLE #4 1

F I T S

FLESH

8

Across 1 Oom-pah-pah instrument 5 Infectious 6 Quarter-back retired in 1999?

7 Whence a down-to-earth superhero may rescue a cat 8 Down in the dumps

34 MONTECITO JOURNAL

Y A R N

PUZZLE #3

3

5

8

A T E O F

INNER

PUZZLE #2 4

D I N E R

3

4 6

9

Down 1 Valuable pick out of a Scrabble bag 2 1-Across, to the Greeks 3 Prepares as a garnish, in a way 5 Words of self-denial?

6 ___-Ball

Across 1 Adversities 5 "The 305" 7 Hamm or Bacon, e.g.

8 Former U.N. ambassador Haley 9 Closet basics

“Embrace what you don’t know, because what you don’t know can become your greatest asset.” – Sara Blakely

Down 1 Somalian supermodel 2 Allowed 3 Potato treat 4 Have one's head in the clouds?

6 Roman messenger goddess who traveled on rainbows

14 – 21 October 2021

Village Beat (Continued from page 6)

prehensive Transportation Summit to address some traffic issues plaguing Montecito. Executive Director Sharon Byrne explained that there are a lot of construction projects happening on Montecito streets, but there is not a system in place that helps to stagger and stage the construction efficiently.

“There is a huge sense of frustration at the lack of coordination,” said Land Use and Transportation Committee chair Chad Chase.

Those projects, combined with any accidents that affect traffic on Highway 101, sometimes lead to complete back-ups on local streets.

This could potentially cause major problems during evacuations or other disasters; the Montecito Fire District is currently working on revising evacuation plans, which also need to be taken into account. The goal of the summit is to bring Caltrans, CHP, Sheriff, SBPD, Public Works, and other local agencies together to discuss how to mitigate some of these issues. The meeting is slated for early November.

Byrne and MA Board President Megan Orloff announced that the MA is spearheading the first annual Holiday Parade in December, which will bring much-needed cheer through Montecito. Stay tuned for more details as the event is planned.

Lastly, the Board voted to form an ad

hoc committee to discuss a “be kind” campaign in Montecito, encouraging residents — many of whom are new to the area — and tourists to be kind and neighborly. This comes on the heels of a recent letter written by Byrne and Orloff that was published in Montecito Journal, citing some bad behavior by restaurant patrons on Coast Village Road. The committee will discuss how best to engage the community and spread a message of kindness.

The next Montecito Association meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, November 9. For more information, visit www.montecitoassociation.org.

UNICEF Leader Receives Crane’s Alumni Award

Joel Weiss, Head of Crane School; Henrietta Holsman Fore ‘63, Executive Director of UNICEF International; Paul ‘68 and David ‘72 Cronshaw, presenters (Photo credit: Teresa Pietsch)

Henrietta Holsman Fore, a 1963 graduate of Crane Country Day School, recently received the 2021 Cronshaw Family Distinguished Alumni Award, an honor bestowed to a former student who has made a significant accomplishment in the field of their endeavor, to include career, special interest, community leadership, or volunteer service. Fore currently serves as the executive director of UNICEF International, where she has worked tirelessly to champion economic development, educa-

tion, health, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief in 192 countries across the globe. The Distinguished Alumni Award was presented by former Crane students Paul ’68 and David ’72 Cronshaw (their brother Ian ’70 was not present), who created the award to honor their parents and former Crane teachers Peter and Margery Cronshaw. The Cronshaws taught at Crane during the 1950s and 1960s and exemplified the school’s belief in experiential and project-based education.

“Henrietta deserves this award for

by Ann Pieramici

her exceptional leadership and ability to provide humanitarian and developmental assistance to children around the globe,” said Paul, as he presented the award in front of Crane students at the school’s outdoor assembly.

Henrietta told students that when she was a student at Crane, she had no idea that this would be her career, because she didn’t know this type of job existed. “But now you all know about this important field so I’m expecting a lot of you to come follow me. We have lots of openings when you’re ready,” she said.

•MJ

2021 Puzzle 10: “Where Is It?” Solution October’s MMMM challenged solvers to find a song from 2018. The puzzle grid contains no obvious theme entries, but there are a number of common song title words throughout the grid, surprisingly not clued in a musical way, such as TAKE and EASY. Using the title, “Where Is It?,” as a guide, successful solvers found six hidden song titles, each missing an “It,” as follows: STRIP IT DOWN (Luke Bryan) GIVE IT AWAY (Red Hot Chili Peppers) SHAKE IT OUT (Florence + the Machine) LET IT BLEED (Rolling Stones) TAKE IT EASY (Eagles) FEEL IT STILL (Portugal. The Man) All the titles are located symmetrically, which makes it easier for those who aren’t familiar with all the tunes. One step remains, and it’s a bit tricky. There is a single diagonal square between each pair of song title words, and in order they spell B-E-Y-O-N-D, or Beyond, the 2018 song

by Leon Bridges. A nice confirmation click comes from the singer’s last name, as each of those squares function as “bridges,” in a way.

This month’s meta played out far tougher than I expected, and ended a lot of streaks. The most common incorrect answers were “Feel It Still” (which came out in 2017, but charted in 2018) and “The Middle,” which was a 2018 hit, and could be thought of as an answer to the question “Where Is It?” Pete always does a cover version related to the meta answer (usually with his band, the Kindred Souls). You can watch the video and see this month’s full write-up here: https://pmxwords.com/oct2021solution

14 – 21 October 2021

• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

35

CALENDAR OF Note to readers: This entertainment calendar is a subjective sampling of arts and other events taking place in the Santa Barbara area for the next week. It is by no means comprehensive. Be sure to read feature stories in each issue that complement the calendar. In order to be considered for inclusion in this calendar, information must be submitted no later than noon on the Wednesday eight days prior to publication date. Please send all news releases and digital artwork to slibowitz@yahoo.com)

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 16 24-Hour Play Festival — Developing theater doesn’t usually happen overnight, as playwriting, editing, publishing, hiring a director, casting, and finding a venue to produce a new work is generally rivaled in time span only by big Hollywood movies, which can be in development for more than a decade. Then there’s the 24-hour Play Festival in which folks get together to come up with short plays of about 10 minutes each in duration that are written, directed, and acted by community members all within the span of a single day. Current concerns about COVID have caused a re-configuration of this annual event that celebrates community and creation, namely limiting participation to UCSB students, faculty, and staff rather than the community at large, but we’re all invited to witness the results in the intimate Studio Theater on campus tonight. Note: there’s a second installment of the all-in-oneday thing coming in January during Winter Quarter on campus.

WHEN: 7 pm WHERE: UCSB Studio Theater, 552 University Rd. (Building TD East 1101) COST: Free INFO: (805) 893-2064 or www.the aterdance.ucsb.edu/news/event/895 On Track with Nature — The NatureTrack Film Festival — which explodes what is only a sidebar at SBIFF into an

entire multi-day festival of films about the natural world and adventure — is only in its fourth year and already half of the festivals have been forced to go online in deference to defending against COVID. More than 70 films from 14 countries in such categories as Adventure, Animation, Biography, Conservation, Kids Connecting with Nature, Scenic, Student and Outdoors & Out of Bounds will screen virtually through the end of the month. But it all kicks off today with an in-person pop-up event at Stacy Hall at St. Mark’s in the Valley in Los Olivos to coincide with the annual Day in the Country event the tiny town of Los Olivos puts on to celebrate small town life; 30 of the nature docs will screen there.

Among the highlights of the full fest is one with a Montecito connection: Sebastian & Max’s Grand Canyon Adventure featuring Sebastian Salsbury, a local runner/hiker (and son of American Riviera Bank founder Mike Salsbury) who also sets up runs to raise money for Cold Spring School.

WHEN: 9 am-11 pm today; online through October 31 WHERE: 2901 Nojoqui Ave, Los Olivos today COST: Varies INFO: www.naturetrackfilmfestival.org SUNDAY, OCTOBER 17 Bongos, Marimbas & Drums … Oh, my!

— The Music Academy of the West has

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 14 Double Take: DSQ’s ‘Doppelgänger’ Debuts — The wildly talented and inventive Danish String Quartet is at it again tonight as the fearsome foursome launches “The Doppelgänger Project, Part I.” The ambitious four-year project, which is commissioned by UCSB Arts & Lectures and a variety of other international partners, pairs world premieres by four renowned modern composers with chamber music masterpieces

by Schubert, including the famed “Death and the Maiden” and the “Rosamunde” quartets.

Tonight’s first installment features Schubert’s “String Quartet in G major, D. 887,” setting the stage for Bent Sørensen’s piece called, appropriately, “Doppelgänger,” and concluding with more Schubert with another appropriately titled piece, “Der Doppelgänger,” one of the six songs from the composer’s “Schwanengesang” suite that sets words by Heinrich Heine for piano and tenor voice, rearranged for string quartet by the DSQ. If that’s a little too much to decipher in one sitting, perhaps a chat with the players at the reception with the artists that follows the concert might help. The daring Danish lads will be back in April for Part 2 with a new work by Lotta Wennäkoski along with Schubert’s “Maiden” that inspired the composition.

WHEN: 7 pm WHERE: Rockwood, Santa Barbara Woman’s Club, 670 Mission Canyon Rd. COST: $50 INFO: (805) 893-3535 or www.artsandlectures.ucsb.edu

36 MONTECITO JOURNAL

EVENTS

by Steven Libowitz

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 17 His Name is Luca — There are a whole lot more innovative acoustic guitar players than ukulele masters, but Luca Stricagnoli’s rise to fame somewhat parallels Jake Shimabukuro’s and both have staked out unique styles and techniques that have confounded audiences with their creative covers. In Stricagnoli’s case, the finger-style native of Italy has earned more than 100 million views on YouTube for videos of his arrangements for such songs as U2’s “With or Without You,” Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven,” and the Beatles’ “Yesterday,” all of which feature his guitars that have at least two fretboards.

In concert, Stricagnoli has been known to employ up to five guitars in the same piece, including ones with three necks and a guitar he plays with his feet. Add in his own original tunes and an engaging personality that fills his performances with anecdotes and even jokes as well as explanations of the magic, and this might be the most exciting concert yet from the Santa Barbara Acoustic Music series.

WHEN: 7:30 pm WHERE: 1221 State St., upstairs in Victoria Court COST: $22 INFO: (805) 962-7776 or www.sohosb.com invited faculty percussionist Michael Werner, who spent the summer of 1990 as an MAW fellow on his way to his current position as the principal for the Seattle Symphony, to head back to town this weekend to coordinate Xtravaganza!, an outdoor percussion event with a few of his more exceptional fellow MAW alumni of recent years. The main event is a cabaret-inspired benefit event on the stunning Miraflores campus that features a strolling garden cocktail hour with signature drinks crafted by an on-site mixologist followed by mini-percussion performances on multiples stages, with the artists roaming while the audience stays seated. But if the $250 minimum price tag seems a little steep, no worries, because the same beatand-rhythm meisters will also be back on campus this afternoon for a free Family Percussion Concert on Fé Bland Plaza in front of Hahn Hall. No special cocktails are being served, but there is free popcorn as well as an hour’s worth of music that should prove much more stimulating than a Hypervolt percussion massager. Registration required.

WHEN: 3-4 pm WHERE: 1070 Fairway Rd. COST: Free INFO: (805) 695-7929 or www.musicacademy.org/whats-on/ family-percussion TUESDAY, OCTOBER 19 CAMA Concert Fit for a King — Santa Barbara’s Community Arts Music Association, which has been bringing the

“Risk more than others think is safe. Dream more than others think is practical.” – Howard Schultz

world’s finest orchestras and recitalists to town for more than a century, isn’t quite ready to resume its full schedule in the wake of the pandemic, although the slate that starts in January has been announced. But there was no passing up the opportunity to present Canada’s highly acclaimed Les Violons du Roy (The Violins of the King), which has held Québec City in thrall for nearly 40 years. The ensemble takes its name from the legendary 17th-century French royal court orchestra Les Vingtquatre Violons du Roi, the five-part string ensemble at the French royal court that existed from 1626 to 1761 that served as the precursor to orchestras. Under its new music director, British conductor Jonathan Cohen, Les Violons continues to explore all manner of repertoire of music for chamber orchestra in performances that aim to match as closely as possible the period of each work’s composition with interpretations that are deeply informed by the latest research on 17th- and 18th-century performance practice. Such is the case with tonight’s onetime, nonsubscription concert that consists exclusively of Bach and Vivaldi concertos and features the return of Avi Avital as special guest. The virtuoso Israeli mandolinist floored the soldout Granada audience at CAMA’s 100th Season Community Concert with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra in 2018.

WHEN: 7:30 pm WHERE: Lobero Theatre, 33 E. Canon Perdido St. COST: $38 & $48 INFO: (805) 963-0761 or www.lobero.com •MJ 14 – 21 October 2021

Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra

Paul Hawken

Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation Wed, Oct 20 / 7:30 PM UCSB Campbell Hall FREE (registration required)

Fandango at the Wall with the Villalobos Brothers Fri, Oct 15 / 8 PM UCSB Campbell Hall

Entrepreneur, author and activist Paul Hawken’s visionary new approach to climate change weaves equity, climate, biodiversity and human dignity into a seamless tapestry of action, policy and transformation.

Inspired by the annual Fandango Fronterizo festival at the Tijuana-San Diego border, Fandango at the Wall fuses the richness of Mexican folk music with the intricate harmonies of jazz.

Presented in association with UCSB Environmental Studies, the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management, Community Environmental Council, and Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History

Presented in association with the Santa Barbara Women’s Political Committee

Event Sponsor: Natalie Orfalea Foundation & Lou Buglioli

Vijay Gupta

Warrior Women

Thu, Oct 28 / 7:30 PM UCSB Campbell Hall

Wed, Nov 3 / 7:30 PM UCSB Campbell Hall

Featuring Madonna Thunder Hawk and Marcella Gilbert

The Healing Power of Music in Conversation with Pico Iyer

This documentary screening and conversation chronicles the work of a Lakota mother and daughter whose fight for Indigenous rights began in the late 1960s and continues to this day.

Violinist, speaker and citizen artist Vijay Gupta is the founder of Street Symphony, an L.A.-based nonprofit that brings music to homeless and incarcerated communities, and co-founder of the Skid Row Arts Alliance.

Presented in association with the UCSB Department of Music

Presented in association with the Santa Barbara Women’s Political Committee

Speaking with Pico Series Sponsors: Dori Pierson Carter & Chris Carter, and Laura & Kevin O’Connor

Justice for All Lead Sponsors: Marcy Carsey, Connie Frank & Evan Thompson, Zegar Family Foundation, and Anonymous

(805) 893-3535 www.ArtsAndLectures.UCSB.edu 14 – 21 October 2021

• The Voice of the Village •

Special Thanks:

MONTECITO JOURNAL

37

ORDINANCE NO. 6026

ORDINANCE NO. 6027

ORDINANCE NO. 6028

AN ORDINANCE OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF

AN ORDINANCE OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF

AN ORDINANCE OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF

SANTA BARBARA AMENDING THE SANTA BARBARA

SANTA BARBARA AMENDING THE SANTA BARBARA

SANTA

MUNICIPAL CODE BY ADDING CHAPTER 28.80 TO

MUNICIPAL CODE BY AMENDING SECTIONS 30.20.020,

MUNICIPAL CODE SECTIONS 26.08.050, 26.08.060 AND

REGULATE

30.25.020,

26.08.080

ALCOHOLIC

BEVERAGE

RETAIL

30.30.020,

30.35.020;

ESTABLISHMENTS IN THE COASTAL ZONE AND

30.185.075;

AMENDING

AMENDING VARIOUS SECTIONS WITHIN TITLE 28 TO BE

AMENDING

SECTION

ADDING

SECTION 1.25.050

SECTION

30.205.150

AND

PERTAINING

TO

CONSISTENT WITH THIS INTENT

REGULATIONS FOR ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE RETAIL

The above captioned ordinance was adopted at a regular

CITY

meeting of the Santa Barbara City Council held on October 5, 2021.

ESTABLISHMENTS IN THE NON-COASTAL ZONE OF THE

provisions of Section 512 of the Santa Barbara City Charter as amended, and the original ordinance in its entirety may be obtained at the City Clerk's Office, City Hall, Santa Barbara, California.

TO

CONTROL

The above captioned ordinance was adopted at a regular 5, 2021.

The publication of this ordinance is made pursuant to the provisions of Section 512 of the Santa Barbara City Charter as amended, and the original ordinance in its entirety may be

ordinance was introduced on September 21, 2021 and adopted by the Council of the City of Santa Barbara at a meeting held on October 5, 2021, by the following roll call vote:

5, 2021.

The publication of this ordinance is made pursuant to the as amended, and the original ordinance in its entirety may be obtained at the City Clerk's Office, City Hall, Santa Barbara, California.

ORDINANCE NO. 6027 STATE OF CALIFORNIA

) ) COUNTY OF SANTA BARBARA ) ss. ) CITY OF SANTA BARBARA ) I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing

I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing ordinance was introduced on September 21, 2021 and

meeting held on October 5, 2021, by the following roll call

vote:

vote:

AYES:

Councilmembers Eric Friedman, Oscar Gutierrez, Meagan Harmon, Mike Jordan, Kristen W. Sneddon, Mayor Cathy Murillo

NOES:

None

ABSENT:

Councilmember Alejandra Gutierrez

ABSTENTIONS:

None

NOES:

None

Councilmember Alejandra Gutierrez

ABSENT:

Councilmember Alejandra Gutierrez

ABSTENTIONS:

Councilmember Eric Friedman

ABSTENTIONS:

Councilmember Eric Friedman

AYES:

Councilmembers Oscar Gutierrez, Meagan Harmon, Mike Jordan, Kristen W. Sneddon, Mayor Cathy Murillo

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereto set my

hand and affixed the official seal of the City of Santa Barbara

hand and affixed the official seal of the City of Santa Barbara

on October 6, 2021.

on October 6, 2021.

/s/ Sarah P. Gorman, MMC City Clerk Services Manager

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereto set my hand and affixed the official seal of the City of Santa Barbara on October 6, 2021.

/s/ Sarah P. Gorman, MMC City Clerk Services Manager

/s/ Sarah P. Gorman, MMC City Clerk Services Manager I HEREBY APPROVE the foregoing ordinance on October 6, 2021.

38 MONTECITO JOURNAL

) ) COUNTY OF SANTA BARBARA ) ss. ) CITY OF SANTA BARBARA )

meeting held on October 5, 2021, by the following roll call

ABSENT:

Published October 13, 2021 Montecito Journal

STATE OF CALIFORNIA

adopted by the Council of the City of Santa Barbara at a

None

/s/ Cathy Murillo Mayor

ORDINANCE NO. 6028

adopted by the Council of the City of Santa Barbara at a

NOES:

on October 6, 2021.

/s/ Sarah Gorman, CMC City Clerk Services Manager

ordinance was introduced on September 21, 2021 and

Councilmembers Oscar Gutierrez, Meagan Harmon, Mike Jordan, Kristen W. Sneddon, Mayor Cathy Murillo

I HEREBY APPROVE the foregoing ordinance

(Seal)

/s/ Sarah Gorman, CMC City Clerk Services Manager

AYES:

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereto set my

AND

The above captioned ordinance was adopted at a regular

(Seal)

I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing

MOBILEHOME

UPON TRANSFER OF OWNERSHIP

California.

ORDINANCE NO. 6026 ) ) COUNTY OF SANTA BARBARA ) ss. ) CITY OF SANTA BARBARA )

BARBARA

provisions of Section 512 of the Santa Barbara City Charter

/s/ Sarah Gorman, CMC City Clerk Services Manager

STATE OF CALIFORNIA

SANTA

RECREATIONAL VEHICLE PARK RENT INCREASES

obtained at the City Clerk's Office, City Hall, Santa Barbara,

(Seal)

AMENDING

meeting of the Santa Barbara City Council held on October

meeting of the Santa Barbara City Council held on October

The publication of this ordinance is made pursuant to the

BARBARA

I HEREBY APPROVE the foregoing ordinance on October 6, 2021.

/s/ Cathy Murillo Mayor

/s/ Cathy Murillo Mayor Published October 13, 2021 Montecito Journal

“You shouldn’t focus on why you can’t do something, which is what most people do.” – Steve Case

Published October 13, 2021 Montecito Journal

14 – 21 October 2021

Your Westmont (Continued from page 33 33)) PUBLIC NOTICE City of Santa Barbara NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the City Council of the City of Santa Barbara will conduct a Public Hearing on Tuesday, October 26, 2021, during the afternoon session of the meeting, which begins at 2:00 p.m. via a virtual meeting through the GoToWebinar platform. The hearing is to consider amending Santa Barbara Municipal Code Chapter 30.57 to create a Senior Mobilehome Park Overlay Zone, which would prohibit conversion of existing senior mobilehome parks to all-age mobilehome parks. The proposed ordinance amendment would apply to existing mobilehome parks in which at least eighty percent of the spaces are occupied by, or intended for occupancy by, at least one person who is fifty-five years of age or older, or in which one hundred percent of the spaces are occupied or intended for occupancy by persons sixty-two years of age or older. The amendment will also move the Mobilehome Park Overlay Zone, as adopted by Ordinance No. 5967 to Chapter 37.38.

You are invited to attend this public hearing and address your verbal comments to the City Council. Written comments are also welcome up to the time of the hearing, and should be addressed to the City Council via the City Clerk’s office by sending them electronically to clerk@santabarbaraca.gov.

This meeting will be held by teleconference as authorized by Government Code §54953(e)(1)(A) to promote social distancing and prioritize the public’s health and well-being under Santa Barbara County Health Office orders to the general public.

Councilmembers may participate electronically. The City of Santa Barbara strongly encourages and welcomes public participation during this time.

On Thursday, October 21, 2021, an Agenda with all items to be heard on Tuesday, October 26, 2021, including the public hearing to consider this appeal, will be available online at www.SantaBarbaraCA.gov/CAP. The Agenda includes instructions for participation in the meeting. If you wish to participate in the public hearing, please follow the instructions on the posted Agenda.

(SEAL) /s/ Sarah Gorman, MMC City Clerk Services Manager October 7, 2021

14 – 21 October 2021

Reggie Williams ’95, Alumna of the Year Sharon Koh ‘00, Young Alumnus of the Year Daniel Guzman ‘12 and Global Service Award winner Michael Trueblood.

Students Shine at Summer Research Event

More than 30 Westmont students presented their findings on 21 posters at the 2021 Celebration of Summer Research on Sept. 24 around the Winter Hall third floor atrium.

Topics included “Firewise Plants for a Flammable World,” “Palms and Oaks Predict Urban Acorn Woodpecker Occupancy Across the California Coast,” “Mental Strength Training Improves Running Performance While Fatigued,” and “The Effect of Antipsychotics on Processing Speed in Geriatric Neurology Patients.”

A hallmark of Westmont’s academic program is the opportunity for undergraduate students to work directly with faculty on research projects. Most of the students who conduct research for eight to 10 weeks over the summer earn research and housing stipends.

One research project was particularly timely, coming on the heels of national news reports that fire ecologists, realizing that forests are too large to manage, suggest communities focus on protecting the urban wildlife interface. Laura Dagg, Isabelle Hugoniot, and Laura Schultheis, assistant professor of biology, analyzed the structural and functional traits that contribute to the flammability of 20 Santa Barbara native plant species. “There are no standardized methods for testing plant flammability,” Hugoniot says. “So, we are analyzing which traits will be the most helpful for future studies on a larger scale. In the meantime, this research may be used by homeowners to know which plants to put in their yards to help prevent fires.”

The five least flammable plants that were studied are: narrowleaf milkweed, California goldenrod, common yarrow, California poppy, and hummingbird sage.

Other student researchers included Alison Thomas, Allison M. Nobles, Braden Chaffin, Caleb Courson, Daniel Yugeun Jang, Danny Rubin, Ethan Walker, Francesca Montemurro, Jared Lush, Jenna M. Peterson, Jessica Wright, John Baker, John Corbett, Jonathan Reitinger, Joseph Hemry, Karly L. Kingsley, Kaylee Ivie, Kirsten Potts, Luke Perrin, Marliss Neal, Mercy Milliken, Rachel M. Lorson, Riley Johnson, Siena Verdon, Sophia McRae, Theo Patterson, Tiffany Gong, Wesley Brown, William J. Grubbs, and Winston C. Gee. •MJ

Letters (Continued from page 10)

Published October 13, 2021 Montecito Journal

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/are doing business as: Unison Financial Group, 2264 Lillie Ave, Unit C, Summerland, CA 93067. John Entezari Inc., 2264 Lillie Ave, Unit C, Summerland, CA 93067. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara Coun-

President Gayle D. Beebe will preside of the formal graduation ceremony

A New Safe Space

ty on September 30, 2021. 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. 2021-0002775. Published October 13, 20, 27, November 3, 2021.

I realize how important it is to the new group in charge of Montecito Journal’s editorial content to fill virtually every issue with digs, slights, accusations, and ridicule at anyone who doesn’t toe the progressive line, but for those readers who seek an alternate voice, I would be grateful if you would be so kind as to direct them to my new newsletter: jimb.substack. com/p/purely-political (and watch out when typing jimb as spell check

• The Voice of the Village •

will change it to limb before you finish typing the entire website address!)

As former editor/publisher and founder of Montecito Journal, many readers may know that my politics differ considerably from the current ownership’s, although, in fairness, the current ownership’s beliefs and opinions are probably more reflective of the new Montecito arrivals. Still, I do believe there are readers who may enjoy and/or appreciate a different narrative.

Respectfully, James Buckley •MJ MONTECITO JOURNAL

39

Miscellany (Continued from page 18)

Steve Ortiz addresses the crowd at Act I (Photo by Megan Sorel)

Dawn Moore receiving her award for her 1959 convertible chevy corvette from Hiroko Benko (Photo by Priscilla)

Benko, Justin Klentner, Terry Ryken, Dana Hansen, Diana Starr Langley, Brenda Blalock, and Rick Oshay.

‘Good to be Back’

United Way’s 24th annual Red Feather Ball was a two-act affair.

The 130-guest Birds of a Featherthemed fête, which raised nearly $150,000, was staged at two handsome estates on Hot Springs Road, two hours apart.

The boffo bash, chaired by Shari Liu

Fran Kirchmair, Lily Hahn, Belle Hahn, Amber Ortiz, Shari Liu Fellows, Nati Smith (Photo by Megan Sorel)

PRE

E

T ’S C

SIDEN TOP 6%

Fellows, launched at the former home of Lady Leslie Ridley-Tree, now owned by designer-developer Xorin Balbes and Truman Davies, before a short walk up the road, guided by the flashlights held by student volunteers from Westmont College to the home of Michael Smith, son of Anne Towbes, and his wife, Nati, formerly owned by photographer Brian Hodges, who now resides in achingly trendy Byron Bay, Australia.

“It is so good to be back after two years,” enthused Steve Ortiz, presi-

Veronica Sams and Fran Kirchmair (Photo by Megan Sorel)

dent of the charity. “Using Zoom only goes so far. To see and greet people is such a pleasure after so long.”

Among those tickling their fancies at the party, conceived by local events empress Merryl Brown, were Ed and Sue Birch, Janet Garufis, George and Laurie Leis, Marsha Kotlyar, Doug Margerum, Thomasine Richards, former mayor Helene Schneider, Jennifer Smith-Hale, Tanya Thicke, and Belle Hahn.

A delightful production...

Um, That’s A Lot of Money

How fitting that two Montecitobased hoteliers should be ranked together in the 40th annual Forbes rich list for 2021.

Rick Caruso, 62, owner of the Rosewood Miramar, and Beanie Baby billionaire Ty Warner, 77, owner of the Biltmore and the San Ysidro Ranch, are both at No. 261 in the rankings with $4.3 billion.

Oracle founder Larry Ellison, 77, who has homes in our Eden by the Beach, is at No. 7 with $117.3 billion, with Google’s Eric Schmidt, 66, who recently bought Solana, Bill and Sandi Nicholson’s Montecito estate, listed at No. 30 with $23.9 billion.

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, 78, a frequent visitor while his NFL team undergoes summer training in Oxnard, is ranked No. 86 with $9.1 billion and Star Wars director George Lucas, 77, who has a beach house on

Padaro Lane near Oscar winner Kevin Costner, is at No. 124 with $7.2 billion.

Montecito mall magnate Herb Simon, 86, is ranked at No. 340 with $3.4 billion.

Collective fortunes rose a hefty 40% above 2020 to $4.5 trillion, up from $3.2 trillion. The top 20 on the list are worth together a stunning $1.8 trillion.

The richest man in the U.S. for the fourth consecutive year is Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, 57, with $201 billion, $22 billion more than last year.

Close behind at No. 2 is Tesla tycoon Elon Musk, 50, with $190.5 billion, nearly triple what he was worth last year.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, 37, takes third place thanks to a 63% jump in his stock since 2020. Microsoft founder Bill Gates, 65, is ranked fourth, the first time he hasn’t been in one of the top two spots in three decades.

The youngest member on the list, one of 44 newcomers, is 29-year-old cryptocurrency entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried, with $22.5 billion.

The minimum net worth needed to gain, or hold a slot in the rankings, jumped to $2.9 billion. Fiftyone billionaires dropped off the list, including TV talk show titan Oprah Winfrey, 67.

A Garden Treat

Santa Barbara Choral Society certainly had something to sing about at its annual Canto Garden party at the

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Todd Aldrich, Jody Dolan Holehouse, Karen Brill, Kate Firestone, and Allyson Aldrich (Photo by Priscilla)

“You should focus on why perhaps you can, and be one of the exceptions.” – Steve Case

14 – 21 October 2021

Sue and Ed Birch with Catherine Remak and John Savrnoch (Photo

by Priscilla)

Board members Todd Aldrich, Kate Rees, Claudia Scott, Margo Callis, Jody Dolan Holehouse, and Debra Stewart (Photo

by Priscilla)

Montecito aerie of Todd and Allyson Aldrich.

The sunset soirée for 30 guests also celebrated the birthday of veteran conductor JoAnne Wasserman, who dug into a luscious chocolate cake from Renaud Gonthier, after a hearty “Happy Birthday” from the choir members, including Brooks and Kate Firestone, Dick and Marilyn Mazess, Steve and Debra Stewart, Kate Rees, Jack and Margo Callis, and Tom and Jody Dolan Holehouse.

The talented singers are now preparing for their next production, Handel’s Messiah at the Music Academy of the West’s Hahn Hall on December 18-19.

A New Direction?

Is Meghan Markle going to become the next Estee Lauder, the New Yorkbased beauty empress who built a multi-million-dollar cosmetics business before dying in 2004 aged 97?

The Duchess of Sussex, 40, and Prince Harry, 37, have visited marketing colossus Guthy-Renker’s 66-year-old co-founder Bill Guthy’s Carpinteria estate multiple times this year, according to London’s Daily Mail.

Last month the Riven Rock-based couple flew to New York in a private jet owned by the company, sparking speculation of a partnership, much like it has had in the past with celebrities like supermodel Cindy Crawford, Jennifer Lopez, Jessica Simpson, Heidi Klum, and singer-talk show host Kelly Clarkson.

Queen Elizabeth’s grandson and the actress have been spotted in and out of the Guthy ranch several times earlier this year.

No one is commenting. Stay tuned.

One of a Kind

TV talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, 63, is launching her own skincare range, Kind Science.

The Montecito resident says the collection, which has been developed over the past three years, is set for release later this month.

The new company encourages con14 – 21 October 2021

sumers to “embrace your age, not your wrinkles! Kind Science is high performance, effective skincare that’s made for everybody.”

Ellen, 63, had a longtime partnership with Cover Girl over several years, starting in 2008.

On the Spot

Santa Barbara warbler Katy Perry’s British actor fiancé Orlando Bloom came to her rescue during a wardrobe malfunction at Variety’s Power of Women event in Beverly Hills.

The 36-year-old Montecito singer called on The Lord of the Rings star at the Wallis Annenberg Center when she announced the corset of her billowing lilac gown was too tight, meaning she couldn’t initially perform.

Orlando, 44, fumbled with the zip on stage as the audience, and Katy, watched with bated breath.

“Pull it all the way down,” she told him. “ I have a girdle in here!”

Bouncing Back

Montecito actor Jeff Bridges, 71, says his cancer is in remission.

The Oscar winner says his tumor has shrunk “down to the size of a marble” after being diagnosed with lymphoma three months ago.

Jeff also revealed he caught COVID19, admitting the respiratory illness had “kicked my gut pretty good” leaving him requiring oxygen assistance which left him sounding like Darth Vader, the Star Wars character who requires a breathing device to keep him alive.

“I’m doubly vaccinated and feeling much better now. I heard the vaccine can help folks with long haulers.

Maybe that’s the cause of my quick recovery.”

I trust his recovery continues apace...

their charming Samarkand home.

John, who I’ve known for many years, founded the Key Class, recognized for helping high school students learn skills needed to create a lifetime of opportunities.

A father of five, John has been a father figure to thousands more after retiring from being president of his international events company 11 years ago.

His curriculum is taught in all Santa Barbara Unified School District high schools. It was teaching up to 8,000 students before the pandemic hit.

Among those turning out to congratulate John were radio host Catherine Remak, Dean Turner, Penny Jenkins, Merryl Brown, Geoff Green, and Bob and Patty Bryant.

RIP, Richard Buckley

On a personal note, I remember Richard Buckley, a former colleague of mine at New York Magazine in the 1980s.

Richard, who became an editor at Women’s Wear Daily, Vanity Fair, Mirabella, Italian Vogue, and Vogue Hommes International, where he served as editor-in-chief, died at the age of 72 at the Los Angeles home he shared with his designer husband, Tom Ford, 60.

I last saw the tony twosome, who had homes in London, New York, and Ford’s Sante Fe, New Mexico, hometown at lunch at the Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills Hotel two years ago.

Marti Daly and the Santa Barbara Foundation’s Man of the Year, John Daly (Photo by Priscilla)

They also shared an eight-year-old son, John Buckley Ford.

Richard was a terrifically talented journalist who left us far too early.

Sightings

Oprah’s beau Stedman Graham picking up his Montecito Journal at Pierre Lafond... Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi noshing at the Plow & Angel... Former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman at the Rosewood Miramar Pip! Pip! Be safe — wear a mask when needed and get vaccinated. •MJ

Pure Class

John Daly, the Santa Barbara Foundation’s 78th Man of the Year, and his wife, Marti, celebrated his accolade with a bash for 50 guests at • The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

41

In the Know (Continued from page 5)

Members of the Briner family wave at a vehicle honking its horn as a form of “hello” only a few days after the news broke that Little Alex’s would be leaving the Country Mart (Photo by Nick Masuda)

between Rosenfield and owner Sepi Mashhoon in January 2015. Expressing disappointment with the way things turned out, Mashhoon said she couldn’t continue to do business with Rosenfield. “I am very sad that we have to make this decision,” she added. “We love our customers and appreciate their business all of these years.”

The bakery was located at the Mart for 33 years, with the Mashhoons owning it for the final nine years.

“We have to protect our local (long-time) businesses; they are what make Montecito great,” Sneddon said. “We aren’t a community of just wealthy people; we have families that depend on affordability. Little Alex’s has been a cornerstone of our community for so long, this should concern everyone. They fed us at our most desperate hour; we need more Little Alexes; that’s what we should strive for.”

The Country Mart has seen the addition of Merci, Rori’s, Panino and Bettina, all seemingly successful and thriving in their new digs, particularly as the demographic of Montecito has evolved in recent years, with the area benefitting from 18 months of retail boom that has brought an influx of new needs for residents.

Rosenfield has heard the complaints about the center becoming too high-end but rejects that sentiment.

“Each of our stores serves different patrons,” Rosenfield said. “We want something for everyone.”

The sudden closure has stoked a significant reaction from portions of the Montecito community, with a petition that was started Monday already collecting more than 560 signatures, while Rosenfield has been bombarded by emails and phone calls from concerned patrons that have threatened to take their business away from the Country Mart.

Berna Kieler, who has worked with Rosenfield at the Country Mart when she opened The Recovery Free Store in the debris flow aftermath, was left perplexed by the landlord’s sudden change of direction — representing a growing sentiment among long-time Montecitans that are concerned about the influx of changes as more people relocate to Montecito.

“We’re very different than Santa Barbara proper… and this little town, this little village, has learned to stick together — we certainly learned during our mudslide, how to be a community, and how to care about one another,” Kieler told the Montecito Journal. “We’re seeing a lot of our so-called mom-and-pops disappear in Montecito, and people are not happy about this.”

Rosenfield was adamant that he is sentimental to “a fault,” but sometimes has to make unpopular decisions — even about what he deemed a “viable business” in Little Alex’s, one that saw the best day in its history on October 11 as word spread that the end was near for the Mexican restaurant.

“We gave [Little Alex’s] time to improve,” Rosenfield said. “I know not everyone agrees with every decision I make, but I’m responsible for the entire picture.”

A Long Time Coming?

42 MONTECITO JOURNAL

The Briners admit that the writing was somewhat on the wall, as Rosenfield took over the lease on the property 12 years ago, with Little Alex’s spending half of that on month-to-month leases, including the past four years.

According to Dan and Lynette, upon meeting Rosenfield, capital improvements were discussed with the landlord, also indicating to them that he would be gauging whether they “were the right fit” for the Country Mart.

Some work has been done to Little Alex’s, but a full remodel has not occurred, as the family was hesitant to invest cash with month-to-month leases.

“It didn’t make sense for us to invest if he wasn’t going to invest in return,” “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” – Walt Disney

14 – 21 October 2021

Alex’s is an institution, and you should be damn proud to have them as a tenant.”

Some are holding out hope that Little Alex’s could be declared a historical landmark, something that would allow it to stand the test of time.

“Thanks to Little Alex’s there is a bit of spice in the love we have for the things and places that have nourished Montecito’s legacy,” wrote Buddy Winston.

“Who among the long-term residents hasn’t depended on this establishment for their continued customer loyalty in ensuring an eatery’s most important trait: consistency! If there is culinary justice, then this establishment will be declared a historical monument and given a new ‘lease’ on business life.”

As an adopted Montecitan, Rosenfield says he appreciates the outpouring of love and criticism he is receiving.

“We are supposed to care this deeply about our community, and I do care a lot about Montecito,” Rosenfield said.

Little Alex’s in 1989, with the Briners pointing out the presence of a working man’s pickup truck, a Mercedes-Benz, and a bicycle, showing the widespread reach of the eatery to customers of every demographic both then and now

said Aaron Briner, a local firefighter and Dan and Lynette’s son.

The closure will mean job losses for more than a dozen employees, while also leaving Lynette and Dan, both 75, without many options to make a living.

The future of the restaurant is in question, with the family researching their options, none of them turnkey.

“This has been very hard to deal with,” Lynette said as she fought back tears.

Dan knows Lynette’s worries don’t stem from their personal situation, but instead for the employees that have poured their heart into Little Alex’s — including the Santamaria family, whom Dan and Lynette say are just as responsible for the restaurant’s success as the Briners.

“She worries. They are family,” Dan said. “She drives these people places, helps them outside of work. You can’t just turn your back on that.”

The pandemic hit plenty of restaurants hard over the past 20 months, but Little Alex’s did not miss a rent payment during that time, a fact confirmed by Rosenfield.

The restaurant has a trio of payments it makes each month: base rent, common area upkeep and then a percentage of profits, with the latter number staying confidential. This setup predated Rosenfield, who says he “voluntarily” continued to renew Little Alex’s lease despite the lack of progress made with improvements.

Rosenfield says he attempted to make the arrangement work, but ultimately has to do what’s best for the Country Mart.

“Food is such an incredibly important aspect of retail spaces now, it’s what keeps people walking the facility. It has to be the right fit,” Rosenfield said.

A Community Outcry

Berna Kieler says being a Little Alex’s patron is like a rite of passage in Montecito, and the community is running out of those go-to hangouts.

She said as much in a pointed letter to Rosenfield.

“It’s cool to be a Little Alex’s customer. It means you are a real in-the-know community member,” she wrote. “Why in the world do you want to close it?

We would like to know. We are your customers, so I feel it’s important for you to have our support of your center. The people I’m talking to who are diehard Little Alex’s customers are all affluent and also eat at the most expensive of the Montecito restaurants, but Little Alex’s is our version of fast food.”

It even extends to Kieler’s grandchildren that live in Vietnam, relaying to grandma that they couldn’t wait to have Little Alex’s when they visited at Christmas after being away for 54 months.

“Lynette never made a child feel unwelcome. Just think about the thousands of birthday parties that have been there over the years — those leave lasting memories,” Kieler said.

Lynette is the mother of five children, the oldest 16 and youngest four when the Briners took over Little Alex’s in 1989. She learned how to operate the business on the fly, with selling Avon and helping her mother’s business as the foundation. She morphed the business into one that put priority on family through atmosphere and affordability.

“I didn’t want anyone feeling unwelcome,” Lynette said. “I don’t even know the last names of some our long-time customers, because we know each other by first name.”

The online petition — which can be seen at savelittlealexs.com — has pages and pages of comments from long-time customers, pleading with Rosenfield to reconsider his decision — something he told the Montecito Journal that he cannot do, as he already has a lease agreement with the new tenant.

The comments ranged from Jerrad Burford’s concern over affordability along Coast Village Road, where kid-friendly and cheap meals are too far and in between.

“As my son Jaxon so aptly put it, ‘Without Little Alex’s there will be no place in Montecito for the young and poor to eat!’ We need to keep some semblance of the neighborhood many of us adopted as our hometown (30 years ago for me). Little 14 – 21 October 2021

What’s Next?

While the Briners have not decided if they will move Little Alex’s to a new location, a pair of ideas have been swirling around the community.

Could the restaurant find momentum as a food truck that found a semi-permanent home along Coast Village Road? Does the business model shift into to-go orders only — something that Rosenfield wasn’t keen on since it didn’t drive business to the rest of the County Mart?

Rosenfield says he has offered to help, and he knows others have already reached out to do the same.

“It’s not the end of an era. Businesses relocate all the time. We’re sad about it, but we have to get on with life,” Rosenfield said.

And while the outpouring of love has been “overwhelming” for Lynette, it has also been motivating to explore potential next steps.

Dan says that it’s in Little Alex’s DNA to put its Montecito family first. “[Lynette] dedicated her life to her family, and then her other family at Little Alex’s,” Dan said. “We’ve spanned three generations now; we’ve seen grandchildren of customers come in consistently.

“That’s a testament to the legacy that Lynette and this crew built.”

And you can grab a little piece of Little Alex’s history, as the restaurant is now selling T-shirts for $15, coming in black and white. One of them should go perfect with that chicken soup that seemingly cures all ills.

•MJ

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43

Santa Barbara by the Glass

by Gabe Saglie Gabe Saglie has been covering the Santa Barbara wine scene for more than 15 years through columns, TV and radio. He’s a senior editor with Travelzoo and is a leading expert on travel deals, tips and trends. Gabe and wife Renee have 3 children and one Golden Retriever named Milo

Game of Clones:

Rusack Vineyards Launches New Lineup of Wines

Rusack Vineyards features 20 acres of planted estate grapevines. It’s set inside Santa Barbara’s Ballard Canyon AVA.

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he appeal of Rusack Vineyards’ brand new 2019 Sauvignon Blanc ($26) has a lot to do with a clone called musqué. Referred to as “clone 27” in the biz, it’s well-known for its powerful perfume.

“We’re going for a really aromatic white wine style,” winemaker Steve Gerbac told me this week. “We want you to smell it from across the table!”

Gerbac has ramped up the acreage of musqué sauvignon blanc on the Rusack Ballard Canyon estate in recent years, and the results are delicious. The latest release is brimming with tropical aromas — pineapple and peach — and a bracing acidity in the mouth that makes it bright,

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The ’19 sauv blanc is among five new Rusack wines that have just hit the marketplace. Gerbac, who joined the Rusack team in 2003 and was promoted to head winemaker nine years later, shared some insights with me earlier this week.

Chardonnay is “moving strong,” he says, even as other grapes, like pinot noir, may be seeing a bit of a drop-off in demand.

“With chardonnay, there’s no stopping it,” he adds, “and I think it comes down to the winemaking here in Santa Barbara County. We’re not going for super ripe and opulent, instead sticking with a balanced approach, and consumers are finding that to be a good thing.”

The 2018 Rusack “Bien Nacido” Chardonnay ($40) is meant to “really represent that vineyard,” Gerbac says. He sources from older chardonnay vines on the famous Santa Maria Valley vineyard that “hold acid really well” and that show “little variation year to year because they’re so well established – they’re not affected by drought or hot spells as much, which is really nice.” The new release has a wonderfully rounded elegant mouth feel that’s balanced with zesty citrus notes and lengthy stone fruit flavors.

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Steve Gerbac has been at Rusack Vineyards for close to two decades and has been their head winemaker since 2012

County Chardonnay ($30) represents an awesome value, as it’s made with fruit from Bien Nacido, too. Gerbac casts a wider net here, using fruit from a wider range of blocks. But the result is equally remarkable: fruity aromas, citrus, and melon flavors and a clean, fresh finish.

Syrah represents about half of the 20 planted acres on the Rusack estate, with the majority planted in the early 2000s, followed by added acreage in 2013. Rusack is among the most respected syrah producers in Santa Barbara County, and

The just-released 2018 Rusack Bien Nacido Chardonnay features fruit from older vines and is both elegant and zesty

here, again, Gerbac plays a game of clones.

The 2017 Rusack “Ballard Canyon Estate” Syrah ($36) is made to be “more fruit-forward and more approachable early on,” says Gerbac.

This wine is typically driven by the Estrella clone, planted lower in the vineyard, and then balanced by the tannic structure offered by the Alban and 877 clones planted at higher elevations.

“But in 2017, those roles reversed,” Gerbac adds. “The syrah from up on the hill came out very fresh, less

tannic than normal, and so it ended up playing a bigger role.”

The wine is luscious, juicy, and delicious, with concentrated dry cherry and blueberry flavors, and a velvety finish.

The 2017 “Reserve Ballard Canyon Estate” Syrah ($48) is a carefully selected snapshot of the Rusack estate’s syrah potential. Gerbac goes a little heavier on the 174 clone, which is “super savory, like tape-

nade,” he says. “It’s my special blending clone – ripe, bright fruits, but with underlying earthiness.”

This release is buxom and bold, with a delectable balance of berry flavors and spice notes.

Barrel selection plays a bigger role in the Reserve Estate syrah, too.

“Each lot is tasted at pressing, and then we decide which cooperage to use,” says the winemaker. “If it’s leaning more tannic and dark and less fruit-forward, I may add a smokier barrel to that lot and enhance aromatics that way.”

Gerbac works with various cooperages, about 95% of them French.

“But I always have three or four American barrels at hand, which I often use to coax out aromatics.”

Rusack, set along Ballard Canyon Road in Solvang, just recently reopened to visitors. After closing due to COVID in March of 2020, the beautiful property is now open by reservation only, with club members getting dibs on available appointments. The tasting is more intimate and curated now, and it’s seated – the wine bar is gone. The hospitality center has also been totally remodeled. One of the destination wineries in Santa Barbara County that’s well worth a visit.

Find out more at rusackvineyards. com.

•MJ

The Pismo Beach Clam Festival is back!

Join us for the 75th Annual Clam Festival There’s fun for the entire family!

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For more information and to purchase tickets for the Chowder Cookoff visit

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• The Voice of the Village •

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Election (Continued from page 8)

we have to have leadership from the top having equity and the expectation that that type of behavior is not acceptable,” Sneddon said.

While Reed was reluctant to offer a take on whether city employees should be mandated to get the COVID-19 vaccine, Sneddon was clear about where she stood: She wants it and believes it should have already been implemented by the city — pointing to how quickly SBCC and Santa Barbara Unified were able to do so.

“There isn’t the will. I have the will. I don’t think there is the collective will,” Sneddon said about her council teammates.

Her words come as at least four councilmembers will be the same in 2022 — yet she is still critical of the how the city handled mask mandates.

“I thought we acted very slowly in bringing that about and enforcing it and I don’t really see the issue with it,” Sneddon said.

Over the past four years, Sneddon has found her footing and voice, and that’s why she deserves a sophomore campaign, as she has not only shown the willingness to take on the council, but also the DCC, standing on her own two feet and making decisions that are right for her neighbors, not the ones in Sacramento or elsewhere.

And that’s just what District 4 needs. •MJ 14 – 21 October 2021

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Art (Continued from page 12)

A costumed Ed Borein, flanked by Ethel and Helen Harmer, stands in front of the iconic portal at the Harmer Adobe (Santa Barbara Historical Museum) Two Golden Palominos is part of the display of watercolors loaned by an anonymous donor

features a collection of 20 watercolors anonymously loaned to the museum by a family whose father had admired the way Borein accurately captured the nature of cowboy work together with its unfettered freedom and adventure. Borein’s mission had been to accurately portray a lifestyle that was quickly disappearing, and his years of travels had given him an expertise on the subject, which he employed when chronicling the latter days of the Wild West. These watercolors are exhibited in the north room of the Borein Gallery.

Along the trails and in Santa Barbara, Borein’s artist friends inspired, supported and mentored him. The main salas contain paintings and drawings of vast Western landscapes and cowboy life by such notables as Maynard Dixon, Charlie Russell, Carl Oscar Borg, Joe De Yong, as well the work of his artist friends in Santa Barbara, many of whom taught at the School of the Arts, as did Borein. These include Alexander Harmer, Thomas Moran, Albert Herter, and DeWitt Parshall.

The exhibit runs through January

• The Voice of the Village •

and will be augmented by several other events. On Wednesday, October 20, Byron Price, author of the new book on Borein, will give a talk and book signing in the Museum courtyard. On Wednesday, November 10, Jeremy Tessmer, art historian and gallery director at Sullivan Goss: An American Gallery in Santa Barbara, will speak about Borein and his many artist friends in Santa Barbara.

Contact the Santa Barbara Historical Museum for reservations and further information: click on “Events” at www.sbhistorical.org or call (805) 966-1601.

•MJ MONTECITO JOURNAL

47

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