Anthony Parnther Presents

Not a Food Desert – Concerned Summerland citizens write a collective message in response to a previous MJ article, P.10

Community Message – Montecito Fire hosts its preparedness meeting and here are the tips from it, P.11

At the Watering Hole – The sun is out and the lions, hyenas, and more are looking for a drink and a meal, P.25

No Construction! – There may be a momentary pause in construction… will Ernie and Pat get to their destination? P.26

See the cars, colors, and smiling faces in this year’s July 4th celebration cruising the streets of Montecito, page 32

www.montecitojournal.net

Jimmy Webb is not a household name, but his collaborators and the songs he’s written are, and now you can see him at the Lobero, page 6

Shepherdess in Making

It’s not just for biblical occupations and Homeric characters; Regan Williams pursues the pleasures and challenges of shepherding, page 16

805.565.1724

Dream. Design. Build. Live.

Photography: @virtourmedia

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INSIDE THIS ISSUE

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This Week at MA – Anthony Parnther’s inspiring story from school band oboist to Hollywood film and TV score superstar, plus this week’s happenings

Jimmy Webb – The songwriting legend –you may or may not know the name – but you definitely know his hits

Montecito Miscellany – Frank McGinity’s newest edition of Get Off Your Street, a batch of Music Academy events, and more miscellany

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Letters to the Editor – Concerned citizens write a response to the Summerland Farm article from last week’s MJ with a retraction from the article’s author as well

Tide Guide

Hot Topics – It has been a wet winter, but the risk for fire is still high… here is a summary from the Wildfire Preparedness Community Meeting

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Society Invites – Take a stroll through jazz clubs, literary treasures, and dive bars as Society writer Joanne heads to NYC

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Dear Montecito – Regan Williams has found her flock with the group at Shepherdess Land & Livestock

Village Vibe – Teresa McWilliams came to Montecito in 1949 and reflects on the changes seen in the 70+ years of living here

The Optimist Daily – The Yale Prison Education Initiative sees its first graduates and a hopeful outcome for the program

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Your Westmont – A top violinist will represent Montecito at the Aspen Music Festival and School, and teens arrive on Carr Field with major league dreams

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Far Flung Travel – Lounging lionesses, lurking hyenas, and zebra carcasses… it’s just another day at the watering hole

Brilliant Thoughts – There are consequences to what comes next and the truth behind them

Ernie’s World – It’s lunchtime and there may be a break in construction, so Ernie and Pat go for a ride

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Robert’s Big Questions – What is reality?

There’s a need to understand that before we can comprehend VR and telepresence.

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Stories Matter – The sun is out and these women leads are shining bright in the books picked this July

Santa Barbara by the Glass – Dana Volk’s new Happy Mommy Wines label is affordable, fun, and celebrates all that moms do

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Village Fourth – A photo collage of the cars, faces, and fun times of this year’s Village Fourth celebration

Calendar of Events – CEC opens its Environmental Hub and other 1st Thursday events, The Smithereens at the Libbey, the annual outdoor entertainment starts, and more

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

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Mini Meta Crossword Puzzles

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

This Week at MA The Rise of Parnther

Anthony Parnther makes his Academy debut conducting the Academy Festival Orchestra this Saturday, July 8 (photo by Tom Pease)

by Steven Libowitz

Anthony Parnther never picked up a musical instrument until eighth grade, and even then, only because he discovered it could be an avenue to free admission at a Virginia amusement park.

“I was sitting in math class and I heard the announcement over the intercom that the students who were part of the middle school band were to report to the bus for their trip to Kings Dominion, the big theme park that was about 90 miles away,” he recalled. “Three-quarters of the class excitedly grabbed all these strange-shaped cases with musical instruments inside and bounded out the door, leaving me behind. I desperately, desperately, desperately wanted to go. And I thought I’ve got to get in on this gig.”

Without knowing much about musical instruments, he searched alphabetically in a dictionary, passing on the accordion as “far too nerdy” because his parents used to watch the Lawrence Welk show. “I wanted a much cooler instrument, one that would earn the respect and esteem of my peers. When I saw the bassoon, I thought, oh, yeah, this is my ticket right here.”

It was only a year later that the budding bassoonist found himself drawn to another role, that of: “The guy not making any sound but waving a wand around while everyone else plays” – aka the conductor.

“I think I was probably attracted to both the mystery of conducting and, quite frankly, the authority,” recalled Parnther, for whom even the seven-dollar cost of a new bassoon reed, let alone admission to an amusement park, was a big expense back then.

Fast forward a few decades, and Parnther is now enjoying a fine and still rising career in music as both a performer and conductor, one who is equally at ease directing some of the world’s leading orchestras on new works and chestnuts of the classic canon, while also conducting and/or playing contrabassoon on Hollywood film and TV

scores. He’s led hundreds of Hollywood recording sessions, including for some of the biggest films of recent years ( Tenet , Encanto , Turning Red , Black Panther: Wakanda Forever , Nope ) and played and/or sang on many others. He serves as music director and conductor of the San Bernardino Symphony Orchestra, the Southeast Symphony & Chorus in Los Angeles, and the Gateways Music Festival Orchestra, the latter composed entirely of professional classical musicians of African descent. Then there’s the dozens of guest conducting slots at major orchestras around the country, and his work in other genres where he’s conducted and/or played on recordings or concerts with Beyoncé , Jennifer Hudson , Rihanna , Kanye West , Madonna , and Elton John , among many others.

“I am performing or conducting nearly every day of life, usually both,” Parnther said. “Every day is packed, and I don’t take vacations.”

This week, Parnther turns his focused attention to Montecito’s summer music scene, where he’ll conduct the Academy Festival Orchestra for Saturday’s concert at Hahn Hall. The ensemble, compacted to chamber size as many of the instrumentalists are in the opera orchestra, will take on the carefully curated program that opens with the Overture from Carl Maria von Weber’s romantic opera Euryanthe, followed by “An Elegy: A Cry from the Grave,” a lyrical, sorrowful yet ultimately hopeful 2015 piece that composer Carlos Simon calls “an artistic reflection dedicated to those who have been murdered wrongfully by an oppressive power; namely Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, and Michael Brown.” The AFO then performs “ Psycho : A Narrative for String Orchestra,” a 1968 creation in which Bernard Herrmann reworked themes from his score for the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock thriller including the shrieking violin bolts from the famous shower scene, before closing with Shostakovich’s “Ninth Symphony,”

Week at MA Page 104

Celebrates 10 Years

Thank you fashion friends for being Allora’s loyal fans and for 10 years representing

CAPTIVATING, MODERN, LUXURY

You’ve worn it well! Celebrate with us this summer by sharing an image of yourself in your favorite Allora ensemble and enter to win one of three grand prizes, including a Kai Linz diamond necklace.

Jimmy Webb

This Legendary Songwriter Has Your Heart in a Sling

Whether or Not You’ve Heard of Him

by Jeff Wing

Jimmy Webb was a 14-year-old working the family farm when he heard a Glen Campbell song on the radio. It brought him to his knees. “I was driving a tractor in the middle of a wheat field in the Oklahoma Panhandle – which is a pretty remote area – listening to my transistor radio. They played a song by Glen called ‘Turn Around, Look at Me,’ written by Jerry Capehart” – Webb is punctilious about songwriting credit, understandably – “and I said to myself, ‘That’s the guy I want to work with! I want to write songs for Glen Campbell!’” Picture, if you will, a teen stick figure in overalls astride a tractor and hollering at a field of wheat. “That night I actually took it to my knees,” Webb says. “‘Dear Lord, please let me meet Glen Campbell – and Lord? Make it possible for us to make a record together.’” Webb chuckles. “Yeah. I spelled it out.”

The kid’s prayer worked. On July 13, legendary songwriter Jimmy Webb plays the historic Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara. Webb’s absolutely inimitable songs have been performed by Frank Sinatra, Nick Cave, and a host of other wildly varied songbirds one is surprised to see flocking together; the common thread – Webb’s gemlike songs. If you’re not sure of the name, you know his work, which is quietly omnipresent in the culture and has become hallowed: “Galveston,” “All I Know,” “Up, Up, and Away,” “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress,” the seven-minute pop suite “MacArthur Park” (whose cryptic lament about a cake in the rain got the Donna Summer treatment for the ‘70s dance floor dervishes)… and two songs that explosively launched Webb in the late ‘sixties, allying him in the public mind, and in fact, with the great, late Glen Campbell.

“Where Glen and I are concerned, that prayer was definitely answered,” Webb says with muted awe nearly 60 years later. “I don’t know what power on Earth could have brought us together.” In 1967, Webb’s song “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” earned Campbell two Grammys, establishing the 21-year-old Webb as a songwriter to be reckoned with and lofting Glen Campbell – the idol haunting Webb’s transistor radio that day – into a pop stratosphere that would thereafter host him with some regularity. That year, vocal group The 5th Dimension also snagged four Grammys for Webb’s song “Up, Up, and Away,” Webb himself taking home the pint-sized Victrola for Song of the Year. It was a good evening for Jimmy.

But the next year, 1968, Webb penned a tune – “Wichita Lineman” – that would inextricably link him and Campbell in artistic perpetuity, ushering them both into the vaunted cathedral of beloved American song. “That’s what this performance is about in many regards,” Webb says of his Lobero show. “I have to trace my success in the business back to Glen — and a couple of early records.” Right out of the gate “Wichita” stunned with its confluence of songcraft, Campbell’s measured, emotive singing, and an orchestral arrangement by Al De Lory that tastefully tears the heart out. Like the rest of us, Webb becomes more enamored of the song as time passes. “I love listening to ‘Wichita Lineman.’ It’s such a classic record. Yeah it still absolutely

LAURA'S FAVE ENSEMBLE – PETER COHEN & KAI LINZ

After a lifetime of writing hit songs, Jimmy Webb is playing the Lobero Thursday, July 13 (Courtesy photo)

Works of Charley and Edie Harper

NOW OPEN

The bright, bold, geometric imagery of Charley Harper is made for nature-lovers!

This art exhibit features the striking wildlife and playful sensibility of Charley and his wife and artistic partner, Edie.

Organized by Springfield Museum of Art and Fowler Artistic LLC

Montecito Miscellany Movie in the Works

Banks and Sarah Snook from the highly rated HBO series Succession, is set to premiere in select theaters on July 21 before streaming on Apple TV+ on July 28.

McGinity’s Travels

Globetrotting accountant Frank McGinity has published the fourth and last updated edition of Get Off Your Street, a personal travelogue recounting his travels from all seven continents.

“It covers my travels over the last 25 years,” says Frank, who lives a tiara’s toss or two from Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in Riven Rock.

“Most of the chapters are based on arti -

cles I have published in the Montecito Journal , Noozhawk, and the Santa Barbara News-Press .

“I have added one last chapter ‘Treading Through a Sea of Mud’ describing the devastating mudslides in Montecito in January 2018.”

Frank will feature his 274-page work in the San Diego Book Fair next month.

“Get Off Your Street are other words for travel, which is a good idea for all of us!”

I couldn’t agree more....

All in at the Academy

It is hard to believe the Music Academy’s annual festival Summer of the Artist is almost halfway through.

The third week of the highly entertaining program kicked off at Hahn Hall on the Miraflores campus with Avery Fisher Prize winning pianist Jeremy Denk playing an all-Bach program of five partitas.

by Richard Mineards

Beanie Baby billionaire Ty Warner, 78, is coming to the big screen, in a comedy, no less. America’s favorite plushies are finally getting the movie and TV treatment with The Beanie Bubble, which shines a light on the owner of the Biltmore and the San Ysidro Ranch, the tycoon behind the

collection craze from the ‘90s.

It stars comedian-actor Zach Galifianakis, 53, who also serves as executive producer.

The one-hour-50-minutes-long film, co-directed by Damian Kulash and his wife, Kristin Gore, daughter of former vice-president Al Gore, is based on Zac Bissonnette’s 2015 book The Great Beanie Baby Bubble

The movie, which also stars Elizabeth

The New York City resident, who studied at Juilliard and is about to embark on a U.S. tour with the popular Takács Quartet, has appeared with myriad orchestras, including the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, as well as touring with London’s Academy of St. Martin in the Fields and appearing at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC Proms.

Just 24 hours later, the more inti-

PRICES SLASHED! PRICES SLASHED!

IT’S COMING DOWN TO THE WIRE!

In addition to his comedy work, Zach Galifianakis is an accomplished interviewer of past presidents and dignitaries (Pete Souza, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Peripatetic author Frank McGinity publishes final travelogue (Courtesy photo)

Michael has his fishing poles packed! And we’re marking prices down again! Michael told us to move all of our remaining stock out our door and into your home or office!

Letters to the Editor

Summerland IS Beautiful… And Summerland is NOT a Food Desert

Summerland is a unique blend of small-town charm, a vibrant mix of locally-owned stores and restaurants, and an outdoor paradise. Ocean views abound from every street. We are a close-knit and welcoming community. Our town exudes a friendly and neighborly spirit. We support each other in crisis.

We are NOT a food desert. We do not fit the definition of low access or low income. We have close proximity to grocery stores which carry healthy and affordable food, to include Vons (3.2 miles), Smart & Final (5.5 miles), Albertsons (6 miles), and a local mini mart.

The average poverty rate for California is 12%, while Summerland is only 6%. Summerland has easy transit access to freeways, public bus, train, bike paths, and walkways.

To claim Summerland is a food desert undermines the needs of those communities that are truly food deserts.

Citizens of Summerland represent a diverse mix of persons raised here and persons migrating here for the beauty of the town. We are proud to be citizens here. We are an eclectic mix of old and new, with diverse economic and career paths, but common in our sense of community and pride. We have worked hard to afford to live here.

We support each other and our community. We work together to keep our beach and community clean. We refuse to be defined by the exploitation of a singular, uncharacteristic event from the tragic 2018 mudslides. We are defined by being a community of first responders, who also fed first responders during this time.

Like every community, we have those who have times of need and we work to support them. We also recognize

communities that have much greater needs than ours. We support those communities, and we would never take for granted our collective privilege.

Besides pride in our community, we have gratitude. We recognize living in Summerland offers a unique blend of natural beauty, stores that hold national recognition, and a strong sense of community. Summerland’s stunning surroundings, coupled with a wide array of recreational activities, create an unrivaled living experience. We, the citizens of Summerland, embrace the enchanting attributes of our community and find ourselves in a coastal paradise that is truly second to none. Standing together, Concerned Citizens

Note from the writer:

I wrote the article “It Takes a Food Desert” that published in the Montecito Journal the week of June 26. That article contained a strong inference that Summerland is in fact a USDA-designated food desert. It is not, according to the technical definition of a food desert as defined by the USDA Cantwell’s, Summerland’s only supermarket, did leave Summerland in 2017, as stated. The article further mentions that 36 percent of Summerland’s properties are “low income.” This is also inaccurate. AffordableHousingOnline states that 32% of Summerland’s renters are Overburdened. I believe at some point in the past, that figure was misunderstood to refer to low-income housing in Summerland. I regret the article’s mischaracterizations. I personally adore Summerland. I also believe a community farm is a boon to any town.

– Jeff Wing

which was composed three months after the Allied victory in World War II.

“What was most important to me is that the students got as much bang out of the week with me as they possibly could, with diversity in the music that fit the criteria,” Parnther explained. “So I wanted something a little operatic, something from a film score, a major symphonic work, and I wanted them to play a piece by a living composer, one who isn’t white.”

The overture is a challenging piece that requires a virtuosic performance, he said, with everyone playing “at the absolute highest level to execute it… There are lots of attitude and mood changes from arrogance and fiery to the absolutely serene and glassy to something really sneaky and mischievous. The students will have to implement all of their tools in order to pull it off.”

The Psycho piece is a rare one that both works for small instrumentation but also requires the musicians to play classically, Parnther said, while the symphony not only fits the format but as a bassoon solo. “I just know that they’ll have a bassoonist who can pull off that incredible solo,” he said.

The conductor said he was drawn to Simon’s elegy even before he knew its inspiration, because the music alone is “absolutely gorgeous.”

Parnther has come a long way from Virginia, but the multi-hyphenate musician hasn’t ever come close to forgetting his roots, including how much his mother sacrificed to buy him his own bassoon at age 16, which is why he teared up recalling the first time he played in the orchestra for John Williams, a favorite of both his and his mother’s.

“I can’t even describe how special it was because this career has not come easily to me,” he said. “I played on the school’s broken bassoon and didn’t even have my own instrument until I was 16. I had worked the entire summer and saved up $700 for a down payment, and my mom took out an extremely high interest loan, which we really could

MONTECITO TIDE GUIDE

not afford. I will never forget the look that she gave me across the desk at the music shop in Lynchburg when she was signing for it in hopes that I would do something with myself. Things were so bad for us financially that sometimes she had to make the choice between paying the light bill and continuing to make the payments on my bassoon.”

It was only a short time later that Parnther’s mom was diagnosed with cancer and was bedridden for many months, he recalled.

“I would sit by her bedside and play her favorite melodies from Jurassic Park and Star Wars,” he said. “I think about all of those struggles. So the first time I got to sit there and work on one of those new Star Wars scores, I literally Week at MA Page 284

newspaper

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Administration | Jessikah Fechner

Administrative Assistant | Valerie Alva

Account Managers | Sue Brooks, Tanis Nelson, Elizabeth Nadel, Bryce Eller, Bob Levitt

Contributing Editor | Kelly Mahan Herrick

Copy Editor | Lily Buckley Harbin, Jeff Wing

Proofreading | Helen Buckley

Arts and Entertainment | Steven Libowitz

Contributors | Scott Craig, Ashleigh Brilliant, Kim Crail, Tom Farr, Chuck Graham, Stella Haffner, Mark Ashton Hunt, Dalina Michaels, Sharon Byrne, Robert Bernstein, Christina Atchison, Leslie Zemeckis, Sigrid Toye

Gossip | Richard Mineards

History | Hattie Beresford

Humor | Ernie Witham

Our Town/Society | Joanne A Calitri

Travel | Jerry Dunn, Leslie Westbrook

Food & Wine | Claudia Schou, Melissa Petitto, Gabe Saglie

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

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

Hot Topics with Montecito Fire

Don’t Let the Wet Winter Fool You… The Threat of Wildfire is Always There

by Christina Atchison

After a record-setting rain season and months of mild weather, the threat of wildfire may seem like less of a concern for the Santa Barbara County South Coast this year.

As we celebrated the red, white, and blue over the past week, temperatures rose significantly for the first time in 2023. No matter how much rain we received last winter, heatwaves like this one are a harbinger of our wildfire risk.

On June 28, Montecito Fire Department hosted a Wildfire Preparedness Community Meeting at El Montecito Presbyterian Church alongside our partners from California Highway Patrol, Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office, Santa Barbara County Office of Emergency Management, and Santa Barbara Police Department.

With all the experts gathered in one room, the full picture of our wildfire risk and evacuation challenges became quite clear. Preparing your property for wildfire now and planning your evacuation route(s) are critical to maintaining our community’s resilience.

This Season’s Fire Danger Outlook

Montecito Wildfire Fire Specialist and Fire Behavior Analyst Nic Elmquist keeps close tabs on fuel moisture levels, fire weather predictions, and current conditions.

While our local vegetation has retained more moisture than at this time last year, a warmer and drier weather pattern can quickly wick it away.

“Regardless of the winter’s precipitation, the moisture contained in the chaparral plants will always be at critical levels by the fall,” Elmquist said. “We can almost guarantee fire danger will rapidly rise throughout the summer and be at our typical heightened levels by late summer/early fall, which coincides with when the local strong sundowner winds are most prevalent.”

Elmquist points back to 2008 when despite experiencing 100 percent of normal precipitation in Santa Barbara County, the Tea Fire ignited on November 13 and destroyed several hundred homes in Montecito in just a few short hours.

“Santa Barbara Design and Build was fabulous. Don and his crew were the BEST from day one. He was honest, timely, flexible, artistic, patient and skilled. They understood my vision and built my dream home”.

-Santa Barbara Resident

Both of these examples show restrictive passageways into homes. Make sure that there is at least 13.5 feet of vertical clearance in driveways for first responders.

Montecito Fire pickups and service vehicles need to be able to fit as well

Society Invites

Tips for an NYC Arts and Culture Summer Vacation

Renee Rosnes (piano), Jimmy Greene (sax), and Payton Crossley (drums) at the Blue Note. Carter is a three-time Grammy winner and the most recorded bassist in jazz. He played with Miles, Evans, Shorter, Hawkins, Hancock, Silver, and Baker, and is not slowing down at 86 as he carries his standup bass to the gig, an instrument he singularly brought into the spotlight.

As expected, the music elevated the house with Carter’s smooth, strong, and subtle note expressions, trading solos while giving nods to Greene and Crossley, and a smile to Rosnes for her triple adagio fluidity. The hour-and-a-half set sans intermission dedicated to Miles included “5-9-5,” “Seven Steps to Heaven,” “Mr. Bow Tie,” “Flamenco Sketches,” and “My Funny Valentine.” Carter graciously thanked the guests for supporting jazz, his band, and the club, saying, “We are faced with things in the world which we bring here with our personal lives, and when the stars align between us as a band, this great music happens, and we share it with you.” The encore was a 1934 Broadway single turned jazz standard, “You and the Night and the Music,” after which Ron held up his handkerchief that read, “Warning: Genius at Work.” For a view of that genius, check the PBS film Finding the Right Notes (2022), documenting his historic life. Follow the club on Instagram for its schedule. There is a $20 minimum per person spend. Society toasts Louis D’Adamio, Sr. Publicity Director of Sacks & Co., for the press tickets.

Next, it was uptown to the Birdland Jazz Club, whose walls are lined with black and white photos of the jazz legends who played there. Along with its storied history, the

by Joanne A Calitri

Society News is bringing you insider tips of the New York City arts and culture scene firsthand after spending five days there! A city brimming with things to do, here are some top go-to’s:

Connoisseurs of jazz will find A-listers playing at the Blue Note on West 3rd Street in the Village and the historic 1949 Birdland Jazz Club at 315 West 44th Street next door to where the Record Plant was once located.

I went to the gig by bass extraordinaire, Ron Carter with his Foursight Quartet of

Chung

When we were looking for a bank to finance building our hotel, American Riviera stepped up for us. —HARRY & GRACE KAZALI, LA PLAYA INN

The Ron Carter Quartet at the Blue Note Jazz Club (photo by Joanne A Calitri)

The Ravi Coltrane Quartet at Birdland Jazz Club (photo by Joanne A Calitri)

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scintillates. It’s got this wonderful energy on it – and there are various recordings down through the years that have totally blown me away. When James Taylor covered ‘Wichita Lineman,’ he did such a fantastic job, it just… it blew my mind.”

The blue-sky beatitude that is “Wichita Lineman” summons both a whispering prairie vastness, and love’s incandescent power to find us where it will. Weird and gorgeous (a potent combination), the song has been described as “existential.” In 2020, “Wichita Lineman” was inducted into the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress, and though it has been covered by everyone and your uncle, this classic song will forever be associated with Glen Campbell, who passed from Alzheimer’s in 2017. So, yeah. In the Grammy category “aspirational 14-year-old boys on bended knee in the middle of nowhere,” Jimmy Webb is something of a standout.

“We loved chord structure, melody, and songwriters; both of us,” Webb says of Campbell. “Glen just loved songwriters. He recorded Bob Dylan’s ‘Universal Soldier,’ you know. Glen and Dylan weren’t aligned politically but Glen thought it was a great song and he cut it.” Jimmy Webb’s very name invokes that late ‘sixties epoch when songs, as art objects worthy of discussion and critical analysis, began incrementally to eclipse bands. He takes the 10,000-foot view of his career. It should come as no surprise that a beloved and respected songwriter, whose greatness has long since been chiseled into our cultural granite, might occasionally imagine having had his own hit records with his own compositions. Over the years the man has released 14 solo albums, after all. There is a mild bittersweetness about Webb when he opens up, likely a species of that inarticulate melancholy we all feel when looking back; possibly trebled by Jimmy’s having aspired to art from a precocious early age.

“I’m resigned to the idea that there’s a catalog out there that I’m going to have to live with, and it stands pretty well,” he says, almost talking to himself, it seems. “I do feel that sometimes songwriters are the surrogates for people who may have difficulty expressing their emotions. ‘All I Know,’ the song that I wrote for Artie Garfunkel, right? So many people have come up to me and said, ‘I was having trouble with my girlfriend and we thought we were going to break up in college. And I went over, and I taped this record to her dorm room door and she played it… and we ended up getting married, and here are our kids.’” I could hear the master songwriter speaking through a grin. “And I look at them and I think, okay – I guess in some way I’m responsible for that,” and Jimmy Webb barkes out a fugitive laugh that seems to surprise him. For so many people – countless people around the world – Webb’s songs glowingly infuse the most emotionally redolent chapters of their lives..

“I’ll never forget the couple that came to me and said, ‘You know, we played ‘MacArthur Park’ at our wedding,’ and for a second – I mean, I really almost laughed out loud. I had to bite my lip because of (starts singing)… ‘after all the loves of my life, you’ll still be the one…’ (laughs heartily). When you start thinking about the lyrics, ‘MacArthur Park’ is something you do not want to hear at a wedding. It’s disastrous!” Webb laughs long and loud, then grows quiet. “I love these people and I love them dearly. There’s not an ounce of phoniness about them. Because of my songs, they come to see me as family,” he says, and sighs. “They are dear to me beyond anything you can imagine. They’ve been touched by the same things I’ve been touched by.”

Jeff Wing is a journalist, raconteur, autodidact, and polysyllable enthusiast who sees the Village as a dazzling kaleidoscope of stories—some of them a little nutty. Jeff can be reached at Jeff@ montecitojournal.net

Angie Huff, Architect

An Evening with Jimmy Webb is on Thursday, July 13, at 8 pm at the Lobero. Visit www.lobero.org for tickets.

Jimmy with his longtime collaborator Glen Campbell (Courtesy photo)

Dear Montecito Regan Williams: Shepherdess in Training

by Stella Haffner

Deep in the Ojai Valley hills sits Shepherdess Land & Livestock Co., along with their youngest recruit, Crane School alumna Regan Williams. Regan had a long-standing interest in farming and working with animals, recently picking up classes in holistic land management. But it wasn’t until Regan met her new boss Cole Bush, founder of Shepherdess Land & Livestock, that she learned about a future in shepherding.

“I never thought of it as a potential job. It just seemed like an ancient, beautiful practice. Not something that was part of the modern world,” says Regan.

Regan and I were thinking along the same lines. Having never spoken to a shepherd before, my image of one was somewhat biblical – maybe something from the Homeric poems we discussed in English class. In fact, shepherding as a profession is alive and well today, and it sits closer to home than you may think.

Shepherdess Land & Livestock operates out of Ojai as a contract grazer. That means they bring the sheep to different locations, so they can help facilitate ecological restoration, something that is increasingly important as climate conditions deteriorate.

“Part of the reason we perform these contract grazings is for fire mitigation – to reduce the intensity of wildfires and protect communities,” says Regan. “Another big reason is that by grazing, we restore the landscape and make it more resilient.”

As we know, a prominent concern following recent weather events is that during a storm, the soil becomes saturated too quickly. The hardened earth and superficial roots systems are not prepared to absorb rainfall. This makes a dry environment even drier in the long-term. By performing contract grazings, the sheep prune shrubbery that pose a fire risk; they fertilize the ground, and their hooves till the soil, making it a softer, more hospitable environment.

But a key principle of shepherding is understanding that each species has their niche within the environment. Shepherds leverage this knowledge by deploying different animals for different jobs. For instance, at Shepherdess Land & Livestock they use sheep as grazers and goats as browsers because these animal types target different plants to eat. Some shepherds use cows, water buffalo, and even ducks to restore and treat the environment in the most appropriate way.

Of course, shepherds have their own role within the ecosystem: stewarding healthy growth and change. Few know this as well as Regan, who was initiated into shepherding during Shepherdess Land & Livestock’s first lambing season.

“It was definitely the hardest thing I have ever done. You don’t sleep really during lambing season, and we were pasture lambing so we were doing it during the height of the storms and the rain.”

In total, Regan helped birth about 275 lambs between October and December of this year. By the time Christmas rolled around, it was time for a much-deserved break.

“I witnessed a lot of birth and a lot of death too in the course of that. It was really shocking, and at the same time it was so beautiful,” Regan says. “Having bonfires, seeing all the other shepherds at night, having those moments to reflect became the most fulfilling to me.”

Regan emphasizes the idea of seeing life’s entire cycle; so much of a shepherd’s work is about taking care of beginnings and endings. As a new year began, Regan had her own beginning to take care of. It was now time for her to start training her young herding puppy Bobo.

A shepherd builds a special one-on-one relationship with their dog over the course of many years.

“They’re our coworkers, our best friends, and they need to be because they’re with us all the time,” says Regan. “The dogs are my favorite part of the work honestly. They’re the biggest headache and the most expensive thing, but they’re so fun.”

Regan and her coworkers

Village Vibe

Teresa McWilliams

Teresa McWilliams , born in Warsaw, Poland in 1937, relocated to Santa Barbara in September 1949 and has been a resident of Montecito for longer than many of us have been alive. Reflecting on the community’s transformation, McWilliams reminisces about a Montecito from a past era.

“I’ve lived here for a long time, over 70 years, and I’ve seen a lot of changes and although I like it the way it was in the old days, there were less than 1,000 people in Montecito when I arrived. It’s around 10,000 [now], which isn’t that much compared to most cities, but it’s nice. I have a little house in the Hedgerow district, and I like it there, and I’ll probably stay there till the end of my life, which is, I’m already 85, so you know.

“When I arrived, it was like a village. It’s become a little more… what’s the word for it – I mean there’s a lot of people moving in. I kind of like the way it was, but then of course change always comes anyway and you can’t fight that. But it seems like all of Hollywood is trying to get up here, the celebrities and everything, but you still can have some privacy even though you’re surrounded by well-known people. You still have enough area so that you can do what you want.”

Inmates Celebrate First Degrees Earned Through Yale University and University of New Haven Initiative

Parolee Marcus Harvin ’s path from incarceration to higher education exemplifies the transformative impact of a game-changing collaboration between the University of New Haven (UNH) and the Yale Prison Education Initiative. Through this partnership, Harvin – who spent six years in prison for drinking and driving – and six other men were the program’s first class to graduate, gaining associate degrees in general studies. This unique program allows jailed people to pursue higher education and open the door for a brighter future.

For Marcus Harvin and many others, the opportunity to study at Yale while incarcerated is nothing short of life changing. The Yale Prison Education Initiative, founded in 2016, aims to have a generational impact by changing not only the lives of individual students but also the institutions involved. Through a collaboration with UNH, the program expanded its reach, paving the way for student-inmates to achieve two- and four-year college degrees. This group of 15 schools and jail systems from across the country is breaking down barriers and promoting hope in the correctional system.

Governor Ned Lamont addressed the graduates during the graduation ceremony, highlighting their ability to shape their own destinies. He recognized the need for learning from the past but urged them to leave a positive legacy through their future achievements. According to research, giving higher education options in prisons greatly reduces behavioral problems and lowers recidivism rates. This program allows jailed inmates to break the cycle of crime and become productive members of society by providing them with information and skills.

Within the prison system, only a small minority of inmates have access to higher education. However, studies have consistently shown that such programs have a positive impact, with lower rates of behavioral disorders during jail and decreased recidivism after release. Aside from the practical rewards, education instills optimism and a sense of purpose. The classroom transforms into a haven, providing a respite from the restrictions of prison and sparking a revitalized feeling of possibility.

As the Yale-UNH collaboration continues to lead the way for education within the penitentiary system, it serves as a model for others to emulate. We can empower incarcerated people, unlock their potential, and develop a society that values redemption, rehabilitation, and the transformational power of education.

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American Songwriter

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club is famously mentioned in Kerouac’s novel, On the Road. It has two stages with live performances all evening. The ground floor is devoted to jazz with 200 table seats and bar to the right; the downstairs is a 100-seat theater for non-jazz music, and other acts from comedy to burlesque. The $20 minimum per person spend is easily done with the delicious menu.

There I listened to the Ravi Coltrane Quartet – Coltrane (sax), David Virelles (piano), Dezron Douglas (bass), and Johnathan Blake (drums). The group was formed in 2012 and played this year for the first time since 2020. Coltrane, son of John and Alice, is named after Ravi Shankar. Talking with him after the gig, he told me he grew up and went to high school in Woodland Hills and studied sax at California Institute for the Arts. He is now living in Long Island, his birthplace.

For this gig, Ravi paired his saxophones with tech – a wireless mic used as a preamp for his pedal board (like rock guitarists), where he went from dry (no pedal) to a chorus pedal for improv and phrase emphasis, a harmonizer pedal to expand scale runs for a big band sound and experimented with a harmonic plus pedal to pick off chord notes he played and then improvised to. He used a “nod” for a fuller sound and did body level changes, bending down for lows and up for highs. He worked it and was not alone.

Blake was a force to behold using all manner of sticks, brushes, and well-worn white felt mallets for his distinctively direct approach to rhythm, and extra-high-speed dexterity for compositional impact. Douglas played his gamut nesting his bass into the Yamaha baby grand piano’s curve, eyes closed and smiling the notes into existence. Virelles’ dreamy piano approach created the space for full octave runs, holding the line in one hand while the other spun top notes – those contra-harmonies to the main riff lines played by Coltrane. The set list was “Intervals,” Alice Coltrane’s 1976 work “Illuminations,” Wayne Shorter’s “Nefertiti,” Ornette Coleman’s “Happy House”, a Virelles composition, and a 16-minute version of John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps.” Ravi stayed for fans to say hi and take photos. I highly recommend getting tickets to this ear candy. Society toasts Lydia Liebman of Promotions NYC for the press tickets.

A Feast for the Eyes

Exploring the visual arts scene is NYC at its best. I started with the Museum of Modern Art. The sixth-floor exhibition, Signals: How Video Transformed the World, covers a 60-year span of the medium on walls, screens, monitors, inside domes and

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via quasi-holograms. The crux is video exposes humanity to content shaping public opinion and as an agent of socio-political change. The 70 works explore concepts from news, documentaries, music video, social media, digital art, CGI, and the current elephant in the room, AI.

Should that be a tad overloading, one can easily wind down to the classics on the 5th floor, with Henri Matisse’s Dance (I) [Paris, Boulevard des Invalides, early 1909] – his acknowledgement that photography took over details in art freeing the artist of it. Escape through walls of Gaugin, Seurat, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Picasso, and Dali.

Dedicating the 2nd floor to new photo works, we find the “Collection 1970s-present,” a revolving exhibit of different artists and mediums to capture alter egos, politics, cultures, personal experiences, heritages, and human nature. Most viewed are “Assembly,” which takes aim at American culture with found objects, and Mujinga’s “Flo” faux hologram about a person’s visibility in the world. The “New Photography 2023” exhibit with artists Kelani Abass, Akinbode Akinbiyi, Yagazie Emezi, Amanda Iheme, Abraham Oghobase, Karl Ohiri, and Logo Oluwamuyiwa, have art depicting the port city of Lagos, Nigeria. The artists are said to use photography as art not documentarism, but the viewer gets both.

A Literary Feast

The Polonsky Exhibition of the New York Public Library’s Treasures at its Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on 5th Avenue is free with docent tours and an audio guide via QR code. This first-time exhibition has artifacts, books, furniture, and sculptures curated from its collection of 56 million items – a time capsule for certain. The hall is laid out by subject area, including the arts, cartography, public records, historical documents, literature, Women’s and Civil Rights, religions, literature, and Broadway. Key on view is the U.S. Declaration of Independence, George Washington’s resignation speech, Duke Ellington’s sheet music, Miles Davis’s liner notes, Shakespeare’s 1623 Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies, the Birds of America (1827) by JJ Audubon, MLK artifacts, James Baldwin’s letter to his sister Angela Davis, Charles Dickens’ 1859 writing desk, chair, and lamp where he wrote Great Expectations and other books, the 1939 Grand Central Station drawing by William Wilgus, ballet shoes, tap shoes, and Broadway scripts. The oldest book acquired is a cookbook in the Exploration Collection, and the most checked out book is The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats, at over 485,000 check-outs. Finishing up, I noted a Royal Quiet De Luxe 1940s typewriter belonging to a New Yorker Magazine writer… and wondered, would my trusty computer make it in the collection?

History buffs need to visit The Morgan Library & Museum on Madison at 36th Street, it’s a museum, research center, and live performing arts center. The art and book

The New York Public Library’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on 5th Avenue (photo by Joanne A Calitri)

Charles Dickens’ writing table and chair at the New York Public Library Treasures Exhibit (photo by Joanne A Calitri)

“[The Tea Fire] serves as a reminder of our extreme conditions and that regardless of past weather, it is important that we are all well prepared for wildfire,” he said.

Hardening Your Home Against Wildfire

Elmquist works alongside fellow Wildland Fire Specialist Maeve Juarez. The prolific rain year also brought prolific regrowth of vegetation that she and Elmquist are working hard to trim back before it becomes dangerously crisp.

“Now is the time to focus on your defensible space, harden your home and ensure you have a plan to be ready for wildfire,” Juarez said.

She says small, easy steps to “harden” your home can vastly improve your property’s chance of survival.

Her top tips include upgrading your roof to a noncombustible roof material such as tile or asphalt shingles, installing gutter guards to prevent dry material from collecting in your gutters, and retrofitting your home’s vents with fine, ember-resistant mesh.

Next, create and maintain defensible space.

“Defensible space does not mean bare dirt all around your home,” Juarez said. “We ask that you remove any dead vegetation, be diligent with your weed whipping, utilize hardscape, and landscape with fire-resistant plants.”

Defensible space gives firefighters an opportunity to safely defend your home from a wildfire while breaking up pathways for fire that can lead to home ignition.

Additionally, Juarez says a properly maintained driveway can affect your ability to evacuate quickly and whether first responders can get in to protect your home.

“Always maintain at least 13.5 feet of vertical clearance across the entire width of your driveway,” Juarez said. “As you can see in these pictures (page 11), our Engine 91 can barely make it into this driveway. If my pickup truck can’t fit down your driveway, fire engines cannot make it to your home.”

Evacuation Planning During 101 Construction

Travis Ederer, Montecito Fire Division Chief of Operations, says reviewing your evacuation plan is more important than ever due to the ongoing Highway 101 construction and ancillary roadwork throughout the area.

The “Ready, Set, Go!” guide is a helpful tool to prepare residents for wildfire and evacuation.

“Ready” means being aware of weather, traffic conditions, time of day, and other factors that may affect your ability to evacuate. “Set” means loading your vehicle and taking proactive steps to ease the process of evacuating. The last step, “Go,” simply means leave now.

“We always say, ‘leave early,’ and it’s because it is a very stressful scenario for people to evacuate. If you prepare early, that’s alleviating your future stress,” Ederer said. Leaving early is particularly important this fire season due to unpredictable traffic.

“It’s counterintuitive, but often faster to drive south to Sheffield to go north to Santa Barbara city. That’s why we say make a plan and reevaluate it consistently,” he said. “Depending on the time and conditions, we may not even want people evacuating to the 101. We may direct you up to Highway 192 south to get on the 101 in Carpinteria.”

Ederer explains that unified commanders managing a wildfire consider all components impacting the flow of evacuees. During construction, routing traffic efficiently will take some creative thinking.

“You may find yourself being directed on surface streets into Santa Barbara city,” he said. “Just be patient and leave early.”

He recommends testing out your evacuation plan at different times of day. Become familiar with local traffic patterns and how you may need to adapt based on whether it is a mid-morning evacuation with minimal traffic or afternoon evacuation with peak congestion.

Security

Commander Brad Welch with the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office has been patrolling the South Coast for 20+ years and asks residents to make security part of their preparedness actions.

“As law enforcement during an evacuation, we may need to access your property. Please check with your alarm company to make sure you have updated gate codes,” Commander Welch said. “Please share that gate code with Sheriff’s dispatch and Montecito Fire as well.”

Register for Emergency Alerts

Director of the County’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM) Kelly Hubbard says social science has found that people typically check at least three sources before responding to an official emergency alert like the ones her team sends out.

“A standard person will check the news, talk to their neighbor, check a website, maybe check another website, and then start to react,” Hubbard said. “So, we use as many different methods as possible to get our message out.”

One of those methods is ReadySBC Alerts – the County’s emergency notification system that residents must register for in advance. You may register up to five different addresses such as your home, workplace, child’s school, and an at-risk loved one’s address. You must have at least one contact method (phone number, email address) and one physical address.

Hubbard says many residents report not receiving ReadySBC Alerts. Investigation into the failed delivery often finds a resident’s information was entered with a typo.

“I highly encourage you to go back to ReadySBC.org even if you’ve registered before and check to make sure you don’t have a typo or any other issues with the accuracy of your information,” Hubbard said.

OEM also uses wireless emergency alerts, which send messages to cell towers, the emergency alert system that is the banner that comes across your TV screen, as well as door-to-door notifications whenever feasible.

Fire Chief’s Message

Montecito Fire Chief David Neels has been at the helm of our department since April, but been part of numerous emergency responses over his 25+ years as a firefighter in Santa Barbara County.

“The year of the Zaca Fire, I remember that before the fire, residents had removed 50 tons of material. When that smoke column from the Zaca Fire went up, they cleared another 75 tons,” Neels said. “Sometimes we need that reminder. That’s why we’re reminding you that while we have many beautiful days ahead, the threat of wildfire is always there.”

Chief Neels asks all community members to take an active role in preparing for wildfire this season.

“As we know, it takes the entire community to be ready for an emergency,” Neels said. “That’s why we so appreciate you working with Nic, Maeve, and our engine companies on your defensible space and home hardening, as well as taking a close look at your evacuation plans, especially during the construction projects.”

To watch the entire Wildfire Preparedness Community Meeting, visit montecitofire.com.

Christina Atchison is the Montecito Fire Public Information Officer

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Combining a writer’s insight with a scholar’s mastery of the material, series host Pico Iyer returns with another inspiring roster of conversational partners. A perennial A&L audience favorite!

Walter Isaacson in Conversation with Pico Iyer

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Abraham Verghese in Conversation with Pico Iyer

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Lauren Groff in Conversation with Pico Iyer

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Your Westmont

Dual Violinist/Chemistry Major to Perform in Aspen

by Scott Craig, photos by Brad Elliott

This summer, Westmont violinist Sophia Chan (’25) performs at the Aspen Music Festival and School (June 29-August 20), one of the top classical music festivals in the United States that features more than 600 classical music students from around the world.

“It’s insanely competitive – she is joining students from top conservatories around the world, studying with teachers who are classical music superheroes,” says Ruth Lin, who chairs the Westmont music department and directs the Westmont Orchestra. “This speaks to the quality of our students and professors, the power of the liberal arts, and the kind of learning community we are.”

Chan majors in chemistry and served as concertmaster for the orchestra last fall. She says Michael Shasberger, inaugural Adams professor of music and worship, encouraged her to set her ambitions high, and she prepared tirelessly for the audition with instruction from professors Han So Kim and Isaac Kay (’16).

“I thought there would be a .001 percent chance I would be accepted, but I tried my best with the mindset of: ‘Regardless of the outcome, this audition process has taught me a lot,’” she says.

She was studying with Westmont in Cairo last spring when she received word of her acceptance. On just three hours of sleep, she and her roommates were packing for an early excursion to the desert. “When I opened the letter, I slapped my hand over my mouth and then started screaming,” she says. “My flatmates asked if everything was okay, because who screams at such an ungodly hour in the morning if it’s not something bad?” she says.

Before heading to Colorado, Chan has been conducting research with Amanda Silberstein, professor of chemistry. “I enjoy working with the professors and other students in the lab in both serious work and shenanigans,” she says.

The Loma Linda resident enrolled at Westmont after watching her older sister participate in the annual Music Guild competition. Violist Sarah Chan (’22) finished as a finalist, played in the Westmont Orchestra and graduated with a degree in biology and a minor in chemistry.

“I came to Westmont undecided on a major, but since I needed a physical science General Education class, I decided to take general chemistry,” she says. “I ended up loving it.”

In Aspen, the festival will explore the theme “Adoration of the Earth,” featuring compositions including Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring,” Britten’s “Four Sea Interludes” and Beethoven’s “Pastoral Symphony.”

“I most look forward to performing these inspiring works with amazing musicians –students, faculty, and guest artists like Augustin Hadelich and Gil Shaham,” she says. “It’ll be interesting to see their perspectives on music and learn from a community whose center of life is intensely focused on music. I know I will learn and grow a lot as a musician and meet many wonderful individuals.”

When she considers her future in music or chemistry, she’s thankful that the faculty invests in her and that Westmont’s liberal arts education provides a plethora of opportunities.

“Studying in Cairo, doing summer research, and going to Aspen this year have helped me realize that it’s OK to lack one coordinated plan, and it’s OK not to know what I’m doing right now,” she says. “I have to remind myself that it’s healthy to explore. For now, I’ll continue to dream big and see where God guides me.”

High Schoolers’ Field of Dreams

The top Southern California high school baseball players in the class of 2024 and 2025 will be showcased at the Area Code Tryouts hosted by the Milwaukee Brewers July 6-7 from 9 am to 4 pm at Westmont’s Russell Carr Field. Scouts from many top NCAA colleges and the MLB will be in attendance.

Afterward, the top players from eight regional teams are then selected to play in the Area Code Games, August 6-11, at the University of San Diego. Twenty-one Area Code alumni were selected in the first round of the 2022 MLB draft.

Sophia Chan

The radar guns will be out in force as top high school baseball players compete for MLB scouts

Sophia Chan performing

Scott Craig is manager of media relations at Westmont College

Far Flung Travel

Life at the Waterhole

by Chuck Graham

The spotted hyenas soaked themselves in one of the many waterholes surrounding the vast, searing white pan of Etosha National Park in northern Namibia of southwestern Africa.

The two scavengers were multitasking. While cooling off in the shallow pool of water, they were also strategizing on how to drive off a healthy-looking lioness and her four adorable cubs from a day-old zebra kill.

The lioness had pulled the dead zebra into the shade beneath a collapsed tree, but the hyenas were onto her. They could smell the exposed ribs where two of the cubs gnawed on much-needed meat in the middle of the day.

The hyenas and lions were about 150 feet from each other and fully aware of the other’s presence. What species was going to outlast the other?

Desert, Dust, Heat and the African Sun

They all factor in while hanging out at a teeming waterhole. Binoculars on the dashboard, camera in my lap, and Newman’s Birds of Southern Africa resting at my dusty feet, this was my 16th trip to the African continent. While traveling with naturalist Holly Lohuis, if we learned one thing about water in Africa – sooner rather than later, thirsty animals needed to drink. There might not have been anything when

we arrived at this waterhole, but sure enough animals eventually emerged. It just took a little patience.

The spotted hyenas weren’t the only animals counting on that water source. From birds like Cape teal, blacksmiths, and an impressive-looking Lanner falcon to herds of plains zebra, springbok, and black-faced impala, everything in the immediate region hovered over the two scheming hyenas.

The hyenas continued to soak and dunked their scruffy heads into the calm pool as droplets of water and drool cascaded off their intense looking faces. Their presence in the waterhole kept all the other thirsty wildlife on edge.

Meanwhile, the lioness with her cubs rested in the shade, the zebra carcass gutted with one of the satiated cubs sprawled

out within the exposed rib cage. Maybe another 100 feet away, also in the shade, another lone lioness hunkered down next to another zebra carcass. Both female lions belonged to the same pride.

Unfortunately, the outcome would have to wait. Visitors to Etosha National Park must leave by sunset, but we already knew we’d be back the following morning.

The Tables Turned

When Holly and I returned the next morning, the hyenas had gained the upper hand. There were no lions to be seen, and both zebra carcasses had been removed.

As Holly and I scanned the woody region with our binoculars, we reasoned the lioness with four cubs would’ve prioritized her offspring over the mostly gutted zebra carcass. She would’ve moved away from the carcass with cubs in tow.

After thoroughly scanning the region, we spotted one hyena chasing all wildlife away from the watering hole. Zebras, springbok, black-faced impala, and gemsbok all fled from the water as the lone

hyena came in for a mid-morning soak. It was the dominant alpha female. She cooled off for 20 minutes, and then we followed her to where one of the zebra carcasses was. It was being kept safe by four other spotted hyenas.

A couple were feeding on the remaining zebra, three others were napping around it. However, there was no rest for the weary and those scavenging hyenas now had to contend with their own smaller, annoying nemesis – black-backed jackals.

The opportunistic jackals nipped at and snuck within an arm’s length of the powerful jaws of the hyenas only for a chance at a scrap of leftover zebra. As we watched, there were many occasions where the hyenas lunged at the jackals, but the crafty scavengers were too quick.

We never saw the lioness and her four cubs again, but they must’ve been nearby. Every time the hyenas went to the waterhole to drink and soak, they could never fully relax. Their blocky heads we’re on a swivel, constantly watching for the top predator surrounding the Etosha Pan.

As those hyenas soaked the afternoon away, we soaked in all the wildlife, the sights, sounds, and drama hovering around a single waterhole, realizing it was just a small fraction of the vast desert biome.

A lioness nibbling on zebra with her cub who’s still waiting patiently on a side of ranch

The drinking fountain was broken

Chuck Graham is a freelance writer and photographer based in Carpinteria, where he also leads kayak tours and backpacking trips in Channel Islands National Park

Don’t laugh – it’s just two hyenas going for a dip

Brilliant Thoughts What Next?

by Ashleigh Brilliant

Out of a party game called “Truth or Dare” (which is still being played), there somehow evolved, way back in the 1940s, a very popular radio program called Truth or Consequences . This weekly feature was heard nationwide. I myself – then a child – listened to it regularly. The program used various gimmicks to increase its popularity, and, one season, it offered to broadcast, live, one night, from the first town which would permanently change its own name to the name of the program.

The winner of this “contest” was a small town in New Mexico then called Hot Springs. All went as planned, and the promised broadcast took place in January 1950. Today, the town of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico (in everyday usage, commonly abbreviated to “T or C”), is a thriving community. It’s on all the maps and has a population of about 6,000.

But consequences in general, since the word simply means results or effects, can come in a wide range of flavors. The word is related to others like sequence or sequel, which all have to do with following . We are accustomed to certain things following each other in what seems to be certain inevitable order, as it seems (although just how and by whom this order was established is not always easy to establish). Obvious examples are: the days of the week; the months of the year; the numerals from 0 to 9; the letters of the alphabet; degrees of temperature; or just the pages in a book. Others seem even more deeply rooted in reality – the colors of the rainbow; the order of the planets in our solar system; the Table of Elements; the musical notes in the scale; the phases of the Moon. You look at one point in any of these, and you know what is going to follow – or, shall we say, what comes next.

And of course, there is always chronological order – how things happened in time. This is a matter of dates – but the assigning of dates is purely a cultural phenomenon. As you know, various cultures maintain their own calendars. But, regardless of dating systems, the order of events is, or should be, still the same. Yes, but what is to be considered Year Zero? It’s very important, but it has to be set somewhat arbitrarily. Our own “Gregorian” version stems from the early days of Christianity, and takes the supposed date of the birth of Jesus as its starting point, giving us the

following years as “A.D.,” and those preceding as “B.C.”

The trouble with that system is that, except for the past two millennia, everything that ever happened was B.C., and the year has to be accompanied, so to speak, by a minus sign. To make matters worse, all those years have to be counted backwards – so that, for example, the lifetime of Julius Caesar was from 100 B.C. to 44 B.C.

The Muslim version takes a significant event in the life of Muhammed for its start. The Hebrews have it all spelled out in the Book of Genesis and need only calculate their days from the Creation of the World. (Their current calendar is in the 5000s.) Then, of course, we can listen to the astronomers and physicists, according to whom the whole Universe is about 15 billion years old, give or take a few billion.

But, no matter what system prevails, the sequence must always be the same. Nevertheless, the word “consequence” has come to have generally negative implications. And with good reason. History and legend are full of stories of people miscalculating, or failing to consider at all, the consequences of their actions. Two classic examples are the invasions of Russia, first by Napoleon, then, 130 years later, by Hitler. Or go back to Aesop and his story in which the Grasshopper takes it easy during the summer, while the Ants are busy laying up supplies for winter. The Big Guy has failed to foresee the consequences of his neglect.

In our culture, the word “next” evokes thoughts of standing in line or sitting in a waiting room. And of course, whatever is “next door” follows on, in actual or metaphorical location, from wherever you are. But whatever is “next best” also follows, but is always behind, and considered not as good as, the very best.

Summing it all up, the problem is for our actions always to lead to wanted, but never to unwanted, Consequences. And that is the Truth.

Ernie’s World Lots of Cones, but No Ice Cream

by Ernie Witham

Iwas at my computer looking at one of the local online news services when I spotted an exciting headline. “There’s no construction scheduled on Hollister Ave. today,” I yelled to my wife.

Pat ran into the kitchen and grabbed the car keys. “To the waterfront for lunch and ice cream,” she said in a sing-songy voice.

A new message popped up. The first word was “Retraction.” Dang.

We decided to try taking the 101 freeway south to the harbor instead, racing down the Patterson freeway onramp to join a parking lot squeezed into two lanes, moving at about an inch a minute. We did manage to nose in when the driver behind us nodded off for a minute. But I could not get the cruise control set at .5 mph, so I had to manually not push the gas pedal down.

“I wonder how long this goes on?” I opened MapQuest on my iPhone. The 101 was solid red, plus while I was distracted a large truck edged in front of us, completely blocking my view. “Same Day Deliveries” it said on the side. Someone had crossed out the word “Day” and written the word “Month.” Even that seemed optimistic.

“How’s the northbound look?” Pat asked.

“MapQuest just shows a sad face emoticon.”

“What about Cathedral Oaks?”

“Death’s Head.”

“What was it that tour lady in Alaska said?” Pat asked.

“She said they have two seasons in Anchorage: winter and road repair.”

“Wow, at least they have winter.”

I don’t ever remember this much road work in Santa Barbara or anywhere. Even in New Hampshire where I grew up and they have to fix all the frost heaves every spring, they do a bunch of creative patchwork, which they finish in a few months so they can all go to the Maine coast for summer Lobster Fests.

I think what may have happened this year is that Caltrans got a huge allotment from the Bipartisan Infrastructure bill, and they gathered everyone together for a big meeting.

“What shall we do with all these new funds?” someone most likely asked. I’m sure this resulted in a lot of “hmms” before someone suggested a group trip to the annual “Shovel, Rake, and Autonomous Driving Backhoe” convention in Las Vegas.

“I heard that new Tesla AI backhoe dug a really deep hole all by itself along the 405, then drove itself in and buried itself. They’re erecting a commemorative plaque next week. Gonna shut down at least two lanes for half a day.”

“Cool!”

After the Las Vegas show was nixed because Caltrans employees figured they wouldn’t be able to drive out on the 10 without stopping to fix it, someone probably said: “I know. Let’s buy some cones with our new money. Lots of cones.”

“Great idea! We can put a few on every single road in Santa Barbara County.”

“We’ll have to hire some extra cone droppers and picker-uppers.”

“No problem.”

“And we’ll have to employ more flagpersons, of course.”

“And buy more Flagging Instruction Handbooks.”

“For fun, let’s get some signs made that say STOP on both sides.”

There was light laughter, but not from the flagpersons...

We were actually making some progress now on our foray in search of lunch, even getting as far as the giant digital speed warning machine. “Slow Down” it read in large letters. “You Are Now Going 3.”

But we got off 10 minutes later, along with dozens of other vehicles, having only made it to the next off-ramp. We crawled back up Hollister. Even though it was just after noon, I checked to make sure the lights were set on automatic in case it got dark before we made it home.

Ashleigh Brilliant born England 1933, came to California in 1955, to Santa Barbara in 1973, to the Montecito Journal in 2016. Best-known for his illustrated epigrams, called “Pot-Shots,” now a series of 10,000.

email: ashleigh@west. net. web: www.ash leighbrilliant.com.

Don’t get me wrong. I think Caltrans workers are some of the bravest individuals on Earth. Not only because they wear orange clothes in public, but because they have to keep one eye on their project and one eye out for the creative drivers, like high-pitched caféstyle motorcyclists and Honda Civics with blacked out windows, farting exhaust, and racing spoilers on the back.

“Maybe we should go to Solvang for lunch,” Pat suggested.

“How is the 154?” I asked Siri on my iPhone. Siri just laughed.

Oh well. How long can a five-billion-dollar infrastructure investment last anyway?

“Happiness is not an ideal of reason but of imagination.” - Immanuel Kant

Ernie Witham has been writing humor for more than 25 years. He is the author of three humor books and is the humor workshop leader at the prestigious Santa Barbara Writers Conference.

Robert’s Big Questions Telepresence: Where Am I?

by Robert Bernstein

Our Humanist Society of Santa Barbara followed other organizations in moving to Zoom meetings during Covid. But we do now have occasional social gatherings. At one such gathering recently I talked to a member who said she “hates Zoom” and will only attend in-person events.

I realized that she did not understand the concept of “telepresence” and I want to share this with you.

As defined by Merriam-Webster: Telepresence is “technology that enables a person to perform actions in a distant or virtual location as if physically present in that location.”

Telepresence provides the sense that you are in another place, and this idea can lead to a rich array of meanings and experiences. In recent years, telepresence is used to describe an immersive experience of being mentally transported to a distant location through virtual reality technology.

My good friend and mentor Jack Loomis was a pioneer in Virtual Reality (VR) for the purpose of psychology research. He wrote an excellent short paper for the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Symposium on Virtual Reality in 1993. The title is revealing: “Understanding Synthetic Experience Must Begin with the Analysis of Ordinary Perceptual Experience.”

His point being that before we try to understand the mystery of telepresence, we first need to understand the usually ignored wonder of ordinary presence!

As I wrote in my “You Are Dreaming Now?” article a year ago:

A “naive realist” believes that when they look out at the world, they are seeing the actual world. But this makes no sense. Your experience of the world is filled with color, pains, and tingles. But those things don’t exist in the world.

In fact, we take in sensory information and create a synthetic representational world, which is the world we really experience. Meaning that our ordinary life is one continuous VR experience.

Imagine dragging a walking stick along the road. Do you just feel vibrations in your hand? No. You “feel” the surface of the road just as if you ran your hand over it.

The modern da Vinci surgical robot came from a merger of Computer Motion (here in Santa Barbara) and Intuitive Surgical. Originally funded in part by NASA, surgeons are able to achieve telepresence at a very fine scale, as if they are down inside the patient’s body. All achieved through a few small incisions. At Computer Motion, I was

able to experience a demonstration as if I were a surgeon. And more recently I was a grateful patient!

At the other size scale, a crane operator can have the telepresence of gently moving a massive, delicate piece of machinery into position on a rooftop. She is not aware of the levers she is moving; only the telepresence of the scaled-up movements.

I am also a grateful Zoom user. Once we allow ourselves to experience the wonder of telepresence, we can feel that we are in a shared space with the other Zoom participants. The result is that meetings that used to be small and local are now larger and global. And use vastly fewer resources than physical global meetings.

Think about how it is talking on the telephone. Most people feel that they are talking directly to the other person, rather than being aware of the device mediating the conversation. You can break the telepresence feeling by holding the phone away from your ear. The other person becomes a squawking sound from a tiny speaker.

As children, my brother and I would watch TV together and be transported to other worlds. Our mother rarely watched TV. When she entered the room, the spell would be broken. But she has an uncanny ability to read with great focus. At its best, reading can give us a similar kind of telepresence.

Philosopher Daniel Dennett wrote the definitive piece “Where Am I” in which he imagines his brain has been removed from his body for a dangerous mission. His brain and body are linked via radio and are separated by hundreds of miles. He feels that he is where his body is, not where his brain is. He goes on to imagine having multiple brains and bodies and other variations. A must read!

Telepresence can be so powerful as to override presence. I am often disturbed by someone walking straight toward me, looking at me and speaking. But they are on the phone, not seeing me at all. Presence and telepresence are willful states of mind!

Of course, Regan reminded me that training herding dogs isn’t just about the fun. There is a lot of etiquette surrounding the herding dogs and their role on the ranch. For example, it is a serious faux pas to give commands to another shepherd’s dog. It is also important that training does not officially start until the dog is about two years old, when they are mature enough to handle the work. Naturally, learning to give commands is just as much work for the shepherd as it is for the dog. But if you think that learning herding dog commands is the only new language shepherds need in their arsenal, you would be mistaken.

In our conversation, Regan introduced me to a practice known as “low stress stockmanship.” This is an ideology that emphasizes harmony when working with livestock. One of the ways they do this at Shepherdess Land & Livestock is by communicating with the animals in a way that they will understand.

“In some practices they use electric rods or they’re yelling or hitting, but this really stresses the sheep out and scares them. Instead, we try to work with the animals in the most peaceful way possible. For example, if you want a sheep to go forward, you walk straight up to them and they’ll go forwards. It’s like learning to dance. And when we’re guiding them into the trailers instead of yelling, we make these little grunting noises instead. It’s our way of saying, ‘Move over there, please.’”

While so much of a shepherd’s responsibilities are focused on nurturing growth in the environment around them, they also have an essential duty to themselves. A new shepherdess must dedicate a lot of time to personal growth in order to do the job.

Robert Bernstein holds degrees from Physics departments of MIT and UCSB. Passion to understand the Big Questions of life, the universe and to be a good citizen of the planet. Visit facebook.com/

“When you’re out on the ranch, there’s always a lot on the line. The people who do this are incredibly competent and very smart. People aren’t aware of just how technical the work is. I’m learning how to hitch a trailer, how to haul water, how to build an electric fence. And at the same time, I’m learning how to hold my body when I’m doing it, so I don’t hurt myself. I’m learning how to take care of myself so I can come back again and do it the next day.”

But as Regan said, growth isn’t just about learning but also about getting the chance to reflect, seeing and appreciating the big picture.

“I have never felt more fulfilled. I knew that, even when I was having a really hard day, the impact I was having was good. What I had done would benefit something bigger than me.”

The team at Shepherdess Land & Livestock

This lambing season, Regan helped birth about 275 lambs between October and December

From the shores of Scotland, Stella Haffner keeps her connection to her home in Montecito by bringing grads of local schools to the pages of the Montecito Journal

cried the whole time. It was such a full circle moment for this little kid from my background to make it into that room, playing that music with John Williams looking right at me. It was like I was honoring her legacy. And I have played every single score on that same intermediate instrument that she bought me because it really carried me through my darkest times. I still get choked up every time I think about it.”

Parnther’s unusual background story, astounding work ethic, and emotional transparency will likely uniquely inspire the instrumental fellow in the Academy Festival Orchestra to new depths this week. It’s hard to imagine that the audience at Saturday’s concert won’t be mightily moved, too.

Upcoming @ MA

Thursday, July 6: Punsters might want to dub tonight’s X2 Series concert as mostly Mozart but life’s a Beach, or that’s the way the Cooke-y Crumb-les. But this Apprentice-meets-Legend faculty-fellow mashup is serious stuff, as the advanced but still schooling young musicians are teamed with well-traveled teaching artists in genre-busting chamber music pieces. Tonight has bassoonist Dennis Michel joining four wind fellows for Amy Beach’s “Pastorale for

Woodwind Quintet, Op. 151”; pianist Martin Katz performing with soprano fellow Alissa Claire Goretsky and horn fellow Drew Morgan on Arnold Cooke’s “Nocturnes”; and percussion faculty Michael Werner playing vibraphone alongside fellows Margaret Tigue (soprano) and Zachary Marzulli (double bass). Then, Richie Hawley anchors a fellow string quartet for Mozart’s marvelously tuneful “Clarinet Quintet in A Major, K. 581.” (7:30 pm; Hahn Hall; $55)

Friday, July 7

The Lehrer Vocal Institute Studio Artists are a new addition to the vocal program that adds eight singers and a vocal pianist for a three-week residency as part of the summer festival. The studio artists receive lessons, coaching, and augment the chorus of the big opera production while serving as the star’s understudies, and being highlighted in a showcase series performance of their own. This afternoon, the singers and pianist Parker Konkle perform arias and art songs for an audience much like their full-time fellow peers, with the program TBA (1:30 pm; Lehmann Hall; $40)... The summer’s second Picnic Concert, where the fellows in self-created ensembles play works of their own choosing, offers a particu -

larly wide-ranging palette including Leroy Anderson’s “Bugler’s Holiday” featuring the four trumpet fellows; two movements of Rachmaninoff’s “Sonata for Cello and Piano in G minor, Op. 19,” with cellist Patrick Baek and pianist Forrest Howell ; Paul Dukas’ “Villanelle” for horn and piano, starring Blake Moreland and Shao-Chu Pan ; Amy Beach’s “Romance for Violin and Piano, Op. 23,” with Sarah Beth Overcash and Jarod Yap ; and SaintSaëns’ “Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano in D minor, Op. 75,” featuring John Fawcett and Benjamin Pawlak . (7:30 pm; Hahn Hall; $40)

Saturday, July 8

Hollywood film and TV score superstar Anthony Parnther makes his Academy debut conducting the Academy Festival Orchestra, pared down to accommodate the ongoing Opera orchestra, in a concert at Hahn Hall featuring Shostakovich’s Ninth Symphony, the string suite from the Psycho soundtrack, plus von Weber’s Overture from Euryanthe and Carlos Simon’s “An Elegy: A Cry from the Grave.” See above ( page 5 ) for an interview with Parnther. (7:30 pm; Hahn Hall; $55)

Tuesday, July 11

This afternoon brings the La bohème covers concert. Unlike in rock ‘n’ roll, it’s not a tribute band doing their best to recreate the original, but rather the chance for the understudies of the main characters to unleash their own performance of Puccini for the public. It’s not just for our enjoyment, though. Ever since the flu sickened several of the stars going way back to when the opera was still produced at the opera, they’ve added this event to ensure that the vocalists are well versed in singing their parts in real time on stage with non-peer people paying attention. But we still get to experience Puccini’s most famous opera in concert in the acoustic gem of Hahn Hall. (2 pm; Hahn Hall; $10)... All hail Hadelich ! The stillyoung violin superstar is a Grammy

winner who is consistently cited worldwide for his phenomenal technique, soulful approach, and insightful interpretations that range from Bach and Brahms to Bartók and beyond. We’ve seen him a-plenty in town, including at this very venue for CAMA just last April, and going back to his first appearance as soloist with the Santa Barbara Symphony back in 2008. But a recital as a Mosher Guest Artist, this one with Chairman of Juilliard’s collaborative piano department Jonathan Feldman and featuring works by Schubert, Ravel, Prokofiev, ColeridgeTaylor Perkinson, and Eugène Ysaÿe? Yes, please. (7:30; Lobero; $55).... Hankering for more Hadelich? He’ll also be heading up the violin master class on Wednesday, infusing the younger musicians with some hints of his heaven-sent talent. (3:30 pm; Hahn Hall; $10)

Wednesday, July 12

Tonight’s Chamber Nights series of salon-style concerts features 13 fellows performing post-reception in the intimate Weinmann Hall, which seems like a lot before we recall that last week had 28. But it’s a lucky 13, as the program boasts Valerie Coleman ’s 2015 wind quintet “Red Clay and Mississippi Delta”; Prokofiev’s “Quintet in G minor, Op. 39,” that blends flute and oboe with a string trio; and Mendelssohn’s “Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 49.” The sounds should be even more full bodied than the wine. (7:30 pm; Lehmann Hall; $45)

Montecito

“No man’s knowledge here can go beyond his experience.”

- John Locke

The one and only Augustin Hadelich is back, and this time with a master class on Wednesday, July 12 (photo by Suxiao Yang)

collection begun by Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) is housed at the 1906 McKim building. It is a National and NYC Landmark made public in 1924 by Morgan Jr.

Art collections are rotated in the galleries. The east wing is a three-story library of rare books with concealed staircases behind them. The ceiling is painted with the signs of the zodiac related to Morgan’s life events along with portraits of Socrates and Michelangelo. The book and manuscript collection includes letters by George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, along with journals of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson. There is a book vault, garden, and bookstore. The tours and events for the summer are selling out now.

Celebrating its 96th birthday is the world renown Strand Bookstore. The main location at Broadway and 12th Street has 18 miles of books on three floors and reopened its Rare Book Room – indeed! Founded in 1927 on Fourth Avenue’s “book row” it was started as a used bookstore by Ben Bass. The store is still in the family with 3rd generation owner Nancy Bass Wyden. The oldest and most expensive book in stock, valued at $45,000, is the 1935 edition of Ulysses by James Joyce and illustrated by Henri Matisse, one of 250 signed by both [Limited Editions Club New York]. Matisse said he never read the book but rendered drawings based on Homer’s Odyssey causing Joyce to refuse to sign the books initially. From rare to new to used, it is the place for your literature fix!

A Literal Feast

The best NYC burger is the Burger Spot, in a hidden location literally behind red velvet curtains in the posh lobby of the 5-star Thompson Central Park Hotel at 119 West 56th Street. Enter the graffiti-walled ‘70s joint with the menus on cardboard signs and eat well. The burgers are USDA certified angus beef cut fresh and hand pressed. Add a real milk-milkshake or IPA beer, spicy slaw, and fries, or vegetarian option, and you are set. The place is tiny and busy with its eclectic crowd; pay cash, grab a booth, and feel free to write your name on the wall!

The famous dive bar, Rudy’s Bar & Grill on 9th Avenue, is an ode to NYC history and noted in Steely Dan’s 1977 song, “Black Cow.” Walking in, you’re greeted by its mascot Baron – a six-foot wood carved pig. Still serving premium beers starting at $3 with free hot dogs, sit at the mahogany bar on the left or one of a few booths on the right. Here the myths are true. Patrons include union workers, sports teams, and

politicians mixed with Paul McCartney, Slash, and Jimmy Fallon. The bartender may be tiny, but she is tough enough to bounce anyone out. Cash only, open ‘til 4 am.

In homage to the 25th anniversary of Sex and the City, stop by 64-66 Perry Street brownstones and remember to avoid the neighbors. The SJP Collection flagship store – Sarah Jessica Parker’s shoe store – is around the corner on Bleecker Street.

Other goodies are organic teas at Cha Cha Matcha café; the view of NYC from the Edge at Hudson Yards; the reopened Tavern on the Green; and wine-down in the Village at the Hudson Clearwater Restaurant’s romantic hidden patio.

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

WALK MONTECITO!

CAMPAIGN CHAIRS Geoff Slaff

• Michael Smith EXECUTIVE

Strand Bookstore owner Nancy Bass Wyden in the Rare Book Room with a 1935 signed copy of Ulysses by James Joyce (photo courtesy of The Strand)

Stories Matter

Women on a Role

by Leslie Zemeckis

It is time for the annual Memorial Day party in an elite cul-de-sac in Jamie Day ’s The Block Party . The group of close friends and neighbors gather as they always do, only this year’s party will end with gunfire and someone dead. Revenge is the name of the game, a game seemingly played by all the neighbors. Alex struggles with her wine consumption, while her teen goth daughter Lettie struggles with her obsession over the new neighbor boy who promises to help her right some wrongs. Their alliance will set off a chain of events that culminate in a party where the fireworks aren’t the only thing blazing. A meticulous plot and humor events do much to make this domestic thriller a page turner.

Speaking of revenge, the four high school friends in Leesa Cross Smith ’s Goodbye Earl reunite in a small Southern town 15 years after graduation for a wedding celebration. Kasey has a buried secret from their last summer together, one that forced her to move away and disconnect from her friends. This summer she won’t let an abusive situation harm one of her friends. The women come together to protect and confront the “Earls” in their world who think they can get away with anything. Well, not this summer, they can’t. A charming celebration of enduring sisterhood.

You will ask yourself, “How have I never heard of Dickey Chapelle?” after reading Santa Barbara author Lorissa Rinehart’s First to the Front, The Untold Story of Dickey Chapelle. Dickey was a trailblazing female war correspondent who spent two decades as a combat reporter from WWII through Vietnam. She went where very few reporters, let alone women reporters, ever did, marching through the jungles of Vietnam, in the mountains of Cuba with Castro, jumping out of planes, ducking bullets, and a jail sentence in a communist jail. For every adventure, Dickey sent back explosive stories and shot photographs of the conflicts and the unprecedented access she strove for and was given.

F ear the Silence is a creepy, atmospheric thriller by Robert Bryndza When Maggie’s husband, Will, is slain in their London home, she thinks he is the victim of a burglary until the police tell her Will was the one who pulled the trigger. She escapes to their Croatia home on a nearly deserted island, only to discover someone is now trying to kill her – all the proof she needs that Will was killed and she must find the murderer before it is too late.

Kate Mosse gives us an unconventional love story in The Ghost Ship . Women were supposed to know their place in 1600 France… and Amsterdam… and the Canary Islands and all places in between. Meet Louise, who defies the conventions of her day as a Capitana of her own ship. A ship that rules the seas hunting pirates. Murders past and present entwine as Louise protects and falls in love with a lower-class member of the crew. When their secret is betrayed, it could mean death to one or both.

Kelly has built a career as a tough, winning attorney, defending men accused of sex crimes. After another victory for a client accused of rape, Kelly is in for the shock and humiliation of her life when she becomes his next victim. Determined to seek justice, Kelly finds the man’s past victims to enlist their help to bring him down. Naturally they view her as the enemy, but when one of the women is found dead, they have no choice but to align forces in Bonnie Kistler ’s addictive thriller Her, Too.

Leslie Zemeckis is an awardwinning documentarian, best-selling author, and actor. The creator of “Stories Matter,” professional female authors mentoring the next generation of female storytellers, co-sponsored by SBIFF.

Montecito

“Liberty consists in doing what one desires.” - John Stuart Mill

Santa Barbara by the Glass

Dana Volk Is a “Happy Mommy”

New Label Aims to Connect with Moms

by Gabe Saglie

Dana Volk trademarked the “Happy Mommy” wine back in 2018, when she launched her venture as an independent winemaker.

“I always wanted to make a local wine under $20, as a way to connect with fellow moms,” she recalls. “And I thought, ‘Maybe someday!’”

Five years later, as the repute of her original, fine wine label, Dana V. Wines, continues to blossom, that trademark’s finally been dusted off, and Volk’s second label, playfully dubbed “Happy Mommy,” has just hit the market. They are approachable, easy, fun, high-acid, food-friendly wines by design, and all priced to move. The initial release of four wines, all from the 2021 and 2022 vintages and made from blends of Central Coast fruit, are priced between $15 and $24.

“The goal is to appeal to a large audience,” says Volk, a divorced mother of two, “all while celebrating all aspects of motherhood. Each wine has a personality, and each one’s created to match an idea.”

The labels feature lighthearted names, and they’re inspired by moods and experiences Volk feels can create a connection with other consumers, mothers especially. “Date Night White” ($20) is a light and splashy chardonnay; the “Kids in Bed Red” ($24), a Rhône-inspired blend of grenache, syrah, and counoise, is balanced and textured; and the “Take Me Away Rosé” ($15) is flinty and floral and “will always be made with grenache,” Volk says.

This past weekend, I shared a bottle of the “Girl’s Night White” ($18) with my wife, Renée (herself, a proud mother of three), and we loved this sauvignon blanc’s spicy aromatics, refreshing minerality, and splashy personality. Perfect on a warm, sunny afternoon by the water.

Volk’s path to winemaking has been both unique and circuitous. The Santa Ynez Valley native graduated Cal Poly San Luis Obispo with degrees in nutrition and food science –expertise that landed her a job in the labs at Edna Valley Vineyards. A stint with KendallJackson took her to vineyards in Argentina, Chile, and Italy, and led to a brief sales stint

in New York City. All the while, her adventures as a new mom, and the balancing act that inevitably ensues between parenthood and profession colliding, fostered an appreciation for working moms that would, eventually, inspire a wine brand.

Five years in Hong Kong, driven by her husband’s job, would end in divorce and a return home with her two girls to Santa Barbara wine country. Volk worked at two local wineries, Bridlewood and Byron, before she decided to launch her own label. The sale of her wedding ring would help finance the birth of Dana V. Wines in 2018.

“My friends kept asking me, ‘What can you grow in the Santa Ynez Valley?’” recalls Volk, “and I’d tell them, ‘Everything!’” The region’s many microclimates, and how that allows a wide range of wine grapes to flourish, is something Volk loved. “I wanted to make a little bit of everything.”

Indeed, the Dana V. line of wines spotlights the area’s premium potential, with various pinot noir and chardonnay wines from AVAs like Sta. Rita Hills and Alisos Canyon. She also makes a Santa Barbara County syrah. And what’s really piquing her interest these days are Bordeaux wines – the potential of the Happy Canyon AVA in the eastern stretches of the SYV for world-class cabernet sauvignon, merlot, and malbec, and the bold blends they can create. Volk makes one such blend each year dubbed “Hope,” which earmarks proceeds for pancreatic cancer research, in honor of her later mother. The Dana V. Wines range in cost from about $40 to $65.

The Dana V. Wines tasting room in downtown Solvang is a happening spot, set right along the main drag there, Mission Drive, and featuring a breezy outdoor patio that inspires many visitors to stick around, sit down, and buy Volk’s wines by the glass. “When we first opened [in 2018], I’d say 85 percent of people who stopped by had never done an actual wine tasting,” says the winemaker, who quickly came to consider her tasting room as a chance for educating a steady stream of tourists. These days, with an influx of new tasting rooms and new, upscale dining options calling the Danish village home, the clientele has become savvier. “Now it’s more like 60-40,” says Volk, with the majority of visitors displaying a pretty keen understanding of wine.

As for the Happy Mommy wines, which are only available for purchase online, with the option of being picked up at the Dana V. tasting room, education is a priority, too. Or at least a concerted effort to connect with clients by going beyond wine. The winemaker offers suggestions around movies and books she likes, and game night ideas. “Happy Mommy is a chance to encourage self-care,” says Volk, “and to create a lifestyle vibe.”

Volk is adding a wine she’s calling “School Night White,” a low-alcohol white blend, next spring.

Find out more at happymommywines.com and danavwines.com.

The Girl’s Night White from winemaker Dana Volk’s new Happy Mommy Wines label is a refreshing Central Coast sauvignon blanc that’s priced at just $18 (photo by Gabe Saglie)

Winemaker Dana Volk worked for wineries like Kendall-Jackson and Byron before launching her own eponymous brand (Courtesy photo)

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.

VILLAGE 4TH

photos by Joanne A Calitri

mate Lehmann Hall was the venue for Chamber Night featuring the music of Mozart, Brahms, and Michael Tilson Thomas , music director of the San Francisco Symphony.

The latter’s “Street Song for Brass Quintet” featured trumpeters Davan Sagara and Paul Armitage, Alessandra Marie Liebmann on horn, Alex Ertl on tenor trombone, and Chandler Currier on tuba, while Mozart’s “Per questa bella mano” showcased the talents of bass baritone Peter Barber with pianist Julian Garvue, and Lon Fon Law on double bass.

The concert wrapped with Brahms’ “String Quartet No. 2 in G major” with violinists Jason Moon and Brian Zhan, violists Daniel Miles and Nicolas Valencia, and cellist Joseph Mostwin.

It was back to Hahn Hall the next night for the X2 series featuring works by Joan Tower, Debussy, and Crespo, culminating magnificently with Brahms’ “Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor” with former Camerata Pacifica violist Richard O’Neill, cellist Patrick Baek, violinist Alena Hove, and Jeremy Denk on piano.

O’Neill, now a member of the Takács Quartet, described the piece as “a real barn burner.” And it lived up to

every expectation.

The week wrapped at the Granada with the Academy Festival Orchestra under Finnish conductor Osmo Vänskä leading the accomplished young musicians in Leonard Bernstein’s “Overture to Candide,” the West Coast premiere of Jessie Montgomery ’s “Hymn for Everyone,” and Gustav Holst’s The Planets

When I toiled as a district chief reporter on the Cambridge Evening News in the ‘70s I lived in a charming farmhouse in the village of Great Sampford on the Essex-Suffolk borders, and a short drive from Thaxted where Holst wrote his popular work between 1914 and 1916. His home is now marked by an historic blue plaque.

Vänskä, conductor laureate of the Minnesota Orchestra where he was music director for 19 years, was at the top of his form. He also held the same position with the Seoul Philharmonic from 2020 to this year.

House Possibly Bought

Has former TV talk show host and serial rest estate flipper Ellen DeGeneres and her actress wife Portia de Rossi added another Montecito estate to their

burgeoning property portfolio?

A 1919 San Ysidro Road estate, Pompeian Court, on eight acres with ocean and mountain views, has just been snapped up for $22.5 million with the buyers listed as the Pompeian Court Trust and DeGeneres’s longtime manager Harley Neuman, according to the Siteline website.

The historic house is 6,500 square feet with three bedrooms and five bathrooms.

Lawyers’ Fees Continue

Kevin Costner ’s estranged wife Christine Baumgartner has signaled her willingness to leave the $145 million Carpinteria beach house they previously shared, but only if the actor will pay support and fees approved by a judge at an upcoming hearing.

The 49-year-old handbag designer, according to court filings, will leave the Padaro Lane property on August 31 as long as the Oscar winner, 68, complies with a ruling from the court next week (12), the date of the next hearing in their divorce proceedings.

Such an arrangement would give her 50 days to find a new place to live and move in, whereas the prenuptial agreement stated she would leave the

original home within 30 days of a divorce filing.

Stay tuned…

Entitled Estate Earnings

Prince William, older brother of the Duke of Sussex, received a private income from the Duchy of Cornwall as the new Prince of Wales of nearly $7,573,000, but could get more than $25 million next year.

The heir to the British throne inherited the duchy-landed estate – 135,000 acres over 20 counties in the southwest of England and central London – after his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, died in September and his father Charles acceded to the throne.

William, 41, is entitled to its surplus profits every year. The duchy-generated profits of $30,292,000 in 2022-23, are up $1.4 million from more than $28 million the year before, a jump of about 4.5 percent, the estate’s latest accounts showed.

Interview Pick Up

It didn’t take long for London’s Daily Mail , my former employer, to pick up my exclusive interview with Santa Barbara singer Katy Perry ’s mother,

“Even while they teach, men learn.” - Seneca the Younger

Jeremy Denk dancing along the ivories (photo by Zach Mendez)

Osmo Vänskä gave a powerful display of Holst’s The Planets (photo by Zach Mendez) Chamber Night saw a packed house in the intimate Lehmann Hall (photo by Zach Mendez)

An excellent X2 evening with fellows and old pros playing side-by-side (photo by Emma Matthews)

Mary Hudson , about her recent stay at historic Windsor Castle as a guest of King Charles III when her daughter sang at His Majesty’s coronation concert with fellow American Idol judge Lionel Richie

An old friend, Caroline Graham, L.A. correspondent for the newspaper, one of the world’s biggest, saw the lead story and called asking if she might use it in her illustrious organ with due credit to the Montecito Journal

Needless to say, I was most flattered and said: “Do go ahead.”

But, as usual, you read it here first...

Welcome Chairman McGrew

tured in the Pacific Coast Business Times’ Top 50 Women in Business.

McGrew also serves on the boards of the Santa Barbara Foundation and Storyteller Children’s Center, and is a member of the South Coast Business & Technology Awards committee.

She succeeds Matt Rowe, who will remain on the foundation’s board.

Remembering Julian Sands

On a personal note, I remember the British actor Julian Sands, whose remains were found in the San Gabriel Mountains after he was reported missing by his family in January.

Julian, 65, known for his Oscarnominated films, including 1985’s delightful Room with a View, disappeared during a trek in the Mount Baldy area of the mountain range outside Los Angeles.

I used to see Julian, an avid hiker and mountaineer, often at the New York auction house Christie’s at preview receptions.

A most charming and talented man gone all too soon. But doing what he loved…

Sightings

Former TV talk show host Ellen DeGeneres noshing at the Nugget in Summerland... Comedy legend Carol Burnett dining with husband Brian Miller at Lucky’s... Actor Orlando Bloom in London for the Serpentine summer bash.

Pip! Pip!

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS

NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SBIF, INC., 873 S Kellogg Ave, Goleta, CA 93117. SBIF, INC, 873 S Kellogg Ave, Goleta, CA 93117. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on June 6, 2023. 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. 2023-0001430.

Published July 5, July 12, 19, 26, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS

NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/are doing business as: Inland Equine Medical Center, 2765 Corral De Quati Road, Los Olivos, CA 93441. Chris Pankau, D.V.M., 2765 Corral De Quati Road, Los Olivos, CA 93441. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on June 22, 2023. 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. 2023-0001566.

Published June 28, July 5, July 12, 19, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS

NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/are doing business as: Kids Live Safe, 3905 State St STE 7228, Santa Barbara, CA 93105. Scalable Commerce LLC, 3905 State St STE 7228, Santa Barbara, CA 93105. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on June 21, 2023. 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. 2023-0001559. Published June 28, July 5, July 12, 19, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS

Danna McGrew , partner in the advisory and audit department of Bartlett, Pringle & Wolf, is the new chairman of the Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara.

Her two-year term started at the weekend.

A Santa Barbara native, McGrew earned a bachelor’s degree in business economics at UCSB before joining the accounting firm in 1992.

She was named Accountant of the Year by the California Special District Association in 2007 and has been fea-

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

NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/are doing business as: D&G Market, 1002 North H St., Lompoc, CA 93436. D&G Stores INC, 1002 North H St., Lompoc, CA 93436. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on June 14, 2023. 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. 2023-0001520.

Published June 21, 28, July 5, July 12, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS

NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/are doing business as: Seas Below, 2155 Ortega Hill #28, Summerland, CA 93067. Barbara K Popp, 2155 Ortega Hill #28, Summerland, CA 93067. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on May 24, 2023. 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. 2023-0001103.

Published June 14, 21, 28, July 5, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS

NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/are doing business as: Jadrima, 234 Ocean View Avenue, Carpinteria, CA 93013. Julie L. Hall, 234 Ocean View Avenue, Carpinteria, CA 93013. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on June 2, 2023. 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

Montecito Fire Protection District in the Matter of the Preliminary Budget for Fiscal Year 202324

Health and Safety Code Section 13893

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the preliminary budget of the Montecito Fire Protection District for fiscal year 2023-24 was adopted by the Board of Directors of said District on June 26, 2023, and is available for inspection Monday through Friday, between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. at the Montecito Fire Protection District, 595 San Ysidro Road, Santa Barbara, California.

NOTICE IS ALSO GIVEN that on September 25, 2023 at 2:00 p.m., the Board of Directors will meet at the Montecito Fire Protection District, 595 San Ysidro Road, Santa Barbara, California, for the purpose of adopting the District's final budget at which time and place any person may appear and be heard regarding any item in the budget or regarding the addition of other items.

This Notice shall be published in accordance with California Health & Safety Code Section 13893.

By order of the Board of Directors of the Montecito Fire Protection District, State of California, this 26th day of June, 2023 Sylvia Easton, Secretary

Published June 29 and July 6, 2023

Montecito Journal

my office. Joseph E. Holland, County Clerk (SEAL). FBN No. 2023-0001409.

Published June 14, 21, 28, July 5, 2023

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER

ESTATE OF: Suzanne McCarroll. To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of Suzanne McCarroll, a Petition for Probate has been filed by Michael McCarroll in the Superior Court of California, County of Santa Barbara. The Petition for Probate requests that Michael McCarroll be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent. The petition requests the decedent’s will and codicils, if any, be admitted to probate. The will and any codicils are available for examination in the file kept by the court. The petition requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority.

A hearing on the petition will be held in this court as follows: September 7, 2023, at 9 am in Dept. 5, 1100 Anacapa Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101. If you object to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file your written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney. If you are a creditor or a contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court with the later date of either four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, or 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice. Other California statues and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult an attorney knowledgeable in California law. You may examine the file kept by the court. Attorney for petitioner: Linn

Shulte-Sasse, 3756 Grand Avenue, Suite 302, Oakland, CA 94610. (510)594-8483. Decedent died on 10/12/2022 at 1500 Duarte Road, Duarte, California. Filed June 7, 2023, by Nicole Barnard, Deputy.

Published June 21, 28, July 5, 12, 2023.

Plaintiff’s Claim and ORDER to Go to Small Claims Court: CASE No. 23CV02189. Notice to Defendant: Joseph Foster: You are being sued by Plaintiff: Thomas Casabianca. You and the plaintiff must go to court on the trial date listed below. If you cannot go to court, you may lose the case. If you lose, the court can order you’re your wages, money, or property to be taken to pay this claim. Bring witnesses, receipts, and any evidence you need to prove your case. The plaintiff claims the defendant owes $2,250. Court date: July 28, 2023, at 9 am in Dept 5, 1100 Anacapa Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101. Filed 6/13/2023 by Narzralli Baksh, Deputy Clerk. Published June 21, 28, July 5, 12, 2023.

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME: CASE No. 23CV02271. To all interested parties: Petitioner Rodolfo M. Valencia Jr filed a petition with Superior Court of California, County of Santa Barbara, for a decree changing name to Rudy Valencia Jr. The Court orders that all persons interested in this matter appear before this court at the hearing indicated below to show cause, if any, why the petition for change of name should not be granted. Any person objecting to the name changes described above must file a written objection that includes the reasons for the objection at least two court days before the matter is scheduled to be heard and must appear at the hearing to show cause why the petition should not be granted. If no written objection is timely filed, the court may grant the petition without a hearing. Filed May 30, 2023 by Norma Willoughby. Hearing date: July 26, 2023 at 8:30 am in Dept. SM3, 312-C East Cook St, Santa Maria, CA 93454. Published June 14, 21, 28, July 5, 2023.

Danna McGrew, new board chair of the Scholarship Foundation (photo by Phil Channing)

Actor Julian Sands R.I.P. (5of7, CC BY-SA 2.0 creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Calendar of Events

by Steven Libowitz

THURSDAY, JULY 6

Art Walk Entertainment – Five films, Filippi at Fine Art, and a cover band that says exactly what it does in its name highlight the performing art opportunities at July’s 1st Thursday. SBIFF’s Santa Barbara Filmmaker Series (SBIFF Education Center, 1330 State St.), which usually focuses on a single short doc from a local director, this time features five short films that were made just last month by 30 teenagers during SBIFF’s Film Camp, held in partnership with United Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Barbara County. The campers/auteurs will be at the screening to present their movies, which screen every half-hour from 5:30-7 pm… Santa Barbara Fine Art (321 State St.) celebrates its sixth anniversary with a special live performance by professional opera singer Alessandra Rossi-Filippi , an L.A.-based Eastman School of Music-trained soprano who has performed at the White House and the Kennedy Center. Enjoy wine and champagne as well as the arias and art songs… As you might expect, The Cover Alls are, yes, a cover band, one that plays a satisfying swatch of styles from pop of the last four decades to Island-style reggae, hip hop, country, and R&B. Song requests are welcome at their sets on the 800 Block of State St.

WHEN: 5-8 pm

WHERE: Lower State Street and side streets

COST: free

INFO: (805) 962-2098 or www.downtownsb.org/events/1st-thursday

FRIDAY, JULY 7

Young at Heart – Neil Young ’s new Coastal tour that ends a nearly four-year hiatus from the road somehow seems even more essential in the wake of the death six months ago of former CSNY band mate David Crosby . But don’t go to the Santa Barbara Bowl tonight for a trip down greatest hits memory lane. Young has promised to focus almost exclusively on songs he’s rarely or even never played live, and the opening night of the solo acoustic shows last Friday in Los Angeles included just a couple outside the deep cuts realm in “Ohio,” “Heart of Gold,” and “Mother Earth.” The rest of the 17-song set pulled from such disparate depths as his 1995 Pearl Jam collaboration Mirror Ball, which he hasn’t played live in 25 years; “When I Hold You in My Arms” from 2002’s Are You Passionate? that was recorded originally with

THURSDAY, JULY 6

1st Thursday – Two new venues and a few old favorites feature in the first official 1st Thursday of the summer.

Community Environmental Council’s (1219 State St.) highly anticipated Environmental Hub hosts its grand opening, celebrating the state-of-theart collaborative space designed to be an epicenter for community activism, education, entrepreneurship, media, and art as well as the new offices for the half-century old nonprofit. First up on the wall space is Return of the Western Monarch , a photographic exhibit and scientific roadmap for protecting this endangered species by resident artist Elizabeth Weber Ribbon cutting at 5:30 pm… Photography is also featured at the new Slice of Light Gallery (9 W. Figueroa St.), with a grand opening invitation to sip on refreshing drinks from the bar while immersing yourself in mesmerizing images of fine art photography and astrophotography by J K Lovelace , Royal Museum Greenwich’s 2021 Astronomy Photographer of the Year in the Skyscapes category... Elsewhere, Angels Among Us! is the ascending show of archival charcoal drawings by animal “artivist” Dove ( Dolphingirl ), aka Leah , which opens today at The Press Room (15 E. Ortega St.). All proceeds from sales of the drawings that date back more than a quarter-century plus some new ones benefit animal advocacy… With August less than a month away, Santa Barbara Historical Museum (136 E. De la Guerra St.) opens its annual Project Fiesta! exhibit, now celebrating 99 years as Santa Barbara’s largest civic celebration. The exhibit features 99 images of Fiesta curated from the Museum’s Gledhill Library’s extensive archive… 10 West (10 W. Anapamu St.) sinks into the season with Summer Saturation , which explores the depth of color in the natural world and encompasses the immersive effect that art can have on the human mind, soul, and spirit. Participating artists expected at tonight’s reception include Karin Aggeler , Penny Arntz , Bryson Bost , Sophie MJ Cooper , Rick Doehring , Sheldon Kaganoff , Pamela Larsson-Toscher , Dahlia Riley , Eric Saint Georges , Marlene Struss , and Karen Zazon Blessed Assurance is the appropriate name for the new show at Art Works (28 E. Victoria St.), featuring mixed media pieces by the blind artist Joe Colunga , who has created his own techniques that include visual sheet music, textured paint, and typed braille as well as 3D sculptures.

WHEN: 5-8 pm

WHERE: Lower State Street and side streets

COST: free

Concerts in the Park – The Paradise Kings – Santa Barbara-based purveyors of rock, blues, and swing –get the honor of performing the opening concert at Chase Palm Park to launch the 2023 edition of the most popular free weekly summertime event in town. As 2017 Winners of Santa Barbara Blues Society’s Battle of the Bands, the Kings should have no trouble getting folks to get down on the dirt patch that serves as the dance floor with a variety of beats and rhythms. Picnics are encouraged as are blankets and low-back chairs but leave the alcohol, cigarettes, vaping pipes, and pets at home for the free family festival-style event blessed with waterfront vibes at the gently rolling hills of the Great Meadow in Chase Palm Park. As a reminder, the concerts are now just a single set from 6-7:30 pm, ending an hour earlier than in past seasons. Next up: The Molly Ringwald Project on July 6.

WHEN: 6-7:30 pm

WHERE: 300 E. Cabrillo Blvd.

COST: free

INFO: (805) 564-5418 or www.santabarbaraca.gov

INFO: (805) 962-2098 or www.downtownsb.org/events/1st-thursday

Booker T. & the MG’s; “Burned,” a Buffalo Springfield song from 1966; and 1982 Trans outtake “If You Got Love.” “They’re old songs. But I wake up with them in my head every morning,” Young told Rolling Stone when he announced the tour. “They are songs that apply to my life right now, and apply to everyone’s lives in this era that we’re in.” Hardcore fans should be in heaven. Americana-blues singer-songwriter Chris Pierce (“We Can Always Come Back To This”) opens.

WHEN: 7 pm

WHERE: 1122 N. Milpas St.

COST: $84.50-$284.50

INFO: (805) 962-7411 or www.sbbowl.com

SATURDAY, JULY 8

A Garden (State) Grows in Ojai – Your faithful correspondent first started writing about pop music in northern New Jersey, home of The Smithereens, who began their jangly rock jamming in Jersey back in 1980, playing clubs and concert halls all around the local scene – including the Court Tavern smack in the middle of Rutgers University campuses, and Stone Pony in Asbury Park, where Bruce

Montecito

“There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance” - Socrates

Out of This World – UCSB A&L summer film series launches with Close Encounters of the Third Kind , the 1977 Steven Spielberg sci-fi blockbuster that not only presaged E.T. – the director’s movie about even closer encounters with alien visitors five years later – but also made it safe for adults to play with their mashed potatoes as an art medium again. The fun begins early! Bring a picnic, low-back chairs, and breathable blankets to protect the lawn and enjoy the evening with friends and neighbors while taking part in the other official offerings at the Sunken Gardens including DJ music, raffle prizes, and other activities before the screening begins just after sundown. Coming next Friday (July 14): Alien , which carried the tagline “In space, no one can hear you scream.” But we can at the Courthouse!

WHEN: 8:30 pm

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

COST: free

INFO: www.ArtsAndLectures.UCSB.edu

Springsteen cut his teeth – even after scoring with future rock radio staples “Blood and Roses,” “Only a Memory,” and “Behind the Wall of Sleep.” It’s not just me: Kurt Cobain counted The Smithereens as a major influence on Nirvana. Another personal fave at the time: Marshall Crenshaw, the Buddy Holly-inspired singer-songwriter-guitarist whose own eponymous 1982 album remains one of my desert island discs on the strength of such songs as “Someday, Someway,” “There She Goes Again,” “Cynical Girl,” and “Mary Anne.” Crenshaw, who has only played in town sporadically over the last four decades, is also performing as guest vocalist for The Smithereens since the 2017 death of the band’s lead singer Pat DiNizio, alternating touring duties with Robin Wilson of the Gin Blossoms (who played Libbey last week). I love ‘em both, so they’re getting a whole lotta love (and ink) in these pages. It doesn’t hurt that Dishwalla, one of the more enduring bands to have emerged from Santa Barbara, opens the show. WHEN: 7 pm

WHERE: Libbey Bowl, 210 S. Signal Ave., Ojai

COST: $28-$68

INFO: (805) 272-3881 / https://libbeybowl.org/calendar or https://wheremusicmeetsthesoul.com/libbey-bowl-ojai/

SUNDAY, JULY 9

Dolphin Dive Festival – SB Sunrise Rotary’s third annual fundraiser at Chase Palm Park’s Great Meadow is designed specifically for family fun, with activities including face painting and lawn games, music by The Molly Ringwald Project (who will be back in the same space for Concerts in the Park on July 13) and Do No Harm, and food from Gloria’s Gourmet Kitchen, Cousins Maine Lobster, and Kona Ice. The wine and beer garden is for adults. The signature activity is the Dolphin Races, featuring more than 1,000 numbered miniature plastic dolphins unleashed from a huge water tank at the top of the hill to navigate the 200-foot racecourse (a Slip ‘N’ Slide). The top three finishers earn cash prizes for their adopters – those that purchased sponsorships of the individual dolphins. After four heats produce 12 cash winners, a fifth race is free for children who decorate a dolphin at the Dolphin Decorating Booth.

WHEN: 11 am-5 pm

WHERE: 300 E. Cabrillo Blvd.

COST: free

INFO: www.sbdolphindive.com

ESTATE/SENIOR SERVICES

MOVING MISS DAISY

Pay: $25-30 per hr & 5 days a Week

Email me at ( andyctrangegrading@gmail. com ) for more details about the job.

Art Gallery Assistant. Experience in Sales. Saturday Availability. 30 hours per month. Mac Familiar. Call 805-729-8454

PHYSICAL TRAINING & THERAPY

Stillwell Fitness of Santa Barbara

REVERSE MORTGAGES

ATTENTION SENIORS!!! IS A REVERSE MORTGAGE RIGHT FOR YOU?

• Access the equity in your home today

• No monthly mortgage payments

• You retain title to your home

• Lump sum or monthly distributions

• All inquiries are strictly confidential

Gayle Nagy 805-448-9224

KNIFE SHARPENING SERVICES

EDC Mobile Sharpening is a locally owned and operated in Santa Barbara. We specialize in (No-Entry) House Calls, Businesses and Special Events.

Call 805-696-0525 to schedule an appointment.

TILE RESTORATION

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

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

The Clearing House, LLC

In Home Personal Training Sessions for 65+ Help with: Strength, Flexibility, Balance, Motivation, and Consistency

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

GOT OSTEOPOROSIS? WE CAN HELP

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

Gayle@dmfsb.com

NMLS # 251258 / Company NMLS # 12007

Direct Mortgage Funding

Santa Barbara

Equal Housing Lender

Licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act

ITEMS FOR SALE

For sale!! Priceless Lao tzu 7’x4’ Brian805smith@gmail.com

Local tile setter of 35 years is now doing small jobs only. Services include grout cleaning and repair, caulking, sealing, replacing damaged tiles and basic plumbing needs.

Call Doug Watts at 805-729-3211 for a free estimate.

DONATIONS NEEDED

Santa Barbara Bird Sanctuary Menagerie 2430 Lillie Avenue Summerland CA 93067 (805) 969-1944

Donate to the Parrot Pantry!

At SB Bird Sanctuary, backyard farmer’s bounty is our birds best bowl of food! The flock goes bananas for your apples, oranges & other homegrown fruits & veggies.

Recognized as the area’s Premier Estate Liquidators - Experts in the Santa Barbara Market! We are Skilled Professionals with Years of Experience in Downsizing and Estate Sales. Personalized service. Insured. Call for a complimentary consultation. Elaine (805)708-6113

Christa (805)450-8382

Email: theclearinghouseSB@cox.net

Website: www.theclearinghouseSB.com

TRESOR

We Buy, Sell and Broker Important Estate Jewelry. Located in the upper village of Montecito. Graduate Gemologists with 30 years of experience. We do free evaluations and private consultation.

1470 East Valley Rd Suite V. 805 969-0888

POSITION WANTED

EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT Organize receipts for taxes, pay bills, write checks, reservations, scheduling. Confidential. Semi-retired professional. Excellent references.

Sandra (805) 636-3089

Trusted, Experienced Caregiver, CA State registered and background checked. Vaccinated. Loving and caring provides transportation, medications, etc.

Lina 650-281-6492

CAREGIVERS NEEDED - PROVIDE ONE ON ONE CARE TO SENIOR IN THE COMFORT OF HER HOME WHILE ASSISTING WITH DAILY LIVING ACTIVITIES.

Requirements - A kind, patient, caring heart & driver.

REAL ESTATE WANTED TO BUY

Local Fixer Upper Wanted!!

Priv. Pty. wants rough single home or up to 4 units NOW! via lease @ option or seller will finance. Great credit! No Agents 805-455-1420

AVAILABLE FOR RENT

Montecito, Santa Barbara, Ca

Furnished home for rent $30,000.00 per mo. with a 5yr. lease, 4bd+4ba, nanny quarters, & guest hse + pool Bob 310-472-0870

Ocean Front charming cottage on the Mesa. 3bd/2.5ba. Available now. Fully furnished. This very private one acre property has a separate studio located in a lush back yard setting. A short walk to Douglas Preserve or Mesa Lane Stairs. There is also a 1bd/1ba separate guest house on the adjoining parcel that will be available in August. Main house rent: $18,900. Guest house [if needed]: $4,000. Monthly. No smoking. No Pets. Dangerous cliff not ideal for small children. Phone or Text 805-455-0442

FINE ART SALE

Paintings by Santa Barbara artists from an important Montecito estate offered privately for sale.

Hank Pitcher, Howard Warshaw, Joan Tanner, Marge Dunlap, etc. Serious inquiries only. www.auctionliaison.com; call or text Leslie Westbrook (805) 565-3726.

Volunteers

Do you have a special talent or skill? Do you need community service hours? The flock at SB Bird Sanctuary could always use some extra love and socialization. Call us and let’s talk about how you can help. (805) 969-1944

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

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

AUTOMOBILES WANTED

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

$10 MINIMUM TO PLACE A CLASSIFIED AD

It’s Simple. Charge is $3 per line, each line with 31 characters. Minimum is $10 per issue. Photo/logo/visual is an additional $20 per issue. Email Classified Ad to frontdesk@montecitojournal.net or call (805) 565-1860. All ads must be finalized by Friday at 2:00PM the week prior to printing. We accept Visa/MasterCard/Amex (3% surcharge)

“This is patently absurd; but whoever wishes to become a philosopher must learn not to be frightened by absurdities.”

- Bertrand Russell

Foreachofthefirstfiveminicrosswords,oneoftheentriesalsoservesaspartofa five-wordmetaclue.Theanswertothemetaisawordorphrase(fivelettersor longer)hiddenwithinthesixthminicrossword.Thehiddenmetaanswerstartsin oneofthesquaresandsnakesthroughthegridverticallyandhorizontallyfrom there(nodiagonals!)withoutrevisitinganysquares.

reservations via OpenTable or by phone 805-565-7540

and for lunch fridays 11AM-2:30PM

join us for brunch saturday and sunday 9AM-2:30PM

Dos Pueblos Abalone (4pcs)

Jimmy the Greek Salad with Feta

arugula, radicchio, belgian endive and sauteéd onion

Sliced Steak Salad, 6 oz ,

arugula, radicchio, shrimp, prosciutto, cannellini beans, onions

Chopped Salad

Cobb Salad tossed with Roquefort dressing �

romaine, shrimp, bacon, green beans, peppers, avocado, roquefort

Lucky’s Salad ��������������������������������������������������������

Charred Rare Tuna Nicoise Salad

two shrimp, 2 �oz crab, avocado, egg, romaine, tomato, cucumber

Seafood Louie

w/ grilled chicken breast

Caesar Salad

reggiano parmesan, balsamic vinaigrette

Arugula, Radicchio & Belgian Endive Salad

roquefort or thousand island dressing

Wedge of Iceberg

• Salads and Other Specialties

sauerkraut and gruyere on rye

Pastrami Reuben ����������������������������������������������������

mushroom sauce, french fries

Sliced Filet Mignon Open Faced Sandwich,

bacon, lettuce, tomato and avocado

Grilled Chicken Breast Club on a Soft Bun

choice of cheese (burger patty is vegan)

Vegetarian Burger, 5 oz

choice of cheese

Lucky Burger, 8 �oz ,

choice of hash browns, fries, mixed greens, Caesar, fruit salad

• Sandwiches

Mixed

Huevos

Corned

Home Made Spanish

Wild Mushroom and Gruyere

Smoked Salmon Eggs Benedict

California Eggs Benedict w/ spinach, tomato, avocado

Classic Eggs Benedict w/ julienne ham and

choice of hash browns, fries, sliced tomatoes, fruit salad

•

• Eggs and Other Breakfast Dishes

toasted bialy or bagel, cream cheese, olives, tomato & cucumber

Cambridge House Rope Hung Smoked Salmon,

Waffle w/ fresh berries, whipped cream, maple

Brioche French Toast w/ fresh berries and maple

• A La Carte •

Lucky Chili w/ cornbread, cheddar and onions

Matzo Ball

French Onion Soup, Gratinée

Burrata Mozzarella (Puglia), basil and ripe tomato

Grilled Artichoke with choice of

Giant Shrimp Cocktail

Bowl of Chopped Fresh Fruit w/

Fresh Squeezed OJ or Grapefruit Juice

• Morning Starters and Other First

steaks / chops / seafood . . . and brunch