You can’t talk about beneficial insects without taking a moment to revel in the weirdness that is the praying mantis. That’s exactly what The Educated Gardner’s Simone Smith and I did the other day. We had to stop the interview to geek out extensively on these eccentric green helpers. I even squealed like a schoolgirl […]
HAYLEY THOMAS
Posted inFood & Drink
The password is ‘beer’: The BarrelHouse Speakeasy is open for barrel-aged brews and beard trims in SLO
View more photos from BarrelHouse Brewing’s new San Luis Obispo location. Make your way down Chorro Street in San Luis Obispo toward the creek, and you can’t miss it: an old-fashioned white-and-teal barber chair, sitting alongside a spinning antique barber pole. The sign above the storefront reads “BarrelHouse Brewing Company,” but the space smacks more […]
Posted inNews
Go with feeling: Wedding planning can get chaotic so why not start from within?
Few things in life are as stressful as planning a wedding. The minute you think you’ve got ahold of the day, something catastrophic happens. The seating chart must be reworked due to family drama. Your sister decides she’s just “not wearing” that bridesmaid dress. You realize you hate every single one of your friends’ current […]
Posted inNews
Finding your oasis: Senior volunteers come together at Oasis Center in Orcutt
What’s your oasis? Is it working with your hands, moving paintbrush over paper? Is it moving your body, learning a new step? Perhaps your happy place is found more simply: connecting with friends over a cup of tea. The volunteers at the Oasis Center in Orcutt have found their respective passions over the course of […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Small lot, big attitude: Paso Underground–a tasting room collective of boutique makers–pours off the beaten path
A train barrels by just one block from Paso Underground, obscuring the sound of drizzling rain. I’m sipping one of Orion Stang’s ultra-small-batch Dilecta label releases, his 2013 “Match” blend of grenache, syrah, and mourvedre sourced from three Paso vineyards. The wine—like the nearby locomotive—boasts a lingering finish that haunts the senses long after the […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Slow down for eagle season at Cachuma Lake
Santa Barbara County Naturalist Rosey Bishop remembers the first time she witnessed a bald eagle spread its mighty wings and soar across a powder blue sky. Despite the fact she grew up in Santa Barbara—not far from the Bald Eagle territory of Cachuma Lake—she was all of 25 years old. Now, after three years of […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Polly Frost shares her past with humor in a one-woman show
NYC writer/performer Polly Frost knows that her one-woman show We Only Get One Father—So Why Was I Given Mine? sounds like a bit of a downer. The title alone conjures up thoughts of neurotic hand wringing and emotional naval gazing. Let me assure you, it’s anything but. Instead, Frost’s show is a poignant mix of […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Noteworthy travels: Artist Nadya Brown takes journaling to a whole new realm at Flying Goat Cellars in Lompoc
If you’re like me, you have a huge plastic storage bin full of spiral-bound notebooks gathering dust in the closet. Some are scrawled with “keep out,” while others are covered in old funny pages ripped from the newspaper. The difference between me and artist Nadya Brown—among other things—is this: One, she never stopped journaling; and […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Digital Shashin, a rare pre-WWII collection of Japanese periodicals, shows at Santa Maria Public Library
War doesn’t just destroy precious life, it threatens to erase culture, time-honored history, and—perhaps the most devastating of all—hope. Nowhere was this destruction more evident than in Japan, where more than 60 major cities were burned to the ground, and millions of citizens’ lives were lost to bombs and starvation. However, as local Santa Maria […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Solvang’s Julefest brightens the holiday season
When Time magazine declares your little plot of earth one of “The Nine Most Christmassy Towns in America,” you needn’t worry about using too much tinsel or too many twinkle lights. You’ve got full license to go buck wild, like Santa after one too many rum and eggnogs. It’s “go big or go home,” and […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Daytripper: Living large in the tiny Western town of Santa Margarita
It’s a little after 10 a.m., and I’m working behind the bar of Ancient Peak’s tasting room in Santa Margarita. Soon, folks will be coming in for bottles of cabernet sauvignon, wine tasting, and cheese and charcuterie boards. Zip liners—flushed from their flight across four Margarita Adventures zip lines, will retell the story of that […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Santa Maria Civic Ballet presents ‘Nutcracker’ at the Clark Center Thanksgiving weekend
When Santa Maria Civic Ballet Marketing Director Carole Zink says, “Everybody can dance,” she means it whole heartedly. Throughout the years, Carole has seen dancers of every age take the stage—and when it comes to the annual Nutcracker Christmas performance—everyone wants a little taste of the spotlight. One young girl, about 3 years old, was […]