For someone who finds it hard not to sleep through the morning on a weekend, I was surprised to find myself at the Cachuma Lake Recreation Area marina at 9:30 a.m. on a recent Saturday. But thanks to a cup of coffee and the clear Cachuma air, I was wide awake and ready to board […]
Joe Payne
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Remember the music
This year brought the most out of local musicians, organizations, and venues
The past year served as an example of the rabid appetite locals have for quality music, and how dedicated they are to keeping it around. A historical bequest to the Allan Hancock College Music Department by the late piano teacher Patricia Boyd served as a benchmark of what music means to the community. Totaling more […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Time immortalized
This year proved art is about forging into the future, while enjoying echoes of the past
Time flies when you are creating things! The vast number and variety of artists in Northern Santa Barbara County certainly kept this writer pounding the keyboard every week. From the amazing stage productions by local theater companies to the stunning visual art of local painters, sculptors, and sketchers alike, the coast was alive with crackling, […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
“Nerdy before it was hip”: NerdsterObscure offers handmade creations made by a nerd, for nerds
A local artisan managed to slip through the cracks for last week’s Last-Minute Holiday Gift Guide, leaving the nerdy/hipster subcultures woefully underrepresented in the guide. One local has tailored her Etsy shop and products to appeal to the Jedi knights, Vulcans, and Bronies among us. “Honestly, I thought it would just be moms out looking […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Counting our feathered friends
The National Audubon Society asks Santa Maria Valley birders to help in the annual “Christmas Bird Count,” an effort to catalog the number and variety of wild birds in the area. “Winter bird counts in this area rank high nationally because of our local habitat and our location along the Pacific Flyway,” local birder Alex […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
The Santa Maria Public Library needs artists
The Santa Maria Public Library’s Shepard Hall Gallery houses magnificent art exhibitions each month throughout the year and is open to the public to view for free. The library is currently holding open registration for artists from Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties through Jan. 2 at 6 p.m. The library’s goal is to […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Exploring visual intent
Local poet and award-winning artist Lin Tarczynski will be signing her new book, “A Kick in the Eye,” at The Bookstore, 1137 North H St., Suite Q, Lompoc. The book features Tarczynski’s Asemic writing—a post-lingual style of visual intent—alongside the work of 11 artists in a graphic novel format. Some Asemic work looks like writing, […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Holiday crafting at Michaels
Michaels offers several arts and crafts events for kids, including a “Kids’ Club Crayola Wintery Work of Art” class on Dec. 14 from 10 to 11:30 a.m. with half-hour sessions for $2 for kids ages 3 and older. Michaels is located at 1934 S. Broadway in Santa Maria. More information is available at 349-8801.
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Celebrating young musicians: The Central Coast Music Teachers Association
The Central Coast Music Teachers Association held its 24th annual CAPMT Piano Auditions and Honors Program on Nov. 1 at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Arroyo Grande and Nov. 2 at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in San Luis Obispo. More than 30 audition students performed, and seven honors students participated as well. Sixteen students received […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Santa Barbara County Arts Commission honors Connie Rohde-Stanchfield
The Santa Barbara County Arts Commission awarded the 2013 Leadership in the Arts Award to Connie Rohde-Stanchfield, a longtime local educator and arts advocate, at the Dec. 3 Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors meeting. The commission also presented the award at a special celebration on Dec. 5 at the Channing Peake Gallery, located on […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
A magical, musical, hilarious holiday: The Great American Melodrama presents a ‘Holiday Extravaganza’
Watch a video of the intermission hijinx at The Great American Melodrama. The Great American Melodrama in Oceano buzzed with excitement as the packed house waited for the Holiday Extravaganza to begin. The actors who were seating the theater patrons and serving up confections in the bar line were favorite faces of the Melodrama, but […]
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Singing stanzas: The local open mic event at the Bookworm is a warm welcome to musicians
When Darin Jabler, owner of the used bookstore The Bookworm, started hosting an open mic event on the second Saturday of each month, he didn’t know what to expect. But, as a popular baseball movie says, “If you build it, they will come,” and quickly poets and prose writers alike showed up to read from […]
