Cover Story
Picture imperfect: The journey of a wedding in the second half of life
When Anna Ferguson-Sparks reached her late 20s without getting married, her mom told her she’d to have to start looking for a husband among men coming off of divorces. “That was not a very nice thing to say,” Anna said over the phone, laughing. But that was the attitude she—and many women—grew up with: The…
‘Do you’ on the big day: Skip the crazy lashes and spray tans and aim to look like yourself, only better
Yes, wedding day beauty prep takes a lot longer than your normal Friday date night look. However, it doesn’t need to take a dozen hours, a yard of human hair extensions, and a bucket of self-tanner to look “natural and glowing.” All you need is the right beauty team and a few sane tips. Thankfully,…
What’s your dream wedding?
Sally Dunbar retiree “On a beach in Maui.” Darrell Dunbar retiree “Pacific Grove, where I got married!” Dwight Colon works at Square Deal Recordings & Supplies “In the middle of a volcano in Iceland.” Brian Kasicki works at Bell Street Farm “Where I’m dressed as Darth Vader, my groomsmen are stormtroopers, and the flower girl…
License to hitch: Getting a marriage license in Santa Barbara County isn’t hard, but there is a process
Before considering you and your partner an actual married couple, you technically need permission from the government. In Santa Barbara County and the rest of California, this means getting a marriage license. There’s really nothing to getting a marriage license, except for a little money and some planning. Unlike some states, you don’t have to…
Reading the dance floor: DJ Tim Lopez gives local weddings a musical flair
Tim Lopez, owner and founder of Modern Symphony DJ, takes wedding planning to a meticulous level—especially when it came to his own. “My wife, fiancée at the time, just took a couple steps back and said, ‘All right, go ahead, work your magic,’” Lopez told the Sun. Lopez handled his own wedding reception the same…
Spotlight on: Choice Images Photo Booth
A properly planned party has many elements, but should it include a photo booth? The answer is yes, according to Brenda and David Tallmadge, owners of Choice Images Photo Booth. Based in Santa Maria, the Tallmadges have provided their services for weddings, birthdays, bar mitzvahs, and other parties throughout the Central Coast for two years.…
Buellton school district to vote on bond refinance options, potentially save taxpayers $1.2 million
Buellton Union School District’s board of trustees will answer a million-dollar question on the evening of Feb. 16: How should Santa Barbara County’s taxpayers pay back the $3.2 million general obligation bond voters passed in June 2012? The board has three options to choose from: An 11-year bond, a 19-year bond, or a 24-year bond.…
Hobnobbing with Helen: Santa Maria Women’s Network attracts a crowd
The Santa Maria Women’s Network hit a home run with its February lunch meeting. They invited Los Angeles-based motivational speaker and speech coach Mimi Donaldson to return for her third local appearance. I heard her two years ago when, at a Women’s Network luncheon, she talked about how men and women differ in their self-evaluation…
Political Watch 2/16/17
• Following President Donald Trump’s executive order signed on Jan. 27, banning citizens from seven Muslim-majority nations in the Middle East, California Sen. Kamala Harris introduced a bill, the Access to Counsel Act, that would guarantee access to counsel for those detained at the border and ports of entry. The act does four things: affirms…
A slow fight for tribal land: Santa Barbara County, Chumash prepare for government meetings and legal battles over Camp 4
The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors voted on Feb. 7 to take its land negotiations with the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians behind closed doors—at least partially. Previously, county-tribe negotiation meetings took place exclusively in a public forum, where representatives from both governments proposed and discussed terms for Camp 4—a 1,400-acre parcel of…
Santa Maria unlikely to ban pet sales, protests continue
Protests at the Animal Kingdom pet shop in Santa Maria continued on Feb. 11, even after the City Council decided at its Feb. 7 meeting not to agendize an ordinance banning retail pet sales in the city. A local pet advocacy group proposed the ordinance idea at a City Council meeting in late 2016, claiming…
Clarifications
• In the Jan. 19 arts story, “Color your world,” the Sun misidentified Penny Robertson in a photograph. • In the Feb. 9 story, “Hands on the artwork, please!” the Sun misidentified the name of the Santa Maria Valley Discovery Museum’s Discovery Artists Program, along with the meeting time, which is Sundays from noon to…
Officer-involved shooting and attempted murder of officer happen in same week
Law enforcement officers faced violence in Santa Barbara County last week, with one attempted murder of an officer in Santa Maria and an officer-involved shooting in Santa Barbara. The attempted murder occurred on Saturday, Feb. 11, when a Santa Maria man attempted to strangle a Santa Maria Police Department officer to death. The incident occurred…
Gang member accidentally shoots himself
A man who was reportedly shot on Jan. 31 in Santa Maria is a convicted gang member who shot and wounded himself, said Detective Paul Flores with the city’s police department. Initially, the department received a report of an 18-year-old man who checked himself into Marian Regional Medical Center after getting shot in the calf…
Five arrested in North County ICE operation
The arrest of five people in Northern Santa Barbara County as part of a U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sweep of Southern California that began on Feb. 6 set off alarms in the local undocumented immigrant community. The operation, which concluded on Feb. 10, targeted those who the agency considered serious threats to public…
Laundry or vortex
I’m by no means the first person to complain about missing socks. It’s a problem that parents have struggled with since the beginning of time. I imagine it would go something like this: Mother to son: “Wherest are thy cloths, which thou useth to cover thy feet? I seeth only but one bit of cloth.”…
Santa Ynez Valley Arts Association hosts new photography exhibit
The Santa Ynez Valley Arts Association will host a new photography exhibit titled Peace and Tranquility at the Los Olivos Wine Merchant & Café from March 2 through May 4. The exhibit showcases the work of artists Barbara and Floyd Snyder. The couple’s photography is mostly made up of scenes from nature that they feel…
Dana Adobe hosts James Beckwourth talk
Helen Daurio will give a talk on James P. Beckwourth on Feb. 19 at 2 p.m. as a part of the DANA Cultural Center’s Sunday Speaker Series. The talk is followed by a question-and-answer session also hosted by Daurio. Beckwourth (1798-1866) is a near-legendary mountain man figure known for rising out of slavery and becoming…
Santa Maria Civic Theatre seeks actors for staged reading
The Santa Maria Civic Theatre holds auditions for a staged reading of In the Mood, Part 2 on Feb. 19 at 6 p.m. and Feb. 20 at 7 p.m. Writer/director Dixie Arthur is seeking to cast three men and three women, all between the ages of 50 and 80. In the Mood, Part 2 is…
Humble hilarity: The Santa Maria Civic Theatre toys with dark comedy with production of ‘Humble Boy’
Funny and thought provoking, Humble Boy—now playing at the Santa Maria Civic Theater—is a gem of a play about what happens to an English family when the father dies and the son comes home. Plot sound familiar? Think Hamlet, only with more laughs. This play falls into the category of dark comedy, which means (I…
Heartfelt tribute: Righetti High School’s monthly magazine releases special issue in memory of chemistry teacher John Rucker
John Rucker, chemistry teacher at Righetti High School for 21 years, passed away on Jan. 4 near the end of Righetti’s winter break. On the first day of the new semester, students behind The Legend—Righetti’s monthly magazine—began working on a special issue dedicated to Rucker’s memory. Rucker started teaching at Righetti in 1996, the same…
New, but not normal
The worst part about living in history is not knowing what is new, normal, or just outdated. Everybody’s freaking out right now about national politics, the geopolitical situation, and the trustworthiness of the news media. “This is the new normal,” annoying people tend to say. But how could they know? Californians have wondered for years…
Alyssa Martinez
Don’t let the fact that Alyssa Martinez is just 10 years old fool you—she takes her softball playing seriously. “Well, I started playing when I was 5 or 6. I had tried soccer and it really wasn’t my thing,” Martinez said. “My parents saw a poster and decided to sign me up.” Martinez currently plays…
The Benchwarmer: Gridiron gripes
After five damn minutes of staring at my computer screen waiting for writing inspiration, I’ve decided February is a sucky month for writing sports columns, partly because my interest in sports is relegated to baseball and football. Alas, football has ended and baseball season is on its way. Shockingly, I’ve run out of one specific…
Bedford Winery’s annual Mushroom Festival offers education and good eats in Los Alamos
Allow me to apologize for my disdain of mushrooms. I was forced to evaluate my lifelong dislike of one of the culinary world’s favorite ingredients on a short drive from Santa Maria to Los Alamos with my fiancé. We were headed there for Bedford Winery’s 11th annual Mushroom Festival on Saturday, Feb. 4. “Seriously, why…
Supervisors should protect the dunes
In my opinion, recent voting by the SLO Board of Supervisors indicates they are not in tune with their constituency. The next election could better reflect citizen desires with a few questions. Should vehicles be permitted on our beach? Should a marine sanctuary be established? Should park rangers lead nature walks to educate citizens? Should…
Immigration reform must include ‘the wall’
President Trump is right: The U.S. must secure our borders from illegal immigration before we can reform our naturalization system. The U.S. must negotiate a strict treaty with Mexico to control their border with the U.S. Mexico’s refusal or lack of interest in controlling their border with the U.S. deliberately violates our sovereignty and is…
Liberals who hate
The idea of someone calling any American president Hitler is absurd, especially since nothing says “love trumps hate” like breaking windows, burning buildings, throwing molotov cocktails into a crowd, or trying to club you to death because you don’t love as much as they do. Evidently calling Trump Hitler because he wants to keep Americans…
Response to a response
If Joann Williams (“Show respect for the president,” Feb. 9) had read my poem on the inauguration (“A poem for Inauguration Day,” Jan. 26) more carefully, she could rest assured that it did not advocate for the assassination or murder of anyone. I do not believe violence is ever the answer, and would never suggest…
Treating child criminals as victims only
Human trafficking historically referred to people forced into slavery by way of force, fraud, or coercion who are used for manual labor, illegal acts such as mules for drug runners, and for purposes of sexual exploitation. The term is now routinely applied to underage prostitutes regardless of the circumstances. The rationale is that no underage…
