Erma Lawton retired librarian “The push to buy. Focusing on, ‘What does a teenager want?’ instead of Christ’s birth.” William Scott barber “Feeling rushed.” Larry Skahill writer “Anti-Christian sentiment. Freedom is freedom. It’s a Christian holiday, and this is America.” Shelley Reeger health benefit analyst “If you would’ve asked me last year, it would’ve been […]
What’s your least favorite thing about the holidays?
Posted inNews
Be a super Santa
The world we live in is far from perfect: Economies continue to falter, people continue to go hungry, and crime continues to rear its ugly head. It’s enough to make you wish iconic comic book figures like Superman and Batman could jump out of their storybook pages and make everything better? While that might be […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
The singing season
The Christmas and holiday season is known as a time of festive merriment and reuniting with friends and family. Besides the steady flow of food, drink, and gifts, music making explodes during the holidays, yielding a cornucopia of performing ensembles. Bands add a couple of familiar holiday tunes to the repertoire, orchestras schedule holiday-inspired programs, […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
The Laundry Monster
There has been some confusion at my house regarding these things people call closets. Rumor has it that these little windowless rooms are for storing things like clean clothes. We don’t subscribe to that voodoo hedonistic nonsense. At our house, we openly display all of our clothing on the couch. A couch is a place […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
PCPA will present Little Women
PCPA Theaterfest may be finishing up A Christmas Carol, but another favorite is in the wings. PCPA will present a Broadway musical version of Louisa May Alcott’s classic novel, which follows the adventures of the four March daughters as they grow up in Civil War America. Jo longs to publish a novel. Meg longs for […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Create and collage
Take a retreat, relax, eat, drink wine, and create with collage/assemblage guru Karen Browdy and the C Gallery Feb. 24, 25, and 26. Participants will be nestled into a quiet, secluded, 25-acre vineyard estate surrounded by redwood, oak, and cypress trees. After a Friday evening dinner and estate wine tasting, participants will enjoy a Saturday […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Historical Society highlights the Civil War
The Santa Maria Valley Historical Society recently announced its latest display on veterans of the Civil War in Santa Maria, which will be on display at the museum at 616 S. Broadway in Santa Maria. Many veterans of the American Civil War representing the north and south moved to Santa Maria. Between 1890 and 1925, […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Deck the halls
The unexpected e-mail that Cathy Gregg received in her inbox wasn’t telling her that some Nigerian prince needed her help transferring loads of money. Nonetheless, she didn’t believe it. “I thought it was a joke at first,” she said. The e-mail was from an art broker in Los Angeles asking if she could use Gregg’s […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Laughing and crying over family
Family is a funny thing, no matter what family you come from. That’s the basic premise of Polly Frost’s one-woman show Surviving Your Adult Relationship with Your Family, playing one night in mid-January at Casa Cassara Winery in Buellton—though Frost goes much deeper than witty quips in her humorous look at the family dynamic and […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Merry munchies
More than any other time of year, Christmas tends to tap into one’s desire for tradition. This weekend, hundreds of millions of people around the world will celebrate Christmas with their favorite family traditions. [image-2] For me, it’s a mix of old and new: sharing with my children the fond holiday traditions I remember as […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
What’s on Deck?
Thursday, Dec. 22 Boys’ Basketball National Prep Classic @ Hancock College Girls’ Soccer Central Coast Classic @ St. Joseph TBA Friday, Dec. 23 Boys’ Basketball National Prep Classic @ Hancock College Girls’ Soccer Central Coast Classic @ St. Joseph TBA Saturday, Dec. 24 No games scheduled Sunday, Dec. 25 Christmas Day; […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
On the roster
• Winter Break Camp: The Santa Maria Recreation and Parks Department’s Winter Camp for children ages 6 to 12 will be held at the Minami Community Center, 600 W. Enos Dr., through Jan. 13, 2012. The fee is $75 per week for each child, based on a full day from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. […]