Spaceman What’s it rated? R What’s it worth, Glen? Matinee What’s it worth, Anna? Matinee Where’s it showing? Netflix Johan Renck (Chernobyl, Breaking Bad) directs this science fiction drama based on Jaroslav Kalfar’s 2017 novel Spaceman in Bohemia about Jakub Procházka (Adam Sandler), an astronaut on a solo mission on the edge of the universe, […]
<i>Spaceman</i> is an unusual exploration of estrangement
Posted inNews
Lompoc man found guilty of fentanyl distribution resulting in death
A Los Angeles jury found Kaelen Jacobkeali Wendel—a 32-year-old Lompoc resident and northern Santa Barbara County jail inmate—guilty of distributing fentanyl that resulted in the death and serious injury of two inmates, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. According to court documents, Wendel smuggled fentanyl into the North County Jail’s D unit on […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Community Clayworks artists create bowls for second annual SYV Empty Bowls
Artisans in a local collective created and donated the unique bowls featured in the second annual Santa Ynez Valley Empty Bowls fundraiser, scheduled to take place March 9 at Bethania Lutheran Church in Solvang on Saturday, with seating times at 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. Community Clayworks, an art studio based in Buellton, provided the event’s […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Los Alamos Theatre Group presents Cottonwood
The Depot Mall and Bar in Los Alamos will host the Los Alamos Theatre Group’s upcoming production, Cottonwood, an original play about small-town life. Performances of the show start March 15 and run through April 7. Admission is $20. Cottonwood follows the lives of multiple residents of a quaint town that’s been eyed by a […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Vega Vineyard and Farm hosts Painting in the Vineyard workshop
Art Spot on Wheels is holding its next Painting in the Vineyard event at Vega Vineyard and Farm in Buellton on Sunday, March 17, from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Attendees of the workshop will spend the afternoon painting a landscape on canvas while enjoying some wine. Admission to the event is $89. Vega Vineyard […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Former Wildling Museum enters new era as the California Nature Art Museum
Don’t fear the reboot Call (805) 686-1082 or visit calnatureartmuseum.org for more info on the California Nature Art Museum (Cal-NAM), located at 1511 Mission Drive, unit B, Solvang. The word “wildling” can apply to a variety of wild plants or undomesticated animals. But its use in pop culture is often streamlined, as it almost always […]
Posted inOpinion
Left turn signals are neither safe nor sane
About every four minutes of every day, at nearly all controlled traffic signals in Santa Maria, two and sometimes four vehicles traveling toward each other nervously swerve to avoid a collision. This game of automobile chicken plays out in all controlled traffic signal left turn lanes. This is neither safe nor sane. You and your […]
Posted inOpinion
Are the steelhead back in the Santa Ynez River yet?
Normally the once proud and gracefully flowing Santa Ynez River is reduced to a dry sand bed with its banks occupied by numerous homeless camps, but occasionally during heavy rains it flows almost as it did when steelhead were abundant, long before Bradley Dam was built and Lake Cachuma was formed. For the last two […]
Posted inOpinion
A useless vote
A recent Solvang Planning Commission meeting gave us proof that artificial intelligence will take over human jobs. Instead of drawing names out of hat, the city relied on ChatGPT to tell it the commissioner who would remain on the dais to decide on whether to recommend rezoning city land for housing purposes. Three commissioners lived […]
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Residential rezoning proposal divides Solvang Planning Commission
Three of Solvang’s five planning commissioners volunteered to recuse themselves from a recent rezoning decision due to conflicts of interest, but an artificial intelligence app spared one of them from the chopping block. Rather than draw straws or names from a hat, as Planning Commissioner Aaron Petersen suggested, Solvang’s staff used ChatGPT to randomly select […]
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LA Superior Court rules on Cuyama Valley Groundwater Basin boundaries
A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge confirmed that the Cuyama Valley Groundwater Basin is one connected basin—not separate subbasins—allowing for the groundwater adjudication to move forward following a year-and-a-half of delays and litigation. “The court has been scrupulous to confine phase one of this adjudication to the boundaries of the court’s in rem [personal […]
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‘Long overdue’
Santa Maria Fire Battalion Chief Evan Scott got his third physical exam in his 20-year career as a Santa Maria firefighter after he helped establish the department’s health and wellness program. “It was a big deal. It was the goal I was shooting for before I retired,” Scott told the Sun. “I banged that drum […]