The Central Coast Chordsmen’s President Larry Long said that this year’s “Barbershopper of the Year” award belongs to Robert Maurer for “his extraordinary contribution to the preservation of barbershop singing,” in a statement from the club. Maurer spearheads the Youth in Harmony organization, which is part of the Chordsmen’s membership to the national Barbershop Harmony […]
Central Coast Chordsmen awards ‘Barbershopper of the Year’
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
PCPA uses crowdfunding to finish recruitment video
PCPA The Pacific Conservatory Theatre currently has a video in production, a recruitment video for the conservatory’s technical theater training program. But the nonprofit theater arts conservatory needs help completing the project, and is hoping to raise $3,000 through the crowdfunding sight rockethub.org. A YouTube.com video titled “Rocket Hub Crowdfunding,” which was posted from PCPA’s […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Great American Melodrama stirs up laughs with ‘The 39 Steps’
The new year is still fresh, and after quite a short holiday break, the Great American Melodrama is back at it again, this time with a small-cast comedy of espionage and intrigue, The 39 Steps. The story has quite a history, though not always as a comedic melodrama. The story comes from a novel by […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Boys & Girls Club expands arts programs and joins national competition
The Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Maria Valley has quite a lot going on between its two club sites and eight After School Education and Safety (ASES) program sites in the valley, all of which focus on the club’s five core areas: character and leadership development, health and lifestyle skills, education and career development, […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Danita Estorga
Coming from a sports-oriented family, Danita Estorga, 16, began playing basketball in the second grade. It didn’t take long before she knew it was a game for which she was well suited. “When I started getting taller I thought basketball would be my sport. I love the game,” she said. The Righetti High School junior […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
The Benchwarmer: Workout weirdoes
As I drag myself out of bed again at 4:15 a.m. for my morning workout, I remind myself that 2016 is the year I’m going to reach my fitness goals—pending the fact that I win the constant battle between my love of beer and Mexican food. With the New Year still fresh in people’s minds, […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Lunching in Lompoc: The city launches its inaugural Winter Restaurant Week
Lompoc has been gaining notoriety for its wine, but city representatives want to highlight their food scene as well. From a lunchtime nosh to a date night dinner, there are plenty of ways to taste Lompoc during its inaugural Restaurant Week. Chelsea Cochran, executive assistant at the Lompoc Chamber of Commerce, said that 17 restaurants […]
Posted inOpinion
Cry for youth
Tears and memories are all that’s left after someone close to you dies. And it’s always too soon. But dying at the hands of a knife or a gun just feels like such a waste. On Jan. 25, Santa Maria’s homicide toll for 2016 hit five victims, almost doubling total homicides for 2014, when there […]
Posted inOpinion
Stop building the bullet train to nowhere
According to an article I read this morning, Gov. Jerry Brown wants our state lawmakers to “bite the bullet and enact new fees and taxes” to pay for repairs to California’s crumbling highways. Really? I don’t think there is anyone in the United States who doesn’t know that we pay more gas taxes than most […]
Posted inOpinion
Balancing act
Like most Californians I cherish our long, beautiful coastline. Whether we’re riding waves or roads, walking beaches or bluffs, or watching the sun set into the sea from inland or right on the continent’s edge, the coastal realm connects us to each other and to the place we call home. It belongs to us all. […]
Posted inNews
Spotlight on: Stars Pharmacy
Not a week had gone by since the grand opening of Stars Pharmacy when owner Sami Boraie walked into the building on a Thursday morning to broken glass littering the floor. According to officers from the Guadalupe Police Department investigating the scene, two men with clearly identifiable tattoos were captured on closed-circuit television smashing the […]