View photos from the Feb. 29 memorial walk. Detectives from the Santa Maria Police Department (SMPD) and members of the community walked with the parents of Brayan Mejia-Molina through the area of West Sonya and South Thornburg streets during the evening of Feb. 29, distributing fliers in the hopes of finding the person responsible for […]
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Posted inFood & Drink
The password is ‘beer’: The BarrelHouse Speakeasy is open for barrel-aged brews and beard trims in SLO
View more photos from BarrelHouse Brewing’s new San Luis Obispo location. Make your way down Chorro Street in San Luis Obispo toward the creek, and you can’t miss it: an old-fashioned white-and-teal barber chair, sitting alongside a spinning antique barber pole. The sign above the storefront reads “BarrelHouse Brewing Company,” but the space smacks more […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Daytripper: The Piedras Blancas Light Station turns 141
Check out more photos of the Piedras Blancas Light Station. More than 100 people line up alongside the normally vacant white walls of the old Piedras Blancas Hotel on Saturday, Feb. 13. It’s 9:45 a.m., foggy, windy, and the cracked concrete of the parking lot is full of cars, also in line. Everybody is waiting […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
The Donald Sinta Quartet performs classical saxophone music in Lompoc
Listen to an interview with Dan Graser. The saxophone is best known for its contributions to jazz and rock ’n’ roll, and it’s easy to understand why. The instrument is very malleable to the whims of its players, allowing for varying sounds, depending on the type of sax, and a range of emotive qualities. But […]
Posted inNews
Commitment to care: Waves of Health provides essential medical attention and supplies to patients in Dominican Republic
The pills are huge, bleached white with “IP 220” stamped on one side, and they’re pouring out of a bottle you need two hands to hold. It’s metformin, a drug used to treat type II diabetes. Two residents (doctors in training), a medical school student, and I are measuring six-month supplies into zip-lock bags. A […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Santa Maria Philharmonic expands youth outreach with Nutcracker performance
View a video of the Santa Maria Philharmonic Society’s production of “The Nutcracker.” Scores of Santa Maria valley fifth graders lined the grass and pavement at the corner of Broadway and Morrison, patiently filing into the historic Ethel Pope Auditorium on the morning of Dec. 15. This was the second day of free youth outreach […]
Posted inNews
‘We have to live with the fear’: Despite efforts by the Santa Maria ICE office, undocumented immigrants remain afraid of deportation
Editor’s note: The last names of some of the people in this story have been omitted in order to protect their identity. It’s nearly 7 p.m. as Francesca, fresh off of work, pauses to speak about her experience living and working in Santa Maria illegally. Her long black hair is pulled back into a loose […]
Posted inNews
Hops and crafts: A small and fast-growing craft beer industry is making its mark on the Central Coast and beyond
View a slideshow from local breweries and the 2015 Great American Beer Festival. Men and women dressed in furry costumes, an autonomous motorized keg offering rides to strangers, and beards galore. A seemingly endless supply of small-batch, or “craft,” beer flowed from thousands of kegs behind rows upon rows of individual booths inside the Colorado […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Generations dance together at the annual Santa Ynez Chumash Pow-Wow
View the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians’ short documentary about the 50th annual Intertribal Pow-Wow. This year’s Santa Ynez Chumash Intertribal Pow-Wow event is the tradition’s golden anniversary. It began in 1965 as an effort to raise funds to bring running water to the reservation. Now the annual Pow-Wow event invites competitive dance and […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Learn to play and make a didgeridoo at CovenTree in Santa Maria
Watch a video of Neil Miyamoto explaining the technique of circular breathing. CovenTree Books and Gifts in Santa Maria played host to an informal gathering for those interested in the didgeridoo on Aug. 29. It was a meet up to gauge interest in the possibility of a didgeridoo crafting event, lessons, and possible “didge circle” […]
Posted inNews
A hero’s life after Katrina: Ten years later, an Air Force pararescueman recalls the people he helped during the hurricane’s aftermath
View a slideshow of scenes from Katrina’s aftermath. Mike Maroney isn’t the type of guy that seeks attention. As a seasoned Air Force pararescueman, his job entails secrecy. And as a member of the U.S. military, most of his jobs don’t happen in the States. But 10 years ago, when Hurricane Katrina slammed the Gulf […]
Posted inNews
Marilyn Pharis murder sparks dueling protests on immigration policy
View a slideshow of the dueling protests. On the same day that Victor Aureliano Martinez Ramirez and Jose Villagomez were arraigned the murder of 64-year-old Marilyn Pharis, groups armed with signs and chants took to the corner of Cook and Miller streets around noon on Aug. 13 to protest her death. But the groups weren’t […]