Listen to the full interview with BJ Barham. North Carolina country rockers American Aquarium, headed by singer/songwriter BJ Barham, have been tearing through the nation playing packed shows since the release of the band’s newest record Wolves in February of this year. Their next stop—and the group’s Santa Barbara County debut—is at Standing Sun Wines […]
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Battling the city: A Lompoc resident fights with code compliance over what he sees as ‘un-American’ treatment of a homeowner
View a slideshow of additional photos. It’s 11 a.m. and Sterling Ranft steps out of a mobile home trailer in his yard and into the daylight, eyes squinting after waking up from a deep slumber. He stuffs a 700-page California Penal Code book into his armpit and cracks open a Miller Genuine Draft tall boy. […]
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DANA Cultural Center welcomes cowboy singer/songwriter Dave Stamey for a benefit concert
Listen to the full interview with Dave Stamey. The tradition of the traveling musician goes back far in time, from the medieval troubadours to the more recent Californio era, when the vaqueros would strum their guitars and sing under the eaves of the oak trees at the Dana Adobe in Nipomo, as Juan Francisco Dana […]
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Fun at the Fair
The Santa Barbara County Fair included five days of activities for local youth and families, from carnival games and rides to livestock and agricultural competitions, vendors, and stage performances. The fair weathered the storm on Sunday, July 19 as the heat wave and drenching rain pelted the Santa Maria Fairpark’s pavilions. Sun photographer Kaori Funahashi […]
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Bulldog sluggers: Locally bred softball players take Allan Hancock College on a 34-game winning streak
See a slideshow of how the Bulldogs do what they do. Allan Hancock College is a softball powerhouse—with two straight conference titles tucked firmly into its softball cleats, the team marauded the world of community college ball with a 34-game winning streak. That streak ended the weekend of May 8 in the Super Regionals tournament, […]
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Soil and vines: Some grape growers on the Central Coast use less water than others–the trick is to dry farm
See a slideshow of dry-farmed vineyards on the Central Coast. The red-hued, sandy soil in the area west of New Cuyama is made up of the sort of fine dust that settles on your shoes and clothes, softening the color of jeans and cowboy boots. This soil is where Stephen Gliessman and Roberta Jaffe opted […]
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Allan Hancock College features the bronze work of Joseph Castle in the show The Things We Carry
View a slideshow of Joseph Castle’s work. Once cooled from its molten state, bronze is an almost immovable media. Bronze sculptor and local artist Joseph Castle doesn’t pour the liquid hot metal personally, but first makes a mold—the shell of the work he is hoping to create—before overseeing his foundry-man’s pouring. The artist’s bronze relief […]
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Supporting change: Picketers in Santa Maria support strike against Driscoll’s
Picketers took to the corner of Main Street and Broadway in Santa Maria to support workers in Baja California on strike against Driscoll’s, a strawberry producer based in Oxnard. Pedro Reyes, a local social change advocate, said the American-based company exploits workers in another country, calling the system “crazy.” The strike, which started on March […]
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Experimenting on invasive species: Efforts to manage veldt grass in the Guadalupe dunes go aerial
View a slideshow of the Guadalupe dunes. A helicopter rises from behind the hills, fields of strawberries and broccoli stretch for miles into the distance. The pilot moves toward a specific target, then releases a foggy, wet dust from a 17-foot spray boom, carpeting the ground—and, more specifically, the plants growing there. Clouds of herbicide […]
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Pacific Coast Energy Company heads down environmental impacts road for its proposed oil-drilling project on Orcutt Hill
View a slideshow of PCEC’s oil operations. The whirring “whoosh” of cyclically steamed oil wells buzzing on Orcutt Hill is gentle in comparison to the diesel generated “catcha-catcha catcha-catcha” of the conventional oil pump jack known as Folsom 6 on the other side of Pacific Coast Energy Company’s (PCEC) property. The hill has produced more […]
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Teen Amaya Rose brings her champion fiddling and powerful yodeling skills to Santa Maria
Listen to the full interview with Amaya Rose. Amaya Rose is a 15-year-old from Paso Robles who will perform a concert of bluegrass, country, and Americana music at the Temple Beth El in Santa Maria on March 9. Like her performance at Temple Beth El last year, banjoist Julio Boysenberry and guitarist Ron Miller will […]
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Sculptor, ceramicist, and paintbrush artist Glenn Grishkoff shows and performs at Allan Hancock College
Listen to the full interview with Glenn Grishkoff. The paintbrush is nowhere near a new invention; it’s been used to create some of humanity’s most aged masterpieces. The modern example of the age-old technology is that of uniformity: neat rows of bristles perfectly shaped for any utility, often sprouting from colorful petroleum-based handles devoid of […]