BABYSHAMBLES SEQUEL TO THE PREQUEL
JOCK McDONALD
BY DESIGN: Learn from the master when graphic artist Michael Schwab delivers a lecture on September 25 at the Balboa Building.
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POETRY FOR THE PEOPLE VINCENT LAM
THE MISSION POETRY SERIES PRESENTS SEPTEMBER VOICES
Since its inception in 2009, the Mission Poetry Series has held readings at the Mission Renewal Center, featuring the work of emerging and established poets. This month, the series is moving over to Granada Books, the city’s newest independent bookstore, which opened at State Street in June. September Voices: Three Poets for the Autumn Equinox kicks off on Saturday, September 21, at 1 p.m. with refreshments, complimentary broadsides, and readings from three regional writers. Among those featured are poets Emma Trelles and Michael McLaughlin (pictured left). A former resident of Florida, Trelles now lives in Santa Barbara. Many of her poems drip with the cloying heat of the south, while others turn their focus to internal landscapes: A mind needs a place to set its teeth, and grace arrives in fixing the toilet, in water smoothing the pre-dawn fears of possible cysts, faulty seatbelts, the radio loop of reasons I’m needed and belong nowhere.
FOREVER EVOLVING Michael Schwab Talks Heroes, Graphic Arts Design nerds, take note. This Wednesday, acclaimed illustrator and graphic artist Michael Schwab will swing through town for a public discussion and career retrospective. Schwab’s talk, titled Creating the Hero: The Evolution of a Style, finds the artist looking back and exploring the legendary people, projects, and encounters that helped define his career. While the subject matter may be skewed toward the more artistically inclined, Schwab’s history and work are most definitely made for mass consumption. Over the course of his 30-year career, he’s designed posters and logos for Apple, Nike, Ralph Lauren, Wells Fargo, Robert Mondavi, and the National Park Service, and worked with everyone from Rolling Stone to Levi’s. Schwab’s talk takes place September 25, at 6 p.m. in the Balboa Building ( State St.) and is sponsored by the S.B. chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Arts. Visit sbaiga.org for tickets and info. — Aly Comingore
L I F E
STAR BLACK
he inspiration for Noises Off, Michael Frayn’s 1982 comedy about a ragtag theater company’s desperate attempts to stay together long enough to finish a tour, famously came from watching a play from backstage. Frayn was in the wings while Lynn Redgrave, among others, performed one of his earlier shows, a farce called The Two of Us, when it hit him — this angle is even funnier than the one the audience sees. Proceeding from that insight, he created what has proved to be one of the most durable and popular comedies in the modern repertoire. On Friday, September 20, the show kicks off a run at Circle Bar B Dinner Theatre that will last nearly until Halloween — ending on October 27, to be exact. What makes this production special? First off, there’s the outstanding cast, which includes such mainstays of the Circle Bar B barn as William York Hyde (who has also designed and built an ingenious set), Susie Couch, George Coe, and Tiffany Story. The show’s director, Miller James, will play the director in the play, and if that’s not already confusing enough, MAKE SOME NOISE: Circle Bar B Dinner Theatre presents Michael Frayn’s play within a play Noises Off starting this Friday, September 20. he will alternate in the role with another CBB regular, Joseph Beck. This ambitious production will challenge the Circle Bar B bers of the distinguished Bottoms clan will be performing in the team and venue to stretch in several new ways. Ordinarily, Noises show. Joseph Bottoms has taken on the role of Freddy, and his Off is performed on a two-story set, but designer Hyde has come daughter Katherine, who has been in all three of this summer’s up with a linear solution to this problem that will put the fastshows at Circle Bar B, will play Brooke. What kind of sparks will paced comic action nearly into the laps of those lucky enough fly with a fatherto score front-row seats. In adapting the script for this producand-daughter tion, other changes have been made, as well, and, while the play team around? within the play remains set in an English fishing village, choice You’ll just have to West Coast locations from the Pacific Northwest to Southern head up the freeCalifornia will substitute for the English countryside in the frame way to Refugio piece. Adding another layer of meta-dramatic action and chaos Road to find out. to Circle Bar B’s special blend of classic farce should make for an Call 967-1962 or exhilarating ride. visit circlebarb On top of all that, there will be a happy dividend for those who .com for tickets. — Charles Donelan follow the performing arts in our area, as not one but two mem-
BENJAMIN LAWLESS
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NOISES OFF COMES TO CIRCLE BAR B
COURTESY CIRCLE BAR B
BACKSTAGE FOLLIES
EMAIL: ARTS@INDEPENDENT.COMM
It may be a cliché, but thirty-something libertine Pete Doherty, like a fine wine, just gets better with age. So Babyshambles’ third studio album, Sequel to the Prequel, prudently produced and mixed by the returning Stephen Street and arriving six years on the heels of the strident Shotter’s Nation, finds Doherty and company in less of a shambles and more of a solid groove. Maybe the years between albums spent on his solo projects, modeling, and acting proved therapeutic for Doherty, ’cause he’s returned with one hell of a great record. Then, maybe Drew McConnell and Mick Whitnall pitching in on songwriting helped, too. Opening track “Fireman” draws on elements of The Fall, elsewhere the sublime “Fall From Grace” lifts licks from Dylan’s “I Want You” as Doherty liltingly croons: “Can we go someplace where they know my face / Gather round now, bear witness to my fall from grace.” This variegated disc also features the Libertinesworthy rocker “Maybelline,” and the old-school ’70s dancehall funk of “Dr. No.” Of particular note is lead guitarist Whitnall’s gorgeous playing on the zoologically trippy “Penguins.” All this and Damien Hirst artwork on the cover? The verdict: genius.
— Sean Mageean
In addition to publishing a novel and three poetry collections, McLaughlin has extensive experience teaching writing to incarcerated youth and adults. In a paean to the inmates he teaches, McLaughlin writes: Sonny Kurt Enrique Jaime Animal Dixon Dave, Kurt Woody/Neihart Lamb You wouldn’t’ve kept coming if you’d hated it Now you know Poetry’s no scam. Also featured this month is the work of the late poet and memoirist Kurt Brown (center), founder of the Aspen Writers’ Conference. Brown lived in Santa Barbara with his wife, poet Laure-Anne Bosselaar, and died unexpectedly last June after complications from surgery. Mission Poetry Series cofounder Paul Fericano spoke of Brown as “the real deal in the poetry world; a rare breed who often promoted poetry, period, above his own work.” Among Brown’s recent poems is “Present Tense,” which ends with a vision made all the more poignant by his passing: But isn’t that what childhood is all about, a pre-verbal idyll without time before the snake of language slithered in and hissed you are dying, you will die, you have died. Learn more about the work of these poets by visiting emmatrelles.com, mycalmac.com, and poetryfoundation.org/bio/ kurt-brown. For info about September Voices, call 845-1818 or visit — Elizabeth Schwyzer sbgranadabooks.com.
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