VOICE Magazine: December 26, 2025

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December 26, 2025 subscribe

Courtesy film still from Train Dreams

Cinema

Movies are a great holiday pastime 22, 23

Photo by Chris Woodyard/SB News-Press

New Business

Ghirardelli lands on State Street

7

John Palminteri: Community Voice. . . . . . . . . 15 Harlan Green: Economic Voice. . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Community Market & Legals. . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-18 David Gress: Tree of the Month. . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Galleries & Art Venues. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 5 - 2 7

C alendar...20-21

Movies...19, 22, 23

Art The art of Oskar Fischinger at Sullivan Goss 25

Environment Op-Ed by CEC CEO Sigrid Wright and Congressman Salud Carbajal 9

Photo courtesy of CEC

In This Issue Community News. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6, 9-14

MAW's Mariposa Series kicks off 2026 with Cellist Joshua Roman, Violinist Tessa Lark, and Double bassist and composer Edgar Meyer

Painting by Oskar Fischinger

Ring in the New Year with the Santa Barbara Symphony and more 3, 21

Cover photos courtesy of Music Academy of the West

Photo courtesy of SB Symphony

New Year's Eve

Classical Community in Action – 2026 Set for Excitement musicacademy.org Cover story see pages 4-5

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December 26, 2025

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December 26, 2025

Music Academy of the West

Classical Community in Action

PENING THE NEW YEAR WITH A CLASSICAL “DREAM TEAM,” a collaboration with the Santa Barbara Symphony, and the longawaited return of the Takács Quartet, the Music Academy of the West continues to be a lighthouse for local and international talent.

Photo by Jim McGuire

Its impact, driven by an ever-growing community of alumni, teaching artists, and guest performers, will fully emerge for January’s classical programming both on and off the Academy’s Miraflores campus.

The Lark, Roman & Meyer Trio will kick off 2026 with dynamic energy for the Music Academy’s next Mariposa concert on Thursday, January 8th at Hahn Hall. The night will pair Bach’s Sonata for Viola da Gamba in G Major with several of Edgar Meyer’s Trio pieces to offer a listening experience that blends tradition with influences from folk, bluegrass, and more.

“Don’t miss it,” cellist Joshua Roman told VOICE. “I haven’t heard anything like this before, and I get to be in it! If you love so many kinds of music — you don’t have to be a classical music lover or a bluegrass lover — just be a music lover, and you will get this.”

Double bassist and composer Edgar Meyer

Roman realized that his dream of being a professional classical musician could become his reality while studying at the Music Academy in 2002. He still claims that Santa Barbara “feels like home.” musicacademy.org

“I love not only coming back, but especially these times when I can bring something new with me to share,” he said.

Roman has blazed a path as a cello soloist and composer. He has recently earned praise for his 2024 album Immunity, which reflects on his experiences with Long Covid through original compositions and music that holds personal significance. Currently, he is collaborating with musicians to expand this project to another album, tour, and more.

Cellist Joshua Roman will perform with the Lark, Roman & Meyer Trio for the Music Academy’s next Mariposa concert on January 8th

Roman has also recorded and toured with violinist Tessa Lark and Grammy Awardwinning double bassist and composer Edgar Meyer since 2021, forming what he calls a “dream team” of a trio.

“It’s simultaneously warm, intense, novel, and familiar,” said Roman about Meyer’s work.

“He’s got a voice and I think the trio as a whole has a voice that really works and brings out such beauty and focus in music that is very distinct.”

While all three musicians have individually performed at Hahn Hall previously, with Meyer even serving as a 2019 Mosher Guest Artist, January 8th will mark their first trio concert at the Music Academy.

For tickets to the Mariposa concert ($65-80) visit musicacademy.org/mariposa

“The potential for developing not only a relationship with the music, but with the people you’re playing it with, that is something I’ve longed for, and this is by far the deepest experience that I’ve had with that,” shared Roman.

“It just keeps giving back.”

BEYOND HAHN HALL, Music Academy alumni will shape Santa Barbara’s 2026 classical music scene when they star in the Santa Barbara Symphony’s Beethoven Piano Concerto Marathon. Designed to spotlight rising piano virtuosos, this creative concert series will bring five winners and medalists of international piano competitions to the Granada Theatre to perform all of Beethoven’s stirring piano concertos between January 17th and 18th.

He added that one of the pieces to be performed for Santa Barbara audiences is a work Meyer specially composed for their trio. Long an icon of the classical music world, Meyer is celebrated for weaving in elements that gesture beyond traditional classical parameters, namely bluegrass and folk.

Photo by Lauren Desberg

O

By Daisy Scott / VOICE

Photo by Shervin Lainez

Music Academy Musicians Ring in the New Year

SB Symphony’s Beethoven Piano Concerto Marathon

Min Joo Yi, the 2025 Music Academy of the West Solo Piano Concerto Violinist Tessa Lark Competition winner, will However, amidst this kick off the weekend by presenting Beethoven’s reputation, Roman feels that the trio’s music Concerto No. 3.

Her performance emerges is really best described as “pre-genre,” in that through a partnership with the SB Symphony they prioritize playfulness and innovation over that decreed the winner of the Academy’s adhering to genre limitations. He voiced that prestigious competition would have the honor “genre is a construct that’s put over creativity.” of performing as a Beethoven marathon soloist.

He said that audiences can expect a truly unique concert experience.

Story continued on page 5

Music Academy of the West Story continued from page 4

Yet Yi will not be the only Academy alumna sharing her love of Beethoven with audiences next month. In a serendipitous turn of fate, Angie Zhang, who studied solo piano at the Music Academy in 2022, has also been selected to perform after ranking as a 2025 American Piano Awards finalist. She will present Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2 during the marathon’s second day.

For tickets to the Beethoven Piano Concerto Marathon visit thesymphony.org

Photo courtesy of Music Academy of the West

Up Close and Unforgettable: The Takács Quartet

Photo by Amanda Tipton

Min Joo Yi, 2025 Music Academy of the West Solo Piano Concerto Competition winner

Angie Zhang, Music Academy alumna (‘22) and American Piano Award finalist

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Local News for a Global Village | www.VoiceSB.com

Photo courtesy of Music Academy of the West

December 26, 2025

The Takács Quartet will perform a special benefit dinner concert for the Music Academy

of the West on January 22nd in Hahn Hall CLASSICAL MUSIC AFICIONADOS are also anticipating the return of the Takács Quartet to Made up of artists in residence at the University of Colorado at the Music Academy campus for a special benefit concert and dinner Boulder, the Takács Quartet tours on a national and international on Thursday, January 22nd. A world-renowned string quartet, the basis each year, mesmerizing audiences at prestigious concert halls, group holds a local connection through its violist Richard O’Neill, universities, and beyond. The quartet regularly comes to Santa who is a Music Academy Teaching Artist and Academy alumnus.

Barbara to work with Music Academy students, including this past

In a once-in-a-lifetime experience, O’Neill, along with cellist András Fejér, and violinists Edward Dusinberre and Harumi Rhodes, will perform an intimate concert for an on-stage dinner party at Hahn Hall. The quartet will play Antonín Dvořák’s String Quartet No. 13 in G Major, Op. 106, giving attendees the chance to witness the quartet’s dynamic skills and chemistry up close.

summer when the quartet celebrated its 50th anniversary with a concert at the Lobero Theatre.

Only 70 seats are available. For tickets ($500-750) visit musicacademy. org/upclose

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Local News for a Global Village | www.VoiceSB.com

December 26, 2025

Courtesy photo

Community News

Vista Del Mar Union School District Enters Year Two of Environmental Transformation SUPPORTING ITS FOCUS ON ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION, the Vista Del Mar Union School District has transitioned into Year Two of its five-year plan to establish the Vista Institute of Environmental Studies. Building on a strong first year of foundational environmental awareness, the district is now implementing GradeLevel Focus Areas and accelerating its curriculum development, leveraging its State Park-surrounded setting.

“Our first year successfully developed a school-wide culture of environmental awareness,” said Bree Valla, VDMUSD Superintendent. “Now, we are deepening that commitment by making the study of the environment a core, progressive part of every student’s journey from transitional kindergarten through eighth grade. This systematic approach ensures our students become truly knowledgeable and proactive about the world around them.”

The district is also focusing on engaging local environmental groups and stakeholders to build vital partnerships and support for the program. vdmusd.org

Members Only Barbershop Spreads Holiday Joy COVERING ITS STOREFRONT FROM TOP TO BOTTOM IN HOLIDAY DECOR EACH YEAR, the Members Only Barber Shop once again spread holiday joy with Santa-focused decorations this month.

Adding to the festivities, the business offered a December promo of offering half off of a service if customers brought new, unwrapped toys for Toys for Tots.

Courtesy photo

“We need to get back to the essentials, with Santa Claus,” said owner Henry Franco. “I just want to bring back some of that joy. I enjoy the smiles it brings people, and I love to watch all the people stopping by to take pictures.”

Decor display at Members Only Barbershop at 2005 State Street

“Wouldn’t it be great if every kid got toys for Christmas?” added Franco.

Members Only Barber Shop celebrated its 30th anniversary this year, making the 2025 display all the more meaningful as it continued a decadeslong tradition. Over the years, the shop has been transformed into a Winter Wonderland with themes such as a Polar Bear dressed in rubber duckie pajamas on an igloo. Once the entire building was transformed into a gingerbread house.

Franco has won numerous awards through the Downtown Organization’s holiday decorating contest, which all hang in his shop. membersonlybarbershop.com

Spring Day Douglas Preserve by Ralph Waterhouse

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December 26, 2025

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Local News for a Global Village | www.VoiceSB.com

HERE’S THE SCOOP: Ghirardelli’s arrival could be sweet treat for downtown Santa Barbara The formal grand opening ceremony was scheduled for 3:15 p.m.

Monday (December 22nd). The first 100 people in line were to receive a free hot fudge sundae, the chain’s officials said.

By Chris Woodyard Santa Barbara News-Press 12.18.25

T

HERE’S NO SHORTAGE OF ICE CREAM PARLORS DOWNTOWN, but hopes are high that the latest entry could put a cherry atop a revival at State Street’s south end.

The Ghirardelli Chocolate & Ice Cream Shop opens Saturday at 509 State St., offering boxes of chocolates and its signature hot fudge sundaes.

The debut marks the San Leandrobased chain’s 19th location in California and fuels a business boost downtown.

“We’re excited to plant roots in this beautiful community, creating a place to gather with friends and family over an ice cream sundae or enjoy a sweet treat while on vacation,” said Lacey Zane, Ghirardelli’s vice president of restaurant and retail.

Ghirardelli is opening in downtown Santa Barbara at 509 State St. “With Ghirardelli’s rich history in California, this beautiful location on Santa Barbara’s State Street is the perfect place for us to expand our vision.”

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Ghirardelli has been a San Francisco institution since 1852.

At a time when downtown Santa Barbara is struggling with vacant storefronts, the chocolate shop marks a significant step forward for the city.

The nationally known chain could spark more companies to take a look at downtown as well as attract locals and tourists in search of something comforting and familiar.

Ghirardelli takes over a storefront formerly occupied by Pascucci, the venerable Italian restaurant that moved to 1230-A State St. last year.

After 32 years as a downtown fixture, though, Pascucci’s owners announced it would close forever in February.

Printed with permission of Santa Barbara News-Press 12.18.2025 • newspress.com

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Local News for a Global Village | www.VoiceSB.com

December 26, 2025

“[Michael V. Drake] has used his decades of experience to advocate for better access to higher education for all Californians and has always fought for academic excellence.”

– Governor Gavin Newsom

One of The New York Times’ 10 Best Books of 2024

An Evening with

UC President Emeritus

An Evening with

Miranda July Tue, Jan 20 / 7:30 PM / UCSB Campbell Hall “By tangling explicitly with reality across mediums, July pushes autofiction to new limits.” The Guardian (U.K.)

Dr. Michael V. Drake

In Conversation with Dr. Susannah Scott Thu, Jan 22 / 7:30 PM / UCSB Campbell Hall

“In Compagnie Hervé KOUBI’s Sol Invictus, the dancers’ extraordinary moves are integrated into a poetic vision.”

The New York Times

A Next Generation Jazz Legacy California Premiere Dazzling Hip Hop Choreography From France

Compagnie Hervé KOUBI Sol Invictus

Sun, Jan 25 / 7:30 PM / Granada Theatre

Terence Blanchard and Ravi Coltrane

Miles Davis and John Coltrane Centennial Tue, Jan 27 / 7:30 PM / Granada Theatre

(805) 893-3535 | www.ArtsAndLectures.UCSB.edu Granada event tickets can also be purchased at: (805) 899-2222 | www.GranadaSB.org

Special Thanks

December 26, 2025

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Local News for a Global Village | www.VoiceSB.com

Opinion

From the Birthplace of Earth Day: A Warning and a Way Forward

I

N DOWNTOWN SANTA BARBARA, less than a block from where one of the first Earth Day festivals took place in 1970, we recently gathered environmental and community leaders around a single question: What happens when Washington, D.C. walks away? We were joined by environmental leaders, policymakers, researchers, city officials, youth leaders, and non-profit advocates. Some arrived carrying hope, others exhaustion, most both. All were there because they could feel something shifting — and not for the better.

Santa Barbara is known as the birthplace of the modern environmental movement. The 1969 oil spill ignited a national awakening, inspiring the creation of Earth Day and shaping the country’s environmental laws for generations. But the California Central Coast has also long been a stronghold of the oil industry. Today, 43 oil and gas companies operate in Ventura County and 25 in Santa Barbara County. In Ventura County alone, more than 8,000 residents live within 2,500 feet of an active oil well; roughly 60 percent are Latinx. This paradox – progress and pressure, innovation and extraction – has defined our history.

Now, the region finds itself at another turning point, and we are sounding the alarm — a canary in the coal mine for America’s climate future.

The Moment We’re In Over the past year, abrupt federal rollbacks, rescinded or paused grants, and political pressure on climate programs have disrupted millions of dollars in local projects. Three of the Community Environmental Council’s federal grants – together worth more than $1.5 million – were terminated, halting progress on regenerative agriculture, clean transportation, and new green jobs for working families.

The loss of this funding doesn’t just hit CEC — it hits families across the Central Coast.

“This funding was directly invested in our low income and Spanish speaking communities, with a focus on helping lower the upfront cost of EV ownership for low-income households, creating cleantransportation jobs, and more. We’re losing an investment in affordability, equity, and access for our disadvantaged communities,” stated Em Johnson, Director of Climate Programs, Community Environmental Council.

Across the region, the cumulative impact climbs much higher.

“The City of Santa Barbara is literally having to choose which beaches can be protected from sea level rise,” stated Alelia Parenteau, Sustainability & Resilience Director, City of Santa Barbara.

But it isn’t just the loss of funding — it’s the instability and uncertainty created by abrupt policy reversals. University researchers told us about planning multi-year research projects only to have grants halted midstream.

Local governments shared how paused contracts and shortened timelines make it nearly impossible to implement adaptation plans. Community groups noted that this policy whiplash disrupts their planning and operations, forcing them to prepare for one set of federal guidelines and then quickly adjust when they are abruptly rewritten.

“The Trump administration is moving us backwards by decades, threatening to open the Pacific to new offshore drilling for the first time in forty years, exploiting our national forest, and weakening the very safeguards that ensure public transparency and environmental protection,” stated Maggie Hall, Deputy Chief Counsel, Environmental Defense Center.

All of this is unfolding against a backdrop of rapidly accelerating climate impacts in a region facing nearly every major threat at once — heat, drought, wildfires, flooding, extreme storms, and sea-level rise.

What’s unfolding here is a preview of what communities across the country will face if federal climate commitments falter — places ready to act, but suddenly left without the resources to do so.

What We Heard The listening session revealed four clear themes — challenges that can be felt nationally, and also the beginnings of a path forward.

Participants emphasized that resilience is increasingly built through collaboration.

When federal support weakens, local partnerships strengthen. Cities, counties, universities, philanthropy, and nonprofits are stepping into roles once held by federal agencies.

“Each of these canceled or threatened projects is also an opportunity for deeper partnership. As researchers start thinking more locally, more about local problems and local solutions, there will be even more opportunities for collaboration with organizations in this community,” stated Sarah E. Anderson, UCSB Bren School of Environmental Science & Management.

A second theme was the need for steady, predictable funding. Climate action requires

Photo courtesy of CEC

By U.S. Congressman Salud Carbajal and Sigrid Wright, CEO, Community Environmental Council

Sigrid Wright, CEO of the Community Environmental Council and Congressman Salud Carbajal

continuity. Leaders described the damaging effects of policy whiplash: grants rescinded, reinstated, paused, then quietly eliminated.

Unpredictability itself has become a major barrier to progress.

Concerns about science, transparency, and the rise of green-hushing also came through strongly. Data is the backbone of climate policy. Yet many noted accelerating threats to that foundation: erased datasets, weakened reporting programs, and shortened public processes. At the same time, greenhushing is rising – the growing practice of organizations quietly continuing climate work but downplaying it publicly to avoid political targeting or controversy. When facts are buried and progress goes silent, communities lose trust, partners withdraw, and solutions stall.

Yet even amid these challenges, participants saw opportunity: new regional coalitions, innovative financing models, youth-led initiatives, expanded partnerships with university researchers, and a renewed commitment to local solutions resilient enough to withstand shifts in national politics.

Lessons From the Birthplace of Earth Day More than 50 years after the oil spill that changed American history, the values born here – community, science, activism, and collective responsibility – still guide us.

But the national landscape looks vastly different today. Public trust in federal climate leadership has been deeply shaken, and while federal policy has always shifted from administration to administration, there had been a throughline of protection that started in the early 1970s under Republican President Richard Nixon and continued for decades. The assault we’re experiencing now is unprecedented – and it risks setting us back 50 years.

And yet, the Central Coast continues to lead. What began here decades ago is still alive: an insistence that communities deserve clean air, resilient ecosystems, and a safe climate future — and that science must guide

the way. The birthplace of the environmental movement has become a proving ground for its survival.

A Blueprint Forward To move the country forward, we must take to heart the lessons from this region: 1. Build durable and innovative climate financing Communities cannot build resilience on one-year grants. Federal commitments must outlast election cycles — and be complemented by bioregional funds, donoradvised fund activation, ecological credit markets, and public–private partnerships that reduce reliance on federal volatility.

2. Protect truth-in-climate infrastructure Safeguard core federal datasets and ensure universities, nonprofits, and local governments can communicate science-based results without fear of retaliation.

3. Strengthen regional coalitions A significant share of climate solutions must be implemented at the local and regional levels. The Central Coast offers a model for the nation: earlier this month, three dozen representatives from climate networks from Santa Cruz to Ventura convened to explore how to advance their work together.

4. Elevate community voice Restore robust public processes, protect environmental justice tools, and ensure frontline communities remain at the center of climate action.

Fifty years after the first Earth Day, the Central Coast continues to lead - not because it is spared from climate impacts, but because it faces all of them. The canary in America’s climate coal mine is singing, not in fear, but as a call to act.

What began here once before can begin here again: a renewed era of climate leadership rooted in truth, community, and hope.

Submitted by the Community Environmental Council cecsb.org

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Local News for a Global Village | www.VoiceSB.com

December 26, 2025

SB Natural History Museum Collects Rare, Potentially Invasive Joro Spider

Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital Named 2025 Top Teaching Hospital

A THREE-INCH-LONG ORBWEAVER SPIDER NATIVE TO EAST ASIA, the Joro Spider, was collected and studied by the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History’s Schlinger Chair of Entomology Alex Harman, Ph.D. after it was discovered at a high-end, coastal business this fall. Harmless to humans, the Joro Spider (Trichonephila clavata) has been identified as a potentially invasive species, as there is some evidence it can outcompete native orbweavers in southeastern North America.

Photo courtesy of SB Cottage Hospital

IN RECOGNITION FOR ITS ACHIVEMENTS IN PATIENT SAFETY AND QUALITY, Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital has earned a Top Teaching Hospital recognition from The Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit national watchdog organization. Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital is one of 20 hospitals in California and one of just 73 nationwide recognized as a Top Teaching Hospital.

“We are proud to be recognized as a Top Teaching Hospital by The Leapfrog Group,” said Barbara Conviser, Vice President, Lynn Fitzgibbons, MD, teaching at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital Quality Support Services. “Our residency programs have long been a point of pride for Cottage, and this recognition affirms the daily contributions of our faculty, staff, and resident physicians in delivering high-quality care.”

To qualify for this awared, hospitals must rank top among peers on the Leapfrog Hospital Survey, which assesses hospital performance on the highest standards of care. More than 2,400 hospitals were considered for the award, and less than seven percent earned the honor of Top Hospital in one of four categories: children’s, general, rural and teaching. Cottage Health’s Graduate Medical Education programs provide comprehensive training for resident physicians in surgery, radiology, internal medicine, and pediatrics at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital. cottagehealth.org/residency-programs

A GRANT OF $3,800,000 FROM THE GORDON AND BETTY MOORE FOUNDATION has been awarded to Las Cumbres Observatory. A global network of robotic telescopes that has its International Headquarters and Data Center in Goleta, LCA will use these funds to purchase new cameras for the network’s 1-m Las Cumbres Observatory 1-meter telescopes telescopes, providing a significant at Cerro Tololo in Chile enhancement in efficiency and image quality.

Photo by CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Horálek (Institute of Physics in Opava)

Las Cumbres Observatory Awarded $3.8 Million Grant for New Telescope Cameras

“We have built the integrated telescope network that will guide the future of time domain astronomy,” said LCO founder and technologist Wayne Rosing. “Our observatory is a machine for the discovery of new astronomical events and the physics of the cosmos. This grant from the Moore Foundation will increase our capacity to better serve all of our science partners.”

Founded in 2014, the Las Cumbres Observatory was designed as a follow-up facility for the NSF funded Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). The survey will begin streaming data in 2026 and create an everchanging movie of the Southern sky, discovering hundreds of thousands of new transients per night. To realize the transformational science that Rubin promises, rapid and regular follow-up observations are critical. LCO’s global telescope network provides this through its combination of longitudinal and latitudinal 24/7 sky coverage; robotically controlled telescopes with no direct human supervision; homogenous instrumentation across 12 telescopes; and fully automated scheduling, execution, and data processing for all observations. lco.global

Photo by SB Museum of Natural History

Community News

Joro Spiders’ first reported sightings in the United States was around homes Joro Spider with Coast Live Oak leaves for scale in Georgia in 2014. Since then, it has spread west as far as Oklahoma and north as far as Maryland. The discovery of one in Santa Barbara County marks the first report west of the Great Plains.

“Insects and arachnids—being very small and easy to overlook—are easily transported unintentionally,” said Harman. “Flowers, fruits, vegetables, and insects can accidentally be transported among those. In addition to things like spiders that are on vegetation, there can be insects inside wood. It’s not uncommon for woodboring insects to be transported inside wooden pallets, furniture, or firewood.

Sometimes wood-boring beetle larvae can take over a decade to mature, so those insects can pop out in a new area long after the wood was moved.”

The Joro spider was observed at the business in question by naturalist and birding instructor Sophie Cameron, who notified Harman to collect it on behalf of the museum. The female Joro Spider is now a specimen preserved among the hundreds of thousands of insects and arachnids in the Museum’s Entomology Collection.

Dr. Harman and Cameron swiftly reported their discovery to the scientific journal Southwestern Entomologist to help other insect researchers track sightings.

The spider was adjacent to an area where shipments of flowers and plants are received, which likely explains how it got there. No other webs were found near the spider, which probably arrived alone inside some plants shipped from another part of the country. Cameron will be monitoring the site to be sure the discovery does not reflect a more established California presence.

The Museum is not publicizing the name of the business where the spider was found, says Director of Marketing & Communications Jonah Gabriel Haas, because “We don’t want this to be about shame or blame. It could happen anywhere, and that’s the point—we want to tell the story because it’s a great opportunity to raise everyone’s sbnature.org awareness of invasive species.”

Vista Del Mar Union School District Enters Year Two of Environmental Transformation SUPPORTING ITS FOCUS ON ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION, the Vista Del Mar Union School District has transitioned into Year Two of its five-year plan to establish the Vista Institute of Environmental Studies. Building on a strong first year of foundational environmental awareness, the district is now implementing Grade-Level Focus Areas and accelerating its curriculum development, leveraging its State Park-surrounded setting.

“Our first year successfully developed a school-wide culture of environmental awareness,” said Bree Valla, VDMUSD Superintendent. “Now, we are deepening that commitment by making the study of the environment a core, progressive part of every student’s journey from transitional kindergarten through eighth grade. This systematic approach ensures our students become truly knowledgeable and proactive about the world around them.”

The district is also focusing on engaging local environmental groups and stakeholders to build vital partnerships and support for the program. vdmusd.org

December 26, 2025

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Local News for a Global Village | www.VoiceSB.com

L

By Joshua Molina Santa Barbara News-Press 12.20.25

OU CANNON, A CONSUMMATE JOURNALIT who covered the White House for the Washington Post and was the foremost biographer of President Ronald Reagan, interviewing him countless times, chronicling his career through myriad news articles and five books, died at Serenity House in Santa Barbara on Friday. He was 92.

Cannon was a throwback journalist, the embodiment of classic American newsman values and practices. He was sharp, aggressive, and curious, with fine writing skills, and the ability to

tell any story with nuanced precision.

His coverage of Reagan defined the former actor and his casual rise from B-list Hollywood actor to governor and eventually president through two terms in the 1980s.

“Lou was an old-school, shoe-leather, reporter-guy who interviewed sources over and over,” journalist Ann Louis Bardach, a reporting colleague of Cannon for decades, told the NewsPress. “He interviewed Reagan more than a 1,000 times beginning in the mid ’60s. Mixing up my metaphors, he was a natural deep diver who loved legislative arcana.”

Image courtesy of Santa Barbara News-Press Archives

Lou Cannon, Reagan Biographer, White House Journalist For Decades, Dies in Santa Barbara

An article about Lou Cannon, biographer to President Ronald Reagan.

be quite tough.”

Cannon reached the heights of journalism, serving as a political reporter in 1969 for Ridder Publications. He became a reporter in 1957, and then worked at the Contra Costa Times as its managing editor.

“And he was fair. No cheap shots but he could

He later joined the San Jose Mercury News where he first started reporting on Reagan, who took office as Governor of California in 1967.

In 1972, Cannon jumped to the Washington Post and his political coverage encompassed presidents Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, and Richard Nixon.

Image courtesy of Santa Barbara News-Press Archives

Capps assisted Cannon in various ways, helping him run errands during recent years.

“Once, when I apologized for being quite late picking him up to take him to see his wife— whom he loved dearly—he gently replied, ‘I am sure you did your best.’”

She recalled how recently he continued to dazzle people with his journalism stories.

“In the biography Reagan (1982), Mr. Cannon portrayed his subject, a former Hollywood actor and television pitchman, as largely ignorant, unanalytical, passive, and childishly simplistic, oblivious to the contradictions in his own beliefs and unable to separate complex realities from fantasies rooted in his attachments to movies, daily astrology readings, and his own idealized small-town America origins,” according to the New York Times.

“His mind remained sharp as a tack until his final days,” Capps said. “Over Thanksgiving with my family just a few weeks ago this year, he quietly held court with his presidential analysis.

We were all ears. I loved Lou. Anyone who knew him will understand all the reasons why.”

Cannon’s best recognized and most sold work on Reagan, “President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime (1991), examined Reagan’s entire political career and amplified upon his enigmas. While weak on logic and analysis, Reagan was strong on ‘interpersonal intelligence,’ Mr. Cannon wrote, although he distanced himself from those around him, including his wife, Nancy,” the New York Times reported.

“The national media are appropriately honoring and celebrating his extraordinary work as an historian and biographer of President Reagan today,” Roberts said. “Those of us who were blessed to call him a friend in Santa Barbara, however, also knew him as someone who quietly nurtured the welfare, education, and civility of his community.”

Journalist Ann Louis Bardach and Cannon enjoyed longtime professional rapport.

A 1991 Santa Barbara News-Press column by Lou Cannon

who was 87, but that’s exactly what happened five years ago. He always asked about others. He paid attention. Only when asked would he offer political advice, but when he did, it was sage and unfailingly spot on.”

“We did several panels and events together over the years about our nonagenarian-subjects, us writing a few books on each. Lou would tell me, ‘this could be a long detour with Reagan’s Alzheimers [and it was], and you’re stuck with Fidel Castro, who, god help you, is never ever gonna die’. Almost true,” Bardach said.

Laura Capps, second district supervisor on the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors, met Cannon about five years ago and the two became close friends.

“As legendary as Lou Cannon was, what stands out most to me was how consistently kind and gracious he was,” Capps said. “I never expected to become close friends with someone

Journalist Jerry Roberts, host of political site Santa Barbara Newsmakers, recalled Cannon as “a great journalist, a great man, and a great neighbor.”

Cannon, who was born in Manhattan, served on the board of the Channel City Club, as a trustee of Antioch University Santa Barbara, and took Tai Chi classes in the park in Carpinteria.

“Lou was woven into the South Coast community,” said Roberts, the former managing editor of the San Francisco Chronicle and former executive editor of the Santa Barbara News-Press.

“Most of all, his moral authority and ethical clarity in standing up for the journalists who were under attack during the News-Press meltdown helped articulate and express the values and integrity of what it means to be a Santa Barbaran.”

Cannon is survived by his wife Mary, three children, and several grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Printed with permission of Santa Barbara NewsPress 12.18.2025 • newspress.com

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December 26, 2025

Community News

Camerata Pacifica Appoints Three New Board Members

SEEAG Awarded California Department of Food and Agriculture Grant

DEDICATED TO SUPPORTING CHAMBER MUSIC on the Central Coast, three individuals from different communities have joined the Camerata Pacifica board. cameratapacifica.org

A SPECIALTY CROP BLOCK GRANT OF $236,360 has been awarded to Students for Eco-Education and Agriculture (SEEAG) by the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA). The grant will support the agricultural education STEM program known as “STEM Career Pathways In Agriculture.” The CDFA grant is over a 2.66year term and will enable SEEAG to expand its three-part STEM learning model to more than 2,500 high school students in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. It includes lab work, career guidance and field trips to farms and nurseries.

“Students learn about specialty crop-related science, technology and engineering. They explore career opportunities at local farms and connect with agricultural professionals,” says Caitlin Paulus Case, SEEAG executive director. “To run a successful agriculture business today requires the skills to address the many challenges facing the industry, including soil science, plant nutrition and sustainability practices.”

Specialty farms participating in SEEAG’s STEM program include Bonipak Produce, Driscoll’s, Good Farms, Gill’s Onions, Plantel Nurseries, Brokaw Nursery, Reiter Affiliated Companies, McGrath Family Farms and Rancho Laguna Farms. SEEAG programs are 100 percent cost-free for students, teachers, and schools, including bus transportation to and from farms.

For more information visit seeag.org/stem-career-pathways-in-ag

Westmont’s Sacred Stories Project To Receive Grant WESTMONT COLLEGE’S SACRED STORIES PROJECT, which follows the vocational journeys of Christian young adults, has been award a nearly five million dollar grant by Lilly Endowment Inc. Westmont joins 60 other U.S. organizations that have received grants through the endowment’s National Storytelling Initiative on Christian Faith and Life since 2024. The groups include media organizations, denominational judicatories, church networks, publishers, educational institutions, congregations, and other nonprofit charitable organizations.

The Sacred Stories Project will draw on Westmont’s whole network to discover, develop, and share stories of young adult vocational journeys.

Westmont professors will contribute storytelling tools from their own disciplines; churches and nonprofits will work with young adults to draw out the meaning they’re discovering in those communities. westmont.edu Westmont President Gayle D. Beebe

Goleta & Santa Ynez Valley Libraries Invite All to Participate in Winter Reading Program COMMUNITY MEMBERS OF ALL AGES are invited to cozy up with good books this season as the Goleta & Santa Ynez Valley Libraries hosts its 14th annual Winter Reading Program. The program will run for six weeks through January 31st.

This year’s theme is “Read with Benny,” named for the mascot of Beanstack, the libraries’ online logging system. Logging books automatically enters locals into weekly prize drawings. Paper forms are also available at each location, which will also be entered into the same weekly drawings. Prize drawings will be held by age category for readers ages zero to five, six to 12, 13 to 17, and ages 18 and up. Drawings will be branch-specific for each location: Goleta Valley Library and the Bookvan, Solvang Library, and Buellton Library. Patrons can also pick up BINGO cards with self-paced activities for extra fun and challenges.

Visit goletavalleylibrary.beanstack.com to create an online account. Beanstack is available both as a website and a free app.

SANDRA TILLISCH SVOBODA (Santa Barbara), a Minnesota native, moved to California after graduating from Macalester College with a degree in nursing. She has volunteered for numerous community organizations, including serving on the boards of Calm and Planned Parenthood and as president of the Sansum Diabetes Research Institute Board. A devoted orchid enthusiast, Sandra Tillisch Svoboda Svoboda is also editor-in-chief of the Orchid Digest, an international orchid journal. She has served as president of the boards of the Orchid Digest, the American Orchid Society, and the World Orchid Conference, and was the manager of the Santa Barbara International Orchid Show for several years. Svoboda has been a fan of Camerata Pacifica since it first performed in churches decades ago, and has commissioned two works for the chamber music collective.

BETSY BLANCHARD CHESS (Ventura) was born into a Santa Paula pioneer ranching family. She has written extensively on Ventura County agricultural and business history and became editor and publisher of The Broadcaster Magazine (later Central Coast Farm & Ranch) for the Farm Bureau of Ventura County in 1988.

She retired from the magazine in 2013.

Betsy Blanchard Chess Chess also worked as an arts manager and volunteer, serving as Executive Director of New West Symphony, interim Executive Director for the Rubicon Theatre, and Director of Development for the Museum of Ventura County. She currently sits on the Museum board and is a past president of the Rotary Club of Ventura as well as the Ventura Music Festival. She also served as a Cultural Affairs Commissioner for the City of Ventura. In 2021, Chess published a memoir, Daughter of the Land: Growing up in the Citrus Capital of the World.

CHERYL SHIELDS (El Dorado Hills) was raised in Reno, Nevada. She graduated from Utah State University with a degree in forest management and earned a Master of Business Administration from Golden Gate University in San Francisco.

Her professional career has focused on the environmental and waste services industries in California, including Cheryl Shields expertise in land use planning, public relations, regulatory/environmental compliance, legislative liaison, and project management for large scale interstate utility transmission line projects. She has also worked with waste facility projects. Her first experience with Camerata Pacifica was in March 2022, when she attended a concert in San Marino. She was struck by the quality of the program, and the intimate performance.

Shields currently serves on the boards of the Serrano Fire Safe Council in El Dorado Hills, and Riva Club USA, a group of vintage wooden Riva boat owners dedicated to the restoration and preservation of classic Italian Riva boats.

To have your news included in VOICE Magazine, please email information to News@VoiceSB.com

December 26, 2025

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Coming Up at the LOBERO THEATRE

The twisted trail that led to the body of Melodee Buzzard and arrest of her mother

THE MUSIC & LEGACY OF THE

Overview: Piecing together scant evidence while asking for the public’s help cracked the case, Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown says. But a motive in the slaying remains a mystery.

Santa Barbara

By Chris Woodyard| S anta Barbara News-Press 12.23.25

A

FEB 9

Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown announced Tuesday that Melodee’s body had been found and that her mother, Ashlee Buzzard, had been arrested on suspicion of murder.

@EaglesTributeShow EaglesTributeShow.com THE MUSIC & LEGACY OF

MAR 13

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(805) 963-0761

The 40-year-old Lompoc woman was jailed without bail after officers took her into custody. Brown said she has remained uncooperative, just as she had been during more than two months of searching for her daughter.

Photo courtesy of the SB County Sheriff’s Office

S ANY DETECTIVE CAN TELL YOU, piecing together a case sometimes comes down to the little things.

That was true in the investigation of missing nine-year-old Melodee Buzzard.

ruthlessness that went into actually committing the crime,” Brown said at a late-afternoon news conference Tuesday.

He clicked through the timeline of the case.

It showed how Ashlee Buzzard became the prime suspect in Melodee’s disappearance.

The investigation began October 14th when a school administrator noted that Melodee hadn’t been coming to school.

Deputies went to the Buzzard home.

Ashlee Buzzard could provide no explanation about her daughter’s whereabouts, prompting a search of her home a day later.

Suspicions were further aroused when details emerged Melodee Buzzard, 9, went about an extended car trip the missing in October. Her body mother and daughter had taken was found this month in Utah, authorities said. a week earlier.

Video recorded at It was a little thing — a a car rental office showed both couple out snapping photos — that led to the Buzzard and Melodee entering the office wearing break in the case, the sheriff said. wigs. Those images were released to the public The pair noticed a badly decomposed body October 22nn in hopes that someone would amid the desert vistas outside Caineville in come forward with information that might help central Utah, Brown said. The couple called locate Melodee. the Wayne County, Utah, Sheriff ’s Office on Detectives traced the rental car’s route.

December 6th to report their finding.

Leaving California, it traveled through Nevada, Deputies there notified Santa Barbara Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, and Kansas. authorities a couple of days later.

Along the way, Buzzard’s activities raised DNA testing established that the body was suspicions.

Melodee’s. The girl had been shot to death in the At one point, she switched license plates on head, the sheriff said. Expended shell casings the rented Chevy Malibu, officials said. She went were found at the scene. from California plate 9MNG101 to New York The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, plate HCG9677. And she would back the car into Firearms and Explosives matched the shell gas stations, which Brown said was an apparent casings found in Utah to a spent bullet cartridge attempt to avoid being identified through security found in Ashlee Buzzard’s Vandenberg Village cameras. home. Yet another round, this one unfired, was Tracking her movements was painstaking, recovered from a white 2024 Chevrolet Malibu authorities said. The FBI called in help from that Buzzard had rented in early October, Brown seven field offices across the West. Multiple police said. departments and sheriff ’s offices helped as well.

Even with that evidence, some elements of Detectives were able to create a map they the case remain unresolved. No weapon has yet shared with the public. It showed Buzzard been recovered. And no motive for the slaying traveled through central Utah. Ultimately, that has been established, authorities said. location is where Melodee’s body was found.

Brown said his office would not expound on “All of us who have been involved in this case the horrific nature of the girl’s killing. have been deeply affected by it,” Brown said. “We “This level of criminal activity is particularly were hoping against hope that she would be safely shocking given the calculated, cold-blooded found. This outcome is deeply tragic.” and criminally sophisticated premeditation and Printed with permission of Santa Barbara Newsheartlessness that went into planning it and the Press 12.23.2025 • newspress.com

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December 26, 2025

Community News

Celesta M. Billeci Named New Principal Dance Advisor For The Music Center

A

CCEPTING A LEADERSHIP ROLE AT THE LOS ANGELES PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, Celesta M. Billeci, the lauded Miller McCune executive director emerita of the University of California, Santa Barbara Arts & Lectures, will be the principal strategic dance advisor for the institution’s Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at The Music Center series.

Coast,” said Rachel S. Moore, president and CEO of The Music Center.

Billeci will work closely with Moore in her new role and will further enhance The Music Center’s longstanding commitment to present the highest caliber of dance experiences in Los Angeles.

Photo by Kimberly Citro

Billeci recently concluded a distinguished tenure at UCSB Arts & Lectures, where she served as the longest-standing director “Celesta is not only in the organization’s one of the most respected 65-year history. Under performing arts leaders her leadership, UCSB Celesta M. Billeci and curators in the Arts & Lectures grew nation, but also someone from a modest campus-focused series I have known from a very young age. into a nationally respected presenting We grew up together in Sacramento’s powerhouse; Billeci expanded its annual dance community, training at the same budget from under $1 million to more ballet studio, and have admired each than $10 million and helped elevate Santa other’s accomplishments and success in Barbara into a top destination for superb bringing unforgettable dance experiences performing arts programming. to countless audiences in Southern “I am honored to collaborate California. For more than two decades, with The Music Center, a world-class Celesta’s artistic vision shaped the performing arts institution I have trajectory of concert dance presentation admired throughout my career,” said at UCSB Arts & Lectures and the West

SB Estate Planning Council Names Leaders TWO NEW LEADERS HAVE BEEN ELECTED to guide Santa Barbara Estate Planning Council. Both will begin a one-year term in January 2026. santabarbaraepc.org JUSTIN ANDERSON, CFP, CLU, CRC, partner of Santa Barbara-based Channel Wealth, has been elected Council President. Anderson previously served as the Council’s Vice President and is a UC Santa Barbara graduate. He specializes in comprehensive financial planning and assisting clients who are transitioning assets in retirement, divorce, inheritance, or the sale of business. Anderson is active in the Santa Barbara community, having served as an instructor at Santa Barbara City College and currently serving as Treasurer/Finance Committee Chair for MOXI, The Wolf Museum of Exploration + Innovation.

Courtney DeSoto

Billeci. “Helping to expand and curate an acclaimed dance season for an organization with a deep commitment to artistic excellence, civic engagement, arts education, and cultural vibrancy is an extraordinary opportunity.

At UCSB, Billeci reimagined the campus as a coveted stop for major American and international dance companies, including Alonzo King LINES Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ballet Preljocaj, Batsheva Dance Company, Cloud Gate Dance Theater of Taiwan, Dorrance Dance, Lyon Opera Ballet, Martha Graham Dance Company, and New York City Ballet Moves. Her influence is recognized across the field.

Billeci is the 2025 recipient of the Tim Wilson Distinguished Service Award, honoring her outstanding impact on the performing arts presenting community in

the West. Prior to UCSB, Billeci worked for more than ten years at the UCLA Center for the Performing Arts (now known as the UCLA Center for the Art of Performance). In addition to elevating Santa Barbara’s cultural presence, Billeci forged impactful partnerships with performing arts institutions nationwide, such as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and Cal Performances.

Billeci holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communications Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles. She and her husband John Hajda live in Santa Barbara; their son Alexander is a firstyear student at Cornell University.

The Music Center is also home to four renowned resident companies—Center Theatre Group, Los Angeles Master Chorale, LA Opera, and LA Phil.

For more information, visit musiccenter.org

City of Goleta Receives Excellence in Financial Reporting Award for 21st Year IN RECOGNITION OF ITS GOVERNMENTAL ACCOUNTING AND FINANCIAL REPORTING METHODS, the City of Goleta’s Finance Department has been awarded the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting by the Government Finance Officers Association for its Annual Comprehensive Financial Report for the fiscal year ended June 30th, 2024.

Goleta has now earned this award for 21 years.

The Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting (COA) is the highest form of recognition for financial reporting and honors Goleta’s commitment and proven track record. The COA is judged by an impartial panel to meet the program’s high standards, which includes demonstrating a constructive “spirit of full disclosure” to communicate its financial story. cityofgoleta.org/your-city/finance

HAVE

Justin Anderson

COURTNEY DESOTO, J.D., CLPF, NCG, TEP, owner of Channel Islands Fiduciary Group, has been elected Vice President. She is a graduate of Westmont College and Santa Barbara College of Law. Before launching her fiduciary group, where she focuses on protecting vulnerable adults, she worked for the County of Santa Barbara and served as Court Investigator for the Santa Barbara Superior Court. DeSoto sits on the board of Santa Barbara Hospice Foundation and, since 2020, has also been on the board of the Santa Barbara Estate Planning Council.

YOU SEEN ME ?

You can spot me all over town.

I’ve been placed under trees to honor loved ones, celebrate special occasions, and to thank someone, like John Palminteri (left). If you have someone or something you’d like to commemorate, scan the QR code to learn more about our tree plaque program.

Santa Barbara Beautiful is a 501(c) (3) Donations may be tax deductible. TAX ID: #23-7055360

December 26, 2025

15

Local News for a Global Village | www.VoiceSB.com

On the Street

with John Palminteri Photos and Stories by John Palminteri, Special to VOICE

Melodee Buzzard Confirmed Dead LAW ENFORCEMENT HAS ANNOUNCED that Melodee Buzzard, a nine-year-old girl from Lompoc who has been missing for weeks, has been confirmed dead. Her mother is in custody.

First Responder Updates SANTA BARBARA COUNTY FIRE reported at 5:57am on December 20th that a man was found under Cold Springs Bridge – Hwy 154. Firefighters reached the 69-year-old male found at the abutment footing under the bridge after his vehicle went into a ditch adjacent to Hwy 154.

FIVE VEHICLES WERE DAMAGED in a crash in the 1400 block of San Miguel on the Santa Barbara Mesa on December 18th at 9:20pm. One was a classic Corvair. A young man believed to be the driver of a truck, the primary vehicle, was checked for sobriety at the crash site. Another person was also being detained. Santa Barbara Police and Fire had multiple personnel on the scene. No injuries were reported.

TWO GRENADES WERE FOUND IN A HOME on Veronica Place in Santa Barbara the night of Wednesday, December 17th. The owner located them in the attic where they were believed to have been for years. The Santa Barbara County Bomb Squad was called.

Some evacuations took place there was also a shelter in place order in the area. The grenades were determined to be WWII era and a Vandenberg Space Force team responded to assist. The street was closed at 5:30pm and reopened at 8pm. It is a popular street for holiday lights and vehicles were detoured during the investigation.

Eyeglass Factory Celebrates Free Kids Day for 31st Year KIDS DAY AT THE EYEGLASS FACTORY in Santa Barbara was held on Sunday, December 21st, from 9am to 2pm.

It offered free eye check ups and glasses. It was the event’s 31st year.

“They literally don’t know what they have been missing and they needed glasses,” said Gregg Feldman, SB Eyeglass Factory President. “Their face brightens up and they see the difference, literally.”

Locals Flock to Living Nativity Scene Display THE LIVING NATIVITY SCENE at the First United Methodist Church in Santa Barbara was an enjoyable presentation with a cast that included camels and petting animals. The event took place in the evening on Sunday and Monday, December 21st and 22nd, and was attended by a steady stream of visitors.

Community Concert Supports Musician in Need BLUES MUSICIAN MORGANFIELD BURNETT, who lost his van and his home in a fire recently, has been getting donations, support, and love from the community to help in the recovery. On December 22nd there was a special fundraiser at the Red Piano in Santa Barbara for Burnett.

He says things are looking up for a more secure place to live.

The tip jar was full Morganfield Burnett and a GoFundMe is impressive.

Pop-Up Vendors Confront Challenging Holiday Week OUTDOOR POP UP SELLERS hoped for a big weekend, prior to the rain. This week is expected to be a challenging one for shoppers, travelers, retailers, and outside musicians at all levels.

Final Cruise Ship for 2025 Visits Santa Barbara THE FINAL CRUISE SHIP STOP of the year in Santa Barbara was the AIDAdiva. It arrived at dawn on Thursday, December 18th, and pulled out at 5pm. Passenger count was expected to be as high as 2,050 with a crew of 646. This year, Santa Barbara had eleven cruise ship stops on the calendar.

Santa Barbara 2026 Waterfront Passes Available 2026 WATERFRONT PASSES are now available in Santa Barbara for every city lot but Stearns Wharf. Avoid those expensive tickets and stay a little longer.

John Palminteri is a veteran news reporter and anchor for Newschannel 3-12 TV and both KJEE and KCLU radio in Santa Barbara/Santa Maria/Ventura. Off the air, he’s often bringing his smile and positive energy to the microphone at fundraisers and civic events. John’s social media presence has one of the largest followings in Santa Barbara, and this page has the weekly highlights.

Twitter: @JohnPalminteri • Instagram: @JohnPalminteriNews www.facebook.com/john.palminteri.5

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December 26, 2025

VOICE Magazine • Community Market • LEGAL NOTICES Where to Learn About Local Government Meetings The Santa Barbara City Council meets most Tuesdays at 2pm • To learn more about the council and other City department meetings, visit www.santabarbaraca.gov

Experience you can count on!

The Goleta City Council meets biweekly on Tuesdays at 5:30pm • To learn more about the council and other City department meetings, visit www.cityofgoleta.org The Carpinteria City Council meets on the second and fourth Monday of the month at 5:30pm • To learn more about other City departments visit www.carpinteriaca.gov The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors meets most Tuesdays at 9am • To learn more about other County departments visit www.countyofsb.org The Santa Barbara County Association of Governments (SBCAG) generally meets on the third Thursday of the month at 10am · SBCAG is a regional board of 13 elected officials representing all eight cities and the County · visit www.sbcag.org

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Insertion Date: Print: 12.19.25/ Digital includedRead 12.17.25 this week’s issue of 7.60” times 3 columns = $108.98 • 12.19.25 PC Hearing 1.8.26.Kira Moffett Ave To have your news included in VOICE Magazine, VOICE Magazine atEsparza RE 404 VoiceSB.com : PO 32600495 Includes all ads with live links please email information to News@VoiceSB.com

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FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT: The following Limited Liability Company is doing business as TINY FIRES at 440 Commerce Ct, Suite C, Lompoc, CA 93436. COMMERCE C1, LLC. at 440 Commerce Ct, Suite C, Lompoc, CA 93436. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara on December 12, 2025. This statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the office of the County Clerk.

I hereby certify that this is a correct copy of the original statement on file in my office. Joseph E. Holland, County Clerk (SEAL). FBN No. 2025-0002817.

Published December 19, 26, 2025, January 2, 9, 2026.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT: The following Limited Liability Company is doing business as LOADSTAR MOVERS LLC at 1014 Via Regina, Santa Barbara, CA 93111.

LOADSTAR MOVERS LLC at 1014 Via Regina, Santa Barbara, CA 93111. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara on December 12, 2025. This statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the office of the County Clerk. I hereby certify that this is a correct copy of the original statement on file in my office. Joseph E. Holland, County Clerk (SEAL). FBN No. 2025-0002808.

Published December 19, 26, 2025, January 2, 9, 2026.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT: The following Corporation is doing business as GEST at 16 San Marcos Trout Club, Santa Barbara, CA 93105. LUNO INC. at 2789 NW Lolo Drive, Bend, OR 97703. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara on December 16, 2025. This statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the office of the County Clerk.

I hereby certify that this is a correct copy of the original statement on file in my office. Joseph E. Holland, County Clerk (SEAL). FBN No. 2025-0002854.

Published December 19, 26, 2025, January 2, 9, 2026.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT: The following Limited Liability Company is doing business as FLOWER GIRL at 15 W Gutierrez Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101. FLOWER GIRL, LLC at 15 W Gutierrez Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara on November 20, 2025.

This statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the office of the County Clerk. I hereby certify that this is a correct copy of the original statement on file in my office. Joseph E. Holland, County Clerk (SEAL).

FBN No. 2025-0002663. Published December 5, 12, 19, 26, 2025.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT: The following Individual is doing business as SANTA BARBARA DESIGN COLLECTIVE at 6743 Sueno Road, Goleta, CA 93117. DIA BECCHIO at 6743 Sueno Road, Goleta, CA 93117. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara on November 21, 2025. This statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the office of the County Clerk.

I hereby certify that this is a correct copy of the original statement on file in my office. Joseph E. Holland, County Clerk (SEAL). FBN No. 20250002667. Published December 19, 26, 2025, January 2, 9, 2026.

NOTICE OF PUBLICATIONS ON APPLICATIONS REGARDING PROVISIONS OF TITLE 28 AND/OR 30 OF THE MUNICIPAL CODE OF THE CITY OF SANTA BARBARA (SBMC) The Secretary of the Planning Commission has set a public hearing for Thursday, January 08, 2026 beginning at 1:00 p.m. in the City Council Chambers, City Hall, 735 Anacapa Street.

On Thursday, December 18, 2025, an Agenda with all items to be heard on Thursday, January 08, 2026 will be posted on the outdoor bulletin board at City Hall, 735 Anacapa Street, and online at SantaBarbaraCA.gov/PC. Agendas, Minutes, and Staff Reports are also accessible online at SantaBarbaraCA.gov/PC. TELEVISION COVERAGE: This meeting will be broadcast live on City TV-Channel 18 and online at SantaBarbaraCA.gov/CityTV. See SantaBarbaraCA.gov/CityTVProgramGuide for a rebroadcast schedule. An archived video of this meeting will be available at SantaBarbaraCA.gov/PCVideos.

Public comments may be submitted via email to WRITTEN PUBLIC COMMENT: PCSecretary@SantaBarbaraCA.gov before the beginning of the Meeting. All public comments submitted via email will be provided to the Commission and will become part of the public record. You may also submit written correspondence via US Postal Service (USPS) addressed to PC Secretary, PO Box 1990, Santa Barbara, CA 93102-1990. However, please be advised, correspondence sent via USPS may not be received in time to process prior to the meeting and email submissions are highly encouraged.

Please note that the Commission may not have time to review written comments received after 4:30 p.m. the Tuesday before the meeting.

All public comment that is received before 4:30 p.m. the Tuesday before the meeting will be published on the City’s website at SantaBarbaraCA.gov/PC. Comments provided via USPS or e-mail will be converted to a PDF before being posted on the City’s website. Note: comments will be published online the way they are received and without redaction of personal identifying information; including but not limited to phone number, home address, and email address. Only submit information that you wish to make available publicly.

APPEALS: Decisions of the Planning Commission may be appealed to the City Council. For further information and guidelines on how to appeal a decision to City Council, please contact the City Clerk’s office at Clerk@SantaBarbaraCA.gov as soon as possible. Appeals may be filed in person at the City Clerk’s office at City Hall or in writing via email to Clerk@SantaBarbaraCA.gov and by first class mail postage prepaid within 10 calendar days of the meeting at which the Commission took action or rendered its decision. Appeals and associated fee postmarked after the 10th calendar day will not be accepted.

NOTE TO INTERESTED PARTIES: Only those persons who participate through public comment either orally or in writing on an item on this Agenda have standing to appeal the decision. Grounds for appeal are limited to those issues raised either orally or in written correspondence delivered to the review body at, or prior to, the public hearing.

AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT: If you need services or staff assistance to attend or participate in this meeting, please contact the City Administrator’s Office at (805) 5645305. If possible, notification at least 48 hours prior to the meeting will usually enable the City to make reasonable arrangements. Specialized services, such as sign language interpretation or documents in Braille, may require additional lead time to arrange.

• 404 Moffett Ave Assessor’s Parcel Number: Zoning Designation: Application Number: Applicant / Owner: Project Description:

073-450-003 A-A-O/C-Z (Aircraft Approach and Operation/Coastal Overlay) 404 Moffett Ave Brad Klinzing / City of Santa Barbara Initiation of a Local Coastal Program Amendment to amend the zoning map for a portion of the Santa Barbara Airport property.

December 26, 2025

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J

By Harlan Green, Special to VOICE

UST A CURSORY LOOK AT THE ST. LOUIS FED’S GRAPH [right] of the Consumer Price Index dating from 1970 shows that inflation was much worse 48 years ago. The Arab oil embargo of the 1970s spawned the mother of all stagflations sending inflation to 14 percent in 1980.

The Trump administration is crowing about the weaker November inflation numbers cited in the Bureau of Labor Statistics graph, but who will believe the data when he fired the head of the BLS that produces the report because he didn’t like the unemployment revisions in September?

Certainly not consumers, as their sentiment index via the University of Washington sentiment survey has fallen steadily from its high of 74.0 last December to 52.9 this December.

The belief problem was most evident in Trump’s recent prime time, 20-minute Oval Office address quoted above, that showed the leader of our government no longer lives in the real world, only his lies and fantasies.

The Biden administration had brought inflation down to three percent last December.

It has only begun to rise again since Trump’s April 2nd retaliatory tariff announcements.

Graph courtesy of myf.red/g/10Wkr

Where is the Inflation?

Perhaps Trump’s biggest lies were “much of this success has been accomplished by tariffs. My favorite word 'tariffs,' which for many decades have been used successfully by other countries against us, but not anymore,” and that the tariffs are bringing “billions” back to the American economy.

Tariffs are an import duty taking money out of the pockets of Americans via the higher prices that have resulted.

They could be refunded to the importers that paid the duties, though, if most of the tariffs are repealed by the Supreme Court, as expected. But don’t count on prices coming down anytime soon as they have become embedded since then.

The inflation report was deceptive in that though the overall inflation rate fell to 2.7 percent from 3.0 percent most components rose over the year.

“In November, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers rose 2.7 percent over the last 12 months, not seasonally adjusted. The index for all items less food and energy increased 2.6 percent over the

Santa Barbara Mortgage Interest Rates

Contact your local loan agent or mortgage broker for current rates: DRAPER & KRAMER MORTGAGE CORP. Please call for current rates: Russell Story, 805-895-8831 PARAGON MORTGAGE GROUP

year (NSA).” BLS

nobody thought was even possible, not even remotely possible. There has never, frankly, been anything like it. One year ago, our country was dead. We were absolutely dead."

The index for all items less food and energy rose 2.6 percent over the past 12 months, but the shelter index increased 3.0 percent over the last year.

Other indexes with notable Yet the increases over the U.S. had the

By Harlan Green last year include fastest economic medical care (+2.9 recovery in the percent), household developed world from furnishings and operations the pandemic under Joe Biden (+4.6 percent), recreation (+1.8 with full employment and GDP percent), and used cars and growth in the two to three trucks (+3.6 percent). percent range.

ECONOMIC VOICE

The most harm to American pocketbooks will be skyrocketing energy prices as the massive build out of AI centers will need tremendous amounts of power. That’s why the energy index for electricity increased 6.9 percent over the last 12 months and the index for natural gas rose 9.1 percent.

Maybe the saddest part of Trump’s address was his nonsensical, desperate hyperbole: “We're doing what

No, we are not dead. And recent political surveys are showing that American voters in recent elections are waking up to the damage being done

by Trump and his oligarchs in just one year to the many Americans who have lost jobs, and healthcare coverage, and protection from the worsening floods, wildfires, and hurricanes that Trump calls “a hoax”, all in the name of enriching themselves.

Harlan Green © 2025 Follow Harlan Green on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarlanGreen Harlan Green has been the 18-year Editor-Publisher of PopularEconomics.com, a weekly syndicated financial wire service. He writes a Popular Economics Weekly Blog. He is an economic forecaster and teacher of real estate finance with 30-years experience as a banker and mortgage broker. To reach Harlan call 805-452-7696 or email editor@populareconomics.com.

Please call for current rates: 805-899-1390 HOMEBRIDGE FINANCIAL SERVICES Please call for current rates: Erik Taiji, 805-895-8233, NMLS #322481 MONTECITO BANK & TRUST Please call for current rates: 805-963-7511 • Coastal Housing Partnership Member SB MORTGAGE GROUP Simar Gulati, 805-403-9679

To have your news included in VOICE Magazine, please email information to News@VoiceSB.com

U.S. BANK Please call for current rates: Teri Gauthier, 805-565-4571 • Coastal Housing Partnership Member Rates are supplied by participating institutions prior to publishing deadline and are deemed reliable. They do not constitute a commitment to lend and are not guaranteed. For more information and additional loan types and rates, consumers should contact the lender of their choice.

CASA Santa Barbara cannot guarantee the accuracy and availability of quoted rates. All quotes are based on total points including loan. Rates are effective as of December 24, 2025. ** Annual percentage rate subject to change after loan closing.

To place your classified ad, email advertising@VoiceSB.com

18

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December 26, 2025

Insertion Date: Print: 12.26.25/ Digital included 12.24.25 VOICE Magazine • Community • Legal.Kira LEGAL 8.63” times 3 columns = Market $123.75 • 12.26.25 SHO Esparza. NOTICES

RE: 4233 Pozzo Circle (St. Vincent’s

Childcare Center); 217 S Milpas Street

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME, CASE NUMBER: 25CV07581. Petitioner: Madison Rose Tait filed a petition with this court for a decree changing names as follows: PRESENT NAME: Madison Rose Tait to PROPOSED NAME: Madison Rose Schulze. THE COURT ORDERS that all persons interested in this matter appear before this court at the hearing indicated below to show cause, if any, why the petition for change of name should not be granted. Any person objecting to the name changes described above must file a written objection that includes the reasons for the objection at least two court days before the matter is scheduled to be heard and must appear at the hearing to show cause why the petition should not be granted. If no written objection is timely filed, the court may grant the petition without a hearing. NOTICE OF HEARING: Date: February 13, 2026; Time: 10:00 am; Dept.: 4; ROOM: [ ] other (specify): at the: SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SANTA BARBARA, 1100 Anacapa Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101 (To appear remotely, check in advance of the hearing for information about how to do so on the courts website. To find your courts website, go to www.courts.ca.gov/find-my-court.htm.) 3 a. [X] A copy of this Order to Show Cause shall be published at least once each week for four successive weeks before the date set for hearing on the petition in a newspaper of general circulation: [x] (for resident of this county) printed in this county: VOICE MAGAZINE. Date: 12/15/2025 /s/: Donna D. Geck, Judge of the Superior Court. Legal #25CV07581 Pub Dates: December 19, 26, 2025, January 2, 9, 2026.

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME, CASE NUMBER: 25CV06974.

Petitioner: Mary Michaline Johns filed a petition with this court for a decree changing names as follows: PRESENT NAME: Mary Michaline Johns aka Mary Michaline Walz to PROPOSED NAME: Mary Michaline Hunter. THE COURT ORDERS that all persons interested in this matter appear before this court at the hearing indicated below to show cause, if any, why the petition for change of name should not be granted. Any person objecting to the name changes described above must file a written objection that includes the reasons for the objection at least two court days before the matter is scheduled to be heard and must appear at the hearing to show cause why the petition should not be granted. If no written objection is timely filed, the court may grant the petition without a hearing. NOTICE OF HEARING: Date: January 28, 2026; Time: 10:00 am; Dept.: 3; ROOM: [ ] other (specify): at the: SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SANTA BARBARA, 1100 Anacapa Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101 (To appear remotely, check in advance of the hearing for information about how to do so on the courts website. To find your courts website, go to www.courts.ca.gov/find-my-court.htm.) 3 a. [X] A copy of this Order to Show Cause shall be published at least once each week for four successive weeks before the date set for hearing on the petition in a newspaper of general circulation: [x] (for resident of this county) printed in this county: VOICE MAGAZINE. Date: 12/05/2025 /s/: Thomas P. Anderle, Judge of the Superior Court. Legal #25CV06974 Pub Dates: December 12, 19, 26, 2025, January 2, 2026.

The Multi-family Investment Specialist

STEVE GOLIS sgolis@radiusgroup.com www.radiusgroup.com

805-879-9606 CA Lic. 00772218

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805.698.4318

William J. Dalziel Lic#B311003 – Bonded & Insured

BillJDalziel@gmail.com WilliamDalziel.work

NOTICE OF PUBLICATIONS ON APPLICATIONS REGARDING PROVISIONS OF TITLE 28 AND/OR 30 OF THE MUNICIPAL CODE OF THE CITY OF SANTA BARBARA (SBMC) The Secretary of the Staff Hearing Officer has set a public hearing for Wednesday, January 7, 2026 beginning at 9:00 a.m. in the David Gebhard Public Meeting Room, 630 Garden Street.

On Thursday, December 18, 2025, an Agenda with all items to be heard on Wednesday, January 7, 2026 will be available online at SantaBarbaraCA.gov/SHO. Agendas, Minutes, and Staff Reports are also accessible online at SantaBarbaraCA.gov/SHO. TELEVISION COVERAGE: This meeting will be broadcast live on City TV-Channel 18 and online at SantaBarbaraCA.gov/CityTV. See SantaBarbaraCA.gov/CityTVProgramGuide for a rebroadcast schedule. An archived video of this meeting will be available at SantaBarbaraCA.gov/PCVideos.

Public comments may be submitted via email to WRITTEN PUBLIC COMMENT: PCSecretary@SantaBarbaraCA.gov before the beginning of the Meeting. All public comments submitted via email will be provided to the Commission and will become part of the public record. You may also submit written correspondence via US Postal Service (USPS) addressed to PC Secretary, PO Box 1990, Santa Barbara, CA 93102-1990. However, please be advised, correspondence sent via USPS may not be received in time to process prior to the meeting and email submissions are highly encouraged.

Please note that the Commission may not have time to review written comments received after 4:30 p.m. the Tuesday before the meeting.

All public comment that is received before 4:30 p.m. the Tuesday before the meeting will be published on the City’s website at SantaBarbaraCA.gov/PC. Comments provided via USPS or e-mail will be converted to a PDF before being posted on the City’s website. Note: comments will be published online the way they are received and without redaction of personal identifying information; including but not limited to phone number, home address, and email address. Only submit information that you wish to make available publicly.

APPEALS: Decisions of the Planning Commission may be appealed to the City Council. For further information and guidelines on how to appeal a decision to City Council, please contact the City Clerk’s office at Clerk@SantaBarbaraCA.gov as soon as possible. Appeals may be filed in person at the City Clerk’s office at City Hall or in writing via email to Clerk@SantaBarbaraCA.gov and by first class mail postage prepaid within 10 calendar days of the meeting at which the Commission took action or rendered its decision. Appeals and associated fee postmarked after the 10th calendar day will not be accepted.

NOTE TO INTERESTED PARTIES: Only those persons who participate through public comment either orally or in writing on an item on this Agenda have standing to appeal the decision. Grounds for appeal are limited to those issues raised either orally or in written correspondence delivered to the review body at, or prior to, the public hearing.

AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT: If you need services or staff assistance to attend or participate in this meeting, please contact the City Administrator’s Office at (805) 5645305. If possible, notification at least 48 hours prior to the meeting will usually enable the City to make reasonable arrangements. Specialized services, such as sign language interpretation or documents in Braille, may require additional lead time to arrange.

• 4233 Pozzo Circle (St. Vincent’s Childcare Center) Assessor’s Parcel Number: 059-490-CA3 & 059-490-030 Zoning Designation: R-M (Residential Multi-Unit) Application Number: PLN2025-00007 Applicant / Owner: Luis De La Torre, 19six Architects / Rosa Paredes, St. Vincent’s Institution Project Description: Interior Setback Modification for addition to existing childcare center on the St. Vincent’s campus • 217 S Milpas Street Assessor’s Parcel Number: Zoning Designation: Application Number: Applicant / Owner: Project Description:

017-251-007 C-2/S-D-3 (Commercial/Coastal Overlay) PLN2025-00207 Filing Date: 5/19/2025 Lonnie Roy, ON Design Architects / Ed St. George, SBMR, LLC Revision to PLN2022-00205 to construct new single unit residence instead of duplex. Amendment to CDP and Parking Modification required.

: Computer Oriented RE Technology

For Information on all Real Estate Sales:

805-962-2147 • JimWitmer@cox.net • Cortsb.com

To place your classified, email advertising@VoiceSB.com Read this week’s issue of VOICE Magazine at

www.VoiceSB.com

Santa Barbara South County Sales

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec ‘19

128 168 190 179 210

‘20 ‘21

144 125 141 101 84 168 154 151 264 250 225 223

‘22

124 160 204 160 168

179 125 160 138

112

113

‘23

81

131 122 120 112 109

91

96

'24

107 120 133 140 140 134 123 129

122 145

133

128

‘25

117 105 140 144 159 148 144 134 128 157

121

94 110 115 126

208

152

212

219 244 295 283 225 228 247 202 216 175

259 209 173

157

255 187

101

DEC 25 - JAN 1

“EXHILARATING EPIC” INDIEWIRE

­ ­

FOLLOW TEN PEOPLE AS THEY NAVIGATE LOVE, LOSS, AND THE HOLIDAYS when the Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s Riviera Theatre presents a 4K Restoration of Love Actually for two nights, Friday and Saturday December 26th and 27th, at 9pm.

Featuring an all-star cast including Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Liam Neeson, Colin Firth, Bill Nighy, and others, this 2003 romantic comedy has only grown in popularity since its release.

* *

For tickets ($8-12.50) visit sbifftheatres.com

­ ­ ­

­

CINEMA LISTINGS

Love Actually • 4K Restoration of this holiday romantic comedy • SBIFF Riviera Theatre • $8-12.50 • sbifftheatres.com • 9pm Fr, 12/26 & Sa, 12/27.

www.metrotheatres.com

Metro • Camino

Paseo• Hitchcock • Camino

Metro • Fairview

CINEMA

19

Local News for a Global Village | www.VoiceSB.com

Arlington • Metro • Camino

Paseo • Fairview

Paseo • Hitchcock • Camino

­

225 N FAIRVIEW AVE, GOLETA 805-683-3800

Song Sung Blue* (PG13): Fri-Tue, Thur: 1:30, 4:30, 7:45. Wed: 1:30, 4:30.

Spongebob* (PG): Fri-Tue, Thur: 11:45, 2:15, 4:45, 7:15. Wed: 11:45, 2:15, 4:45.

7040 MARKETPLACE DR, GOLETA 805-688-4140

Anaconda* (PG13): Fri-Tue, Thur: 11:45, 1:55, 4:20, 6:45, 9:10. Wed: 11:45, 1:55, 4:20, 6:45.

Marty Supreme* (R): Fri-Tue, Thur: 11:40, 3:00, 6:20, 9:40. Wed: 11:40, 3:00, 6:20.

Avatar: Fire & Ash* (PG13): Fri-Tue, Thur: 11:30,1:00, 3:30, 5:00/3D, 7:30, 9:00. Wed: 11:30, 1:00, 3:30, 5:00/3D, 7:30.

The Housemaid* (R): Fri-Tue, Thur: 12:20, 3:20, 6:30, 9:30. Wed: 12:20, 3:20, 6:30.

David (PG): Fri-Thur: 11:20, 5:15.

Wicked For Good: (PG): Fri-Thur: 2:10.

1317 STATE STREET, SB 805-963-9580

Avatar: Fire & Ash*: (PG13): Fri-Tue: 2:45, 7:00. Wed/Thur: 2:15, 6:15.

618 STATE STREET, SB 805-965-7684

Anaconda* (PG13): Fri-Tue: 12:00, 2:25, 4:50, 7:15, 9:40. Wed: 12:00, 2:25, 4:50, 7:15.

Thur: 12:00, 2:25, 4:50, 7:15.

Song Sung Blue* (PG13): Fri-Tue: 12:30, 3:30, 6:30, 9:30. Wed: 12:30, 3:30, 6:30.

Thur: 12:30, 3:30, 6:30, 9:30.

Avatar: Fire & Ash* (PG13): Fri-Tue: 11:45, 1:15/3D, 4:00/3D, 5:20/3D, 8:15, 9:20.

Wed: 11:45,1:15, 4:00, 8:15. Thur: 11:45, 4:00/3D, 8:15.

Stranger Things 5: The Finale* (NR): Wed: 5:15, 8:30. Thur: 11:30, 2:45, 6:00, 9:15.

­

Five-time Critics Choice Award Nominee including Best Picture Three-time Golden Globe Award Nominee including Best Picture National Board of Review's Top Films of 2025

Thurs: 1:00pm 4:15pm 7:30pm Fri & Sat: 11:30am 2:45pm 6:00pm Sun - Thurs: 11:00am 2:15pm 5:30pm 8:45pm

8 WEST DE LA GUERRA ST, SB 805-965-7451

371 South Hitchcock Way, SB 805-682-6512

Marty Supreme* (R): Fri-Tue, Thur: 1:00, 4:20, 7:45. Wed: 1:00, 4:20.

The Housemaid* (R): Fri-Tue, Thur: 1:30, 4:30, 7:30. Wed: 1:30, 4:30.

When Harry Met Sally • Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan embark on a friendship-turned romance, 4K Restoration • SBIFF Riviera Theatre • $8-12.50 • sbifftheatres.com • 9pm Fr, 1/2 & Sa, 1/3.

Let’s Go To The M O V I E S NORTH S.B. COUNTY THEATRES Movie Listings for 12/24/25-1/3/26

REEL DEAL (FIRST SHOW EVERY DAY AT MOVIES LOMPOC): $7.50 • (805) 736-1558 | 736-0146 MASTER CARD • VISA • DISCOVER

Avatar: Fire and Ice -PG13Wed 3:13 Thu-Fri 3:15-7 | Sat-Sun 11:30-3:15-7 | Mon-Tue 3:15-7

Marty Supreme* (R): Fri-Thur: 4:55, 8:15.

The Housemaid* (R): Fri-Tue: 5:05, 8:05.

Courtesy film still from Love Actually, via SBIFF

December 26, 2025

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 -PG13-

Wed 2-4:30 Thu-Wed 7

4K RESTORATION Fri & Sat: 9:00pm

Zootopia 2 -PG13Wed 2-4:30 | Thu 4:30-7 Fri 2-4:30-7 | Sat-Sun 11:30-2-4:30-7 | Mon-Tue-Wed 2-4:30-7

SBIFFTheatres.com

Anaconda -PG13Thu 4:30-7 Fri 2-4:30-7 | Sat-Sun 11:30-2-4:30-7 Mon-Tue-Wed 2-4:30-7

SBIFFTHEATRES.COM

Spongebob Movie: The Search for Squarepants -PGWed 2-4:30 | Thu 4:30-7 | Fri 2-4:30-7 | Sat-Sun 11:30-2-4:30-7 Mon-Tue-Wed 2-4:30-7

www.playingtoday.com

COMMUNITY CALENDAR 20

Local News for a Global Village | www.VoiceSB.com

Christmas Bird Count and Dinner

COMEDY

Photo courtesy of Kerfuffle Theatre

Sundays at the Ranch • Fun for the family. Enjoy barn animals and tractor rides • Stow House, 304 N Los Carneros Rd • Free • goletahistory.org • 11am-2pm Sun.

To learn more or register visit santabarbaraaudubon.org

Friday

Theatre

CHILDREN

Photo by Daisy Scott

ENJOY SANTA BARBARA’S SUNNY WINTER WEATHER and gather critical data to help protect our region’s birds when the Santa Barbara Audubon Society hosts its 126th Christmas Bird Count on Saturday, Janaury 3rd. All local birders are welcome to participate, with advance registration required to receive your assigned birding area.

Participants will record the numbers and types of species to share with the larger Audubon chapter, which will compile data during a festive, celebratory dinner at 6pm at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History’s Fleischmann Auditorium. Dinner RSVPs are required.

Sunday 12/28

LECTURES/MEETINGS/WORKSHOPS Empathy Cafe • Practice communication and listening skills • Riviera Theatre, upstairs • Free • 11am-1pm Su.

MUSIC

Teresa Russell • Cold Spring Tavern • Free • 1:30-4:30pm Su, 12/28.

WHODUNIT

Monday 12/29

SPEND CHRISTMAS AT MEDIOCRE MANOR, circa 1945, when Kerfuffle Theatre presents WHODUNIT at the Community Arts Workshop at 7pm, Sunday through Wednesday, December 28th to 31st. A madcap comedy, the play follows the Plums’ holiday festivities as they turn into a series of shenanigans reminiscient of Agatha Christie, Clue, and PBS murder mysteries.

LECTURES/MEETINGS/WORKSHOPS

Scrabble Club • Louise Lowry 12/26 Saturday 12/27 Davis Center • All levels/ English/

SB Waterfront Comedy • Enjoy drinks, dinner, and laughs • Anchor Rose • 7:45-9:45pm Fr, 12/26.

DANCE

An Evening with Mezcal Martini • Latin jazz with dance lessons, ages 21+ • SOhO • $18 • sohosb.com • 7:30pm Fr, 12/26.

Line Dancing Lessons • Maverick Saloon • $10 • 6-8pm Sat.

MUSIC

Barrel Room Sessions • David Segall plays roots, rock, reggae • Carr Winery • Free, 21+ • 7-9pm Fr, 12/26.

Red Piano • Rotating pianists play requests • Red Piano • Every night.

OUTDOORS

SBC Courthouse Docent Tours • Free • www.sbcourthouse.org • 10:30am Mon-Fri & 2pm daily.

SPECIAL EVENTS

Chocolate & Art Workshop • Make holiday treats and a display box • Menchaca Chocolates, 4141 State St. E-1 • $34-64 • menchacachocolates.com • 2-7pm Fr-Su, through 12/28.

Crimson Holiday • Pop-up with local artisans’ handmade works • La Cumbre Plaza • 10am-7pm Mo-Sat; 11am-6pm Su, through 12/31.

COMEDY

South Coast Stand-Up Comedy • With An Embarrassment of Pandas • Alcazar Theatre • $15 • thealcazar.org • 7pm Sa, 12/27.

LECTURES/MEETINGS/WORKSHOPS Santa Barbara Go Club • All levels welcome to learn this ancient game • Free • Mosaic Locale, 1131 State St • 805-448-5335 • 11am-3pm Sa.

MUSIC

Cadillac Angels • Cold Spring Tavern • Free • 1:30-4:30pm Sa, 12/27.

Jim Brickman: The Gift of Christmas • Piano concert, special guest John Trones • Lobero Theatre • $47-72 • lobero.org • 8pm Sa, 12/27.

SB Drum Circle • Free, all welcome • Chase Palm Park • 3-6pm Sa.

OUTDOORS

Architectural Walking Tour • History of buildings in SB • 229 E. Victoria St • $20 • afsb.org • 10am, Sat.

SPECIAL EVENTS

Cars And Coffee • Car show with bites • 3687 Sagunto St, Santa Ynez • 10am-2pm Sa, 12/27.

December 26, 2025

Spanish • Free • 1-4pm Mon.

For tickets (from $25) visit sbcaw.org

Parliamo • Italian conversation, all levels • Natural Cafe, 361 Hitchcock Way • Free • parliamo.yolasite.com • 5-6:30pm Mon.

through March.

Tuesday 12/30

Chess Club • Louise Lowry Davis Center • All levels/ English/Spanish • Free • 1-4pm Tue.

COMEDY

SPECIAL EVENTS

Carpinteria Improv Drop-In Class • Learn or practice skills • Alcazar Theatre • $10 • 7pm Tu.

DANCE

Year End Line Dance Party • Lessons and open floor, 18+ • SOhO • $15 • sohosb.com • 7pm-midnight Tu, 12/30.

LECTURES/MEETINGS/WORKSHOPS

Storytelling is the Revolution • Free poetry workshops for 18+ • Community Arts Workshop • Free, register: sbcaw.org • 5-7pm Tu & Th,

Pageants are a DRAG! New Year’s Encore! • Drag diva showdown, fundraiser performance • With Mx. Ventura County Pride 2021, Michelle Chakra • Center Stage Theater • $20-45 • centerstagetheater.org • 7:30pm Tu, 12/30.

dance party • MOXI • $15-30 • Tickets: moxi.org/NYE • 9:30am12:30pm We, 12/31.

COMEDY

SB New Years Eve Comedy Show • Comedian Craig Shoemaker • Son Y Sabor, 409 State St. • $30 • sbcomedyclub.com • 7pm We, 12/31.

NYE 2026 with SB Comedy Hideaway • Comedian Darren Carter

Wednesday 12/31 CHILDREN

Noon Year’s Eve • Sparkly celebration with games and a rooftop

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21

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What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?

W

HETHER YOU ARE LOOKING TO WELCOME 2026 WITH LAUGHTER, ELEGANT, OR FAMILY-FRIENDLY FUN, Santa Barbara continues to be one of the most action-packed places to celebrate New Year’s Eve! Complete details for each even are in the main calendar listings below.

Rock n’ roll, jazz, and Broadway rhythm will keep downtown Santa Barbara partiers grooving all night long across a wide range of concerts and music venues. Enjoy • The New Vic • $49 • SBcomedy.com • 7pm & 10pm We, 12/31.

Ventura Improv Company • Laughs, music, and festive toast • Rubicon Theatre • $50 •

sparkles, games, and dancing from 9:30am to 12:30pm

rubicontheatre.org • 7pm We, 12/31.

Knitting & Crochet Club • Louise Lowry Davis Ctr • All levels/English/ Spanish • Free • 9-11:30am Wed.

MUSIC

Psychedelic New Year’s Eve Bash • Bash with the Doublewide Kings, dinner and dance sets • Ages 21+ • SOhO • $68-198 • sohosb.com • 7pm-midnight We, 12/31.

Walk with Professor Julie as she shares tales of mystery and history... & meet friendly spirits...

Call or text to schedule your walking tour! • 805-905-9019

New Year’s Eve with The SB Symphony • Broadway & Hollywood Celebration with guest artists • Granada Theatre • $71-270 • thesymphony.org • 8:30-10pm We, 12/31.

Open Jam • At Revolver Pizza. Jam with musicians • 1429 San Andres St •

BIG CHANGES COMING in 2026 Medicare or Health Insurance Leo Marquez

Free • revolversb.com • 6-9pm Wed.

LECTURES/MEETINGS/WORKSHOPS SPECIAL EVENTS

Le Cercle Français • French conversation, all levels • The Natural Cafe • https://tinyurl.com/5ejbd9ye • Free • 5-6:30pm Wed.

Santa Barbara Ghost Tours

Happy New Year, Santa Barbara!

We are here to help you find affordable health plan options

New Year’s Eve at The Set • Elegant festive dinner • Hilton SB Beachfront Resort • RSVP highly recommended • 3-10pm We, 12/31.

Cosmic Countdown NYE • Cocktails, DJ Brooklyn Basement • Dusk Bar • 3pm-midnight We, 12/31.

New Year’s Eve Gala • Four-course dinner • San Ysidro Ranch • RSVP: sanysidroranch.com • 5pm-midnight We, 12/31.

New Year’s Eve Jazz Dinner • Three courses and jazz duo Calo & Miles • Finch & Fork • $125 • finchandforkrestaurant.com • 5-9pm We, 12/31.

New Year’s at Wildcat • Four DJs and balloon drop • Wildcat Lounge • $20 • Wildcatlounge.ticketsauce.com • 9pm-2am We, 12/31.

Thursday

(805) 683-3636

3412 State St., Santa Barbara, CA 93105

On New Year’s Day, dozens of locals will enjoy an ocean swim and beach party when the Polar Dip returns at Leadbetter Beach from 11am to 1pm. Community members must sign a city waiver prior to joining in the free festivities. Visit sbpolardip.com

Beach • 11am-1pm Th, 1/1.

• 10:30–10:45am Sat & Sun.

New Year’s Day Pajama Brunch • Welcome the new year in comfort with food and DJ Darla Bea’s tunes • Finch & Fork • Prices/menu a la carte • finchandforkrestaurant.com • 11am-2pm Th, 1/1.

MUSIC

Friday

SB Polar Dip 2026 • Enjoy a community ocean plunge • Participants must sign city waiver: sbpolardip.com • Free • Leadbetter

1/2

LECTURES/MEETINGS/WORKSHOPS Cosmic Dawn: When Galaxies Were Young • UCSB Professor of Physics Crystal Martin, PhD • SBMNH, Farrand Auditorium • Free • 7:30-9pm Fr, 1/2.

MUSIC

Barrel Room Sessions • DJ Claire Z, Buena Onda empanadas, and fun. Ages 21+ • Carr Winery • Free • 7pm Fr, 1/2.

King Bee • Dance hits from seven decades, 21+ • SOhO • $10 • sohosb.com • 7pm Fr, 1/2.

Happy New Saturday Year!

CHILDREN SPECIAL EVENTS

License # 0773817

1/1

Photo by Harry Rabin

Comedy shows will also pop up all over town and beyond, from solo standup to the Ventura Improv Company’s show at the Rubicon Theatre.

Those looking for a more relaxed yet upscale evening can nosh while enjoying jazz music at Finch & Fork, admire ocean views at the Santa Barbara Beachfront Resort, or savor a four-course dinner at the festivelydecorated San Ysidro Ranch. Locals looking for a premiere toast can visit Noon Year’s Eve offers a family-friendly Dusk Bar for high-end cocktails and way to celebrate at the MOXI with tunes.

Photo courtesy of MOXI

A returning favorite for children and their families will be the MOXI’s Noon Year’s Eve, which turns the museum into a festive celebration complete with a rooftop dance party and cheers to 2026 at noon.

a Psychedelic New Year’s Eve Bash with the Doublewide Kings at SOhO, or mosey over to the Wildcat Lounge for a night of dancing to four DJ sets. Over at the Granada Theatre, a lively program of Broadway The Santa Barbara Symphony will present Broadway and Hollywood music led by guest conductor Stuart Malina and offer a complimentary champagne toast at the and Hollywood Granada Theatre from 8:30 to 10pm. favorites will be performed by the Santa Barbara Symphony during its annual New Year’s Eve concert.

Photo courtesy of SB Symphony

December 26, 2025

No Simple Highway • Rock concert, ages 21+ • SOhO • $18-20 • sohosb.com • 8pm Sa, 1/3.

OUTDOORS

Volunteer at CIR Nursery • Channel Islands Restoration • 1070 More Ranch Rd • Register: cirweb.org 9am-1pm Sa, 1/3.

Sunday

1/4

CHILDREN

Storytime @ the Sea Center • All ages • Free w/ admission • SBNature.org • 10:30–10:45am Sat & Sun.

MUSIC

A Cappella Night with The Baker’s Dozen • Yale University’s a cappella group • SOhO • $12 • sohosb.com • 7pm Su, 1/4.

OUTDOORS

Architecture Tour 1/3 Sunday • Guided stroll • Begins at SB

Crafternoon • Fun crafts, ages 5+ • Explore Ecology Makerspace • $8 • exploreecology.org • 10am-12pm, Sat. Storytime @ the Sea Center • All ages • Free w/ admission • SBNature.org

Downtown Library • Architectural Foundation of SB • $20 • afsb.org • 10am Sun.

22

Local News for a Global Village | www.VoiceSB.com

December 26, 2025

Angels Sing Thee to Thy Rest

P

OWERFUL AND POIGNANT, Hamnet is a film for anyone who has searched for or treasured finding whispers of a lost loved one in a work of art. The film adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s timely 2020 novel, Hamnet paints an intimate portrait of William Shakespeare’s family to reveal how the death of his eleven year-old son, Hamnet, inspired his greatest tragedy: Hamlet.

However, understanding that Shakespeare was likely absent for the birth and death of his son due to his London-based career, Hamnet adopts the narrative focus of his wife, here named Agnes. In a career-defining performance, actor Jessie Buckley realizes Agnes’ spirit as an intuitive woman whose herbalist training and spiritual connection to Stratford’s forest cast her as the daughter of a witch in the eyes of 1600s Christian England.

Accordingly, the film emerges more as an examination of one woman’s love, grief, and the frustration she feels as a mother, wife, and individual navigating a patriarchal society.

It is through this perspective that viewers consider Shakespeare, masterfully embodied by actor Paul Mescal.

In Hamnet, Shakespeare is not a genius nor a cultural icon. He is simply a man; at first appearing as a sexy and playful poet, before later emerging as a caring husband and father who increasingly sacrifices time at home for his professional ambitions. When he no longer has the option to seek his son’s laughter in this world, he channels his grief into immortalizing Hamnet into Hamlet.

Essentially, Hamnet argues that since Shakespeare was not present for the death of his son, he ensured that everyone else would bear witness to his death and memory for centuries to come. While this idea that Hamlet was rooted in personal loss has long been a subject of academic discourse, this film transforms this point of critical analysis into a lived reality. Its full poetic force arrives in its final scenes, as we witness the first performance of Hamlet alongside Agnes, who finally gets to see her husband bid a tearful adieu to their son.

Photo courtesy of: Focus Features

By Daisy Scott / VOICE

Hamnet

Jessie Buckley in Hamnet

However, it is critical to note that while Hamnet is one of the most raw and visually beautiful films of 2025, it is also exceedingly difficult to watch because of its honesty. As she did in her Oscar-winning film Nomadland, director Chloé Zhao relies on long, closeup shots of characters wrestling with the most difficult emotions known to the human experience. Buckley’s scream of grief as she cradles her son’s body is contrasted by Mescal’s silent, solitary weeping as he listens to actors perform the words he cannot bring himself to say. Hamnet’s death itself is a chilling experience, as viewers witness the boy succumb to the Black Death in a fit of agony. There was not a dry eye in Hitchcock Cinema when this reviewer attended a screening, with numerous viewers openly sobbing.

Essentially, Hamnet is a prime example of cinema operating as art and emotional catharsis. It is gradual, intellectually intriguing, and delivers an intense portrayal of the grief that comes with losing any loved one, much less a child who cannot understand why they are suffering. Its honest depiction of universal emotions suggests that this is a story that did not necessarily need to be connected to Shakespeare, but in so doing we as audiences centuries later are able to celebrate and reconsider his iconic play anew. The rest is silence.

GALLERY LOS OLIVOS ARTISTS GROUP EXHIBIT IN DECEMBER

© Felice Willet - Algae Pond Namibia, photo © Felice Willet - Algae Pond Namibia, photo © Jim Tyler - Tuscan Manor, oil © Jim Tyler - Tuscan Manor, oil

© Jane Behman - Play Time, mixed media collage © Jane Behman - Play Time, mixed media collage

Gallery Artists Present

Winter Celebration – A Group Exhibition Reception with Art Demos – Sat Dec 6, 2-5

FineArt ArtDestination DestinationSince Since1992 1992 Fine

Exhibiting work by over 50 Regional Artists Exhibiting work by over 50 Regional with a stunning selection of Artists with a stunning selection of media, styles and subjects media, styles and subjects Come Visit and Let Our Art Inspire You! Come Visit and Let Our Art Inspire You!

Gallery Los Olivos 2920 Grand Avenue, Los Olivos, CA 2920 Grand Avenue,• Los Olivos, CA GalleryLosOlivos.com 805.688.7517 GalleryLosOlivos.com • 805.688.7517 Open Daily 10-5 / Nov-Feb 10-4 Open Daily 10-5 / Nov-Feb 10-4

December 26, 2025

23

Local News for a Global Village | www.VoiceSB.com

Santa Barbara International Film Festival Cinema Society

Cinema for the Holidays:

Marty Supreme, Train Dreams, and Jay Kelly

G

By Robert F. Adams, Special to VOICE

ETTING A JUMP ON HOLIDAY FILM VIEWING, SBIFF’s Cinema Society enjoyed a special screening of Josh Safie’s new film, Marty Supreme which opens on Christmas Day in theatres. One of the most entertaining film stories of the year, it follows an overly-ambitious ping-pong player in 1953, played by Timothée Chalamet. The trials and tribulations of the adrenaline-pumped player invoke a fast-paced, impulsive, and intoxicating journey. Director Josh Safdie is building on the techniques of his last film he co-directed with his brother, Bennie Safdie, Uncut Gems, from 2019. Marty Supreme is very loosely based on the rise of the career pingpong champ Marty Reiser. Some of the vivid elements of this period set film include the urban-claustrophobic environments, out-of-the box casting, and the use of contemporary playlists with music that is far in the future of the time period setup. The soundtrack includes indelible songs from Tears for Courtesy film still from Marty Supreme starring Fears, New Order, and Fats Domino Timothée Chalamet among others and was chosen in a collaboration between Josh Safdie and credited composer Daniel Lopatin, an electronic music producer, singer, and songwriter.

Here is a comic-drama showcasing the unique talents of actor Timothée Chalamet who really comes into his own as a character actor doubling as a leading man. This performance is superlative, and not even remotely in the realm of your grandparent’s leading man. Chalamet

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plays Marty Hauser, an opportunistic young man with grand ambitions far exceeding the fabric of his New York neighborhood, set in the grittily textured lower East Side of the post WWII period.

Odessa A’zion, Courtesy film still from Marty Supreme

Scrambling upward through every kind of economic obstacle, the movie is like a Woody Allen period piece on steroids. The lead actor is surrounded by performers who are unusually cast, including local author Pico Iyer; independent filmmaker Abel Ferrara; veteran actress, entrepreneur, and Montecito local Gwyneth Paltrow; rapper Tyler, the Creator; and comedian Penn Jillette of Penn & Teller.

The film also features a breakthrough performance by the 25 year old Israeli actress Odessa A’zion who makes a big impact on screen opposite Chalamet. Her performance is sassy and heartbreaking at turns and she delivers an unusual wide range of emotions, matching Chalamet’s nervy portrayal as the anti-hero.

Actress Gwyneth Paltro, who was on hand for an interview with Roger Durling, after the screening, mentioned, “I am emerging out of retirement as I badly wanted to work with this director; I just couldn’t say no to this role as a transactional romantic foil to Timothée Chalamet’s character.”

The film is on many top ten lists and will likely be nominated for multiple Oscars.

Train Dreams is also a much talked about film, directed by Clint Bentley, in his second feature film. The story, based on a 2011 novella

by Denis Johnson, features the quiet exploits of a 1920s logger who notices the cruelties of the destruction of the forests of the Northwest and the rampant racism of his times. The film, beautifully shot by cinematographer Adolpho Veloso, is a visual poem showing the conflicts between untouched habitat and the darker shadows of human nature. The leading cast members are credible and heartbreaking in Felicity Jones and Joel Edgerton in Train their respective roles and include Joel Edgerton Dreams, courtesy film still as the main protagonist who is a passive witness, Felicity Jones as a hopeful wife and mother, and William H. Macy as an emerging environmentalist. All the characters face sad circumstances perhaps showing the rural life and times as a treacherous place to be. Train Dreams was a strong title that emerged out of last January’s Sundance Film Festival. The film is clearly one of the best of the year and can be seen on Netflix, after its short theatrical run in theatres last November.

Jay Kelly stars George Clooney as a burned-out film star who is rapidly losing touch with his daughters, the assistants who are devoted to him, and his precarious position atop the Hollywood ladder. The film was shot mostly in Italy, and the themes that filmmaker Noah Baumbach explores are questions of fame and the conflicts with personal identity. The filmmaker reaches for relatable dilemmas such as how much can you or should sacrifice in your work and the regrets that many people have in the loss of meaning and purpose in life. The questions Baumbach raises are complex and to some degree shared by modern sensibilities.

The film features a soul-searing performance by a handsomely awkward George Clooney as well as a quietly scorching portrayal by Adam Sandler, in a dramatic role. Sandler will be honored with the Maltin Modern Master Award at the upcoming Santa Barbara International Film Festival on Thursday, February 5th, for his excellent work in this movie. The film also offers a stand-out cameo performance from the intriguing Billy Crudup as a jealous colleague of Clooney’s character.

Jay Kelly can be seen on Netflix over the holidays, an introspectively fascinating story worth watching for the dramatic nuances and the comically absurd situations within this fine movie about show business.

Adam Sandler and George Clooney in Jay Kelly, courtesy film still

Local News for a Global Village | www.VoiceSB.com

24

December 26, 2025

Santa Barbara Beautiful Tree of the Month — December 2025

Santa Barbara’s Tree of Light

Norfolk Island Pine - Araucaria heterophylla

S

By David Gress / Special to VOICE

ANTA BARBARA’S SKYLINE is punctuated with the upper spires of handsome trees commonly called “Norfolk Island Pine.” Because of their starshaped top whorl of branches, they have another common name, “Star Pine.”

The most easily recognized one in town, “Santa Barbara’s Tree of Light,” stands majestically on the corner of Carrillo and Chapala Streets. It is remarkably healthy, given that it is almost 150 years old and about 120 feet tall - the height of a 12-story building!

Every December - for the last 97 years members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local Union 413, have decorated this tree’s boughs with strings of lights and placed a shining star at the very top, making it truly a “Star Pine.”

In 1878, this iconic tree was planted by Dr. and Mrs. Robert Winchester in what was then their front yard. In 1928, the Community Arts Commission designated it as the City’s official Christmas Tree. In 1977, the City Council designated it an official City Landmark.

Norfolk Island Pine - Tree of Light

The Norfolk Island Pine is a majestic conifer that can reach heights of 200 feet tall in its native homeland, Norfolk Island, which lies off the coast of Australia in the South Pacific.

Despite being native to a remarkably tiny island (an area of only 14 square miles!), this tree is now widely grown in tropical, sub-tropical, and Mediterranean climates around the world – and as far north as Ireland.

Despite its common names, it is not a true pine (which is in the Pinus genus). It is in the Araucariaceae plant family of conifers, all of whose members are native to the Southern Hemisphere. Its botanical name is Araucaria heterophylla. The genus name, Araucaria, refers to the Araucanian Indians of central Chile, where tree relatives of Norfolk Island Pine are native. The specific epithet, heterophylla, is a combination of Greek words, which together mean “different-leaved,” referring to the striking differences in its juvenile leaf form and its and adult leaf form.

Norfolk Island Pine On long horizontal branches, twigs stand erect and point to the sky – from of climates and soil, it grows well in a distance, they resemble upwardSanta Barbara. It can survive on our facing combs. On the twigs, juvenile normal rainfall - but looks better leaves can be up to ½-inch long, are if provided with irrigation in the spirally arranged, extend dry season and during droughts. away from the stem, and To accommodate its roots and have sharp, pointed ends. As massive size at maturity, it needs they become adult leaves, to be provided with a large space they change quite distinctly Norfolk Island Pine in any landscape. Fortunately, it - widen, flatten, bark does not seem to and become scalebe bothered by like, incurved, and any serious disease overlapping. When or insect pests. fully covered with Certainly, a star mature scaled of a tree, by any leaves, the twigs name! can reach up to Specimens of two feet in length, mature Norfolk appear to have Island Pine can been carefully be seen in many braided, and are places around Norfolk Island Pine foliage surprisingly sleek town: on the to the touch. southwest side of the County Courthouse (at Norfolk Island Pine is notable for the corner of Anacapa Street and E. Figueroa its symmetrical form, with whorls of Street); in East and West Alameda Parks; at the horizontal branches widely spaced Santa Barbara train station; on the grounds of apart along an otherwise bare, Our Lady of Sorrows Church (Anacapa Street straight, single trunk. Its dark brown at E. Arrellaga Street); at 815 Quinientos Street; to black bark is rough and peels off in in private yards in the Upper East side; at thin layers.

UCSB; and, of course, at the corner of Carrillo It is “monoecious,” meaning male and Chapala Streets. cones and female cones appear on Tree-of-the-Month articles are sponsored by Santa the same tree. It bears cylindrical Barbara Beautiful, whose many missions include male pollen cones (2-inches long) the increase of public awareness and appreciation of Santa Barbara’s many outstanding trees and, and nearly-round (3- to 6-inches in a long-time partnership with the City Parks & diameter), spiny, female seed cones.

Recreation Department, the funding and planting of

Being adaptable to a broad range

trees along the City’s streets.

sbbeautiful.org

December 26, 2025

Local News for a Global Village | www.VoiceSB.com

25

Sullivan Goss: An American Gallery

Oskar Fischinger:

A Deeper Look K

By Kerry Methner / VOICE

ICKING OFF 2026 WITH AN EXHIBITION OF WORKS BY AN INNOVATIVE ARTIST WHO WAS AHEAD OF HIS TIME, interested in science and yet deeply rooted in the quest to understand the human spirit, Sullivan Goss will host an opening reception for Oskar Fischinger: A Deeper Look on January 3rd from 5 to 8pm.

The exhibition, which opens on the 2nd and runs through February 23rd, is meant to bring some balance for an artist who is more known for his movies than his paintings, but who was a true influencer in the West Coast art world as far back as the 1930s.

Vonk traces some of the forces that shaped Fischinger’s work and output, writing, “The three specific passions that drove Fischinger’s development were his continuing interest in visual music, recent scientific discoveries, and new age spirituality. These seemingly distinct subjects are bound together through his lifelong interest in giving expression to the hidden forces behind the world and our perception of them.”

Several of Fischinger’s movies are available on YouTube for those who become intrigued with this “pioneer of abstract animation and visual music.” As the exhibition is being prepared and hung, Vonk answered a few questions about it for VOICE readers.

VOICE: What delights you about Oskar's paintings?

“In their totality, Nathan Vonk: Besides being beautiful paintings, Fischinger’s paintings are the historical context in which they were evidence of an artist created is particularly who was intensely interesting. When curious about Fischinger made how art, science, these paintings in Los and spirituality Angeles, there were could expand the very few other artists possibilities for who were making human experience this kind of European Translucent Figure, 1964| oil on board and expression. They

by Oskar Fischinger modernism, and also demonstrate an even fewer collectors, artist whose abstract visual language galleries, or museums was boundless, and who was deeply that were able to engaged with the biggest questions of understand how his time,” wrote Nathan Vonk, owner of incredible they were.

Sullivan Goss, in an essay for a new SG V: Do they convey some monograph, Oskar Fischinger, that will Red and Green Orbit, 1952| oil on of the same playfulness canvas by Oskar Fischinger accompany the exhibit. and creative freedom as

Moving Organisms, c .1959 | oil on masonite by Oskar Fischinger

Vonk: His work seemed to have an aspect of devotion practice to it. Like prayer, meditation, or yoga. He was a very spiritual person, but he was also incredibly interested in the scientific developments of his day, and this combination of interests seems to have been quite unique for painters in LA at this time.

V: How did Sullivan Goss come to own or represent the estate?

Vonk: A very generous art collector introduced me to the artist's daughter, and she and I hit it off. I think she liked the fact that we take such an academic, and art-historical focus on the estates we work with. And I think she could tell that I was genuinely passionate about Oskar's work.”

V: Congratulations on the book!

Vonk: Because Fischinger's work is in so many major museums, we are hoping to see this book in the gift shops of places like the Guggenhiem and LACMA.

his movies?

Vonk: Absolutely, I think Oskar liked the fact that he had such a profound level of creative freedom in LA. Because the modernist scene there was so new, there was no established dogma about what was and wasn't acceptable.

He was experimenting and inventing it as he went along.

V: What is the relationship between the films and his paintings?

Vonk: Painting often started as studies for the imagery in his films. And then many of his films are animated through a vast series of paintings that would be used as individual frames.

V: What surprises you about his work as you become more familiar with it?

Untitled, 1951 | oil on canvas by Oskar Fischinger

Blue Square Clusters, 1937 | oil on canvas by Oskar Fischinger

26

ART VENUES

Local News for a Global Village | www.VoiceSB.com

December 26, 2025

Rosemarie C. Gebhart Contemporary Art

• GALLERIES • STUDIOS • MUSEUMS • PUBLIC PLACES •

Cypress Gallery • Deck the Walls • through Dec; Simple Pleasures • Jan 2-25 • 119 E Cypress Av, Lompoc • 1-4 Sa & Su • 805-737-1129 • lompocart.org El Presidio De Santa Bárbara • Nihonmachi Revisited; Memorias y Facturas - ongoing • 123 E Canon Perdido St • 10:30-4:30 Daily • sbthp.org Elverhøj Museum • history & Danish culture of Solvang • 1624 Elverhoy Way, Solvang • 805-686-1211 • 11-5 Th-Mo • elverhoj.org

RUTH ELLEN HOAG

Faulkner Gallery • 40 E Anapamu St • 10-7 Mo-Th; 10-5 Fri, Sa; 12-5 Sun • 805-962-7653.

www.ruthellenhoag.com @ruthellenhoag 805-689-0858 ~inquire for studio classes~

dimarcogallery.com Goleta Photographer

Fazzino 3-D Studio Gallery • 3-D original fine art • 1011 State St • 805730-9109 • Fazzino.com

10 West Gallery • Interpretive Thinking • through Jan 11 • 10 W Anapamu • 11-5 We-Mo • 805-7707711 • 10westgallery.com

Bella Rosa Galleries • 1103-A State St • 11-5 daily • 805-966-1707

Gallery 113 • Members of the SB Art Assn • 1114 State St, #8, La Arcada Ct • 805-965-6611 • 11-5 Mo-Sa; 1-4 Su • gallery113sb.com

Architectural Fdn Gallery • Kids Draw Architecture • through Jan 4 • 229 E Victoria • 805-965-6307 • 1–4 some Sa & By Appt • afsb.org Art & Soul Gallery • Inside This Place: Marlyn Daggett • through Dec • 1323 State St • artandsoulsb.com Art, Design & Architecture Museum, UCSB • Tiffany Chung: indelible traces • Opens Jan 17 - Apr 26 • 12-5 Wed-Sun • museum.ucsb.edu Art From Scrap • Explore Ecology • exploreecology.org ArtLabbé Gallery • free art, music, & exercise classes to our individuals with special needs & family members • Tu, We, Th, Sun 12-5:30; Fr 12-5 • 111 Santa Barbara St, #H • artlabbe.org Atkinson Gallery • SBCC atkinsongallerysbcc.com

ART EVENTS Carpinteria Creative Arts Market • Local pottery, beach art, cards, jewelry, sewn articles • 8th St & Linden Av • Free • 2:30-6 Thur.

SB Arts & Crafts Show • Local artists & artisans • Free • 236 E Cabrillo Blvd • 10-5 Sun.

Frank DiMarco

The Carriage and Western Art Museum • Old Spanish Days Trophy Saddles; Victoria Stables Wagon • Ongoing • Free • 129 Castillo St • 805-962-2353 • 9-3 Mo-Fr • carriagemuseum.org California Nature Art Museum • Lulu Hyggelig: California’s First Thomas Dambo Troll • ongoing • Wild in California • Through Feb 23 • 1511 B Mission Dr, Solvang • 11-4 Mo, Th, Fr; 11-5 Sa & Su • calnatureartmuseum.org Casa de La Guerra • Santa Barbara 1925 – 2025: A Portrait in Maps; Once a Don, Always a Don • ongoing • $5/ Free • 15 East De la Guerra St • 12-4 Th-Su • sbthp.org/casadelaguerra Casa del Herrero • Gardens & House • by reservation • 1387 East Valley Rd • tours 10 & 2 We & Sa • 805-565-5653 • casadelherrero.com Channing Peake Gallery • Form and Frame: Abstraction, Community, and the Language of Art • through Spring 26 • 8-5 M-F • 105 E Anapamu St, 1st fl • 805-568-3994 Colette Cosentino Atelier + Gallery • 11 W Anapamu St • By Appt • colettecosentino.com Community Arts Workshop • 631 Garden St • 10-6pm Fri & By Appt. • sbcaw.org Corridan Gallery • Glorious California • 125 N Milpas • 11-5 We-Sa • 805-966-7939 • corridan-gallery.com

Gallery Los Olivos • Winter Celebration through Dec • Daily 104pm • 2920 Grand Av • 805-688-7517 • gallerylosolivos.com Ganna Walska Lotusland • Gardens • by reservation • 695 Ashley Rd • 805-969-9990 • lotusland.org Grace Fisher Fdn • Inclusive Arts Clubhouse • Paintings by Grace Fisher • 121 S Hope, La Cumbre Plaza • WeSu 11-5pm • gracefisherfoundation.org Indah Gallery • reopens Mar 12 • 2190 N Refugio Rd, Santa Ynez • maxgleason.com/indah-gallery James Main Fine Art • 19th & 20th Century Fine art & antiques • 27 E De La Guerra St • 12-5 Tu-Sa • Appt Suggested • 805-962-8347 Jewish Federation of Greater SB • Portraits of Survival interactive ~ Ongoing • 9-4pm Mo-Fr • 524 Chapala St • 805-957-1115 ext. 114 Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum • a million+ historical documents • 21-23 W Anapamu • 10-4 Tu-Su • 805-962-5322 • karpeles.com Kathryne Designs • Local Artists • 1225 Coast Village Rd, A • 10-5 Mo-Sa; 11-5 Su • 805-565-4700 • kathrynedesigns.com La Cumbre Center For Creative Arts • Fine Line Gallery; Elevate Gallery; Illuminations Gallery • Multi-Artist Studio/Gallery Spaces • La Cumbre Plaza • 12-5 Tu-Su • lcccasb.com

John Behring

LCCCA Fine Line Gallery La Cumbre PLaza www.peterandrews61.com johnbehring@mac.com

Lompoc Library Grossman Gallery • 501 E North Av, Lompoc • 805-588-3459 Lynda Fairly Carpinteria Arts Center • 12-4 Th-Su • 865 Linden • 805-684-7789 • carpinteriaartscenter.org Maker House • A Gesture Repeated • 1351 Holiday Hill Rd • 805-565-CLAY • 10-4 Daily • makerhouse.org Maker House Annex • A gallery & retail space • through Dec • 913 State St • 805-565-CLAY • Tues: 2-7pm; We, Thu, Sun 12-6pm; Fri/Sat: 12-7pm • makerhouse.org Marcia Burtt Gallery • Holiday 2025 • through Dec 28 • Landscape paintings, prints, & books • 517 Laguna St • 1-5 Th-Su • 805-962-5588 • artlacuna.com Mate Gallery • beach images alongside vintage oils, gifts • 1014 Coast Village Rd • 805-895-6283 • mategallery.com MOXI, The Wolf Museum• of Exploration + Innovation • 10-5 Daily • 125 State St • 805-770-5000 • moxi.org Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara • San Milano Drive: DJ Javier • 11-6pm Tu-Sun • 653 Paseo Nuevo • mcasantabarbara.org MCASB Satellite @ the Riviera Beach House • Makahiya: I Wanted You to Feel the Same by Godofredo Astudillo • through Apr 12 • 9-9pm Daily • 121 State • mcasantabarbara.org Museum of Tibetan Art & Legacy Arts International • Wed-Sun 12-8pm • 310-880-6671 • lamatashinorbu.org / legacyartsb.com Palm Loft Gallery • A Fine Bunch of Cool Cats: Reflections of the Soul • through Jan 25 • 410 Palm Av, Loft A1, Carpinteria • 1-6 Fr-Su & By Appt • 805-684-9700 • palmloft.com

805-453-2770 www.rosemariecgebhart.com

Patricia Clarke Studio • An American Girl project; Primal Wild; Correspondences, Erasing Lines, and Facing Ourselves • 410 Palm Av, Carpinteria • By Appt • 805-452-7739 • patriciaclarkestudio.com Peregrine Galleries • Early CA & American paintings; fine vintage jewelry • 1133 Coast Village Rd • 805252-9659 • peregrine.shop Peter Horjus Design • Studio • 11 W Figueroa St • peterhorjus.com Portico Gallery • Jordan Pope & Gallery Artists • Open Daily • 1235 Coast Village Rd • 805-729-8454 • porticofinearts.com Public Market • Local artists Melinda Mettler & Anna Stump • 38 W Victorica • 8am-9pm Su-We; 8am10pm Thu-Sat • sbpublicmarket.com Rubenstein Chan Contemporary Art • 410 Palm Av, Unit B3, Carpinteria • 805-576-6152: info/appt • RubensteinChan.com

Kerry Methner • TheTouchofStone.com 805-570-2011 • VOICE Gallery

Fine Art Prints Greeting Cards and more

December 26, 2025

27

Local News for a Global Village | www.VoiceSB.com

ART VENUES

CONTINUED

Santa Barbara Art Works • Arts Education for All • 28 E Victoria St • 805-260-6705 • M-F 8:30-4:30 • sbartworks.org Santa Barbara Botanic Garden • 1212 Mission Canyon Rd • 10-5 daily • 805-682-4726 • sbbg.org Santa Barbara Fine Art • SB landscapes & sculptor Bud Bottoms • 1321 State St • 12-6 Tu-Sa &

By Appt • 805-845-4270 • santabarbarafineart.com Santa Barbara Historical Museum • The Gift; Ludmilla Pila Welch: Serene Santa Barbara through Mar 26; Edward Borein Gallery, and The Story of Santa Barbara ~ ongoing • 136 E De la Guerra • 12-5 We, Fri-Su; 12-7 Th • 805-966-1601 • sbhistorical.org Santa Barbara Maritime Museum • Redwoods of the Sea • through Jan 4 • The Chumash, Whaling, Commercial Diving, Surfing, Shipwrecks, First Order Fresnel Lens, and SB Lighthouse Women Keepers ~ Ongoing • 113 Harbor Wy, Ste 190 • 10-5 Daily • 805-962-8404 • SBMM.org Santa Barbara Museum Of Art • The Impressionist Revolution and Encore • through Jan 25; By Achilles’ Tomb: Elliott Hundley and Antiquity @ SBMA through Feb 22 • 1130 State St • 11-5 Tu-Su; 5-8 1st Th free; 2nd Sun free TriCo residents • 805-963-4364 • sbma.net

Santa Barbara Museum Of Natural History • The Living Print through May 30; Drawn from Nature through Mar 26 • 2559 Puesta del Sol • 10-5 We-Mo • sbnature.org Santa Barbara Sea Center • Dive In: Our Changing Channel ~ Ongoing • 211 Stearns Wharf • 10-5 Daily • 805-682-4711 • sbnature.org Santa Barbara Tennis Club - 2nd Fridays Art • WING IT/2025 • through Dec 30 • 2375 Foothill Rd • 10-6 Daily • 805-682-4722 • 2ndfridaysart.com Santa Ynez Valley Historical Museum • 3596 Sagunto St • 12-4pm Wed-Sun • santaynezmuseum.org.

Sahyun Genealogical Library • welcoming everyone who is researching their family history • 316 Castillo St • Tue/Thu 10-4; Sun & 3rd Sat 1-4 • SBGen.org Seimandi & Leprieur • Jardin Nocturne by Dora Vital, curated by Jen Huang Bogan • 33 W Anapamu St. • Wed-Sat 11-6 • 805-610-1203 • seimandileprieur.com Slice of Light Gallery • Fall 2025; Photography by JK Lovelace • 9 W Figueroa St • Mo-Fr 10-5 • 805-354-5552 • sliceoflight.com Stewart Fine Art • Early CA Plein Air Paintings + European Fine Art + Antiques • 539 San Ysidro Rd • 11-5:30 Mo-Sa • 805-845-0255

CALL FOR ENTRIES VOICE Gallery January 2026 Exhibition

Begin...

Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now. - Goethe Submissions are now open. To participate: email up to three images to artcall@voicesb.art by end of day, December 28th.

Sculpture and 2D work is welcome.

Label images with artist name.title of the piece. Entry email must also include: artist’s name, telephone number, material, dimensions, price.

ACCEPTED entries pay fee at the ingathering $40 - 1st piece; $35 - 2nd piece; $30 - 3rd piece.

All pieces must be wired or pedestal ready. NO brackets, saw tooth, etc.

Sales: 70% to artist / 30% to gallery.

Ingathering: Accepted art must be dropped off between 11am-1pm, Sunday, January 4th.

Exhibition Dates: January 5th to 31st, 2026 Unsold Art Pick Up: Saturday, January 31st - 3 to 5pm

Opening Reception: January 9th • 5-8pm

Questions? Call Kerry Methner • 805-570-2011

OVER

200

MURALS &

SCULPTURES IN SANTA

?

BARBARA

Yes—and discovering them is easy.

Scan the QR code to download our Mural and Sculpture PDF guides, each featuring over 100 unique works. Then get out and experience the full beauty of Santa Barbara’s public art.

Santa Barbara Beautiful is a 501(c) (3) Donations may be tax deductible. TAX ID: #23-7055360

Strange Family Vineyards Tasting room • Gallery Los Olivos artists: Prints for the Holidays • through Dec • 2933 Grand Ave, Los Olivos • StrangeFamilyVineyards.com • 805 315-3662

Waterhouse Gallery Montecito • Notable CA & National Artists • 1187 Coast Village Rd • 11-5 Mo-Su • 805-962-8885 • waterhousegallery.com

Sullivan Goss • 100 Grand and Winter Salon II through Dec 28 • 11 E Anapamu St • 10-5:30 daily • 805-730-1460 • sullivangoss.com

Waterhouse Gallery SB • Notable CA & National Artists • La Arcada Ct, 1114 State St, #9 • 11-5 Mo-Sa • 805-962-8885 • waterhousegallery.com

Susan Quinlan Doll & Teddy Bear Museum • 122 W Canon Perdido • 11-4 Fr-Sa; Su-Th by appt • quinlanmuseum.com • 805-687-4623 SYV Historical Museum & Carriage House • Art of The Western Saddle • ongoing • 3596 Sagunto St, SY • 12-4 Sa, Su • 805-6887889 • santaynezmuseum.org Tamsen Gallery • Inside Heaven’s Gate – Behind the Scenes with Susan Bridges through Dec 31 • 1309 State St • 12-5 We-Su • 805-7052208 • tamsengallery.com UCSB Library Ocean Gallery • Art of Science through Mar 17; Unyielding Voices: Global Resistance and the Black Radical Tradition • through Jun 12 • library.ucsb.edu Voice Gallery • Sunshine and the Blues • through Dec 27; Begin • La Cumbre Plaza H-124 • 10-5:30 M-F; 1-5 Sa-Su • 805-965-6448

Waterlight Studio • Handcrafted ceramics by Suzanne Schwager • 18 W Micheltoreana St #D • Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum Of Art • Between Planes: Prints by Sculptors • through Dec 20 • Weekdays 10-4, Sat 11-5 • westmont.edu/museum The Yes Store • Art by Local Artists • 1015 State St • M-F: 11am-6pm; Sa:10:30am-6pm; Su: 10:30am-5pm • theyesstore.com

Artists: See your work here!

Join Voice Magazine’s Print & Virtual Gallery!

To find out more, email Publisher@VoiceSB.com

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Local News for a Global Village | www.VoiceSB.com

December 26, 2025

How to pay attention Constantly distracted by devices?

Experts share strategies on reclaiming focus.

By Sy Boles, Harvard Staff Writer December 19, 2025

W

HETHER THEY’RE PEEKING AT TEXT MESSAGES DURING WORK MEETINGS or doomscrolling long into the night, a majority of American adults — and 81 percent of adults under 30 — say they use their phones too much. The Gazette spoke with three experts across Harvard — in education, psychology, and ministry — on strategies to cultivate focus and attention in a world full of captivating screens.

Cultivating attention

Monica Sanford is the assistant dean for multireligious ministry and a lecturer on ministry studies at Harvard Divinity School.

She is trained as a Buddhist chaplain.

I struggle with devices; I think everybody does. I think of my cellphone, but also the way I use my computer. I can have a Zoom meeting and have my email open at the same time, and that can create distractions.

But what I notice is, when I look up from scrolling on my phone, when I look out the window and appreciate the sunlight and the trees, or when I pet my cat or my dogs, that feels better, that feels more real.

It feels like I’m in my life again. And even still, that desire to go back and pick up the phone and start scrolling is still there, even though I know what I’m doing feels better than that. It’s a constant habit that I notice in myself, and I’m working to overcome it.

One practice that I find helpful is that my partner and I have agreed not to have our phones when we’re eating dinner together. We’re both old enough that we remember a time without phones, so we know what that’s like. But for younger folks who grew up digitally native, that might be a little more revolutionary. I also don’t keep a lot of social media on my phone; I can look at that stuff on the computer.

But the reality is, the only things we can actually control in our lives are our attention, and some of the muscles in our body some of the time. That’s it.

Attention is one of the things that the Buddhist tradition has selected to train like a muscle and put to good use. Buddhism focuses on the cultivation of the mind so that we can place our attention on useful

projects, but it’s not dissimilar from any other religious project. St. Teresa of Ávila, a female Christian medieval mystic, trained her attention to listen for the movement of God. When I go to a Jewish Shabbat service, the singing of prayers is a ritual where they’re training their attention to turn towards the content of what those prayers are telling them is important in their lives. When you go to Jum’ah prayers in the Muslim tradition, you’re using your body to tell you what to pay attention to.

We’re not doomed. We have the mental equipment we need to deal with this, just like we have the mental equipment to deal with all the other manifold suffering in the world. There’s a lot of suffering we’re protected from — famine, disease, war, natural disaster. OK, we have a new suffering: screen addiction on our phones.

That’s a new one. It’s not addressed in the Buddhist scriptures. But the solution, I think, is pretty similar.

Modeling behavior

Bettina Hoeppner is an associate professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School and the director of the Health through Flourishing program in the Psychiatry Department of Massachusetts General Hospital.

As a mental health researcher, I love that technology enables us to connect with people easily and widely to share health information and support health behavior changes. But as a positive psychologist, I want to cultivate the experience of flow, where you are fully immersed in what you are doing in an energized, joyful manner.

I worry about technologies interfering with that, where alerts cut into the creative process and disrupt the flow. And as a mom, I love that technology allows us to foster curiosity and worry about how best to guide my kids in using technology for its perks without getting driven by the algorithms that are deliberately deployed to keep people engaged with their phones and other devices.

But what I notice is, when I look up from scrolling on my phone, when I look out the window and appreciate the sunlight and the trees, or when I pet my cat or my dogs, that feels better, that feels more real. It feels like I’m in my life again.

– Monica Sanford

My personal tech practices are pretty simple. Most importantly, I do not have my work email on my smartphone. So, when I’m not at my desk (or on my laptop when traveling), I’m not at work. That can be tricky at times — for example, when I am submitting a grant and there is some last-minute administrative back-and-forth.

To account for my inability to respond instantaneously at certain times, I plan in extra lead time. The perk is that even during crunch times, I experience real breaks, because I do not know what is happening in my inbox when I step away from my desk.

When I am not working, I do my best to role-model low phone usage for my kids.

– Bettina Hoeppner

When I am at my desk, I do my best not to use my phone. At times, I might even turn off my email for one to two hours to focus on what I am doing. I find that I feel better at the end of a day when I had a good uninterrupted stretch of diving into an analysis, designing a piece of my study, and/ or writing a paper or grant.

This simple act of choosing what to pay attention to is itself a form of agency, a small daily practice of directing my own focus rather than having it directed for me.

– Beck Tench

When I am not working, I do my best to role-model low phone usage for my kids.

I check my text and social media messages when my kids are off doing their thing, not when we are bustling around together after school or getting ready to do homework.

Even when I watch their hockey games, I spend my time snapping photos of them rather than checking my messages. I like

Photo commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Scrolling_on_phone.jpg

HEALTH

being present in that moment, rather than attempting to be in multiple places at once.

Noticing the good

Beck Tench is co-founder and senior researcher at the Center for Digital Thriving at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Ten years ago, having just moved to Seattle, I saw a little heart-shaped charm lying on the sidewalk as I was leaving my apartment one day. I took a photo of it, and hashtagged it #seattleloves. I didn’t know at the time that the instinct would become a lifelong practice, a part of my pedagogy, a source of comfort and wisdom.

As it happened, I started seeing hearts everywhere — in a cloud, a bare patch of dirt, a chewed up and discarded piece of gum. For my first few years in Seattle, I took it as a little wink from the universe, a sign that I was on the right track, where I was supposed to be. Then, one day four years later, as I was revisiting my old neighborhood, I came upon another heart and it struck me — everywhere I am is the right place to be.

My research explores how we can support digital agency — meaningful choice and control over how technology fits into our lives. And while I’ve tried many experiments over the years, the one that strikes me as the easiest and most rewarding is noticing hearts. This simple act of choosing what to pay attention to is itself a form of agency, a small daily practice of directing my own focus rather than having it directed for me. You don’t have to notice hearts, of course. I assign this to my students and suggest they notice anything that is a little bit rare and would feel a little bit delightful upon discovery.

It keeps my attention occupied just enough that I’m present to where I am. And in the moments where I snap a photo and share it, my phone becomes a tool for focus and connection instead of a distraction from it.

Printed with permission: Harvard Gazette online article, December 19, 2025

December 26, 2025

Local News for a Global Village | www.VoiceSB.com

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www.VoiceSB.com Local News for a Global Village | www.VoiceSB.com

19, 2025 December 26,

December 2nd to 27th, 2025

Sunshine & the Blues

By Frank DiMarco

By Ellen Yeomans

By Bruce Berlow

By Jane Mick

By Lauren Kearns

La Cumbre Plaza 110 S. Hope #H124

For information on renting the gallery, email publisher@voicesb.com or call 805-895-3614

La Cumbre Plaza Art Walk 3rd Friday Reception December 19th • 5-8pm

¡ENTRADA GRATUITA! FREE EVENT ¡ENTRADA GRATUITA! FREE EVENT

El primer mariachi Femenil en los EE. UU. | america’s first all female mariachi El primer mariachi Femenil en los EE. UU. | america’s first all female mariachi JUEVES 15 DE ENERO | THURSDAY, JANUARY 15TH V E T SJ M L B I NEGR|O9 4 TA AY V ,E J| A CN AR UE EM VO E RSI A1 5 DUEI LEDN | 1 TW HAULRNSUD UPAI N R TYE R 1 5I AT H| 7 P M VETS MEMORIAL BUILDING | 941 WALNUT AVE | CARPINTERIA | 7PM

VIERNES 16 DE ENERO | FRIDAY, JANUARY 16TH TH DAER YE N DEAGY UA ROYL E 16 I S L A VVI ISE TR AN EE L ESM1E6N T | 6E8R7O 5 E| LFCROI L I O, J RA ON AD | G TA | 7PM ISLA VISTA ELEMENTARY | 6875 EL COLEGIO ROAD | GOLETA | 7PM

S Á B A D O 1 7 D E E N E R O | S A T U R D A Y , J A N U A R Y 1 7T HT H SUÁABDAAD OP E 1 7C D EA NLELR| O9 1 |8 SOA ULAURPYE |1 77 P M G LU I TE Y H BT I SUPR ODSA T Y| ,GJUA AN DA GUADALUPE CITY HALL | 918 OBISPO ST | GUADALUPE | 7PM

D O M I N G O 1 8 D E E N E R O | S U N D A Y , J A N U A R Y 1 8T HT H ORMI EI NLG OE 1T8H D EEN |E7R2O NADSATY|, SJAANN UA RRYB1A8R A | 6 P M M A RD JO UK E AET R 1 E|. S CU OT TA BA MARJORIE LUKE THEATRE | 721 E. COTA ST | SANTA BARBARA | 6PM

Las puertas se abrirán media hora antes de la función. Habrá recepción después del espectáculo.

Las puertas se abrirán media antes la función.

Habrá recepción del espectáculo.

Doors open half an hourhora before thedeshow start. Reception followsdespués the performance.

Doors open half an hour before the show start. Reception follows the performance.

Co-presented by Isla Vista Elementary School, The Marjorie Isla Vista Elementary Marjorie Luke Co-presented Theatre, City by of Guadalupe and UCSBSchool, Arts &The Lectures.

Luke Theatre, City of Guadalupe and UCSB Arts & Lectures.

For more info, follow us on social media: For more info, follow us on social media:

@vivaelartesantabarbara @vivaelartesantabarbara

@vivaelarte @vivaelarte