email: arts@independent.com How to Marry a Millionaire
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n By Myself Myself, Lauren Bacall’s first memoir, the actress wrote, “No one has ever written a romance better than [Humphrey Bogart and I] lived it.” Even if their film characters’ liaisons paled in comparison to their real-life affair, the repartee in Bogie/ Bacall classics like Howard Hawks’s To Have and Have Not isn’t too shabby. Which is why all eight of UCSB’s Arts & Lectures summer films at the Courthouse are Bogie and Bacall films that include both solo and costarring works. Now in its seventh season, the Free Summer Cinema series at the Santa Barbara County Courthouse Sunken Garden has solidified itself as a wildly popular tradition. Each year, the roster highlights different flavors of classic films, but this is the first time the content has been centered on who stars in the movie. “We look back at classic films, but we haven’t done a series that was focused on actors, per se,” said Roman Baratiak, whose UCSB Arts & Lectures team—in a joint-collaboration with the Santa Barbara County Arts Commission, Santa Barbara County Park Foundation, and the Community Services Department of Santa Barbara County—puts on the event. “So instead of [focusing on] a male or female actor, we chose [Bogie and Bacall], who were married and did four films together.” Along with Casablanca — which features only Bogart — this series offers several time-honored Bogie/Bacall collaborations. Howard Hawks’s To Have and Have Not—the couple’s first pairing, and the one in which smoky-voiced Lauren Bacall utters one of her most famous lines: “You know how to whistle ... just put your lips together and blow”— blow” plays on Wednesday, July 20, and Friday, July 22. Viewers can catch another sultry Bogie/Bacall vehicle, The Big Sleep, on Wednesday, July 27, and Friday, July 29.
Christopher Zerbe Melodies + HarMonies & Jangly guitars
Recommended for fans of Tom Petty or mid-’90s-era R.E.M. as well as appreciators of the more anthemic side of indie rock, this self-descriptive assortment of songs from Christopher Zerbe is a strong bunch of American alt-rock with a light touch of psychedelic observations and flourishes. Songs such as the wonderfully melodic “Starchild” and the rocker “Porcupine” are solid and enjoyable head-nodders, good both for high-volume fist-pumping and low-volume road-trip subversion. But Zerbe’s at his best when he’s a little offbeat, like the paranoid and creatively produced “Blackbirds over Arkansas” or the lovely instrumental “Midnight in Montmartre.” For solid S.B.-area alt-rock with character, this is a great bet. — Richie DeMaria
Music also plays a role in the festivities. “KCRW is a local radio sponsor, and two of their deejays will come out to do a live sound mix,” said Baratiak. KCRW deejays Anthony Valadez and Raul Campos will appear before the Courthouse screenings of The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep, respectively. Darla Bea, from KCSB, provides a mix before the other screenings in the series. Before the Friday, August 26, showing of How to Marry a Millionaire, which features Bacall and fellow bombshells Betty Grable and Marilyn Monroe, filmgoers can catch a performance by the United States Navy Band Cruisers, an active-duty music ensemTo Have and Have Not ble. According to Bartatick, their appearance in the festival was fortuitous. “They happened to be doing a California tour, and they happened to stop by Santa Barbara on August 26.” The outdoor series begins with a screening of The Maltese Falcon on Friday, July 8, at 8:30 p.m.; however, filmgoers can start setting up as early as noon on Fridays. “When we first started, we said that [attendees] can come out at 5 p.m.,” said Bartatick, “but for the Hitchcock series, there was a land rush, so we moved it up for safety.” Attendees can also catch indoor screenings on Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. at UCSB Campbell Hall. — Natalia Cohen
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UCSB Arts & Lecture’s Free Summer Cinema series begins Wednesday, July 6, at UCSB’s Campbell Hall and Friday, July 8, at the S.B. County Courthouse Sunken Gardens. Admission is free. For more information and the complete lineup, see artsandlectures.sa.ucsb.edu.
red hot Chili peppers tHe getaway Time has mellowed the Red Hot Chili Peppers (RHCP). After 35 years, the L.A. band is eons away from the hypersexual funk-punk epitomized by 1987’s Hillel Slovak–driven The Uplift Mofo Party Plan. However, trading longtime producer Rick Rubin for Danger Mouse brings fresh air to RHCP’s stadium arcadium. The Getaway launches with the blue-balling title track, building to a big chorus that never comes. Sinewy single “Dark Necessities” remains the best cut. “The Hunter” and “Dreams of a Samurai” close the collection on a trippy note, but “Feasting on the Flowers” and “Encore” do dreamy better. Nadir “The Longest Wave” should’ve been titled “The Longest Lullaby.” Too bad there isn’t more like “This Ticonderoga,” a pummeling retro-rocker with a sweetheart of a chorus. Yet after long buckling under the weight of their own clichés (“We Turn Red” crams a greatest hits of RHCP riffs, licks, and melodic moments into one song!), the Chili Peppers take several steps forward. — Michael Aushenker
kcrw.com
hot Nights with bogie & baCall arts & lectures’ Free summer Cinema series Features eight of the stars’ Classics
DJ Chris Douridas
Curated CoCktails:
summer Nights with KCrW
With expensive destination festivals claiming so much attention from music lovers these days, it’s refreshing to find an event that’s not only hip and affordable (as in free) but that’s also going to get you and your friends dancing where you belong in the summertime — outside. Cosponsored and hosted by the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara (MCASB), KCRW’s region-wide Summer Nights series makes its Santa Barbara debut this season with a series of Thursdayevening deejay sets on the Upper Arts Terrace of Paseo Nuevo. Ascend the brightly tiled staircase at Chapala and De la Guerra streets from 7-9 p.m. on Thursday, July 7, and you will be greeted at the top by KCRW’s DJ Chris Douridas spinning under the night sky, along with hundreds of fellow revelers enjoying late 1st Thursday hours at MCASB, themed cocktails from the mixologists at Goleta’s Goodland hotel, and craft brews from Telegraph. The artistically inclined will get to view the current exhibition at the museum and participate in interactive art-making activities. People looking to get down can expect to hear the same eclectic mix of music that KCRW presents every day on-air and streaming but seamlessly blended into the kind of jams that only experienced party movers like Douridas can provide. No tickets are necessary, and there’s easy parking in the Paseo Nuevo garage. How’s that for alternative? — Charles Donelan
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JUNE 30, 2016
THE INDEPENDENT
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