It's Time for Coffee With A Black Guy

Birds of Paradise 17 - 24 Sept 2020 Vol 26 Issue 38

SERVING MONTECITO AND SUMMERLAND

Wildlife Care Network sees high number of injured animals during unprecedented heat wave, p. 32

THE TIME IS RIGHT FOR WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT RACE IN AMERICA, SAYS JAMES JOYCE III. STRAIGHT UP, HOLD THE CREAM AND SUGAR. (STORY BEGINS ON PAGE 6)

It Takes a Village

When a hometown gal gets married, Montecito residents do the neighborly thing, p. 34

On Entertainment

With new concert series, the Marjorie Luke Theatre is staying ripe in stale times, p.14

Photo by Daniel Dreifuss Dreifussphoto@gmail.com

Bridge to Outdoor Learning

Montecito Union School receives waiver to return to campus; students will be outside most of the day, p. 12

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Inside This Issue 5 Editor’s Letter Will Santa Barbara join the multitude of cities with bike share programs?

6 Coffee With a Black Guy James Joyce III introduces conversations about race to the community during his talks, Coffee With a Black Guy 8 Letters to the Editor Skin cancer is no joke; ‘Summerland Buzz’ discredits Summerland Association’s survey results; keep your dogs leashed on our trails 10 Dear Montecito Clare Kelly trades cold, misty days as a student in the PNW with sunny days in Santa Barbara after the coronavirus closed universities across the country

Tide Chart 12 Village Beat Montecito Association meets; MUS and Cold Spring School receive waivers from County for reopening; Coast & Olive closes for a week due to kitchen fire 14 On Entertainment Marjorie Luke premieres September Blitz series; Peggy O’Toole Lamb speaks about new book; Readings with Friends presents Parting Ways; and more 16 On the Record

Bucket Brigade launches new gardening project

The Optimist Daily One solution to limiting the spread of wildfires in California: controlled burns 20 Summerland Buzz What’s in the cards for Summerland? Leslie A. Westbrook checks in with Porch’s tarot card reader, Mary Wessely; and Cynthia Hamilton releases latest book.

22 Perspectives by Rinaldo S. Brutoco Too late to buy gold? As the market and economy split, gold is the wisest investment.

23 Brilliant Thoughts Ashleigh Brilliant on all varieties of tea – black, green, herbal, with creamers, sweeteners and stimulants and without 26 Our Town Interview with the creative force that is model, actress, choreographer, and recording artist Rochelle Vincente Von K 28 Your Westmont The college welcomes the class of 2024, the most academically talented; and the liberal arts college shines in new rankings 32 Sizzling in Paradise Even wildlife couldn’t catch a break during the heat wave. If anything, they suffered more than humans, writes Gretchen Lieff.

34 It Takes a Village Neighborhood mobilizes to send local gal Anna Burrows off to meet her groom 44 Nosh Town Flor de Maiz, the latest brainchild of restaurateur Carlos Luna, will win over your heart and stomach, writes Claudia Schou 46 Classified Advertising Our own “Craigslist” of classified ads, in which sellers offer everything from summer rentals to estate sales 47 Local Business Directory Smart business owners place business cards here so readers know where to look when they need what those businesses offer

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17 – 24 September 2020

Editor’s Letter

by Gwyn Lurie CEO and Executive Editor of the Montecito Journal Media Group

Recycle, Upcycle, Bicycle

A

s people flee crowded cities to more peaceful and less congested towns like ours, places like Santa Barbara become less peaceful and more congested themselves. The fact is, as urbanization and population reach unprecedented levels, road congestion has become a daily tax of tedium. And it doesn’t just grind at our psyches. Heavy traffic affects air quality, accessibility, sustainability, and our all-around quality of life.

Fortunately, there’s at least one plan on the table to help alleviate congestion and just generally make Santa Barbara more livable: bike share. For the uninitiated, bikes share is a system where pedestrians can pick up, ride, and drop off bikes at numerous points across the city at automated stations.

As we go to press, the City of Santa Barbara’s Historic Landmarks Commission (HLC) is voting on whether bike share will clear its final hurdle.

Or, there is the other possibility that the wheels of bike share will be caught up in the larger wheels – and spokes – of Santa Barbara’s dreaded bureaucracy.

The bike share project was introduced to the SB City Council in December of 2019 and has since been approved by Council and the Santa Barbara Architectural Board of Review. The last pending step was simply to have the color and design of the docks approved by the HLC. Though that vote will have happened by the time you read this, the question remains how the HLC got involved at all in a more global conversation as to whether the bike docks should be placed on State Street at all – something typically outside of the HLC’s normal purview.

“The only thing in front of us is whether we agree with the color black or not,” said Landmarks Commissioner Robert Ooley at an early September meeting on the bike share plan. “Everything else will be decided by those who are elected to make those decisions.” But regardless of HLC’s intended purview being limited to the color and design of the docks, Vice Chair Steve Hausz has questioned the very idea of bike share on State Street.

It seems to me that it is this sort of overreach and red tape that quashes forward thinking in a city where many have come to feel that the cost of doing business may, in fact, outweigh its value.

The good news is bike share was already conceptually approved by the Mayor and the City Council last year when BCycle, a public bicycle sharing company owned by Trek Bicycle, won the RFP (Request for Proposal) for the bike share contract with the City of Santa Barbara.

I hope by the time you read this the HLC will have given bike share its final approval and Santa Barbara will join the ranks of cities around the world that understand that one way to help business, help the environment, ease congestion, promote fitness, and relieve the need for additional parking is to allow local bike culture to thrive.

The benefits of bike sharing are many, including reduction of vehicle emissions, reduced congestion and fuel consumption, and cost savings for individuals. Biking is naturally socially distant. And public bike sharing allows those who may not otherwise use or own bicycles to enjoy the benefits of cycling.

Personally, I see bike share as a remedy to the parking spaces lost to necessary restaurant pop-up parklets. It’s also just plain hard to have a bad day from the perch of one’s bicycle as opposed to, say, from inside the sensory deprivation chamber we know as the 7-passenger SUV. Plus, bike sharing makes a strong visual statement that bicycles belong on city streets – they’re part of the charm of Paris, Amsterdam, New York… and I hope Santa Barbara.

As the birthplace of the modern environmental movement, Santa Barbara will, by supporting a pro-environment, affordable, and healthy mode of transportation that complements the city’s public transportation services, only enhance its green credibility. And unlike other green forms of local transportation, like scooters, with bike sharing and its requisite docking stations, bikes will be kept orderly and not left willy-nilly to litter our sidewalks.

My personal hope is that bike stations be allowed not only on and around State Street, but also around Montecito at locations like the Miramar, Coast Village Road, and the Upper Village.

I often hear old-time Montecitans wistfully recall a gentler time when people rode horses around town and even “docked” them to a hitching post at Montecito Union School. Why not give our kids a shot at their own kind of gentler time, where bikes are a completely normal and available way to get around?

Even if you’re not a cycler, we all stand to benefit from clearer roads, cleaner air, and an all-around friendlier feeling around our beautiful village.

•MJ 17 – 24 September 2020

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Coffee with a Black Guy, Room for Cream.

by Jeff Wing

The Value of Perspective Does your advisor understand you?

The Value of Perspective

I

James Joyce Answers the Tough Questions

t’s a singular scene.

In a spacious, unfurnished room aglow with natural light, James Joyce III is holding court, pacing Does your advisor understand you? before a vibrant orange wall whose With so much at stake in your life, it never hurts to get a second oonly pinioadornment n is the framed photo of a swami.

Several dozen yoga pracabout your financial future. titioners in shorts and tees sit before Joyce on a blond, hardwood floor, With so much at stake in your life, it never hurts to get a second opinion their numbers radiating outward in Myabaopupt ryoouarcfihnasntaciratlsfubtuyreu. nderstanding your life and your financial go ls. of semicircles. The vibe is a aseries We then work together to create a framework designed to give yoModern u the Socratic. The gathered are poised on pastel-colored yoga pads conMfiydaepnprcoeacthostdarots w are byhuantdm ersatattnedrinsgm yoousrtl-if-enaondmyaotutrefirnw anh cia altgtohaels. markets and cushions, bolt upright on their doiW neg.then work together to create a framework designed to give you the haunches and perpendicular with attentiveness. All eyes are on Mr. Joyce confidence to do what matters most--no matter what the markets are as he offers sage advice on purchasing doing. on how to choose I want to help ensure you have all your current and future financiala ncar, eedspecifically s the safest make and model – though are met. Call me for a free financial plan and portfolio review. not exactly in accord with the Ralph I want to help ensure you have all your current and future financial needs Nader checklist. are met. Call me for a free financial plan and portfolio review.

“What’s the safest car for me to get?” Joyce asks rhetorically.

Lanky and relaxed in a black t-shirt and jeans, he’s letting stuff sink in.

“Not in terms of rollover, or survivability in a crash. What car is safest…

Christopher Gallo for me? What car can I drive that is ChriU stB opShF erinGaan llocial Services Inc. least likely to get me pulled over?”

UBS2F2in2anEcaiastl SCea rvrirciellsoInSct.reet The yoga crowd rustles and murmurs.

222 East Carrillo Street Suite 106 “What car is least likely to draw Suite 106 attention to me so law enforcement S a n t a B a r b a r a , C A 9 3 1 0 1 7 1 4 6 Santa Barbara, CA 93101-7146 doesn’t think ‘…hmm. Let’s go check 805-890 635--3976 713-38707 0-1262-8407704-262-4774 this out.’”

He lets the question hang before ticking off the points on his fingers.

“Well, I’m not going to get anything exotic. I’m not going to drive anything ® ® ,P CI®M, ACIMA® alaloll, oC,FPCF ChCrhisrtisotopphheerr TT..GG too expensive. I am definitely not CPWA® CPWA® going to buy a Tesla.”

Vice President - Wealth Management Here and there uneasy smiles of VicPeorPtfroelisoidMeanntag-eW e a l t h M a n a g e m e n t r comprehension blossom in the gallery Por8t0f5o-l7io30M -34a2n5ager and are quickly tamped.

805 ch-r7is3 to0p-h3e4 r.t2.g5allo@ubs.com “I drive a white Toyota Avalon,” christopher.t.gallo@ubs.com James says. “It’s my second one.

Holding the Position

James Joyce III is a Maryland native and former journalist who has served as District Director for State Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson for nearly eight years. The latter may explain his ubs.com/fs/christophertgallo Civics 101 tone when summarizing Coffee with a Black Guy (CWABG) – an “authentic and genuine commuu b s . c o m / f s / c h r i s t o p h e r t g a l l o As a firm providing wealth management services to clients, UBS Financial Services Inc. offers both nity-building” mission that essentially investment advisory services and brokerage services. Investment advisory services and brokerage services are separate and distinct, differ in material ways and are governed by different laws and separate puts Joyce in a room taking quesarrangements. It is important that clients understand the ways in which we conduct business and that tions As atfi r m p r o v i d i n g w e a l t h m a n a g e m e n t s e r v i c e s t o c l i e n t s , U B S F i n a n c i a l S e r v i c e s I n c . o f f ers bofrom th the racially inquisitive. The hey carefully read the agreements and disclosures that we provide to them about the products or impact gig spiked rvie censtwaedovfifseo r. rFyorsm onro , pkleearsaegrevsieewrvtihceePsD. FIndvoecusm enetnat u nvesstem erovrieciensfoarm nadtib tm abdsv.cisoomry/wsoerrkviincgew s iathnuds.brokidea eragefor serthe vicesocial s ndaatredrsia Inlc.woawynss a thnedceartrieficg atoiovnem aerkds CbFyP®daifnfderCeEnRtTIFlaIEw D s and slike are sCeeprtaifiraedteFinaanndciadl iPslta™innncetr,Bdoiafrfdeor finStam r n e p a r a t e a fever in Joyce following the NCeIn ALtsP.LA R pinotrhtean Ut.St. h Ca IMt Ac®liiesnatrseguisntedreedrscteartnifidcatth ioen m e Inhviecshtmw enetscaonnddWuecatltb h usiness and that arranFIgNeAm ItNiN s Eim waaryk sofinthw back-to-back killings of Alton Sterling I n s t i t u t e , f o r m e r l y I M C A , i n t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s o f A m e r i c a a n d w o r l d w i d e . © U B S 2 0 2 0 .

A l l r i g h t s r e s e r v e d . hey carefully read the agreements and disclosures that we provide to them about the products or inancial Services Inc. is a subsidiary of UBS AG. Member FINRA/SIPC. D-UBS-87F27415 serviUceBSs Fw e offer. For more information, please review the PDF document at ubs.com/woin rkiLouisiana ngwithus.and Philando Castile in Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc. owns the certification marks CFP® and CERTIFIED

MONTECITO JOURNAL ® “At some point in life the world’s beauty becomes enough.” – Toni Morrison ™

6

James Joyce III sees unhindered conversation as key to normalizing race relations (photo by Ricardo Harris-Sanchez @picture_me_roaming)

Minnesota in early July, 2016. The two police shootings owned the news cycles and turned the heat up on a national conversation that’s currently at full boil. That summer, though, all Joyce sensed on the streets of his adoptive Santa Barbara was a hermetically sealed insularity, Pollyanna in a ziploc.

“Respectability politics stops us from engaging truthfully. Racial conversations just don’t happen,” Joyce says.

The summer of 2016 wore on and the Maryland transplant walked local streets in a morose daze. Hamstrung and frustrated, he realized that making himself available to the interrogations of white Santa Barbarans was the quickest route to the catalytic pot stirring that might shake things loose. Not surprisingly, perhaps, the full-frontal, ‘ask-me-anything’ format of Coffee with a Black Guy was slow to take hold. “There were seven people at that first meeting,” James says without blinking. “It was an intimate conversation.”

Over time, and eventually fueled by such allies and sponsors as Pacifica Graduate Institute Alumni Association, Santa Barbara City College Foundation, Lois & Walter Capps Project sponsorships, Wealth

Coffee Page 404 17 – 24 September 2020

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• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

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Letters to the Editor

If you have something you think Montecito should know about, or wish to respond to something you read in the Journal, we want to hear from you. Please send all such correspondence to: Montecito Journal, Letters to the Editor, 1206 Coast Village Circle, Suite H, Montecito, CA. 93108. You can also FAX such mail to: (805) 969-6654, or E-mail to letters@montecitojournal.net

Strictly Speaking

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n response to Mr. Dale Lowdermilk’s erudite letter comparing responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and those for skin cancer dangers, just this: The draconic measures described for combatting skin cancers are useful warnings that people can adopt for their own protection. Fortunately, cancer is not contagious. Therefore, everyone has the option of following guidelines or not, harming only him/ herself if they don’t.

On the other hand, COVID-19 is extremely contagious and what an individual does has an impact not only on him/herself, but on others.

Until a vaccine is found, we need to take what should be obvious precautions, such as wearing masks in public, frequent hand washing, keeping away from crowds, etc., in order to prevent spreading or contacting the disease. Guidelines are necessary and helpful if we are not to spread the virus with its consequences of severe illness and even death.

Perhaps your letter was meant as a spoof? If so, I didn’t find it especially funny, considering that since March, this virus has led to the death of 197,000 people in the U.S. alone (917,000 worldwide). (Google, Total Corona Virus Deaths Worldwide; Our World in Data.)

Pauline Paulin

Mind the Gap

The equity gap between school districts in our community is increasingly divisive. What will it take for all voters across the County to prioritize schools and student needs? We must use this moment to restructure education, do all we can to re-open schools, and provide equitable funding. We support Cold Spring School District’s leadership including their efforts to re-open.

Audacious Foundation

Hot Critical Air Causes Local Warming in Montecito

What an exhausting read courtesy of Nancy Freeman in volume 26 issue 37 / 10-17 September 2020. Who is this critical thinker that so much ink was dedicated to her trumpeting of baseless assertions?

In your volume 26 issue 34 / 20-27 August 2020 I would like to just point out several observations. Here are just a few examples of Nancy

“To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves.” – Mahatma Gandhi

Freeman’s critical thinking and I do mean true to the definition of critical.

Nancy Freeman suggested in paragraph four beginning with “Only a shallow one-dimensional male would conclude…” and ending with “Trump is a shallow man.” Is this name calling of Buckley and Trump? We think so.

Nancy Freeman goes on to say in paragraph nine beginning with “I hope Mr. Buckley is still laughing…” In this paragraph she uses the words “mostly old frightened white men who make up today’s Republican Party…” Is this name calling, racist, ageism or all three?

We think so.

Nancy Freeman goes on to say in paragraph 11 beginning with “Some evidence of Trump’s racism…” In this paragraph she uses the words “white sycophants.”

It was a pleasure to read Lorraine Morey’s response to Nancy Freeman aka the “critical thinker” in your volume 26 issue 36 / 3-10 September 2020. So much of what Lorraine Morey stated is true and of great consequence, i.e. “no one approves of sexual misbehavior toward a woman.” There are other mentions that are worthy of repeating but I will refrain from restating the obvious.

Back to the Nancy Freeman in your volume 26 issue 37 / 10-17 September 2020. Nancy Freeman states in paragraph 11 beginning with “I question you on that score…” Our Nancy Freeman says, “Really. I have my letter in front of me.

My copy does not mention Republican men.” See above and more.

There is so much wrong with all of your whining Nancy Freeman, I am going to stop writing. Save the ink.

Before I do, your anger is palpable.

I can smell and sense the froth that pours off your lips and fingers as if you were sitting across from me.

I only can hope for you that you will be more conscious of the venom that resides in your words. If you could just try to do your part in keeping your porch and side of the street clean, safe, happy, and resentment free your world and others around the world might be better served. It’s a big job.

WS Wolf

Bias from Summerland Buzz

Ms. Leslie A. Westbrook’s “Summerland Buzz” column misleadingly used statistics from 2016’s

Letters Page 164 17 – 24 September 2020

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17 – 24 September 2020

• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

9

Dear Montecito

by Stella Pierce

Montecito Alumni Write Letters from Life’s Front Clare Kelly, at the University of Portland, with her residence advisor Peyton, shortly before coronavirus closed down the school

I

n response to the novel coronavirus, schools around the world rushed to integrate their curriculum into online learning platforms.

Concessions were made by students, teachers, and administrators alike to accommodate a novel learning experience that was, to many, the bane of a semester reaching its conclusion.

I have heard many accounts of slow Wi-Fi and laptop-screen fatigue from friends who are pessimistic for the quickly approaching semester. This week, I am pleased to share with you the perspective of current student and future educator, Clare Kelly.

Double majoring in English and secondary education at the University of Portland, Clare’s experience with online education, integration back into family life, and the upcoming

school term serves as a dog-eared page representing the young experience of 2020.

Dear Montecito,

A typical Wednesday in Portland, Oregon. I’m walking from my Arabic Literature class back to my dorm, rocking out to my music, and nodding at people in passing as they smile and greet me in turn. Back in my dorm room, I check my email to find that everything has changed. I’ve learned that I have to pack up my life and return home.

The news of COVID-19 spread quickly through the dorm. Panicked packing. Frenetic freshmen. I’ve always heard the saying “running around like a chicken with its head cut off” but had never seen anything I

could relate it to. Now I can say that I have. Amidst the chaos, two freshman girls were trying to Tetris their furniture into the back of a single truck, when they should have had at least a truck each. I’m sure this was happening in dorms all around the country.

One practically empty flight later, I was back home, completing the academic year on Zoom. Classes on Zoom were a unique experience. Early on in the transition to online classes, we all figured out how to change our Zoom backgrounds. This meant that during a serious discussion in my American Literature class, my classmates began to notice that they could change their Zoom backgrounds. The person speaking would be the main window of focus, and their background could be anything from hanging out with SpongeBob in his pineapple home to being in the middle of an alien invasion. Once, my professor figured out how to change his background, and the beginning of class saw him relaxing on the Great Wall, then 10 minutes later he was chilling with dinosaurs during a meteor storm. Things like that definitely made classes more interesting and a little more bearable for us all.

Outside of online classes, I was back at home with my parents and brother, and I found myself looking for ways to fill the time. My parents had a good number of jobs for me to do from research to home renovation.

Not being able to go out or work at the job I was planning to have, I now have time to read, write, and bake.

Although I’ve always loved reading, I don’t usually have a lot of time to really get into a story – and there’s not much point if you can’t be invested since you can hardly remember what you’ve read half the time. I also enjoy writing my own stories, as it gives me a needed break from the world that we live in. I can create a world where the problems and conflicts of today do not exist.

But one of my favorite new activities has been baking bread from scratch with my father. We now call ourselves

the “dubious baguette bakers,” and I know that the rest of my family is always happy when we bake, as fresh, homemade bread is always lovely.

Each new batch of bread allows for something new that can be added, something new to explore. Butter, olive oil, and even salt sprinkled on top of the bread before baking can have a big change in the taste and the look of the bread.

Family is important to me, which has made quarantine infinitely more bearable. Since leaving for college almost two years ago, this is the most time I have spent in close quarters with my family. There’s the good and the bad. It is easy at times to become somewhat sullen having been cooped up in my house not able to go anywhere. But at the same time, I have enjoyed a good deal of time swimming and engaging in other activities with my younger brother, having movie nights on the weekend with the family, and of course, the seemingly endless supply of jigsaw puzzles on the dining room table.

As the summer is coming to an end, that means that it is almost time for school to begin again, and although it was originally planned for us to return to campus, it was decided that we will be returning to classes online only. This was not the news that my friends or I wanted, as we had all been excited to return to campus and to see each other once again. The past school year ended abruptly, and many of us did not get to properly say “goodbye and see you next year,” which made us all the more excited to be returning. Now with online classes, we’ll be more estranged than ever. But I will do my best to go with it and try to enjoy my classes, as much as one can truly enjoy their classes. As I’m missing my friends and college in Oregon, I’m hoping that sunny Santa Barbara might have just a couple days of cool weather and fog to remind me of what I’ll be returning to in Portland.

Yours, Clare Kelly •MJ

Montecito Tide Guide

10 MONTECITO JOURNAL

Day

Low

Hgt High

Hgt High

Hgt Low

Thurs, Sept 17

4:07 AM -0.5 10:14 AM 5.4

04:12 PM

0.6

010:21 PM

6.2

Fri, Sept 18

4:41 AM -0.2 10:57 AM 5.7

04:59 PM

0.3

011:08 PM

5.7

Sat, Sept 19

5:16 AM 0.3

11:33 AM 5.9

05:51 PM

0.2

Sun, Sept 20

12:01 AM 5.1

5:51 AM

0.9

12:12 PM

5.9

06:49 PM 0.3

Mon, Sept 21

1:01 AM

4.4

6:30 AM

1.7

12:56 PM

5.8

07:58 PM 0.4

Tues, Sept 22

2:20 AM

3.7

7:14 AM

2.4

01:50 PM

5.5

09:23 PM 0.5

Wed, Sept 23

4:16 AM

3.4

8:19 AM

3

03:02 PM

5.2

010:56 PM 0.4

Thurs, Sept 24

6:18 AM

3.6

10:14 AM

3.3

04:33 PM

5.1

Fri, Sept 25

7:26 AM

4

12:02 PM

3.1

05:57 PM

5.1

12:15 AM 0.2

Hgt Low

“Nature is pleased with simplicity. And nature is no dummy.” – Isaac Newton

Hgt

17 – 24 September 2020

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17 – 24 September 2020

• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

11

Village Beat

A new bridge to the new nature lab at Montecito Union School has been installed, just one of the initiatives being used to get kids back to school later this month

by Kelly Mahan Herrick Kelly has been editor at large for the Journal since 2007, reporting on news in Montecito and beyond. She is also a licensed realtor with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, and is a member of Montecito and Santa Barbara’s top real estate team, Calcagno & Hamilton.

Latest from Montecito Association

A

t a monthly board meeting last week, the Montecito Association Board of Directors heard from Brett Balint, CEO of Onward & Upward, who presented a very conceptual idea of modifying airspace over Santa Barbara and Montecito.

Balint, who was in attendance on the Zoom meeting with Jasenka Rakas, Ph.D., from the University of California at Berkeley, explained that communities that live beneath the airspace of Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties along the coast have been dealing with hundreds of helicopter flights each month, with limited oversight by the FAA. In addition, Balint explained that there are several new aircraft technologies coming down the pipeline, which might affect our local communities in the future. These include modifying local airspace to redirect flights over the ocean, drone delivery services, and affordable helicopter commuting options. Balint sug-

gested utilizing Rincon Island as a helipad; the artificial island was built in 1958 to house an oil drilling and production facility, but after multiple issues in the early 2000s, the island is now on its way to being decommissioned through CEQA. Balint suggested the island could be leased for private helicopter commuting, leading to safe, on-demand air travel.

Balint says he has assembled a team of public and private aviation experts as well as a proposed feasibility study to modify the airspace. For more information, visit www.rinconskyport.org.

Also at the meeting, the Board heard from Cold Spring and Montecito Union School superintendents Dr. Amy Alzina and Dr. Anthony Ranii, who are both endeavoring to have their students back to campus in the coming weeks. Dr. Alzina reported that younger students will go back to school as early as next week, for half days until noon. Older students will

Matthew Pifer, MD

do four half days and one full day.

“The schedule will help ease us back in,” Dr. Alzina said. Dr. Ranii reported that work continues on building outdoor classrooms in order to properly social distance. Both schools were granted waivers from Santa Barbara County on Tuesday, September 15.

Also during Community Reports, Nick Turner from Montecito Water District reported that a long-term water supply agreement with the City of Santa Barbara was approved earlier this summer by the MWD Board of Directors; it was later approved by the City of Santa Barbara. “The agreement is fully executed at this point,”

Turner said. “It provides such a significant water supply reliability for our community, and we are really glad the community supported it.” The water supply agreement guarantees the City’s delivery of potable water to Montecito for the next 50 years; those deliveries will begin to take place in January 2022. The agreement increases the District’s current local, reliable water sources, irrespective of hydrological conditions.

Turner also reported that piping projects are taking place on Santa Rosa Lane, San Ysidro Road, and San

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• The Voice of the Village •

ROBERT RISKIN

MONTECITO JOURNAL

13

On Entertainment

Among the Marjorie Luke Theatre’s high-quality concerts is the season launcher on September 18 featuring local native Mendeleyev

by Steven Libowitz

Steven Libowitz has reported on the arts and entertainment for more than 30 years; he has contributed to the Montecito Journal for more than 10 years.

Marjorie Luke, Staying Ripe in Stale Times

V

enues and artists throughout the world are struggling with how to thrive or even survive during the extended pandemic. For Marjorie Luke board president Rod Lathim, joining the zeitgeist of endless Zoom performances proved completely unpalatable.

Instead, the Luke – which only a year or so ago started producing its own events rather than simply serving as a rental space – committed to creating high-quality concerts and other content that, instead of live streaming, would employ three high definition cameras, top quality sound equipment and professional editing, basically treating the venerable theater at Santa Barbara Junior High School like a television studio with innovative lighting and scene-scaping all while adhering to the current COVID safety protocols.

“Once we realized we were going

to be dark for some time, we knew we could either decide to just sit and wait for the craziness to be over, or get busy and start creating our own content,” Lathim said. “We have this beautiful theater and two staff members – down from 32, sure, but still here – who could help. So I decided to bring in Santa Barbara artists and give them a chance to perform here, and actually pay them to help them keep going.”

Six free events have already been booked, including a season-launching concert by local native Mendeleyev, a 29-year-old singer-songwriter who competed on The Voice last fall, whose show premieres on Friday, September 18. (See interview below.) Upcoming events include “Resonance,” featuring more than 30 Santa Barbara musicians, singers, and speakers reflecting the city’s diverse culture coming together to uplift, unite, and inspire

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through songs, music, and spoken words. Keyboardist Gil Rosas, a trio from the Santa Barbara Folk Orchestra, actors Rich Hoag and Marion Freitag, and guitarist Chris Fossek are among the artists appearing in a show that will include a poignant excerpt from Thornton Wilder’s Our Town read by more than a dozen speakers.

Also on the schedule are Tariqh Akoni & Friends, led by the Santa Barbara-born composer-songwriter-producer-studio wizard and longtime music director for Josh Groban; a concert with Jackson Gillies, who won Teen Star Santa Barbara in 2016 before going on to compete on American Idol; and OTV Reads SB, a new play reading and experimental/development arm of the radical, award-winning theater company On The Verge.

Each new event will be publicly announced and posted for free viewing on the www.luketheatre.org site, approximately every five weeks, although the nature of production has prevented a firm scheduling commitment. Each show will remain available to view indefinitely per the agreement with the artists that is rather rare even during the pandemic. Artists interested in participating are encouraged to submit video tapes of their acts on the same website.

“It’s really about community service, and staying relevant,” Lathim said. “With the sponsorships, we’re just squeaking by, not making any real money by a longshot. But it’s important to stay viable as a theater instead of rotting on the vine. We have this beautiful asset we could put to work

at a time when people need to have access to culture. People are hungry for that.”

The Voice from Santa Barbara

Mendeleyev Galileo Einstein Pythagoras Darwin Euclid Leonardo Allan-Blitz – he got his unusual name via his hippie parents’ love of science – had an unconventional upbringing near Gibraltar Road in the hills above Santa Barbara, where he not only took voice lessons but also learned to play the guitar, piano, drums, bass, and ukulele. Four years at the prestigious Berklee College of Music, where he studied jazz guitar, led him back to Southern California, where he now makes his home in Venice.

Outside of town, he’s best known for appearing on The Voice in 2019, where his very low, very distinct voice made all four coaches turn around with his bass cover of Bob Dylan’s “Girl From the North Country” before he wound up being eliminated in the battle round. But Mendeleyev had already had his share of one-of-akind experiences, including having his family house burn down in the Tea Fire in 2008, a year after getting pulled on stage by Jack Johnson and Michael Franti at the 2007 Solutions for Dreamers Festival to sing the third verse of a cover of Sublime’s “What I Got” in front of 2,000 people.

So appearing in front of almost no one at the 800-seat Marjorie Luke – where he’d performed a few times in high school with the Dos Pueblos

On Entertainment Page 184 184

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17 – 24 September 2020

• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

15

On the Record

Letters (Continued from page 8)

by Nicholas Schou

Nicholas Schou is an award-winning investigative journalist and author of several books, including Orange Sunshine and Kill the Messenger. If you have tips or stories about Montecito, please email him at newseditor@montecitojournal.net

Montecito’s Bucket Brigade Launches Countywide Growing Project

F

resh on the heels of donating and distributing 33,000 cloth masks sewed by 300 volunteers, the Bucket Brigade (as well as 16 other organizations including the Santa Barbara County Food Action Network and the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County) is taking its crowd-sourcing expertise in a new direction: launching a major campaign of community and home gardening to provide healthy fruits and vegetables to needy families throughout Santa Barbara County.

Just after noon on Sept. 14, Bucket Brigade co-founder and CEO Abe Powell joined First District Supervisor Das Williams and Trinity Garden manager Mallory Russell for a groundbreaking ceremony at the group’s new plot located within the large community garden adjacent to Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church. Joined by other volunteers, the trio planted the first few seeds of what will become the pilot plot of the Brigade’s new project.

According to Russell, the garden dates to 2011, when church members created it from two underutilized volleyball courts and a weedy field. So far more than 100 species of trees and plants have been planted and last year the garden produced 4000 pounds of food. A contemporary, crowd-sourced take on the “Victory Gardens” campaign that urged Americans to grow food and vegetables during the First and Second World Wars, the Bucket Brigade’s gardening project aims to bring gardening afficionados throughout the county together in an organized effort to distribute food to those in need.

Speaking to the crowd, Williams thanked the Brigade for helping to address a major challenge currently facing Santa Barbara County. “We are facing an increased number of folks in need of aid,” Williams said. “We have at least 20,000 more people out of work, we have a reduction in unemployment benefits, and a lot of people are looking over the edge of an economic cliff.”

“Our neighbors need our help,” Powell added. “Just yesterday I talked to Meals on Wheels and they told me they have seen a 78 percent increase in requests for senior food assistance this year alone. We are in the midst of a major food security and food resilience crisis in the making. The time has come to step up and take action.”

Anyone with their own backyard garden or who is willing to volunteer at a community garden or to help distribute the food is urged to visit the Bucket Brigade’s website (www.sbbucketbrigade.org) for more information on how and where to get involved.

•MJ

We Need More Controlled Burns to Prevent Wildfires

R

esidents in California have been waking up to apocalyptic orange skies caused by wildfires across the state. For a Thought Leader Series, we share a ProPublica article that dives deeper into solutions for reducing the severity of what many are now calling “megafires.”

Tim Ingalsbee is a previous wildland firefighter who is frustrated with the disconnect between what he learned about the west’s natural fire season patterns and California’s wildland management policies. Academics estimate that in prehistoric California, up to 11.8 million acres burned each year, yet between 1982 and 1998, California land management experts conducted only 30,000 acres of controlled burns. Between 1999 and 2017, it dropped to just 13,000 acres. We are now seeing a buildup of dense flammable material in our wildlands combined with intensifying heat and drought due to climate change. The result is nearly uncontrollable fast-moving blazes that are getting worse year after year.

Mike Beasley, deputy fire chief of Yosemite National Park from 2001 to

16 MONTECITO JOURNAL

Proposition 64 results (Legalization of Marijuana), to seemingly justify the potential placement of a retail cannabis store in Summerland.

Question: When Summerland voters approved Prop 64 in 2016, how many citizens were aware that retail cannabis storefronts could be located in their community?

Answer: None. In 2016 no Santa Barbara County voter could have known this, because the County hadn’t approved a cannabis ordinance until well after the election.

Proposition 64 allowed California’s county and city governments the discretion on whether or not to allow cannabis cultivation, and/ or retail cannabis storefront businesses. No vote was ever taken by Summerland or county residents, whether or not they wanted to have a retail cannabis store in their community.

Takeaway: No matter how desperately several County Board of Supervisor members and cannabis growers want to shift the focus, it was the Board, not voters, who recently approved the administrative process to begin the county’s cannabis retail storefront licensing process. Ventura County does not allow any cannabis to be cultivated nor any retail storefronts to operate.

Neither do the cities of Carpinteria, Ventura, or Santa Maria. This decision was made solely by the Board of Supervisors, not by a vote of county citizens.

I’m disappointed that this columnist chose to discredit the Summerland Association’s survey results. This was a major effort by the volunteer Summerland Association to determine the sentiment of residents and store own-

ers/commercial tenants. There was no bias in the survey process. It’s noted that national political polls use a much smaller sample size vs population, to gage citizen sentiment. Supervisor Das Williams, in his remarks before the Board, took the survey results seriously and backed off supporting a retail cannabis store in Summerland.

Residents overwhelmingly believe there is no community benefit to locating a retail cannabis store in Summerland.

Sincerely yours, Mark Brickley

Keep Dogs Leashed

I hike quite a bit on the local trails and I agreed with most of your recent article by Michelle Ebbin about improving physical and mental health by hiking.

However she was wrong about bringing unleashed dogs on the trails. Dogs are not allowed off leash on trails in the city of Santa Barbara (https://www.santabarbaraca.gov/ gov/depts/police/admin/animals. asp#548) or the County of Santa Barbara (https://www.countyofsb. org/parks/dog.sbc). Most of our trails start on city or county property so these laws apply. As a practical matter, many of our trails are lined with poison oak which can end up on your dog’s coat and when they are off leash they can brush against passing hikers on our narrow trails and pass along the poison oak. Please keep your dog on leash on the hiking trails. For off leash exercise please use one of our parks or beaches that have designated off leash exercise areas.

Bill Fincher •MJ

2009, said he thought the state needed to turn to ecology to find a solution to preventing wildfires. More controlled burns would help clear out high risk areas near populated regions and create burn lines to stop wildfires when they do break out.

Funding controlled burns is more complicated than funding active firefighting. When a fire is raging, it’s easy to get agencies to spend money, but when it comes to organizing a controlled burn, sourcing equipment, complying with the Clean Air Act, and contending with the political danger of a controlled burn getting out of control often deter plans.

In the southeast, controlled burns play a much bigger role in wildfire prevention. Lenya Quinn-Davidson, an area fire adviser for the University of California Cooperative Extension and director of the Northern California Prescribed Fire Council, is optimistic that California could adopt similar policies. This past August, Governor Gavin Newsom signed a memorandum of understanding on the need for more controlled burns, indicating the state might finally be getting on board with more sustainable fire practices.

As climate change increases the risk of wildfires, we urgently need to rethink our fire prevention strategies. Taking some of the millions of dollars we spend fighting active blazes and using it for strategic controlled burns to mitigate fire risk will be incredibly beneficial in the long run. Looking at the earth’s natural fire patterns and centuries of wildfire mitigation practices employed by indigenous communities shows us that manipulating the west’s natural burn cycle to work around human-populated areas will be more effective in the long run than suppressing all fire until one rages out of control.

•MJ

“Adopt the pace of nature. Her secret is patience.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

17 – 24 September 2020

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17 – 24 September 2020

• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

17

On Entertainment (Continued from page 14 14)) Jazz Band – was no big thing for the 29-year-old. Mostly he was full of gratitude and wonder as he talked about the show and more over the phone while driving home from a car dealership in his new 2020 Toyota Camry hybrid last Monday night.

Q. When you look back at your time on The Voice, how does that experience show up in your life right now?

A. The whole thing was one of the best experiences of my life. It was a wonderful, wonderful time, and really important. It’s very nostalgic to think about. It was just such a blast, and generally my favorite part about it was being with all these insanely talented people from all over the country and getting to spend time together and write together, record together day in and day out for a month. It was kind of like summer camp. They make it seem like it’s so competitive on the show, but everyone was very supportive so it was just so damn cool. You know, I’d never even seen an episode in my life before I stumbled into it because I was curious about reality television, and it turned out to be more than I could have imagined.

How did you wind up as the first artist for this new series at the Luke?

I just kind of fell into that too. Rod

had an artshow in the Funk Zone last winter and I accidentally walked in there thinking it was the venue I was supposed to be playing, which was actually across the street. He recognized me and we stood there talking for a while. He ended up coming over to see my set that night and loved it.

Eventually he reached out and invited me to play.

The idea of playing in a theater with no audience is just a super bizarre thing in my mind, especially for someone like you, who really connects to the audience. How was it for you?

It was actually pretty amazing because they had all these cameras, and a videographer, and Rod went over my setlist song by song to feature each of them in a different way with different themes and camera angles to showcase different parts of the theater. It was a really cool concept. It was strange not having an audience, but I loved being on the stage in such a beautiful place to play. But it was definitely weird. I didn’t really tell as many stories as I normally would, no interludes between the songs where I talk to the audience, which is a big part of my usual type of performances. But what was fun was that we were able to use a couple of my own music videos which we projected behind me

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and I played and sang along to them.

Weird or not, it sure beats doing those live streams online. I mean, we’re still editing it, making it a real special show.

How much does being from Santa Barbara inform who you are and your music, or rather how does it show up in your art these days?

That’s a good question. The biggest part was growing up in the mountains and having that element of seclusion, away from a neighborhood or a society or friends other than in school but a very close family. Growing up with that kind of solitude definitely fostered my creativity. And one of the strongest, most influential experiences of my life was the fire and having the house burn down in 2008.

I pretty much lost everything I owned.

Ironically, it was really liberating.

All that was left that was mine from before the fire was the 2006 Toyota Camry hybrid. It was really hard to let go of that car, so getting the new one I’m driving home right now has a lot of meaning.

Taylor-made for our Times

6Q’s with the writer of RTC’s A Song Rubicon Theatre’s September Blitz, a month-long festival featuring more than 30 events in 30 days, takes a turn away from classic fare toward a moving and innovative new one-act play with music from emerging young playwright Taylor Fagins. Preston Butler III, Greta Oglesby, Krystle Rose Simmons, and Joe Spano star in A Song, which addresses the COVID pandemic, Black Lives Matter, and other urgent current issues that also transcend time and place. The play will have its world premiere via livestream on September 19-20. Visit www. rubicontheatre.org/allrise for free reservations. Fagins talked about A Song over the phone from his home in New York.

Q. You met director Chris Butler when you both were actors at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival just last year. Have you always also been writing?

A. No. It’s new. I was in this program where you go to New York for a month to learn what it feels like to be a musical theater actor. We were working on a show and in the middle of it I realized I didn’t want to work on stage anymore because the things that I was seeing are not the stories that really matter, not things I could personally connect to. I thought, if I can’t see the stories that I want to be a part of on stage, why don’t I just make them? I took one writing class and I knew that writing was going to be my life.

I wish I could make such a clear decision about my life. I still don’t know what I

“I took a walk in the woods and came out taller than the trees.” – Henry David Thoreau

Rubicon Theatre’s September Blitz features the world premiere of Taylor Fagins’ A Song via livestream on September 19-20

want to be when I grow up. Your new play is called A Song, which seems pretty cryptic. I’m told it’s about the pandemic and Black Lives Matter and other current topics.

Yeah, it’s about a writer who is stuck in a New York apartment during COVID. He’s trying to put his feelings about what he’s going through, being stuck in his room and the emotions he’s feeling, into his music, trying to find a way to express how he feels, especially with all the social injustice that’s happening around him. The writer realizes that if he can’t say it through music, he doesn’t know how to say it. And he ends up getting bogged down under this stress of not being able to share his feelings any other way, and choosing just to focus on his work and to focus on just getting by. Eventually he realizes he has to be honest not only with music, but with his words he says to the people around him in a conversation. It’s the only way to arrive to healing.

And once he writes the truth and communicates what it means to be a human being and what it means to tell the truth of how you feel about what you’re going through, he’s able to write the song he has in his head.

That sounds like it might be a bit autobiographical. How much of you is in the play?

It began that way. I started writing it the day that the news about Ahmaud Arbery (the black man who was shot after being chased down by a white father and son in a pickup truck as he jogged in his neighborhood) was first being blasted all over the internet. I was struggling with my sadness, and the writing at first was me venting in the form of separating my experience from myself. I was writing the people in my life, a version of my parents, my brother and sister, a version of my girlfriend and my therapist. But when I realized what I was doing, I started to change the names and shift the language and really focus the story more around the theme and less around me.

On Entertainment Page 304 304 17 – 24 September 2020

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17 – 24 September 2020

• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

19

Summerland Buzz

by Leslie A. Westbrook

A third-generation Californian, Leslie, currently resides in Carpinteria but called Summerland home for 30 years. The award-winning writer assists clients sell fine art, antiques and collectibles at auction houses around the globe. She can be reached at LeslieAWestbrook@gmail.com or www.auctionliaison.com

Porch Opens:

It’s in the Cards (Tarot Cards, That Is) Forget surveys, Mary Wessely’s tarot card reading reveals a propitious outcome from a marijuana dispensary in Summerland

P

orch, the popular Santa Claus Lane home, garden, and gift store, has moved from Santa Claus Lane and officially opened in its new location in the space long known as Just Folk on Lillie Avenue. With a new coat of white paint and the two-story space filled with lots of tempting items, large and small, Porch owner Diana Dolan has added more shopping joie de vivre to town.

Dolan has also brought along Mary Wessely, the official tarot card reader.

Mary offers readings three days a week on the Colville side of the building’s porch. Whether you’re a believer or not, I figured it couldn’t hurt to see what was “in the cards.”

Mary has been reading tarot cards for 30 years. I found her to also be part intuitive/part therapist or, as she put it, “I offer gentle guidance and tools for what they (the person she is reading for) are working on.”

I thought it might be fun to ask Mary to do a tarot card reading about the town itself.

Summerland has an “otherworldly” history with its spiritualist founders who conducted séances and communicated with the “other side.” So I asked Mary to consult the cards in consort with Summerland ancestors to learn what they think about all the new commotion in town. Mary has lived in Summerland, loved the experience and said she clearly got a sense of the “spiritual energy” here.

Mary laid out the cards and began the reading.

“Oh, this is so beautiful!” the reader exclaimed. “The first card that shows up is Spirit!”

For the record, we both then admitted that we got goosebumps. Maybe we had connected with some old timers on the “other side”?

“The collective Summerland spirit world has gone through some hardships and challenging things, as in all people’s life journeys,” Mary went on. “They are saying that the town had been cut off a bit and wasn’t receiving the energy, the vibe, the vitality, but spirit is behind the opening up of the town to receiving and building on the foundation.”

Mary said the ancestors expressed increased pride in what’s being achieved and built, as indicated by the Two of Wands card that shows an emperor hold-

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ing a globe and overseeing his empire and viewing what has been built.

The “Summerland Spirits,” she said, want us to know that they have had a hand in the town’s growth and changes.

“It’s the time,” Mary said. “There is this big opening: the town, the energies, the spirits are really opening up and looking into the future! They are acknowledging that they worked on this. They worked on this in their physical life and also have influenced it in their spiritual life. This is not new work. This is continuing building on their foundation and enriching it more. They are very much a part of it. They’re right there – they came up right away. This is very, very positive.”

“There is collective consciousness, there’s consciousness by groups, by families, by communities,” she went on. “Summerland went through a period of sadness, heavy energy, lacking zest. Right now, with the evolution that is very spirit ordained, the energy there right now is very happy and very invigorated.”

Not everything has always been roses, though.

“The town’s consciousness has moved through a lot – including challenging people and situations, people who didn’t see eye to eye, combined with a sense of the unknown and what’s going to happen,” Mary said. “It looks super positive – the energy, the resonance is high, it’s joyful – I sense there there’s a lot of synchronicities going on – a lot of A-ha’s. Summerland is continuing to manifest and bloom on its own. The collective consciousness of the town right now is looking really sweet and nice!”

But what about a cannabis dispensary in Summerland? I asked, since that’s been on the mind of a lot of folks.

Mary laid out the cards again, looked perplexed, then nodded her head.

“There’s some hesitation because the area is growing on love, joy, success, and expansion.” She held up the Ace of Cups and The World cards – noting that those cards are very, very positive.

“There is some questioning,” she noted accurately, “but it actually could work out very nicely. The advice would be to think creatively and carve it in a way that works for the area and the town. It needs to be thought out, not a do whatever you want.

“If they formulate what it looks like, it actually could be very good and very successful,” according to the cards via Mary.

Overall, the tarot cards basically deemed that everyone in Summerland should not worry and be happy about the transformative processes going on.

“The town is energized, moving and blooming, as are many of the people,” Mary said. Any concern around things not going well is just a fear. This is a time when it really opens up. If people get pinged with an ‘uh-oh’ it’s merely a fear from the past, as Spirit is totally behind this and actually proud to be a part of it and really wanting the community to thrive, feel connected and feel proud of where they are and what they are creating. It’s all around creation and it’s really beautiful.”

“It’s so clear,” Mary concluded.

If you need any proof, just take a look around.

Mary Wessely offers readings Thursday through Saturday 11 am to 3 pm.

Appointments recommended, walk-ins welcomed.

Text or call 805.895.2315 for appointments.

Porch, 2346 Lillie Avenue, Summerland.

More Messages from ‘The Great Beyond’

Congratulations to Summerlandbased author C y n t h i a Hamilton, whose latest mystery book, the fifth in her private investigator Madeline Dawkins series, The Patience of Karma, came out this week from Cynthia Hamilton has just her new publish- released The Patience of er, Severn River Karma, the fifth book in her Publishing. This private investigator Madeline story revolves Dawkins series around three crimes, including a tragic boating accident off the coast of San Diego, some Santa Barbara shenanigans and includes a so very Summerland-style message from the great beyond via a world-famous psychic.

For more info check out www.cynthiahamiltonbooks.com.

•MJ

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17 – 24 September 2020

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21

Perspectives

by Rinaldo S. Brutoco

Rinaldo S. Brutoco is the Founding President and CEO of the Santa Barbara-based World Business Academy and a co-founder of JUST Capital.

He’s a serial entrepreneur, executive, author, radio host, and futurist who’s published on the role of business in relation to pressing moral, environmental, and social concerns for over 35 years

Too Late to Buy Gold?

I

n the World business Academy’s New Business Paradigms September 2018 podcast, we told listeners to sell whatever stocks they owned and invest their portfolio in one of two gold Exchange Traded Commodities (ETC) funds. At that time gold was trading at $1,231.91 per ounce. We explained that it was not likely that stocks or bonds would prove to be as solid an investment as gold in the period of time directly ahead, and owning gold had the additional benefit that you didn’t have to participate, or even watch, the roller coaster stock markets we could see coming. We warned folks that the market was in for a prolonged period some have correctly characterized as a “wild ride.” Why put yourself through that nail-biting experience when you could go to bed and sleep soundly owning gold, knowing that it won’t be worth less over time but likely more. Finally, we

pointed out that the “markets” are not the same thing as the economy and that the two were splitting ever further apart.

Well, what has happened since then?

As I write this in September 2020, gold is trading at $1,976.15 per ounce, an increase of 59.2 percent since last year.

That incredible increase in value was what we thought would happen but didn’t want to formally endorse as we wanted to recommend gold for the safety it provided, knowing that it wouldn’t “crash” even if the market did. It is only natural that folks who took our advice are frequently calling and writing, as they have done from time to time when it appeared that the market might go up dramatically, to find out if it is time yet to sell gold.

The answer is an emphatic “no.” In fact, if you are still hanging on to any stocks, bonds, or excessive cash, I strongly urge you to sell them and purchase gold from one of the two ETCs below.

Before explaining why buying gold is still such a good idea, let’s look at how the stock markets have fared since we bought. Compared to gold’s 59.2 percent rise, the Dow Jones only rose 12.7 percent in the same period, and that has been a roller coaster!

Even with dropping Exxon and adding stronger stocks along the way to support the Dow’s climb, it has

performed very poorly and is about to experience another “correction” sell-off. Watch for it. Similarly, the S&P 500, which has also been adding and dropping individual stocks in order to shore up its performance, and which largely relies on the individual value of Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, and Alphabet, only produced a 27.2 percent gain, or half of what gold did. The NASDAQ has done much better than the other two leading indexes largely because tech (including Tesla) rose and internet retailing stocks are booming even, as commercial retail and shopping centers are in an industry-wide insolvency challenge. Still, NASDAQ is up only 54.3 percent against the 59.2 percent gold achieved over the same time frame and the NASDAQ is also in for a correction as the real economy continues to trend downwards in the US and globally.

So, why is gold up? Gold goes up because of three main factors and one small factor. The three main ones are: 1) fear of future financial instability – gold has been seen for millennia by every culture in the world as a storehouse of wealth for “flight to safety” reasons; 2) gold is a great hedge against inflation, which Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell (and even German Chancellor Angela Merkel, until recently a fierce deficit hawk) stated he would be prefer inflation to support job creation; and 3) gold is tethered to the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency, which at this time is increasingly being eroded, so it will rise in price as the dollar continues to fall against other major currencies. Did I write “continue to fall”? You bet. Have you checked how the euro has recently appreciated against the dollar as well

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as several other global currencies?

That appreciation against the dollar has just begun and will continue with accelerating force in the months and years ahead insuring a long “run” for gold’s rise because it is priced in dollars. When, not if, the dollar ceases to be the refuge for “flights to safety” by individuals and governments around the world, the massive U.S. deficit will come home to roost. Another use for gold often referenced is the high-end jewelry market. Although the total market for such jewelry is not as large a factor as the other three listed above, watch, however, if the manufacture of solid gold chains dramatically increases. That would be an indication that people are buying them so they can put them around their neck in order to flee should their respective country of origin destabilize. When gold is made into chains so one can “wear one’s wealth” as fully portable, it will begin to be a significant new fourth source of demand that will drive the price even higher.

You may recall pictures of people fleeing Thailand with many, many chains of gold around their necks in order to avoid the Pol Pot regime and be comforted by their wealth when they landed in their new home countries. Imagine, wearing as little as 50 pounds of gold on your body at today’s prices provides $1.6 million of value (which will be much higher by then) to use to relocate to a new country. The Academy believes that type of purchasing will begin to be significant within the next decade or two even though it is not a major factor today.

What is the smartest way to own gold? Own the metal itself, called “gold specie,” through an intermediary. Don’t buy gold stocks as they will fluctuate with market conditions and you don’t want to have to predict those. Don’t buy the metal to physically hold as you’d have to pay a lot to store, insure, and safeguard it in your possession. It is harder to sell the actual metal quickly for a fair price than it is to let “someone else” own, store, insure, and safeguard it for you. Those “someones” are called ETCs. My favorite is State Street Gold Minishares with a very small 0.18 percent “load” or management fee. Granite Shares Gold Trust has an even smaller “load” of only 0.175 percent, but I do not know their company as well. Either way, you can be sure of one thing: gold will go sideways or up in the foreseeable future, which is something I can’t say for stocks or bonds. If you want to know when to stop buying or start selling gold, send a note to info@ worldbusiness.org and we’ll tell you how to stay on our list to be notified as we track fundamental economic changes occurring that cause us to re-think our gold position.

•MJ 17 – 24 September 2020

Brilliant Thoughts

by Ashleigh Brilliant Born London, 1933. Mother Canadian. Father a British civil servant. World War II childhood spent mostly in Toronto and Washington, D.C. Berkeley PhD. in American History, 1964. Living in Santa Barbara since 1973. No children.

Best-known for his illustrated epigrams, called “Pot-Shots”, now a series of 10,000.

Email ashleigh@west.net or visit www.ashleighbrilliant.com

Tea for You

H

aving been brought up English, I was a tea drinker from an early age. But I didn’t realize that I was actually an addict, until my doctor told me to cut out all caffeine from my diet. Only then did I learn what is meant by “withdrawal symptoms” – which in my case were very bad headaches. Fortunately, they didn’t last more than a few days. That was some years ago, when decaffeinated tea was available only in specialty teashops.

Today I still drink tea – but only the decaf kind, which is, happily, now to be easily found in your local supermarket – as decaf coffee has been for generations. (Did you know that the name Sanka comes from “Sans Caffeine”?) So, there must now be many of us, including the medical profession, who have (forgive the expression) woken up to this particular health hazard.

And of course, it’s not only in liquids that this menace lurks. Very dark

chocolate can render the nerves of those of us who are susceptible just as jangled as if they were jumpy on java.

How did all this get started?

According to one account, it goes back to the primitive Central Asian horsemen of Genghis Khan who, when mare’s milk was in short supply, or when they tired of drinking blood drawn from their own steeds, discovered that the boiling of leaves culled from certain bushes they encountered made a passable brew. Just how it made the great leap eastward to Japan and westward to Britain and her American colonies I will leave to your historical imagination. What we all know, however, is that tea had something to do with the American Revolution – that the slogan “No Taxation Without Representation” stemmed from a tax on tea – and that the “Boston Tea Party” was no party that any refined ladies would have wished to be seen at.

For better or worse, it was a bad feeling about tea, originating in the Revolution, that turned Americans into coffee drinkers. It seems to have been only recently that the prejudice has subsided, and tea has once again become a respectable beverage on this side of the ocean. But meanwhile, teapots have in large degree been replaced, or at least supplemented, by that questionable creation, the teabag, which may have its advantages, but which entails the problem of what to do with a soggy bag of wet tealeaves. Not till I was in Australia a few years ago did I discover at least a partial answer to this perplexity, a sort of oversized tweezers called a tea-bag squeezer.

But there is something about the act of drinking tea with others which lends itself to a ceremonializing of the occasion. The Japanese have elaborated this simple ritual to an amazing extent. Even the British, however, take inordinate pleasure in the preparation and consumption of the mandatory “cuppa,” at precisely prescribed times of day. “Tea” can mean not just a drink, but a meal, and a “High Tea” is something even more substantial.

Then of course there are the questions of what do you put in the tea? To the British, the only traditional choices were milk and/or sugar. Nowadays the matter is much more complex, with a whole range of “creamers” and

Back, Together

“sweeteners,” all usually boasting of their non-nutritive value.

And, as any observant shopper must be aware, there is a wide range of different kinds of tea – not just the standard “black” or “green” teas – which themselves have numerous sub-varieties – but vastly varied offerings of so-called herbal teas, which may or may not contain any manner of stimulants. In fact, I doubt whether there is any legal definition of “tea,” so your company can concoct any kind of infusion you like, and call it “tea.” Just ask the people at Celestial Seasonings.

Then there are all kinds of tea-making devices, from the traditional Samovar, without which no truly Russian home would be complete, to a wide range of modern contraptions.

And there is iced tea, which to me has always had as little appeal as “warm” British beer has for most Americans.

Next to water, tea is the most widely consumed drink in the world. Yet there are remarkably few popular songs about it – and only one, that I know of, linking tea with love. It was in a 1924 Broadway show called No No Nanette that the world was first charmed by the beautiful simplicity of:

Picture you Upon my knee, Just tea for two And two for tea.

•MJ

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• The Voice of the Village •

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25

Our Town

by Joanne A. Calitri

Joanne is a professional international photographer and journalist.

Contact her at: artraks@yahoo.com

Arts in Lockdown Series Part 7:

Rochelle Vincente Von K, From Runway to Rockstar to Reiki n’ Chocolate Joanne Calitri interviews superstar Rochelle Vincente Von K at her studio with her dog Maya

C

urrently doing indie work with her band in Los Angeles and creating new health recipes with her organic chocolate line, Lover Organic Chocolate, superstar Rochelle Vincente Von K is a source of inspiration for us in the lockdown.

Her natural creative drive moved her through multiple careers that most would be happy to have one of: print

and runway modeling, acting, choreography, and touring recording artist. She’s performed alongside Wilson Pickett, Fatboy Slim, The Lightning Seeds and Krome Angels to crowds of 40,000, and has performed for Radio One, XFM, MTV, TFI Friday, and Tate Britain. Her music videos “Deal Me In,” “Valley Ov Fire,” “Outlaws,” and “Blazing” were all shortlisted for the

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From her social statement music video “Outlaws,” Rochelle Vincent Von K (Photo credit Stephen David Brooks)

2020 Grammy nominations for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Pop Performance and Best Music Video.

Lover Organic Chocolate is served at the Academy Awards, MTV, Costume Designers Guild Awards, The Supper Club, NYC Fashion Week, and the CBS/FOX studio. She balances her multi-focused career as a 20-year Japanese reiki master teacher, holistic foodie, and, oh yeah, she has a brown belt in karate.

Born in Austria and growing up in Australia, she studied drums, violin, and cello in school, began modeling at 11, and at 14 she was in Vogue and Elle while teaching dance classes to major Aussie celebs. She was hired to sing in Femi Taylor’s band, quickly got picked up by other bands touring the London to L.A. circuit, and bumped out Madonna for Number #1 at the Ministry Of Sound London.

Here’s our recent interview over Zoom.

Q. The anthro-soc-eco-poli issues in your music?

A. My songs – “Outlaws,” “When Freedom is outlawed, only outlaws will be free,” and “Blazing” – were ahead of this time! I think everything has become so overtly political due to social media, that it’s way out of balance. So I tend to retreat into nature to be inspired. When we are in alpha state and below, that’s when we access our most creative ideas and solutions.

What is the world feeling like now?

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Rochelle Vincent Von K testing the next batch of her Lover Organic Chocolate (Photo courtesy of Lover Organic Chocolate)

think about the people I grew up with, I would say 95 percent of them are remarkable people, with zero mental illness. I think technology needs to be balanced for kids, on an electromagnetic level as their brains are developing, we should be more mindful as to how much radiation they are exposed to. Back in the day we were taught to debate and critical think, which bizarrely is becoming obsolete.

Everything is becoming offensive to someone. I think we need to lighten up and laugh a bit more.

What global policies would you create?

I saw a post online from a Muslim yesterday, saying he wished he lived on a street with Christians and Jewish people, so everyone could celebrate diversity and join in on each other’s cultures, and he’s sick of the hate.

That was powerful to me, and what he said actually reminds me of my time in London. It really struck me when living there how well the cultures have managed to respect and live harmoniously together, and be celebrated together. I believe it’s time we come to a place where we respect each other‘s differences of opinion and ways, because there will never ever come a time where everyone will agree on everything. That just simply does not exist. It never will, and we will forever be at war with each other until we can learn to love and let live, to come together and learn to be less judgmental, more compassionate and less threatened by differences.

Children are the future, to be nurtured and protected. Schools should have Wi-Fi free zones, and children 17 – 24 September 2020

Among her many incarnations, Rochelle Vincente Von K has been a print and runway model

should learn meditation and martial arts for self-defense as part of the curriculum. Let’s start there. There’s much more of course.

During lockdown, is music a plus or minus for you as an artist?

Definitely a plus! Arts are the soul of the earth, the frequencies can be very soothing, comforting, releasing. It reaches us in ways nothing else can.

As an artist, I honestly prefer sharing music with human interaction. Nothing can replace that, but we can adapt in the short term in order to be able to share it. I’ll be doing some live music streams soon with a fantastic double bass player using acoustic and electronics. Surreal to think you can have a global party in your living room!

Oscars and so it continued, following me everywhere I went, when people would shout out to me from their cars I knew I was onto something. Eventually it evolved into Lover Organic Chocolate. We source the highest quality ingredients and support third world communities, including in the Amazon, so it’s very fulfilling. We are organic, above fair trade standards, free from refined sugar, dairy and GMOs, zero fillers, and loaded with superfoods. When you consume unprocessed cacao you get over 300 compound minerals, vitamins, antioxidants, it’s also a heart and brain food, but I hope it tastes delicious too.

What’s next for you?

I don’t really have a choice unless I want to retire really early. I am creating an electronic and acoustic music live stream, and a weekly meditation class to begin soon.

Award-winning director and videographer Stephen David Brooks and I are working on our next music video, our most ambitious yet. As far as Lover Organic Chocolate goes, we had to go online as many of the shops we supply are closed, except for Erewhon. As well as our gift tins we have a couple of new items on the way, refill bags for the chocolate hearts, and our premium magic dust.

Any advice for creatives going forward?

Big topic! Find ways to do your thing. Switch off the noise. Remember to go into nature and ground, go to the beach, local waterfalls, get vitamin sunshine, remember to connect with our beautiful earth. Reach out to friends and family however feels best to you. Be compassionate and patient.

Learn new things, read books from that pile – share your unique knowledge with others. Listen. Stargaze. •MJ 411: www.rochellevincentevonk.com www.instagram.com/rochellevincentevonk www.loverorganicchocolate.com www.instagram.com/loverorganicchocolate

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Giving back/paying forward?

I am involved with foundations that bring running water to third world communities, help the homeless, and I have some adopted dogs from kennels that otherwise will never be able to leave. My raw chocolate superfood company Lover Organic Chocolate sources from indigenous communities in the Amazon, South America, and USA, and we pay above fair trade standards in order to support them.

Instead of donating to charity that may not get to the people who need it most, I will buy homeless people lunch. I think helping the people in our community directly can be an effective way to help, and a way to understand our environment on deeper levels.

Let’s dive into your Chocolate Foodism...

Long story short, I had some health issues and instead of meds my doctor in England asked me to try a list of superfoods first, as he felt I was too young to deal with the side effects of drugs. As part of my exploration I came across raw chocolate.

It completely changed my life so I wanted to share that. I started developing my recipes and created The Bullet Ride, which was also the title of my debut album. It started selling out in Whole Foods in London, and then I was asked to do the dressing rooms and green room at the 17 – 24 September 2020

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Your Westmont

Westmont is giving free masks to all faculty, staff, and students, including Mpho Mthethwa, Isaiah Lopez, Addie Oswald, and Josie McLaughlin

by Scott Craig (photography by Brad Elliott) Scott Craig is manager of media relations at Westmont College

Welcoming Top Students from Around the World The first group of Augustinian, Michaelhouse, and Bridge to Rwanda scholars graduated this year. From left, Mfolozi Dlamini, Luvuyo Magwaza, Festo Mugire Muhire, Hendrik Struik, and Hannah Fisk.

W

estmont’s class of 2024 is the most academically talented in the college’s history. It’s also among the most diverse, with 39 percent of the 375 new and transfer students identifying as Hispanic, Asian American, African American, Hawaiian Pacific Islander, Native American, and/or multiracial. Twelve percent are the first in their family to attend college. The average SAT score skyrocketed 40 points to 1260 with a middle range of 1140-1380. The average GPA jumped significantly from 3.88 to 3.98.

“This impressive group of diverse students arrive with the highest academic profile in college history,” said Irene Neller, Westmont vice president for enrollment, marketing, and communication. “They’ve shown their resilience, excelling in the classroom, in their co-curricular activities, and in their communities as entrepreneurs and volunteers. Westmont continues to attract the brightest academic scholars in the nation.”

Students will return to campus four weeks after Westmont started the fall semester with remote instruction

Westmont College ranks among the nation’s

premier liberal arts colleges with one of the

most beautiful college campuses in the country.

95%

3.98

11:1

of students receive scholarships and/or need-based grants

average weighted high school GPA

student to faculty ratio

westmont.edu

28 MONTECITO JOURNAL

on August 31. State and county officials have not yet given permission for in-person instruction to be held indoors so Westmont will take advantage of its vast outdoor open spaces for smaller classes. Hybrid and remote instruction are options too.

Westmont awarded annual academic scholarships ranging from $6,000$37,510 to more than 95 percent of the first-year students. These scholarships are renewable for the students for four years.

The class of 2024 includes 60 new Augustinian Scholars, a select group of students from around the world who competed for an academic leadership scholarship worth 85 percent of tuition, and 22 Augustinian and Presidential Fellows who will study with President Gayle D. Beebe as a part of an executive leadership program.

The top five majors attracting new students include economics and business, biology, psychology, kinesiology, and political science.

A record 57 new transfer students arrive from four-year schools from all over the world.

Topping the Latest College Rankings

Recent college and university rankings continue to affirm Westmont as one of the top Christian liberal arts colleges in the nation. According to Payscale’s 2020 Best Universities and Colleges by Salary Potential, mid-career Westmont alumni, including those with a graduate degree, earn a median income of $119,800 after more than 10 years in the workforce.

In this category, Westmont appears in the top 7 percent nationally among all four-year bachelor degree institutions with the highest ranking among all members of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU).

Westmont jumped four spots in the 2021 U.S. News and World Report ranking that lists the college at No. 113 (tie) while remaining in the top tier of the 223 National Liberal Arts Colleges. Westmont skyrocketed 63 points in the Social Mobility Ranking, which measures how well schools graduate students who received federal Pell Grants. The score is the fourth best among liberal arts col-

“Being able to smell the fresh air and disconnect from the news and your phone—there’s nothing like it.” – Jason Ward

Students look out to Santa Cruz Island from the Westmont Rock

leges in California. Pell Grant recipients reflect households with family incomes of less than $50,000 annually, although most Pell Grant money goes to students with a total family income below $20,000.

The college also improved its graduation and retention scores, increased the number of first-year students in the top 10 percent of their high school class from 28 percent to 33 percent, and saw a four-point increase in the financial resources ranking that looks at average spending per student on instruction, research and student services.

For the second time in three years, Westmont appeared in the list U.S. News Best Undergraduate Teaching for National Liberal Arts College.

Westmont joined just 63 liberal arts colleges in the selective ranking, which focuses on schools where faculty and administrators are committed to teaching undergraduate students in a high-quality manner.

Niche’s 2021 Best Liberal Arts Colleges in America lists Westmont at No. 85, and No. 7 in California. These rankings, based on a combination of U.S. Department of Education data and reviews from current students, alumni and parents, include updated data and reviews for 4,150 colleges nationwide. Niche assigned grades and rankings for schools after analyzing a dozen factors that encompass academics, campus, dorm life, professors and value for the financial investment.

Westmont is truly among the premier liberal arts colleges with one of the most beautiful college campuses in the country.

•MJ 17 – 24 September 2020

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17 – 24 September 2020

• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

29

On Entertainment (Continued from page 18 18))

Ways, Edward Giron’s original work about dealing with the past in the present, as people from two different perspectives meet unexpectedly at a cemetery. Paul Canter and Felicia Hall star in the two-hander directed by E Bonnie Lewis and produced by Montecito resident Jerry Oshinsky over Zoom (https:// us02web.zoom.us/j/8010350269) at 7 pm on Wednesday, September 23.

Admission is free. Visit www.facebook.com/events/323349778901650 for details.

It sounds like it could have been a oneman show, a vehicle for you. Why didn’t you go that route?

When I started becoming a writer, I made it a big commitment to not put myself in my own work. I get really excited seeing other people bring parts of themselves into the idea of people that I create. I want to see what the person I write on paper looks like when it’s an actual human being is portraying him. I want to look at that in the chair of the audience.

Speaking of that, what do you want people to take away from A Song?

It’s a conversation, a dialogue about race, about spirituality, about the pandemic, about everything that’s going on in the character’s life and the lives of others and how he navigates that conversation. But at the same time, it’s something that engages the people who see this in a conversation about how to move through the world.

Would you consider the play to be musical theater?

It’s a play with music. It’s not musical theater because that implies a level of showiness, which comes with covering up vulnerability and honesty. I wanted it to be more of a play where music finds places to insert itself.

Lamb Talks ‘Love Letters’

Longtime Santa Barbara writer Peggy O’Toole Lamb plumbed her own family history for her latest nonfiction book, Darling – Love Letters from WWII. The alumnus of UC Santa Barbara’s Teacher Education Program researched the letters that her uncle Frank J. Foster wrote to her aunt Catherine during WWII when he fought in the European Theater as a First Lieutenant in Patton’s Third Army. Catherine kept them hidden in a tin box that wasn’t found until after her death in 2015. During the war, the soldiers’ letters were censored for security reasons, so Frank’s communication reveals little about the conflict and instead focusing on his love and longing for home and family. Frank had lived in an orphanage as a child and always wanted a family and he feared he may not return to his wife and child.

But after being conscripted into the army, he embraced his duty to

Bigfoot on the Big Screen

Peggy O’Toole Lamb plumbed her own family history for her latest nonfiction book, Darling – Love Letters from WWII

his country and was determined to fight for freedom against the Nazis despite having had to leave his new wife and their newborn son after only holding his child for an hour in the hospital.

The missives spared his wife the gruesome details of war, instead sharing stories of camaraderie, the beautiful countryside, and his longing for her and his son. The book provides the details he left out as author Lamb researched the classified Army Morning Reports to detail the date and location of Frank’s battalion, the 546th A.A.A., during the war, and gathered information from Patton’s writings and diary and the Third Army’s After-Action Reports to find what had happened during the battles and campaigns, cross-referenced with the dates of his letters.

Lamb uses the letters to look through Frank’s lens and writes as if he is telling the story, expressing feelings of happiness, sadness, frustration, anger, and love.

Lamb will hold a virtual author talk about Darling – Love Letters from WWII at 6:30 pm on Thursday, September 17, hosted by Chaucer’s Books on Zoom.

Visit www.chaucersbooks.com/event for more information.

Parting Ways Arrives

Readings with Friends presents a world premiere reading of Parting

Laughing Matters do you call a Frenchman wearing sandals?

Q. What A. Philippe Philoppe. – Renderclippur

30 MONTECITO JOURNAL

Saving Sasquatch, this week’s SBIFF Film Talk, is nominally categorized as a short documentary, but perhaps it might also be served by falling under fantasy, depending upon your point of view about the reported big apes. Justin Minor and Alberto Lopez co-directed the 18-minute film that introduces us to the researchers working to bring exposure to the environmental threats facing one of North America’s most enduring legends: Bigfoot. The tongue-in-cheek tagline might sum it up best: Just because a species hasn’t been discovered yet doesn’t mean it can’t be endangered. Visit www.sbiff.org/filmtalk to register to join Minor and Lopez in conversation with SBIFF senior programmer Mickey Duzdevich at 6 pm this Thursday, September 17, and be sure to watch the 2015 movie in advance at https://vimeo.com/130384076.

Rosebud Reaches Out

SBIFF is inviting college students to enroll in its free fall 2020 Rosebud program. The so-called Rosebuddies get a chance to give their film education a serious upgrade via exclusive access to 20-plus sneak preview screenings of the year’s best films, followed by Q&As with the filmmakers. In 2019, that included Bong Joon Ho, Greta Gerwig, Adam Sandler, and many others. Students can also add a research component to receive credits through Roger Durling’s Independent Study Course at SBCC. Visit www.sbiff.org/rosebud for more information and to apply; the deadline is October 1.

Preview of Patagonia’s Public Trust Screens Outdoors

Described as part love letter and part political exposé, Public Trust: The Fight for America’s Public Lands investigates how we arrived at this precarious moment when America’s public lands – some 640 million acres – are in danger. Held in trust by the federal government for all citizens of the United States, these places are a stronghold against climate change,

“I think Nature’s imagination is so much greater than man’s, she’s never gonna let us relax!” – Richard Phillip Feynman

Patagonia’s Public Trust: The Fight for America’s Public Lands makes its case for the continued protection of the public lands

sacred to native people, and home to thousands of species of wildlife while serving as something intrinsic to our national identity. But today, despite support from voters across the highly-polarized political spectrum, the public lands face unprecedented threats from big corporations seeking to weaken restrictions in the pursuit of profits.

Through the work of Montana investigative journalist Hal Herring, Public Trust focuses on three landbased conflicts – the slashing of the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah; the potential permanent destruction of the Boundary Waters Wilderness in Minnesota; and the de facto sale of one of the last wild places in America, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge – to make its case for the continued protection of the public lands. Herring employs extensive research and interviews with tribal leaders, government whistleblowers, journalists and historians, and follows the people who are fighting back to save the lands.

Directed by Ojai-based David Garrett Byars (No Man’s Land) and executive produced by Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard, Robert Redford, and Patagonia Films, Public Trust had its world premiere and won the Big Sky Award at the 2020 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in Missoula, Montana on President’s Day. Public Trust also received the Audience Choice Award at the prestigious 2020 Mountainfilm in Telluride, Colorado and won the Audience Award at the 2020 Ashland Independent Film Festival in Ashland, Oregon.

Patagonia and UCSB Arts & Lectures are co-presenting two free advance community screenings of the documentary, at 7:15 pm and 9:15 pm on Wednesday, September 23, at the West Wind Drive-In in Santa Barbara, just two days before the film’s national release on Friday, which comes one day ahead of National Public Lands Day 2020. Gates open at 6 pm Arrive early to enjoy food trucks, concessions, and entertainment before the film. Visit https://artsandlectures. ucsb.edu.

•MJ 17 – 24 September 2020

Now open in the La Cumbre Plaza.

17 – 24 September 2020

• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

31

Sizzling in Paradise

by Gretchen Lieff Gretchen is founder and president of the Lutah Maria Riggs Society and Davey’s Voice, both Santa Barbara 501(c)(3) nonprofits. Gretchen sits on the board of the California Water Impact Network and is vice president of the board of the Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Network.

The Heat Wave

O

n Labor Day we awoke from a restless night with hopes that temperatures would drop from record triple digits. A blood red sun cast an eerie glow over the Montecito hills.

California and the west was on fire. The sweltering heat wave in Santa Barbara County was an ominous backdrop. That Sunday was the hottest day with the National Weather Service reporting a high of 102 in Santa Barbara, 109 at Gaviota Beach, 112 at the Santa Barbara Botanical Garden, 117 in Santa Ynez, and the winner, Lompoc, with a staggering 122.

NWS Meterologist Mark Jackson was nearly understated, calling it “an unprecedented heat wave.”

Arriving at the Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Center I discovered the heat had left two of our cherished cormorants dead. For some reason I figured that Labor Day would be a slow one. That injured,

One of the baby doves didn’t survive but the other did, thanks to the interventions of Adelia McFall, from Solvang, and Ginny Hunter

sick orphaned wildlife might take the day off, particularly in this awful heat. Wrong.

There were five phone messages waiting for me when I entered the trailer and immediately the phone started to ring. Two injured seals were lying in the heat, one of them

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32 MONTECITO JOURNAL

an adult at Leadbetter Beach. “He’s just lying here,” the caller said, “and there are dogs around. I’m afraid they might hurt him.”

Then a second seal on a beach in Oxnard, young and small with deep lascerations: “It looks like a shark got him. I don’t think he’s going to make it.”

Both callers were instructed to call the Channel Island Marine Wildlife Institute.

Then from Goleta, an older gentleman with a skunk, raccoon, and possum problem: “They’re all nesting in my backyard. I wanna get rid of them, I don’t want to kill them.” We get such wildlife “nuisance” calls all the time and our suggestions have become rote: “Make sure no food is out, that you seal any openings into your garage, yard, or home.

Also make sure you trash cans are covered.”

Then the manager at the Santa Barbara Ramada Inn with an injured mallard. “He’s just lying on his back,” he said. “I’ve never seen a duck behave that way, lying on his back, maybe it’s the heat.”

Then a hawk caught in bird netting at a ranch along Foxen Canyon in Santa Ynez. “My vineyard workers were able to cut him out of the netting,” the caller said. “It’s a big hawk and it was probably stuck in the netting all night, it’s a redtail I think. Looks like his wing is injured.

We’ve got him in a box. I imagine he’s thirsty.”

We asked whether it was possible to bring him to our center in Goleta.

“No, I can’t leave the vineyard. We’re harvesting this morning, nobody can leave right now.”

I called one of our center volunteers from Transporters and Rescuers who

“Nature to be commanded must be obeyed.” – Francis Bacon

come from all over Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. Katie promptly agreed to join me out there.

And then the phone rang again with one of those miraculous stories that make this job so gratifying.

“We were driving on 101 in Gaviota,” the rescuer said, “by the rest stop and we saw what looked like a large owl lying on the side of the highway and he looked at me as we drove by, and he lifted his wing, so I knew he was alive. So I got my husband to turn around at the exit and we drove back and picked him up and brought him in to you.”

“Yes, I see since then he’s had major surgery.”

“Yes, he’s had several procedures.

We call just about every day to check to see how he is. He’s a remarkable owl.”

Then a call about two foxes from a woman named Pam at the Santa Barbara Cemetery. The heat affects everybody including wildlife, acting in unusual ways.

“The fox is right here in front of me,” she said. “There were other people out here watching this fox, but they had to go so I’m keeping an eye on him so nothing happens to him”.

“Ok, I’ll call Animal Control,” I replied. “Just please keep your eye on him. He’s probably thirsty, looking for water.”

Two Doves

Back at the Wildlife Center I went out to the parking lot to greet a lady who had rescued two baby doves.

Adelia McFall had brought the birds from her home in Solvang.

“I just felt so helpless,” she said, visibly distraught. “Especially with my grandchildren, we’ve been watching these doves, the mom and her babies, day by day. Last night the nest fell out of the tree. We didn’t know what to do. We thought these babies were dead.”

She handed me the small box. One of the babies was indeed gone. The other wriggled signs of life as I rushed him to intake.

I returned to confirm to Adelia one of the babies was dead, but the other had survived. We shared a quiet moment. She spoke of her grandchildren again.

“We need these kinds of things to be a model for them, that we don’t give up,” she said. “That caring pays off. That sometimes caring can change the course of even a little life.”

What does this mean to you? I asked.

“That we should focus on the things we can do, that we don’t give up,” she said. “If we can get this baby back to his mom, it will be fantastic.”

Yes we CAN. Yes we MUST. Yes we WILL. •MJ 17 – 24 September 2020

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17 – 24 September 2020

• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

33

It Takes a Village

by MJ Staff

E

arlier this year, as the date of her May wedding was fast approaching and coronavirus cases were rapidly mounting, Anna Burrows did what any sensible bride to be would do: she postponed her nuptials until October. By summer, however, it became evident that a fall wedding would prove no more feasible than a spring one. And so Anna Burrows was again compelled to be sensible.

Anna, who is 26, and her groom to be, Austin Goodheart, who is 28, met five years ago while they were both studying at UCSB. They were both excited to get married and to start their lives as a couple in Bluffdale, a suburb of Salt Lake City, where Anna works in pharmacology at Roseman University and Austin in software development at a consulting firm. So they downgraded from a celebration of 150 people to a low-key ceremony at the groom’s family’s Lutheran church in Covina on August 15. As Anna’s equally sensible mother told her, big or small wedding, the vows are always between two people.

The rehearsal dinner took place in Montecito the night before the wedding at the home of Anna’s parents,

Eager well-wishers came from the neighborhood to send off Anna on her way to Covina for the ceremony

Anna Burrows, who was married on August 15, moments before leaving her parents’ house in Montecito

Denise and Ian Burrows, who live on Hill Road. Days before the ceremony, Denise and Ian Burrows had done what any adoring mother and father of a bride to be would do: they mobilized the neighborhood to give their daughter a spirited sendoff. Anna The newlyweds, Anna Burrows and husband Austin Goodheart, at the groom’s family’s Lutheran church in Covina

Friend of the family Debbie Hynds prepared rose petal bags to distribute to neighbors

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didn’t know this, of course. She didn’t find out until she was already in full gown, hair, and makeup. And by then Elizabeth M. Grossman, MDM. Grossman, Aegean MD Chan, MDAegean Chan, MD Elizabeth there were already 25 well-wishers Board-certified Dermatologists specializingspecializing in complete Board-certified Dermatologists in skin complete skin outside eager to send her off.

“Anna just started tearing up care for children adultsand of all agesof all ages care forand children adults because it was such a surprise,” INCLUDINGINCLUDING Denise said.

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34 MONTECITO JOURNAL

“My wish is to stay always like this, living quietly in a corner of nature.” – Claude Monet

Other family friends, Bill and Gloria Hallier, arrived from the Mesa.

Gloria had just undergone a knee replacement surgery and Bill, a retired CEO and now photographer, captured the moment as the bride and groom were whisked off to Covina in their wedding chariot, a black Mercedes passenger van. It takes a village to send off a bride.

“It was just amazing watching all the people there,” said Denise. “It reminds you how important community is and how your community becomes your family and you do things for each other and you do them without being asked. It turned out to be something really positive and lovely.”

•MJ 17 – 24 September 2020

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17 – 24 September 2020

• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

35

Village Beat (Continued from page 12 12)) Leandro, and should be finished by mid-October. This week, the District is picking back up the Smart Meter program, which was put on hold due to COVID-19. Seventy percent of meter replacements have already been installed; the remaining 30% will be completed by early December. Once installed, it will take about a year for the District to begin using them; the technology allows customers to track their water usage on their smartphones, and for the District to read meters remotely. If customers want to opt out of the program and wish to continue to have their meters read manually, they may do so by contacting the District.

Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Lieutenant Butch Arnoldi read through recent crimes in Montecito, which included fraud on Fairway Road; residential burglary on Hot Springs Road; beached vessels below the cemetery; theft of mail on Oak Grove Drive; and theft of art by a moving company on East Mountain Drive. Lieutenant Arnoldi reported that due to fire danger, the Los Padres National Forest is closed for recreation, which is an unprecedented move.

Montecito Fire Chief Kevin Taylor said the fires across the state are unprecedented, with thousands of

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homes burned, over two million acres burned, and nearly 8,000 fires burning. Chief Taylor also reported that the District has hired consultants to formulate one more “storm risk decision” map, which will be published in early December.

Darcel Elliot from First District Supervisor Das Williams’ office reported that annual paving is underway; this year includes paving on Olive Mill, Channel Drive, and Hill Road. The bridge at San Ysidro Ranch damaged in the 1/9 debris flow will be in construction this winter, and the Hot Springs walking trail from the triangle near Casa Dorinda to Highway 192 will go to bid later this year.

Elliot also reported that the Board of Supervisors is studying shortterm rentals, with staff tasked with building an ordinance for the coastal zone that will be satisfactory to the Coastal Commission. If you have a complaint about a short-term rental near you, you can file a complaint at: www.countyofsb.org/plndev/enforce ment/complaint.sbc.

The next Montecito Association meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, October 13. For more information, visit www.montecitoassociation. org.

Montecito Union Update

As of press time, the Montecito Union School board of trustees was considering approving superintendent Dr. Anthony Ranii’s plans to reopen the campus to students on September 28. “Things are looking really good,” he told us on Monday, September 14.

All MUS staff has been tested for COVID-19, and 100% of the tests have come back negative, Dr. Ranii said. In addition, the teachers’ union, Montecito Union Teachers’ Association, has approved the changes to working conditions that come with reopening, including staggered start and stop times, and waiting in classrooms with children until they are picked up after school.

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“These were two things we needed to accomplish before we could move forward with in-person learning,” he said.

On Tuesday, September 15, both MUS and Cold Spring School received their waivers from the County. As reported earlier this month, 91% of parents at MUS wish to send their kids back to campus, following virtual or distance learning since March. For the 40 students whose parents have voiced their opinion not to send their kids back to campus, there will be a virtual learning or independent study program available.

In preparation for reopening, each of the 26 classrooms will have dedicated outdoor space, and kids will be taught in cohorts to minimize exposure to each other and to teachers. The same cohorts will recess and eat lunch together. Campus staff is busy building outdoor learning areas, adding shade, plexiglass, handwashing stations, and more.

The campus will also utilize the vacant land next door to the main campus as an outdoor science lab; an A-frame structure is being built to provide shade. All students and staff will be required to be in face coverings at all times with the exception of strenuous physical activity, respiratory issues, or while eating lunch; even students from kindergarten to 2nd grade, which is more stringent than State regulations.

For more information, visit www. montecitou.org.

Kitchen Fire at Coast & Olive

Coast Village’s newest bustling eatery, Coast & Olive at the Montecito Inn, has been closed for nearly a week following a kitchen fire on Saturday, September 12.

The fire was within the wall of the hotel, behind the stove at Coast & Olive; the restaurant has been closed all week for repair

Following a busy brunch service, staff started to notice a burning smell, and the Santa Barbara City Fire Department arrived on scene to investigate. With smoke developing above the stove area, it was recommended that guests staying on the second floor of the hotel above the restaurant be evacuated, out of an abundance of caution. Firefighters were able to find the source of the smoke in the wall behind the stove, which fronts the alley on the exterior of the building. The wall was opened and the fire was extinguished.

It is expected the restaurant will reopen this weekend, following the installation of a new stove. “At no point were any of our guests, whether they were eating on the patio or staying in the hotel, in harm’s way,” said hotel owner Jason Copus.

“We are thankful it was extinguished quickly and that no further damage occurred.”

•MJ

The best little paper in America (Covering the best little community anywhere!)

Executive Editor/CEO Gwyn Lurie • Publisher/COO Timothy Lennon Buckley Editor At Large Kelly Mahan Herrick • News and Feature Editor Nicholas Schou Associate Editor Bob Hazard • Copy Editor Lily Buckley Harbin Arts and Entertainment Editor Steven Libowitz

Contributors Scott Craig, Julia Rodgers, Ashleigh Brilliant, Sigrid Toye, Zach Rosen, Kim Crail Gossip Richard Mineards • History Hattie Beresford • Humor Ernie Witham Our Town Joanne A. Calitri Society Lynda Millner • Travel Jerry Dunn • Sportsman Dr. John Burk • Trail Talk Lynn P. Kirst Account Managers Sue Brooks, Tanis Nelson, Casey Champion Bookkeeping Diane Davidson, Christine Merrick • Proofreading Helen Buckley Design/Production Trent Watanabe Published by Montecito Journal Media Group, LLC PRINTED BY NPCP INC., SANTA BARBARA, CA Montecito Journal is compiled, compounded, calibrated, cogitated over, and coughed up every Wednesday by an exacting agglomeration of excitable (and often exemplary) expert edifiers at 1206 Coast Village Circle, Suite H, Montecito, CA 93108.

How to reach us: Editorial: (805) 565-1860; Sue Brooks: ext. 4; Christine Merrick: ext. 3; Classified: ext. 3; FAX: (805) 969-6654; Letters to Editor: Montecito Journal, 1206 Coast Village Circle, Suite H, Montecito, CA 93108; E-MAIL: tim@montecitojournal.net

“Not just beautiful, though—the stars are like the trees in the forest, alive and breathing.” – Haruki Murakami

17 – 24 September 2020

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17 – 24 September 2020

• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

37

CITY OF SANTA BARBARA - GENERAL SERVICES DIVISION PO BOX 1990, SANTA BARBARA, CA 93102-1990 INVITATION FOR BIDS NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that sealed bids will be received via electronic transmission on the City of Santa Barbara PlanetBids portal site until 3:00 p.m. on the date indicated at which time they will be publicly opened and posted for: BID NO. 5865 DUE DATE & TIME: OCTOBER 6, 2020 UNTIL 3:00 P.M. ISLAND, MEDIAN, PARKWAY & BRUSH CLEARING LANDSCAPE MAINTENANCE Scope of Work: Landscape maintenance at island, median, parkway and various misc. locations within the City of Santa Barbara as described in Section 5.0.

Bidders must be registered on the city of Santa Barbara’s PlanetBids portal in order to receive addendum notifications and to submit a bid. Go to PlanetBids for bid results and awards. It is the responsibility of the bidder to submit their bid with sufficient time to be received by PlanetBids prior to the bid opening date and time. The receiving deadline is absolute. Allow time for technical difficulties, uploading, and unexpected delays. Late or incomplete Bid will not be accepted.

If further information is needed, contact Jennifer Disney Dixon, Buyer II at (805) 564-5356 or email: JDisney@SantaBarbaraCA.gov A pre-bid meeting will not be held. Questions and answers shall be submitted through the City’s PlanetBids portal, Q&A tab, reference Section 1.9.

FAIR EMPLOYMENT PRACTICE ACT Contractor agrees in accordance with Section 1735 and 1777.6 of California Labor Code, and the California Fair Employment Practice Act (Sections 1410-1433) that in the hiring of common or skilled labor for the performance of any work under this contract or any subcontract hereunder, no contractor, material supplier or vendor shall, by reason of age (over 40), ancestry, color, mental or physical disability, sex, gender identity and expression, marital status, medical condition (cancer or genetic characteristics), national origin, race, religious belief, or sexual orientation, discriminate against any person who is qualified and available to perform the work to which such employment relates. The Contractor further agrees to be in compliance with the City of Santa Barbara’s Nondiscriminatory Employment Provisions as set forth in Chapter 9 of the Santa Barbara Municipal Code.

BONDING In accordance with Civil Code § 9550, if the bid exceeds $25,000.00, the Successful Bidder shall furnish within ten (10) consecutive calendar days after written Notice of Award, a Payment Bond in an amount equal to one hundred percent (100%) of the total amount of the bid as well as a separate Performance Bond in the amount of 100% of the bid total. Payment and Performance bonds must be resubmitted for any subsequent annual contract renewals that are exercised.

LIVING WAGE Any service purchase order contract issued as a result of this request for bids or quotes may be subject to the City’s Living Wage Ordinance No 5384, SBMC 9.128 and its implementing regulations. If there is a difference between the City’s Living Wage rate and Prevailing Wage rates for similar classifications of labor, the contractor and his subcontractors shall pay no less than the highest wage rate.

PREVAILING WAGE, APPRENTICES, PENALTIES, & CERTIFIED PAYROLL In accordance with the provisions of Labor Code § 1773.2, the Contractor is responsible for determining the correct prevailing wage rates. However, the City will provide wage information for projects subject to Federal Davis Bacon requirements. The Director of Industrial Relations has determined the general prevailing rates of wages and employer payments for health, welfare, vacation, pensions and similar purposes applicable, which is on file in the State of California Office of Industrial Relations. The contractor shall post a copy of these prevailing wage rates at the site of the project. It shall be mandatory upon the contractor to whom the contract is awarded and its subcontractors hired to pay not less than the said prevailing rates of wages to all workers employed by him in the execution of the contract (Labor Code § 1770 et seq.).

Prevailing wage rates are available at http://www.dir.ca.gov/oprl/PWD/index.htm It is the duty of the contractor and subcontractors to employ registered apprentices and to comply with all aspects of Labor Code § 1777.5.

There are penalties required for contractor’s/subcontractor’s failure to pay prevailing wages and for failure to employ apprentices, including forfeitures and debarment under Labor Code §§ 1775, 1776, 1777.1, 1777.7 and 1813.

Under Labor Code § 1776, contractors and subcontractors are required to keep accurate payroll records. The prime contractor is responsible for submittal of their payrolls and those of their subcontractors as one package. Payroll records shall be certified and made available for inspection at all reasonable hours at the principal office of the contractor/subcontractor pursuant to Labor Code § 1776.

The contractor and all subcontractors under the direct contractor shall furnish certified payroll records directly to the Labor Compliance Unit and to the department named in the Purchase Order/Contract at least monthly, and within ten (10) days of any request from any request from the City or the Labor Commissioner in accordance with Section 16461 of the California Code of Regulations. Payroll records shall be furnished in a format prescribed by section 16401 of Title 8 of the California Code of Regulations, with use of the current version of DIR's “Public Works Payroll Reporting Form” (A-1-131) and “Statement of Employer Payments” (DLSE Form PW26) constituting presumptive compliance with this requirement, provided the forms are filled out accurately and completely. In lieu of paper forms, the Compliance Monitoring Unit may provide for and require the electronic submission of certified payroll reports. The provisions of Article 2 and 3, Division 2, Chapter 1 of the Labor Code, State of California, are made by this reference a part of this quotation or bid.

A contractor or subcontractor shall not be qualified to bid on, be listed in a bid proposal, subject to the requirements of Section 4104 of the Public Contract Code, or engage in the performance of any contract for public work, as defined in this chapter, unless currently licensed to perform the work and registered pursuant to Labor Code § 1725.5 without limitation or exception. It is not a violation of this section for an unlicensed contractor to submit a bid that is authorized by Section 7029.1 of the Business and Professions Code or by 20103.5 of the Public Contract Code, provided the contractor is registered to perform public work pursuant to Section 1725.5 at the time the contract is awarded.

This project is subject to compliance monitoring and enforcement by the Department of Industrial Relations.

CERTIFICATIONS In accordance with California Public Contracting Code § 3300, the City requires the Contractor to possess a valid California C-27 Landscaping contractor’s license at time the bids are opened and to continue to hold during the term of the contract all licenses and certifications required to perform the work specified herein.

CERTIFICATE OF INSURANCE Contractor must submit to the contracted department within ten (10) calendar days of an order, AND PRIOR TO START OF WORK, certificates of Insurance naming the City of Santa Barbara as Additional Insured in accordance with the attached Insurance Requirements. ______________________________ William Hornung, C.P.M. General Services Manager

38 MONTECITO JOURNAL

Published: 9/16/20 Montecito Journal

“In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect.” – Alice Walker

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/are doing business as: Mission Terrace Convalescent Hospital, 623 W. Junipero Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93105. Cliff View Terrace, INC., 1020 Cliff Drive, Santa Barbara, CA 93109. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on September 11, 2020. 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. 20200002330. Published September 16, 23, 30, October 7, 2020.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/are doing business as: Drain Masters, 5983 Cuesta Verde, Goleta, CA 93117. Christopher J Dorn, 5983 Cuesta Verde, Goleta, CA 93117. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on August 31, 2020. 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. 2020-0002194. Published September 9, 16, 23, 30, 2020.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/are doing business as: Ninaya’s Healing Journeys, 604 Rockwood Drive, Santa Barbara, CA 93103.

Nancy Strandberg, 604 Rockwood Drive, Santa Barbara, CA 93103. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on September 2, 2020. 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. 2020-0002228. Published September 9, 16, 23, 30, 2020.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/are doing business as: Santa Barbara Talks with Josh Molina, 6827 Silkberry Ln, Goleta, CA 931175546. Jagan Media, 6827 Silkberry Ln, Goleta, CA 931175546. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on August 13, 2020. 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. 2020-0002043. Published September 2, 9, 16, 23, 2020.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/are doing business as: Finnigan’s Wild, 7127 Hollister Ave, Suite 25A-259, Goleta, CA 93117. Finnigan N. Jones, 7127 Hollister Ave, Suite 25A-259, Goleta, CA 93117.

This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on August 20, 2020. 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. 20200002102. Published August 26, September 2, 9, 16, 2020.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/are doing business as: Bakersfield Container Sales & Storage, 1027 E. De La Guerra, Santa Barbara, CA 93103. PM and JM LLC, 1027 E. De La Guerra, Santa Barbara, CA 93103. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on July 31, 2020.

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. 20200001906. Published August 26, September 2, 9, 16, 2020.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/are doing business as: Orange Coast Farms, 2225 Foothill Road, New Cuyama, CA 93294. Cuyama Farms, LLC, 2350 W Shaw Ave Ste 140, Fresno, CA 93711.

This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on August 17, 2020. 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. 20200002063. Published August 26, September 2, 9, 16, 2020.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT: The following person(s) is/are doing business as: Route 66 Farms, 2011 Foothill Road, New Cuyama, CA 93294. Cuyama Farms, LLC, 2350 W Shaw Ave Ste 140, Fresno, CA 93711. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on August 17, 2020. 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. 20200002065. Published August 26, September 2, 9, 16, 2020.

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME: CASE No. 20CV02573. To all interested parties: Petitioner Tao Chadwick Gia Doan filed a petition with Superior Court of California, County of Santa Barbara, for a decree changing name to Chadwick Gia Doan. 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. Filed September 10, 2020 by Elizabeth Spann. Hearing date: October 27, 2020 at 9:30 am in Dept. 3, 1100 Anacapa Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101. Published 9/16, 9/23, 9/30, 10/7

17 – 24 September 2020

Fiesta 2020

Reimagined

Thank You Santa Barbara!

El Presidente 2020 Erik Davis and the entire Board of Directors of Old Spanish Days would like to thank all the amazing sponsors, volunteers, and collaborative partners of Fiesta 2020!

Special thanks to the City and County of Santa Barbara for their generous support of Old Spanish Days Fiesta since 1924. Also, a special thank you to Santa Barbara Historical Museum, the Old Mission Santa Barbara, Goleta Valley Historical Society, the SB Zoo and Downtown Santa Barbara.

Old Spanish Days would like to give special recognition to the many dedicated OSD Committees that made Fiesta Reimagined possible. Thanks also to the Fiesta Friday musicians, the wonderful Santa Barbara dance community, the Los Niños de las Flores, Las Señoritas and their families.

Our heartfelt and immense gratitude goes out to the talented 2020 Spirit of Fiesta Alena Velasco and 2020 Junior Spirit Alexandra Nocker, as well as to the lovely 2020 Saint Barbara Teresa Kuskey Nowak.

Thanks also to our friends at KEYT, TV Santa Barbara, the Santa Barbara News-Press, VOICE Magazine, The Independent, Noozhawk, edhat, Rincon Broadcasting, Montecito Journal and the Pacific Coast Business Times. We appreciate your continued support!

And finally, a big Fiesta Thank You to the Santa Barbara Community! Viva la Fiesta!

—— D I A M O N D S P O N S O R ——

—— T I T A N I U M S P O N S O R S ——

—— P L A T I N U M S P O N S O R S ——

—— G O L D S P O N S O R S ——

—— S I LV E R S P O N S O R S —— Brian & Jenner Boyle

—— A F I C I O N A D O S —— Scott & Lisa Burns Carp Events Robin & Reid Cederlof Erik & Angelique Davis

Gallagher Property Management VIVA Homebridge Financial Services Tim Taylor Stanton & Janice Howell

Judith & Paul McCaffrey The Osuna Family In Loving Memory of Past Presidentes Jim, JJ, and Kris

—— A M I G O S —— The Arnoult Family Herb & Mareva Barthels David Bolton, Gonzalo Sarmiento Familia Cabrera

Geoff & Kathy Grow Colin & Monica Hayward Lakehead Property Management

Patricia Oreña Thea & Boris Palencia The Petlow Family Marge Romero

www.sbfiesta.org 17 – 24 September 2020

• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

39

Coffee (Continued from page 6) Management Strategies, and LinkedIn Black Inclusion Group, CWABG found its feet and its jittery, willing audience.

James draws an unlikely analogy from the session at Santa Barbara’s Yoga Soup. “I’m a former hurdler, I’m flexible. I’ve done some yoga. Folks trying a new yoga position – it’s very uncomfortable. They can’t hold the position and they start shaking and then they fall out of it.” His brows furrow and he grins slightly. “But you get better the longer you practice, the longer you breathe and focus! Your level of comfort in the position is the measure of your development. That’s the same thing with conversations about race.”

Conversations About Race

The gallery rustles politely in their seats. Sunlight pours in through a wall of glass as A Tribe Called Quest’s “We the People” pours in from stereo speakers. James Joyce III comes on in business casual – grey slacks and a white button-up shirt. A married, gay, white gentleman relates a story of his Black husband being infantilized by a Macy’s clerk.

Joyce is gently adamant. “When you see racism call it out, right there. It doesn’t have to be confrontational.

Just ask the clerk, ‘Excuse me... why are you talking to me?! He asked the question!’” – CWABG - February 28, 2019, The Sandbox co-working nexus in Santa Barbara.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but between the years 1525 and 1866, some 12.5 million Africans were kidnapped from their homes and spirited away to a labor-starved New World whose towering fortunes would be built on their lacerated backs. In the U.S. this murderous, liberty-mocking

foundation story forms the substrate of a seemingly intractable misery. The inflammatory and cumulative police murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd in 2020 provided a flashpoint of nationwide protest, a rattling paroxysm that may help compel the approach of a ragged national reckoning.

In the midst of the current fury, Joyce still sees unfiltered conversation as key to getting whites and Blacks to see and hear each other – and to stand down. “There’s just that interpersonal divide,” Joyce says. “You sit down and it’s very difficult to hate somebody when you’re face-to-face with them. When you’re right there with somebody, and you do hate them – you know, it’s an invite to look them in the eye and explain what it is that you hate.”

Joyce’s hope – and increasingly the focus of his efforts – is that CWABG gains an exportable momentum that takes it to other communities.

“Ultimately the vision is for Black people across the country to do this in their communities, to sit down and say ‘look, I know this place. I know my home. I see what’s needed here and I can use this already established platform to get it started.’”

Tale of Two Cities

Westminster, Maryland is 30 minutes northwest of Baltimore. No connective tissue should be inferred. “When you think of Baltimore, you think of The Wire. You think of a Black city, and that’s true. But a 20-minute drive and you’re in another county and there is Klan activity.” Joyce describes a KKK gaggle gathering on a street corner about a block away from his 1998 high

ppy! a H

y!

ppy! Happ a H

school graduation party in a neighboring town called Manchester. “I wanted to go engage them but got talked out of it, fortunately,” Joyce says.

Joyce’s ascent through boyhood in Westminster came with the usual chaos – hormonal bewilderment, maddening search for self; fitful discovery of life’s complex stew of joy, heartbreak and wonder. These barely navigable “rites of youth” are a warmish central feature of white culture and literature. For Black kids in the U.S., self-discovery comes bundled with the dawning, grotesque realization that Blackness is an irremovable scarlet letter that soon invites a mysterious and spirit-breaking calumny.

“In elementary school I’d be the only Black kid in the class. They start bringing up slavery and everybody would turn around to look at me,” says James. He remembers the time in second grade when he had finished a quiz early, unlaced his shoes, and in quietude was toying with the laces on his desk. The teacher asked him to put them away and when he didn’t immediately comply, she remonstrated by wrapping them around his neck.

In junior high, Joyce and some friends swung into the local boot store, wanting to look at the latest Timberland boots. “Timberlands were big at the time in Maryland,” Joyce explains. Instead of retrieving shoes from the stockroom, the proprietor produced a gun and slammed it on the counter. “I don’t have any goddamned Timberlands,” he informed his young customers, who sprinted out in a mad scramble of gangly teen limbs.

Joyce’s mom – an ironclad social worker – got wind of the episode a couple weeks later and the incident made the local paper. The town’s mayor called the kids back to the store to receive their apology from the owner, who whined, “Aww, it was only a toy gun!”

QWERTY: The Passport

In middle school, a paper Joyce had written was singled out for praise by his teacher, “…one of maybe three male teachers that I’d had in my edu-

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“I am glad I will not be young in a future without wilderness.” – Aldo Leopold

cational experience to that point,” says Joyce, who produces the actual essay with teacher comments, an item he’s preserved it like a talisman. “It was a research paper.”

The teacher would later pull Joyce aside. Had he ever considered journalism? “I didn’t even know what the word was at that time. But he explained to me how it paralleled what I had already done, and that I just seemed to have this natural knack.”

In the summer of ‘96, Joyce took a Dow Jones journalism internship in Washington, D.C., spending time in historically rich academic environs surrounded by recognizable mentors.

“We spent two weeks on the Howard University campus being taught by professional journalists,” Joyce says.

“We went to USA Today and did a workshop newspaper there. This was when they had great programs to try to get minorities into journalism.”

As it happens when young people are thrown into a controlled preview of the wider world, the lid was lifted. “Being a sixteen-year-old kid in D.C., feeling the freedom of just living, being on a college campus, and navigating this potential professional world…” Joyce’s voice trails.

Ohio University at Athens and the storied Scripps School of Journalism landed Joyce a newsroom internship at the Ventura County Star. Thereafter, he followed newspaper work to Indiana, Washington State, and Ohio, his last two beats as an education reporter – a role whose “just the facts” nature began to frustrate.

“As education reporter, I’m sitting there reporting on some dispute with the teachers’ union. I’m reporting the story – what the facts are – but I’m thinking ‘I could solve this! This person just needs to sit down and talk to that person!’ I mean, it can be that simple,” Joyce says with some exasperation. “But of course my job was to report, not to make recommendations. So I was sometimes conflicted in journalism. But nearly every city I parachuted into, one of my first stops would be the local NAACP chapter.

That ultimately added to my reporting – an extra perspective I could utilize.”

The career arc brought Joyce back to the Golden State. “I ended up back in California and living in Oxnard, and that’s how I started working for Das Williams (as Field Representative/ Communications Coordinator). When Hannah-Beth got elected to the state senate, her relationship with Das had her reaching out to me and asking if I’d be interested in working for her. I moved up to Santa Barbara.”

His career aside, what keeps Joyce rooted here in SB with its statistically tiny Black community and comparative insularity? “Economics alone

Coffee Page 424 17 – 24 September 2020

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• The Voice of the Village •

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MONTECITO JOURNAL

41

Coffee (Continued from page 40) should actually be pushing me out.

I’ve had about a 66-percent increase in rent over nearly eight years living in town in the same place,” says Joyce, acknowledging the soaring housing costs that make livability difficult for many in this region. Even so, “After moving every couple of years for most of my life, I guess the cost-benefit of moving again hasn’t quite tipped me towards action.”

Besides, he says, “Santa Barbara is a great petri dish for CWABG.”

Coffee with a Black Guy

A young lady in the audience self-identifies as being of mixed race, and is speaking off camera. “When I talk about anti-racism with white people, it causes them to contract. They’re all ‘No, no – we don’t need anything anti. We want love and peace.’” The speaker pauses. “The heart of anti-racism is love and peace!”

James thanks her for her comment, and quickly drills down to the bedrock. “The fact is,” he says, “if you are not being anti-racist in America, you are being racist.” – CWABG September 7, 2019, Impact Hub, State Street in Santa Barbara Across the country, protests and countervailing law enforcement measures seem to be bearing out, in sharp

relief, the very grievances that are driving them. Is it possible a swords-into-plowshares moment can rise from this stark divide, one which forums such as CWABG help summon?

Henry O. Ventura, Diversity, Inclusion, and Equal Employment Opportunity Manager for the County of Santa Barbara, thinks CWABG can at least be a bridge. “Coffee with a Black Guy is a very embracing and collaborative approach that creates a safe environment for people to ask what they have never dared to ask.

The simple idea,” Ventura says, “is that we don’t know what it’s like to be somebody else. It’s a labyrinth. We just have to find our way through it together.”

Reverend Charles A. Reed, Sr. (“most people call me Pastor Chuk, or Brother Chuk”) sees the necessity and the boldness of Joyce’s mission.

“What James is doing is sixty, seventy, eighty years past due,” he says. “Look, I know what it’s like to be profiled and beaten and thrown in jail, and I’ve also worked with law enforcement.

There are questions people want to ask, but feel they can’t. I wish we had more young men like James. Men bold enough to step out on that platform.”

Pastor Reed pauses and grins. “James is the kind of man you want to be your son, or marry your daughter.”

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Joyce at CWABG. “You sit down and it’s very difficult to hate somebody when you’re face-to-face with them.”

The challenge in Santa Barbara, where the Black population as of 2020 has declined to 1.3%, could be seen as Everest-like to a guy bent on talking race with the locals. But Ahmaud Arbery had simply gone out for a jog. In the wee hours in Louisville a commotion outside Breonna’s apartment door prompted her – as it would anybody – to querulously cry out “...who is it?” before a battering ram answered and the shooting began. George Floyd bought some cigarettes and ended the afternoon with another guy’s knee on his neck, a living dictionary illustration of the word subjugation – the killer’s hand draped in his pants pocket like a guy waiting for a bus.

Disenfranchisement by birth is glaringly anti-American; a toxic breach of the E pluribus unum compact we learn about in grade school. Institutionalized racism is as ruinously anti-American

as any of the other threats that have convulsed and focused the country over the past century. It needs to be met as forcefully, one conversation at a time.

“I always remember walking home from school through town, maybe a mile. Walking past people and they’re locking their car doors as you get closer.” Joyce pauses and looks slightly away. “Being a kid, learning your identity, then taking your pencil eraser and trying to rub off your Blackness. That’s some shit that we did. It’s painful.”

James Joyce III, a Black guy from Westminster, Maryland – a journalist and communicator – is parlaying his life experience and skill sets into difficult conversation whose significance can’t be overstated at this moment. He wants to make an appointment with you, with your group. Go ahead and drop him a line. Cwabg.com.

•MJ

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42 MONTECITO JOURNAL

All information provided is deemed reliable, but has not been verified and we do not guarantee it. We recommend that buyers make their own inquiries.

“In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.” – Aristotle

17 – 24 September 2020

One classroom at a time

online

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PATRICIA GRIFFIN Robert R. Ruby D.D.S • Yvonne M. Rochon D.D.S

15 E Arrellaga St #4 • Santa Barbara, CA 93101 Phone: 805-963-4404 Mon.-Fri.: 8am-5pm - Sat. & Sun.: Closed

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TERRIE ZWICK

DAVID ABBOTT, CHILDREN’S MEDICAL CLINIC · DANA PATTERSON · SHEELA HUNT · KEYPOINT CREDIT UNION · TRICIA PRICE STEPHEN & BARBARA ABBOTT · ROBERT B LOCKE, ATTORNEY AT LAW · GUY RIVERA, GUARANTEE MORTGAGE · BRADLEY FAMILY WINES BOB CURTIS · LEANNE WOOD · CAJE COFFEE ROASTERS · WINGMAN RODEO

17 – 24 September 2020

• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

43

NOSH TOWN

by Claudia Schou

FLOR DE MAIZ SERVES INDIGENOUS MEALS WITH A TWIST

C

omplex, intriguing, and utterly delicious, Oaxacan cuisine – with its roots in southeastern Mexico, where proud indigenous people fine-tuned the art of Mexican cooking over centuries – is making its way into the hearts (and stomachs) of Santa Barbarans at Flor de Maiz.

The latest concept by restaurateur Carlos Luna, the restaurant opened last fall with upscale Mexican dishes, a bustling open kitchen, and a lively bar that opens onto a seated patio with awesome views of Stearns Wharf and the Pacific coastline.

Flor de Maiz, which means cornflower, pays homage to one of the oldest civilizations, serving dishes prepared with the same indigenous recipes and techniques that have Flor de Maiz General Manager Hector Arellano been used for hundreds of years. Luna adds (left) and Chef de Cuisine, Francisco “Paco” Cavazos a few unexpected, flavorful twists.

“I have always wanted to bring the innovative cuisine of Oaxaca to Santa Barbara, and we knew we had the perfect opportunity with Flor de Maiz,” said Luna, a Guadalajara native who established a reputation for authentic, quick and casual Mexican dining with Los Agaves on Milpas Street in 2008.

He grew that concept into five locations in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. In 2017 he opened Santo Mezcal, a fine dining room at the Funk Zone’s Hotel Indigo serving modern contemporary Mexican cuisine.

“Oaxaca has a legacy as the center of Mexican culinary culture, with some of the most internationally renowned cuisine,” he said. “Santa Barbara is a world-class destination, and we felt that this concept would work really well with our evolving food scene.”

For his new concept, Luna recruited one of Mexico’s finest rising talents for the role of chef de cuisine, Francisco “Paco” Cavazos. The goal from Grilled octopus is served with creamy huitthe very beginning was to prepare Chef Paco to lacoche “Mexican truffle” rice run the kitchen of his Oaxacan dining concept, Luna said.

The 35-year-old Guadalajara-born Cavazos worked his way up the culinary ranks at a handful of hotels, including Hotel Presidente Intercontinental in Guadalajara, where he led his team in turning out quality plates in high volume, perfectly portioning out each dish, making sure food was delivered quickly before losing its luster under a heat lamp.

Chef Paco’s culinary experience at convention hotels and overseeing high volume production in the kitchen was the perfect training ground for feeding the hungry masses at Los Agaves. A mutual friend introduced him to Luna, who hired the budding chef and arranged an apprenticeship for him with world-renowned Casa Oaxaca restaurateur/chef Alejandro Ruiz. After studying with Ruiz, Chef Paco found himself leading a team of cooks and serving diners by the dozens as executive chef at Los Agaves. A few years later he led the culinary team that opened Santo Mezcal.

Luna tapped hospitality veteran Hector Arellano as food and beverage director and general manager. Arellano worked at fine dining establishments in Cabo San Lucas and Miami before teaming up with Luna to oversee the rollout of each of his restaurants. Arellano and Chef Paco have worked closely together for the past five years, collaborating on the culinary direction for each restaurant and finding menu inspiration for new dishes.

Some of those dishes materialized on Flor de Maiz’s opening menu, with Oaxacaninspired classics such as panuchos de cochinita pibil (crispy corn tostadas topped with savory marinated pork), mole negro con pollo (chicken in black mole), and mole verde con mahi mahi and (green mole with mahi mahi).

When restaurants were allowed to open post-COVID-19, Flor de Maiz offered an abbreviated menu with production and labor costs in mind, but after two weeks they went back to the original menu and added more dishes, Arellano said.

One of those dishes was a chef’s special Tomahawk steak with its handlebar-like bone protruding from perfectly seared meat. “We chose this meat selection because of its uniqueness, quality, and flavor,” Arellano explained. “To our knowledge, no one else in town is serving it,

44 MONTECITO JOURNAL

and we were looking for something new and exciting to offer our diners.”

The excitement begins as soon as you are seated in the busy outdoor dining area. There is seating on the front and side patios and some spilling out into the sidewalk. A red smoky salsa made with fire-roasted peppers and tomatoes and a green creamy salsa made with fresh jalapeno, serrano chilies, garlic, and canola oil emulsion is served with a basket of freshly made corn tortilla chips.

Choose as your first course one of variety of ceviches including octopus, shrimp, kampachi, and cauliflower – each marinated in citrus juice and assembled in combinations prepared from a variety of fresh ripe tomatoes, red onions, grilled pineapple, cilantro, serrano pepper, coconut, jicama, pumpkin seeds, dried corn, and quinoa ($14-$22). Mitla is a popular mezcal beverage From the griddle, try the slowcooked pork marinated in achiote adobo and served on a freshly made corn tortilla with a swath of black beans and topped with avocado aioli and pickled red onions ($16).

Tacos are a delicacy here with hearty fillings: octopus, mahi, lobster, Angus filet, and vegetarian bean. Each is sautéed or grilled and garnished with onions, cilantro, avocado, and colorful accents such as peppers, grilled pineapple and Tacos are a delicacy with hearty fillings and refined flavor gourmet sauces like avocado aioli ($17 to $20). For the shrimp and octopus tacos, Chef Paco scatters ingredients you might grow in your garden such as purslane (a highly nutritious and edible “weed” succulent) and pomegranate (seeds).

Chapulines (toasted grasshoppers) is a popular Oaxacan ingredient that has yet to cross into culinary mainstream outside of Mexico. Chef Paco and Arellano shook their heads with laughter after I showed them my Instagram post of a chapulines appetizer I enjoyed during a visit to a Mexico City restaurant owned by chef’s former mentor, and asked if these tasty insects would ever make their way onto Flor de Maiz’s menu. It is highly unlikely, they agreed. Some traditional Mexican foods, such as insects and sweetbreads meats--although amazing in taste and texture--are still a bit intimidating for some diners, they added.

Chef Paco relies on local farmers market produce but he also uses imported herbs, spices, heirloom chilies, and Mexican chocolate for its inspired chef-driven plates. Epazote, a native plant in Mexico and Guatemala, is used to season beans, stews, and other rustic dishes. Hoja santa is a big, floppy fragrant leaf herb used for mole amarillo and mole verde as well as the restaurant’s notable cocktail selection.

The grilled octopus, marinated in hoja santa leaf pesto and presented with rice and creamy huitlacoche (a corn fungus with an earthiness similar to mushrooms considered the “truffle” of Mexico), is a delicious herbaceous dish ($26). The ribeye steak, served with guacamole, potatoes sautéed in garlic and pickled onions, is punctuated by the zesty flavor of a classic heirloom chile de agua ($40).

The menu features a handful of moles that lean on tradition: two chicken enchiladas, one dressed in verde (green) mole, the other dressed in coloradito (red) mole ($18); Jidori chicken breast charred and smothered in mole negro, sprinkled with sesame seeds and served with cilantro rice, pasilla pepper, grilled corn and fried plantains ($27), and pulled duck meat rolled in corn tortilla, fried and dressed in coloradito red mole and served with herbed black beans, red onions, cheese, and Mexican sour cream ($21).

The restaurant offers a wide selection of agave spirits. Mitla is a popular mezcal drink with house-made orange and chipotle marmalade, fresh squeezed lime juice and sea salt, garnished with a fresh orange wheel and rosemary ($14). Margarita Picosa combines habanero, mezcal, agave nectar and lime juice and a glass dusted with a chili salt rim ($13). El Tio Tono mixes tequila blanco, averna amaro, grapefruit syrup, pineapple juice and Peychaud’s bitters ($14). Signature cocktails and margaritas are available for $8 to $10 during Happy Hour from 2 pm to 5 pm daily.

For dessert, the sweet cornbread and burnt milk ($12) is so rich and tantalizing it will make your lips pucker.

Flor de Maiz is open for outdoor dining Sunday through Thursday from 11 am to 9 pm and Friday and Saturday from 11 am to 10 pm. Carry out meals are available. 29 East Cabrillo Boulevard, Santa Barbara, (805) 869-6524.

CORRECTION

A recent article about local wineries open for business (“Did the Pandemic Cancel Your Summer Wine Adventure?”) incorrectly stated that Babcock Winery has outdoor seating for 35 guests. The winery has outdoor seating for 175 or more guests and does not require a reservation for parties of six or less.

•MJ

“If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere.” – Laura Ingalls Wilder

17 – 24 September 2020

DINE OUTSIDE |TAKE OUT Montecito Journal wants to let readers know who’s offering a taste of summer with take out and delivery service and outdoor dining.

We encourage you to support your local dining venues and wine boutiques!

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www.montecitojournal.net 17 – 24 September 2020

• The Voice of the Village •

MONTECITO JOURNAL

45

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46 MONTECITO JOURNAL

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It’s Simple. Charge is $2 per line, each line with 31 characters.

Minimum is $8 per week/issue. Photo/logo/visual is an additional $20 per issue.

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Deadline for inclusion is Monday before 2 pm.

We accept Visa/MasterCard/Amex “Nature always wears the colors of the spirit.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

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• The Voice of the Village •

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