Wellness Weekend – A gala and scenic walk at Alma Rosa Estate bring the community together in support of mental wellness, P.11
Pouring Poland – Kraków’s surrounding wine region combines cool-climate experimentation with distinctly Polish hospitality, P.28
Ahead of their upcoming talk at Godmothers with the MJ ’s Gwyn Lurie, Kelly and Katy Mooney explore agency, ambition, and meaningful career-building for women in their new book, UP! (Story starts on page 5)
Grad Season
First up… Cate School, page 25
The Convergence – HearthLands is creating gatherings designed to foster deeper connection, collaboration, and intentional community across Santa Barbara, P.29
The Tin Connection
A chance sushi-restaurant encounter ultimately brings Grammy-winning composer Christopher Tin to the Santa Barbara Choral Society podium, page 6
Hats Off to Erin
The inaugural Erin Graffy de Garcia Legacy Endowment gathering revived Fiesta nostalgia with hats, champagne, and heartfelt tributes, page 8
Dive Deeper with a Local Expert
For 30 years, we have helped clients navigate changing markets with clarity, confidence and poise. With more than $2 billion in assets under management, we are proud to be the largest locally based wealth management team on the Central Coast. We believe trust is built face to face, by listening closely, understanding what matters most, and using our decades of experience and expertise to craft strategies that can adapt and grow so you reach your goals with confidence.
We invite you to dive in and experience a new world of financial management.
Say Yes— To Going Without Second Thoughts
Here are the places you’ve been dreaming about—wild, remote, and far from the everyday: Alaska’s glacier-lined shores, the wildlife-rich Galápagos Islands, and the icy expanse of the Arctic. For a limited time, enjoy up to $1,500 per guest toward select 2026 departures—the perfect moment to turn those dreams into plans. Explore with Lindblad Expeditions, pioneers of modern expedition travel. With over 60 years of experience, small-ship voyages, expert guides, and National Geographic storytellers, every journey brings you closer—shared with curious, like-minded travelers. Contact a Lindblad National Geographic specialist at Santa Barbara Travel today as this special offer expires on May 28, 2026.
MONTECITO (805) 969-7746
1485 East Valley Road #9, Montecito
SANTA BARBARA (805) 966-3116
1028 State Street, Santa Barbara
Conversations – UP! co-authors Kelly and Katy Mooney explore how women can build careers with more intention, agency, and personal fulfillment
On Entertainment – Choral with renowned composer Christopher Tin, Selah Dance does cabaret disco, The Grand grand opening, and more
Montecito Miscellany – The inaugural Erin Graffy de Garcia Legacy Endowment, the Alzheimer’s Association fundraiser, polo, and VNA luncheon
News Bytes – Lotusland and Oscar de la Renta partnership, MSD appointee, Chance Challen on tour, and other tidbits
Peace of Mind – The Kelly family’s multigenerational advocacy reflects the broader
Our Town – The Montecito Fire Department honored three longtime firefighters as wildfire season intensifies across
The Society Edit – The SYV Chumash Museum’s anniversary with Christopher Evans’ exhibit bringing cinematic realism to the stories of the Chumash people
16 Stories Matter – Drag queens, Marilyn Monroe rarities, queer detectives, Caribbean dance history, and haunting small-town thrillers in this month’s reads
18 The Sporting Life – The Gauchos head to Texas, Austria comes to Goleta, and East Beach volleyball returns for another royal competition 22 In Passing – Remembering the life and impact of Doris Stitz “Dodie” Medved 24 Meet the Doctor – Urologist Ron Golan, MD
25
Grad Season – Our Town’s 24th Annual Graduation Season begins this week with Cate School
26 Your Westmont – A packed museum and artist awards for Altered Realities, and global thought leaders converge for LEAD conference 27 Elizabeth’s Appraisals – One unusual oak table traces the enduring fascination with claw feet across global furniture styles 28
Petite Wine Traveler – Southern Poland’s emerging wine scene blends ambitious young winemakers with a rapidly evolving culinary culture
29 Dear Montecito – HearthLands gathers young organizers, elders, and neighbors around a shared vision of meaningful community connection
Curator’s Choice – Thomas Moffet’s woodcuts of dragonflies
30 Far Flung Travel – Deep in the Los Padres backcountry, California condors continue a fragile return to the wild 33
Sheriff’s Blotter
34 An Independent Mind – Harding argues that economic forecasts, political predictions, and market certainty are often little more than educated guesswork
Robert’s Big Questions – The “Second Half of the Chessboard” becomes a warning about climate change, AI, and humanity’s normalcy bias
40 Calendar of Events – The mercurial Hunt
Slonem and surrealism at Seimandi & Leprieur, Gordon Quinn talks direct cinema docs, a glimpse at Every Brilliant Thing, plus more
42
Classifieds – Our own “Craigslist” of classified ads, in which sellers offer everything from summer rentals to estate sales
43
Mini Meta Crossword Puzzles
Local Business Directory – Smart business owners place business cards here
Conversations
Stand Up. Speak Up. Level Up.
by Gwyn Lurie
Ifirst met Kelly and Katy Mooney a few years back at an event for WEV (Women’s Economic Ventures). I was impressed that two sisters, with very different professional backgrounds, had combined their collective years of work experience – Kelly as a successful tech entrepreneur and Katy as a lawyer turned career coach – to build a company called “Equipt Women,” which gives women the tools they need to find greater professional success and meaning. The truth is, I was intrigued that two sisters could work together successfully at all, as it’s no secret that sisters can be one of the most special, if complicated, and potentially fraught, of relationships. Now Kelly and Katy have continued their professional partnership by collaborating on a book that aims to share the wisdom gleaned from their years of helping women navigate the complicated and very personal journey of building a meaningful career.
Billed as a modern playbook for women (or really anyone) who wants a career and a life with more meaning, power, and possibility, UP!: The Playbook for Every Woman on the Rise is worth reading whether you’re starting out, stuck, or soaring. It offers common sense life advice we can all use and demystifies the complicating life-building path we all traverse. On June 2nd, from 6-7 pm, I will have the chance to be in conversation with UP!’s author Kelly Mooney, and her co-writer/sister, Katy Mooney, at Godmothers Bookstore in Summerland. I sat down with the sisters to have a pre-conversation conversation, so that I can share with you what they had to say about writing the book they wish had existed when they were trying to navigate their own respective careers.
Gwyn Lurie: What motivated you to write this book?
Kelly Mooney: In many ways this grew out of the work we do with Equipt Women. But a couple years ago for International Women’s Day I had this campaign called “A Hundred Days for Women” on LinkedIn. For two years in a row, I opened my calendar to women, and when I analyzed all the themes, there were so many consistencies. It was clear that women were experiencing the same challenges, struggles, frustrations with the workplace. So, it felt like the time is now to provide them a guide that didn’t really exist in the marketplace.
GL: What about you, Katy? Because you’ve coached a lot of women.
Katy Mooney: Yes. So, we started Equipt Women five years ago. And as part of that, I was leading the cohort for Momentum, which is our eight-week program for women, and I was getting exposed to their challenges. The same questions were coming up cohort after cohort. Kelly started doing her book, and she realized she wanted a sounding board and a thought partner and so she asked me if I would want to co-write the book with her. It kind of made sense
CEO and Executive Editor of the Montecito Journal Media Group
Conversations Page 374
Visit https://tinyurl.com/Mooney-Up-Book for more information and tickets
Gwyn Lurie is
Sisters Kelly and Katy Mooney, co-authored UP! and will be in conversation with the MJ’s Gwyn Lurie on June 2nd at Godmothers (courtesy photo)
On Entertainment Choral Society’s Season Closer: This Tin Man Has Heart
by Steven Libowitz
It might seem strange, but sometimes serendipity shows up in classical music. Such was the case a couple of years ago when much heralded Composer Christopher Tin noticed someone leafing through some of his scores at a nearby table in a sushi restaurant in Los Angeles. That turned out to be JoAnne Wasserman, the 33-year veteran Santa Barbara Choral Society’s artistic director, busily digesting Tin’s notes along with her meal.
“It was quite amusing, and quite an honor, to see someone randomly studying my scores [there],” Tin recalled, noting that when the two struck up a conversation, he discovered that the choral ensemble was scheduled to soon perform one of his pieces in a concert in Santa Barbara. Wasserman invited the composer-conductor to come check it out.
“My very young daughter at the time was fascinated by penguins, so I thought, yeah, let’s go up to Santa Barbara, visit the zoo,” Tin said. “Especially when one of the members of the choir actually offered to give us a tour. We spent a really nice weekend in Santa Barbara.”
More importantly, Tin was impressed by the choir’s performance, enough so that when Wasserman later asked him to conduct some of his own works in town, he readily agreed, despite a busy schedule that has him splitting time between composing major works and conducting around the country and beyond.
“I enjoyed what I heard tremendously. I thought the Choral Society did a terrific job when I listened to them as an audience member. So I knew that the musicianship was there… [They] were very open to me programming a mixed collection of works spanning my entire career, so I thought it would be a really great experience conducting a bunch of singers and instrumentalists that I already knew were of a high caliber in a setting in a city that I enjoy visiting.”
That concert is coming up this weekend, when, after Wasserman conducts Morten Lauridsen’s ethereal Lux Aeterna, Tin takes the baton for the second half, which consists entirely of his own compositions. The performances also represent the organization’s first choral collaboration with singers from the Santa Clarita Master Chorale and Torrance-based Los Cancioneros Master Chorale joining the Choral Society singers and orchestra.
Tin’s musical world has been described as seemingly infinite due to his experience in composing concert, film, and video game music in work that makes extensive use of different languages, touches on wide-ranging genres and music styles, yet is underpinned by a clear sense of orchestral arranging and classical music history. His accomplishments include winning two Grammy Awards,
Composer Christopher Tin does a career-spanning show at Trinity Lutheran Church on Sunday, May 31 (courtesy photo)
9 PAX SBA -NYC-SBA (UP TO 4 PAX FOR NONSTOP)
$93,500 ALL IN APRIL - OCT. (UP TO 5 DAYS IN NY) NO FUEL SURCHARGES, NO BL ACKOUT PERIODS, NO REPOSITION FEES. SUBJECT TO AVAIL ABILIT Y
Montecito Miscellany Tea & Tributes
by Richard Mineards
The University Club of Santa Barbara positively twinkled with elegance and emotion this weekend as guests gathered for “Chapeaux, Champagne, and Chocolate,” a charming afternoon tea celebrating the inaugural gathering for the Erin Graffy de Garcia Legacy Endowment, established in 2025 to support journalism, song, dance, Fiesta, and the vibrant cultural spirit Erin championed throughout her remarkable life.
But the afternoon also carried a deliciously nostalgic surprise – the official announcement of the revival of the beloved Children’s Strolling Chorus, a cherished Old Spanish Days Fiesta tradition dating back to 1929. After decades as one of Fiesta’s most enchanting spectacles, the strolling singers are set to return through a partnership between Music Academy of the West and Erin McKibben , director of the Music Academy’s Sing! Chorus. One could almost hear Santa Barbara collectively sigh with sentimental delight.
Ladies floated through the club in sweeping floral frocks and gloriously floppy hats worthy of Ascot, while the gentlemen cut dashing figures in seersucker jackets and straw hats – rather like an English garden party transported to our Eden by the Beach.
Welcome remarks were graciously delivered by Mignonne Profant, while Erin McKibben spoke passionately about
the arts and the forthcoming return of the strolling chorus. Dacia Harwood, executive director of the Santa Barbara Historical Museum, shared details about the upcoming summer exhibition Finding St. Barbara, and Bill Macfadyen reflected on the Journalism Fellowship supported through the endowment.
Among those attending were Anne Towbes, Hiroko Benko, Gary Simpson, Jill Nida, Gretchen Olenberger, Jenna and Avi Reichenthal, Teresa KuskeyOshay, Mayor Randy Rowse, Lisa and Scott Burns, Beverly Cavaliere, Maria McCall, Mary Collier, Royce Woodbury, and the elegant Profant family – Mignonne, Musette, Michelle, Marie, and Lyn
Miscellany Page 214
Jenna Reichenthal, Veronica Graffy, Jim Garcia, Colleen Graffy, Beverly Cavaliere, and Maria McCall (photo by Priscilla)
Hats and Fiesta fashion were out in full flair (photo by Priscilla)
Erin watching over the gathering with her smile (photo by Priscilla)
News Bytes
Lotus Land & Oscar de la Renta
by Joanne A Calitri
Lotusland announces their partnering with Oscar de la Renta for a Private After Hours Shopping Event for Lotusland, Tuesday, June 2. Oscar de la Renta will donate 10% of all purchases made in boutiques and online at www. oscardelarenta.com when the code LOTUSLAND10 is used at time of purchase.
Montecito Country Mart Updates
- Friday, May 29, 3-5 pm: Join Minnow Founder Morgan Smith and Poppy Founders Jenny Belushi and Heather Rosenfield for an after-school ice cream treat to celebrate the Minnow shop-in-shop.
MSD Appoints John Murphy to Board
The Montecito Sanitary District has appointed longtime Montecito resident and Finance Executive John Murphy to its Board of Directors following the resignation of former Director Dana Newquist. Murphy was officially sworn in during the Board’s May 13 meeting and will serve through December 2026.
Founder and managing partner of Montecito Capital Finance, Murphy brings more than three decades of experience in mortgage lending, capital markets, and private debt financing. District officials say his financial expertise will support ongoing efforts related to infrastructure planning, environmental compliance, and long-term fiscal sustainability.
“I’m honored to serve the community in this role,” Murphy said, noting his commitment to thoughtful planning and responsible service. MSD plans to share additional details about the November 2026 election process in the coming months.
Chance Challen Tours the Country with ‘Mrs. Doubtfire’
For young performer Chance Challen, life on the national tour of Mrs. Doubtfire has become a whirlwind of hotel classrooms, backstage quick changes, and cross-country travel. The Santa Barbara native is currently touring North America in his first principal role on a Broadway national tour, balancing professional theater with life as a student on the road.
Challen, who previously performed locally with Stage Left, Ensemble Theatre Company, and Opera Santa Barbara, spends much of his time traveling between cities while attending
school through an on-tour academic program. Between rehearsals and performances, he has experienced everything from emergency tornado evacuations during Midwest performances to unforgettable backstage moments with understudies stepping into major roles.
Despite the excitement of touring, Challen says the experience has deepened his appreciation for home. “There is nothing like life in Santa Barbara,” he shared.
The tour heads back to the West Coast later this month, with performances scheduled in Thousand Oaks from May 29-31.
411: https://doubtfirethemusical.com
Maypole at Manning Park
The American Scandinavian Foundation of Santa Barbara welcomed families and friends to Manning Park on May 16 for its joyful annual Maypole Celebration. Guests crafted floral crowns, shared a Scandinavian picnic, and danced around the maypole in a festive afternoon celebrating community and tradition. The colorful gathering brought together children and adults alike for a lively day filled with music, creativity, and springtime cheer.
Black Music Month
The Santa Barbara Black Culture House will celebrate Black Music Month on Sunday, May 31, with a live performance by The Funky Neighbors at the Santa Barbara Public Library. Running from 1-4 pm, the event highlights the group’s signature blend of funk, hip hop, and bebop influences. Members of the veteran ensemble have performed alongside artists including George Clinton and The RZA. Presented by the Black Rock Coalition, the afternoon aims to celebrate Black musical traditions and community connection through live performance and cultural programming.
SBMNH Events
- Butterflies Alive! opens to the Public, May 23 / 10 am to 4:30 pm, at the museum’s Sprague Butterfly Pavilion, tickets are required.
- Lecture on Longevity by UCSB Professor of Anthropology Michael Gurven, PhD, June 1, 7-8:30 pm. Gurven will provide new perspectives on the why and how of longevity over
Account Managers | Sue Brooks, Tanis Nelson, Elizabeth Scott, Donna Roberts, Joe DeMello, Thomas Mock
Features | Jeff Wing
Proofreading | Helen Buckley
Contributors | Scott Craig, Chuck Graham, Mark Ashton Hunt, Dalina Michaels, Robert Bernstein, Christina Atchison, Leslie Zemeckis, Sigrid Toye, Elizabeth Stewart, Leana Orsua, Jeffrey Harding, Houghton Hyatt
Arts and Entertainment | Steven Libowitz
Gossip | Richard Mineards
History | Hattie Beresford
Humor | Ernie Witham
Our Town/Society | Joanne A Calitri
Health/Wellness | Ann Brode, Deann Zampelli
Travel | Jerry Dunn, Leslie Westbrook
Food & Wine | Melissa Petitto, Gabe Saglie, Jamie Knee
Published by:
Montecito Journal Media Group, LLC
Montecito Journal is compiled, compounded, calibrated, cogitated over, and coughed up every Wednesday by an exacting agglomeration of excitable (and
SB native Chance Challen (left) comes to Thousand Oaks during his national tour of Mrs. Doubtfire (courtesy photo)
The Montecito revelers enjoying Manning Park and a festive Maypole Celebration (courtesy photo)
Peace of Mind
One Shining Night for Mental Wellness
by Zach Rosen
As National Mental Health Awareness Month draws to a close, Santa Barbara is finding a meaningful – and celebratory – way to keep the conversation going. The Mental Wellness Center’s inaugural Wellness Weekend, taking place May 30-31 at Alma Rosa Estate in the Santa Rita Hills, is designed not simply as a finale to the month’s awareness efforts, but as a reminder that mental health advocacy is a year-round commitment.
For 79 years, the Mental Wellness Center has provided free, bilingual mental health services throughout Santa Barbara County, supporting thousands of residents regardless of their ability to pay. This year’s Wellness Weekend expands that mission into a community-wide celebration featuring the One Shining Night gala on Saturday evening and the seventh annual Peace of Mind Walk on Sunday morning. Together, the events aim to raise both critical funding and public awareness around mental wellness.
At the heart of the gala is a tribute to two local families whose advocacy and philanthropy have helped shape conversations around mental health in the region. Belle Hahn and Lily Hahn Shining will be honored along with three generations of the Kelly family, whose involvement with the Mental Wellness Center began with Karen Kelly’s helping coordinating volunteers for the organization.
What started as one woman’s dedication to service evolved into a multigenerational commitment to reducing stigma and increasing access to support. Karen’s children – triplets Charlotte, Dawson, and Patrick – each experienced their own struggles with anxiety and found purpose through advocacy. While attending San Marcos High School, the siblings became leaders in the school’s Connection Clubs, encouraging open, stigma-free discussions about mental health among their peers.
Today, those conversations continue on their respective college campuses at UCLA, UC Berkeley, and Cal Poly, where the Kelly siblings have carried their passion for mental health awareness into broader communities. Meanwhile, Karen’s mother, Judy Kelly, contributes through art, teaching participants at the Mental Wellness Center’s Fellowship Club how creative expression can foster healing and connection.
The family’s collective efforts embody the spirit of the Wellness Weekend itself: the belief that small acts of compassion can ripple outward and create lasting
Three generations of the Kelly family will be honored at the
impact. Mental health challenges touch nearly every family in some form, yet stigma and silence often remain barriers to care. Events like One Shining Night and the Peace of Mind Walk seek to replace that silence with visibility, conversation, and community support.
“One Shining Night is more than a gala – it is a celebration of what this community has built together over nearly eight decades,” said Mental Wellness Center CEO Annmarie Cameron in a press release. “When we come together to honor families like the Hahns and the Kellys, we are affirming that mental health is not a crisis to be managed in silence but a cause worth championing out loud.”
The following morning, participants will gather once again at Alma Rosa Estate for the Peace of Mind Walk, a 4.5-mile trek across the winery’s scenic hillside property. Founded in 2020, the walk has grown into a beloved annual tradition centered on conversation, connection, and collective support for mental wellness initiatives.
Throughout May, businesses, nonprofits, and residents across Santa Barbara County have also been invited to “Light Up Green,” illuminating buildings and homes in the official color of mental health awareness as a visible sign of solidarity. While the initiative takes place nationwide during Mental Health Awareness Month, organizers note that nearly three-quarters of the registered participating buildings are located in Santa Barbara County – a reflection of the community’s especially strong commitment to mental wellness and advocacy. But while Mental Health Awareness Month may be ending, organizers hope the momentum created through Wellness Weekend continues long after May is over.
Because awareness is not a seasonal campaign: It is an ongoing process of listening, supporting, educating, and showing up for one another, every month of the year.
00976141
The greatest professional compliment a client can give their real estate agent is to use their services again (and again...)
So far I have had:
57 clients use my services twice; 34 clients use my services three times; 16 clients use my services four times; 9 clients use my services five times; 7 clients use my services six times; 2 clients use my services seven times; 4 clients use my services eight times; 2 client use my services nine times; 2 clients use my services ten times; 1 client use my services eleven times; and 1 client use my services thirteen times!
One Shining Night gala this weekend (courtesy photo)
Our Town Montecito Fire Updates
by Joanne A Calitri
With the recent Sandy Fire in Simi Valley, a section of Ventura County, our Montecito Fire Protection District (MFD) is lending support with MFD engine 391 and firefighters. They join the SB County local strike team 1521C, partnering with Lompoc City Fire Department, Santa Maria Fire Department, Santa Barbara City Fire Department, and Carpinteria-Summerland Fire Protection District.
MFD asks that the public remain aware of and alert to the possibility of wildfires and familiarize themselves with their preparedness resources posted on the MFD website.
I spoke with Montecito Fire Captain Jeff Villarreal and members of the MFD team at Pavilions Grocery in the Montecito Country Mart, as at the time they were there picking up food supplies for the firefighters for the Memorial Day weekend, and I was doing my quick errands. Villarreal mentioned that [as of Thursday, May 21] reports are that containment of the Sandy Fire is still a priority.
While I do need to stop by the firehouse and properly meet our new Fire Chief, Brian Fallon , on May 18 he honored three MFD personnel for ten years of service. They are Engineer Nick Eubank , Engineer Andy Rupp , and Captain Daniel Arnold . Fire Chief Brian Fallon presented each with a 10-year pin that attaches to their badge.
FITNESS THAT MOVES YOU
Nick Eubank joined the Montecito Fire Department in 2016 after beginning his career in the film and music industry before making the transition into the fire service. Over the past decade, he has become an integral part of the department through his work on the Dispatch Cadre, Training Committee, and Hazmat Team, while also leading the department’s radio programming and communications planning efforts.
Andy Rupp joined Montecito Fire in 2016 as a firefighter/paramedic after serving with the Oxnard Fire Department in the community where he grew up. During his ten years with Montecito Fire, he has played a key role in the department through his involvement with the Dispatch Cadre, South Coast Hazmat Team, Urban Search & Rescue, Training Committee, and as leader of the department’s Peer Support Team.
Daniel Arnold came to the Montecito Fire Department in 2016 after careers in construction, engineering, and the Oxnard Fire Department, where he was promoted to engineer. Since joining Montecito Fire, he has applied his engineering background to committees including Safety, Training, and Apparatus, helping design and equip fire engines while also serving on the Dispatch Cadre and Peer Support Team.
With only a few days left in May, there is still time to donate to the Mothers’ Helpers Diaper Drive, with which MFD partners. Donate new packages of diapers and wipes at either Montecito Fire Station: Station 91: 595 San Ysidro Road, and Station 92: 2300 Sycamore Canyon Road.
Joanne A Calitri is a professional international photographer and journalist. Contact her at: artraks@ yahoo.com
Honored for ten years of service are Montecito Fire Dept’s Engineer Nick Eubank, Engineer Andy Rupp, and Captain Daniel Arnold (courtesy photo)
Generations of
When the Palisades Fire displaced Emily and her family, she was 28 weeks pregnant. They found safety in Santa Barbara – and Cottage. Baby Athena arrived early, spending 65 days in Cottage’s Haselton Family
Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Athena grew strong. She thrived. Today, she’s spreading joy wherever she goes.
Imagine what we’ll do next.
Emily Sunderland, mother of four, Santa Barbara
Out this month is Missing in Soho by Holly Stars, a hoot of a mystery sequel to her hilarious Murder in the Dressing Room. Misty Divine is a hostess at Lady’s Bar when a detective is found stabbed in the club. This isn’t the first death that has happened here, nor the first involving Misty. Wearing towering stilettos and boas, this drag queen is determined to solve not only her drag mother’s unsolved death but save Lady’s Bar before another murder happens. Stars delivers another dragcentric delight.
‘The Marilyn Monroe Century’
Bruno Bernard, shooting as Bernard of Hollywood, was an American photographer known for his glam-
Stories Matter Murder, Marilyn & Misfits
by Leslie Zemeckis
orous pinups. He had a giant studio on Sunset Boulevard for decades. I interviewed his daughter Susan because he photographed many burlesque stars I featured in my film and book Behind the Burly Q. Bernard had a close relationship with legendary dancer Lili St. Cyr, the subject of my second book and the woman Marilyn Monroe often emulated. In fact, the photographer is best remembered for his decades long relationship shooting Marilyn. Now his grandson Joshua John Miller, along with Mark A. Fortin, have published a coffee table book – The Marilyn Monroe
trouble and from different walks of life – converge on Jamacia in 1935. Bryce weaves together history and multiple narratives like the expert storyteller she is, using Dunham’s trip as backdrop to three women who, in tumultuous circumstances, find sisterhood in order to survive.
‘Hungered’
Century – and it is an absolutely gorgeous book. Photos capture a young Norma Jeane as she is newly discovered and transformed into an international icon. There are many never-before-seen photos. This one is truly gift worthy. If not for someone else, buy it for yourself.
‘The
Disaster Gay Detective Agency’
STARRING Nicholas Mongiardo-Cooper!
EVERY BRILLIANT THING
The Disaster Gay Detective Agency by award-winning author Lev AC Rosen is a sassy mystery that starts with an impulsive one-night stand involving Brandon – a hopeless romantic working at a Manhattan hotel – and a handsome guest. When the rendezvous leads Brandon to witness the closing moments of a homicide, he and his queer pals set out to solve the murder. Snappy dialogue, messy, fun situations; If you are looking for escape, this is your ticket.
‘Where the False Gods Dwell’
Author and Santa Barbara Literary Festival panelist Denny S. Bryce has a new work of historical fiction out, Where the False Gods Dwell, inspired by legendary Black dancer and choreographer Katherine Dunham’s research trip to the Caribbean on a postgrad academic fellowship. In the novel, three women – each escaping
Hungered is an extraordinary debut by Amanda Rizkalla. Twelve-year-old Sofia calls a beat-up old car home. She dreams of one day having her own bedroom which she’ll decorate from the ideas she finds in magazines and books at the local library. Living with Sofia in the cramped space is her mother and young brother, each struggling in their own way with their nomadic, precarious circumstances. This is a profound and moving story of dreams and Home, and the very real struggles involved with housing insecurity that many in our own community are experiencing. According to a local government website approximately 13% of students in Santa Barbara County are homeless. A very sobering statistic.
‘Heather’
Caitlin Mullen’s thriller Heather hooked me from page one. When the new Chief of Police of a small city in New Jersey must arrest her own mother for drunk driving, dragging her into the police station near Jersey Pines, the Chief uncovers an age-old cold-case: a dead baby her mother discovered by the side of the road decades earlier. As Chief Callie Hauser sets out to solve the crime, her mother disappears, she’s still dealing with an influx of ODs, and someone is leaving dead animals in her mailbox. This thriller is unsettling, profound, and mournful, examining how young girls are abandoned to their own devices long before they are mature enough to meet the challenge.
The Sporting Life
Flora Flourishes, Gaucho Go National
by Steven Libowitz
Despite a No. 1 seed earned over the course of the full Big West conference season, UCSB’s Gaucho baseball team failed to capture the tournament, falling in successive games after an opening day victory and forfeiting the automatic berth to the NCAA national tourney. But don’t blame Jackson Flora
The righty flamethrowing pitcher added to his sterling season, which boasted a nation’s best earned run average of .7 (meaning he gave up less than a run per nine innings), gaudy strikeout totals to top a 10-0 won-loss regular record, surrendering just three hits and a solitary run against Cal State Fullerton in the opening game. That came on the heels of his final effort at home a week earlier, when he opened with seven perfect innings on his way to a two-hit, no walk 1-0 shutout of UC Riverside. (The perfect game going *poof* might have been my fault, as your faithful correspondent broke the unwritten code of never
mentioning a no-hitter or perfect game while it’s happening , worse yet while chatting with scouts for Baltimore and the Yankees, maybe 120’ from Flora on the mound. Oops.)
Fortunately, the Gauchos still got an at-large bid to the NCAA regionals, and are headed to Austin to face Tarleton State (who?) on Friday, May 29, when we’ll most likely see (at least on ESPN2) more Flora fireworks and finesse, with the pitcher on his way to a likely draft slot in the Top 5 come July. No. 6 Texas is probably the Gauchos’ biggest hurdle in the tourney. By the way, maybe losing the Big West tournament was a blessing in disguise, as the winner Cal Poly will now have to face No. 1 UCLA in Westwood to advance.
And speaking of the Bruins, earlier in May we got to see their shortstop, the consensus No. 1 draft pick Roch Cholowsky , launch a mammoth home in his first at bat against the Gauchos at UCSB, a high arcing rocket that some observers said looked like it might hit the construction working on the new dorms past left field. We’ll be seeing him in the big leagues before
too long, too. On the other hand, maybe Flora’s battery-mate catcher Nate Vargas crushing a pitch that almost hit his own picture on the gleaming new scoreboard in right field (incidentally notching the only run in the May 21 game) might have been even more impressive. The fans sure loved it.
What a World (Cup)
Did you know that two of the 64 national soccer teams have chosen Santa Barbara-adjacent locations to hunker down and train for the 2026 FIFA World Cup? Until just this week, there hasn’t been a lot of buzz, but the Austrian National Soccer Team, aka Österreichische Fußballnationalmannschaft, will practice at UCSB’s Harder Stadium and stay at The Ritz-Carlton Bacara throughout the tournament, while Qatar’s team will congregate at Westmont College’s facilities; although that entourage is also staying out in Goleta at the Courtyard by Marriott on Storke Road.
Our tiny burg is once again overstepping its size by hosting two of the teams that will compete for the coveted cup in the quadrennial tournament – the biggest sporting event in the world. The dearth of excitement is about to change. At least as far as Goleta and the Austrian team are concerned.
But Goleta is also getting into the World Cup spirit in a couple of different ways. The city is hanging red-and-black banners all over Old Town featuring Team Austria’s Roman eagle logo and a cheer in German and English (Aug geht’s, burschen!; Let’s go, laddies!), and also throwing open the Community Center for a block-party style community watch event on June 12 for the United States National Team opening match against Paraguay in Los Angeles.
In addition to a livestream of the game projected in the auditorium, there will be family-friendly World Cup-themed activities, plus free tacos and burritos from Don Pepe’s Mexican Food. Similar events are scheduled for June 17 and June 24 in Old Town Goleta. Another watch party with local vendors and more for the Team Mexico game against Czechia in Mexico City on June 24 will be held in the parking lot of Community West Bank at Pine Avenue in Old Town.
With prices for tickets for the U.S. match soaring into five figures and beyond, those may be the best bets for community viewing of World Cup matches. No word yet about any Qatar team events open to the public in Montecito, nor watch parties in the village or even Santa Barbara.
Volleyball Dollies and Dudes
The popular “King and Queen of East” community volleyball tournament is set for Saturday, June 13, at East Beach, one-time Home Sand for such legendary beach volleyball superstars as Olympic gold medal winners Karch Kiraly and Todd Rogers. Now in its 18th year, the tourney morphed a few years ago from a men’s-only Father’s Day tournament – held on the Saturday before the day for daddies every year –into an all genders event, which this year takes place one weekend early due to the Solstice Celebration occupying the June 19-21 weekend. What makes the event unique is a format that combines the individual winners and runners-up of each gendered tournament for a final co-ed match – the King pairs with the second-place woman, and Queen pairs with the runner-up in the men’s tourney.
The team will hold a practice session on June 5 offering limited public viewing, with about 2,500 tickets being distributed for the 17,000-seat Harder Stadium venue, with priority going to local soccer clubs and community partners. The restrictions are due to security and strategic concerns. The event comes just over a week before Austria takes on Switzerland on June 13 in San Francisco. More opportunities to interact with the team may come later.
The tourney has become more competitive over the years, which is part of what makes it even more enjoyable for people who just want to watch. Still more fun shines through the parties on both June 12 (pre-event, so don’t drink too much) and June 13, when winners can celebrate and losers commiserate; both at Seven Bar, 235 W. Montecito Street, which used to be located in the Funk Zone but relocated to the space vacated by The Neighborhood. Visit www.facebook.com/ groups/190710904394568
The righty flamethrowing pitcher Jackson Flora will likely be throwing more Flora fireworks and finesse in the NCAA regionals (courtesy photo)
scoring for the popular video game series Civilization , and, recently, composing a new ending for the unfinished Puccini opera Turandot , which not only received critical acclaim when it debuted at Washington National Opera, but was then used by ice skater Yuma Kagiyama for his Silver Medal-winning performance in the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Asked about the nexus between video games scoring and choral music/opera, Tin explained that despite creative limitations imposed by the media product (in terms of length, instrumentation, timing, structure and mood), the genres do overlap.
“There’s a storytelling element involved, the setting of a scene,” he said. “At the end of the day, you’re just trying to write engaging music. You’re writing music that tries to keep the listener on the hook. That’s what drives me: I need to keep myself as a listener to my own music constantly on the hook. I write my music to never lose my own attention.”
Tin said that’s what drew Washington National Opera to commission him for the Turandot close after hearing his video game scores. The challenge was an attraction.
“My librettist, Susan Stanton, came up with a lot of the plot devices that really create a realistic ending, but on the musical side, I tried to be very smart about the reuse of both Puccini’s sketches left over on his deathbed, and themes from the rest of the opera. I wove them together with some original material of my own that was actually largely inspired by Puccini’s own melodic devices. For example, if Puccini wrote a melody in one way at the beginning of the opera to signify the decline of China, I flipped it upside down at the end to show the rising of China… I’m actually incredibly proud of how it turned out. I feel like my ending is airtight in that I don’t think there were wasted bars or wasted notes. I think everything drove towards the climax exactly the way it should have.”
Having the piece used at the Olympics by a high-ranking figure skater added an unexpected thrill.
“I was so honored that I thought it would be great to help partner with his entire coaching and choreographing team to create something that would be perfect for him for the Olympics,” Tin said. “We were there in person watching him skate and it was a tremendous moment.”
The work’s success also led Washington National Opera to commission a fulllength piece based on the life of Georgia O’Keeffe that will premiere during the 2026-27 season. The pair of concerts at Trinity Lutheran Church on Sunday, May 31, won’t include anything from O’Keeffe: Kiss the Sky, of course, but they will touch on bookends of Tin’s composing career. Included in the program will be his first important video game composition “Baba Yetu” and the new ending for Turandot. In between, there’s “Waloyo Yamoni,” his setting of a Lango rainmaking prayer created in 2012 for L.A.’s Orchestra of St. Matthews.
“They wanted a piece that fused together African music and Western orchestral music and they found the prayer in a book,” Tin recalled. “But it was an English translation. Once I saw the original Lango, the rhythm of the words immediately invoked a song structure and a melodic rhythm. Then I just followed my instincts.”
Two other choral works from Tin’s middle years round out his portion of the program, which when taken together, truly represent the composer’s oeuvre of connecting people across languages, cultures and time. It’s a mission that Tin said has increased in today’s world.
“Fostering empathy and understanding is very important to me,” he said. “Empathy in some circles is seen as a sign of weakness, but I think of it in the opposite terms, that empathy is a show of strength – that you are complete enough in your own being that you have the capacity to see the world from other people’s points of view and to look for solutions that not only benefit you, but are towards the greater good. What I try to do with a lot of my music is create an avenue for people to understand either history or other cultures or other points of view with new eyes. I like to engender pathways for people to be empathetic towards one another because that’s the solution to a lot of the conflict that we experience in today’s world.”
Showtimes are 3 & 7 pm on May 31. Visit www.sbchoral.org
Selah’s Cabaret Immersion in the Funk Zone
Disco Elysium is the final movement in Selah Dance Collective’s triptych of works exploring cabaret, modernism, and “the grotesque body” in performance, the new entry colliding, deconstructing and reconfiguring Sound and Smoke and Palermo! Drawing from the first two works’ expressionist shadows and carnivalesque exuberance, the show will take place not on the traditional stage of the Lobero Theatre or even the black box configuration of Center Stage, but in a transformed warehouse in the Funk Zone that was previously a winery. An event that combines performance, installation, and nightlife adventure, Disco Elysium draws from and fairly culminates Selah founder and choreographer Meredith
Ventura ’s long-term research into early 20th-century European cabaret and the politics of spectacle, inspired by Weimar-era cabaret and avant-garde nightlife –bringing the archival research to life in an experience meant to be both immersive and excessive.
“This show is kind of ... the collision of a lot of my different ideas, a unity of vision of bringing people up and close and personal to the movement, with elements that are made to be a little provocative, and where people are very aware of themselves in the space as they’re watching the show,” Ventura said. “They’re the two different collage pieces that I have now edited a lot to fit together better.”
Disco Elysium is set up as a series of vignettes – some 20 in each section that range from confrontational, political, and social to humorous and maybe even silly. These coalesce into a whole that evokes an impression rather than a specific narrative, Ventura said.
“We’re not delivering a series of answers and wrapping up a story. It’s more like I’m asking these questions about how people are reacting to what they’re seeing on stage? What are the ways the character interactions evoke something in you? What is the meaning?”
Some of the inspiration comes from things much more modern than Germany in the 1920s, including SpongeBob and the Mad Men TV series, which Ventura has been watching with her husband.
“Everything for me revolves around dance, the thing that I’ve centered my life on,” she said. “The Mad Men episode with the Kodak Carousel has a very sentimental moment where it’s very heartfelt and it feels a little inspiring about family, but it’s by a character who is constantly cheating on his wife. I use a soundbite to twist the original meaning. I’ve always been interested in satire because it’s not about what they’re saying. It’s about how they say it. That’s what I find to be the most interesting about choreography – sometimes the movement itself doesn’t even matter. It’s the accumulation that makes this thing mean something.”
Hence, the cumulative effect of Disco Elysium, which will likely have very different responses in every member of the audience.
Meanwhile, Disco Elysium represents the largest company of dancers in Selah’s history, combining the modern dance company with members of Novus, its ballet wing, and dancers Ventura has encountered at UCSB and elsewhere. But the space itself at 202 Anacapa St. at the corner of Yanonali St. holds less than 150 people in the configuration they’re creating that has the stage largely surrounded by the audience.
So there will be three separate performances: a premiere gala on Friday, May 29, that includes a post-show salon supporting Selah Dance Collective’s upcoming season, and matinee and evening shows on Saturday, May 30, the latter followed by a late-night cabaret party with live DJs, pop-up performances, and dancing. More information and general admission tickets and reserved VIP cabaret seating are available at www.selah.dance/disco
The Grand’s Opening
After nearly two months of soft opening evenings, including last weekend’s Tom ScottRoger Kellaway show that raised the bar musically and otherwise, The Grand on State (right next door to the dear Granada) is having its official (grand) opening on Saturday, May 30. The celebration at the intimate “fine dining and jazz” spot – whose centerpiece is
Entertainment Page 224
Selah’s Disco Elysium comes to the Funk Zone this Friday and Saturday (photo by Cory Cullington)
The afternoon concluded with a moving champagne toast from Erin’s family – Neal and Colleen Graffy and James Garcia – leaving scarcely a dry eye in the room. Mary Collier, board member of the Profant Foundation, perhaps said it best: “Santa Barbara has always had a deep and beautiful tradition of supporting the arts.”
A beautiful afternoon for a beautiful legacy – and the return of a treasured Fiesta tradition. by Lisa
Duncan
Classic Cars & Cures
The Music Academy of the West hosted the Alzheimer’s Association annual fundraiser this week, blending celebrity sparkle, classic cars, and heartfelt humanity into one memorable Montecito evening.
Film and TV stars Patricia Wettig and Ken Olin, newly minted residents of our Eden by the sea, presented the Hearts and Hope Award to honorees Andrea and Dana Newquist. Wettig shared one of the evening’s most emotional moments, saying, “In the last two
years, we have had three friends die from this disease. It seems like every family we know has been affected by Alzheimer’s.”
Parked proudly out front was a concours-worthy lineup: Dana Newquist’s 1937 Fire Truck, Lee Lathouwers’ 2007
Ferrari F-1 Spider 60th Anniversary Edition, Orwin Middleton ’s 1963
Ferrari Lusso 250 GTL V12, Alan Porter’s rare stick-shift 1955 Corvette, Jim Harris’s legendary Ford GT40, Ron Hein’s 1997 Porsche Carrera 2S, Bob Morgan’s silver 1969 Z28 Camaro, and Mike Cleary’s bright-red 1966 Corvette bearing the delightfully cheeky plate: “Alwys Fun.”
Guests also heard remarks from local wellness legend Dr. Steven Gundry , moving reflections from Amber Pepito , and updates from David Troxel , fresh from the International Alzheimer’s Conference in Lyon, France. Vocals by young Maile Kai Merrick added poignancy.
Meanwhile, the live auction highlight – a private tour of Jay Leno ’s legendary car garage – sent paddles flying faster than a Ferrari on Hot Springs Road. Guests enjoyed wine-
Penny Gundry, Andrea Newquist, Dr. Steven Gundry, Dana Newquist, and Victoria Buster (photo by Priscilla)
Andrea Newquist, Patricia Wettig, Ken Olin, and Dana Newquist (photo by Priscilla)
and-cheese tables beneath gorgeous purple blooms donated by Ron and Patricia Caird of Por La Mar Nursery.
Among those attending were Bobbie and John Kinnear, the Hein Family, Alma Rose Middleton, Dennis Forster, Terry Garay, Charlotte Williams, Geri Bidwell, Adrienne Schuele, George Leis, Cynder Sinclair, Joyce Sharr, and Arlene Larsen. Gala committee members Brenda Blalock, Cathy Cash, Tony Morris, Houghton Hyatt, and Leslie Schneiderman kept the evening humming beautifully along.
By evening’s end, one thing was clear: this glamorous gathering carried a genuinely golden heart.
by Lisa Duncan
Whiskey & Whips
The Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club positively smoldered with leather, liquor, and luxury this weekend for one of the most intoxicating Sundays of the season. The atmosphere felt less Sunday sport and more western fantasy – all leather boots, flowing whiskey, and smoky glamour that makes polo irresistible.
Yes, there was dazzling polo – with A-to-Z triumphing over Quite on Z in a sun-soaked clash of chukkers and champagne. But the true magic unfolded just beyond the sidelines, where craft whiskey, handcrafted leather, and ranchero chic stole the spotlight.
Guests flocked to the western-luxe pop-up pairing of Ranchero Whiskey and Homer Montecito leather goods, creating an atmosphere equal parts Argentine estancia, cowboy couture, and Yellowstone fantasy, but with better whiskey sours.
Ranchero Whiskey – created by local surgeon Dr. Matthew Pifer and Brad Zacharias, tied to the exclusive Rancheros Visitadores riding tradition – poured generously as bronzed guests in boots and linen drifted between bar and field.
Meanwhile, Homer Montecito leather goods became a sensation. Founded by former Tommy Bahama Executive Terry Pillow , the Montecito brand showcased oak-tanned leather bags, wine cases, and travel accessories in warm saddle hues destined for private jets and Aspen weekends.
As if leather, liquor, and horses weren’t enough, international polo icon Nacho Figueras appeared, sparking quite the society stir. With Nacho’s eldest son, polo player Hilario Figueras, competing on the field, the afternoon resembled a smoldering Ralph Lauren advertisement. Also drifting through the whiskey-and-leather haze was international cigar impresario Hugh Cassar, creator of Hugo Cassar Cigars – adding smoky sophistication to a day dripping in ranchero allure.
Miscellany Page 324
“ You will remember this novel–its hero and characters and scenes–for a long time. A big-hearted story of desperation and courage, crime and redemption, love and loss–it is as entertaining as it is moving.
Community champions for the Alzheimer’s Association (photo by Priscilla)
the establishment’s eponymous grand piano – runs from 6 pm-12 midnight, with tickets covering an entrée, a welcome beverage, and live music from a dozen different musicians including a passel of local luminaries continuing throughout the evening. Meanwhile, two more eclectic nights lead up to the main event, with Thursday starring The Waymarkers Celtic Band featuring Folk Orchestra founder Adam Phillips on vocals, bagpipes, guitar and wind instruments; Grand co-owner Brian Mann on accordion; David Garske on drums; and Todd Hartwig on bass. Matt Perko returns on Friday, with special guests including Guil Juliao on bass, Anthony Cammarota on guitar, and others. Visit www.thegrandonstate.com/events
Short Cuts
In Passing Doris Stitz
“Dodie” Medved: May 13, 1937 – May 19, 2026
Doris Stitz “Dodie” Medved of Montecito, CA, passed away on the morning of May 19, 2026, at her home by the side of her son, Lyle. She was 89 years old.
Doris was born on May 13th, 1937, in Preeceville, Saskatchewan, Canada to Jewish Eastern European immigrant parents Louis David Ari and Sophie Stitz. She was the second of three children, flanked by sisters Rose “Rosie” and Marylin “Mimi” Stitz. The family lived in Hazedell, Saskatchewan, and then moved to Springside, Saskatchewan. The family moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba, when Doris was nine years old.
Doris was a dedicated Registered Nurse (RN). She did her training in Jewish General Hospital in Montreal, Canada. She was also a devoted mom and a very active member of the Santa Barbara Jewish Community, including administering The Harry Kirsch Scholarship here at Congregation B’nai Brith for several years.
Santa Barbara Blues Society’s next show, starring the veteran rocking bluesman Mike Zito – he of the “20 albums and umpteen Blues Music Awards” renown – is slated for Thursday, May 28, at the Carrillo Recreation Center. That show now has a special guest in fellow guitarist Jimmy Vivino, a member of the legendary blues band Canned Heat (see Woodstock Festival, original) and leader of Jimmy Vivino and the Basic Cable Band, the house band for Conan during its 11-season run. Dancing shoes are a must. Visit www.sbblues.org
Pianos on State, the interactive public art and music experience that places hand-decorated upright pianos all along State Street downtown every October, is about to open its application period for local artists who wish to paint a piano. The instruments become the canvas for interactive public piano players, from professionals to “Chopsticks” beginners. The Santa Barbara Arts Collaborative has 12 design slots available and will accept applications from June 1-July 10. Guidelines and the application link at www.pianosonstate.com/apply
The list of legendary rock artists rolling through town is adding another Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member for a much more intimate show than Paul McCartney’s at the Bowl last fall. Sir Roger Daltrey (he was knighted a year ago), the founding lead singer and frequent songwriter for The Who, will perform a solo show at the Lobero Theatre on September 1. Who rarities, solo songs, and even a few cover numbers are on the program, we’re told. Tickets go on sale on June 2.
Steven Libowitz has covered a plethora of topics for the Journal since 1997, and now leads our extensive arts and entertainment coverage
Doris’s nursing career began in 1960 at the Children’s Aid Society in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Her future brother-in-law Dr. Sam Muchnik introduced her to Dr. Arnold Medved around 1962 or 1963. They began dating and wed on Groundhog’s Day February 2, 1964. They lived in Winnipeg, Manitoba, except for the two years when Dr. Medved finished up his residency at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and Montreal, Quebec, where Dr. Medved conducted research in Dermatology for McGill University. In September 1974, the Medved family moved to their current residence in Montecito, CA.
Doris went back to school to receive her Associate’s Degree from Santa Barbara City College in 1985 in Political Science and then her Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing (BSN) from Cal State Northridge in 1987. She worked for the Visiting Nurses Association as a liaison between Cottage Hospital, St. Francis Hospital, and Goleta Valley Hospital for several years until she became ill with cancer and had to retire. She later received her nursing public health certificate.
Doris was always an active volunteer, including here in Santa Barbara. She was passionate about advocating, educating, and providing mental resources for all. She and her husband Arnold established an Educational Fund through the Santa Barbara Mental Wellness Center to teach sixth graders about mental illness, a program still used by some schools in the Santa Barbara County School system.
Doris served as the President of the Parent Teacher Student Association at Santa Barbara High School in the mid to late ‘80s. In 1987, she established the After Prom, to give the students a safe place to hang out once the prom ended and is still in operation today.
The nonprofit CALM (Child Abuse Listening and Meditation) was near and dear to Doris’s heart. She spent numerous hours volunteering and received the Claire Miles Award in 2016. She was most gratified to receive it.
Doris is survived by her husband Dr. Arnold Medved, sons Paul and Lyle, daughter Leanne, daughter-in-law Rachel, son-in-law Matthew Pritchett and grandchildren Matthew and Hannah. She will be remembered for her impeccable sense of style, fun loving spirit, generosity, wonderful sense of humor, and for leaving the world a better place than when she arrived.
The Grand gets its grand opening on Saturday, May 30 (courtesy photo)
Meet the Doctor A New Series from Sutter Health
What drives someone to spend a life in medicine? In this new Q&A series, a group of leading local physicians share the moments that set them on their path, the breakthroughs shaping their fields, and the realities behind the work. Their answers are candid, occasionally surprising, and grounded in experience. Together, they offer a clear-eyed look at the people delivering care in our community and what continues to motivate them every day.
Meet Urologist Ron Golan, MD
Q. What drew you to your particular specialty?
A. Everyone wants to know how and why someone chooses Urology, right? In my case, it was unexpected – and I’m grateful it happened the way it did. At UPenn, surgical subspecialties were assigned by lottery. I had wanted to do trauma surgery, but I was matched in Urology instead. I still remember the feeling of amazement that first morning, watching a kidney stone being blasted with a laser and then seeing a kidney operation performed using the Da Vinci robot, and that enthusiasm has stayed with me ever since.
What ultimately kept me in Urology was my interest in the broad range of conditions we treat and the ability to tailor the right tools and interventions to help patients. Each patient and each surgery presents unique considerations, which keeps every day challenging and rewarding. The combination of complexity, problem-solving, and meaningful patient impact continues to motivate me every day.
What’s one misconception people often have about your field?
Many people assume that certain urinary or sexual symptoms are just an unavoidable part of aging. They may think it’s normal to wake up many times a night, or that declining intimacy is something they simply have to accept.
In reality, we have a wide range of minimally-invasive treatment options that can dramatically improve quality of life. Helping patients understand their options, and ultimately seeing how much better they can feel, is one of the most rewarding parts of my work.
What do you enjoy doing when you’re not working?
I’ve got an amazing wife and three fun children that I love spending time with. My favorite days involve some combination of outdoor activities, time with family and friends, board or card games, and, whenever possible, some time at the beach. Growing up on the Jersey Shore, I’ve always been a beach guy and love playing beach volleyball or going surfing when I can find time.
What medical advancements, innovations, technologies do you incorporate into your treatment of patients?
I don’t believe in adopting new technology simply because it’s new. I think it’s essential to carefully evaluate how each tool can meaningfully improve patient care, whether through greater accuracy, smaller incisions, faster recovery, or more durable outcomes. During my fellowship in Endourology, I received advanced training in endoscopic and minimally invasive surgery, which reinforced the importance of precision and thoughtful technique.
Urology is a constantly evolving field, with new surgical devices, innovative procedures, and medical treatments emerging every year. I genuinely enjoy staying current with these advancements, and my colleagues and I regularly meet to discuss how they may fit into our daily practice. Our Sutter Urology Department and Cottage Health have been very supportive in fostering this ongoing evaluation and integration of new technologies.
As Sansum Clinic begins a new chapter as part of Sutter Health, we remain united by a shared mission: to deliver compassionate, high-quality care to the communities we serve. Together, we are shaping the future of healthcare on the Central Coast.
Sponsored by Sutter Health | Visit www.sutterhealth.org
Grad Season
Our Town’s 24th Annual Graduation Issue Week
1: Cate School
by Joanne A Calitri
It was all “Go Rams!” with parents and families attending Cate School’s 113th graduation held on Sunday May 25, at 10 am, outside at the school campus in Carpinteria. The just under three-hour ceremony began with the graduates’ traditional processional wearing the school colors of blue (boys) and white (girls), armin-arm in pairs. Music was by the Cate School Orchestra playing “Pomp and Circumstance” by Edward Elgar, arr. by John Whitney.
Head of School, Alexandra Lockett , welcomed the guests and called the graduation to order. She wore a lilac dress with flowers of the same color as those on her podium. Lockett introduced history teacher and humanities faculty Lisa Holmes for the Invocation. Holmes quoted from the poem “Praying” by Mary Oliver, and said, “The invocation is an opportunity for us to center ourselves. I invite you to think of the next few minutes as a kind of prayerful reflection. These soon-tobe graduates are the center of our prayers.” She reflected on the school campus grounds, school as the family it becomes for them, and the opening question to all Cate School attendees, “How did you get here?”
Next, Head of School Lockett provided her remarks for the graduates. She began, “I’d like to start with an example of a strange chapter in wartime history where a group of artists proposed to paint the ships in wild patterns and colors. The ships were called dazzle ships, and sought to confuse the enemy by standing out, not hiding. You are graduating into a world where machines are replicating answers. Now what is being asked of you are answers only you can give. The Romans believed each person was accompanied through life by a genius, a guardian spirit assigned at birth. It works through you, the angel only you can see. And when I was in a discussion on AI poetry with two students, they said, ‘It’s [AI] superficially perfect but doesn’t make you feel anything.’ To the Class of 2026, dare to dazzle, stand out in service of something larger, dazzle in ways that are unrepeatable, more humane and more alive. We are so proud of you! Congratulations.”
The graduates vote for their peer who will give the commencement speech. This year it was Andrew Peng. He thanked his classmates for trusting him to make today’s speech, thanked his fellow Cook House West dorm residents, and on behalf of the graduates, thanked the faculty and staff. He talked about Mr. Cook, the 2026 distinguished Cate alumnus, who said Cate School is like venture capital, an endless cycle of investments and windfall returns. Peng, “When I first heard this, comparing Cate to winning a lottery, I thought, I hope I have the winning ticket. I won’t deny the likening of Cate students to Silicon Valley startups – which are run mostly by college students with nothing more than a dream and a Claude code subscription – seemed pessimistic to me. Three out of four venture caps fail. When I look at this class I’m filled with hope. If you were an ETF, I’d smash my piggybank to invest in you. There are three main arguments to back this up. In our time at Cate, we figured out how to be at home, finding it in yourself. Each
of us is talented in unexpected ways. We are athletic, smart, creative, humorous, and everything in-between. We have hidden brilliance. We have found our people at Cate, collaborators with whom to build our life, partners we can trust and lean on. My gain is not someone else’s loss. Cate is an investment that pays dividends. In business, ‘Moat,’ is a company’s ability to maintain a structural long-lasting advantage. Cate School class of 2026, you have a huge moat. Go out there and change the world. I’m betting on you.”
Next, Lockett introduced the annual awards as follows:
W. Burleigh Pattee Fellowship: Tracey Calhoun, Faculty
Centennial Award: Clair Dahm, Faculty
The Circumspice Fellowship: Emma Henderson, Faculty
Stephen Spittler Cup: Dr. Jamie Kellogg
The Jeffrey Sumner Pallette ‘88 Award: Ian Sheshunoff
Santa Barbara Scholarship Cup: Claire Ziebart
The Ellis Cup: Lauren Hubbs
Morgan Gwynne Temby Award: Ramya Bangaru
The Miramar Award: Flora Adair and Philip Choi
Charlotte Brownlee ‘85 Cup: Mo Kanda-Gleeson
Ben Williams Inquiry Award: Lucian Tann
Dohrmann Pischel Medal: Elise Tsai
The Nelson Jones (Class of 1948) Medal: Lorelei Roof
Santa Barbara School Medal: Barron Crayton
Head of School Award: Elise Tsai and Jenevive Won
William Shepard Biddle Cup: Ian Sheshunoff
Additionally, The William New Jr. ‘59 Servons Award was given to Dan Emmett, a Lifetime Cate School Trustee.
The final speaker was the Faculty Address, given by English Faculty Member, Michael Szanyi Diplomas were awarded by Lockett and the faculty members, with a statement about each student’s attributes and contributions. Following a collective congratulations of the class by attendees, the grads processed out to a receiving line.
The event concluded with a luncheon at the school.
The Cate School 2026 graduates are:
Flora Adair, Dinmukhamed Anuarbek, Emil Arconian, Luke Ashiku, Ramya Bangaru, Kiyan Barry, Claire Bianchi, Sebastian Brine, Joshua Butler, Noah Casbarro, Elsie Chamberlain, Oliver Charvel Enthoven, Chloe Chen, Xin Ran Chen, Philip Choi, Alexander Choi, Thomas Claypool, Graham Clinger, Barron Crayton, Marshall Davidson, Charles Dorion, Fallon Erickson, Emerson Evans, Aidan Free, Alex Gallegos, Salar Ghumman, Harper Halbardier, Maia Ella Holmes, Lauren Hubbs, Nika Iverson, Eric Jin, Montgomery KandaGleeson, Hayley Kliman, Carmen Lack, Evangeline Little, Madeline Losey, Mohammed Kamil Suhuyini Abdul Losey, Tristan Maigret, George Marin, Gweneth McTigue, Christian Meyer, Brady Mogensen, Tania Molina, Halimat
Oloritun, Oyindamola Opawumi, John Paige, Braeden Parker, Ashwin Patel, Tree Payne, Yuan Peng, Rosita Power, Serena Ratcliff, Sofia Ridgway, Lorelei Roof, Jordan Ryan, Krisha Jayna Sevilla, Jasper Shelmerdine, Ian Sheshunoff, Elias Smith, Chenlisha Sun, Lucian Tann, Quincy Thorne, Elise Tsai, Perrin
Veltman, Jenevive Won, Jae Wykoff, Samuel Young, Alex Zhang, Zimo Zhang, Claire Ziebart, and Alizee Zielina
The Cate School 2026 graduates (courtesy photo)
Head of Cate School Alexandra Lockett MBA commencement speech (photo by Joanne A Calitri)
Andrew Peng (’26) provides the Student Address at graduation ceremonies (photo by Joanne A Calitri)
Your Westmont
Local Artists Lauded for Beauty Amid Chaos
by Scott Craig, photos by Brad Elliott
About 200 art enthusiasts flowed through the Westmont RidleyTree Museum of Art and the surrounding umbrella-covered patio for the opening of the Tri-County juried exhibition, Altered Realities , on May 22.
The star of the event was Romanianborn Contemporary Artist Nurit Ruckenstein, who won Best of Show, for her colorful acrylic on canvas, Day in the Life of a Dream #1. Ruckenstein, who now lives in Santa Barbara, says her
paintings explore the hidden spiritual energy of things and the movement of this energy through space. “I like bold colors melting into each other in many layers creating depth and taking the viewer on a journey to their own hidden spirituality,” she says.
This year’s juror, Andi Campognone, who has more than three decades of experience as an arts and culture leader in the Western U.S., was unable to attend the opening. However, she offers insight into the exhibition in writing at the entrance to the museum, where she says she selected pieces that explore a diverse array of artistic expressions, ranging from traditional analog photographic processes to painting, sculpture, and assemblage. The submitted works powerfully reflect the current state of our world, showcasing the myriad ways in which artists respond
creatively to the complexities of contemporary life. “In a time marked by challenges, environmental crises, societal transformations and technological shifts, these works invite us to pause, reflect and engage with the beauty that persists amid chaos,” she says.
Join Jamie Knee, Petite Wine Traveler, for intimate wine dinners, in home wine tastings, and unforgettable wine journeys inspired by her travels through the worlds most exquisite vineyards. Uncork your curiosity- book your next personalized wine experience today.
Other artists also walked away with cash prizes, including Santa Barbara’s Joyce Wilson, who won 1st Honorable Mention for All Knowing, a polymer
photogravure etching of an owl and a woman. Templeton resident Bruce Everett won 2nd Honorable Mention for Tassajara Creek, an oil on canvas. San Luis Obispo resident Bora Sitar won 3rd Honorable Mention for Altered Reverberations Within Equilibrium, a tall sculpture of hand-blown glass, driftwood and a nautilus shell.
The exhibition runs through June 20. The museum is open weekdays from 10 am to 4 pm, and Saturdays from 11 am to 5 pm. It is closed on Sundays and college holidays. For more information, please call (805) 565-6162.
Event Tackles
Intersection of Ethics, AI, Human Flourishing
Westmont hosts its 12th annual LEAD Where You Stand conference, “Leadership, Human Flourishing and Artificial Intelligence,” from June 4-5 at the Hilton Santa Barbara Beachfront Resort. The premier leadership event brings together a distinguished lineup of global thought leaders, bestselling authors, and researchers to equip executives, educators, and organizational leaders with the tools to navigate a rapidly changing technological and cultural landscape. Tickets, which are available until May 29 and cost $595 per person, are available at westmont.edu/lead. Discounted Santa Barbara-area accommodations are also available.
This year’s conference specifically addresses the moral, ethical and organizational challenges facing modern leaders as emerging technologies redefine human work and community. Through a series of keynote presentations, collaborative panels and interactive audience question-and-answer sessions, attendees will explore how to ground their professional callings in enduring values.
“This conference is a rare opportunity to step back and rethink how we lead, helping individuals develop the clarity, courage and conviction to lead
Best of Show: Nurit Ruckenstein with Day in the Life of a Dream #1
Joyce Wilson’s All Knowing
Bruce Everett’s Tassajara Creek
Altered Realities draw a real crowd
Elizabeth’s Appraisals
Bureaus and Clawed Feet
by Elizabeth Stewart
me pictures of a table she felt compelled to buy because of its unique feet in the shape of paws with toenails. Animalistic feet are the most common body part to be carved onto furniture since the days of the Egyptian pyramids. The symbol of a bird’s talon was carved on furniture; likewise, lion’s and dragon’s feet on chairs, bureaus, tables, for thousands of years.
To have a usable piece of furniture that is anchored by the image of the strongest animal in the food chain was meant to inspire confidence and superiority. Each culture of furniture-making humans had their own: the three-taloned Chinese dragon’s claw holds a ball, representing a pearl (of wisdom), and in the carved rosewood furniture of 19th-century China we see a beautiful sculptural blending of the claw around the ball. The adoption of the Chinese foot was capitalized by Thomas Chippendale for English 18 th century furniture.
The claw foot in England became a crystal held by a bronze bird claw. In Japan, carved feet of bird’s claw anchored a piece in reference to the myth of the noble mother crane, who stands on one leg monitoring her nest; in the talons of her other raised leg, she holds a round stone. If she falls asleep, she would be awakened by the noise of the stone dropping from her talons.
The best of this furniture is indeed attributed to Thomas Chippendale in the mid-18th century England. The animal foot came to America a little later, as the colonies were slow in adopting new fashions. Flourishing in America into the beginning of the 19th century and again in mass-produced oak furniture in the late 19th century, American furniture makers loved the claw foot or hairy paw. This is the style of MS’s table: a classical square American Golden Oak tabletop, with carved pillar and post legs, with a slightly Asian carved base, raised on four-toed lion’s paw feet. The Asian reference was due to the Aesthetic Era’s fascination with the opening of the ports of Japan in the mid-19th century.
A magnificent surreal testimony to the Chippendale style is the largest chest of drawers in the world, three-stories high (38 feet) and located in High Point, North Carolina, the gateway to American furniture. This one piece of furniture references the debt Americans paid to Thomas Chippendale’s 1754 book The Director, as from this book
America discovered the Chippendale foot, eagle’s talons, and lion’s paw feet.
North Carolina’s towering chest of drawers originated in 1926 as a huge bureau topped by a gigantic mirror on a stand, built by the town fathers of High Point in a rebuttal to the 1922 world’s largest Duncan Phyfe chair in Thomasville, NC, and immortalized in 1955 as a monument on Main Street. Famous legs attached to famous posteriors have climbed the chair, such as Lyndon Johnson in 1960, posing upon the seat, 10 foot square. The mirror was stenciled “High Point, NC, The Industrial City: Bureau of Information.” Naturally, the Big Bureau stood as a backdrop for all high school graduation group portraits for 70 years, until the mirror rusted and the knobs fell off.
In 1996, a High Point craftsman redesigned the Big Bureau thinking his name would be forever linked to the greatest piece of furniture made. Sadly, he died in 2003 after completing the new chest of drawers in the style of Chippendale, painting it cherry red to mimic Chippendale’s favorite wood. He carved massive pairs of socks to hang out of a giant-sized drawer in a nod to the town’s hosiery industry.
A real estate developer in 2004 bought the three-story chest, painted it battleship gray, and the socks in neon colors, as a tourist attraction. The town objected, but no one would purchase the giant bureau until 2018, when High Point University hired a local designer to bring it back to Chippendale style and color, and to repaint the socks in a more respectable palette.
This is the largest example of a period piece with Chippendale feet in the world – delicate cabriole feet that harken back to the paw design. MS’ table is a much later (and smaller) version of the style, manufactured in the late 19th century for Golden Oak furniture, Grand Rapids.
If MS’ table were 38 feet tall, it could be worth many tourist dollars as the largest 19th-century table with lion’s paw feet. That would make the table’s toenails 20 inches long (note however;
lions do not have toenails; they have retractable claws). The value of MS’s table, as it is, is $500.
Elizabeth Stewart, PhD is a veteran appraiser of fine art, furniture, glass, and other collectibles, and a cert. member of the AAA and an accr. member of the ASA. Please send any objects to be appraised to Elizabethappraisals@ gmail.com
The Largest Selection of Previously Loved Home Furnis hings in the Tri..-Counties! Moving Miss Daisy Downsizng & Relocation
Total Estate Clearance t Packing t lnventoryt Movingt Floor Plans &- New..-Home Setup. Estate Auctions
Privatet respectful, low..-impact-no invasive crowds or parking issuest no rushed two..-day sales. no leftovers-just fairt competitive bidders from local and national buyers.
Safe Moves for Seniors Helping Low,lncome Seniors Move for Free, Serving our Entire Community with Dignity
Consign for a Cause Support Your Favorite Local Charity with your Consignments
The classical square American Golden Oak tabletop A closeup of the four-toed lion’s paw feet
Petite Wine Traveler
Why Poland May Be Europe’s Most Unexpected Wine Escape
by Jamie Knee
Last month, I traveled to Kraków, Poland, where I was invited to speak at the International Wine Tourism Conference. I arrived expecting to find an emerging category that felt technically promising and logistically interesting while still finding its footing. I left thinking about something else entirely. Beauty. Ambition. The thrill of discovering a wine region before the wider world fully catches on. That feeling is difficult to manufacture. Southern Poland carries that kind of appeal right now.
As a global wine writer and presenter, I spend a great deal of time moving between regions, tasting, speaking, and watching where energy is building. Every so often, a place begins to draw attention in a way that feels organic and unforced. Poland feels very much like that. Not because it is attempting to imitate France or Italy. Not because it fits neatly into the Old World narrative many travelers instinctively reach for. And certainly not because it has been overexposed. Poland’s modern wine scene feels compelling because it is still taking shape in real time through producers who are often the first in their families to plant vines, ferment a harvest, and imagine what a Polish wine country might one day become. That first-generation spirit gives the country an authenticity that feels impossible to stage. You can sense it in the cellars and in the conversations.
This year’s conference brought me to Kraków and, even more importantly,
to Małopolska, the region in southern Poland that has become central to the country’s wine tourism identity. There are now more than 100 vineyards scattered across the area, with over 50 linked through the Małopolska Wine Route. Together, they are creating a destination travelers can genuinely experience rather than simply study as a category. That distinction matters enormously. Wine regions become memorable through the way landscape, food, hospitality, and place come together around the glass. Małopolska does this beautifully. Around Kraków, the conversation among producers turns quickly to limestone, altitude, and the realities of viticulture in a cooler continental climate. In the Jura area northwest of the city, some winemakers have started referring to “Jurassic” wines, a romantic nod to the ancient calcareous formations beneath their vines. The wines themselves feel rooted in resilience. Whites dominate, and the category feels exploratory and full of movement. Poland’s vineyards are still discovering which grapes best express this landscape and climate, and that search gives the region much of its energy. What stayed with me most, though, was the human side of the story. In established wine regions, knowledge is inherited. Traditions, techniques, and even the way a family reads a vintage; these elements pass through generations without much explanation. In Poland, knowledge is often assembled through study, travel, work abroad, and relentless self-education that produces people with strong points of view. The result is a generation of winemakers building with remarkable intentionality. Often,
Wine Traveler Page 314
Winnica Jura in Rybna
Pierogarnia Krakowiacy
Dear Montecito
A Reflection on HearthLands’ Community Convergence
by Beatrice Tolan
These days, knowing your neighbors is a dying art. While some may meet others through systems like school, faith groups, or country clubs, it can be a challenge to meet new community members if you exist outside these spaces. For young people, this is exacerbated by social media and the rising cost of participating in social events. In response, there is a movement of young organizers in Santa Barbara dedicated to creating gatherings that prioritize creation over consumption, cultivating a “home to come back to.”
HearthLands is an organization with the goal of uniting like-minded people, with a bioregional focus on returning to the land we live on. The name HearthLands is an homage to the hearth, where in traditional homes, families gathered to swap stories and break bread around a crackling fire. On a sunny Saturday in March, in an intentional community nestled in the woods north of Gaviota, they held their first public gathering. The so-named Santa Barbara Community Convergence continued long into the night.
At the Community Convergence, 70 intergenerational people, many meeting for the first time, participated in workshops held by elders and community leaders spanning multiple disciplines including business, art, and intentional living. The evening culminated in a communal dinner, with options to participate in a silent disco or a storytelling circle afterwards. For this article I spoke to four people integral to organizing HearthLands’ first event. I learned in the process just how central is the social isolation phenomenon, and how it ultimately led each of the members on a unique journey to find one another.
David Effron, one of its founding members, had spent his entire life living around the globe in Santa Barbara, Hong Kong, and ultimately in Boston to pursue music at Emerson college. Nevertheless, he had a “grief” he was unable to shake. “I was living in the city, surrounded by people, and I just felt disconnected. There was so much competition with my colleagues that it was so hard to collaborate, and that was exactly what I was there to do.”
Leaving college behind, he came back to Santa Barbara hoping to heal his relationship with his surroundings and others. “I went all in, asking, ‘What does it mean to be local and have neighbors in the community?’” He signed up for the Destiny Blueprint workshop, hosted by Mark Tollefson, who would later lead “The 3 Core Griefs: Why Some Communities Fail” workshop at the Community Convergence. There, David met Alex Van Valen, another local who’d been mulling over the same questions. But HearthLands wasn’t made that day.
Many moons later, Alex sat in Handlebar Coffee, stirring over a revelation he’d sat on since the workshop. “Everything that I’ve done in my life has been motivated by community. Maybe I should be organizing a community event.” Right there, he began creating a poster for an event that didn’t yet exist. And as if divinely ordained, David, coffee in hand, spotted Alex and asked if he might introduce him to his friend Malia, a community builder and local democracy practitioner.
Malia Josephine is a professional collaboration facilitator who helps groups collaborate together on projects, policies, and programs with the goal of advancing community and climate resilience. Currently, she’s the Network manager
Dear Montecito Page 314
Curator’s Choice
This detail is from a 1658 edition of a work that began in the late 1500s: The Theater of Insects, or Lesser Living Creatures by British physician Thomas Moffet. Originally published in Latin, it was translated into English and appended to the back of Edward Topsell’s History of Four-Footed Beasts and Serpents . That enormous tome is one of the rare books preserved by the Library of Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, where you can come get a closer look at a page of Moffet’s insects. These woodcuts of dragonflies convey as much personality as anatomy but are not whimsical flights of fancy. Although entomology was in its infancy at the time, Moffet’s work is notable as an early attempt to scientifically categorize insects. The book is on display in the library as a companion to exhibits of winged wonders – The Collectors: A Life in Lepidoptera now open in Maximus Gallery – and the esteemed Butterflies Alive!
Lunch Made Easy
Skip the midday rush. Order Lilac Montecito’s seasonal lunch menu online for takeout or delivery, featuring fresh sandwiches, garden salads, house-made pastas, and signature desserts, ready when you are.
Community Convergence Opening Circle (photo by Austin Howard)
Woodcut Insects
Baby Gem Salad
Far Flung Travel
Thermal Quest
by Chuck Graham
It felt like lying on gritty sandpaper. A broad, wide-open, sandstone plateau surrounded in a deep gorge choked in dense chaparral, was a hot spot for spotting endangered California condors in the mid-1990s.
Lion Canyon is an impressive, stratified canyon deep in the Sierra Madre Mountains, a “condorminium” in the middle of the Los Padres National Forest. I’d been looking all day in those honeycombed cliffs for North America’s largest flying landbird. Scanning with my binoculars, searching as many ledges, grottos, and treetops for these prehistoric raptors had become intoxicating, but I hadn’t seen a single condor.
I took a break on that massive mesa. I laid down, eyes closed, with my hands behind my head. I started to doze off when puffy clouds drifted overhead... or so I thought. A shadow flashed across my face. I ignored the first one thinking it was a cloud, but after the next one, I opened my eyes and sat up. It was a curious California condor soaring about 200 feet above me.
Condors have incredible eyesight, soaring for hours in thermal updrafts scouring the rugged backcountry for their next meal. I’m not saying that lone condor was sizing me up as a potential carcass to be scavenged, but I was lying still for 20 minutes or so. Only that solitary condor knew for sure.
Release Me
Since the early 1990s captive-bred condors have been released back into the wild to reestablish populations
and another 210 condors are in captive breeding sites.
“Condors bring people together,” said Mike Clark, a biologist who captive-bred California condors for 35 years for the Los Angeles Zoo. “We were a condor factory. We wanted these birds to be successful.”
Still, threats persist, mainly poisoning from lead bullets. Besides habitat loss and micro trash, lead has been prevalent before and after captive breeding. As condors continue to reestablish their old haunts, they soar and scour the land for carcasses. When they come in contact with a gut pile, condors are susceptible to lead poisoning. Fifty percent of all condor mortalities are still due to lead bullets.
throughout their historic range. In the mid-1990s the Sierra Madre Mountains were the launching pad for these 20-pound birds with nine-foot-wide wingspans. During that time, I watched groups of condors socializing on big slabs of sandstone, and soaring swiftly in swirling afternoon thermal updrafts. It was a desperate yet exciting time for these Old World, Pleistocene relics.
As the years have mounted, more release sites have been established. Populations of captive-bred birds have continued to grow. There are now release sites in Baja California, Grand Canyon, Big Sur, Hopper Mountain (Ventura County), and Bitter Creek National Wildlife Refuges, and sites in Oregon, Utah, and Idaho have also been established. Today, there are close to 370 California condors in the wild,
Lead bullets were banned in California in 2008, but they are still readily available. About half of the Golden State’s land is privately owned, roughly 50 million acres, so landowners can do as they please. Fortunately, there’s lots of lead outreach, hunters delivering and demonstrating alternatives for lead ammunition. Although it costs a little more, copper is a better alternative to lead. It delivers a cleaner kill, whereas lead breaks apart, with more fragments dispersing in a carcass.
“Hunters will be the reason why condors will survive,” continued Clark. “There’s lots of outreach there for them. Ultimately, that’s what will save the condor.”
In the meantime, Clark has been busy. He recently retired from the Los Angeles Zoo, but that doesn’t mean he’s walking away from these high-soaring raptors. In 2024 Clark formed his own nonprofit, California Condor Alliance. He purchased a 158-acre parcel at the base of the Eastern Sierra and its stunning granite peaks. Located near the Owens Valley, Clark is intent on getting more condors into the wild.
“Condors live to have babies,” said Clark. “That is when they are the most happy.”
He’ll have his own condor captive breeding and release sites, encouraging these large scavengers to fan out across the alpine zones of the Eastern Sierra. At this point, Clark is in it for the long haul.
“Now that we have it (captive breeding site) we can move forward,” said Clark. “Captive breeding is the lifeblood of the recovery. More breeding space is needed, and we need to release more birds.”
Lofty Sandstone Cathedral
Late afternoon in Lion Canyon was magical, a backcountry cathedral that looks across the Cuyama Valley and beyond to the arid Caliente Mountains to the northeast. A warm breeze swirled up the lofty gorge to its apex where a
small, gnarled pine tree grew out of a crack in the sandstone. Suddenly, a subadult condor landed on an exposed branch, steadying itself with its impressive velvety black wingspan.
I bushwhacked through the dense chaparral and oak woodlands, circling the fringe of Lion Canyon to see if I could get a better look at this iconic scavenger. Moving quickly as I could, I was hoping the lone condor was still clinging to its lofty perch. I got more than I bargained for with two condors being better than one.
After clearing thick brush, I ran around the backside of Lion Canyon. I was actually above it to the west. After traversing a path leading out to the pine tree, I had a great vantage point where now two condors shared the same branch. Typically, sandstone provides great handholds, and I used those to inch out toward the massive condors.
They were playful with each other, two young condors balancing on a narrow limb, a fine line for the two birds. Teetering on the brink is something this next wave of condors will continue to grapple with while reestablishing their historic habitats in far flung wild places.
Chuck Graham is a freelance writer and photographer based in Carpinteria, where he also leads kayak tours and backpacking trips in Channel Islands National Park
The California condor, also known as the “Sharer of the Sky”
The California condor, also known as the “Cher of the Sky”
The California condor, also known as the “Carer of the Sky”
for the Santa Barbara County Regional Climate Collaborative. She also has extensive experience working within intentional communities, describing them as the following:
“In our modern world, intentional communities can be urban, rural, suburban, and they’re all guided around intention. Each community gets to define what that is. It could be an artistic community, a music community, yoga, spirituality or sustainability. But the thread that binds them all together is that it’s a group of people who are willing to live cooperatively together, to share resources together, and to navigate their everyday lives together to ultimately support the purpose of whatever that community is gathering around.”
Together, the team embarked on the year-long project of gathering the resources for the Community Convergence. A few months into their efforts, they held a Visioning Gathering at Skofield Park. Amidst the trees, they invited the community to plan the event with them. Having just moved to Santa Barbara, and with previous experience with community organizing, Laura Brower attended the gathering, feeling her passion ignite. The others quickly noted how her support could enhance the team. Finalizing the four-person team took many more months of meetings, networking, and planning before the quartet coalesced into an incredible group of facilitators, volunteers, and attendees.
I asked the four of them to name some of their favorite moments from the Community Convergence. Malia and Alex spoke at length about a garden tender at the event who shared gratitude with the participants in the community garden. He was absolutely ecstatic to have young people eager to learn how to tend the land, showing them the community garden and even becoming tearful. “One of our workshop facilitators spoke with
the gardener and planned that day a gardening workshop with her own group. That is the kind of stuff that we were dreaming of, that a space like this could catalyze partnerships,”
Malia said. Alex spoke about how for him, this event illustrated an intergenerational healing moment.
David recalled the joy of listening to an elder talk about what he did in his retirement, chasing wildflower blooms with his wife. “What struck me was the joy he was expressing, of just going out and appreciating nature. I was jealous in a good way.” Encompassing the love felt at the event, Laura said, “I think the inspiration that a lot of us are looking for is that we’re not alone in our fears, and that we can be in a community that holds us in that, because they’ve been there, too.”
As HearthLands considers its future, some members hope to establish a community center to hold meetings and workshops, as well as purchase land. “We’re still in the early stages of clarifying our goal, but eventually it would be nice to be in greater proximity to each other,” David noted. As it grows, HearthLands aspires to connect locals, creating a space where every community member is supported, encouraged, and feels a sense of belonging to something bigger than themselves.
Stay up to speed on HearthLands on Instagram: @hearthlands. Their next event is a Community Bonfire: Friday, June 12th, at Haskell’s Beach, 5-8:30 pm
in Los Angeles after
in Montecito for 20 years. She is invested in building community through unique perspectives and stories. beatricetola @ gmail.com
the person pouring your glass is the same person who planted the vine, managed the harvest, and made every decision along the way. That intimacy changes the tasting experience entirely.
I felt it most acutely at Winnica Przybysławice, a small boutique estate outside Kraków, where young winemaker Marcin Litwa, a former interior designer turned passionate vigneron, is crafting something deeply personal and shaped by instinct and an unmistakable eye for detail that carries from cellar to glass. The estate has a garagiste quality that appeals to a very specific kind of wine traveler. Intimate. Thoughtful. Connected to the source. The wines themselves were not simply promising for Poland. They were genuinely very good.
A different yet equally compelling story unfolded at Winnica Jura in Rybna. The estate belongs to Joanna and Marcin Miszczak, and their backstory captures the spirit shaping modern Polish wine. She is a certified sommelier. He is a former tango dancer who fell in love with wine in Argentina. Together, they have built a forward-looking property with organic “bio” wines, a polished tasting environment, and a beautifully designed event center that reflects how seriously they approach hospitality. Winnica Jura feels contemporary and confident. Wine tourism is woven directly into the experience.
The hospitality dimension is where Małopolska becomes especially appealing for traveling wine enthusiasts. The region does not offer wine in isolation. It offers wine within a broader culinary identity that is coming into its own with confidence. In Kraków, restaurants such as Starka and Michelin-starred NOAH reflect a dining scene growing increasingly sophisticated. Outside the city, local specialties including smoked trout, pillowy pierogi, and sour rye soup known as żurek, anchor the wine experience in something unmistakably Polish. To me, that is always the mark of a region worth traveling for. Not only the bottle. The table around it.
Kraków itself adds to the appeal in every possible way. Again and again,
the people I met described it as one of Europe’s safest and most livable cities. Walking through the Stare Miasto, the beautifully preserved medieval center, it is easy to understand why. The city carries grace and depth. Its food scene feels compelling. Layers of history appear at every turn. There is also an ease to daily life there that makes visitors want to extend their stay. It is the kind of city that strengthens the appeal of the wine region surrounding it.
Of course, Poland is not without growing pains. The industry remains fragmented. Production is still small by European standards. Domestic wine consumption remains modest, and the category is still evolving across producers. Yet that is part of what makes the story so compelling. This is not a finished wine country presenting itself through decades of perfected branding. It is a living one filled with experimentation and a sincere desire to be taken seriously.
That may be exactly why this is the right moment to visit. Before the guidebooks arrive. Before the waiting lists form and boutique hotels multiply. Right now, while producers still answer the door themselves and vineyards still feel like discoveries.
Southern Poland is no longer simply an emerging category. It is becoming an emerging wine country worthy of the journey. For travelers who value the feeling of arriving somewhere before the rest of the world fully discovers it, that alone is reason enough.
Jamie Knee is a Global Wine Communicator, Wine Media Personality, and International Wine Judge & Educator, named one of the “Top 50 Most Influential Women in Wine.” Follow her @petitewinetraveler.
Participants gather around a garden in the intentional living community (photo by Austin Howard)
Beatrice Tolan is a fine artist, animator, and writer living
residing
Moti Wine Bar
By the final chukker, A to Z claimed the memorial trophy honoring Kenneth Walker, while cutie Caleb Casimere took home the High Point Pro-Pool polo award as proud grandad Dr. Madison Richardson looked on from the sidelines.
Where cowboy culture met polo chic, the finish was smooth and smoky. by Lisa Duncan
VNA’s 25th Annual Mother’s Day Luncheon
The 25th Annual Mother’s Day Luncheon benefiting VNA Health was a heartfelt celebration of mothers, caregivers, hospice families, nurses, and all those touched by the nonprofit’s services. The community gathered to help raise funds toward the event’s $410,000 goal supporting charitable hospice care, home health care, and the organization’s Loan Closet.
Opening the afternoon, VNA Health President and CEO Kieran Shah invited guests to pause in honor of National Nurses Week, recognizing active and retired nurses for their dedication and service. One of the event’s most emotional moments came when Melissa Walker shared the story of caring for her mother after two devastating strokes. Walker recalled how VNA Health’s Loan Closet provided essential medical equipment and how hospice staff guided her family through her mother’s final months at home. “It felt like someone was holding our hands through the hardest experience of our lives,” she said.
Master of ceremonies Andrew Firestone introduced teen speaker Eve Sheldon, who shared how her own surgeries, chronic knee injuries, and hearing loss inspired her to create Laguna Blanca’s “Lend and Mend” club
supporting VNA Health’s Loan Closet. A surprise dance performance set to “We Are the World” followed.
The luncheon honored Remembered Mother Nancy Koppelman for her humanitarian work, humor, and compassion. Friends and family remembered her as deeply spiritual and devoted to human connection. “I’ve seen the power of love,” Koppelman once said. “It’s the most healing power in the universe.”
Shah and McGrath credit the success of the Mother’s Day Luncheon to the 687 people who donate, volunteer, and attend the Luncheon. Lead sponsors included CenCal Health, the Jurkowitz and Levinson Families, Bui and Herb Simon, Chris Toomey, WoodClaeyssens Foundation, Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians, The Angels, Aseva, Roberta and Stan Fishman, Lynda Weinman and Bruce Heavin, Hutton Parker Foundation, the Meyer Simon Family, and Honored Mother Katina Zaninovich.
Sightings
Bella Hadid spotted enjoying a brother-sister getaway in Saint-Tropez this week with Anwar Hadid following Cannes…
Kendall Jenner and Jacob Elordi confirmed their rumored romance over Memorial Day weekend during a dashing double date in our little Eden… Charlie Puth keeping a low profile, balancing new fatherhood with his sprawling Whatever’s Clever! world tour…
Kenny Loggins the music legend is headed into the Songwriters Hall of Fame while also preparing for the celebrity tournament “Pickleball in the Danger Zone” benefiting Unity Shoppe…
Living Mother honoree Katina Zaninovich, RN, reflected on her years as a visiting nurse with VNA Health, calling it “not just a job” but “a way of life.” Closing the luncheon, she encouraged guests to continue supporting VNA Health’s mission of providing compassionate care regardless of ability to pay.
From Richard and friends to all of you… Pip! Pip!
“The beach is a place of healing, a place to relax and forget.” – M. L. Borges
Pamela Dillman Haskell with Neil and Jill Levinson, 2014 Honored Mother (photo by Monie Photography)
25th Anniversary Luncheon Committee (photo by Monie Photography)
Terry with his Homer Montecito pop up (photo by Priscilla)
The special performance of “We Are the World” (photo by Fritz Olenberger)
well, wherever they are,” says President Gayle D. Beebe
Keynote speakers include David Brooks, former New York Times columnist, Yale University presidential fellow, and bestselling author of The Road to Character; Susan Cain, prominent TED Talk speaker and bestselling author of Quiet and Bittersweet; Zack Kass, former OpenAI leader and author of The Next Renaissance; Tyler VanderWeele, director of the Harvard Human Flourishing Program and author of The Theology of Health; Robert Tucker, renowned innovation strategist and author of Build a Better Future; and Beebe, who has authored or edited more than 40 articles and 11 books including, The Crucibles that Shape Us
News Bytes (Continued from 10)
Keynote sessions will bridge cutting-edge social science with practical organizational leadership. Dr. VanderWeele will present insights from the Global Flourishing Study, a landmark five-year research partnership with Baylor University and Gallup tracking 200,000 participants across 22 countries to redefine well-being beyond traditional economic metrics. Additional sessions will cover cultural evolution, the role of introverts in corporate innovation, and the expansion of human potential through artificial intelligence.
The event is made possible through the generous support of local and national partners, including the Hugh E. and Marjorie S. Petersen Foundation.
done in stages. The time frame, from the historical research phase to the final paintings was 16 years. The works were done in three stages, starting with landscapes, next dancers, and finally the spirit worlds. He explained that his gift of painting with realism and historical accuracy is based in his work for National Geographic, ILM, and his studies at UCLA. Take note; Evans shared how to paint star fields on a dark blue background from his experience in film work. He said, “You take a toothbrush, dip it in the white toned paint color for the stars, hold the brush and spray the paint by flicking the bristles with your finger while at the same time going across the canvas where you want the stars.” He also demo’d it with a “sound effect” (ha)! He then would select certain stars to enhance by making a four-pointed cross from the center of the paint dot. For the figurative works, he studied anatomy of the human body, took photos and videos of men dancing, and
used actual models from the indigenous community. Other tips concerned his technique on paintings that feature a dancer near a fire pit, and his ability to cast the fire’s luminescence on the dancer’s clothes and decorative headpieces. He said it was important to paint the direction of the dancers’ gaze upon the fire as they were communing with nature as a seer’s spirit.
The lecture was an in-depth discussion of the 13 paintings, large scale oils on board finished with varnish developed by the conservator of the National Gallery of Art. After the talk, I went through the exhibit and circled back to the Heritage Room to chat with Evans, while other visited the museum gift store to purchase licensed works in various sizes replicating Evans’ paintings for him to sign.
It is worth the ride from Montecito, take the day to enjoy the museum, art and history, and visit SYV!
Till next week! Xx JAC 411: www.sychumashmuseum.org
SHERIFF’S BLOTTER M
Retail Theft / 500 block San Ysidro Road
Wednesday, May 13, at 16:53 hours
the course of human evolution. Gurven is the author of Seven Decades: How We Evolved to Live Longer, published by Princeton University Press. No tickets or reservations required
Celebrate National Trails Day
Take a hike or join a hiking group, sign up to volunteer to clear a trail on Saturday, June 6. See Los Padres National Forest website listings, fire and safety data, and trail maps. 411: www.fs.usda.gov/r05/lospadres
Valle Verde Earns National Recognition
Valle Verde has been recognized by U.S. News & World Report as one of the nation’s “Best Continuing Care Retirement Communities” in its 2026 Best Senior Living awards. The rankings were based on resident and family surveys evaluating more than 3,800 senior living communities nationwide.
Valle Verde was among ten HumanGood communities to receive the distinction, highlighting the organization’s commitment to resident care, engagement, and quality of life. Community leaders called the honor a reflection of the dedication and daily efforts of staff and team members.
The general manager of a women’s retail store in Montecito called to report a 459 PC (Burglary) that occurred at the store during normal business hours. The Reporting Party (RP) believed a male customer, who had entered the store on two separate occasions that day, was responsible for the theft. Three necklaces totaling $18,385 were taken from the unlocked display case inside the store. RP is in the process of connecting with their IT team to obtain in-store video footage.
Vehicle Fire / Fuel Depot
Saturday, May 16, at 19:27 hours
While en route to a 415 PC (Disturbing the Peace) fight on Whitney and Olive, deputies were requested to assist with a vehicle fire at the Fuel Depot gas station in Summerland. Deputies arriving on scene found the vehicle engulfed in flames about 20 feet from the gas pumps. A deputy attempted to douse the fire with a fire extinguisher but couldn’t get close enough due to the intense heat. Deputies then evacuated the onlookers, gas station employees, and curious customers and onlookers that were drawn to the fire. Montecito Fire arrived a few minutes later and knocked out the fire. (Summerland FD was already staged for the 415 fight on Whitney and Olive and were unavailable.) CHP arrived shortly thereafter.
Assault and Battery Elderly / Whitney Avenue/Olive Street
Saturday, May 16, at 19:23 hours
Deputies were dispatched to a 415 physical fight in progress at Whitney Ave./Olive St. in Summerland. An elderly Summerland resident walking his dog on Whitney Ave. was attacked by the suspect, who approached the victim, got within inches of his face, and threatened to beat him up. The victim retrieved a metal “No Parking” post from the side of the street and used it to try to keep the subject from attacking him. Subject took the victim to the ground (in the street) and forcibly held him down telling the victim how strong he was. The victim shouted for help and was in fear for his life/safety and the safety of his dog. The victim had bloodied arms and face and sustained several abrasions to both forearms. The subject’s mother reported subject suffers from schizophrenia and has recently expressed disdain for the victim. The mom further said subject has on a previous occasion verbally harassed the victim while the victim walked his dog, but this was the first time the subject had physically attacked him. Subject was arrested and booked at SBJ for 368PC and 422 PC.
President Gayle D. Beebe and David Brooks return for LEAD Where You Stand June 4-5
An Independent Mind Talking Heads, Prediction, and The Future
by Jeffrey Harding
“Most of what passes for ‘investment advice’ is nothing more than speculation about an unknowable future.” –Joe Calhoun III, Alhambra Investments.
“Economics is an entire scientific discipline of not knowing what you’re talking about.” – P. J. O’Rourke
“What passes as sensible economic commentary by politicians, pundits, and preachers is but a torrent of extraordinarily simplistic myths.” – Professor Donald J. Boudreaux, George Mason University.
“Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age 18.” –Albert Einstein
“For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong” – H. L. Mencken.
“Some of the biggest cases of mistaken identity are among intellectuals who have trouble remembering that they are not God.” – Thomas Sowell, prolific economist at Hoover Institute.
“Actually, one reason to read history is to know how little has generally been known about what was coming next.” George Will, from The Conservative Sensibility.
“No one knows anything…” William Goldman, writer commenting on Hollywood, but applicable to prognosticators.
There is a lot of talk these days about things like artificial intelligence (AI) –good/bad? Or what President Trump will do next (Iran, nuclear weapons, gas prices, inflation, trade, economy). Or billionaire wealth. Or the stock market. Or who’s to blame for whatever negative meme is floating around. Worry is rampant.
This article is not about what the future will be, but rather why the future is unknowable and why commentators are usually wrong and if they are right, it’s mostly luck. There are those who were right about the future when everybody else was wrong. They get temporary fame as being wise people who are smarter than the rest of us and we believe that we should pay attention to whatever they say. Well, getting it right once is mostly luck, especially for those world-changing black swan events.
Take the financial world for example, a place where investors put their money where their mouth is. The financial meltdown of the Great Recession (2008) is a great example of a moment when just about everyone got it wrong. The big boys didn’t see it coming. Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, Washington
Mutual, Wachovia, BofA, AIG either collapsed, were forced into takeovers, or received government bailouts. An estimated 1,500 hedge funds folded their tents. They bet wrong on the future.
A good example of luck and wrong bets was London based hedge fund, Peloton Partners. In 2007 at the peak of the market they shorted subprime securities and when that market collapsed, they hauled in a spectacular 87% return. They were lauded for their success as fund of the year. In 2008, trading on their previous success, they bet long on now discounted subprime securities thinking they had hit bottom. The subprime market continued to collapse and by March 2008 Peloton Partners closed its doors. This is a classic tale of confusing luck with brilliance.
Today, we have seen major financiers like Jamie Dimon, Ray Dalio, David Rosenberg, Stanley Druckenmiller, and Mark Spitznagel who have been issuing dire predictions about the economy since 2022. These gentlemen are all people I respect. But they didn’t see AI coming. If you had bailed out in 2022 you would have missed the AI-tech revolution: the S&P 500 has gone up about 55% since 2022. I’m not suggesting we should ignore warning signs in the economy, there always are such warnings. Rather, I’m suggesting that predicting the future is impossible.
The current hot topic is AI. Will it lead to a brighter future for mankind, or will it disrupt the economy and society in ways that will lead to mankind’s doom?
My opinion (i.e., guess) is that it will benefit mankind. Much of the hysteria about it is based on fear and ignorance. I read a lot about AI, and I listen to podcasts featuring leaders of technology and finance. I’m aware of the arguments: power requirements will crowd out our needs, massive capital overinvestment, hollowing out jobs for the masses, dangerous actors using it to threaten our privacy and safety, robot rebellions when they achieve artificial general intelligence (AGI). Did I leave something out? I agree there are issues that concern reasonable people, but I don’t think they are unsolvable. Many of these fears either ignore the laws of economics or they are already being addressed by AI companies. But what do I know?
If the geniuses can’t get it right, what should we do?
Accept the fact that the future is uncertain and unknowable. It’s always been this way, yet for the past million years or so our species has made it through whatever massive changes the unknown future has thrown at us.
Whatever you do, don’t panic. Ignore the talking heads. We’ll get through it.
Robert’s Big Questions Second Half of the Chessboard?
by Robert Bernstein
The Wheat and Chessboard legend tells of a king being so thrilled with the invention of chess, he allows the inventor to name his reward. The inventor makes what seems like a small request: Just give me one grain of wheat on the first chessboard square. Two on the next. And just double the number on each square. It seemed like a modest proposal. By the end of the first row it sums to just 255 grains.
By the time the board is half full, 32 squares are filled to a total of 4,294,967,295 grains. A lot, but manageable. But filling the entire board? That would take 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 grains. More than the world currently could produce in 2,000 years.
Three years ago I wrote “Exponentially Moore,” referring to Intel founder Gordon Moore’s exponential “law” of technology growth. Inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil claims Moore’s Law is a fundamental law of nature.
Kurzweil also talks of the “Second Half of the Chessboard” to refer to our terrible intuitions about such growth. What starts out seeming normal and manageable turns into something very different.
For most of human history, the future would be similar to the present. Stone age tools were replicated without change for thousands of years. Elders were revered for maintaining this knowledge.
We evolved a “normalcy bias”: Whatever is normal today is what we can expect for the future. Closely related, we have a “linearity bias:” Even if things do change, they change at a modest, constant rate.
Scientist and futurist Roy Amara coined what is now called Amara’s Law: “We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run.” As in the chessboard example, exponential change seems very slow at first. Until it explodes beyond our comprehension.
The world is facing two notable crises that are a direct result of this principle: The Artificial Intelligence Crisis and the Climate Crisis. Our systems of governance were designed around a world that changes slowly and linearly. They are not designed for exponential change.
Artificial Intelligence has the potential for great good, if it can be used to improve our system of governance. But, we need to get there from our current inadequate system.
In contrast, the Climate Crisis has no upside. It is a direct result of assuming that what worked in the past will work in the future. We have burned carbon fuels for thousands of years. What could possibly go wrong with that in the future? Answer: We are now on the second half of the chessboard.
“Conservative” historically meant to move slowly to conserve our systems and ways of life. That does not work in the second half of the chessboard. Keeping policies that worked in the first half of the chessboard is a recipe for the most radical change of all. In an exponentially changing world, we are in the position of the Red Queen in Through the Looking Glass: “… it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!”
During times of crisis, we are comforted by familiar reference points. In Nazi Germany during WWII, the Berlin Philharmonic continued to perform until April 12, 1945. Just days before the effective defeat of Germany. We are living this now with the Climate Crisis. Even with war in Iran and rising fuel prices, life goes on fairly normally. People fill up their cars with gasoline. Most airline flights continue on schedule. Insurance rates are rising due to unprecedented fire and flood events. But most people can adapt.
In fact, our ability to adapt allows us to create a “new normal” even as “normal” changes. This is sometimes called the “boiling frog” problem: A frog will adapt to sitting in a pot of water on a stove and not jump out, because the change is slow. In fact, frogs are smarter than that and will jump out.
It is we humans who are creating exponential change. We urgently need radical change to adapt and survive.
Robert Bernstein holds degrees from Physics departments of MIT and UCSB. His passion to understand the Big Questions of life, the universe and to be a good citizen of the planet. Visit facebook. com/questionbig
NOTICE OF APPLICATION AND PENDING ACTION BY THE DIRECTOR OF THE PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT TO:
WAIVE THE PUBLIC HEARING ON A CDP HEARING APPLICATION AND APPROVE, CONDITIONALLY APPROVE, OR DENY THE CDP HEARING APPLICATION
This may affect your property. Please read.
Notice is hereby given that an application for the project described below has been submitted to the Santa Barbara County Pla nning and Development Department. This project requires the approval and issuance of a CDP Hearing application by the Planning and Development Department.
The development requested by this application is under the jurisdiction of the Zoning Administrator and therefore a public hearing on the application is normally required prior to any action to approve, conditionally approve, or deny the application. Howe ver, the Director intends to waive the public hearing requirement unless a written request for such hearing is submitted by an interested party to the Planning and Development Department within the 15 working days following the Date of Notice listed below. All requests for a hearing must be submitted no later than 5:00 p.m. on the Request for Hearing Expiration Date listed below, to Kathleen Volpi at Planning and Development, 123 E. Anapamu Street, Santa Barbara 93101-2058, by email at volpik@countyofsb.org, or by fax at (805) 568- 2030. If a public hearing is requested, notice of such a hearing will be provided.
WARNING: Failure by a person to request a public hearing may result in the loss of the person’s ability to appeal any action taken by Santa Barbara County on this CDP Hearing Application to the Montecito Planning Commission or Board of Supervisors.
If a request for public hearing is not received by 5:00 p.m. on the Request for Hearing Expiration Date listed below, then th e Planning and Development Department will act to approve, approve with conditions, or deny the request for a CDP Hearing applicati on. At this time it is not known when this action may occur; however, this may be the only notice you receive for this project. To receive additional information regarding this project, including the date the CDP Hearing application is approved, and/or to view the application and plans, or to provide comments on the project, please contact Kathleen Volpi at Planning and Development, 123 E. Anapamu Street, Santa Barbara 93101-2058, or by email at volpik@countyofsb.org, or by phone at (805) 568-2033.
PROPOSAL: RAGING TIDE EXCHANGE LLC ADDITIONS
PROJECT ADDRESS: 1685 FERNALD POINT LN, SANTA BARBARA, CA 93108 1st SUPERVISORIAL DISTRICT
The proposed project is for a Coastal Development Permit with Hearing to allow for the demolition of two detached garages, st orage, laundry areas, pool, and the construction of 664 square foot first floor addition, 1,428 square foot second floor main resid ence addition, new 35 square foot staff restroom, new 173 square foot trellis, and new 3,434 square foot fully underground attached garage, mechanical and storage addition. Site work includes a new motor court, 55’x20’ pool (under separate permit), 5,716 square feet of patio and decking, and landscaping improvements. Grading will include 2,624 cubic yards of cut and 855 cubic ya rds of fill. One oak tree is proposed for removal.
APPEALS:
The decision of the Director of the Planning and Development Department to approve, conditionally approve, or deny this CDP H earing application 26CDH-00010 may be appealed to the Montecito Planning Commission by the applicant or an aggrieved person. The ap peal must be filed within the 10 calendar days following the date that the Director takes action on this CDP Hearing application. To qualify as an "aggrieved person" the appellant must have, in person or through a represen tative, informed the Planning and Development Department by appropriate means prior to the decision on the Coastal Development Per mit of the nature of their concerns, or, for good cause, was unable to do so.
Appeals must be filed with the Planning and Development Department online at https://aca-prod.accela.com/sbco/Default.aspx, by 5:00 p.m. within the timeframe identified above. In the event that the last day for filing an appeal falls on a non-business day of the County, the appeal may be timely filed on the next business day.
For additional information regarding the appeal process, contact Kathleen Volpi.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
information about this project review process may also be viewed at: https://www.countyofsb.org/1082/Permitting-Home
Board of Architectural Review agendas may be viewed online at: https://www.countyofsb.org/1707/Boards-of-Architectural-Review
Published May 28, 2026, Montecito Journal
LEGAL NOTICE
MONTECITO UNION SCHOOL DISTRICT BUDGET
The proposed 2026-2027 budget for the Montecito Union School District will be available for public inspection at the Montecito Union School District Business Office, 385 San Ysidro Road, Santa Barbara, California on June 5, 2026 during regular working hours. The public hearing on said budget will be held on June 9, 2026 at 9:1 0 a.m. at the Montecito Union School District, 385 San Ysidro Road, Santa Barbara, California, Board Room D - 17. The budget adoption meeting will be held on June 16, 2026 at 9:40 a.m. at Montecito Union School District, Board Room , D-17, 385 San Ysidro Road, Santa Barbara, California.
Published May 28, 2026, Montecito Journal
PUBLIC NOTICE
COUNTY OF SANTA BARBARA STATE OF CALIFORNIA
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the COUNTY OF SANTA BARBARA (“COUNTY”) intends to enter into a Real Property Acquisition Agreement, (“Agreement”) and acquire a Permanent Easement (“PE”) to allow for ongoing access and maintenance to San Miguelito Road for emergency storm damage repair (Site No. 3J38-Project No. 23STM1-3J38/Federal-Aid Project No. 15J7(095)) from the Larsen Trust, owner of the property located at 3525 San Miguelito Road, Lompoc, California, 93436 The PE may also be identified as a portion of Assessor’s Parcel Number 083-100-00 4 The total purchase price proposed to be paid for the property interests is about $2,500
The Agreement and Certificate of Acceptance for the PE will be executed on behalf of the COUNTY by Chris Sneddon, Director of the Public Works Department, pursuant to Santa Barbara County Code Section 12A-11.1. The Agreement and Certificate of Acceptance will be executed at the Office of the Director of the Public Works Department, located at 123 E. Anapamu Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101.
Responses to this Notice will be accepted at the Office of the Manager of the Transportation Division, at the following address:
Public Works Department
Transportation Division
Attn: Transportation Division Manager 123 E. Anapamu Street Santa Barbara, CA 93101
Published: THURSDAY, May 28, 2026, Montecito Journal
MONTECITO SANITARY DISTRICT PUBLIC NOTICE
Notice is hereby given that the Board of Directors of the Montecito Sanitary District shall conduct a public hearing at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, June 24th, 2026 at its Board Room located at 1042 Monte Cristo Lane, Santa Barbara, CA 93108 as well as via Zoom Meetings; meeting ID 861 1897 5917, to consider the adoption of Resolution 2026-990 of the governing board of the Montecito Sanitary District to collect sewer service charges on the County Tax Roll
The public may attend and comment by calling 1 -669- 900-6833 and entering Meeting ID 861 1897 5917 or by visiting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86118975917
Copies of the text of the proposed resolution are on file with the clerk of the District Board and are available for public inspection at the Districts ’ offices. See https://www.montsan.org/
Published by Montecito Journal, May 28 and June 4, 2026
LEGAL NOTICE
SANTA BARBARA UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT BUDGET
The proposed 2026-2027 budget for the Santa Barbara Unified School District will be available for public inspection at the Santa Barbara Unified School District Office at 720 Santa Barbara Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101, on June 4, 2026, during regular working hours. The public hearing on said budget will be held on June 9, 2026, at 6:00 p.m. at the District Office Board Room. The budget adoption meeting will be held on June 23, 2026, at the District Office Board Room.
Published by Montecito Journal, May 28 and June 4, 2026
FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT:
The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GREEN SEASONS LANDSCAPING, 1625 LAGUNA ST, 4, Santa Barbara, CA 93101. SIMON RAMIREZ, 1625 LAGUNA ST 4, Santa Barbara, CA 93101. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on May 11, 2026. 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. 2026-0001243.
Published May 21, 28, and June 4, 11, 2026
FICTITIOUS BUSINESS
NAME STATEMENT:
The following person(s) is/are doing business as: NURTURE WITH CARE, 5151 TABANO WAY, Santa Barbara, CA 93111. CAROYLN M IBRAHIM, 5151 TABANO WAY, Santa Barba-
ra, CA 93111. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on May 6, 2026. 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. 2026-0001215.
Published May 21, 28, and June 4, 11, 2026
FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT:
The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PRICE, POSTEL & PARMA LLP, 200 E. CARILLO STREET, SUITE 400, Santa Barbara, CA 93101. CRAIG A PARTON & TIMOTHY E METZINGER, 200 E. CARILLO STREET SUITE 400, Santa Barbara, CA 93103. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on April 23, 2026. 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. 2026-0001065. Published May 7, 14, 21, 28, 2026
FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT:
The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SUPERIOR MOBILE BRAKE & AUTO SERVICE, 214 S CANADA ST , 49, Santa Barbara, CA 93103. JOSHUA A KRZYWONSKI, 214 S CANADA ST 49, Santa Barbara, CA 93103. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Santa Barbara County on April 27, 2026. 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. 2026-0001121. Published May 7, 14, 21, 28, 2026
because we were working so closely on Equipt Women. I think of Kelly as the visionary and I am a good collaborator and sounding board.
Kelly: One of the first interns we had, Katherine Madrigal, got her first job in the workplace after interning for us. She got there and was so exasperated and she was like, “Why is there not a roadmap for women at the workplace? Why is it so confusing?” There were all these sparks that were telling us that this book hadn’t been written. There were books for women in senior leadership and aspiring to the top ranks of the company, but not really for women who may not want to be in the most senior ranks of the company; so we felt like that was a big hole.
GL: It makes sense to me that you call the book “Up!” because you’ve both devoted a lot of your professional lives to helping women to move “up.” Where does that come from?
Kelly: I think it’s been my whole life’s journey. We’re part of a family of 10 – there are seven girls in our family – so we were used to women being the dominant force in the household. But also, when I left my business, I worked with a coach who told me she wanted me to write my life story in 60 days, stream of consciousness, and then we analyzed it. One of the themes that just kept coming up was: Whether it was in college, or my first job out of college creating the internship program that helped hire more women, or later in YPO [Young Presidents’ Organization] or other things, I’ve always been advocating, unconsciously, for women.
Then when I left my business, it became a much more conscious decision. I think also when COVID came and I started reading more from the World Economic Forum, realizing the gender pay gap isn’t going to close for over a century, I just got really pissed, and I work well from a place of anger because it motivates me to drive change.
Katy: I’ve always been a good listener, and I’ve always had a lot of friends and people coming and telling me their problems; I was better at supporting them than I was at supporting myself. The same thing happened when I was managing people. I loved the managing part – building people up, and coaching them sort of instinctively – that I ultimately went to coaching school and learned more methodology around that. I became more aware of how women are hired, paid, and promoted at lower rates than men; even though they have more degrees, even though there are more of us, there’s still a dearth of women in leadership roles, whether it’s in politics or in businesses.
GL: Is your reason for wanting to write this book, in part, derived from your own frustrations in business?
Kelly: Totally. We’re trying to teach people to have more agency; to help people discover that they have more agency than they realize and often they just need the tools. Quite honestly, even as I reread it, I was like, “Oh yeah, that’s a good reminder.” For people who are more seasoned, I think there’s a lot of good reminders in the book.
Katy: We all need support. We all need coaches. As I matured as a human, a professional, and as a woman, I made better decisions and I realized: “Oh, I do have choices.” But I just stumbled through the first 15, 20 years of my career assuming that I would be promoted and that opportunities would present themselves. I didn’t realize how you need to have intention and you need to make some moves, you need to build relationships, and nobody’s going to come and say, “Hey Katy, here’s an amazing opportunity and I want to pay you a lot of money.” You have to make that happen and have difficult conversations and think about, “What do I want to do?”
GL: You write how many of us tend to hold ourselves back, despite growth, and getting feedback externally. Do you think it’s the same for men as for women?
Kelly: I don’t think it’s the same for men, typically. I think women are wired to prioritize and care for others first, and we are wired, socialized, and reared to care for ourselves second, third, or fourth. I think when you take that into the workplace, it makes sense.
Katy: Also, from the beginning of time men have been in charge. They’re still in charge in most parts of the country and most parts of the world. There are exceptions for sure, but that’s what we see. We tend to model what we see – whether on TV or in movies or in our own communities. It’s hard to think beyond what we are seeing. Kelly: People keep saying to us: “Oh, this book would be so great for men, too.” And I hope that they discover it and find examples they can translate and make the context work for them. But all the books we had to read in the ‘80s and ‘90s, really until Sheryl Sandberg’s book Lean In, were written for men. We can debate the merits of Sandberg’s book, but before that there really weren’t any books written for women. We constantly had to extrapolate male examples from military or sports and say, “How does this relate to me as a woman?”
GL: I think it’s hard for young people to answer the question: “What do you want to be?” But you’re asking: “Where do you want to go?”
Kelly: Yes. Because that’s directional, and what do you want to be feels so finite.
GL: But isn’t that something we ask young people all the time?
Kelly: I think it’s a terrible question for a kid because it’s demanding an answer that they’re not ready to give. We have 20-somethings. And my daughter is like, “Oh my gosh, I should find my path by now. I should know exactly what I want.” And I was like, “No, actually this is all about exploring, discovering, and learning what you love – and what you don’t; the kind of people you want to be around – and who you don’t. And in what kind of environments you want to be.”
I don’t think you have to know what exactly you want to do. I think you learn from every experience that keeps pointing you in a direction. I think that we do a disservice, especially to juniors and seniors in high school and maybe even juniors and seniors in college, in asking them, “What do you want to do?” Because really the only thing they should want to do is work with really talented people who are going to help them grow.
Katy: And learn a lot. What do you want to be when you grow up makes it sound like it’s one thing… and then you get there and then there’s nothing else. We’re all constantly, if we’re lucky, growing and changing, and what we might want to be is going to be different when we’re 20 versus 30 versus 40.
When somebody says, “I just don’t know what I want to do with my life or I’m just stuck,” one of the things I have them start paying attention to is, what are you attracted to? What topics do you find yourself attracted to in social media or news or conversations or in your job? … And that’s what you start paying attention to because that’s where some of your strengths are. What gives you energy? Pay attention to that and to the people that give you energy.
Conversations Page 384
UP! is worth reading whether you’re starting out, stuck, or soaring
GL: There’s a theme about leaning into what you’re good at, what feels good, what inspires you. You say that you don’t need to know your destination to make a change in your life, but I don’t think generally people are comfortable building the plane as they’re flying it.
Kelly: I like to ask people to think about what problems they want to solve. So, some people are really drawn to “I want to help feed more people.” Or, for me, I knew in my life I wanted to be in a creative pursuit. I didn’t know what that looked like or what that meant. My parents thought I was going to starve. “You’re going to be an artist that doesn’t make any money.” I never worried about that. I just knew I needed to be in a creative environment making things and thinking about the future. That is very different than some of my siblings who were like, “I want to care for people in a medical environment and I want to heal them.” And I go into a medical environment and I have palpitations. So I knew that whole career track was not interesting to me. My son is focused on climate change, and he wants to be really involved in solving for rising sea levels: how do we mitigate that and how do we plan for that? There are a million jobs that could be in and around that, but he knew that was the problem that he was drawn to solving.
GL: There’s a chapter where you write about the importance of recognizing what inspires you in moments. But often those things are fleeting. It’s a song, it’s a sunset. How does one turn those fleeting feelings into some greater manifestation in their lives?
Kelly: That’s a good question. I mean, it’s about learning to pay attention. Think about how often you go for a walk without your phone, and I think that’s the biggest thing I would encourage people to do. I know that we become headphone dependent and all the things, but being without your phone means really looking, so that you’re internalizing what you’re paying attention to, and at the same time capturing it. Katy and I are both big fans of journaling so that you’re capturing things that happen or that make you feel a certain way.
Then we have this discipline that we say: make a move. And make a move is really one little thing. If you were inspired by something on a walk that made you think differently, come back and write it down; come back and make a commitment to one thing you’re going to do next, one step you’re going to take that gets you a little closer to what just inspired you.
GL: One of the strong themes in the book is what I would call “intentionality” – pay attention. Get offline, stop spending hours on your couch scrolling through other people’s lives.
Kelly: I’m glad you had that takeaway. The editor thought we had too many of those get off your phone things in there and we took out about half of them, so the fact that you still took that as a theme is good.
GL: I thought about this a lot when the kids were little and we’d be in the car. They’d be online and I’d think about when I was a kid, we would be on road trips just looking out the window and how much came out of boredom.
Kelly: Totally. I think you’re spot on. I think that when we get busy, which is a word I really try to avoid, that “busy” just means we’re on autopilot mode and not paying attention – being intentional is just taking that five seconds to just sit with something. And the only way you can do it is when your phone isn’t a part of you. I have to thank my own kids for helping me reduce my own time because our son is very disciplined with his phone. He has no social media except LinkedIn and when we go to dinner he will say, “Can everybody just leave their phones at home and can we all just be present?”
He’s really pushed us to have those kinds of behaviors. I think our daughter lost her phone, or it broke in college, and she went a whole semester without a phone. I think it was very liberating to her to figure out, how do I do this? So, it’s just made me less reliant. I think all of us of every age group are spending too much time on our phones and that’s why that theme comes out over and over.
GL: Why do you think so many capable and successful women find it hard to talk about money?
Kelly: Because I think we were socialized to believe that it’s not proper, that it’s private, and a lady doesn’t speak about money. I recently had a newsletter that was called Get Good with Money. And it was like, “Hey, it’s a day after tax day. Now it’s time to take a breath and really just take stock of what you earn, what you spend, how you’re investing, where you’re getting your financial influences from, all the things that keep you in control of your money and having a healthy relationship with money.”
Numerous people pulled me aside and said, “I read your newsletter and I’m one of those women that has made a lot of money but abdicated financial control
“No matter if you are starting, stuck, stalled, spinning, or soaring, UP! gives you proven strategies, practical tools, and step-by-step guidance you can use now, not someday.”
to my partner or spouse.” My jaw just dropped because these are very successful, seasoned women. Sometimes you can imagine if you’ve been a stay-at-home parent, and you haven’t worked in the workforce, you can understand how that might happen… In some relationships that’s how things are divided up. He takes care of the money, and she takes care of the caretaking… But I think we’re drawing the lines in the wrong way. It should be a horizontal line, not a vertical line of dividing money.
We have this whole module we teach around money in our eight-week program and one of our interns said, “the topic of money is so stressful,” because her origin story is that her parents were constantly fighting about money. They didn’t have enough. So she said, “Just the concept of money is so stressful. I’d rather avoid it than to have stress.” And I was like, “But what if you understood it better? What if you could manage it better? What if you could unlock your money mindset to be healthy and constructive and serve you in your life?” And she was like, “Oh, I’ve never talked to anybody who had a healthy money mindset.” So, I think that’s a big part of it too – we’re not groomed to have a healthy money mindset.
Katy: And it’s not just about having money, it’s about – even if you have a small amount – how do you manage it?
Kelly: Well, that’s one of the reasons we created a bunch of free tools that are on our website. We have a thing we call the Budget Genius. We realized a lot of women in our programs weren’t budgeting. One of the cool things we did with this tool is that we did nationwide averages of low, medium, and high on every category. So that you could get a budget that works for you.
We realized that so few people were doing that. We created a tool and we made it free. Then we created a whole course – and made it free – about how to negotiate your compensation and talk about money more openly and freely.
GL: We’re living in this moment where things that we came to think of as normal, like DEI, are being challenged across the board and women fall into that in many cases. Do you notice in your work with corporations that there’s less support out there for boosting women?
Kelly: I think there’s less overt support. A lot of companies have said what they think is expected to be said by them, especially public companies, so that they don’t get activists coming after them, especially after the executive order that was issued. But I think privately, enlightened leaders know that they need a diversified leadership pipeline to have an organization that is going to be successful and relevant and attract good talent. I have yet to meet a single leader who doesn’t believe that women aren’t critical to their leadership pipeline.
We recently had a very large company who has publicly said that they abolished all their DE&I programs, but then proactively reached out to us and asked to pay us in advance for the cohorts that we have delivered for them that have been so successful. So publicly they’ve said one thing and internally they’re operating in a completely different way.
GL: What are some of the biggest challenges facing women today versus when we were in our 30s and 40s?
Kelly: The biggest one I think is the ease of comparing yourself to what looks like a perfect curated life. You can go on Instagram and Katy and I could pick out examples of people we know who post a lot, have beautiful photography, and beautifully curated lives, and you would expect that they are 100% pulled together and happy. What you realize, though, is that it’s a façade for a lot of difficulty that they’re going through. When we were coming up, we didn’t have that. All we knew were the people who lived next door and the people we sat next to at our company. We were all just working hard and doing our thing and so I don’t think we had that pressure.
GL: So, the easy road is not always the best road. You’re advocating taking the path that’s going to be the most interesting and the most broadening. Would you agree with that?
Katy: Our message is: Create the career and life you really want, not what I want for you, not what society wants for you. What’s difficult to tease apart is: What do I want apart from what my parents want for me? What do I want apart from what my siblings want for me? What do I want apart from what the culture is telling me I should want? That’s what I think the book is saying.
Kelly: And it’s trying to teach the reader to be more expansive in considering those possibilities.
Katy: And it’s not necessarily taking the hardest road. It’s taking the road that interests you, based on what your values are, based on what your strengths are, based on where the growth is in different industries; based on the problems that you want to solve. It’s based on knowing yourself, because part of the problem is that we don’t know ourselves. I didn’t know myself really until my 30s, I’d say, and I continued to get to know myself in my 40s. As I got to know myself and was honest about who I really was instead of what other people wanted me to be, I became much happier. What we’re advocating for is create the career and life you want.
Kelly: That’s why there are no “shoulds,” in the book. You know how difficult that was to write a book without the word “should.” Because it has such an obligatory and confining set of expectations around it versus what could you do? What might you do? What do you want to do? What could you consider doing? As soon as we start changing that lens for people, they’re like, “Oh right, I don’t have to go to that party. I could actually read a book and feel nurtured tonight instead of obligated into something I don’t really want to be a part of.” So being really choiceful I think is what we’re suggesting, instead of just being pushed into something that everyone else thinks we need to be doing.
Katy: There’s a chapter in there that’s called “Take Aim.” You don’t have to make some major move just because you have an instinct about it. Maybe you want to get your MBA. Well, before you do that, talk to some people who have gotten their MBA. How expensive was it? How did they manage it? Did it create more opportunities for them? Is there a community college class you could take? Is there a weekend program so you don’t have to give up your job? There are steps you can take to get more confident about whether that is the right decision for you before you make a major move.
GL: In this book you quote Marcus Buckingham: “Strength is an activity that strengthens you, and weaknesses an activity that weakens you, even if you’re good at it.” Can you explain that?
Katy: It comes back to energy and when you feel strong, when you feel confident. If you enjoy public speaking, maybe you get energy from it, maybe you feel like you’re pretty good at it, then that’s a strength. The example I like to give is: I was really good at project management, not because I wanted to be, but because I had to be, of necessity. When I changed careers and I was working in agencies and other situations, there were complicated projects and there wasn’t a project manager. So I just needed to organize information for myself, and I became very good at that, but I hated it. The distinction that we draw is: you can be good at something and if you don’t like it, or if it drains you or you’re bored or you just don’t enjoy it, it’s not a strength.
Kelly: We’re trying to help people see the difference between a competency and a strength. A strength makes you go, “Yes, I killed that today.”
GL: What do you hope people take away from this book?
Kelly: I hope they take away that they have the ability to create a full career in life, the one that they truly want, that the power is already within them, and that this activates them to pursue it.
Katy: I would echo that. I would say optimism, that they have agency, they have choices. We were talking about the title of the book Up! It’s also heads up, we were talking about heads up from your phone, heads up and be conscious, be intentional, look at what’s in front of you, look at all the opportunity, and then take action.
GL: So really “Up” means not necessarily getting the bigger job, but feeling more fulfilled in your life?
Katy: Yes. It’s all the ups. If you look at the cover, it’s like, “Stand up, speak up, step up, level up, show up.”
Katy: Move up.
Kelly: It’s about self-responsibility, and the power that comes with that. We want people to level up in all the ways – Up your income, Up your happiness, Up your career, Up your awareness. Up is intentionally vague but also inspiring.
GL: Thank you so much. I hope everybody reads this book.
Visit https://tinyurl.com/Mooney-Up-Book for more information and tickets.
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Calendar of Events
by Steven Libowitz
FRIDAY, MAY 29
Particle Man – Less than a week after the UCSB Launch Pad preview production of Standing Still came to a close, UCSB’s Theatre Dept. gets even more experimental with the ninth annual Particle Collider performance. Curated by Daniel Stein, the presentation is an hour of artist-devised playlets that collide imagination, experimentation and performance in a dynamic showcase. The performance is a mélange of original short works created by student artists, offering a bold, fast-paced evening of inventive storytelling and theatrical exploration. What’s extra cool is that it takes place on the same university campus that employs a handful of physics professors and research teams who actually work on the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s most powerful particle accelerator located underground at the French-Swiss border. That should get your neurons firing on all cylinders, to truly mix some metaphors.
WHEN: 4 pm
WHERE: UCSB Studio Theater, 552 University Rd. (Building TD East 1101)
COST: free
INFO: (805) 893-2064 or www.theaterdance.ucsb.edu
SATURDAY, MAY 30
Direct Cinema Director Dishes – Gordon Quinn was just 24 years old in 1966 when he co-founded Kartemquin Films. The independent film collective focused on the emerging direct cinema movement, a major turning point in American
ENDING THIS WEEK
Shows Shuttering at Seimandi – Six contemporary artists collaborate in Shapes of Surrealism, an exhibit that posits surrealism as a living, breathing field of perception, a shifting territory rather than a fixed definition. Automatic drawing, illusionistic imagery, and imagined vegetal worlds expand into inner landscapes where reality softens, bends and blurs as the familiar quietly slips into the strange. Also coming to a close at Seimandi & Leprieur – which boasts 1,150 square feet, 13-foot ceilings, and expansive wall space – is the gallery’s collaboration with Hunt Slonem, a leading figure of American Neo-Expressionism who is renowned for his vibrant and instantly recognizable visual language. His work is held in over 250 museum collections worldwide, including the Guggenheim, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum. Centered on his iconic bunnies, birds, butterflies and tropical flora, his paintings explore rhythmic repetition, saturated color, and textured brushwork, creating immersive compositions straddling structure and movement.
WHEN: Closes June 7
WHERE: Seimandi & Leprieur, 33 W. Anapamu St.
COST: free
INFO: (805) 610-1203 or www.seimandileprieur.com
ENDING THIS WEEK
‘Jeff Goes Wide’ Winds Down – Tamsen Gallery extended by a full month the Widelux photography exhibit from longtime Santa Barbara-based actor Jeff Bridges. The actor’s beloved (and once nearly extinct) Widelux is a mechanical swing-lens panoramic still camera whose 28mm lens sweeps up to 180 degrees in a single exposure. Bridges’ eyes and the unique camera captured colleagues and crew in behind-the-scenes shots taken on his various film sets over decades with stunning results, including many large-scale prints adorning the walls at the downtown gallery. May saw a special event with the Academy Award-winner participating in a Q&A session moderated by his daughter, Jessie, but now the spectacular show is truly coming to a close. We can wholeheartedly say, don’t miss it!
WHEN: Through May 30
WHERE: Tamsen Gallery, 1309 State St. COST: free
INFO: (805) 705-2208 or https://tamsengallery.com
documentary filmmaking that eschewed the use of traditionally structured documentary devices such as written scripts, interviews, and voiceover narration in favor of the observational “fly-on-the-wall” approach. Under his stewardship, Kartemquin produced more than 45 docs, including a pair of Steve James-directed features in the Oscar-nominated Hoop Dreams, and the documentary Stevie, which landed on numerous “Best of the 2000s” lists. Quinn’s accolades include collecting a MacArthur “Genius Grant” Award in 2007. Quinn, who remains the stalwart collective’s artistic director and is actively producing new documentaries, now comes to the Carsey-Wolf Center’s Pollock Theater for a discussion of his lifelong commitment to the direct cinema movement. This event opens with a screenings of the short doc Happy Mother’s Day (1963), which centers on the family of the first surviving quintuplets born in the U.S. – the film influenced Quinn’s entering the field – followed by Quinn’s first film, Home for Life, which depicts the experiences of two elderly people in their first month at a home for the aged. UCSB Film and Media Studies faculty Naoki Yamamoto moderates the discussion. WHEN: 2 pm
WHERE: Pollock Theater, UCSB campus
COST: free (reservations recommended)
INFO: (805) 893-5903 or www.carseywolf.ucsb.edu/pollock
SATURDAYS, MAY 30 & JUNE 6
Scholarship Serenades – The Santa Barbara Music Club closes out its 2025-26 season with its traditional pair of Scholarship Showcase Concerts over two successive Saturdays, the program featuring a large percentage of the scholarship recipients. The Santa Barbara Music Club Scholarships are intended to provide aid and encouragement to music students from local schools and teaching studios, and are made possible by the generosity of SBMC’s donors. This year there were 51 applicants in all, and the concerts span the spectrum of instrumentation and selections, with winners including vocalists, pianists, string players and wind players. The brief performances offer a glimpse at the prowess and promise of the young musicians who may well be on the cusp of a professional career. The full programs should be available online closer to the concert dates.
WHEN: 3 pm May 30 & June 6
WHERE: St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, 4575 Auhay Dr. COST: free
INFO: https://sbmusicclub.org
Bringing Back the British Invasion – Yes, the Montecito-dwelling Herman’s Hermits leader Peter Noone performed at the Lobero in a rare local appearance earlier this year. But it’s highly unlikely we’ll be seeing any of the Beatles (yes, Paul played the Bowl last fall), Rolling Stones, Kinks, Zombies, Dave Clark Five doing standalone shows at the Lobero, neither their American counterparts The Monkees or Tommy James and the Shondells. Which may explain why British Beat: The Legends of ‘60s British Rock tribute show has proven such a popular draw. The live musical celebration is packed with hits by members of the British Invasion and the stateside bands they influenced. The high-energy concert looks to bring audiences back to the era that shaped popular music and ignited a cultural revolution across the globe through a nonstop onslaught of smash hits of the ‘60s, impeccably recreating the sound, style and spirit of the British Invasion with stunning authenticity. No need to take a ferry ‘cross the Mersey to get there.
WHEN: 7:30 pm
WHERE: Lobero Theatre, 33 E. Canon Perdido St.
COST: $49-$69
INFO: (805) 963-0761 or www.lobero.org
SUNDAY, MAY 31
AD&M Hits a Score – American Dance & Music, Inc., the nonprofit founded as Ballet: Up Close and Cultural before founding The Dance Hub on Victoria Street in 2017, has reached its 20-year milestone as a dance organization in Santa Barbara. AD&M’s 20th Anniversary celebration kicks off with an event at the Dance Hub with a title that reflects its history: Up Close at The Dance Hub. The event features the Dance Hub Performance Group and guest dancer Evelyn Mills performing new and recent dances by founder/artistic director Carrie Diamond with music by composer-pianist-music director Eric Valinsky; guest dancer Hilary Olivera in a new ballet solo by TDH’s Aimee Lopez, special guest Cris! Basimah with BellyDance Land, music by SB jazzman Mel McGary performed by Valinsky and vocalist Ejé Lynn-Jacobs, and a performance by the Dance Hub Youth Ballet. Seating is limited so audience members will need to reserve their spots online in advance. Refreshments will be served after each performance. WHEN: 2 & 4 pm
Adios, Adelfos – The Adelfos Ensemble winds up its 15th season under the direction of Temmo Korisheli with a program entitled “Enlightened Harmonies,” a celebration of Jewish and Hebrew-language contributions to the world’s shared choral heritage. It’s the latest adventurous choral program from the local ensemble that began in 2004 as a group of men coming together casually to sing a cappella music for fun; a spontaneous outing that evolved into a malevoice performing choir. Two years after Korisheli took over the leadership of the group from founder Dr. Michael Eglin in 2008, Adelfos added women’s voices to complete the group as it exists today. Adelfos Ensemble programs and performs a broad repertoire of music spanning more than a millennium, from ancient chant and Renaissance motets to folksong arrangements and contemporary works. Tonight’s concert will include original choral works by father-and-son Hugo and Samuel Adler, Yehudi Wyner, Daniel Cuéllar-Trujillo, Eric Whitacre, and Ernst Bloch, alongside arrangements of Ladino and Shabbat folksongs by Yehezkel Braun and Iris Levine. Performed in the spacious confines amid the soaring acoustics of Trinity Episcopal Church, the concert promises a cross-cultural musical immersion into life, reflection, and deep joy.
WHEN: 7:30 pm
WHERE: Trinity Episcopal Church, 1500 State St.
COST: $20 general admission, $15 students & seniors, free for children under 18
INFO: https://adelfosensemble.org
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3
Pay What You Can for ‘Brilliant’ – Ensemble Theatre Company launches into previews of its next production, with its traditional choose your own ticket price performance highlighting ETC’s ongoing commitment to ensuring that transformative theatrical experiences remain accessible to all Santa Barbara community members. That’s even more important for the new show, Every Brilliant Thing, the interactive, one-person play about a child creating a list of “everything brilliant in the world” to help his mother cope with depression. The list becomes a lifeline through his own trials and tribulations over the years, the work exploring themes of mental health, love, and resilience – leavened with humor and built on participation from the audience, who contribute items from their own lists. The play, which started at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, has only played in town twice previously as a special benefit for New Beginnings, with co-creator Jonny Donahoe starring. Nicholas Mongiardo-Cooper stars for ETC.
WHEN: 7:30 pm
WHERE: New Vic Theatre, 33 W. Victoria St.
COST: Choose your own INFO: (805) 965-5400 or www.etcsb.org
NOTE TO READERS
This entertainment calendar is a subjective sampling of arts and entertainment events taking place in the Santa Barbara area for the next seven days or so. It is by no means comprehensive. Please also see my feature stories elsewhere in this issue for more events. In order to be considered for inclusion in this calendar, please submit information – including hi-res photos –by 12 noon Wednesday eight days prior to publication date. Email: slibowitz@yahoo.com.
CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING (805) 565-1860
Your Trusted Choice For Estate Sales, Liquidation & Downsizing Moving Miss Daisy’s providing comprehensive services through Moving Miss Daisy since 2015. Expert packing, unpacking, relocating to ensure your new home is beautifully set up and ready to enjoy. Miss Daisy’s is the largest consignment store in the Tri-Counties - nearly 20K sq.ft.- always offering an unmatched selection of items. We also host online Auctions. Glenn Novack, Owner 805-770-7715
www.missdaisy.org info@movingmissdaisy.com
TRESOR
We Buy, Sell and Broker Important Estate Jewelry. Located in the upper village of Montecito. Graduate Gemologists with 30 years of experience. We do free evaluations and private consultation. 1470 East Valley Rd Suite V. 805-969-0888
Local tile setter of 35 years is now doing small jobs only. Services include grout cleaning and repair, caulking, sealing, replacing damaged tiles and basic plumbing needs. Call Doug Watts at 805-729-3211 for a free estimate.
SERVICES Tell Your Story
How did you get to be where you are today? What were your challenges? What is your Love Story? I can help you tell your story in an unforgettable way – with a book that will live on for many generations. The books I write are as thorough and entertaining as acclaimed biographies you’ve read. I also assist with books you write –planning, editing and publishing. David Wilk Great references. (805) 455-5980 www.BiographyDavidWilk.com
LANDSCAPE
WATERLILIES and LOTUS since 1992
WATERGARDEN CARE
SBWGC 805 682 5750
PHYSICAL TRAINING & THERAPY
Stillwell Fitness of Santa Barbara In Home Personal Training Sessions for 65+ Help with: Strength, Flexibility, Balance Motivation, and Consistency
John Stillwell, CPT, Specialist in Senior Fitness 805-705-2014 StillwellFitness.com
GOT OSTEOPOROSIS? WE CAN HELP
At OsteoStrong our proven non-drug protocol takes just ten minutes once a week to improve your bone density and aid in more energy, strength, balance and agility. Please call for a complimentary session! Call Now (805) 453-6086
AUTOMOBILES WANTED
We Buy Classic Cars Running or Not. Foreign/Domestic Chevy/Ford/Porsche/Mercedes/Etc. We come to you. Call Steven - 805-699-0684 Website - Avantiauto.group
CARPET CLEANING
Carpet Cleaning Since 1978 (805) 963-5304 Rafael Mendez Cell: 689-8397 or 963-3117
PIANO LESSONS
Openings now available for Children and Adults.
Piano Lessons in our Studio or your Home. Call or Text Kary Kramer (805) 453-3481
RENTAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT
Local, Reliable Property Management. We care for your rentals. FoothillPM.com 805-698-4769
CARE & HOUSE SITTING
Professional, dependable pet lover available for pet sitting, dog walking & house sitting. Flexible schedule, great rates & references available. Call or text: (312) 315-5035
CONSTRUCTION SERVICES
MACC CONSTRUCTION Building dreams Lic 949275 805 895 2852 Construct1.mac@gmail.com
We specialize in ADU construction Kitchen and bathroom remodeling Decks
COASTAL HOME & PET CARE
In-home Pet & Home Care
Second Home & Vacation Property Management
In-home Sitting • Walks • Visits
Discreet • Insured • Excellent Local References
coastalhomeandpetcare.com
Call/Text 805-689-8078
SB CEMETERY LOCATIONS
Two sites available at the Santa Barbara Cemetery which together can accommodate either one casket & one urn OR two urns.
Central: Block D, Number 31
Valued at $21,000
Offered at $17,000
Call (805) 455-9869 – Please text this first for quick reply
FOR RENT
MONTECITO Single Car 14’ x 20’ Garage, Uncovered Parking Spaces, & Storage
• Single Garage 14’ x 20’ - $450/mo.-1 available
• Uncovered outdoor parking spaces$225/mo for a car, boat, or trailer
• Storage 8’x12’ - $225/mo
• Storage 7’x10’ - $175/mo
Call Trider Real Estate at: (949) 306-2526
ESTATE WITH OCEAN & MOUNTAIN VIEWS
2891 Hidden Valley Ln. MONTECITO
• 4 BR with gorgeous pool and spa
• Ocean View!
• Secluded 1.27 acres
• Open floor plan with walls of glass
• Massive primary suite w/ dual commodes, jetted soaking tub with separate shower, and view deck
• $19,500
Call Trider Real Estate at: (949) 306-2526
DRE Lic. No 00530719
SB CEMETERY PLOTS FOR SALE
Rare opportunity: 3 adjoining burial plots in Central Section Block L. Each plot accommodates 1 casket and 1 urn or 2 urns (6
20+ Years Reverse Mortgage Lending Experience! All Inquiries Strictly Confidential GAYLE NAGY – NMLS 251258 805.448.9224
