Author: tedmills

Galaxy of dance: HHII Dance Fest promises three days of new and recent work

tedmills Leave a comment
"Sand Into Glass" is performed by Nebula Dance Lab.
“Sand Into Glass” is performed by Nebula Dance Lab.

It’s spring, the season of dance, and the fields of March are blooming with the human form in beautiful motion. We’ve had aerial dance at the Lobero, shows from Santa Barbara Dance Arts, visits from Hart Pulse and the world famous Joffrey Ballet. It’s time to finish the month with the first installment of our own homegrown dance festival, HHII.

Devyn Duex is the woman behind this three-day festival taking over the Center Stage Theater this whole weekend, and the name HHII is a sly nod to Ms. Duex’s Nebula Dance Lab company: HHII is a star-forming region in the galaxy. “And star-forming – we thought that was perfect.”

Read More

Amanda Hart’s Hart Pulse Dance Company presents an afternoon of exciting contemporary dance

tedmills Leave a comment
The dancers performing in "Spoons" are, from left, Phil Turay, Morgan Ashley, Ryan Ruiz and Lindsay Marquino. victorvicphoto.com
The dancers performing in “Spoons” are, from left, Phil Turay, Morgan Ashley, Ryan Ruiz and Lindsay Marquino.
victorvicphoto.com

Amanda Hart, director and choreographer of Hart Pulse Dance Company, comes from the small San Joaquin Valley town of Visalia. And she did not want to be a dancer. At least, not at first.

“The reason I went into dance was because I sucked at basketball,” she says, having never grown beyond 5’5″. Discouraged, her mom suggested dance at age 9. “I cried my whole first class,” she admits.

Read More

Up in the air: ‘Belline’ is the culminating work for the 2nd annual Floor to Air Festival

tedmills Leave a comment
Santa Barbara Contemporary Floor to Air Festival's "Belline" can be seen tonight only at the Lobero Theatre. Courtesy photo

Santa Barbara Contemporary Floor to Air Festival’s “Belline” can be seen tonight only at the Lobero Theatre.
Courtesy photo

How does one spot an aerialist dancer in the wild? They don’t have the feet of a ballerina, as they don’t spend a lot of time on the ground.

“You can tell by her back,” says Chicagoan now Santa Barbaran Ninette Paloma. “If she has a nice, beautiful back and broad shoulders, that is an aerialist. A slight little gait in her walk, because she always has shoulders in to protect them. And incredible forearms. Gorgeous, yes, gorgeous forearms.”

Read More

Dengue Fever returns to SOhO with a new album, their first since 2011, in tow

tedmills Leave a comment
Dengue Fever has always made Santa Barbara part of their touring itinerary and this time is no different. The band includes, from left, Zac Holtzman (guitar and vocals), Paul Smith (drums), Ethan Holtzman (keys), Chhom Nimol (vocals, front), Senon Williams (bass) and David Ralicke (horns).
Dengue Fever has always made Santa Barbara part of their touring itinerary and this time is no different. The band includes, from left, Zac Holtzman (guitar and vocals), Paul Smith (drums), Ethan Holtzman (keys), Chhom Nimol (vocals, front), Senon Williams (bass) and David Ralicke (horns).

During the course of their long career — 15 years, almost — Dengue Fever has always included Santa Barbara in its touring itinerary. Not all bands deign to stop by on their way up to San Francisco from LA, but as bassist Senon Williams says, “I feel honored that we can . . . It’s nice that we get embraced by the town.”

They come to town — tonight, at SOhO — soon after dropping their seventh album, their first since 2011’s “Cannibal Courtship” — a 10-song, 47-minute journey back down the Mekong, with the exotic vocals of Chhom Nimol leading the way. There are elements of lounge, exotica, jazz, surf guitar and funk. And there’s no attempt to make a more alt-rock sound, a diversion that marred “Cannibal Courtship.” Dengue Fever has gone back to what made “Venus on Earth” (2008) such a breakthrough record, but added plenty new influences on top.

Read More

Battling inactive memory on Macs pre 10.9

tedmills Leave a comment

activity_monitor

If you have a Mac running Lion, Mountain Lion…pretty much anything before Yosemite, memory issues are rampant. (Firefox you suck! Handbrake you are made by the devil!!)
But it’s all good, you know. By watching Activity Monitor and Console, I’ve got to learn a little more about the inner workings of my Mac and diagnose some problems.
When my computer slowed to a crawl I noticed that “Inactive memory” was a huge chunk of my memory pie. There’s four kinds: Free, Wired, Active, and Inactive. (Here’s a good tutorial on what it all means.)
Trouble is, Macs before Yosemite have sucky memory management and that Inactive Memory can take over and never become free, which is what should happen, but doesn’t.
That sent me on a Google search and I came across this wonderful post on 55 Minutes, which recommends downloading a Python script (no, not this kind of Python script), putting it in a hidden folder and dropping a launchd script into Library/LaunchAgents that runs the memory purging script whenever Inactive memory gets too big.
Works like a charm, and all I really did was Google search and use a bit of logic to figure out the directions. No l33t haxx0r me!!