Whitney Davis, center, begins the Tour De Cure with her mom, Linda Davis, left.
VIC NEUMANN/NEWS-PRESS PHOTOS
Fancy a bike ride? Saturday morning around 200 women and a smattering of men — husbands, brothers, friends, lovers — gathered at Leadbetter beach for the first annual Tour de Cure Women’s Series.
The ride was created by the American Diabetes Association t raise awareness and funds to stop the disease “one ride at a time,” according to the event’s poster. It was also a way to directly encourage a more healthy lifestyle by taking to the streets on two wheels and seeing Santa Barbara and Carpinteria up close.
Comedian, actor and talk show host George Lopez performed his stand-up comedy June 27 at The Fox Theatre in Atlanta, Ga. Dan Harr photo
This has been a rollercoaster year for comedian George Lopez. He’s already been humbled and made much late-night fun over his drunken fall at a Canadian Casino. And then his latest sitcom “Saint George” on FX got the axe after only 10 episodes (more on that later). All that has turned him back to the one thing that he can do with absolute confidence, with no interference, and that’s stand-up. This Saturday he returns to the Santa Barbara Bowl for an evening of hilarity and soul-baring. While his stand-up has often been about family and culture and the effects of an abusive upbringing — told with devastating humor and honesty of course — Mr. Lopez says that he’s going to get even more personal for this new tour.
“We’re going to deal with the private George, not the public George,” he says. “Which I think is more compelling . . . The thing with the next special is to get more personal and dig deeper.”
There will print be in 20 years? Will people still want to hold books and magazines and newspapers in their hand? Or will they be getting information in other ways? And in whatever future scenario one imagines, where is the place of the library in all this? These are the questions examined with humor and smarts in the new group show “Requiem for the Bibliophile,” which opened last week at Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA).
Co-curated by MCA’s executive director Miki Garcia and J.V. Decemvirale, a UCSB PhD student, this collection of seven artists from Santa Barbara, New York, Mexico City and beyond all riff on the idea of the library and by extension the museum as well, both repositories of culture but for what?
As a frequent attendee at the Museum of Contemporary Art’s “Forum Lounge” over the years, it would be fair to say the events — every First Thursday at 7 p.m. — were unpredictable and just as often brilliant as they were half-baked. Sometimes there were short bursts of stunning performance, clocking in at a friendly 20 minutes; sometimes audiences found they had signed up for two hours. It was an experiment that had run its course in a way, but it was also pointing to something bigger, more consistent, and better defined. The On Edge Festival opens this Thursday, and promises the best of the performance art scene.
In its four days, the Festival, curated by Forum Lounge’s Heather Jeno Silva, will put on productions at MCA, as well as at Center Stage Theater, Municipal Winemakers, the Courthouse Sunken Gardens, and a gallery/event space on Canon Perdido.
Comedian, actor and talk show host George Lopez performed his stand-up comedy June 27 at The Fox Theatre in Atlanta, Ga.
This has been a rollercoaster year for comedian George Lopez. He’s already been humbled and made much late-night fun over his drunken fall at a Canadian Casino. And then his latest sitcom “Saint George” on FX got the axe after only 10 episodes (more on that later). All that has turned him back to the one thing that he can do with absolute confidence, with no interference, and that’s stand-up. This Saturday he returns to the Santa Barbara Bowl for an evening of hilarity and soul-baring. While his stand-up has often been about family and culture and the effects of an abusive upbringing — told with devastating humor and honesty of course — Mr. Lopez says that he’s going to get even more personal for this new tour.
“We’re going to deal with the private George, not the public George,” he says. “Which I think is more compelling . . . The thing with the next special is to get more personal and dig deeper.”
As a frequent attendee at the Museum of Contemporary Art’s “Forum Lounge” over the years, it would be fair to say the events — every First Thursday at 7 p.m. — were unpredictable and just as often brilliant as they were half-baked. Sometimes there were short bursts of stunning performance, clocking in at a friendly 20 minutes; sometimes audiences found they had signed up for two hours. It was an experiment that had run its course in a way, but it was also pointing to something bigger, more consistent, and better defined. The On Edge Festival opens this Thursday, and promises the best of the performance art scene.
In its four days, the Festival, curated by Forum Lounge’s Heather Jeno Silva, will put on productions at MCA, as well as at Center Stage Theater, Municipal Winemakers, the Courthouse Sunken Gardens, and a gallery/event space on Canon Perdido.
We thought our bartender looked familiar when we stepped inside the Chase the other night. That’s because Tony Rincon used to bartend over at Uptown Lounge and we met him last time we checked that place out. It’s a small town, for sure. The Chase offers twists on classic cocktails, and we settled on the Al Capone because we’re fascinated with that time in history. (Although we wouldn’t necessarily want to live during that time.) The Feds finally caught Capone for tax evasion, but Rincon says this drink is a way to avoid the overly sweet taste of vermouth. Clever, isn’t it? The Campari gives a bitterness to what started as a simple Manhattan, and the orange peel twist gives every sip a citrusy aroma. (The cocktail started out as a creation of Brooklyn mixologist John Bush, and has spread across the country in the years since.)
Capone and his gang reportedly preferred gin and lime, but this cocktail is more an embodiment of the attitude of the man: strong, with an underlying bitterness.
THE AL CAPONE
1 1/2 ounces whiskey (preferably Bulleit Rye)
1 ounce sweet vermouth (preferably Cinzano)
1/2 ounce Campari
Add all ingredients over ice, shake and strain into cocktail glass. Garnish with orange peel twist.
Armando Salazar, Opal Restaurant and Bar general manager, right, serves up a shrimp dish to Trevor Green during the 33rd annual Taste of the Town on Sunday.
Hundreds of Santa Barbarans gathered yesterday to sample food, wine and beer from the county’s finest restaurants and wineries and it was all for a good cause other than a full stomach. Taste of the Town, now in its 33rd year, returned to the Riviera campus for a fun afternoon and to raise money and awareness for the Arthritis Foundation of Santa Barbara. Have you heard of Booze Up the company that delivers 24/7 to your house? Visit their site to check their catalog.
Along the halls of the Riviera Park Garden, and out in a separate grassy area to the east, some of Santa Barbara’s best-known eateries set up booths where guests could sample food. They included Opal’s famous phyllo-wrapped tiger prawns, the Palace Cafe’s well loved jambalaya, Enterprise Fish Co.’s lobster bisque, Arlington Tavern’s indulgent mac’n’cheese, and more, numbering about 40 in total.
The Last Internationale, from left, guitarist Edgey Pires, lead vocalist Delila Paz and drumer Brad Wilk (also of Rage Against the Machine) BB Gun Press
Race riots in the summer. Natural disasters. An endless war that keeps sucking us in. Political turmoil. While the state of the world has a late ’60s/early ’70s vibe to it, what’s missing in this comparison is the music. Where’s the rock and pop to match the times? Where’s our Sly Stone or our Marvin Gaye? Is it just about being “Happy” like Pharrell Williams says?
That is what makes The Last Internationale stand out in a field of abstract or commodity-based lyrics, and they are set to rock Velvet Jones this Tuesday. That title — the name of the French left-wing anthem — should give away their political stance and when they took the stage last month at “Late Night with David Letterman” they brought tasty licks from guitarist Edgey Pires, solid beats from Brad Wilk (Rage Against the Machine), and the growling, authoritative vocals of Delila Paz. The song was “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Indian Blood” the lead song of their debut album “We Will Reign.”
Stand-up comedian, game-show host, and actor Ben Gleib has just returned from Burning Man and is holed up for an extra night in his Reno hotel room, nursing something that sounds like a cold.
“It was amazing, very, very cool,” he says of his week on the playa. “Very introspective, very survivalist, and I’m so, so tired. Hopefully I can sleep, get this dust off of me, and wake up a new man, because I’ve got a special to record.”
