For someone whose artistic output consists of pin-up photography, 16mm reels of stripteases, and little else, the impact of Bettie Page eclipses that of another 20th century female icon, Marilyn Monroe. Ask yourself this: when’s the last time you saw a Monroe look-alike walking down the street? But for a Bettie Page clone? One served me coffee yesterday, albeit with an arm full of tattoos.
In “Bettie Page Reveals All,” a muddled, but fun documentary, one can see how this model attracted legions of fans across several generations. Her personality jumps out of every photo taken of her, from swimsuits and nudes to her staged bondage photos, either as dominatrix or submissive. She’s having fun, a rare blend of naughty and nice.
Anne Guynn will read “Corrie.” Brad Spaulding photos
In October, the Canadian short-story writer, Alice Munro, now 82-years old, won the Nobel Prize for Literature, becoming the 13th woman to do so. Speaking of Stories, Santa Barbara’s well-loved evening of stage-read shorts, decided to honor the author with an evening celebrating her 13th and most probably last story collection, “Dear Life,” as Ms. Munro has announced plans to retire. The two performances at Center Stage Theater this Sunday afternoon and Monday evening consist of three stories taken from Ms. Munro’s latest, read by three of SoS’ regulars.
Alice Munro’s work has appeared frequently throughout Speaking of Stories’ history. Executive Director Maggie Mixsell put on her story, “The Bear Goes over the Mountain,” — a tale about Alzheimer’s — after it had been made into the movie, “Away from Her,” for a film-tie-in-based evening. Ms. Munro is better known to the reading crowd, however, not the film crowd, as not many of her stories have been adapted for screen.
Eighty years ago today, the 21st amendment to the Constitution ended 13 years of Prohibition and, as the song goes, happy days were here again. Several years ago, Jeffrey Morganthaler, the influential Portland mixologist, suggested in a blog post that we should all raise a glass on Dec. 5 to properly toast the reason we can drink in public without fear of jail time.
And I’m doing just that as one half of the team putting on Repeal Day Santa Barbara for the third year in a row. We took Mr. Morganthaler’s idea and started a little bar tour that this year has expanded to eight of downtown’s favorite drinking establishments. The fun begins at 5 p.m. today at participating bars including Roy, Marquee, Milk & Honey, Cielito, Cadiz, Pickle Room, Blue Agave and Wildcat Lounge. Each bar will offer specialty cocktails and more. Dressing up in Roaring ’20s attire is encouraged. For more details, go to http://repealdaysb.com.
Well wishers left tokens of support to the family of actor Paul Walker at his home on Monday morning. STEVE MALONE / NEWS-PRESS
While remembrances were coming in from movie fans and fellow actors over actor Paul Walker’s death this weekend, Santa Barbara social media showed that his adopted home was especially hard hit.
A long-time Mesa resident, Mr. Walker was known in the area as being a down-to-earth guy – albeit an increasingly recognizable one.
A pool and a splash zone for an upcoming Ensemble Theatre show? Who would have thought? But in the beautiful new space for one of Santa Barbara’s oldest theater companies, anything is possible. Called The New Vic, the $11.5 million remodel of the building on the corner of Victoria and Chapala Streets opened this month, a mixture of state-of-the-art theater construction and a devotion to preserving this former church and its 92-year-old original structure. To find out the tools they’ve use to construct such a beauty, you could check here.
When the mayor cut the ribbon at the opening several Fridays ago, it celebrated the end of a construction process that had its high and low points, as well as a new chapter in Santa Barbara’s performing arts district. Mayor Helene Schneider called it the “jewel in the crown” and with its refurbished, stained glass windows glowing during a performance, the comparison is apt.
Curator Brad Nack has brought three artists, mostly locals from the region, for a show at MichaelKate Interiors that doesn’t even try to match the crazed intensity of its Halloween/October exhibit. Instead, this show, titled “Perfect Day” as a nod to the recently passed Lou Reed, acts as a sort of palate cleanser. We have the bold graphics of James Paul Lambert, the brutal abstracts of Liv Zutphen and the landscapes of Julie Young to contend with. Do the three have anything really to do with each other? Not really, apart from the abstract, but their jarring proximity is a breather, a chance to regroup. All three are worth checking out.
Julie Young’s landscapes break geography into geometric shapes and explode them onto her canvases in her colorful oil paintings. There’s a Chagall and Miro-like dance in such works like “Summerland Beach,” where the sand can barely be seen through the blue and green shapes (swimmers? umbrellas?), or “Paradise Road” with its green curlicues and odd stripes. Elsewhere in sketchier and centered “Hendry’s Beach” or “150 Lookout,” one can see the paragliders off the cliffs, for example, but it’s still like a half-remembered dream. For those not versed in the look of Santa Barbara, it may not just look abstract. Call it a hidden message to the locals.
The story of a pleasant Thanksgiving is still clouded by a particularly grumpy one spent absolutely shattered, on a couch in the living room, surrounded by family having fun, as the world’s worst head cold ran riot around the noggin. But we’ve all been there, right? A warm drink, something preferably with whiskey, is just what the infirm need in this season. But also, it’s a perfect finish to a meal that might just be sending you into a food coma.
So we here at Drink of the Week would like to provide a public service this holiday (and sickness) season, and find a cocktail that solves all our problems.
From left. Kid Koala, Del tha Funky Homosapien and Dan the Automator Michael Donovan photo
In the film world, science fiction sequels come pretty regularly, and a hit always spawns a follow-up. But in the hip-hop world, sci-fi is still an anomaly, and despite having a cult hit with their self-titled debut album, Deltron 3030 has been promising a follow-up to their futuristic concept album for years. At long last, “Event 2” dropped two months ago and the trio has gone on the road to promote it, touring with two different backing bands, depending on the venue, one a rock combo, the other an orchestral unit. The former comes to the Majestic Ventura Theater this Wednesday.
Individually, the members have their own careers. Lead rapper Del tha Funky Homosapien (Teren Delvon Jones) was a founding member of Oakland’s Hieroglyphics; Dan the Automator (Dan Nakamura) rose to fame producing Kool Keith and soon became know for his odd, humorous use of samples, and being a worthwhile collaborator with Prince Paul, DJ Shadow, and Gorillaz (where Del became the voice on several hit singles); and turntablist Kid Koala (Eric San) who became a fixture of Ninja Tune records for his use of non-traditional samples, and who has also teamed up with Dan as the smooth group Lovage. So these guys are busy. But as early as 2004, Kid Koala mentioned new material was being worked on for Deltron 3030’s follow-up. This continued for so many years it almost became a running joke among hip-hop fans. So, why’d it take so long?
Climbing Trango Towers on the north side of the Baltoro Glacier in Baltistan, a district of the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan, in the film ‘A New Perspective Corey Rich photo
Every year the Telluride Mountainfilm Festival receives 500 submissions from all over the world, and Emily Long gets to whittle them down not just for the Fest, but working with UCSB’s Roman Baratiak, she’s reduced them to 14 gems for this touring production. The Mountainfilm in Telluride Tour comes to UCSB’s Campbell Hall this Wednesday, bringing a selection of shorts that, as the Fest’s slogan goes, “Celebrate the indomitable spirit.”
Some of that may mean the kind of crazy, death-defying adventure found in the opening film, “Cascada,” from Skip Armstrong and Anson Fogel, where kayakers head to the Mexican jungle and brave the elements and plunging waterfalls. Some include cute, animated films like “The Squeakiest Roar” by Maggie Rogers about a tiny lion cub learning to be just like mommy and daddy. (Yes, the evening is family friendly.)
Jeremy Irvine (Pip) and Holliday Granger (Estella) star in the new adaptation ofCharles Dickens'”Great Exppectations Main Street photo
Mike Newell is one of those journeyman directors who has been steadily working since the ’60s, who rose through the ranks of British television, directing soaps and play-for-todays, until he hit his stride with “Donnie Brasco,” “Four Weddings and a Funeral,” and the fourth Harry Potter movie. He’s not somebody whose name readily comes up when discussing film art, but I bet he paid off his mortgage ages ago. And now he steps up with a pretty faithful but truncated adaptation of Charles Dickens’ “Great Expectations.”
The expectations, pardon the pun, on Mr. Newell however are whether he can shrug off the shadow of David Lean’s classic version of the tale of Pip. Yes, the ages of the actors are much better than a late-30s John Mills pretending to be a young man in his 20s, but Mr. Lean’s film has art and economy on its side. And another Harry Potter director, Alfonso Cuarun, tried to modernize the story in 1998 with Ethan Hawke and Gwyneth Paltrow with mixed results.
