News-Press – Page 32

DRINK OF THE WEEK: Outback Steakhouse’s New South Wales Red Sangria

October 24, 2013September 25, 2015 tedmills Leave a comment

Strewth! It’s about time we checked out Outback Steakhouse, the “American restaurant with the Australian Theme” as it was described to us. (Indeed, one Aussie once told us there cannot be an “Alice Springs Chicken” because “there are no chickens in Alice Springs, mate!”). But blimey, it is a very popular franchise to own for some. For Sonny Buttler, the fast-talkin’ Brooklynite who opened the place in 1997, it’s been humming right along in its Calle Real strip mall, watching neighboring stores and restaurants come and go, rise and fall.

Outback has survived. So we wanted to try something from the cocktail menu, which lists eight martinis, seven margaritas, four sangrias, two mojitos and a wallaby in a pear tree. (Okay, maybe not that last one.)

Worldwide galleries show interest in autistic Carpinteria artist

October 22, 2013September 25, 2015 tedmills Leave a comment

Kevin Hosseini, an 18-year-old Carpinteria artist, has two pieces on display at the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. COURTESY PHOTO — Kevin Hosseini, an 18-year-old Carpinteria artist, has two pieces on display at the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia.
COURTESY PHOTO

Kevin Hosseini produces four to five canvases a month, he sells rather well, and his calendar is booked with show openings both in town and as far afield as St. Petersburg, Russia.

One thing is certain about the 18-year-old Carpinteria artist: autism isn’t holding him back.

The St. Petersburg show came about when Mr. Hosseini won a competition for autistic artists put on by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. The exhibit has traveled around the world, but the Russian Museum invited him to submit a second painting.

“I felt good to have my artwork in Russia,” Mr. Hosseini said. “I felt like I’m making progress in becoming famous.”

This American Dance – NPR’S IRA GLASS RETURNS TO SANTA BARBARA — WITH TWO DANCERS IN TOW

October 18, 2013September 25, 2015 tedmills Leave a comment

Ira Glass, the host of the popular NPR show "This American Life," returns to Santa Barbara accompanied by pair of dancers on stage as he tells his stories Evan Agostini photo — Ira Glass, the host of the popular NPR show “This American Life,” returns to Santa Barbara accompanied by pair of dancers on stage as he tells his stories
Evan Agostini photo

Fans of “This American Life” know, and some of us love, host Ira Glass’ voice, soft, quick, worldly and wordy, but it’s only recently that audiences have come to know what he looks like. After thirty-some years in radio, to see the voice made flesh was strange, at first. When his popular NPR/PRI radio hour went on tour as a live, HD simulcast show a few years back, or for those who have seen him in rare, live appearances, it was interesting, but not astounding.

The bespectacled man, curly hair like his cousin, composer Philip Glass, did what he usually does: sit at a desk and cue up story after story, and provide the framing structure to lead us through it. But his spirit of adventure and of rising to a challenge — the same one, he says, that led him to start broadcasting in the first place — has found him heading a very odd evening this coming Saturday: Ira Glass will appear with two dancers who will accompany his evening of stories. It’s a “This American Life” that moves, called “One Radio Host, Two Dancers.”

DRINK OF THE WEEK: Ty Lounge’s Pink Dragon

October 13, 2013September 25, 2015 tedmills Leave a comment

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. You possibly have a pink ribbon on your lapel. Maybe you walked for charity. We here at Drink of the Week salute you and your efforts to bring attention to and one day end the scourge that has taken many of our mothers, grandmothers, sisters, lovers, wives and friends. So it was cool to hear that the Four Seasons Resort The Biltmore Santa Barbara and its Ty Lounge is offering a special cocktail this month to honor breast cancer awareness. Ten percent of proceeds goes to the Cancer Center of Santa Barbara.

So we set out to investigate. Pink drinks are a mystery to us. I mean, there’s pink lemonade as one option. Pink champagne. Maybe one could use very light cranberry juice … but pink? The answer, as Jennifer Higgins created the drink under the auspices of Four Seasons’ franchise-wide plan for October, is dragon fruit. Yes, that pink spiky football at the farmers market that you always were too scared to try is very pulpy and very pink … some would say even magenta. Mixed into a drink, it’s super pink.

A teaching moment – Defying Gravity shoots for poetry, falls to earth in DramaDogs latest

October 13, 2013September 25, 2015 tedmills Leave a comment

DramaDogs only produce one play a year — recently, anyway — and have such short lives in the theater (only three performances), that many in town might not be aware of their long existence. E. Bonnie Lewis, co-director with husband Ken Gilbert, stars elsewhere in other company’s plays, but a DramaDogs show is her fullest expression of her art and DD’s techniques. Those techniques were out on full display in their production of “Defying Gravity,” Jane Anderson’s 1997 play about the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.

Or at least that’s the springboard for a play that means to tie together our dreams of flight with concepts of faith and art. Ms. Anderson’s play is a lightly comic collage of disparate parts that intersect at humdrum moments. There’s a Christa McAuliffe stand-in, just called the “Teacher” in the play (Michelle A. Osborne) and her child (Natascha Skerczak) who narrates the play as an adult, but plays a five-year-old in the scenes with her mother. There’s a retired couple, Ed and Betty, played by Juan Rodriguez and Meredith McMinn, who are touring the country in a Winnebago and head to the Kennedy Space Center to see the launch. There’s a NASA engineer C.B. (Joe Andrieu) who spends his after hours at a local bar, flirting with the bartender Donna (Erica S. Connell), and after the Challenger explosion, drowning his sorrows and blaming himself. And there’s Claude Monet (Ken Gilbert), the Impressionist painter who died in 1926.

She Means What She Says, and It’s Mean – LISA LAMPANELLI, THE INSULT COMIC, COMES TO CHUMASH CASINO RESORT

October 11, 2013September 25, 2015 tedmills Leave a comment

Lisa Lampanelli had to rethink her comedy act after losing over 100 pounds Andrew Coppa photo — Lisa Lampanelli had to rethink her comedy act after losing over 100 pounds
Andrew Coppa photo

Here’s the open secret about the “Queen of Mean,” comedian Lisa Lampanelli: she’s a sweet person, really. Although her stand-up career has been filled with more swearwords than an entire seaboard of dockworkers, more vitriol and insults than a traffic jam filled with cab drivers, she’s accommodating and friendly in interview. (However, when this writer made a mistake with one question, she let me have it.) As her fans will tell you, it’s a delight to be insulted. They’ll get that chance this Thursday when she comes to the Chumash Casino Resort for an evening of no-holds-barred comedy that is not for the sensitive.

The biggest change in Ms. Lampanelli’s recent stand-up routine is not the subject matter, but her waistline. Without sounding too much like a Cosmopolitan article, Ms. Lampanelli lost just over 100 pounds through gastric stapling surgery in April 2012, with her husband, Jimmy Cannizzaro, following suit in June.

Father to the Man – MICHAEL APTED’S ‘7UP’ SERIES REACHES ITS 56TH YEAR IN NEW DOC

October 4, 2013September 25, 2015 tedmills Leave a comment

Michael Apted has been following the subjects of his documentary since 1963. Seth Wenig photo — Michael Apted has been following the subjects of his documentary since 1963.
Seth Wenig photo

Michael Apted’s “56 Up” is the latest in a series of documentaries shot for British television that initially set out to talk about class differences in a radically changing, early ’60s Britain. Taking a group of schoolchildren at seven years old — some rich, some poor, some in-between — he interviewed them about their dreams, ideals, and hopes. Since that first film — grainy, black and white, very much post-war Britain — Mr. Apted has returned to the same group every seven years for a follow-up doc, named after their age: “21 Up”, “35 Up” etc. In between these films, Mr. Apted has made a career as a director of Hollywood films both pop corny — “The World Is Not Enough” — and award worthy — “Gorillas in the Mist” and “Nell.” But the “7Up” series will be his lasting monument.

At 72, he’s still checking in with the group, and “56 Up” — which screens at Campbell Hall this Monday and features Q&A with Mr. Apted — finds the cast mostly enjoying their middle years. It’s not as gloomy as one would think.

DRINK OF THE WEEK: The Pickle Room’s The Pickle-Tini

October 3, 2013September 30, 2015 tedmills Leave a comment

Things change. Nothing stays the same. The poet Shelley said so thusly: “Man’s yesterday may ne’er be like his morrow; / Nought may endure but Mutability.” And we’re OK with that.

Yet sometimes miracles happen. We’re talking about the reopening of Jimmy’s Oriental Gardens after seven years or so of waiting.

Yes, the place has a new name: The Pickle Room. But, hey, owner Bob Lovejoy, proprietor of next door’s Three Pickles deli, has been nursing this dream to reopen his favorite watering hole since former Jimmy’s owner and longtime friend Tommy Chung closed the establishment.

Music for the masses – Depeche Mode does not disappoint in Bowl show

September 29, 2013September 30, 2015 tedmills Leave a comment

Depeche Mode packed the Santa Barbara Bowl Tuesday night. THOMAS KELSEY/NEWS-PRESS — Depeche Mode packed the Santa Barbara Bowl Tuesday night.
THOMAS KELSEY/NEWS-PRESS

For a band whose reputation rests on the darker side of human nature, the biggest surprise at Depeche Mode’s packed show at the Santa Barbara Bowl on Tuesday night was just how happy the band was on stage.

Smiles abounded. High-fives were given. There was laughter between musicians. And Dave Gahan loves to dance.

But, hey, the band members should be happy. Depeche Mode has lasted longer than most of its contemporaries without really altering its sound, never leaving that operatic, industrial electronica that fans know since the early ’80s.

DRINK OF THE WEEK: Cadiz’s Andalucian

September 29, 2013October 2, 2015 tedmills Leave a comment

Balsamic vinegar. That’s just for dipping, right? Or fancy desserts? Caprese salad, certainly. Despite its mix of sweet and tart, it’s not the ingredient one associates with cocktails. But as we found out the other night, vinegar is slowly making its way back onto the menu of many mixologists, who are starting to figure out the versatility of this ingredient.

That’s a long introduction for one of our Drink of the Week friends, Sean Sepulveda, who wants everybody to know that Cadiz is now open on Monday evenings, and doing quite well, thank you very much. This section of State Street (Cota to Haley) is bustling even on this slowest of days.