Jeff Tweedy Breaks Hearts at the Granada

Although Wilco was in Santa Barbara less than a year ago at the Arlington Theatre, surrounded by the excitement and fanfare that now perpetually accompanies the iconic rock outfit, front man Jeff Twee...
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Arts & Lectures Ushers Us Into Fall

A preview of UCSB Arts & Lectures impressively wide-ranging Fall Season program. Time to shed the sunglasses and summer tan and to soak up the cultural opportunities.
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Globe Theater’s Simplified Hamlet is Refreshing

Returning to UCSB after a hit performance and critically-acclaimed (cough, by me, cough) West Coast tour of A Comedy of Errors last year, the actors of Shakespeare’s Globe Theater graced Campbell Ha...
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Opera SB’s ‘Madame Butterfly’ is a Triumph

Perhaps the most opportune time to see the biggest and brightest that the Santa Barbara social scene has to offer is at the opening night of an Opera Santa Barbara production. Last Friday, downtown St...
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Comedienne Takes SF By Storm

Maria Bamford follows in a self-deprecating vein similar to many of her comedic contemporaries. Even sitting in on an open mic at a local coffee shop (or burger joint, or abandoned church- turned-comm...
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Lebowitz Satirizes Variety of Topics at Campbell

Author, social commentator and satirist Fran Lebowitz took Campbell Hall’s stage on Friday night with a cocky shrug of her oversized blazer. Although “An Evening with Fran Lebowitz” was the seas...
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A&L’s Fall Lineup Offers Superb Entertainment

I’ll admit it: the reason I initially came to UCSB may not have been its blossoming, burgeoning bevy of arts and culture events. I was skeptical and fairly unaware of the intellectual, artistic and ...
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SF Indie Film Begins ‘Uphill’ Climb at L.A. Festival

Los Feliz 3 Cinemas in Los Angeles opened its doors to the premiere screening of San Francisco director Richard Bosner’s “Falling Uphill” on May 1. The film is as much a study of individuality a...
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The Fishtank Ensemble Bring Eclectic Sound To SOho

What was prophesized to be a “rock and roll show” actually manifested into an event much more akin to “dinner and a show” when gypsy rock outfit Fishtank Ensemble hit SOhO’s stage on Wednesd...
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‘Orpheus’ is a Dark Delight for Local Opera-goers

“It was all so dark, so wonderfully dark,” said a bejeweled older woman, no doubt a Montecito patroness of the arts, as she reached over a lavish pyramid of delicate desserts and, not so delicatel...
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Steve Martin and the Rangers Kick Some Bluegrass

“Critics often call me a Renaissance man,” a straight-faced Steve Martin said into the microphone. “But they forget to mention the thing that really makes me a Renaissance man … I carry small ...
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Surfer Blood Makes Being Weird Cool at Velvet Jones

A Thursday night at Velvet Jones in downtown Santa Barbara already has the potential to lean towards absurdity. With sinister graphic art and an unimaginably cramped dance floor (due in large part to ...
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I.V. Stand-up is on the Rise at Javan’s

“Stand-up in its worst form is distilled ignorance and bigotry. In its best form, it’s a palatable form of philosophy,” fourth-year literature major and amateur stand-up comic William Buescher s...
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‘The Artist’ is Golden Globe’s Silent Killer

Lights, camera and, most importantly, action! In a cinematic world full of subtlety, nuance, mumblecore and scathing dialogue, Michel Hazanavicius’ “The Artist” proves that the good old-fashione...
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Snow Crash Humors the End of the World Theory

If Dec. 21, 2012 does indeed signify the end of the world, I’m guessing it won’t be via any natural disaster. No, if our species (or rather, all species) are to conclude their existences within th...
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