The Idiot’s Guide to Local Culture

August 26, 2009 by

Any dummy can figure out how to navigate Isla Vista's ridiculous party scene, but if you're looking to make the most of your four (or five) years in this crazy little beachside community without compl...
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Dazed and Confused in the Desert

April 23, 2009 by , and

By the time Crystal Castles' set in the Sahara tent ended early Friday evening, my muscles were sore, my skin was covered in other people's sweat and one of the lenses from my prescription glasse...
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A Little Spring In Your Step

April 2, 2009 by

Artsweek compiles some of the season's choice entertainment for your convenience.
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The Curious Case of David Fincher

February 5, 2009 by

"You kind of wonder if I should [have] been in therapy more regularly," director David Fincher cracked to an appreciative audience Friday night at the Arlington Theatre after seeing a couple clips fro...
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Art Imitates Life ****

November 20, 2008 by

Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman's characters have always been insanely neurotic and self-obsessed, but his directorial debut, "Synecdoche, New York," takes the unrelenting self-examination to new heights...
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The Boner Killers

October 30, 2008 by , , and

More likely than not, your first sex ed lesson didn't come from mommy and daddy or from your wrinkly fourth-grade teacher. Your parents sat you down in front of the boob tube and popped in a VHS while...
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Back To Basics ***

October 30, 2008 by

Given the fact that it's been nearly a decade since alt-country troubadour Ryan Adams released the Gram Parsons-esque Heartbreaker, it seems somewhat strange that that album remains the impossibly hig...
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Jolie Holland, Live at SOhO

October 16, 2008 by

"Give me that old fashioned morphine / It's good enough for me / It was good enough for Billy Burroughs / It's good enough for me," the Texan-born singer warbled with her beautiful, distinctive drawl ...
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Blast From the Past

October 16, 2008 by

Those attending Max Raabe's concert at downtown SB's Marjorie Luke Theater tomorrow evening may feel like they've stepped into a time warp upon initially viewing the singer and his Palast Orchester. D...
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Surfing the Channel

September 18, 2008 by

To paraphrase TV lawyer Alan Shore of "Boston Legal," the best work on television today is being done on cable.
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Arts in the Autumn

September 18, 2008 by

A sea of students canvassed a packed Harder Stadium one pleasantly breezy evening in late August, singing along to the summery songs of UCSB alumnus Jack Johnson's catalogue as the sun sank behind the...
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Monopolizing Your Free Time

August 30, 2008 by

After a couple of fun, but little-remembered, Friday nights spent hovering over the beer pong tables (and, on the flipside, some Saturday mornings hovering over the communal dorm toilet bowls), you mi...
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Lost Film Fest Lands at Storke Tower Bearing Radical Message

June 5, 2008 by

Are you mind-controlled? That's the question that Lost Film Fest video-jockey Scott Beibin wants an answer to, at least according to the advertisements for the unique, world-traveling, decidedly liber...
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Extravaganza 2008

May 22, 2008 by and

A thick cloud of smoke hung over Harder Stadium's infield, where a crowd of students, community members and out-of-towners gathered for UCSB's 10th annual Extravaganza music festival.
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The Lineup

May 22, 2008 by

SCREENING Head to I.V. Theater tonight at 7 to see the SoCal premiere of “Sleeping Nights Awake,” a documentary film about one of the best bands EVER (subjectively speaking, of course), So...
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