Where Am I?

William B. Dewey and Patricia Hedrick

At The Easton Gallery. Shows through May 21.
If you’ve been to Easton Gallery more than once, you probably think you know what to expect there. The gallery specializes, after all, in contemporary landscape painting, mostly by local artists of local landscapes, and mostly in a Realist/Impressionist idiom. The current show, featuring William B. Dewey and Patricia Hedrick, however, isn’t quite what you have come to anticipate. Both artists play strongly off of expectations about contemporary landscape in disorienting and provocative ways.

Citizen’s Alert

Sat., Apr. 29

Parkinson Association of S.B.:Hosts a free seminar on living with Parkinson’s disease. Health professionals earn credits. 9am. Wake Center, 300 Turnpike Rd. Call 683-1326.

Blood Drive:Hosted by AssemblyÂ-member Pedro Nava and Tri-Counties Blood Blank. 10am-2pm. S.B. County Courthouse. Call 965-7037.

2nd District Elbow Toss

The four candidates vying for the 2nd District supervisor seat struggled to define their differences on slippery issues of growth control, congestion management, and maintaining the South Coast quality of life at a Monday night debate hosted by the League of Women Voters and the Citizens Planning Foundation.

Follow the Buzz

Akeelah and the Bee

Keke Palmer, Angela Bassett, and Laurence Fishburne star in a film written and directed by Doug Atchison.
Eleven-year-old Akeelah Anderson (Keke Palmer) is a student at Crenshaw Middle School in Los Angeles. When we first meet her, her teacher is handing her a graded spelling test (we can’t see the grade) and asking her how long she studied for the test. “I didn’t study,” she answered.

GREAT BALLS OF FIRE:

The truth is always in the middleat least according to the revised draft Environment Impact Report for the offshore liquid natural gas (LNG) facility proposed near Oxnard. The documentreleased by the California State Lands Commission last weekpredicted a worst-case scenario accident could result in a massive “vapor cloud of fire” that could travel as many as seven-and-one-half miles, leaving it six miles from shore.

Looking Forward by Looking Back

Jane Fonda Talks About Her Life-and Yours

Jane Fonda will be at UCSB on May 1 for a lecture based on her autobiography, My Life So Far, which has just been issued in paperback. Already a bestseller in 15 languages, Fonda’s book blends a fluid retelling of her extraordinarily eventful life with a series of progressively more challenging ideas about how we all perceive and construct our identities. I spoke with Fonda on the phone last Sunday as she stopped over in San Francisco. What came through in our talk was a mixture: a tremendous, somewhat intimidating sense of honor and responsibility that at first comes across as wariness; and a willingness to think out loud, laugh, and play in the moment that is thoroughly charming.

Top Five Reasons Dana Cooper Travels with His Tunes

Singer/songwriter Dana Cooper played the intimate setting of the Trinity Backstage concert series Saturday night, April 22, and performed a selection of songs from his 33-year recording career. The audience, 100-people strong, kept calling for more, and would have stayed all night if he kept playing. Trinity Backstage continues to bring interesting, provocative, and talented musicians to Santa Barbara monthly, so see trinitybackstage.com. For more information about Dana Cooper, see danacoopermusic.com.

EAT LEAD, CONDOR:

The State Assembly’s Water, Parks, and Wildlife Committee defeated a California Condor protection bill that would prohibit hunters from using lead bullets to kill game whose carrion condors feast on.

Good Night & Good Luck

Welcome to The Independent‘s 2006 tribute to S.B. nightlife and the annual Spring Fashion issue. We figured a marriage of these parties was anything but a stretch, if not long overdue. Inside, Shannon Kelley Gould takes an up-close-and-personal look at the deejays of Santa Barbara; Sarah Hammill searches for love on State Street and a sober first kiss; and Ethan Stewart tries to find an answer to the question, “Do you dance?” The faces and figures pictured throughout will no doubt look familiar as local photography wizard Kenji snapped some of S.B.’s more recognizable deejays, bartenders, and dancers doing their thing for our fashion spread. So relax and enjoy-after all, there is no dress code or velvet rope for this party.

Behind the Benefits

ARIA Global Blends Good Thoughts with Great Art

ARIAGlobal.gifAt a passing glance, the whole concept seems naively idealistic: a for-profit, Internet-based company dedicated to discovering then establishing hand-selected original musicians, writers, and artists while simultaneously-via online song/art/book sales and concerts-raising dough for nonprofit charities engaged in environmental and social justice work. But then you look at the educational and professional credentials of ARIA Global’s founding “mastermind” Brandi Bennitt-which include a completed novel, a master’s degree in business from Antioch, and stints at some of the more impressive marketing firms on the planet-and it’s hard to find the concept whose motto is “You Download, We Donate” anything short of brilliant.

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