ON Culture | A Plethora of Pianos and a Parliament of Owls Come to Town

This edition of ON Culture was originally emailed to subscribers on October 7, 2022. To receive Leslie Dinaberg’s arts newsletter in your inbox on Fridays, sign up at independent.com/newsletters.

ON the Street

Pianos on State are once again bringing art and music together as part of this wonderful Downtown collaboration. I was lucky enough to get a preview of the pianos at the CAW earlier this week, before they made their way to State Street. Check out my video here.

ON the Stage

There’s lots of great music coming our way this month, which started off with Charley Crockett at the Arlington for the season opener of UCSB Arts & Lectures. As Josef Woodard writes, it was a “smart and hip booking for the organization.”  On the classical side, CAMA launches its season on Monday, October 10, with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. We’ve also got Jakob Dylan and the Wallflowers at the Lobero on October 7, Rüfüs Du Sol at the Bowl on October 8, and Carmina Burana presented by the Santa Barbara Symphony in collaboration with State Street Ballet and The Granada Theatre, October 15-16.

ON the (Big) Screen

Mark your calendars to spend Valentine’s Day this year with Brendan Fraser. He’ll be honored with the American Riviera Award on that day at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Starring in everything from smart independent films to action-packed blockbusters, Fraser’s latest role is in Darren Aronofsky’s upcoming feature The Whale, the story of a reclusive English teacher living with severe obesity who attempts to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter for one last chance at redemption.

ON the (Small) Screen

Chumash Community Member Karissa Valencia’s animated fantasy-adventure preschool series, Spirit Rangers, premieres on Netflix on Indigenous Peoples’ Day, October 10. Valencia’s show follows Native American siblings and junior park rangers Kodi, Summer, and Eddy Skycedar, and they have a secret: They’re spirit rangers, which means they can transform into their own super-powered spirit — a grizzly bear cub, a red-tailed hawk, and a spunky turtle — to help protect the national park they call home. Valencia, who split her time growing up on the Santa Ynez Reservation and in San Diego, spent a year writing the pilot script for the show and collaborated with the tribe’s Culture Department for inspiration and accuracy.

ON the Scene

Cheers to the ladies who lunch! The Women’s Auxiliary of the Music Academy — a 125-member philanthropic and social group that has worked tirelessly to support the work of the Music Academy since its founding in 1954 — is now offering men a seat at the table and has renamed itself Aux for All! They already have their first new members: President and CEO Scott Reed, Paul Longanbach, and Mark Osiel. But all are welcome to join this vibrant group, which has raised millions of dollars to support the Academy’s mission. In the past 18 months, 58 new members have joined this intergenerational group. For more information about becoming number 59, visit musicacademy.org/volunteer/auxiliary.

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ON the Walls

A parliament of owls comes to roost at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History this week, tracing 300 years of the history of illustration of the owl family. Prominent members of the avian family, owls have been thought to possess wisdom, a sense of mystery, and solitude. Their striking features lend themselves to a variety of interpretations. The prints on exhibit represent 300 years of illustration of owls by important French, English, German, Dutch, Italian, and American artists.

My Pet Ram Gallery, located in the old surf museum at 16 Helena Avenue, is currently showing Matt Haywood’s Palm Arcade, an interesting show where the artist uses the palm motif to explore color, space, tactility, and time. The exhibit is on view through October 17, and the gallery is open Thursday through Sunday from noon-7 p.m. and by appointment.

ON the Air

Girls Rock continues to rock, with this week’s release of new single, “Attention Whore” by HVN from their Syryn Records label, a youth-run record label owned and operated by Girls Rock Santa Barbara, the local nonprofit seeking to empower young women and girls through musical education. Syryn Records only releases music created by young women and gender-expansive folks ages 15-25. The label’s newest compilation album will be released in November and will include the work of eight to 13 of the label’s artists.

ON the Podium

David Gergen’s much-anticipated lecture on Tuesday should be a good one. The former White House adviser to four U.S. presidents, CNN analyst, and founder of the Harvard Center for Public Leadership, Gergen draws from his experiences as a trusted voice on national issues to uncover the fundamental elements of effective leadership. Gergen traces the journeys of iconic leaders past and present, including pathbreakers like Ruth Bader Ginsburg, John Lewis, John McCain, and Harvey Milk; historic icons like Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, Winston Churchill, and Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt; and contemporary game-changers like Greta Thunberg, the Parkland students, and the Black Lives Matter movement.

ON the Calendar

The Play That Goes Wrong, presented by the Theatre Group at Santa Barbara City College October 12-29 is sure to be a hoot. A 1920s whodunit, the action takes place on the opening night of the Cornley University Drama Society’s newest production, The Murder at Haversham Manor, where things are quickly going from bad to utterly disastrous. 

For a complete calendar of events this week and beyond, visit independent.com/events.

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