Penny for Your Artistic Vision? — The Amazing Animated Jukebox’ returns for CAF’s January First Thursday

Rapper Azeem and Director Ben Stokes video for "Latin Revenge," above, and Russian rock band Lyapis Trubetskoy's video for "Capital," below, have made the cut for "The Amazing Animated Jukebox, Vol. 2."
Rapper Azeem and Director Ben Stokes video for “Latin Revenge,” above, and Russian rock band Lyapis Trubetskoy’s video for “Capital,” below, have made the cut for “The Amazing Animated Jukebox, Vol. 2.”
Ever since MTV devoted an entire network to airing music videos and record companies saw the potential for an all-encompassing marketing tool, visual imagery has become synonymous with music. While a bevy of musicians have embraced the medium to either make a fashion statement or sculpt an image, their more creative counterparts have effectively employed music videos as a means to an alternative creative perspective. When local filmmaker and writer Ted Mills presents a second installment of animated music videos at Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum next Thursday with “The Amazing Animated Jukebox Vol. 2,” it is to the latter that the curator will be paying specific homage.

“These are videos for musicians who don’t need to be the star of the video,” explained Mills. “You will see that, over the years, Radiohead appear in their videos less and less. When they first started out, they were your typical band and were in the videos. These days, if you see Thom Yorke you’re lucky. These tend to be artists that aren’t interested in themselves as rock or pop stars.”

Read More

Holdren’s Key Lime Pie Martini

Nik Blaskovich / News-Press Photo
Nik Blaskovich / News-Press Photo
Bartender John Randolph moved to Goleta’s Holdren’s branch after years of serving at the Chase Bar and Grill downtown. Could that explain the garlands and festive fairy lights hanging from the dark wood beams and corners of this steak restaurant? Or is it just the time of the season . . . the time to explore some cocktails?

With its long bar, the Good Land Holdren’s shares many cocktails with its downtown location, but we make sure to hold off on all those drinks and focus on the newest of the new, the differentest of the different. Sequestered away in the cozy environment of the bar, where one can’t see the box maulings outside, we watch Randolph whip up some fancy drinks.

Read More