Stone Cold Pimpin'

April 27, 2008 8:37 AM

THE ENCHANTRESS OF FLORENCE
Fiction
Salman Rushdie
Random House, $26

Vladislav III, aka Vlad the Impaler, the real Romanian voivode who became the inspiration for Count Dracula, met his end sometime around 1476. Some say he died on the battlefield against the Turks, some have him assassinated by his own men. But the most fantastic and Gothic demise for Vlad has him decapitated and his head sent back to the Sultan in Istanbul, preserved in a jar of honey.
The honey jar episode makes its way into one page of Salman Rushdie's new novel, "The Enchantress of Florence," with Vlad just a footnote. But it's emblematic of this sprawling, fantastic work, the culmination of 10 years of research by the author.
Set during the Renaissance and taking in both its title location and the Mughal Empire (roughly present day India and lands to the north), "The Enchantress of Florence" spins a tale of imaginary and real women, of barbarism and civilization, and of storytelling itself. If it feels like an encyclopedia of knowledge crammed into its 350 pages, don't worry -- Mr. Rushdie includes an extensive bibliography at the end. For those who find his blend of fairy tale, history, and the so-fantastic-it-probably-actually-happened too overwhelming to sift through, there's always, ahem, Google.
But what of the story, which proceeds less like a straight line and more a series of concentric loops with a zigzag through them? A mysterious traveler from the West arrives at the palace of Akbar the Great bearing a letter from Queen Elizabeth I, but, more importantly, a story that only the Emperor can hear. Akbar, as we have been shown, would rather behead a man than listen to anything a know-it-all foreigner could say, but a wave of enlightenment and a surging feeling of self-doubt have taken a recent hold of him. The man from Florence claims lineage from the complicated family tree of the Mughal Empire and now reaches back to spin a yarn to prove -- and also save -- himself.
From the start, Mr. Rushdie lets us in on the probable fiction of this man's tale. But as we are already within a novel that is sewn together from both history and imagination, and where the Emperor's top wife is a woman that has been created out of the imagination (much to the consternation of his other hundred wives), the waters, while golden around the Emperor's palace in Fatehpur Sikri, have a considerable muddiness to them.
The storyteller goes by the name of Mogor Dell'Amore ("the Mughal of Love") but that is not his real or his only name. But as readers follow Mr. Rushdie into the story, they will find that names, like identities, have a way of changing to suit the situation. Everything becomes fluid in "The Enchantress of Florence," as every character seems to have several names -- the main criticism to levy against the book is its potential for confusion for the reader who cannot make it through large chunks of the novel in one sitting. Niccol0x98 Machiavelli takes a starring role, as do the brothers of a certain Amerigo Vespucci (who disappears from the novel in order to have a continent named after him). Literary allusions pop up among the historical ones, and the Three -- no, strike that, four -- Musketeers turn up in the second half as well.
Mr. Rushdie writes with enjoyable aplomb, spinning on the fantastic and flowery to drop in a street-level bit of realism and humor to mix things up a bit. "The Enchantress of Florence" feels like an old children's book written for adults, a reminder that the image of far-off lands or of perfect lovers can possess us at any age, and that imagination can change history in the weirdest of ways.

Salman Rushdie will discuss his work with author Pico Iyer at 4 p.m. May 4 at UCSB Campbell Hall as part of UCSB Arts & Lectures. Tickets are $25 general, $15 UCSB students. For tickets, call 893-3535 or go to www.artsandlectures.ucsb.edu.

©2008 Santa Barbara News-Press

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NIK BLASCOVICH PHOTO
Ted Mills
April 25, 2008 11:41 AM

Way back in the mists of political time, The Nugget in Summerland received a visit from Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton and entourage, which put this wood-paneled restaurant on the local news for a while. T-shirts were sold, as were burgers. Bill may never have returned, but faithful locals have, for years and years, since the restaurant opened its doors in 1960.
Our mixologist entourage may not have a Secret Service detail, but we did enjoy the attention of bartender Wendy Sanders when we dropped in to sample the full bar section of The Nugget. The Clinton burger may have come and gone, but The Nugget's Bloody Caesar remains on the menu. It's a brunch favorite (and some say hangover cure) that fans swear by, substituting the garden variety tomato juice with Clamato, and -- here's the odd bit of trivia -- remains a popular cocktail in Canada.
The Nugget's secret is the marinated vodka used in the drink -- a week of infusing red, green, and jalapeño peppers in the alcohol produces a spicy base. Along with the usual Worcestershire Sauce and Tabasco, Sanders adds balsamic vinegar to the mix. Celery salt lines the rim and a marinated green bean joins the celery stalk. It was not as spicy as one might think, but the pepper taste remained long in the mouth.
The Nugget also has a tradition of serving up martinis in pint glasses and letting the customer use the Hawthorn strainer themselves to pour into the traditional Martini glass. This way, the customer gets two strong drinks for the price of one (and probably winds up drinking them faster too). Sanders, who has been serving since last October, made us one from Chopin vodka, with both an onion and an olive for garnish. Very strong, it was.
In the same vein, Sanders introduced us to the drink that she had been working on for a week, the Parasol. Like its cousins the Sea Breeze and Bay Breeze, the Parasol was born when her friend wanted a light vodka drink (the name, she says, comes from Mary Poppins). With two fruit juices, one to add color, and Triple Sec for more citrus flavor, the Parasol was light and summery. But as a fellow fan down the end of the bar remarked, "it sneaks up on ya!"
For being such a graceful host, Wendy and her concoction get the Drink of the Week.

THE PARASOL
3 oz. Grey Goose vodka
1/2 oz. Pineapple juice
1/2 oz. Cranberry juice
splash of Triple Sec
Mix ingredients in shaker over ice and strain into martini glass. Garnish with lime.

The Nugget
2318 Lillie Ave., Summerland
969-6135

©2008 Santa Barbara News-Press

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The Governator gets a makeover when The Capitol Steps come to town.
DAVID BAZEMORE PHOTO
By Ted Mills, News-Press Correspondent
April 25, 2008 11:14 AM

The Capitol Steps, that beltway bunch of musical satirists returning to the Lobero for their 11th year, run on a fuel that consists of 30 percent parody and 70 percent puns -- really groan-worthy puns. For an example, check a slew of song titles: "Help Me Fake It to the Right" (about Mitt Romney), "What Kind of Fuel Am I?" (about bio-fuels), "Electile Dysfunction," and the title of their latest CD collection, "Campaign and Suffering."
"I am the culprit behind most of those," admits co-founder Elaina Newport.
The story of how the Capitol Steps went on to become one of Washington, D.C.'s most reliable institutions and exports -- aside from scandals, their bread and butter -- has been thoroughly documented. Former Republican staff members on the Senate Subcommittee on Energy, Nuclear Proliferation, and Government Processes, Elaina Newport and Bill Strauss started writing satirical ditties, which led to a performance at a Christmas show in 1981. The success earned them requests, new members (both Republican and Democrat) and a side-career that they eventually made full-time and open to the public.
"It was a fun time for satire," says Newport about those early years. "Reagan had just come in. He was going from acting to politics and we went from politics to performing." Bill Strauss has a career in law ahead of him, but chose comedy instead. "I think Bill was also wondering if he'd be in front of a committee one day, being asked, 'Did you write a song against the President in 1981?"
Strauss passed away late last year at the end of a long illness, but the group, which has seen some 30 odd members in its lifetime, continues on.
As a topical-humor group, the Steps find it the hardest when a politician does not offer obvious traits to puncture. Newport said former candidate Fred Thompson wasn't too funny until they latched onto his Beverly Hills connection (resulting in a Beverly Hillbillies parody). Or they may be ahead of the audience's perceptions -- when Rudy Giuliani looked to be the obvious GOP nominee, the Steps were making fun of his constant reference to 9/11. The routine "wasn't quite connecting" until Joe Biden pointed out, in his now famous quote from the debates, "there's only three things he mentions in a sentence: a noun, a verb and 9/11." Then the routine worked ? and Rudy dropped out.
"We had a song called 'McCain's Campaign Is Clearly Down the Drain,' when we didn't know who was going to be the main candidate," she adds. But then, nobody looks to a comedy troupe for prognostication. For the most part, songs about the economy, scandals, and other countries remain popular. A skit about airport security also does well, and springs from the group's own experience. "The TSA has seized some of our props on tour," Newport says. "We do skits on terrorism, so we have plastic grenades and guns. We had a skit with a gas-mask, that never made it through either." No wonder the Steps dress up their TSA security guard as an axe-wielding barbarian.
The Steps remain fiercely bipartisan, but unlike Congress, they all get along well. Newport, like all the others, has to bite her tongue even when a politician she likes is the subject of derision. "I was upset when they tried to swift-boat John Kerry," she says. "I mean, he did serve in Vietnam." The group still went ahead with their parody "Fakey Purple Heart," set to the Billy-Ray Cyrus song.
Still, their targets take it all in stride. Most even request their songs, like former presidents Reagan and Bush Sr. Others are disappointed when there isn't a song about them. And for those politicians who don't have any sense of humor at all?
"I can't name them," Newport says, sounding protective. "Because they don't turn up."

THE CAPITOL STEPS
When: 8 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday
Where: Lobero Theatre, 33 E. Canon Perdido St.
Cost: $25 to $35
Information: 963-0761, www.lobero.com

©2008 Santa Barbara News-Press

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COURTESY PHOTO
By Ted Mills, News-Press Correspondent
April 25, 2008 11:10 AM

"Sometimes I feel that part of 'evolving' is a liberty to de-evolve," says Eiko of Eiko and Koma, the wife and husband dance duo. "We do a lot of animalistic movement, but that is not imitation. That is us remembering what it was like to be animals." The provocative career of this couple, now in its third decade, has long explored those connections of man and the environment, as well as its disconnect. Eiko and Koma's often-ghostly white pallor, the strange beauty of their movements, and their archaic stage environments will all be taken to the next level in their live collaboration with avant-garde pianist Margaret Leng Tan this Thursday night at UCSB's Campbell Hall. The evening-length work is entitled "Mourning."
Eiko underlines the idea of Tan as collaborator, not just accompanist, and that "Mourning" should be seen not as an evening of dance with music, but rather one of music with dance. "Tan is a fellow artist," Eiko says. "She's a strong performer and pianist. As such she is very much in her own world."
But the same could be said about Eiko and Koma. Both developed their art while in college in Tokyo, during the turbulent years of the late '60s and early '70s. As in the West, the youth of Japan rebelled against their government, and by extension, all authority.
"We were both part of the anti-Vietnam, post-war questioning that was going on," Eiko says. "Before we met each other we were both active. And we both dropped out. Even among the anti-war sects there was a lot of antagonism. So I went to talk to my dance teacher. I wanted something to grapple with. I wanted to find a way to communicate my ideas without arguing."
Eiko's teachers were Tatsumi Hijikata and Kazuo Ohno, both modern dance legends who are seen as the originators of Butoh dance. Though Eiko and Koma's works share some qualities with Butoh, such as the unsettling imagery, white make-up, and grotesque movement, Eiko says they never properly studied the style.
"I don't think of them as Butoh masters," she says. "We have a spiritual tie with them, but ? we were bad students anyway." Any teachers at that time, she says, were still authority figures.
Instead, once Eiko had met Koma, they developed their own style and moved away from Japan to Germany, then to New York.
"It was a way of trying out our relationship," she says. "And along the way we realized what we could do. We realized we had become one." That relationship has held strong over the years since their first performance in 1971. They have always performed as a duo, and Eiko says that through this time, certain themes have continued: "The relationship with nature, how things that are vulnerable change so rapidly; how technology has caused these things."
Those themes continue in a way with the collaboration with Tan. The pianist, who is well-known for her recordings of John Cage works -- she worked closely with the composer in the last decade of his life -- brought hours worth of selections to the first (professional) meeting with Eiko and Koma two years ago.
"She played for hours from her repertory," says Eiko. Some of the pieces that made their way into "Mourning" include Somei Satoh's "Litania" and Cage's "In the Name of the Holocaust." The Cage piece caused some problems from the point of view of a dancer.
"The first time I heard it I immediately thought, this is not good," says Eiko, "This is kind of impossible to dance to ? we knew it would be a very dangerous place that we were stepping into. The emotion that goes with it ? it's a very strong wave of emotions. It's almost unwelcome."
But entering that uncomfortable space, being in it, and, as Eiko points out, highlighting the space as much as the dancer, is part of Eiko and Koma's art. Even this far into their career, for Eiko and Koma to feel unsure and to push forward shows they haven't lost their nerve.
"Margaret's playing is so precise, so necessary, so urgent, and our dance is . . . arbitrary," she says with half a laugh. "It's suicidal for us to be working with her."

EIKO & KOMA, with MARGARET LENG TAN
When: 8 p.m. Thursday
Where: Campbell Hall, UCSB
Cost: $35 general, $19 students
Information: 893-3535, www.artsandlectures.sa.ucsb.edu

©2008 Santa Barbara News-Press

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Katurian (Jeff Mills, seated) is questioned by officers Ariel (Tom Hinshaw, middle) and Tupolski (Dirk Blocker, right) about crimes he says he did not commit.
DAVID BAZEMORE PHOTOS
TED MILLS, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
April 23, 2008 8:52 AM

Theater director Maurice Lord might have a thing for torture. Not that he likes it. Rather, he seems to have been shaken to the core since the 2004 revelations at Abu Ghraib prison. Or maybe it is just the tenor of the times. Either way, since Genesis West's resuscitation in 2005, the plays he has directed for his company have been colored in various shades of black, with a sheen of bitter, gallows humor. Sam Shepard's "The God of Hell" featured an electro-shock chastity belt and a hyper-patriotic salesman/torturer. Caryl Churchill's "Far Away" featured public humiliation and execution as a backdrop for factory workers discussing their tedious jobs.
With Martin McDonagh's "The Pillowman," -- having premiered Thursday at Center Stage Theater -- Genesis West has produced one of its best shows, if not one of its darkest. Read the ingredients on the box: patricide, child murder and torture (with and without a quick death to follow).
But -- and with Genesis West there's always a but -- "The Pillowman" delivers laughter and some profoundly moving moments. How is this possible?
Playwright Mr. McDonagh has become a familiar name to filmgoers with his recent film, "In Bruges," which manages a similar blend of comedy and violence and insists on being serious about both. In fact, the two officers we meet at the beginning of "The Pillowman" -- one a detective, one a policeman -- remind us of the hit men duo featured in his film. Here, though, Tupolski (Dirk Blocker) and Ariel (Tom Hinshaw) interrogate, torture and threaten to kill their main suspect, Katurian (Jeff Mills), for crimes he says he did not commit. As Tupolski reminds us, this is a totalitarian police state, so forget the trial. (Mr. McDonagh never sets the play in a real location, instead placing it in some odd blend of Ireland, big-city America and Eastern Europe.)
Tupolski and Ariel suspect Katurian of a series of gruesome child murders, and their methods come directly from short, unpublished horror stories Katurian has written. The detective has a box-file of Katurian's collected works, and Ariel has a car battery with a set of electrodes ready to be used to extract a confession. They also have Katurian's mentally challenged brother, Michal (Matt Tavianini), in a separate cell next door, and they have an incriminating confession from him.
"The Pillowman" -- the title comes from one of Katurian's stories -- uses its police-state setting to pitch its ideas about guilt, authorship and child abuse at a desperate level. Katurian's ability to spin horrific narratives out of a complicated and difficult childhood, and the intersections of reality and fiction that weave in and out of the play, serve to both save and damn him. "The Pillowman" is not one of those plays that intentionally muddles a real and an imaginary storyline, however, but one that precedes like detective work, uncovering clues and reshaping what we believe is the truth as the play proceeds forward in time and backwards in remembrance. It also asks if a miserable life can be worth living and if shreds of hope and love are enough in a life laden with abuse and violence.
But as aforementioned, the play manages to be quite funny, from Tupolski and Ariel's strange and codependent working relationship to Katurian's short stories, which taken as literature might never make it out of a writing workshop. Tupolski responds later with a story just as improbable and allegorically confusing as that of the accused. Mr. McDonagh's banter reveals shades of Irish slang and inflection, but Mr. Lord chooses wisely to keep things in varying shades of American accents.
Jeff Mills and Matt Tavianini both come from Boxtales, their usual theatrical stomping ground, and while playing brothers, they seem well suited to a play centered around storytelling. When Katurian isn't stuck in a cell being grilled, he is off to the side in a chair telling us stories about his childhood, which are illustrated dumb-show-like on a raised, recessed area of the stage, with Leslie Gangl-Howe and Howard Howe playing abusive, Gothic parents, and Rudy Martinez and Amanda Berning playing the children. Tim Burton would approve of the devilish glee in which Mr. Lord stages these horrible tableaux. (And thanks goes to set and lighting designer Theodore Michael Dolas for making it so mesmerizing).
Mr. Mills and Mr. Tavianini form the emotional core of the play, but Dirk Blocker and Tom Hinshaw are equally delightful to watch. Mr. Lord has worked with Mr. Hinshaw in nearly every Genesis West production -- having him play a torturer with a tender streak is one of the director's most clever choices. Mr. Blocker, who does most of his work in television and film, begins as a stereotypical detective, but then reveals multiple shades and facets.
All of which makes the final moments in "The Pillowman" so jarring, unexpected and grimly satisfying. You can't say you haven't been warned.

'THE PILLOWMAN'
When: 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and May 1-3
Where: Center Stage Theater, 751 Paseo Nuevo, upstairs
Cost: $25, $20 students
Information: 963-0408, www.centerstagetheater.org

©2008 Santa Barbara News-Press

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Singer Becca Solodon's album "In My Room," released today on the Internet, will come out on CD next month.
STEPHANIE KINCHELOE PHOTO
TED MILLS, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
April 16, 2008 7:41 AM

At 21, singer-songwriter and composer Becca Solodon stands on the threshold of the second stage of her career. Today her first EP, "In My Room," was released on the Internet, to be followed next month on CD. And though it may be her first release, Miss Solodon has been careful in this, her first real volley into the pop world.
When she was 16, Miss Solodon was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, which led to the amputation of one leg below the calf. During this process, her dreams of becoming a professional singer led to some extraordinary connections. Just six weeks after leaving the hospital, she opened for Mariah Carey, one of her idols, during the star's 2003 Santa Barbara appearance. Not long after that appearance, Miss Solodon was approached by at least three labels.
"I was offered contracts, but I knew it wasn't the right time," she said. "I took them to my lawyer and he said I'd be absolutely insane to sign them."
Instead, Miss Solodon buckled down and began writing. A lot. And most of it at home.
"In My Room" refers in part to where most of that writing and recording takes place, and where she creates her romantic blend of pop and R&B.
"Half is my bedroom, the other half is my studio," she said. "In 2003 I got my keyboard and ProTools (the sound production software), and in 2004 I got a microphone and put studio foam on the walls."
The home studio became Miss Solodon's musical laboratory, although she's also befriended many producers along the way, including Ronnie King and Damion "Damizza" Young.
"They both pushed me to develop my songwriting before I started releasing anything. I was still writing and growing as an artist (in 2003)."
One of the first songs that, in Miss Solodon's mind, reflects her true style as an artist is "Simply Irresistible," created as a collaboration between the singer and a Finnish musician, Ves Rain, with whom she shares a common friend. Mr. Rain sent a song sketch via Internet, Miss Solodon sent back a vocal track, and Mr. Rain recorded the track live with musicians in Finland.
Other tracks on the six-song EP come straight from Miss Solodon's home studio.
"It took me a while to learn, but I have recording down very well," she said. "I'm quite picky, actually, especially about vocals. In the chorus sections, I have tons of harmonies, all my own. Mixing vocals is my specialty."
One song close to her heart is "Always Watching Over Me," dedicated to a younger friend, Krista Romero, who passed away last year from leukemia.
Miss Solodon met Krista at the Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation, which, along with other organizations like the Make-a-Wish Foundation, helped Miss Solodon with her own illness.
"Going to see Krista (in the hospital) was like seeing a younger version of myself," she said. "And meeting her parents reminded me of my own. I knew what she was going through. She may be gone, but she will live on through the song."
Since 2003, Miss Solodon's once-hobby has now become a passion, and despite being a full-time student and working part time at the Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation, she has been pulling many late-night sessions to get the EP ready.
A full album of new material is planned for September, and she is still lining up concerts.
On May 3, Miss Solodon will perform at UCSB's Relay for Life and that same night at a benefit show at the Santa Barbara Woman's Club. An end-of-semester concert at City College is also in the works.

Becca Solodon's six-track EP "In My Room" is available at www.beccasolodon.com.

©2008 Santa Barbara News-Press

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BY TED MILLS, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
February 29, 2008 12:42 PM

"This will not be the Granada you remember."
Marketing Director Vince Coronado's words are confident. For decades, the Granada Theatre has been the theater with an identity problem -- stuck halfway between the 1920s and 1980s, reshaped, abused and partially used. But even those who might still be around to recall its early years will be in for a surprise when the remodeled, refurbished and refitted Granada parts its doors Thursday for its gala opening.
Everything good about the Granada of old has remained or been resurrected, from the Spanish mural that stretches high above the stage to the original reverse illumination chandelier that came out of storage and was returned to its original location in the center of the theater. Everything bad, outdated or unworkable has been replaced, including 21st century acoustic technology, separate entry access for those with special needs and additional restroom stalls for female patrons.
Of course, that will be secondary Thursday night when all eyes will be on the main attraction. A night of music, dance and song will help reintroduce Santa Barbara to the local companies that now have a shared home. To honor the Granada's Spanish theme -- granada means pomegranate, by the way -- the evening will indulge in all things España.

In October, Granada Theatre Executive Director Peter Frische, far left, gave a tour to Granada and Santa Barbara Symphony officials, including conductor Nir Kabaretti, second from left. In July, EverGreene Painting Studios was brought in from New York to help during the final stages of reconstruction. Below, EverGreene artist Jim Ellis applies thin sheets of gold leaf to decorative shields.
MICHAEL MORIATIS, ROBBY BARTHELMESS / NEWS-PRESS FILE PHOTOS

Conductor Nir Kabaretti will lead the Santa Barbara Symphony in selections from Rimsky-Korsakov and de Falla in the first half, featuring Warren Jones on piano and Nina Bodnar on violin. Also calling the Granada home, the Santa Barbara Choral Society, backed by the Symphony will perform selections from Orff's "Carmina Burana."
The second half opens with a special appearance by relative newcomers Flamenco Ballet Pablo Pizano. Then with the Symphony relocated down into the pit, the State Street Ballet, Opera Santa Barbara and the Santa Barbara Choral Society will collaborate on a suite of excerpts from "Carmen."
State Street Ballet director Rodney Gustafson compares these new collaborations to those that happen in places such as the Lincoln Center. "Opera usually has dancing within it," he says, "but we were limited at the Lobero." Now that won't be a problem.
"Having a residence like the Granada will really help the profile of the company," Gustafson says, adding the hardest audience to win over is always the home crowd. Maybe not so, as the company's 15th anniversary will be spent in these new digs.
For Kabaretti, the sound of the Granada already has him rethinking programs.
"At the Arlington, we had to be aware of the acoustics," he says. "There were certain composers we didn't even program." The Symphony no longer has to err on the side of pure volume to reach the far seats. "Next year we are planning more intimate pieces." Some very delicate Mozart is on his mind.
Though Kabaretti leaves the Arlington with fond memories, he also remembers the lack of space backstage. There were nights, he recalls, when Choral Society members had to wait outside in the cold, waiting to go on. At the Granada, that problem no longer exists.

Jed Ellis of Evergreene brushes the gold plating off of a piece that will be displayed in the newly renovated Granada.
Robby Barthelmess/News-Press

In fact, the backstage area has been just as carefully planned and thought out as the public area. In a guided tour during construction a couple weeks ago, Granada Executive Director Peter Frisch pointed out the tiny corridor that used to be the Granada basement. The rest, he says, was dirt.
Now companies can indulge in 10 dressing rooms, all with showers and sinks; two large make-up rooms for choruses and ensembles (altogether a total of 48 make-up stations); sprung-board and sound-proof rehearsal rooms for dancers and musicians; a laundry room; a carpentry room for set maintenance; a wardrobe room; and private rooms for featured artists and conductors. For conductors and performers: brand new Kawai upright pianos for rehearsals. For the main stage: a Steinway grand that, at this time of of writing, was on its way from New York.
Helping move the Steinway is the above-mentioned hydraulic orchestra pit. At its basement level, the pit backs onto a storage area, where the heavy instruments will remain until needed. At its second level, the pit operates as its name suggests, flush with an area underneath the stage that accommodates 54 players -- the largest of its kind between Los Angeles and the Bay Area, according to Frisch. At its top level, the pit is flush with the audience, allowing four rows, or 70 seats, to be added to the floor.
On regular days, pedestrians will be able to look into the front windows of the Granada and see all the way to the stage, part of an intentional design to make the Granada feel like it belongs to all of Santa Barbara, according to Frisch.
"It was a conscious decision: let's do this right," he says, adding he hopes the Granada will be the main entertainment theater on State Street for the next 100 years. There was no way they were going to come back in 30 years, he says, and add things. As costs started to rise after initial estimates, Frisch said he kept in mind the idea of a perfect arts environment. That included the restoration of a marquee that replicates the original 1924 design and bringing back a vertical neon blade that used to hang down the side of the building.
Opening night Thursday will close off a block of State Street to traffic, apart from vintage cars delivering flappers and their dates (actually members of State Street Ballet). Tickets range from $75 to $500, but March 9 features a free open house for the public to see what Frisch says is, for some builders working on the project, a cornerstone in their career. But while on a tour, as construction continued and not even the ground floor seats had been set in place, Frisch was asked how confident he felt in his deadline. As usual, he smiled. In his previous incarnation as a director, he knows all about deadlines and opening nights.
"If we have seats, lights and a stage, we'll be opening."

GRANADA GALA OPENING NIGHT
Where: Granada Theatre, 1216 State St.
When: 7 p.m. Thursday
Cost: $75, $250, $500
Information: 899-2222, www.granadasb.org


Post-Gala galvanizing
So the Granada Gala eluded your schedule/wallet/tastes. Don't worry, plenty more events are in store on the upcoming calendar. More is soon to fill out the schedule, but here's what is already available for purchase:
'A Little Night Conversation with Stephen Sondheim & Frank Rich': Legendary theatrical composer Stephen Sondheim will share the stage with New York Times op-ed columnist Frank Rich for what should be an insightful discussion. March 8. $22 to $68
Open house: Can't get seats? This is your chance to see the new building. March 9. Free
Natalie Cole: The soul, R&B and jazz singer opens the Granada's Preview Season with selections from her covers album "Leavin.' " March 14. $65 to $140
'In The Mood: A 1940's Musical Revue': The music of the 1940s takes audiences for a trip back in time. March 18, 19. $30 to $55
NPR's 'Wait, Wait ... Don't Tell Me': Sit in on a live recording of NPR's nationally broadcast quiz program. March 27. $20 to $40
America: Country-tinged rock, pop, and folk from the band that brought us "A Horse with No Name." April 6. $50 to $70
La La La Human Steps: Award-winning choreographer Édouard Lock guides nine dancers and four musicians in a display of technique, structure and speed. April 8. $20 to $45
Mandy Patinkin: Tony and Emmy Award-winning Patinkin sings popular standards from Rodgers and Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim, Harry Chapin, Irving Berlin and Cole Porter.April 11. $45 to $100
Bobby McFerrin, Chick Corea and Jack DeJohnette: Grammy Award-winning vocalist McFerrin joins jazz veteran Corea, who boasts a four-decade career and nearly 50 Grammy nominations, and drumming legend DeJohnette, who is widely regarded as one of his genres greats. April 15. $22 to $68
Break! The Urban Funk Spectacular: Dance ensemble combine breathtaking movements set to live DJs and master percussionists. April 25. $30 to $55
The Fresh Aire Music of Mannheim Steamroller: Composer Chip Davis leads his ever-evolving pop classical group through an evening of multimedia and choreographed lighting. April 30. $47 to $57
Salvatore Licitra, tenor: This commanding vocalist continues to perform an impressive repertory that includes the works of Verdi, Puccini and more. Licitra will be joined by pianist Warren Jones, who is noted for his technique and accompaniment. May 8. $22 to $58
Diavolo: Los Angeles based dance company melds body and machine with use of oversized contraptions, structures, doors, stairways and more. May 10. $30 to $55
Marilyn Horne and Barbara Cook: Mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne and Broadway darling Barbara Cook will perform what should be a dynamic duet performance. May 17. $22 to $68
22nd Annual Young Soloists Showcase: A tradition for 22 years, this annual concert features gifted young musicians who have earned the honor of appearing with a professional orchestra. May 18. $25
Mark Morris Dance Group: The Group brings the works of its namesake to reveal the depth of Morris' talents in a display of creativity and masterful modern dance. May 20. $20 to $45
'Carmina Burana': The opening night selection was just a tease. Join the Santa Barbara Ballet Company for William Soleau's choreographed version of the classic Orff opera, featuring the Santa Barbara Symphony and the Santa Barbara Choral Society. May 31, June 1. $20 to $50
--Ted Mills

©2008 Santa Barbara News-Press

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NIK BLASKOVICH PHOTO
Ted Mills
February 29, 2008 12:02 PM

Café Buenos Aires may have the smallest bar out of all the ones our mixology crew has seen. With room for just four people, we were lucky to get a seat there on the Wednesday night when we turned up. Our timing, as usual, was impeccable -- a half hour later the regular Tango dancers from the Carrillo Recreation Center classes turned up and the restaurant space behind us was turned into a dance-floor filled with sensual, interlocking bodies. I'll drink to that.
Now small doesn't mean barely stocked -- bartender Geoff (no last name given, but ask for him by name, he's been here a year) rules over all sorts of liquors and alcohols. If you're lucky and it's a bit nippy outside, he'll offer up some mulled wine, full of cinnamon, nutmeg, and other spices, kicked up with a little bit of brandy.
But Buenos Aires means cachaça and cachaça means caipirinha, the cocktail that gets easier to pronounce the more you drink it (that's kai-per-ren-ya...). Yes, I know it's the national drink of Brazil, but Argentina likes it too. Anyway, their national drink is matte, and that's the opposite of a cocktail. Moving on...
Geoff's caipirinha is subtle and full of the interplay of bruised mint leaves and sugar and lime juice. Like a mojito, the mint should be muddled with the ingredients, but it shouldn't be smashed beyond recognition.
A few weeks past Valentine's Day, and Geoff can still whip up a romantic, sweet drink. You can ask for the Sweet Tart anytime, really, but it is sweeter than tart. For something that's a mix of green Sour Pucker and purple Chambord, along with vodka and sweet 'n' sour, it's amazingly red. How does the color wheel work again? With a rim of sugar, this drink is cute, so serve it to somebody who is.
Our drink of the week, however, has to go to the Ojos Negros. This is one of the few whiskey-based cocktails that hides its liquor well; as Geoff sums up, it's a mojito but with Jim Beam and orange juice. For those unsure whether they like whiskey, the Ojos Negros makes a great intro. For those who love whiskey, you may order one after the other until it's time to tango.

OJOS NEGROS
1-1/2 oz. bourbon (Jim Beam recommended)
Fresh orange juice
1 tbsp. sugar
1/2 oz. fresh lime juice
Handful of fresh mint

In a Collins glass, gently muddle mint leaves, sugar, and lime juice, making sure the flavors coat the glass. Top up glass with ice, add bourbon and top with orange juice.

Café Buenos Aires
1316 State St.
963-0242
www.cafebuenosaires.com

©2008 Santa Barbara News-Press

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TED MILLS, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
February 27, 2008 10:22 AM

As in Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem, "Ozymandias," the desert seems an appropriate place for empires to fall. Those sands are metaphorical -- they run through hourglasses, they run through our fingers, they wear down rocks and they corrode the best metal. Playwright Bob Potter returns us to the desert in new play, "The Last Days of Empire," running through the weekend at Center Stage Theater, and to ask what America has done and where our country might be going.
Are we like the Romans, who overextended their empire, overspent militarily, let the gap widen between the rich and poor, and soon found barbarians at the gate? Are we like the Third Reich, with its secret camps and torturers and dreams of global domination? Or are we just Americans, after all, for good or ill, with an ability to change the experiment in democracy before it goes off track?
Mr. Potter's optimism and humanism comes through in "Last Days," more than it did in his last two plays, the dark and satiric "The Space Between the Stars" and "The Last Liberal." Those two played like a requiem for a country hopeless and lost. "Last Days" manages a more reflective, philosophical tone. The three characters that stand in for their empires want no part in it, yet are all, in their way, working for the powers-that-be. And Mr. Potter collects them in a time warp to let them talk, on the verge of death.
Synesius of Cyrene (Tom Hinshaw) is long dead, anyway, gone to hang out with the shades in 4th century B.C. But he still hangs about his fallen villa in the Libyan desert, welcoming in a burnt and bleeding German tank commander, Karl (Matt Tavianini). The officer and his company were retreating to the ocean, giving up the war for good, when bombs destroyed the tank and his company.
Another explosion just over the horizon delivers Mindy (Tiffany Story), a worker for an American petrochemical company. She's been blinded by an act of sabotage, a company-inflicted wound intended to start another invasion on the Middle East. (It's only later in the play that we learn Mr. Potter's "modern day" exists some 15 years in the future, when America is still battling for diminishing resources.)
For the better part of "Last Days," these three meet, talk, play, and look for respite in the face of life. Mindy, blinded and made radioactive in the sabotage, shares Karl's morphine and lets her rowdy Texan cowgirl loose. Karl envisions a visit from his wife, Petra (Devon Bell), a Berlin nightclub singer who bears bad news about herself, his city, and Hitler's plans for the Jews. Is this what Karl was fighting for? He claims not to have known.
There's not much in the way of plot in "Last Days." Karl initially wants to leave, but as Synesius explains, there's no way out . . . except one. Synesius plays cordial host, Karl suffers the pangs of regret and Mindy enjoys the morphine. Initial cattiness between Petra and Mindy evaporates, and a late visit from Synesius' teacher and one-time lover Hypatia (Sylvia Short) pleases everybody -- the wise and sarcastic older woman rules them all.
Mr. Potter asks questions but leaves us to answer them. The America-Reich connections might be there, but Mr. Potter has his eye not on Hitler, but on the complacency of a populace that allows a Final Solution or a Guantanamo Bay.
The weakness is the relative goodness of all his characters and the downside of Mr. Potter's humanism. Karl seems to have no problem with the Jews -- Mindy turns out to be one -- and Mindy has long since finished with any crisis of faith in her country and, it turns out, is set on doing her best to make sure the truth will out. There are no general moments of disagreement in "Last Days," just a shake of the head and a shrug of the shoulders. Yes, they all say, it had to come to this, and death is welcomed. There are certainly better parties there. Life, where is thy sting?
All the actors work with roles that bring them from symbol to individual. Ms. Story, who does best with comedic roles, brings the better laughs of the night, yet still comes out as a real character. If America must be represented in one person, her straight talking, life-by-the-throat Mindy reminds us what makes this country great.
Director Maurice Lord, taking a break from his usual dark preoccupations with Genesis West, works with an amiable, friendly hand, helped by clever abstract lighting from Theodore Michael Dolas. Ellen McBride Sheppard's costumes give us a delightful Roman ensemble for the always-game Mr. Hinshaw, desert tones for the German and American, and a nightclub dress made for a funeral.

THE LAST DAYS OF THE EMPIRE
When: 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday
Where: Center Stage Theater, Paseo Nuevo, upstairs
Cost: $15 to $18
Information: 963-0408, www.centerstagetheater.org

©2008 Santa Barbara News-Press

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In Naomi Iizuka's "Anon(ymous)," Anon (Tyler Leivo) becomes the amusing refugee to the spoiled Calista (Sarah Halford).
BRAD ELLIOTT PHOTOS, COURTESY OF WESTMONT COLLEGE
TED MILLS, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
February 27, 2008 7:24 AM

Stepping into the ring clutching a copy of Homer's "The Odyssey," playwright Naomi Iizuka joins a pack of artists, which includes James Joyce and the Coen Brothers, inspired by this epic ode. Her contemporary re-think, "Anon(ymous)," opened last week at Westmont College's Porter Theater and attempts not only to update the tale, but also to pull it back into the mythic, and with varying results.
In Homer's original tale, Ulysses' journey home from the Trojan wars is fraught with diversions, dangers and temptations. Faithful wife Penelope waits and waits, with suitors jockeying for the position, should she be widowed. For Ulysses, he can and can't go home again.
For Anon (Tyler Leivo), and other refugees in Ms. Iizuka's work, home can't be reached because it doesn't exist. Having escaped from war and poverty, the wanderers find themselves adrift in a promised land that confuses and confounds them. Having washed up on a seashore (presumably Florida), Anon dreams of his mother and his homeland, knowing he can never reach them.
Elsewhere, in the play's parallel narrative, Nemasani (Marie Ponce) plays the Penelope role, working in a sweatshop, knitting a shroud for the child she lost at sea. She spurns the advances of shop head Yuri Mackus (Nolan Hamlin) by pledging marriage only when she finishes the shroud (and then she unravels her stitching).
"Anon(ymous)" sets Anon on his journey, though his destination isn't clear. Along the way he meets a raging Cyclops (Diana Small), barfly Lotus Eaters, Nausicaa (Beth Segura) and is watched over by the goddess Athena, here called Naja (also played by Ms. Segura).
Director John Blondell seems to like large ensemble plays, such as "Anon(ymous)," because it gives a seasonal display to the full range of Westmont's drama students. With the play episodic in nature, students get a chance to ham it up -- see Sarah Halford's parody of a spoiled rich girl (Calypso in the play) or Ms. Small's cannibalistic Zyclo -- much to the delight of the audience. There's also a chance an actor will stand out and be the one to watch this season -- this evening it was Anna Lieberman, who breathed life into her brief role as Pascal, Anon's traveling partner.
Mr. Blondell's staging is, as usual, fascinating, with a convincing sweatshop made of chairs and repetitious movements from the actors, and a convincing train tunnel journey lit by flashlight and light bulbs. The simple but mysterious backdrop designed by Darcy Scanlin provides surprising exits and entrances, and the lighting by Jonathan Hicks complements with the appropriate atmosphere.
The play, however, is weak. Ms. Iizuka's characters are all ciphers, stand-ins for the "immigrant experience" or one-to-one versions of their mythical counterparts. All the immigrants in "Anon(ymous)" are noble and goodhearted, and those they come across on land are exploitative, hypocrites and/or evil. There's not much room for discussion after that.
"Anon(ymous)" attempts a mythic understanding of the journeys and experiences many future Americans undergo -- the romanticizing of the home country, the mother worship, the comforts of home cooking, the dehumanization and the Otherness of the subject. "Mythic" here runs the risk of becoming clichè.
But then Ms. Iizuka forces this myth on top of the other, and things get tangled. No version of Ithaca exists for Anon to travel to, so Ms. Iizuka replaces the motherland with the mother. But Anon doesn't know she exists, so where exactly is he heading again? Realistic economics enter into the story when it suits the myth, but disappear when they don't. As for Penelope switching from wife to mother, that's for Oedipus to sort out.
The character of Anon comes across as petulant and directionless. Standing in for everybody, Anon is precisely the "nobody" he claims in the play. But that leaves Mr. Leivo attempting to play a concept instead of a person, and halfway through the play it's hard to find interest in his fate. When he acts the hero -- as in the Cyclops sequence or in the video game fighting-style ending -- the moment springs from nowhere and is never followed up. The rest is wandering.
It's unclear what we are supposed to take from "Anon(ymous)." If we are to see our own stories as part of a collective narrative, then the interest lies where we divert from the story and not remain on the path. If this is a critique of First World exploitation, then it's a cartoon polemic. If there is room for a new myth, a worthy hero needs to rise first.

'ANON(YMOUS)'
When: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday
Where: Porter Theater, Westmont College, 955 La Paz Rd.
Cost: $15 general, $7 students and seniors
Information: 565-7140

©2008 Santa Barbara News-Press

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NIK BLASKOVICH PHOTO
Ted Mills
February 22, 2008 11:33 AM

A few months ago we had thought of reviewing 31 West, the bar in Hotel Andalucia. But before the ink was dry on our list of watering holes, the place closed down. Suddenly, it was goodbye Hotel Andalucia and hello Hotel Canary, and by extension, goodbye 31 West and hello Coast.
For those who remember the old restaurant/bar layout, the Coast will surprise. There's a more obvious division between lobby and restaurant, and the bar runs lengthwise upon entering, no longer at the far right corner. What feels like a mirrored wall is actually empty space looking out onto diners, Carrillo Street and beyond. No wonder we didn't see our reflections " for a second we worried we had become vampires "
Bartender Harry Congdon has been serving drinks here since the opening of 31 West, whereas his counterpart Jeff Shettler started his tenancy upon Coast's opening in January, but has mixed at the Harbor, Dargan's, and beyond. Both know how to whip up a fancy cocktail.
We started out with an espresso martini. There is a tendency in coffee cocktails to shy away from the innate bitterness of the bean by loading up with sweet additions, but Congdon played it quite close to a chilled espresso drink. The sweet came by way of Bailey's, Godiva liqueur, Kahlua, and Absolut Vanilla. The espresso then balanced these out, allowing the flavor of the vodka to edge through.
A variation on the Lemon Drop came next, with a "crushed raspberry" spin. Delightful and pink, the cocktail starts off with muddled raspberries and lemon wedges where it meets sour mix and Absoluts Vanilla and Citron. The sourness again balances against the sugar around the rim of the glass. Neither sweet nor sour, the drink maintains its strong lemon identity.
Congdon made both these, leaving Shettler to finish us off with a real "dessert." While the Coast offers plenty of such drinks on its menu (along with some yummy appetizers that almost -- almost! -- got delivered to us by mistake), Shettler went off menu to make us a Chocolate Orange Martini. Like his workmate, Shettler delivered a drink that toned down the potential sweetness and highlighted the flavors of the various alcohols. And so, with the recipe for our Drink of the Week, you can see what we mean.

CHOCOLATE ORANGE MARTINI
1-1/2 oz. Absolut Mandarin
1/2 oz. Bailey's Irish Creme
3/4 oz. Godiva Liqueur

Mix together in a shaker over ice, strain into martini glass. Garnish with orange slice.

Coast Restaurant & Bar
31 W. Carrillo
884-0300, www.canarysantabarbara.com

©2008 Santa Barbara News-Press

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In "Last Days of the Empire," Sylvia Short, left, plays Hypatia, a great intellectual, teacher and wife of Synesius. With her is Devon Bell, who plays Petra, a nightclub singer from Berlin.
COURTESY PHOTO
By Ted Mills, News-Press Correspondent
February 22, 2008 11:16 AM

Bob Potter disappeared for some time inside the coffee shop we agreed to meet at to discuss his next play. The delay, he says, is because he ran into an actor from his very first play, "Where Is Sicily," produced in 1969. That play used the Athenian invasion of Sicily to discuss what was happening in Vietnam. And now, nearly 40 years later, Potter's new play, "Last Days of the Empire," opens tonight at Center Stage Theater, and in three historical eras in the Libyan desert, another unpopular war is discussed.
The difference, Potter explains, is the notion of empire. "In the '50s and '60s, if America was called an empire, people would argue about it," he says. "Now it's a given that it describes our situation." But does Potter believe it? Are we like the Romans? And are we falling?
"In a way it's a facile comparison," he says. "Things move more quickly these days. But I think we are. We didn't start being one until the Spanish-American war " our expansion has been somewhat imperial. I'm trying to explore the period at the end of empires. This is when things go out of control. It becomes a dangerous period and a very dramatic period. All the old assumptions become questioned."
In "Last Days of the Empire," three figures meet in the Libyan desert, near the ruins of a Roman temple and the rusted-out shell of a German WWII tank. One is the philosopher Synesius (Tom Hinshaw), whose life as a slave- and landowner has turned upside down with the fall of Rome. Another is a German tank commander, Karl (Boxtales' Matt Tavianini) who is the sole survivor of a battle following a decision to desert his tank command. Now he feels guilty about what he's done, and the comrades that have fallen. The two meet a Texas woman, Mindy (Tiffany Story), who is working for an oil consortium. She is lost in the desert, having been blinded by an explosion. Sylvia Short and Devon Bell round out the cast.
For those who know Potter for his two previous Bush-era plays, "The Last Liberal" and "The Space Between the Stars," the new play avoids those plays' broad satire.
"This is more ironic and complicated," Potter says. "It's more of a conundrum and a series of questions " I think America has lost its innocence, but in doing so, I hope it's learning some wisdom."
Director Maurice Lord managed to find space in his Genesis West schedule to work with Dramatic Women Theater Company. He and Potter had been meaning to work together for some time.
"He's a generous director," says Potter, but notes that while acting as producer on the project, he's tried to keep the writerly intervention at a minimum. "I've had many years to think about this play. It came out pretty finished."
Potter is an optimist at heart, he says. "To paraphrase Gerald Ford, our long national nightmare is almost over. This has been a very dangerous period that has fractured our (country's) essentials. But we can come out smarter and wiser. Better times are ahead."

'LAST DAYS OF THE EMPIRE'
When: 8 tonight and Saturday, and Thursday through March 1
Where: Center Stage Theater, Paseo Nuevo, upstairs
Cost: $35 opening night, $15 to $18
Information: 963-0408, www.centerstagetheater.org

©2008 Santa Barbara News-Press

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TED MILLS, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
February 19, 2008 7:42 AM

Annie Clark packs a loud sound for someone with such a tiny frame. Seeming almost lost behind three microphones and effects pedals, her four-piece rock ensemble and the monitors, Ms. Clark made her first visit Saturday to Santa Barbara, under the moniker St. Vincent, in an attempt to duplicate the intricacies of her self-titled album at Velvet Jones.
As a trial balloon, it only half flew. For those who know the album and are convinced Ms. Clark's side project was one of the better releases of last year, only the sound mix stood between her and success. For those who had no idea about Ms. Clark (of The Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens bands), she had a hard time communicating her idiosyncrasies to the audience.
Take, for instance, the opening salvo on both the album and at Saturday's concert -- the swirling, pounding "Now, Now." Despite the band's hammering drums, Ms. Clark's schizoid character-play had to be dropped for simplicity, as the dynamics between verse and chorus became lost in the wall of sound. Compared to Chuck Prophet's rock show earlier that night at Lobero Theatre, St. Vincent seemed hampered by the venue. It was crowded onstage and even the music needed to spread out.
But as a guitarist, Ms. Clark has much to offer. Her fingers are nimble and spidery, and she often seems surprised by what her instrument says back to her. This quirkiness made St. Vincent endearing. And speaking of quirky, her between-song patter showed a preoccupation with cocktails she assumed Santa Barbarans might drink -- Long Island Iced Teas with Kahlua.
The band -- Billy Flynn on guitar, Daniel Heart on violin and Walker Adams on drums -- expanded its instruments to play bells, melodica, bass pedals and samples (including Ms. Clark's voice as backing vocals and snippets of Mike Garson's piano work). Ms. Clark's diversions into moments of ultra-reflective, quiet guitar work was lost on the crowd, who turned back to their drinks and friends and text messaging and what have you, despite having claimed space near the stage. Were these people fans or did they just want to be seen? Either way, a clueless and rude face was shown Saturday night.
But for those paying attention, Ms. Clark delivered a spot-on "Jesus Saves, I Spend" and her late-period Beatle-esque "Marry Me," the title track on the St. Vincent album. Her vocals were strong, but overwhelmed by the thump of the drums and the heavy bass. Her effect-laden second microphone might have been turned off at times, too.
Ms. Clark's band took a break while she played a solo, accompanied by her harpsichord-like guitar. But the crowd's noise was overwhelming, and just one song in, she called the band back.
Ms. Clark then took the fiery "Paris Is Burning" and slowed it down to a frightening dirge. There was a little too much space in this arrangement, and the song needed a boost. That came in the form of show closer "Your Lips Are Red," which recalls the scary thrust of Peter Gabriel's earlier albums mixed in with the askance look of a Bjork or PJ Harvey. Finally letting go with guitar pyrotechnics, Ms. Clark finished the concert with her guitar left on the floor, feeding back among effects pedals and monitors.

©2008 Santa Barbara News-Press

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Lauren Lovett, left, plays the title role in Ensemble Theatre's production of "Therese Raquin," alongside Jamison Jones as Laurent.
DAVID BAZEMORE PHOTO
TED MILLS, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
February 19, 2008 7:40 AM

When èmile Zola wrote "Thèrèse Raquin" in 1827, its tale of murder and guilt was seen as part of a new realism. Desperate living conditions, grim lodgings, unhappy marriages -- these were subjects 19th century France hadn't much explored in fiction.
But to our eyes, with its spiraling guilt, insanity and the occasional apparition, Zola's work feels decidedly gothic. Maybe it was the oil lamps and the creaky floorboards. But whatever the outlook, Ensemble Theatre's adaptation of Zola's play succeeds with a slight uncomfortableness coupled with humor.
Thèrèse, played by Lauren Lovett, first appears as a stoic, blank-faced woman. At an early age, she was abandoned before being taken in by Madame Raquin (Barbara Tarbuck). The two live above a shop in a Paris apartment with Camille (Michael Matthys), Raquin's milquetoast son, to whom Thèrèse is now married. As Thèrèse says of their arranged wedding night, she turned left to go into Camille's room instead of going to her old room, and that was the only difference.
Frequent visits from Laurent (Jamison Jones), a starving artist and childhood friend who recently came back into the couple's life, keep Thèrèse quiet through her miserable life. And when no one else is around, Laurent and Thèrèse throw themselves at each other with animalistic abandon.
Zola's play, adapted by Nicholas Wright, kicks into gear when Laurent and Thèrèse wonder if an "accident" might take Camille out of commission and allow them to marry. And what do you know -- Camille invites both out for a boat trip on the River Seine.
Anyone with a nose for noir can guess the plans don't end well. Camille is pushed off the boat, and Zola surrounds his murderous lovebirds with an assortment of gullible characters and fortuitous happenstance that keeps them from becoming found out. If only Laurent and Thèrèse could have kept their guilt at bay, they would have been OK. But in "Thèrèse Raquin," the characters wind up as trapped as they were at the beginning of the play.
But what keeps Zola's play interesting is his astute view of fetish and desire. When Camille was alive, Thèrèse and Laurent would make passionate love, but once he was out of the picture and Thèrèse and Laurent married, their passion dissipated. At one point, Laurent leaves their wedding night chamber and turns up at the secret passage used for their early trysts. It works for a second, before Thèrèse moans, "We can't even fool ourselves!"
Camille gets the first line of the play: "May I speak?" He's sitting for a portrait that soon will be anchored in the bedroom. As Zola shows, Camille spends the rest of the play (alive and dead) trying to dominate the conversation, and he succeeds.
Director Jonathan Fox balances the play's melodrama with comic relief from Camille's oblivious friends, who are too wrapped up in their own concerns to notice what happened to their friend.
Ms. Tarbuck's Madame Raquin dominates the stage -- charming but suffocating, self-pitying and manipulative, and we are never too sure how to feel about her suffering. Ms. Tarbuck plays her role as straightforwardly as possible, and in her final act -- frozen in bitterness and hatred -- such a sad fate seems just as punishment.
As for Ms. Lovett's Thèrèse, she does a lot to make us care about a character that never attains happiness and abuses those who love her. As Laurent, Mr. Jones conceals his motives well -- as is briefly mentioned near the end, he may have struck up his relationship with Thèrèse because prostitutes became too expensive for his income. Put that way, Laurent may be the worst in the bunch -- but Mr. Jones' charisma distracts us.
Scenic designer Harry Feiner keeps the grimy realism coming in this meticulous set, with greens and browns dominating and never enough light.
If the play has a weakness, it's in the third act, where bickering and unpleasantness threaten to turn Zola's play into soap opera. But that is probably how Zola wanted it. Long before the kitchen even had a sink, he knew audiences would love that look inside their neighbor's apartment, or even their own.

©2008 Santa Barbara News-Press

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Country singer Kelly Wills, center, was joined on a few songs by Chuck Profit and his guitar at Saturday night's Sings Like Hell concert at Lobero Theatre.
DAVID BAZEMORE PHOTO
TED MILLS, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
February 19, 2008 7:39 AM

The Sings Like Hell concert series is slowly turning up the heat with its twofer lineups. With country singer Kelly Willis, we got a rock-solid set of sad tunes. And her small band didn't prepare us for Chuck Prophet's smoking hot pop-rock, which sent us out with our hair singed from Saturday night's concert at Lobero Theatre.
Ms. Willis is rightfully punchy at this time in her life. She burst out of the gate in the late 1980s with an MCA recording contract, but she failed to get the sales she deserved. Many labels, a successful marriage and four children later, Ms. Willis now looks back on her early career as "several lifetimes ago." But those experiences make her good-love-gone-bad tales reverberate now more than ever. One song, she noted, was co-written by both her ex-boyfriend and her current husband (she said both had left her at some point) -- that kind of convolution "qualifies me as a country singer," she laughed.
Ms. Willis' guitar playing remained simple, but she was backed by two fine musicians -- a steady bass player and an amazing lead guitarist who did some fine string-bending on just an acoustic, often sounding like Richard Thompson.
Highlights included a smart cover of the Cannonballs' "Heaven's Just a Sin Away," with lyrics as good as the title sounds, and Jules Shear's warm and poppy "The More That I'm Around You." Ms. Willis also played songs written for her by husband Bruce Robison, including "Wrapped" and "Not Forgotten You," both feeling like intimate glimpses into the couple's home life.
With Chuck Prophet waiting in the wings, Ms. Willis brought him and drummer Todd Roper out to play a few songs, including the rockabilly tune "Teddy Boys" and the aching "Too Much to Lose," for which Mr. Prophet played a sweltering solo.
Mr. Prophet produced and co-wrote many of the songs on Ms. Willis' latest, but his own material only briefly checks in with the tropes of country music. Slide guitar might ring out, but, swathed in echo, the sound feels more psychedelic than anything.
In the '80s, Mr. Prophet was part of the fondly remembered alt-country group Green on Red, and he has since continued to make music that drops hints of Lou Reed, '80s-era Americana and a strange dash of Tom Robinson. In short, Mr. Prophet writes intelligent songs that would be chart hits in a just world.
"Small Town Girl," the second song of his set, explained this musical gumbo -- a funky bassline set against the syncopated rhythms of drummer Mr. Roper, and jazz chords in the chorus over which keyboardist and vocalist Stephanie Finch offered counterpoint. On "Soap and Water," Mr. Prophet's latest album, the song is intimate. At the Lobero, the band took it to an epic status.
The same was done with his two hypnotic numbers, "A Woman's Voice" and the not-too-silly "You Did (Bomp Shooby Dooby Bomp)." Both rose and fell on increasing spaciness and ace guitar work from Mr. Prophet and his band members. Yet the band seemed to know exactly when to rein themselves in and let the words do the work, as they did on "Let's Do Something Stupid." Mr. Prophet's band is so good, in fact, a live album from this tour would be a welcome addition to their discography.

©2008 Santa Barbara News-Press

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"I'm not here to tell war stories, but to engage the students in a project and get them out in the world . . . I've always liked the idea of using the classroom as a newsroom. "
Sandy Tolan, journalist and author
TED MILLS, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
February 19, 2008 7:33 AM

"Stay on the ground. Get your story from the ground. You'll be okay, just don't decide on what the story is before you go."
Journalist and author Sandy Tolan received that advice from several of his mentors in his early education, including George Stoney, who taught him at New York University, and the New York Times' Wayne King. Over 25 years, several books, award-winning radio shows, articles, and reports, Mr. Tolan has kept to the ground, trying to bring out stories of world conflicts through the people who experience them. His latest book, about which he lectures on Tuesday night, does so in the middle of the contentious Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"The Lemon Tree" tells the tale of one house and one tree, and how the changing hands of ownership allowed Mr. Tolan to impart the story of the conflict through two families. Built by an Arab family, the house was inhabited by the al-Khairis until the creation of the Israeli state in 1948. The al-Khairis left and the house became home to the Eshkenazi family four months later. In 1967, Bashir al-Khairis visited the house and met Dalia Eshkenazi. As the decades passed, both Bashir and Dalia kept in touch.
"The book grew out of the 1998 radio documentary that I did on the 50th anniversary of the war," Mr. Tolan says. "In all our coverage that I've read on the war, of all the forests fallen to make articles and the miles of videotape spilled, so much of it is about the blood and the conflict. There is too little of the human story. Many of us in the U.S., we grew up with the Leon Uris version of history, as in his book 'Exodus.' We learned how the growth of Israel came out of the Holocaust. What we didn't learn was the other side. It doesn't refute the Israeli side, but you must understand the roots of the conflict."
That need led him to the story of Bashir and Dalia. But, he says, he had no idea how the story would evolve or what it might say about the conflict.
"I knew I was going on a pretty long ride. My opinion wasn't changed, but it was deepened."
Unlike in the movies, real life doesn't resolve itself neatly. The lemon tree of the title seemed like a nice metaphor for the conflict -- bearing bitter fruit, planted by Palestinians on Israeli land, etc. -- but its fate ends abruptly, with nothing poetic about it.

When dealing with reality, how does Mr. Tolan know when a story has resolved?
"There's always a deadline," he says. "Thank God for deadlines, or we'd never get things done. This story has no neat and tidy end point. At some point I wanted . . . the ending to be told in the lives of those in which the story goes on. I got a chance to see those two people (Bashir and Dalia) finally meet again face to face. Something in their conversations was powerful and poignant. They were two old friends who disagree deeply, yet were so warm and genuine about their relationship. After seeing them argue and exchange a depth of grieving and kindness, I felt I had the ending."
Mr. Tolan began his journalism career by reporting on the former uranium miners in north Arizona, most of whom were Navajo. He spent months living with and interviewing these men on the reservation, most now dying of cancer. Mr. Tolan says he comes out of an era that was still celebrating the power of journalism working for the public good. This was the post-Watergate era, he says, "when the words journalist and hero could be used in the same sentence. The public had a much better view of journalism in the mid- to late-'70s than they do now . . . There was the idea that you could be involved in making society better by digging for untold stories."
A recent transplant to Los Angeles, Mr. Tolan teaches journalism at the USC Annenberg School of Communication. Working with both undergraduate and graduate students, he helps them learn how to tackle large topics in a real-world setting. Some of these projects have made their way into print (Christian Science Monitor), online (Salon.com), or radio (NPR). It's as close to a real working environment as they're going to get. In 2007 his students won the George Polk Award for reporting on global climate change. It was the first time students had been honored in the history of the award.
"I'm a working journalist," Mr. Tolan says, explaining how he teaches. "I'm not here to tell war stories, but to engage the students in a project and get them out in the world . . . I've always liked the idea of using the classroom as a newsroom."
Mr. Tolan likes to impart to his students the idea of not staying in one medium. Instead, he tells them, focus on storytelling skills.
"I was a freelance radio reporter for years," he explains. "I was doing a story for NPR and then for the New York Times, using the same material. That's a part of the reason I survived. Now that's called multi-media. Reporters are asked to take their own photos. They are asked to do 'Reporters Notebooks' on NPR."
Although Mr. Tolan has realistic expectations about how "The Lemon Tree" will help understanding of the Middle East's situation, he says that desire to have an impact stays with him. Just don't expect Hollywood endings.
"I found that change doesn't come directly," he says. Mr. Tolan cites an article on abuses at a maquiladora on the Arizona-Mexico border that he wrote in the late '80s. "There wasn't much reaction when it ran in the New York Times. But six months to a year later, a board member for one of the companies read the article. He was so disturbed by the living conditions of the workers that he helped sponsor the construction of workers' homes. They built 600.
"But it was partly by chance I heard about it," he says.

SANDY TOLAN
When: Tuesday, February 19, 8:00 p.m.
Where: UCSB's Campbell Hall
Tickets: Free
More info: www.sandytolan.com

©2008 Santa Barbara News-Press

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NIK BLASKOVICH PHOTO
Ted Mills
February 15, 2008 12:54 PM

Our mixology crew has many magical powers. We can tell Cointreau from Triple Sec and Whiskey from Bourbon. We have ways of making bartenders talk. But we didn't know we had the power of serendipity until our mix-assistant suggested we take in the Ty Lounge at the Four Seasons Biltmore Resort, and we arrived to find ourselves on opening night of a brand new cocktail promotion. It was our lucky night, but apparently if you turn up between 5:30 and 8 p.m. on a Wednesday for the next three months, it can be yours, too.
The "Cocktail Flight Nights" offer three mini cocktails for $12, all highlighting a different spirit each week. Like what you taste? Order the full drink and get 50 percent off, plus free hors d'oeuvres. As we like a bargain (i.e. we're cheap), that sounds like a deal. On this night, the special was Chopin Vodka. Despite our coming off a week of drinking gratis Chopin at Santa Barbara International Film Festival parties, we indulged. In a little wooden holder stood three fluted shot glasses: a Pomtini (Chopin, Grand Marnier, pomegranate juice), a Pear Drop (Chopin, Cointreau, fresh pear juice) and a White Grape Delight (Chopin, Chambord, white grape juice). Created by Bar Manager Sarah Latta, the Flight Nights intend to bring a wine-tasting sensibility to cocktails and to developing the palate, she says. Latta has been managing the Lounge since November -- previously she was at Elements. Of the three we tried, our gang voted the Pear Drop the best. Latta's weekly event may continue beyond its initial three month installment, but for now the menu is set.
But we also had history in mind, and this is the famous Biltmore after all, home to the rich and famous long before Fess Parker had even seen a raccoon hat. Bartender Pedro Rivera has served his share of celebs and stars and counts among his proudest moments the time he tended bar right across from Mikhail Gorbachev. Rivera's been here since 1985, but knows cocktails are older than that. The Whale Watcher is a meditation on a MaiTai, with a mix of rums and Crème de Banana, and a Coral Casino favorite. When guests spotted a whale, they got this very large drink. If you didn't see a whale " you might do so after one of these. Plus, Rivera made us both versions -- the original from back in the day, which is light on the grenadine and the newer, sweeter version. The result from our crew? Old wins, 2-to-1.
The Ty Lounge also makes its own infused tequila, with a heavy citrus blend. This then goes into every Santa Barbara Margarita, giving it a sharp spin that gets counterbalanced by the Cointreau.
Every month, a special cocktail is featured on the menu, so we made sure to try February's concoction, which is pink and sweet. Rivera was happy to share the recipe with us and says, even in March, he'll be glad to make it for you.

RASPBERRY CHEESECAKETINI
1-1/2 oz. Effen Raspberry Vodka
1-1/2 oz. Stoli Vanilla Vodka
Splash of Chambord
A touch of heavy whipping cream
Fresh raspberries

Combine vodka and Chambord in shaker over ice and agitate, stir in heavy whipping cream, then strain into martini glass. Top with fresh raspberries.

Ty Lounge, at Four Seasons Biltmore Resort
1260 Channel Dr., Montecito
969-2261, www.fourseasons.com/santabarbara/

©2008 Santa Barbara News-Press

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COURTESY PHOTO
By Ted Mills, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
February 15, 2008 12:31 PM

Taking a break from two of the largest-sounding bands at the moment -- Sufjan Stevens' touring group, and the 23-member Polyphonic Spree -- one might think St. Vincent, aka Annie Clark, would reveal herself as a stripped-to-the-basics singer-songwriter. But not so.
"Marry Me," her 2007 solo debut, shows Clark can do the epic thing too. A savvy mix of pop and experimental, of confessional voice and dramatic scope, St. Vincent's album made many print and blog Top 10 lists in December. The multi-instrumentalist brings her four-piece band to Velvet Jones on Saturday. So what feelings does Ms. Clark have for the patron saint of charity?
"It's actually a family name," she says of her alias. "I was going through some old family albums, and " it's my great-grandmother's middle name."
Clark hails from Dallas and spent her early teens learning guitar, first with lessons, then "organically." For a while, Clark did the singer-songwriter thing. "I went to some very terrible open mic nights," she says.
Then the Polyphonic Spree happened. The symphonic-rock group also hails from Dallas, and was out to leave on tour in support of their second album.
"My friend Toby, who played theremin in the band, told me, 'you should try out,' " she says. "Really, I think he wanted someone to hang out with on tour." Clark auditioned as guitarist on a Tuesday -- by the weekend she was flying off for the first leg of the summer 2005 tour.
When she returned home, months later, a song appeared, called "Marry Me."
"It came out in one sitting at the piano," she says of the song which expresses, if not love, a sort of "road-weariness." The tour had been "demoralizing and fun," she says, with the band sometimes playing to near-empty rooms.
"But it builds character," she jokes. "It was good to shake off the cobwebs and play music for myself."
"I was really inspired by that song," she says. "I was at a songwriting level that I could keep at " I decided at that point it would be the linchpin to build an album around that song."
The album that resulted from that initial session in winter and stretched into the fall of 2006 is a "homage to various heroes from a lifetime of listening." Not that Clark wears her references on her sleeve -- this is no pastiche or retro sound.
Playing a majority of the instruments on the album and applying strings and choirs that would make George Martin proud, Clark gladly discusses trying to replicate the drum sound of the first Plastic Ono Band album, or the "gutty" sound of The Breeders on her album's opening track, "Now Now."
If parts sound Bowie-esque, the answer is more obvious: Mike Garson, Bowie's pianist on "Aladdin Sane," adds his signature sound to several songs. The two met in Minneapolis at a Polyphonic Spree session.
"We kept in touch," she says. "I sent him some sketches of songs and he wrote back."
The pianist then sent tracks recorded in California, which Clark added to the studio mixes.
"It was a very 2006 way of recording," she says.
Although Clark has been promoting "Marry Me" with solo guitar appearances, this tour brings out a full band, all handling several instruments each. Clark supplements her own guitar with triggered samples and racks of effects, including her favorite, the Moogerfooger.
"We're able to create a bigger sound than just four people," she says. It's inspired a sort of slogan for the band. "We're four, but exponentially, we're 16."

ST. VINCENT, with Foreign Born, The Coral Sea, and Watercolor Paintings
When: 9 p.m. Saturday
Where: Velvet Jones, 423 State St.
Cost: $10
Information: 390-0937, www.clubmercy.com

©2008 Santa Barbara News-Press

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NIK BLASKOVICH PHOTO
Ted Mills
February 8, 2008 12:21 PM

There are occasional occupational hazards in this job, and meeting a bartender called Nomo at Mel's might constitute one. Nomo has a mission -- and I paraphrase -- to send you out into the night sideways. Not literally, of course, but mentally. Mel's has earned its reputation -- along with a select few -- of some of the strongest drinks in town. There's a reason the bar has weathered all sorts of development since its 1963 inception, and when we walked in there, we were ready to drink that reason.
Nomo -- he wouldn't give his last name -- has been working at Mel's for over a year, after learning how to mix drinks -- and how to drink, period -- down the street at The Study Hall. Those gents may like to know their charge has gone above and beyond their lessons.
First up: Nomo serves us a straightforward Jack and Coke. It's strong, and while many will ride the J&C rail until closing time, it becomes apparent that Nomo has other plans for us. To him, the J&C is a ciabatta-and-butter drink for the main course.
This turns out to be a shot drink in a pint glass.
The FranBomb, named after 18-year Mel's bartending vet, Frannie, is designed to blow-up in the brain by way of the stomach. An entire can of Rockstar energy drink is poured into a beer glass, into which a shot glass of Jagermeister is submerged. A healthy cap of Bacardi 151 completes the cocktail, which, like all "bomb" drinks, is meant to be downed in one. (Did I do so? Only the inhabitants of Mel's will tell you ? and their memory of that night probably isn't the best.)
Nomo seemed pleased and finished (us) off with a drink charmingly named Slippery (Expletive) Nasty.
"This is our signature shot," Nomo said as he started mixing one up.
Fortunately, "nasty" doesn't describe the taste. Its mix of butterscotch and Bailey's makes the drink tasty and easy to down in one.
But make sure to read the ingredients before taking this medicine. The drink's nickname of "a blackout in a glass" wasn't given lightly.
This story has a happy ending -- we made it out of Mel's still upright and satisfied that it had earned its reputation. For those brave enough to continue, we present the recipe for one of the rudest drinks we've had.

SLIPPERY (EXPLETIVE) NASTY
3 parts Absolut 100
2 parts Bailey's Irish Crème
2 parts Bacardi 151
1/2 parts Butterscotch Schnapps

Combine over ice in shaker, agitate, then strain into a large shot glass.

Mel's
6 E. De la Guerra Plaza
963-2211

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Arlington employee Rosanna Ortiz changes out the name of the closing night film of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, marking the end of festivities on Sunday.
MICHAEL MORIATIS / NEWS-PRESS
TED MILLS, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
February 4, 2008 7:24 AM

Rain and thunder ushered in the 23rd Santa Barbara International Film Festival and some 11 days later, rain saw the event out, with only a few days in between letting the sun shine in.
At the fest's closing night ceremony and film on Sunday night, Executive Director Roger Durling thanked the city of Santa Barbara and everybody else from out of town who attended, and called to the Arlington Theatre stage the entire staff of the festival, including the purple T-shirt-wearing volunteers.
The festival closed with the screening of Giuseppe Tornatore's "The Unknown Woman."
Earlier in the evening, the festival honored 11 films in a subdued awards ceremony hosted by KTYD 99.9 FM's Julie Ramos.
Audiences selected Michael Parfit's "Saving Luna," about the fight to save a lone baby killer whale, as their favorite feature.

SBIFF's executive director, Roger Durling, brought all the staff and volunteers of the film festival on stage at the Arlington for a big thank-you for all the help they gave during the festival.

A jury of filmmakers and actors, chaired by film editor Dave Stein, decided other films.
The Panavision Spirit Award for Independent Cinema went to "Amal," about an auto rickshaw driver who inherits an estate. Director Richie Mehta received a camera package worth about $60,000.
Tao Ruspoli, who directed the buzz-heavy "Fix" -- featured in Saturday's News-Press -- won the Heineken Red Star Award, which honors "the most progressive and gifted independent film director."
Mr. Ruspoli, one of the few filmmakers available to receive the award in person, gave his thanks in a brief few sentences.
Although director Martin Theo Krieger was not present at the event to accept the Best Foreign Film Award for his feature "Beautiful Bitch," a representative read what ended up being the longest thank-you speech of the night.
Mr. Krieger wrote of the "big and warm" response he received from the city on his first-ever visit, and how his preconceived notions of "sunny weather and little attention" were both unfounded.
The Nueva Vision Award for best Spanish-language film went to the Cuban film "Le edad de la peseta" (''The Silly Age"), directed by Pavel Giroud.
A film about the painter the Rev. Albert Wagner, "One Bad Cat," took home The Iconix Video Award for Best Documentary, picked up on stage by Thomas G. Miller.
Two Bruce Corwin Awards for Best Live Action Short Film and Best Animation went to Rob Meyer's "Aquarium" and Joe Tucker's "For the Love of God."
The Fund for Santa Barbara Social Justice Award went to Anne Slick and Danielle Bernstein's film about mining in Ecuador, "When Clouds Clear" (''Despues de la Neblina").
Finally, the 10-10-10 Student Filmmaking Competition, sponsored by Sotheby's International Realty, screened their two winners before the main feature. Both were dramas: Tony Johnson's "The Apple and the Tree" and Daniel Lahr's "Metal Detector Man."
Unlike last year, no red carpet unfurled before the event. Despite this, more than half of the Arlington's 2,000-plus seats were taken by the time of the final feature.
Mr. Durling appeared unfazed. After five years at the head of the fest he said, "I feel as enthusiastic as the first year."

©2008 Santa Barbara News-Press

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Angelina Jolie, recipient of the SBIFF's Performance of the Year Award, and Brad Pitt laugh on the red carpet of the Arlington on Saturday night.
MICHAEL MORIATIS / NEWS-PRESS PHOTOS

TED MILLS, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
February 3, 2008 7:26 AM

If the Santa Barbara International Film Festival has been slightly subdued this year despite the lineup of award winners and nominees appearing nearly every night, the appearance of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt out in front of the Arlington more than made up for it.
More than Cate Blanchett's appearance last week, Saturday's tribute to Ms. Jolie brought out fans in crowds that turned the 1300 block of State into something like Cannes.
And for the fans it was worth it. For over 10 minutes, the two stars stayed away from the red carpet and the paparazzi and worked the crowd, signing autographs and chatting with appreciative teens and adults.

Fans lined up early at the Arlington to see Angelina Jolie on Saturday night.

Giving back to fans is the point, said Ms. Jolie later in her interview with Variety's Peter Hammond. "That's why we make films," she said. It's "for the people that appreciate them."
The idea of giving back has also led to her work with the United Nations High Commissioner for refugees, using the media that follow her and Mr. Pitt around to focus attention on crises in Sierra Leone and beyond.
The Festival honored Ms. Jolie with the Outstanding Performance of the Year Award for her portrayal as Mariane Pearl in Michael Winterbottom's "A Mighty Heart." The role has won her a Golden Globe nomination. Ms. Jolie has previously won Golden Globes for "George Wallace" (1997), "Gia" (1998) and "Girl, Interrupted" (1999), " the latter of which also earned her an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.

Brad Pitt watches on as Angelina Jolie talks to the press on the red carpet at the Arlington on Saturday.

The evening with the actress included clips from a career that started when she was in her teens.
Though known as the daughter of actor Jon Voight, a question about her parents and the acting bug led to tales about her actress mother Marcheline Bertrand.
"I was raised by her," Ms. Jolie said of her mother, who passed away just over a year ago. Ms. Jolie credited her mother with helping her prepare for even the tiniest film. "She'd take me out to thrift stores to buy costumes . . . she'd write me letters addressed to my character."
Mr. Hammond revealed that Ms. Jolie had nearly chosen another career in her early teens -- funeral director. Ms. Jolie admitted that it was true.
"I went to a funeral and thought it was not enough of a celebration of a life of a person." Ms. Jolie earned her mail order degree at 14 years old.
Fortunately, acting was something that followed on from modeling. Her first films were low-budget and sometimes forgettable. (" 'Cyborg 1' was Jean-Claude Van Damme," she said, "and I was 'Cyborg 2' at 17.") Yet on the red carpet, when asked about people who helped her get her start, she singled out another less-known film, 1995's "Without Evidence," as a film that really helped her career get a boost.
In an interview, Ms. Jolie was appreciative and slightly shy. "I feel like I'm in therapy," she joked when asked about her early life.
As an actress, she admitted it was hard to feel confident at first.
"I didn't think I had very much to give," she said. "I thought maybe I had one story to tell. . . . I didn't know myself."
Instead, Ms. Jolie has gone on to a series of sexy and smart roles, including "Beyond Borders," "The Good Shepherd" and her upcoming lead role in Clint Eastwood's "The Changeling."
Mr. Eastwood was on hand to present the award to Ms. Jolie and spoke briefly on the red carpet about the film, based on a true story set in 1920s Los Angeles.
"The film is a lot different from anything that I've done, and it's a lot different from anything that she's done."
As demonstrated Saturday, Ms. Jolie's fans are not going anywhere and will gladly wait and see.

©2008 Santa Barbara News-Press

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TED MILLS, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
February 2, 2008 7:29 AM

A shaggy-dog travelogue that uncovers a rich Los Angeles landscape, "Fix" has generated enough buzz at this year's Santa Barbara International Film Festival to be given two more screenings, today and Sunday.
Its writer-director and co-star Tao Ruspoli plans to return to Santa Barbara for a second weekend. "Fix" marks the director's stepping up a level after making shorts. "I turned 30 and decided it was time to make a feature film," he said.
"Fix" follows what should be a simple path. Filmmakers Milo and Bella (real-life couple Mr. Ruspoli and Olivia Wilde) detour from a trip north to help pick up Milo's brother Leo (Shawn Andrews) from jail. A heroin addict, Leo has until 8 that night to be dropped off in rehab. Even considering the heavy traffic from Calabasas to the heart of Los Angeles, Leo's plan sounds easy and Milo wants to help his charming but unpredictable brother.
Nothing, of course, goes as planned, and Leo leads the two through a series of misadventures, always with that clock ticking toward 8.
The events are "inspired but not based on" a similar journey Mr. Ruspoli took with his real-life brother, who also suffered from addiction. "Shawn is not imitating my brother," he said. "We fictionalized quite a bit. . . . The film is its own story."
Mr. Ruspoli's journey to this point, like the journey by the Chevy Impala in the film, comes by way of the open road. Once a philosophy major at Berkeley, his mind turned to film, and then, through connections and luck, he got a job in the business. He worked in art departments and assisted the likes of Dino De Laurentiis and Vittorio Storaro. But these were big-budget filmmaking jobs, and Mr. Ruspoli wanted something more homegrown.
"I wanted to pick up a camera like a writer picks up a pencil."
Around 2000, he picked up a digi-camera and then gutted an old school bus, modding it out into a rolling production studio on wheels. He lived in it. When Ms. Wilde and he married, the ceremony was held in the bus. And the "bus" was producing short films and docs, as an extension of Mr. Ruspoli's Los Angeles Filmmakers Co-op (LAFCO).
The hand-held, documentary aesthetic carries over into "Fix," which bends rules of fiction and nonfiction to tell its story. Mr. Ruspoli and editor Paul Forte intercut the narrative with abstract montages of the city, or with time-lapse shots.
Shawn Andrews' role as Leo holds the film together. Although Mr. Ruspoli and his co-writer Jeremy Fels created the female characters for Ms. Wilde and their close friend Megalyn Echikunwoke, the character of Leo was a linchpin that needed serious consideration. "Leo is a role that I knew the film would live or die on, depending on who was cast," said Mr. Ruspoli.
"(Leo) was a sought-after role, a real break-out role," said Mr. Andrews, who started out his film career in 1993 with Richard Linklater's "Dazed and Confused." Mr. Andrews read the script and went to audition. Not just a cold read of the script, Mr. Ruspoli took the actor for a spin -- and they improvised scenes out of the film.
It was a long drive.
"He put me through the wringer," Mr. Andrews says of the process to land the role. Unlike the usual "brooding, emaciated" addict audiences typically see, according to Mr. Andrews, Leo is charming and persuasive.
"There's definitely that kind of person out there," he said. "I've known addicts that are larger than life. . . . You only mean to spend 10 minutes with them and then a whole day has passed."
Once Mr. Ruspoli assembled his cast, the shoot turned out to be as relaxed as hanging out with friends.
"Megalyn and I are so comfortable with each other," said Ms. Wilde of her co-star, who plays Leo's estranged girlfriend, "that we could just 'play.' We can improv for hours."
And although many of Mr. Ruspoli's friends turn up in roles, "Fix" has an equal number of fascinating non-actors who were at the locations. All the domino players sitting around a garden table in the Watts section of the movie were there when the crew turned up. Unlike usual "extras," Mr. Ruspoli gives them a voice in the film.
More than 25 percent of the film is improvised, said the director.
"A lot of magic happened on set."
"Fix" opened at Slamdance, and the cast and director have been riding the buzz straight through to Santa Barbara, with more fests in March. Mr. Ruspoli plans to be in the back of the theater for each screening.
"I love how each audience takes something new out of each scene," he said. "It's almost like going to the theater."
Fix: Official Site

©2008 Santa Barbara News-Press

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Actor Tommy Lee Jones poses for photographers on the red carpet outside the Arlington Theatre on Friday. Mr. Jones was there to receive the American Riviera Award from the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.
MICHAEL MORIATIS / NEWS-PRESS PHOTOS
TED MILLS, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT

February 2, 2008 7:18 AM

Tommy Lee Jones is not one to buy into the myth-making of Hollywood. Yes, he shared his Harvard dorm room with Al Gore, but no, he said, he was not the inspiration for Ryan O'Neill's character in "Love Story," Mr. Jones' first film, as is often reported. Yes, he plays characters that often stand in for America. No, he's not like any of those characters. Oscars and other awards are "good for business." It's just, as he's said before, a job. The Santa Barbara International Film Festival honored the actor for being so good at that job on Friday night, with the American Riviera Award. The career-spanning retrospective and interview at the Arlington Theatre drew nearly a full house.
This year, Mr. Jones has been nominated for two Oscars -- one as Best Actor for Paul Haggis' "In the Valley of Elah," and one for Best Supporting Actor in the Coen Brothers' "No Country for Old Men." The former nomination is his first in that category.

Andy Davis, who directed Mr. Jones in "The Fugitive," presented the award.

Variety's Pete Hammond took on the task of interviewing Mr. Jones. An opening montage sped back and forth over the actors' history: young and tough in "Love Story," commanding in "The Fugitive," "U.S. Marshalls" and "The Hunted," and willing to look silly (but still dangerous) in pop blockbusters like "Men in Black" and "Batman Forever." It's his presence in such films however, that have earned him a new generation of fans that have followed him into more complex films.
Introducing the actor, Mr. Hammond described Mr. Jones' performance in "In the Valley of Elah" as "so subtle, you never catch him acting." He's one of the great American actors, Mr. Hammond said, comparing him to classic movie stars such as Cary Grant, James Stewart and Gary Cooper. Yet Mr. Jones is also a great character actor, he said.

Tommy Lee Jones answers questions from Jared Winslow, 11, at the Arlington Theatre on Friday.

His fans agree. Phoenix native Paul Kinsinger managed to snag tickets to the show while passing through on vacation and calls Mr. Jones "the quintessential American actor. He has a quiet, male strength." A fan since 1977's "Rolling Thunder," Mr. Kinsinger said the actor "says more with what he doesn't say. . . . He lets his face talk for him."
"I'm not that introspective," Mr. Jones admitted to a question on the red carpet about his past. However, he does like to talk about things other than acting, including his interest in playing polo (he first came to Santa Barbara in 1978 to play at the club here and bought a condo near the first field), his ranch outside San Antonio, Texas, 100 miles or so south of his birthplace, San Saba. Early on in the interview, he revealed that he was part of the Harvard football team and on the field for the infamous 1968 Harvard-Yale game that resulted in a 29-29 tie in the last 42 seconds. But, the towering Mr. Jones said, he was too short and small to continue in a football career. "I was the smallest in the Ivy League," he said.
Asked if there were any directors he'd love to work with, Mr. Jones said there are many and smiled. "I'm always looking for a job."

Members of the media speak with actor Tommy Lee Jones on the red carpet of the Arlington Theatre on Friday.

Santa Barbara resident, director and friend Andrew Davis presented the award and was a bit more elucidating on Mr. Jones' qualities, having directed him in three films since 1987's "The Package."
"He's incredibly capable," Mr. Davis said. "He's going to find a way to make it work . . . and to bring his own talents to the service of the film."

©2008 Santa Barbara News-Press

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Feeling film festival fatigue, or still can't get enough? Or a little of both? With three days left in another successful (and 23rd annual) installment of the Santa Barbara Film Festival, it's time to dive back in and enjoy what's left. Check with the Film Festival hub at Hotel Santa Barbara for an updated schedule -- films that get a buzz often receive third and fourth screenings on this weekend. The free family film section, APPLEBOX, returns for a second round of weekend mornings for the kids. There's still plenty of star power lighting up the evenings: tonight the Fest honors Tommy Lee Jones and tomorrow Angelina Jolie comes to town, so expect red carpet mayhem. Sunday night's closing ceremonies will present awards to all the films you may have been lucky enough to see in the week previous. But if you missed them, fear not, because the SBIFF's Third Weekend (February 8-10) at the Riviera shows a majority of the winners at a series of absolutely free screenings. All the films with none of the out-of-towners! But then again, that mix of locals and cinema touristas is what makes the Festival such fun.

—Ted Mills

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NIK BLASKOVICH PHOTO
Ted Mills
February 1, 2008 10:41 AM

We like someone who rises to a challenge when our mixology tour pulls up at a freshly wiped down bar. And we love someone who goes above and beyond our expectations. So it was with Esther Rogers, who tends bar at Roy four nights a week. When we threw down our kindly gauntlet, Rogers took to it like a contestant on Iron Chef ? but with booze.
Rogers hails from Portland, but she's been all over the American map presumably picking up mixology knowledge. Her most recent stint was in New Orleans, where she studied how to make a proper Sazerac among other beloved Big Easy cocktails. She knows her Rye Whiskey and when to use it. She's picky about her bitters.
Like a good chef, she's eyeing the fresh ingredients of the day, wondering if she can incorporate them. Our first example was her Clementine mojito, which took advantage of the fresh Clementines that had come in. Adding orange flower water to the usual mojito ingredients and turning to a citrus-based rum (Bacardi Limon), as well as garnishing the tall glass with speared Clementine segments, turned a regular mojito into something fresher. Some mojito-makers go heavy on the sugar, but not here.
Rogers no doubt wears the influence of her boss, Roy Gandy, who designs the menu, occasionally takes his turn in the kitchen and keeps an eye on local produce and meat for special dishes. The restaurant has been serving since 1994.
When we gave this the seal of approval, Rogers disappeared to work on the second cocktail with a foodie bend, and returned with a surprising Sugar Beet & Basil Martini. Blood red and garnished with ribbed slices of beet and basil, the drink looked like it would tend towards a Bloody Mary style flavor. Only it didn't -- light and sweet, but tempered with fresh lemon juice, the vodka-based martini didn't overwhelm with a heavy vegetable flavor, nor did it shy away from it.
Near the end of our evening, Rogers was seen busy in the kitchen, which looks out over the bar, prepping something. We felt a bit guilty having a look, so we turned our backs and waited to be surprised.
The Chocolate Raspberry Mousse-tini would wrap up any meal. It's a fine dessert drink, with a mix of Bailey's, vodka, Aqua Perfecta, all in a martini glass, drizzled with a berry reduction sauce. The cute bonus was the garnish, several spoons of fresh whipped cream in an orange-leaf tube. Most excellent, we thought, as the creamy Bailey's complemented the strength of the vodka.

CHOCOLATE RASPBERRY MOUSSE-TINI
1 part Absolut Razz
1 part Three Olives Chocolate Vodka
1 part Bailey's Irish Crème
1/2 part Aqua Perfecta framboise
A dash of Kahlua
Strawberry reduction sauce
Whipped cream (unsweetened)
Orange leaves, washed and patted down

Prep garnish by rolling up leaves into a funnel and spearing one end shut with a toothpick. Whip the cream and fill the tube nearly to the top.
Prep martini glass by drizzling some strawberry reduction sauce around the inside of the glass. Use a squeeze bottle. Do not overdo.
Combine vodkas, Bailey's, Aqua Perfecta, and Kahlua into a shaker, add ice, agitate, then strain very slowly into glass. Garnish with the leaf tube, sprinkle some cocoa powder on top of cream.

Restaurant Roy
7 W. Carrillo St.
966-5636, www.restaurantroy.com

©2008 Santa Barbara News-Press

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BY TED MILLS, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
February 1, 2008 10:48 AM

Brad Bird's tenacity as a young man has paid off.
Born in Montana, he visited the Walt Disney Animation Studios when he was 11 years old and told animators there he would be one of them one day. Three years later, he turned up with a short film.
Not that he joined the payroll immediately -- he attended CalArts before taking a job he couldn't refuse at Disney (despite dropping out of CalArts, Bird says they love to have him back to speak to students).
Now, his films -- "The Iron Giant," "The Incredibles," and "Ratatouille" -- offer some of the greatest pleasures of the last ten years in terms of universal appeal, design, and storytelling. "Ratatouille" was denied a Best Picture Oscar nomination despite garnering rave reviews (he received Rottentomatoes.com's Golden Tomato award for the best-reviewed film of the year), but the film still managed five nominations from the Academy.

Brad Bird stands at far left with Patton Oswalt, middle, who voiced Rata's adorable lead character, Remy, seen here, and with one of the film's producers, Brad Lewis. Below, Bird stands with Peter O'Toole, who voiced the character of cranky food critic Anton Ego.
DISNEY PHOTOS

On Saturday, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival invites Bird for a "Conversations With" event, preceded by a screening of the documentary "The Pixar Story."
He first worked on 1981's "The Fox and Hound." It was there where he was mentored by some of the best classical animators of the era, but his real break came when Steven Spielberg asked him to script a live action episode of "Amazing Stories" in 1985. That led to a second episode, this time fully animated. "Family Dog" became his calling card: Bird could animate and tell a good story.
This episode led to executive consultant jobs on The Simpsons, King of the Hill, and then finally the chance to write and direct an animated feature, "The Iron Giant," based on the Ted Hughes book. Pixar took notice and offered Bird the step over into computer animation. In the 12 years since Pixar's "Toy Story," Bird says both technology and perceptions have changed.

"It's amazing," he says. "Look at the human characters in those (Toy Story and Ratatouille). It's very different. There's such control now, and so many controls the animator has at their disposal. (Computer Generation) is a tool like any other, but I think it's a really flexible, wonderful one.
"We are moving past an unfortunate period where studios thought that CG was the only way to be successful," he says. "It's not what you use to make the film, it's how you tell the story. It's the characters, and it's the graphic style. Now we have successful films that are not just CG, but traditional 2D animation, or stop-motion. All kinds of films can and should be made."
Bird now juggles the mantles of writer, director, and animator. But what of the young boy who wanted to draw cartoons?
"I can draw, I can storyboard, I can even design some characters if you hold a gun to my head," he says. "There are sections in all my films that I know specifically how it should look. I draw the scenes as I write them, I don't do it later.
"The writers' strike is seen by some as a symposium on us directors. But as a writer-director, it's its own continual process. I'm even writing in the editing room, when I'm reshaping the narrative in the final cut. I don't know, would you call that directing? Or writing?"
Although known for films that appeal to all ages, Bird says that having kids of his own hasn't changed the way he writes. He certainly wouldn't write for kids.
"No good things can come from that," he says. "You have to write for yourself. But it has helped me as a director in that it's taught me patience." As he is accustomed to doing, Bird lets out a hearty chuckle. "Adults, like children, seldom ask directly for what they want. Adults are just like kids, but with an ability to disguise what they think behind sympathetic patter."

CONVERSATION WITH BRAD BIRD, preceded by screening of 'The Pixar Story'
When: Screening begins at 4:30 p.m. Saturday, discussion at 6 p.m.
Where: Lobero Theatre, 33 E. Canon Perdido St.
Cost: $13
Information: 963-0761 or www.sbiff.org

©2008 Santa Barbara News-Press

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COURTESY PHOTO

TED MILLS, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
January 31, 2008 8:19 AM

For more then 30 years, actor Tommy Lee Jones has found a comfortable niche playing both hero and villain and characters that share a little bit of both.
He's played killer Gary Gilmore in "The Executioner's Song" -- his first Emmy Award -- and Loretta Lynn's husband in "Coal Miner's Daughter." He's been in some of 1990s biggest blockbusters -- "The Fugitive (his first Oscar, too, for Best Supporting Actor) and its sequel; "Men in Black" and its sequel.
But 2007 turned out to be a dramatically successful year for Mr. Jones as well. His grief-stricken father in Paul Haggis's "In the Valley of Elah" and his troubled sheriff in "No Country for Old Men," both embody a country that still knows what it takes to be great but fears it has irrevocably lost its way. The actor receives the American Riviera Award from Santa Barbara International Film Festival on Friday at the Lobero Theatre.
In interview, however, Mr. Jones remains serious and taciturn. And though he does own a ranch outside of San Antonio, he's reluctant to draw any comparisons between his characters and himself. "I don't identify with any of the characters I play," he says. "I think that professional objectivity is important to me."
Yet his desire to act and his big break stem from a desire to be something larger than life. Although his first film role was in "Love Story" (in which the Ryan O'Neil character was modeled on both Mr. Jones and his roommate at Harvard, Al Gore), Mr. Jones managed seven years in New York theater, some appearances in episodic TV drama, and then scored his breakthrough with Roger Corman, who cast him as Coley Blake in "Jackson County Jail."
"I left (New York City) saying what I really want to do . . . was play a character who gets to carry a big pistol and have a woman at his side. And I got to do that . . . and that's when I started making American movies. I earned enough money I could buy myself a second-hand pickup."
In answering several questions about acting, Mr. Jones' views are utilitarian. There's no mystery to it. It's a job. His ability to navigate a career without the typecasting is equally without special meaning. "I don't put it down to anything. I just do my best in the role."
What does animate Mr. Jones is talking about the San Antonio ranch, and even then, it's to note that it isn't a getaway -- there's hard work, too.
"When I'm there I drive around in my truck with a clipboard and make sure things get done. I try to be on hand for cattle working. I'm there when we buy cattle, and I deal with stocking rates. I could tell you more, but it would sound like Agriculture 101."
Mr. Jones' Hollywood clout and determination to tell stories has led to directing, once in 1995 ("The Good Old Boys") and in 2005 for "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada." It's a film he holds dear -- and one that few people have seen.
He urges his fans to seek it out.
Mr. Jones also holds rights to Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian" and another novel adaptation he is trying to get off the ground, Ernest Hemingway's last novel, "Islands in the Stream."
"It was made into a bad movie once," Mr. Jones says. "But I believe there's a good movie in the book." He has co-written the script and plans to direct.
Regardless, he begins 2008 ready to work as usual. Does he have time to relax? The answer is typical Tommy Lee Jones:
"Well, I'm pretty well relaxed most of the time. I'm relaxed on set. The faster you work, the more you have to relax."

©2008 Santa Barbara News-Press

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Actress Amy Ryan is all smiles as she walks the red carpet to receive her award at the Lobero Theatre on Wednesday night.
MIKE ELIASON / NEWS-PRESS PHOTOS
TED MILLS, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
January 31, 2008 8:09 AM

Not one, but five upcoming actors received honors Wednesday night at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. In what one actor joked was a sort of "new kids on the block" of stars, the quintet made up of Casey Affleck, Ellen Page, Amy Ryan, Marion Cotillard and James McAvoy was honored with the new Virtuosos Award at a packed Lobero Theatre.
Four of the five actors are up for Academy Awards.
Mr. McAvoy may have been snubbed this year for an Oscar, but his performance in Joe Wright's "Atonement" has won him many adoring fans, as did his lead role in 2006's "The Last King of Scotland."
"Recognition is a bonus," he said of receiving awards, and added that the knowledge that people are seeing the film is what's important.
Mr. Affleck is Oscar-nominated for his supporting role in "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford," where he plays the title assassin. The role, he said, is "the first time I could play a character that complicated." And he noted that a "good chunk of time in the film" is devoted to each facet.
He followed up "Assassination" with "Gone Baby Gone," directed by his brother Ben, where he shares screen time with fellow honoree Amy Ryan.
Ms. Ryan, who flew in from sunny Spain to extra chilly Santa Barbara after shooting a film, co-stars in "Gone Baby Gone" as the drug-addicted mother of a missing child. The role earned her a Best Supporting Actress nomination.
Asked if she saw any similar thread running through her four fellow honorees, the actress said, "I see that doe in the headlights look."
The youngest member of the group, Ellen Page, has come into the public's consciousness with the teen-pregnancy comedy "Juno," in which she plays the title character.
She has noted how the film earned her many new young, female fans that have seen the film "three to five times or more."
The character of Juno can hopefully show young women "the passion that we need" to get through that experience, she said.

Actor Casey Affleck, shown in a digital camera's viewfinder, is on his way to accept his award

Although Mr. McAvoy and Mr. Affleck attracted many excited fans outside on the red carpet, Marion Cotillard's fans serenaded her when she stepped out of her limousine. The song of choice was appropriate -- "La Vie En Rose" -- for the actress who portrays chanteuse Edith Piaf in the film of the same name.
Her transformation through the film from energetic street singer to crippled yet famous star earned her a Best Actress Oscar nod. Her research -- through books and film footage -- was broad, Ms. Cotillard said, and even though she loved the script there was so much to Piaf's life that "you could do a lot of movies about her."
The evening devoted time to each actor, with a career montage followed by an interview with film editor of the Hollywood Journal, Gregg Kilday.
At the end of the evening, all five shared space on the stage for further discussion.

©2008 Santa Barbara News-Press

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"No Country for Old Men" star Javier Bardem talks to members of the media on the red carpet at the Arlington where he was present to receive the Montecito Award.
MICHAEL MORIATIS / NEWS-PRESS
TED MILLS, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
January 29, 2008 7:26 AM

Although blessed with a leading-man face, actor Javier Bardem has spent his years in film disappearing into roles.
He has gained weight, lost hair and been aged 50 years through make-up artists. But this ability to metamorphose and disappear into character has earned the actor two Academy Award nominations, and he was winner of the Actor in a Supporting Role category at Sunday's Screen Actors Guild awards. And at this year's Santa Barbara International Film Festival Monday night at the Arlington Theatre, it led to the Montecito Award.
Mr. Bardem currently stars as the evil monster of a hitman, Anton Chigurh, in the Coen Brothers' "No Country for Old Men." The role earned him his second Oscar nomination.
The actor, however, takes all the attention with a great deal of modesty.
"I guess they had some impression from (my character's) haircut and cattle gun," he said, as he stopped for questions on the red carpet.

Javier Bardem chats with SBIFF Executive Director Roger Durling at the Arlington where he received the Montecito Award.

True, Chigurh's appearance and way of dispatching victims makes the picture. But as SBIFF Executive Artistic Director Roger Durling pointed out in his introduction of Mr. Bardem, it is the character under the pageboy haircut that gives us nightmares.
"I'm overwhelmed by the size of the theater . . . and by the size of the people," the actor joked of the three-quarters- filled Arlington. He said he was also happy that "somebody may be interested in what I'm doing."
Audiences have been interested since Mr. Bardem began acting on Spanish television in the '80s. A montage of clips highlighted his multifaceted career Monday night, from Spanish films rarely seen in America to his recent appearances in "The Sea Inside," "Love in the Time of Cholera," and "Collateral."
Outside the theater, Mr. Bardem said it was hard to watch himself in his films, even when he looks so different. Can he ever separate himself from the person on screen?
"I wish," he said, "but it's impossible. That's the test for an actor. But all you see is your stupid face making stupid faces."
His fans disagree.
"He's a class of actor who's so invested in a role that he disappears into it," said Peter Gelles, who came from Los Angeles for the show. "Peter Sellers was another actor like that."
"He so takes over aspects of a character . . . their mannerisms, that you don't recognize him," agreed Karoliina Tuovinen, who assisted in the editing of the montage, but is first and foremost a Bardem fan.
Woody Harrelson, Mr. Bardem's co-star in "No Country for Old Men," was the presenter of the award.
Mr. Bardem maintains strong ties to his home city of Madrid. Asked about learning English to gain more roles, he said that he still attends the same acting school that he's been at for 20 years. "I have the same teacher, too, Carlos Corazza."
For the actor, the attention is not just about his name, but that of his whole family, all of whom are actors or directors or tied to the arts. It was important, he said, because not long ago actors "were not allowed to be buried on sacred land," he noted, adding that the (Spanish Catholic) authorities considered them "as homosexuals and prostitutes."
Now, facing the attention and affection from the audience and the film festival, he said, "I feel like I can do anything."

©2008 Santa Barbara News-Press

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From left, Jody Nelson, Allen Park and Diane Stevens were among the filmmakers whose documentaries were shown at the Marjorie Luke Theatre on Sunday.
MICHAEL MORIATIS / NEWS-PRESS
TED MILLS, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
January 28, 2008 7:33 AM

Affordable equipment and the increasing number of filmmaking classes throughout Santa Barbara mean that more and more residents are directing and producing movies than ever before.
The Santa Barbara International Film Festival has been aware of this for many years now and includes a regular series of "Santa Barbara Filmmakers" within the fest, with shorts, experimental and documentary works receiving their own showings.
This year's Student Documentary section revealed how flexible the definition of both "student" and "documentary" can be.
Although Diane Stevens has been out of Brooks Institute for many years, her film "Don Riders" comes not just from her directing and producing hand, but also from the collective of high-school filmmakers and musicians whom she assembled for the project.
Ostensibly, the documentary focuses on Santa Barbara High School's low-rider bicycle club, where Latino youth build fabulously kitted-out (fully equipped) bicycles from scratch. Membership is contingent on keeping a 2.0 average or higher.
At 35 minutes, the doc stretches to show how the club has kept its members out of gangs, but also shows how the members utilized the free music studio at the Twelve35 Teen Center to create the film's soundtrack. The film itself is proof how art -- whether film or building bikes -- can make a difference.
Ms. Stevens got inspired after visiting the club's 2007 banquet. She pitched the idea of a film to the high school, suggesting that media students be the ones to shoot the footage. Two cliques that had never interacted now had to work together.
"The shoot was organized chaos," Ms. Stevens says. "The (film) students were scared as hell . . . when we went into the low riders' neighborhoods. But they've made major connections since and now a lot are friends."

Photo MICHAEL MORIATIS / NEWS-PRESS
Jody Nelson is a former physical education teacher who is currently a returning student at SBCC's SOMA classes.
She's earned her degree but continually takes classes, she says, to keep up with new technology.
As a result of several courses she took from instructor Curtis Bieber, she has produced and directed three shorts. "Iron Boy," which the SBIFF selected to show, focuses on a 9-year-old triathlete named Brynn Sargent. Ms. Nelson's film keeps it short and sweet, creating a portrait of this Sacramento native who speaks with the confidence and clarity of a man twice his age.
"I made the video for Curtis' class and turned it in on time," she says, "but Curtis pushed me to work on it more and send it out there."
Ms. Nelson's SBIFF showing demonstrates to her that her career shift is starting to pay off.
Allen Park's "Scene and Heard: A Musical History of Isla Vista" came out of similar circumstances.
This history of Isla Vista and its music scene started off as a project in Dana Driscoll's documentary class at UCSB, but when Mr. Park and his producing partner, Brett Service, hit a rich seam of subject matter, the two continued with the film as an independent study.
"We think it's a very important historical document," says Mr. Service of the film, which features a wide selection of archival footage on UCSB student life and of the evolution of its "student ghetto," where bands can spring out of nowhere and play to thousands of students on Del Playa and Anisquoyo Park a day later. Mr. Park includes interviews with Jack Johnson, Henry Sarria and Paul Marshall (of Strawberry Alarm Clock fame), as well as other musicians. As a short (25 minute) overview of a misunderstood part of larger Santa Barbara, the film "speaks for itself," according to Mr. Park.

The hour-long program of docs screens again on Tuesday, Jan. 29 at Center Stage Theater, 9:30 p.m. Those wanting tickets to the event can call 963-0761.

©2008 Santa Barbara News-Press

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Golden Globe nominee Amy Ryan will be one of five performers recognized during the Santa Barbara International Film Festival's Virtuosos Award ceremony
COURTESY PHOTO
TED MILLS, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
January 28, 2008 7:30 AM

Few performers in Hollywood can claim overnight success. Amy Ryan isn't one of them either -- she paid her dues until a key minor role in the 2005 film "Capote" raised her profile.
Ms. Ryan played Marie, wife of Alvin Dewey, the Kansas Board of Investigation detective. The Deweys let Capote and Harper Lee stay at their home, and though these scenes are short, Ms. Ryan's Marie is no background character. The actress makes her feel like a living being and not a plot device.
"I had casting directors calling me back after that," Ms. Ryan told the News-Press. "They kept saying 'I didn't recognize you!' But I had been here all along."
Her tenacity has paid off with a breakout performance in Ben Affleck's "Gone Baby Gone," where she plays the complex Helene, the drug-addicted mother of the film's missing child.
Now with a Golden Globe nomination, Ms. Ryan's talent will be celebrated Wednesday at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival's Virtuosos Award ceremony, where she will share the honor with four others: Casey Affleck, Marion Cotillard, James McAvoy and Ellen Page.
Ms. Ryan says she's getting used to the attention.
"I like the awards where they just announce the winners, like the NYFCC," she says (that's the New York Film Critics Circle, who awarded her Best Supporting Actress.) "You get a call and it's, 'Would you like to dress up and come to this party? We have an award for you.' Sure! I'd love to."
In between "Capote" and Mr. Affleck's crime drama hangs her best-known role, for those with HBO, anyway: As Officer Beatrice "Beadie" Russell on "The Wire." She became a central part of Season Two's sex-trafficking and port authority storyline, a patrol cop who rises to the occasion when a great crime is uncovered.
That show's gritty realism has been carried over to her work on "Gone Baby Gone."
"In terms of creating the character, I started with the words on the page and the words in the book," she said. "And then Ben and I talked a lot. I told him that she can't be all evil; she truly loves the daughter despite what happens. But she's a very guarded person, and very much into self-survival."
And though Ms. Ryan hails from Queens, N.Y., ("born and raised, yeah," she says stretching out the last word with an exaggerated accent for fun), she's managed to disappear into every character's voice and mannerisms, from "Capote's" Kansas to "The Wire's" Baltimore to "Gone Baby Gone's" Boston dialect.
"I couldn't have gotten the character right if we weren't filming in Boston," she said. "You can have a dialogue coach, but sitting down to lunch with these people is the best way to learn the accent."
Not to mention that the role is, as Ms. Ryan describes, a collaboration with Ben Affleck. She has nothing but praise for this actor-turned-director.
"He's the best," she says.
"I think it's his natural calling. He's gracious and generous and knows to surround himself with the best, such as John Toll, his (director of photography). He's also not shy enough to stop sometimes and say, 'Hey, I'm lost.' "
Ms. Ryan is wrapping up Paul Greengrass' next film, tentatively titled "Green Zone," with Matt Damon, and is looking forward to the premiere of Clint Eastwood's "The Changeling," where she shares scenes with SBIFF honoree Angelina Jolie.
Not a bad place to end up after 20 years of hard work.
"And right now," she said, "I'm seeing where this path leads me."

©2008 Santa Barbara News-Press

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TED MILLS, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
January 27, 2008 7:23 AM

Many in the audience who sat enthralled by the dark villainy of Anton Chigurh, the killing machine in the Coen Brothers' "No Country for Old Men," may not have recognized Javier Bardem as the same actor who starred in Julian Schnabel's "Before Night Falls" as gay Cuban poet and dissident Reinaldo Arenas. The Arenas role earned Mr. Bardem a Golden Globe nomination; "No Country" won him one (for Best Supporting Actor).
He has another honor in the bag: the Montecito Award, presented by the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. The Spanish actor will pick up the award, created to honor a series of classic and standout performances, Monday night at the Lobero Theatre.
Mr. Bardem, 38, has been working in front of the camera since he was 6 -- not too much of a surprise when you consider his grandfather and uncle are both directors and his siblings also act. But there was also a time when he was a member of the Spanish national rugby team.
Foreign film buffs may recognize his first Spanish breakout role as the lover of Penelope Cruz's character in "Jam0x97n, jam0x97n" from 1992. It took until 2000 and "Before Night Falls" to break into American film, but he did so to obvious success.
Since then, he's made appearances in Michael Mann's "Collateral" and starred in "The Sea Inside," but even still, "No Country" feels like a revelation.
Mr. Bardem chooses carefully, some might say too carefully. His interviews and articles for previous films describe a reluctant actor who needed major convincing before taking a part.
In an interview with the News-Press, Mr. Bardem said he wasn't sure if his style is a quality or a curse.
"I guess it's about facing what you really are and knowing what you can bring to other people's process," he said. "It's best to know your limitations and good to step out if you're not the right guy. It's good to have no surprises."
Of course, this sounds odd coming from someone with Mr. Bardem's rèsumè -- and mid-sentence he reconsiders.
"But you never know what those surprises will be. That's the fun part. Some people love to jump off the cliff into the water without checking how deep it is," he said.
In "No Country For Old Men," Mr. Bardem's Chigurh chases Josh Brolin's Llewelyn Moss, who has stolen a bag of money from a drug deal gone bad. Chasing both is Tommy lee Jones' Sheriff Bell, who follows a trail of bodies left in Chigurh's wake.
Though the trio is connected by fate, the actors never share a scene together, except for a murky gunfight in a street.
"It was like we were doing three different movies," Mr. Bardem recalled.
"The only connection between all three is Kelly McDonald's character." (Ms. McDonald shares major, separate scenes with all three).
For Mr. Bardem, he has his own theory for why this works.
"They are three different sides of male behavior. Tommy is goodwill; Josh is an impulsive kind of violence; I play this kind of nonsense violence, just pure aggression . . . the movie is a statement of too much testosterone making things go very wrong."
Mr. Bardem recently wrapped on Woody Allen's latest film, "Vicky Christina Barcelona," shot in Barcelona, Spain.
"I have no idea what the finished movie will be like; that is up to Allen's magic," the actor said. "It was a great pleasure to work with Allen, but very demanding. He puts you in a position where you are . . . obliged to just 'be.' There is no time to 'act.' For my country, it is a big honor to have him shooting here."

The Javier Bardem tribute is 8 p.m. Monday at the Lobero Theatre, 33 E. Canon Perdido St. Tickets are $65. For information and tickets, call 963-0761 or 963-4408, or log on to www.sbfilmfestival.org.

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MICHAEL MORIATIS / NEWS-PRESS PHOTOS
TED MILLS, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
January 27, 2008 7:20 AM

From dressing like the Virgin Queen to playing Bob Dylan in drag, actress Cate Blanchett has had a busy 2007. And with both of those roles earning her Oscar nominations (Best Actress for "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" and Best Supporting Actress for "I'm Not There"), she was honored Saturday by the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.
She received the Modern Master Award in a tribute that included a look back on a career that includes nearly 40 films in about 13 years.
Despite the bad weather, film fans turned out in great numbers to see the program at the Lobero Theatre.
"I know we are honoring her as a Modern Master, but Cate is an incredibly young and vital person," said presenter Todd Haynes, director of "I'm Not There."
In the Bob Dylan-based fantasia, the actress plays the poet and singer in drag, when Mr. Dylan "was at his most androgynous," according to Mr. Haynes. The 1966 version of Mr. Dylan, the mysterious figure of D.A. Pennebaker's "Don't Look Back" and "Subterranean Homesick Blues," suited Ms. Blanchett, who has been adventurous in movies like Jim Jarmusch's "Coffee and Cigarettes," where she played two versions of herself in deep conversation with each other.

Ms. Blanchett said she inhabited the Dylan character for three weeks.
"I lost a lot of weight and studied the raw footage of his press conferences from that time. Dylan's manager Jeff Rosen gave me a lot to watch."
If there was one song that helped her get into character, it was "Tombstone Blues," she said. "It was important to Todd that it be a liberating role, and not just mimicry."
Asked if she had any ill effects after playing "Bob" for all that time, she smiled and said, "The smoking! I'm not a smoker, and Dylan chain-smoked through the entire thing."
Last year and this year may well be one of Ms. Blanchett's busiest periods so far, she said. On top of these two roles, she spent time working on David Fincher's "The Curious Tale of Benjamin Button" (alongside her "Babel" co-star Brad Pitt) and "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull."
Saturday's tribute, hosted by critic Leonard Maltin, looked back on a body of work that includes her breakthrough film, "Oscar and Lucinda" (1997), "Elizabeth" (1998), "The Talented Mr. Ripley," all three "Lord of the Rings" films and "Notes on a Scandal," which, along with "Elizabeth," earned her Oscar nominations.
It was 2005's "The Aviator," in which she played Katharine Hepburn, that earned Ms. Blanchett her first Oscar.

Ms. Blanchett, visibly pregnant in her green evening dress, took time to meet with fans before the show.
One of them, Matt Wallace, said he was lucky enough to have his festival pass signed by the actress.
"I said congratulations to her," said Mr. Wallace, who was impressed by the evening. "It's a really touching tribute. The festival puts a lot of time into these events, and the stars looked very touched by them."

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Julie Christie heads into the Lobero Theatre for a special evening in her honor where a question and answer session and a montage of film clips awaited her.
MICHAEL MORIATIS / PHOTOSNEWS-PRESS

TED MILLS, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
January 26, 2008 7:31 AM

"She is not a woman who lives in the past. She is not a woman who likes delving into the past. That is why this is a special evening."
Critic Leonard Maltin was speaking about the actress Julie Christie, whom the Santa Barbara International Film Festival honored in its second evening with a career-spanning tribute at the Lobero Theatre. The usually private Ms. Christie answered questions from Mr. Maltin at the near-capacity theater.
The actress is in the limelight thanks to her role in Sarah Polley's 2006 film, "Away From Her," which has earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress -- her fourth nomination. The others were for "Afterglow" (1997), "McCabe and Mrs. Miller" (1971) and "Darling" (1965), which she turned into Oscar gold.
That film, though not her first, began her career, and led to a string of popular and critical hits. The list reads like a course of classic '60s and '70s cinema: "Doctor Zhivago," "Fahrenheit 451," "Far from the Madding Crowd," "Petulia," "The Go-Between," "Don't Look Now," "Shampoo" and "Heaven Can Wait."
"Even from her first films," said Mr. Maltin in his introduction, "she has always projected an intelligence and curiosity."

Director Norman Jewison and an unidentified friend stop to chat with the media and fans at the Lobero Theatre on Friday night.

"Away From Her" stars Ms. Christie as Fiona -- wife of a philandering husband -- who begins to succumb to Alzheimer's disease. She decides to check herself into a home rather than put her husband through the emotional upheaval of looking after her. The film, which screened at last year's festival and returned for a special screening earlier Friday, manages many levels of complexity and allows the actress an impressive spectrum of emotions.
Asked about the film on her brief but courteous red carpet appearance, Ms. Christie spoke less of herself and more about her director, Sarah Polley. The young actress-turned-director had worked under Atom Egoyan, one of Canada's most respected directors, and her debut film is very polished.
"She's very tenacious," said Ms. Christie. "She has a very clear vision of what she wants, and she will absolutely hold on to it. She's also great fun to work with. She's very funny and very lighthearted and creates a relaxed atmosphere on set. Which of course is what we actors love to have."
Asked about her favorite scene in the film as an actor, she smiled and said, "My two favorite scenes got cut out."
It was hard to tell if she was kidding.
"Away From Her" deals with Alzheimer's in a direct, sometimes unflattering way, but the star said that it serves a purpose.
"It has made me and many other people aware of mortality," she said. "Whether through Alzheimer's or not, (the film is) a way of making you prepared for one's own demise."
Although her rèsumè shows a steadily working actress, a film like "Away From Her" is called a "comeback," a notion Mr. Maltin tried to dispel in his introduction.
"Well, as for a comeback, she's never gone away," he said. "She works when the spirit moves her, and she chooses well."

©2008 Santa Barbara News-Press

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NIK BLASKOVICH PHOTO
Ted Mills
January 25, 2008 9:05 AM

Sigmund Freud once said, "sometimes a cigar is just a cigar." And sometimes a bar is just a bar. That is, while many of the bars we stop at offer pages of cocktails and their variations, some bars keep it simple. Real simple. Nobody's stopping by asking for a Blue Hawaii. So it was as our mixology party stepped into Monty's Sports Bar.
The bar takes up a humble space next to Woody's Barbecue in the Magnolia Shopping Center, a retail space that includes a supermarket, a health food store, a karate dojo and a fencing school (we want to meet the person for whom this combination makes for one-stop-shopping).
Don't let the dark windows fool you, the interior of Monty's is as well lit as a coffee shop, laden with announcements for game viewings, contests and of course, karaoke night .
But tonight it's slow, and Mo Boek stands behind the bar, at first wondering what we're all about. Well, we're all about sampling cocktails, and Boek doesn't let us down.
First up is a classic margarita, on the rocks and in a lowball glass, with the requisite-but-still-hair-raising rim of salt. Boek balanced the flavors just right, lining them up in opposition to the salt.
Boek has been tending bar at a number of Santa Barbara and Goleta locales for many decades.
Mo made us a Perfect Manhattan ("Perfect" in that it mixes both sweet and dry vermouth), which came in a charming small Martini glass. Many bars skimp on the vermouth, unbalancing the whiskey, but here (with Beam's Eight Star) the mix was correct.
We left with a straightforward, no-nonsense Martini. If you like your martinis light on the vermouth, then Mo's version might be for you.

VODKA MARTINI (Monty's style)
2 oz. Level vodka
1 oz. dry vermouth

Fill a glass half-full with crushed ice. Add vermouth and let sit for 20 seconds. Strain out most of the vermouth, then add vodka to remaining ice, add contents to shaker and agitate. Pour straight into martini glass and garnish with olive.

MONTY'S SPORTS BAR
5114 Hollister Ave.
683-1003
Hours: 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. daily

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By Ted Mills, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
January 25, 2008 8:38 AM

"The way people used to surf, the way we used to surf, was this: we were waiters, we were bus boys. And we'd save up money and go surfing." The voice belongs to surfing legend Shaun Tomson, executive producer of "Bustin' Down the Door," a historical documentary on the moment when surfing turned into a professional sport . . . and a huge money-making machine.
The last five years have not only been good for surf films, but also for serious studies of the sport and its history. "Bustin' Down the Door" unveils a transformative time and aims to appeal outside the usual cult audience, much like 2006's "Chasing the Lotus." The world premiere of the documentary Sunday at the Arlington aims to educate and to bring back together the original crew of men who changed the surfing world.

Surfing legends, from left, Wayne "Rabbit" Bartholomew, Mark Richards and Santa Barbara-based Shaun Tomson spent their younger years together, championing the surfing culture. The trio comes together again in Tomson's new film, "Bustin' Down the Door," showing Sunday in its world premiere debut at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.
Courtesy Photo

Along with Tomson, Wayne "Rabbit" Bartholomew and Mark Richards formed the core group of Australians and South Africans who had a simple dream: "All we wanted to do was prolong the surfing lifestyle," Tomson says. "We wanted to get paid to surf. It was a novel idea."
At the time -- 1975 -- Tomson and the others were between 19 and 21 years old. Tomson and his cousin were still attending university, pursuing degrees in business. They were also poised to become world class surfers, and with a little skill and nerve, they managed to infiltrate the Hawaiian surf culture, win contests, and set a standard that defined professional surfing.

Below, Tomson was photographed for a 1975 cover of Surfing Magazine.

In interview, Tomson remains cagey about the exact details of how this all came to pass within two years. He insists viewers attend the film to see how it all came about.
He is also fond of hinting at a darker history promised in the film. "We put our lives on the line in the water and we risked our lives on land," he says. "Success brought us big problems and took us down an unexpected road." That road, presumably, is in the film.
"We weren't disrespectful of Hawaii (and Hawaiian culture), but others had that sense about us," Tomson says. "We had zero respect within the mainstream industry, but once we brought professionalism and commerce into it, we gave (the higher class of surfer) the time to just focus on surfing. And therefore they improved."
Ironically, the industry Tomson and company helped create now churn out surf films that, he says, "exist to sell shorts and T-shirts. They're advertising campaigns, not films." "Bustin' Down the Door," directed by first-time filmmaker Jeremy Gosch and narrated by Edward Norton, funded itself independently, without corporate sponsorship.
Tomson went on to become a surf legend, winning South Africa's Gunston 500 six times in a row. His entrepreneurial spirit led him to start up Instinct Apparel and Solitude Clothing. Having settled in Santa Barbara 12 years ago, he has since become involved with the Surfrider Foundation and acts as chair of its advisory board.

Montecito resident Shaun Tomson, right, discusses soon-to-be-premiered "Bustin' Down the Door."

The other five members also had their successes. Wayne "Rabbit" Bartholomew heads the Association of Surfing Professionals. Mark Richards is considered one of the best board shapers. All have earned numerous titles.
And if luck will have it, all of them will be attending the premiere, a rare chance for this group to be in the same room.
"When I look at the movie, it's like looking at someone else's life . . . We all look so fragile," Tomson says. "I'm amazed that it all happened the way it did."

'BUSTIN' DOWN THE DOOR'
When: 7 p.m. Sunday
Where: Arlington Theatre,
1317 State Street
Tickets: $15
Information: 963-4408, www.bustindownthedoor.com

©2008 Santa Barbara News-Press

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By Ted Mills, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
January 25, 2008 8:37 AM

That particular time of year has fallen on us again. The mutable weather hovers between sun and rain. Despite the cloudy weather, unfamiliar people from southern cities wear sunglasses. When the wind rises it catches on laminated movie credentials hanging around necks, making them flutter in the breeze. People unfamiliar with State Street stumble out of dark theaters, amazed at what they've seen, then try to figure out where to eat for 30 minutes before diving in again.
Yes, it's the 23rd Annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival, which, as you read this, has already been in town for one evening. But today, running through Feb. 3, is when the real schedule-juggling, stargazing, contact-making party begins.
Here's what the Film Festival seems to have learned from last year: don't mess with the formula, just add to it. Celebrity appearances and award presentations serve as a linchpin for each evening, and the list is formidable: Angelina Jolie, Tommy Lee Jones, Cate Blanchett, Ryan Gosling, Javier Bardem, Julie Christie and more. The Virtuosos Award -- new for 2008 -- honors five rising stars for the price of one. What a deal!
The series of panels -- on directing, producing, writing and more -- return in force this year, as does the 10-10-10 Student Filmmaking competition, which often results in some of the quirkiest and freewheelin' short films in the festival . . . and they're homemade too.
The festival divides 215 films into several categories and sidebars -- the regulars, such as Latino Cinemedia, To the Maxxx (extreme sports films), and East x West (Asian cinema), plus new sidebars, such as Eastern Bloc -- again focusing on developments in sub-layers of film with their own devoted followers. And for kids (and families) there's the absolutely free Applebox, a weekend, morning-only fest of family films.
The festival tantalizes with the idea that maybe you'll see a brilliant, life-changing film and be the first one to know all about it. Not all films are guaranteed to have as much as a DVD shelf life, so pay attention, because those memories remain important.
Lastly, let's not forget what makes a festival great, other than the films -- the schmoozing, the celebrating and the party going. The mass gathering of the film tribes always is cause for much merriment. Can the festival top the Biltmore-set Will Smith party last year, of which people spoke in rapturous tones for days? Or Q's Sushi a Go-Go turning into three levels of hell, purgatory and heaven? We'll let you know in 10 days.
For a full schedule, check www.sbiff.org.

Ted's Top-10 checklist
With 215 films, so little time, what am I curious to see?
'The Unknown Woman'
Closing night film from the director of "Cinema Paradiso. One of his best, they are saying.
'In the Company of Actors'
Sure, I'd love to watch Cate Blanchett and Hugo Weaving rehearsing "Hedda Gabler," as this doc does.
'Vexille'
I missed last year's anime spectacular, "Paprika," and it took me months to catch up. Not this time.
'Away From Her'
Brilliant actor Sarah Polley turns out to be a brilliant director, I have been told by my sources.
'The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford'
Because I missed it when it passed through town. What can I say?
'Triangle'
Three Hong Kong directors for the price of one: Tsui Hark, Ringo Lam and Johnnie To!
'D Tour: A Tenacious D(ocumentary)'
The D Men make me laugh, who knows what awaits in a doc?
'Frank & Cindy'
What happened to the man behind OXO's one-hit wonder "Whirley Girl"? This doc sounds like a dysfunctional journey I'd like to take.
'George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead'
Yeah, I know I can wait for a regular release, but this is Romero!
'The Mourning Forest'
Naomi Kawase's film has sent online reviewers into comparisons with Mizoguchi and Kiarostami. I'm intrigued.

Note: My list is subject to change once the festival begins!

©2008 Santa Barbara News-Press

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TED MILLS, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
January 25, 2008 7:50 AM

Norman Jewison's thoughts on the film industry can be summed up in the title of his autobiography, released in 2005: "This Terrible Business Has Been Good To Me."
That is has, with five Oscar nominations for best director and a resume of blockbuster and Oscar-winning hits including "Moonstruck," "Fiddler on the Roof," "Rollerball," and the movie that first raised his profile in Hollywood, "In the Heat of the Night."
Yet the studio system that once gave Mr. Jewison his daring breaks has been replaced by corporate entities that, he says, are really only concerned with comic book sequels.
The Santa Barbara International Film Festival honors Mr. Jewison by naming him Guest Director for 2008 and plans to screen three of his best-known films.
Born in Ontario, Canada, Mr. Jewison continues to cultivate young filmmakers through the Canadian Centre for Advanced Film Studies in Toronto, which he founded. In an interview, he is lively, down to earth, and ready to let rip on the state of the business, although never with the taste of sour grapes.

News-Press: The prep for this interview included watching "The Thomas Crown Affair". . .
Norman Jewison: Ah! Thank you. It has that wonderful score by Michel Legrand, one of the best scores of any of my films. I love the chess scene (between Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway). It's a great piece of photography by Haskell Wexler, and a great piece of editing by Hal Ashby.
NP: It's striking that, in a film billed as a romance-thriller, Faye Dunaway's character only meets Thomas Crown once we're halfway through the movie.
NJ: In those days you could take your time with films. "The Thomas Crown Affair" moves gracefully. It's not choppy. So many films these days have that MTV editing. It's sad. I think you need time to tell a story. But now, Hollywood and the studios have been taken over by multinational corporations, and marketing forces are in control. Once that happened, American films lost their originality. Everything interesting has moved to independent films. These are films we talk about at the end of the year.
NP: You've said that betrayal is one of your favorite themes. Why is that?
NJ: When I was very young, about 4 or 5 years old, everybody called me "Jew-boy" or "Jew-y" because of my name. "Jewison": why, that means "son of a Jew." But at 6 or 7 years old, my mom took me aside and told me 'You're not Jewish! You're a Methodist!' And for some reason, I felt betrayed by it. . .I think that's why that may be a major theme. We've all been betrayed in our lives, by a girlfriend, by our family, by our jobs, or by our country. It pervades all my films.
NP: Your films have often had socially aware themes. Where does that come from?
NJ: When I started I was a Canadian, coming to New York at end of the '50s to work. My first opportunity to deal with issues like racism and immigration was on the CBS television special with Harry Belafonte. I became very involved in the battle for equality in '60s. A lot of us were. After the success of "In the Heat of the Night," I knew that racism was a subject I wanted to revisit. And I did with "A Soldier's Story" (1983) and "The Hurricane" (1999). But if you said 20 years ago that a black senator was going to be a viable candidate for president, I would have said you're crazy. We've watched America change, and three of (those films) have something to say about this transition. It's a remarkable time right now.
NP: Still, "The Hurricane" managed to anger a lot of people. (The film, which starred Denzel Washington as Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, a boxer wrongly imprisoned for murder, drew complaints and lawsuits that Jewison and his writer had ignored certain facts and taken liberties with others).
NJ: Yes! It's like they wanted to try him all over again. I couldn't believe the hate mail that the film generated, and so much of it from Newark, NJ. But "Hurricane" is a cold case of justice denied. That lingering racism is why it's remarkable that we can even make films like that. Denzel's performance is one of the best in any of my films.
NP: Do you cultivate up-and-coming directors?
NJ: Yes. I do spend a lot of time with new directors, producers and writers. I'm very proud of Sarah Polley, who directed "Away From Her." She spent time at our Canadian Film Center, which is like Canada's (American Film Institute). There's a point in a career when you can pass on all the information you know. I like that. When I met with Roger Durling, that's what he explained I would be doing at the fest.
NP: Who were your mentors?
NJ: It was a combination of people. William Wyler let me come to his sets before I even made a picture. Freddy Zinnemann was also very supportive. I showed him the first cut of "Fiddler on the Roof" to ask him what I should take out. There were many others. They would give you the whisper in the ear you needed, they would take you out to lunch. It's important, because filmmaking is such a difficult thing to teach.

©2008 Santa Barbara News-Press

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Actress Abigail Breslin, co-star of the movie "Definitely, Maybe," talks to the media during the walk on the red carpet at the Arlington Theatre on Thursday night.
MICHAEL MORIATIS / NEWS-PRESS
TED MILLS, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
January 25, 2008 7:45 AM

Torrential rain may have flooded the streets of Santa Barbara, but they did not deter the 23rd annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival from celebrating its opening night with a star-studded ceremony.
With an entire block of State Street closed down in front of the historic Arlington Theatre, fans and press waited, not for limos, but for a VIP tent to produce stars onto the red carpet.
The festival, which runs through Feb. 3, hosts 215 features, including 21 world premieres, numerous shorts, nightly awards and tributes honoring some of Hollywood's most exciting actors and actresses, themed mini-festivals of genres like sports and nature documentaries, and panels of directors, producers and writers.
"This I what I envisioned five years ago (when I started), that we'd be an 'Oscar' festival,' " director Roger Durling said. "I'm having an out-of-body experience right now."
The opening-night film, "Definitely, Maybe," starring Ryan Reynolds and Abigail Breslin, is a romantic comedy about a father explaining his relationship history to his daughter on the eve on his impending divorce. Both Mr. Reynolds and Abigail ("Little Miss Sunshine") walked the red carpet, talking to fans, posing for photos, and answering questions, along with co-stars Derek Luke and Liane Balaban.
"Most of the scenes with Reynolds and Breslin take place in her character's bedroom," said director Adam Brooks, who also appeared and introduced his film. "So we set up a very cozy, nice place for her to work. Abigail is a very focused actress. She has enormous powers of concentration."
Also spotted on the red carpet Thursday evening: actress Shohreh Agdashloo and actor Dennis Franz. The former, who starred in "House of Sand and Fog," also sits on the festival's panel of judges.
The death on Tuesday of actor Heath Ledger hung over the festival, as only two years ago the actor, fresh off his Oscar-nominated role as Ennis Del Mar in "Brokeback Mountain," received the Breakthrough Performance of the Year Award. In his introduction to the event, Mr. Durling spoke to the audience about the 28-year-old's sudden passing.
"We have lost a member of our family," Mr. Durling said. "Please let's honor him for what he gave us . . . he gave us art." With that, Mr. Durling announced that this year's festival would be dedicated to Heath Ledger's memory.
As they did last year, the celebrity invitations announced at the beginning of the year mirrored the Oscar nominations that were announced this month. Tommy Lee Jones, Cate Blanchett, Ellen Page and Julie Christie have all earned Best Actor and Actress nominations; Casey Affleck, Javier Bardem, and Amy Ryan received Best Supporting Actor and Actress nominations (as did Mr. Jones and Ms. Blanchett, for different films). All seven will be in town during the festival to receive awards.
"We must have a little magic crystal ball," said Mr. Durling, noting that invites to the Santa Barbara festival typically go out in May -- long before Oscar nominations are announced. "The gods are looking after us."
Two films nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, "Mongol" and "The Counterfeiters," will also screen at the festival. Last year, a popular festival favorite, "The Lives of Others," went on to win that Oscar .
After the film, the opening night festivities spilled out into the still-tented street and Arlington foyer for a party. While the streets in the immediate vicinity were in blackout mode -- thanks to a storm -- the festival still had enough backup juice to keep the party going.

©2008 Santa Barbara News-Press

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NIK BLASKOVICH PHOTO
Ted Mills
January 18, 2008 11:57 AM

You don't have to wait for the Santa Barbara International Film Festival for Hollywood to come to Santa Barbara. In fact, Hollywood already works the bar at Trattoria Vittoria, the hot Italian restaurant in town. Charlie Manzo, or "Hollywood" to his fans, has been tipping and flipping tipple for the restaurant since its Valentine's Day grand opening. When he's not managing the bar here, he'll likely be found at Stateside where he DJs.
When our gang rolled up on Thursday night, we were lucky to grab the last seats at the end of the bar -- the rest of the restaurant was packed. Up first on the menu was the Mixed Berry, a mix of three flavored Stoli vodkas (blueberry, raspberry and black cherry), fresh muddled berries and a splash of Chambord. The drink comes served in a midnight blue martini glass with a sprig of mint, so none of us really knew what the cocktail looked like. Sweet up front, but with a tart, sour aftertaste -- whether this was a vagary of the sometimes-sour berries, we couldn't say.
Hollywood returned with a shooter/chaser called the Sweet Tart, a pleasing mix of Southern Comfort, Red Bull, fresh lime juice and orange juice, straight from his own recipe book. Southern Comfort and Red Bull make fine bedfellows, strangely enough, as they seem quite close on the taste spectrum.
A few more friends joined us, and soon the orders were coming two-fold. More drinks to sample? We were set. The peach bellini balances the tartness of the champagne with the sweetness of the peach puree. Hollywood disappeared down the far end of the bar near the classical "order-up" archway that looks into the kitchen, and returned with a blazingly red cocktail in a martini glass. At first the color threw us off as to what we were tasting, but soon we figured it out (or rather, Hollywood told us): a mix of Malibu rum, sour apple mix, cranberry juice and a dash of Sprite.
Stuck for a name for this just-realized concoction, we polled our companions and chose the obvious: Hollywood. And because we were surrounded by delicious food -- especially desserts -- our cocktail of the week choice has to go to the Liquid Tiramisu, which is, as they say about some power drinks, a meal in itself. Creamy, sweet and a little bitter, this is a beautiful cake-in-a-blender type of drink.

LIQUID TIRAMISU
2 oz. Espresso
2 oz. Faretti Biscotti
1 oz. Dulseda
1/2 oz. Vanilla Stoli Vodka
Combine in shaker and add ice. Shake and strain into martini glass.

Trattoria Vittoria
30 E. Victoria St.
962-5014, www.trattoriavittoria.com
Hours: Dinner: 5:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Sunday.
Lunch:11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday

©2008 Santa Barbara News-Press

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COURTESY PHOTO
By Ted Mills, News-Press Correspondent
January 18, 2008 11:47 AM

Charlayne Woodard comes from a tough, competitive background in storytelling -- her family.
"Sundays used to mean being at my grandfather's, surrounded by my aunts and uncles, my cousins, and my second cousins," she says. "And my granddaddy would start us off, and he'd tell a story, and I'd be thinking, how am I going to wow him."
Now Woodard wows audiences with her series of one-woman shows that spin tales of family and growing up. Her most recent play, "The Night Watchman," premieres in workshop form at this Saturday's Ojai Playwrights Conference, along with other works in progress from other writers.
"You couldn't be gentle with your stories around my granddaddy, or you'd be cut off," she says. "You had to bring it. And my family would jump in with questions, and I'd have to start all over again."
Woodard doesn't face audiences that tough anymore, but it gave her the training to stand up for herself and standout. Much later, when she left the world of New York theater for the Hollywood film industry, she found that her storytelling was attracting attention.
"People would keep saying, that's a great story, you should make it into a movie," she says. But to Woodard, that was just one tale among many. Actors weren't storytellers like they were on the East Coast, she realized, and if people seemed enthralled by her yarns, well then ?
Her first one-woman play went into workshop at a church retreat for women, where Woodard stood up in front of 450 women and, as she tells it, "450 women finished my sentences for me. Women were coming up afterwards to say, 'Thank you for telling my story.' "
That play became "Pretty Fire," a tale of Woodard's trips from her Albany, New York, home to her grandparents' home in the Deep South. The play premiered in 1992, and since then, she's returned to the storytelling format several times, with "Neat" in 1997, and "In Real Life" in 2000, as well as a multi-character drama, "Flight," in 2005.
Outside her appearances in her own plays, she has racked up a resumé of television appearances ("E.R." and "Law and Order," among others) and appearances in films such as "The Crucible," "Sunshine State," "Unbreakable," and "The Million Dollar Hotel." She also recently finished up a mentally exhausting role as Kate in Rebecca Bayla Taichman's modern-dress version of "The Taming of the Shrew."
"The Night Watchman" returns Woodard to stories of childhood, but she's assembling them around a question of the modern life of kids, not her own past.
"(Children) are assaulted with so much information these days," she says, "and it's a lot for them to synthesize ? I feel that there's less and less attention paid to the family unit.
"This is still an infant play, I haven't really talked it out," she says. Under Keith Bunin's direction, Woodard says she'll be using the chance to perform in Ojai as a way of shaping future incarnations of the play. "The audience becomes my scene partner," she says. "It's just between me and 400 folks."
Other artists at the Ojai Playwright Conference include Neil Patrick Harris, Sally Field, Noah Wyle, Allison Janney, and more. See www.ojaiplays.org for full schedule.

OJAI PLAYWRIGHTS CONFERENCE
When: Readings begin at 5 p.m. Saturday, Dinner and Celebrity Auction 7:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: Matilija Auditorium, 703 El Paseo Rd., Ojai (Readings), and 1105 N. Signal Street, Ojai
(Dinner, Celebrity Auction)
Cost: $65 to $225
Information: 646-6090, www.ojaiplays.org

©2008 Santa Barbara News-Press

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NIK BLASKOVICH PHOTO
Ted Mills
January 11, 2008 11:04 AM

These have been hard times for the mixology crew -- the cold/flu illness won't go away, one of our drinking partners is on holiday, the rain and the freezing weather . . .
So it's nice to know, in these hard times, that two things stay constant: The delicious taste of a sweet, sweet cocktail and the cozy warmth of Dargan's Irish Pub & Restaurant.
Bartender Yvonne Owens puts in the kind of energy and speed to serve customers that would shame another person twice her size. Being Irish, she's in her element pulling Guinness here in the back room bar (Dargan's has two bars), which she's been doing most nights for over two years.
Dargan's indeed has a drinks menu and offers some strong martinis. But we're in Owens' hands now and her gears are turning. She first sets us up with an Irish Soda, a mad mix of Guinness, Coca-Cola, Kahlua and vanilla vodka. The key to the cocktail comes in getting enough Guinness to float and form its trademark creamy head, while underneath, the sweet liquors mix into something strong and refreshing.
"Is that enough Guinness?" Owens asks us, clearly concerned about making the drink just right, even as she juggles a bar becoming busier by degrees.
The most famous Irish shot is undoubtedly found at the bottom of a pint glass -- the remnants of an Irish Car Bomb (a shooter of Bailey's dropped into a half-pint of Guinness) -- but Owens wanted to show us more. So we wound up with something called The Reacharound, a drink surely designed to embarrass us.
In a shot glass, Owen mixed Stoli Blueberry, Stoli Vanilla, Chambord, soda water and fresh cream, then topped it with whipped cream. The "Reacharound" entails the friendly interlocking of arms and the simultaneous downing of the drink.
Seeing we could take the drink, Owens sent us out into the night with a cocktail created on the spot. We even got to name it, a first for this column. Next time you're at Dargan's, ask for a Dargan Dangler. Its creamy texture finishes off an evening meal and tastes like a chocolate covered orange. It has our blessing.

DARGAN DANGLER
2 parts Chambord
2 parts Bailey's Irish Cream
1 part Godiva Chocolate Liqueur
1 part Stoli Orange
1 part fresh whipped cream

Combine all in a shaker with ice, shake and strain into martini glass.

Dargan's Irish Pub & Restaurant
18 East Ortega St.
568-0702, www.dargans.com
Hours: 4:30 p.m. to 2 a.m. weekdays, 11:30 a.m. to 2 a.m. weekends

©2008 Santa Barbara News-Press

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Frogs huddle together in the frame of Ines Roberts' award-winning shot "Frog Assembly," above. Roberts, a longtime Santa Barbara resident, beat out 32,000 other contestants to land in the winner's circle for the 2007 Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year. Roberts also was a finalist in 2003 with her piece "Waterfall Milford Sound Co.," below.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF INES ROBERTS
By Ted Mills, News-Press Correspondent
January 11, 2008 10:49 AM

Ines Labunski Roberts' first camera was a Zeiss Ikon, a small 35 mm camera that began this Polish-born woman's trip into photography, a life-long obsession that recently landed her in the winner's circle for the 2007 Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year.
"I started in painting," Roberts says, "but it seemed to me that photography was all about seeing -- it was about constantly discovering. Wherever I go, I am an explorer."
Those years of exploring included a trip to the Sierra mountains, where walking back down to their car, Roberts and her husband passed a hot springs pool steaming in the middle of the snowy landscape. The water was boiling hot, too much for anybody to sit in, and the snow was freezing cold, but in a drainage pipe the water was just right. Not for humans, of course, but for a knot of small frogs.
Camera at the ready, Roberts tried not to disturb the frog party as she closed in on them. The final photograph, which seems to picture the amphibians in a watery, floating space away from nature, made the final list, where Roberts went up against 32,000 photographers who didn't have her eye or luck.
"It's very tough for a woman of my age to go up against professionals whose job it is to travel around the world," Roberts said.
Roberts, who is in her seventies, prefers to discuss the status of women photographers in general.
"It's only in this year's competition that there are more photos by women," she says, referring to the 2.2 percent increase in female entrants from last year to this year.
Sure, a handful of women have broken through to the mainstream (Diane Arbus and Annie Liebovitz for a start), but women remain unrepresented in the photography field, Roberts notes.

Maybe it has to do with her history. After picking up the camera, her travels (and marriage) led her to Scotland, where she was the only female member of a photo enthusiasts' club.
"At first I didn't want to learn all the technical things," she says. "All the men in the club wanted to talk about optics. I was more about aesthetics. But then somebody told me, if you don't know your tools, you will never get better."
Ever since then, her husband Gilbert Roberts has encouraged her. An engineer by profession -- he helped design mechanisms for the Hubble telescope -- he was an amateur photographer when he first met Ines.
"When he met me, he sold his camera," she says. "He told me there would be no use for it." She adds that recently he's once again picked up a Minolta.
Her life in Santa Barbara since settling here has been full of photographic successes. Roberts has been the subject of one-woman shows, several other awards, and taught workshops at UCSB from 1978 to 1990.
Like many photographers who have straddled the changes of the last 50 years, Roberts has slowly joined the digital revolution.
"It took me a long time to accept color film too," she says. "But digital gives you the most wonderful freedom."

©2008 Santa Barbara News-Press

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TED MILLS, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
January 9, 2008 12:53 PM

"The intention was to fight the moneylenders, not become one."
Muhammad Yunus, the man behind the Grameen bank and the 2006 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, has helped fight poverty in his native Bangladesh, not through overturning an economic system, but by changing it from the inside. His idea was radical: a small loan of $20 to $100 to the poorest woman would not just be paid back on time, but would bring a desperate person out of a cycle of poverty by helping her become productive. While the major banks ignored and sometimes ridiculed him, over the course of 30 years, this faith in humanity and in doing a good turn beyond just that of charity has transformed his country. His ideas about microcredit, as it is called, have been adopted by many other developing countries as well as the first world. Mr. Yunus is scheduled to speak at UCSB on Jan. 16 to promote his new book, "Creating a World Without Poverty -- Social Business and the Future of Capitalism."
Mr. Yunus was interviewed by phone while he was in Shanghai. The conversation turned to the success of microcredit and his recent acceptance into the Global Elders, a group of public figures set up by Richard Branson that includes Kofi Annan, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Jimmy Carter, and others, to serve as a moral think tank for world problems.

NEWS-PRESS: What are the concepts of microcredit that work in all countries? Are there any features that are different depending on the culture?
MUHAMMAD YUNUS: No, I would say the basic features remain the same. Conventional banks are based on collateral. We threw (that idea) out. Microcredit is based on trust with no collateral, no guarantee, and no lawyers. All microcredit has focused on the poorest people, particularly on women. The loans are all about helping you to generate your own income. The other constant is making a small installment payment mostly weekly, sometimes fortnightly. Right from the beginning the idea was that people should not go to the bank, banks should go to the people. Our bank staff go to the borrowers at their doorstep.
NP: You say a lot of the success of microcredit depends on trust and peer pressure.
MR. YUNUS: It's not peer pressure as such -- it's more peer support. You help each other to succeed. Pressure is a negative, whereas we discuss with borrowers before (the loan) what they will you do when somebody cannot pay back. Some say, well, we'll force her to pay it back. But that's not what friends are for, friends help each other. Maybe her husband took the money and ran away, so what's the use of getting angry with her. You should be focusing on a solution, rather then aggravating the problem.
NP: Have you seen the roles of women change in Bangladesh since this started?
MR. YUNUS: Yes, women are now in a better situation within family than they used to be. Now that they have the economic power and are contributing to the family income, her decision-making contribution to the family also goes up. Now her voice matters in the family, unlike when the husband was the only income earner.
NP: How else has that affected the society?
MR. YUNUS: In the 25-30 years since the empowerment of women, the population growth has declined very sharply. The average mother used to have 6.3 children--today it's less than three. Despite Bangladesh being a Muslim country, its population growth is one of the lowest in the whole of Southeast Asia. In terms of children's education, it has been very helpful. All children attend primary school, and that was quite an achievement for Bangladesh. Also in secondary school, our fear was that boys would stay in secondary school, and girls would drop out, but the reality is the other way around.
NP: Tell me a little about the Global Elders.
MR. YUNUS: The concept of elders is basically that of the African village. When there's a crisis, they go and seek their advice and intervention, so they can protect themselves from the difficulties that they face. So now the world is a global village, maybe the world could do better by using world elders. They are a moral authority. They will be helpful in mobilizing public opinion, because people will look up to the elders and see that they have no axe to grind. So what they are saying probably is the right position. It is about bringing the trust back into the picture so people can take it seriously and move ahead.
NP: Is the problem of poverty more complex or simpler than we think?
MR. YUNUS: It's simpler, because poverty is not created by people; it's a creation of the system. So if we can fix the system, poverty will disappear. The banking system decided it cannot do business with more that one-half to two-thirds of world's population, and so that became a cause of making people suffer. But if we can open up and create an inclusive financial system, maybe we can increase the chance of everybody getting out of poverty. Why do we assume all humans are moneymaking machines, while in reality we know very well they aren't? So there should be two kinds of business: one to make money, and one to do good, without any personal benefit out of it. Those social businesses could then affect the profit-margin businesses and compete with them. There's absolutely nothing wrong with human beings -- they are as capable, creative and powerful as anybody else. Society never gave them the scope to unleash the potential inside of them.
NP: Do these solutions require a government that believes in the common good?
MR. YUNUS: No, all government has to do is create an enabling environment by making the appropriate legislation. It's not a question of common good. All I'm doing is lending money to people I'd like to do business with. If in doing so the law stands up and says I can't do that, the government response is to remove that law. Government shouldn't lend money to poor -- that is a bad policy. If poor people know it's coming from government, and it's your own money, so why should you pay it back?
NP: Do certain economic systems like capitalism or socialism result in more or less poverty?
MR. YUNUS: In the United States, you have 42 million people who don't have medical insurance, who live in mortal terror when something happens. So in the very citadel of capitalism you cannot solve the problem of poverty. Today I'm talking to you from China, which is socialist. Their economic advance is the fastest in world, but it's not happening to the people at the bottom. Once you agree that it's the system, then we can go in and change that. The Millennium Development Goals set by the United Nations say we can reduce poverty by half by 2015. We have to make sure we achieve that goal, for this will then give us the confidence to take the next step and reduce it to zero.

IF YOU GO
Muhammad Yunus speaks Jan. 16, 8 p.m. at the Arlington Theatre, 1317 State Street.
The event is free.

©2008 Santa Barbara News-Press

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Photo by Nik Blaskovich
By Ted Mills, News-Press Correspondent
November 30, 2007 10:45 AM

When my cocktail partners and I have felt the need to get funky, we've often stepped into EOS, the nightclub on the corner of Haley and Anacapa streets that packs in the crowds every weekend and covers them with a fresh blanket of house beats. We've stepped out later, sweaty, danced out, but completely oblivious to the fact that EOS serves up some très gourmet cocktail concoctions. No longer will we make that mistake.
Put this down to bar manager, Ashley O'Brien, who took over the position three months ago, and who has already put her stamp on the establishment. EOS is now one of the few bars in town where the slightly higher drink prices feel deserved -- we tasted mixes on our early evening sojourn that we've never had anywhere else and we want to try again.

Continue reading "Cocktail of the Week: EOS' Blackberry Basil Cooler" »

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Dancer Melissa Ullom, Photo by Stuart K. McDaniel
ONSTAGE : Velvet overground - Betrayal, disaster and idealism emotionally compete in UCSB Dance Concert
By Ted Mills, News-Press Correspondent
November 30, 2007 10:12 AM

This weekend's dance concert, "Through Darkness and Light," not only marks the opening of the 2007-2008 season of student dance performances at UCSB, but is a send-off for a select group of dancers, under- and post-grads, as they make their way to Beijing for a special series of concerts. More on that later, though. The trip would not be happening if not for the work of the dancers and choreographers shown in the seven pieces this weekend.
The last time we saw faculty choreographer Valerie Huston's work was a year ago with "Tête à Tête," which shares some themes and ideas with her latest creation, "The Velvet Touch." Like "Tête," this work revisits an early version of the choreography and deals with two characters who may or may not be aspects of the same person.

Continue reading "Dance Article: UCSB Fall Dance Concert 2007" »

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ONSTAGE : The 'Sister' experiment - Local director shapes actors and a play out of her life experience
By Ted Mills, News-Press Correspondent
November 30, 2007 12:00 AM

"This is not theater in Los Angeles, this is not working with professional actors, but this is really where you have to step up your game."
Writer and director Trinity Amanda Kesselring feels she's onto something completely different and challenging with her play "Four Sisters, Four Seasons," set to debut Thursday at Center Stage Theater.
Her company, Acting Out, gathers together a group of non-actors and gives them an opportunity to shine in a venue very few of them would have considered.

Continue reading "Theater Article: Four Sisters, Four Seasons" »

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ONSTAGE: Smooth sailing from here - 'Rough Crossing' closes season with a farce on the high seas

Ted Mills, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT

July 6, 2007 8:02 AM

In his rehearsals, director Rick Mokler is having a Tom Stoppard, life-imitating-art moment. The second half of "Rough Crossing," Stoppard's farce set onboard a transatlantic cruise ship, plunges the action into stormy seas, a moment when all the technical stage wizardry afforded by the Garvin Theatre will come into play. And midway through rehearsals is exactly when things get tough: The actors go off-book and Mokler starts to run through the technical aspects of the show.

"The challenges are all about precision," he says about the production, which previews Wednesday, and will cap SBCC's season. "We have incredible speeches, and it's all about the timing. Coupled with that, we have six primary actors and eight dancers, and they all have to move in the same direction."

That is, Mokler says, when the ship hits rough waters. It will look a bit, one imagines, like the moments in "Star Trek" when the bridge is under fire, but much, much better.

"We have a horizon line that goes up and down outside the window, wall sconces tipping one way and then the other and a tray on top of a piano that keeps moving," he says.

Audience members might want to pop a Dramamine before the show.

Continue reading "Theater preview: Rough Crossing at SBCC" »

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ONSTAGE: Taking the Finnish line - Lit Moon presents four theater words from Finland
Ted Mills, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
June 8, 2007 8:12 AM

Norway had Ibsen. Sweden had Strinberg. But more than that, those countries had promoters of their most famous playwrights in the English-speaking world.
But what about Finland? Enter Mikko Viherjuuri, a Finnish playwright, director and man with a mission. Also enter Lit Moon Theatre Company founder John Blondell, who was ready to listen. Now, they're about to give Finnish theater some exposure with Lit Moon's Midnight Sun Festival, opening tonight.

Continue reading "Arts Article: Lit Moon's Midnight Sun Festival" »

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SOUND BYTES: COLIN HAY
Ted Mills, News-Press Correspondent
June 8, 2007 9:03 AM
"Are You Lookin' At Me?"
COMPASS RECORDS

Twenty years after this former Men At Work frontman set off on a solo career, his ninth album finds him relaxed and still able to knock out the melodies. It's not an ambitious album, yet neither is it bland. Hay ruminates on life -- the title track, half-sung in his thick Scottish brogue -- and death -- "Lonely Without You," which manages to be both touching and funny -- in equal measure, and could have a hit in "Land of the Midnight Sun," if radio still made a place for artists this quirky. Recommended.

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ONSTAGE: More 'Lesser' - Director returns to 'Children' 22 years after SBCC production
By Ted Mills, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
June 8, 2007 8:27 AM

"This is the ultimate role for a deaf woman," TL Forsberg says about her lead role in "Children of a Lesser God," opening tonight at the Rubicon Theatre. "Then again, maybe it's the only role."
Forsberg is only half-joking. Mark Medoff's "Children of a Lesser God" first premiered in the early 1980s and introduced audiences to the world of the deaf through a romance between James Leeds, a teacher of lip-reading, and a deaf former student, Sarah. The film version made Marlee Matlin an Oscar-winning star. As for the theatrical event, few plays involving the deaf have come since, says director Rod Lathim. And none, he says, match "Children" for its power and effect.

Continue reading "Arts Article: Children of a Lesser God" »

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IN CONCERT: Three women in Coma rise - A newfound complexity is apparent on three-piece band's latest album
Ted Mills, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
June 8, 2007 8:55 AM

With a name like Girl in a Coma, music fans will be forgiven for thinking this three-piece all-female outfit sounds like a Morrissey/Smiths tribute band. After all, their name comes from The Smiths' 1987 single. But have one listen to "Clumsy Sky," the first single off the band's debut album, and one hears an alternate world in which Patsy Cline was born decades later and started a punk band.
"That's funny," lead singer Nina Diaz says when the Cline comparison comes up. "The first song I ever sang with my mom was 'Crazy.' But really, I'm influenced by whatever I'm listening to at the time."
Which is true for the whole band. The members of the San Antonio-based Girl in a Coma have spent their formative years absorbing decades of musical influences: The Smiths, Joy Division, The Ramones and Jeff Buckley all share CD shelf space.
"We still get a lot of Morrissey fans turning up," the band's drummer, Phanie D, says. "People come thinking we'll do Smiths songs, but then they stay anyway."

Continue reading "Arts Article: Girl in a Coma" »

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Plain White Tim - From Bright Life to White Hot
Ted Mills, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
June 8, 2007 8:59 AM

Followers of Santa Barbara's rock scene may remember a band called Bright Life from a few years back. Signed to Capitol Records, they released one record, went on tour and even inspired a song by Sugarcult.

Tim Lopez remembers Bright Life well, because he played guitar for them. Now he returns to the area as guitarist for Chicago-based pop-rockers Plain White T's, who play this week's KJEE Seaside Beach Ball. How did a Santa Barbara native find his way to the Windy City?

Continue reading "Arts Article: Plain White T's" »

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AND SO IT GOES - Neil LaBute trains his eye on race and gender relationships in Ensemble show
By TED MILLS, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
Not just a blistering treatise on race, Neil LaBute's "This Is How It Goes" delivers a course on unreliable narrative in theater. Like the skin of an onion, layers of truth pull back as the play progresses until we're never really sure about the truth of the matter. And Mr. LaBute does this without disappearing inside his own cleverness. Part of the reason lies in the play, but the rest lies with the cast and crew of Ensemble Theatre, assembled for this season's final show at the Alhecama Theatre.

Continue reading "Theater Review: This Is How It Goes" »

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My friend Maury called me today to tell me I was in the New York Times this Sunday. My reply? "Wha-huh?" (I think that's all I could say.) He was surprised too, and had heard about it himself from Michael Smith, who used to work with him.
So I had a dig around on the website and found the article. It's about plus-size and odd-size performers in dance companies, written by Claudia La Rocco. Here's the relevant section:

When the choreographer Larry Keigwin envisioned “Bolero NYC,” he said, he imagined performers of “different shapes and sizes.”
“My objective is to mirror New York,” he explained last fall. “I’m not going to put a bunch of ballerinas on stage imitating that.”
But neither did he look to his peers; instead he held open auditions. The final group, which danced with his company last month at the Skirball Center at New York University, might have been a snapshot of the foot traffic on any given city block.
Differences for civilians are one thing. “Bolero NYC” shared a program with two other Keigwin works, including “Natural Selection,” performed without one of its original dancers, Hilary Clark. Reviewing the show in 2004 in The Santa Barbara News-Press in California, Ted Mills took issue with Ms. Clark’s body, drawing unfavorable comparisons with the “unceasing athleticism” of the other dancers. “Not that you’d know from the publicity or, from what I can tell, most reviews,” Mr. Mills wrote, “but Ms. Clark is a plus-size dancer, and her inclusion in this last work raised questions about Mr. Keigwin’s intentions.” Mr. Mills saw “old-fashioned shock-the-bourgeoisie” tactics at work.
Ms. Clark’s membership in the company ended shortly after that review. When rehearsals resumed on the company’s return to New York, she said, she was not informed. Mr. Keigwin said that the break had stemmed from “a combination of things,” but Ms. Clark is skeptical. She heard through a friend, she said, that Mr. Keigwin wanted “a more classically modeled company.”
Ms. Clark, who now performs with Tere O’Connor Dance, found her dismissal, she said, to be “a result of the larger issue” that “the unfortunate and superficial assumptions of who and what type of body should be dancing diminishes dance’s very potential and range of experience.”

Mr. Keigwin’s final piece, “Natural Selection” was a “world premiere”, though a version had been performed in North Carolina last month. Not that you’d know from the publicity or, from what I can tell, most reviews, but Ms. Clark is a plus-size dancer, and her inclusion in this last work raised questions about Mr. Keigwin’s intentions. Unlike Ms. Clark’s earlier solo piece, “Natural Selection” didn’t feel tailored to her talents, and the unceasing athleticism of the rest of the company (with dancers being spun, thrown, and catapulted) couldn’t help but focus our eyes on Clark’s weaknesses, instead of allowing us to see her on her own terms.
Plus-size dancers are such a rarity in the field that I doubt most audiences know what to think. Last year’s Faculty Dance Concert at UCSB featured a similar dancer (Summer Lederer) in a work with Catherine Cole, choreographed by Valerie Huston. I mention it only because its attitude towards its performers (Ms. Cole is missing a leg, which Ms. Huston used to great advantage) was uncompromising and rewarding, unlike Mr. Keigwin’s use of Ms. Clark. His felt like a tactic not unlike the shouting during intermission, to afflict the comforted, to render mute the dance critics. To not mention Ms. Clark is cowardice; to write on her without caveats is to risk offence. But so be it.

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By TED MILLS, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
April 24, 2007 8:42 AM
There was nothing stuffy about the way The Beatles approached classical music. They might have been flag-bearers of youth culture in the '60s, but their hunger for an ever-widening sonic palette never led them to separate themselves from musical history. And with George Martin as producer, a former classical student who could knock out complex arrangements as The Beatles could melodies, the band indulged in copping licks not just from Chuck Berry, but also from the compositions of Vivaldi and Stockhausen.
So when a crack Beatles tribute band, backed by the Santa Barbara Symphony, played the Arlington Theatre on Saturday, there was nothing of a concession about it. This wasn't the Longines Symphonette Society plays "A Hard Day's Night." This was an exceedingly faithful recreation of a mostly studio-bound oeuvre, and something that, even if they had not decided to stop touring in 1965, the Beatles may not have been able to pull off, had they wanted.

Continue reading "IN CONCERT: Showcasing Beatles' range - Tribute presents a chance to hear George Martin's arrangements live" »

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April 20, 2007 12:00 AM
"The TV Set" takes on prime time TV, and misses
By Ted Mills
Jake Kasdan, son of Lawrence Kasdan ("The Big Chill"), has never gotten a fair shake in Hollywood.
His 1998 film, "Zero Effect," was originally all but ignored, but has slowly gained a cult following by those lucky enough to have seen it. "Orange County" turned out to be the one Jack Black comedy nobody went to see. And Kasdan directed episodes of the ill-fated but cult-followed "Freaks and Geeks," before it was cancelled.
Some of his apparent bitterness comes across in "The TV Set," which takes on prime time TV much like "The Player" or "The Big Picture" took on the studio system.
But maybe "The TV Set" isn't bitter enough. There's little rage directed at a system designed to reward mediocrity. Nothing stings as it should, even though all the pieces are in place.

Continue reading "MOVIE REVIEW: Worth turning off" »

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By Ted Mills, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
April 20, 2007 10:32 AM
In 2004, "Shaun of the Dead" successfully transplanted the George A. Romero-spawned zombie genre, setting it within London's slacker pub culture.
Unlike the minds behind most parodies, "Shaun's" Edgar Wright (writer, director) and Simon Pegg (writer, actor) loved the genre they were ribbing, and they never let humor get in the way of good filmmaking. To this end, "Shaun" can be counted among the best of the zombie-film genre. Their latest collaboration, "Hot Fuzz," does the same for the buddy-action film.
Pegg plays it straight this time as Sergeant Nicholas Angel, a London cop so good his superiors reassign him to a rustic village just so he won't make the rest of the Metropolitan division look bad.

Continue reading "MOVIE REVIEW: This 'Fuzz' is sizzling: "Shaun of the Dead" writers return with winning cop parody" »

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April 20, 2007 11:25 AM

ARCADE FIRE
"Neon Bible"
MERGE RECORDS
After their monumental, romantic debut "Funeral," Canada's Arcade Fire seem to have reached inside themselves for their more muddied follow-up, "Neon Bible." There's still beauty here, but it's of a dark, velvety variety. Songs such as "Windowsill" and "My Body Is a Cage" start small and build outward, yet rarely find a catharsis.
Only "No Cars Go" hearkens back to the sound of "Funeral," with piles of strings and brass and a frontal drum assault. Win Butler's lyrics remain dour, but look for that ever-elusive transcendence. On "Neon Bible" that lights seems even further away.


OF MONTREAL
"Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?"
POLYVINYL RECORDS
"C'mon mood, shift back to good again!" sings Kevin Barnes on Of Montreal's eighth full-length album. Main man Barnes manages to do so, as he mashes together disco-rhythm riffs with a psychedelic's penchant for layered vocals and flowery instrumentation. This helps to cover lyrics of depression, suicide and rejection in a very jolly way. Recorded in Norway and Barnes' hometown of Athens, Ga., the album is more a Barnes solo project than previous works. The album's centerpiece is the 11-minute "The Past Is A Grostesque Animal," a rambling rant about, well, who-knows-what, backed by Neu!-like electronics and a looping, cooing male chorus. If this is Barnes truly going off the deep end, then listeners will feel inclined to dive in, too.


THE FALL
"Reformation Post T.L.C."
NARNACK RECORDS
This is The Fall's 26th official album in a 30-year run that has seen only one constant -- lead vocalist Mark E. Smith's caustic voice and enigmatic lyrics. The 2006 touring band -- three good-to-go Yanks and one Greek wife on keyboard -- unfortunately are undone by a studio recording that can't match the sonic palette of 2005's "Fall Heads Roll." So we get a bit too many muddy jams, such as "Fall Sound" and "Systematic Abuse," the obligatory cover (Merle Haggard's "White Line Fever"), and studio goofs, "Insult Song" and the interminable "Das Boot." If only more songs sounded like "Coach and Horses," two minutes of tight riffery and time-travel lyrics. But, alas, they don't. Now don't worry, with The Fall, wait a year and the next album may be a masterpiece.

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By Ted Mills, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
April 20, 2007 9:58 AM
"He's unlike any composer. He's just…very British."
Martin Herman, a professor of composition and electronic music at Cal State Long Beach, is not speaking of Elgar, Holst or Vaughan Williams. Instead, he's singing the praises of George Martin, Beatles producer and arranger. Though the Fab Four wrote the songs, it was Martin who provided the backing and arrangements for "Eleanor Rigby," "She's Leaving Home," "A Day in the Life" and many more.
On Saturday at the Arlington, the Santa Barbara Symphony will showcase the music of The Beatles in "The Classical Mystery Tour," the third Pops concert of the season.

Continue reading "IN CONCERT: Not Bach, but British rock - Pops concert backs Beatles songs with orchestra" »

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Ted Mills, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
April 20, 2007 9:56 AM
"You can see as many live bands in Austin in one night as in two weeks in Los Angeles," says Peggy Jones, the programmer and founder of Sings Like Hell, the Americana music series that has reached its 10-year anniversary at the Lobero.
To make it 10 years, though, Jones has had to live in the center of American music. Since 1999, she has made the bars and clubs of Austin, Texas, her office. Her work hours have become 5 p.m. to closing time.
Any band worth their sweat passes through Austin, and Jones helps divert some of the best to Santa Barbara. The result is Sings Like Hell's broad menu of Americana.

Continue reading "IN CONCERT: The City of Austin's Powers" »

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Ted Mills, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
Theatre UCSB's spring dance concert features the work of faculty choreographers and cream-of-the-crop seniors in its six parts. At left is a scene from "Bone Whispers," choreographed by Tonia Shimin. PHOTO COURTESY OF THEATRE UCSB
April 13, 2007 9:37 AM
Looking at the title of Theatre UCSB's spring dance concert, "From the Backbone Forward" -- opening tonight at UCSB -- one might wonder where the phrase comes from. It's not from a choreographer's advice or a movement technique, oh no.
"I thought that was a good way to describe all these pieces," artistic director Stephanie Nugent says. "In one way, we're all moving forward (artistically). But it's also a way of talking about the movement of a dancer through space."
Themes of birth, development, and heritage flow through the six pieces comprising "Backbone."

Continue reading "ONSTAGE: Dancing with backbone" »

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Ted Mills, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
April 13, 2007 12:00 AM
It could be argued that the Estonian capital of Tallinn should evoke the same response in music lovers as Prague or Vienna. The Tallinn Conservatory gave the world at least one famous living composer, Arvo Pãrt. The city also produced the musical Jãrvi family, including Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra conductor Paavo Jãrvi, who brings his baton to the Arlington Theatre on Tuesday night, in an event sponsored by CAMA.

Continue reading "Paavo Jãrvi - Conducting Electricity" »

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TED MILLS, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
April 12, 2007 9:08 AM
Choreographer Ohad Naharin provides a spectrum through which we watch the world anew. In his dances, the pedestrian and even the private and unconscious become poetry, leading to equal parts laughter and rapt silence. Behind it all, there's an intelligence in the career-spanning "best of" work "Minus One." Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de MontrËal brought this 90-minute piece to Arlington Theatre on Monday night.
Santa Barbara has seen some of these works before, performed by other companies in other years. But they have usually been one piece among other choreographers' work. "Minus One" gave us a full evening to explore Israel-born Naharin's world, and never once did the man repeat himself or repeatedly hammer themes. This time, too much was a good thing.

Continue reading "Les Grands Ballets Canadiens" »

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Led by artistic director Gradimir Pankov, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens debuts Monday at Arlington Theatre with a reimagined version of Ohad Naharin's 'Minus One'

Ted Mills, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
April 6, 2007 9:52 AM
'If a dance is good, then it will be appreciated," says Gradimir Pankov, artistic director of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. "It's that simple."
After 50 years in the dance world, Pankov has returned to the most basic of philosophies. But it's a thought he says he shares with Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin, whose "Minus One" comes to the Arlington on Monday.

Continue reading "Clear Direction" »

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It's the Year of the Cat
While the hippies danced in Alameda Park post Solstice on Saturday, the hipsters were lined up outside SOhO, two snaking threads starting upstairs that easily found their way down to street level. The lines were for ticket-holders and those seeking tickets, all wanting to see Chan Marshall, better known as the enigmatic singer-songwriter Cat Power.
Fragile of voice and temperamental of mind, the singer has a reputation: A concert can be filled with walk-offs, wordy digressions, freakouts or be canceled altogether. Or it can be brilliant and electrifying.

Continue reading "Concert Review - Cat Power" »

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Wednesday night’s performance at the Lobero, one of three sold-out nights and the opening of Summerdance’s 10th season, finds Mikhail Baryshnikov back in Santa Barbara for the fifth time in 13 years.
Now 58, Mr. Baryshnikov cuts an elegant figure on stage, with sad, yearning eyes, a face made of diagonals and angles, contrasting with a supple torso and arms that suggest massive strength even when they look light and as mutable as rising smoke. No doubt he is still fascinating to watch, but his Hell’s Kitchen Dance company proved to be equally exciting.

Continue reading "Dance Review - Baryshnikov and Hell's Kitchen" »

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EIGHT VIRTUOUS HANDS
We open with black, all the lights in Abravanel Hall extinguished. We can hear shuffling on stage, and then some odd notes rise out of the darkness.
Then the see-sawing, off-key intro to Saint-Saëns "Danse Macabre" begins and with a sudden burst of light, the stage is revealed: four men, two pianos, a flurry of hands. This is Pianofest, Saturday night’s opening to Music Academy of the West’s Summer Festival.

Continue reading "Music Review: Pianofest @ Music Academy" »

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The Blue and the Green

Roots music -- traditional country music without the gloss, whatever one might call it -- finds itself always returning to its origins the further out it goes. An Australian-English bluegrass combo that formed in Austin, Texas, and records in Nashville, Tenn., the Greencards push the genre into the future while reminding audiences of its long past. White Australians don’t have to go back too many generations to return to England. And bluegrass is only a fiddle or two away from Eire.
And so at the Lobero on Saturday night, and as part of Sings Like Hell, audiences were not so much hearing a outsider’s take on tradition, but a fun-house mirror of styles and influences that sounded bracingly fresh. Surely The Greencards’ marriage of Americana can earn them citizenship.

Continue reading "Live Music Review -- The Greencards" »

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'Dinosaur' Invites Audiences to Dig
With David Lynch-like moments of crossed realities, John Walch's "The Dinosaur Within" wears influences from the film world on its sleeve. Yet the play, which Theater UCSB is presenting through the weekend, is not a frustrated screenplay. Instead, its numerous time-jumps and parallel narratives push what can be done with theater. By stripping down a convoluted story to a minimalist stage, Mr. Walch's play manages to be complex yet comprehensible.
"The Dinosaur Within" opens with five characters in a tableau, like figures in a natural history museum. They are introduced by a sixth, 12-year-old Tommy (Ryan Lockwood), who addresses us from the podium of the Young Paleontologists Convention. He speaks of evolution, of adapting to survive, of excavating the past and understanding the present. Tommy is introducing the themes of the play, but it's OK, since how these five characters are going to work out these themes is not apparent.

Continue reading "Theater Review: The Dinosaur Within" »

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'Lola' offers a world tour of clichès
May 3, 2006 8:19 AM

Yet another frustrated movie script masquerading as a play, Josefina Lopez's "Lola Goes to Roma" follows in bitty and piecemeal fashion the travels of a Los Angeles-based mother and daughter in Europe. Apart from a colorful set and glamorous parade of costume design, the play has little to recommend it -- full of anti-intellectualism, tired clichès of European nations and perfunctory writing.
The play tells us little about life lived, but more about the amount of European-set Hollywood films watched, stitched together as it is from remnants of "Roman Holiday," "Three Coins in the Fountain," "Shirley Valentine," and a whole slew of Yanks abroad romantic comedies.

Continue reading "Theater Review: Lola Goes to Roma" »

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SUNSHINE IN YOUR CUP
March 15, 2006 12:00 AM
"The Spitfire Grill" was one of many ensemble films to appear in the '90s that featured a strong cast and a cafè as a nexus of maternal warmth and life-affirmation. Think of "Fried Green Tomatoes" and "Baghdad Cafè," both of which came earlier than Lee David Zlotoff's 1996 film.
But something in the Alison Elliot and Ellen Burstyn vehicle cried out to creators James Valcq and Fred Alley, and in 2001, "The Spitfire Grill -- The Musical" premiered.
The show opened in a post-9/11 America hungry for an extra helping of small-town Americana. Five years later, in its Santa Barbara debut at the Garvin Theater, does Spitfire Grill still offer the same pleasures?

Continue reading "Theater Review: Spitfire Grill" »

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The twists and turns of 'Deathtrap'
March 8, 2006 12:00 AM
Ira Levin's "Deathtrap" -- the 1978 play and the 1982 film -- can be seen as the Yanks' answer to Anthony Shaffer's earlier "Sleuth" -- the 1970 play then 1972 film.
Both cast Michael Caine in the lead; both attempt to outmaneuver a clever audience wise in the ways of the typical whodunnit. Both reduce their cast to the barest minimum, fill their sets with murderous props and work out their suspense with the precision of a classic watchmaker.
"Deathtrap" remains the longest-running Broadway show in history, and it's the Virtual Theatre Company's turn to hope we've forgotten the twists and turns by now, as it stages the play through Sunday in Victoria Hall.
The company is a splinter cell of regulars from Circle Bar B Dinner Theater making their foray into the downtown theater scene and taking advantage of larger performing spaces. Victoria Hall remains an odd location for a play, with the large gulf (dance floor? orchestral pit?) between the front row and the stage. It's also a shallow but wide performing space, which can lead to odd blocking.

Continue reading "Theater Review: Deathtrap" »

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Repetitive modern tragedy a difficult farewell for UCSB director
March 7, 2006 12:00 AM
"By the Bog of Cats" will probably go down in UCSB Theater Department history more as the last production from director Judith Olauson than for any merit of the play itself.
With 30 years of directing under her belt, Ms. Olauson has given Santa Barbara audiences some classic productions.
Even in this reviewer's comparatively short eight years viewing UCSB Theater's output, Ms. Olauson's rèsumè contains good memories: her brilliant "A Raisin in the Sun," the blood-spattered "Elektra" and the most recent "Translations."
Ms. Olauson caught the Irish playwright bug some years back -- she has directed Brian Friel's "Molly Sweeney," Sean O'Casey's "The Shadow of a Gunman" and J.M. Synge's "The Playboy of the Western World."
However, playwright Marina Carr's "By the Bog of Cats" at UCSB's Hatlen Theatre is by turns inexplicable, interminable and repetitive. During its 21/2-hour running time, there is much time to wonder why Ms. Olauson chose the play.

Continue reading "Theater Review: By the Bog of Cats" »

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SAINTS PRESERVE US
TED MILLS, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
February 28, 2006 12:00 AM
Westmont College adds yet another bizarre chapter to Santa Barbara's theater scene with its current production of Erik Ehn's "The Saint Plays."
The chance to perform four of these short works is a coup of sorts for the theater department -- even more so considering one of the plays derives directly from workshopping with the students themselves. Needless to say, this section is a world premiere.
According to the playwright, he has written almost 100 short plays based on the Catholic saints, from 40-minute pieces to short, wordless tableaux, with more to come.
Some are hagiographies, while others are "exploded biographies" -- a phrase he never really defines, but, after watching Friday night's performance, must allude to the hundreds of small pieces of narrative that will never get put back together again.

Continue reading "Theater Review: The Saint Plays" »

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Headline-based 'Brown Baby' favors melodrama over characters
TED MILLS, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
February 22, 2006 10:15 AM
An essential part of our state's economy, illegal immigration is the dark shadow that capital casts when laws and regulations are bent or are not enforced. Illegal workers look at Americans and see the life they'd like to lead; Americans look back and see straight through the men and women who do the menial jobs or they see an amassed threat. A porous border, now more dangerous with the inclusion of the dubious "Minutemen" weekend warriors, is all that separates "us" from "them." And both people may be more similar than we think.
Carlos Morton's "Brown Baby" at UCSB Performing Arts Theatre comes professing its timeliness with a story ripped from today's headlines, as they say. Only these headlines have been in the paper for years now -- a situation that seems unlikely to change unless it's going to get worse.
Maria (Victoria Ramos), with daughter Silvia (Aja Naomi King) in tow, has to leave their hometown of Oaxaca, Mexico, when her husband is gunned down by police for having ties to the left-wing opposition party. Pregnant with his child, Maria seeks out the help of the rich Doña Victoria de los Santos (Tiffany Rose Brown). Maria needs passage to America; Doña Victoria can help for a price. Indebted to the price of $3,000, Maria believes that her benefactor will get her work. What we know already is that Doña Victoria is conspiring to keep Maria just south of the San Diego border to sell off her baby in the American black market.

Continue reading "Theater Review: Brown Baby" »

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'Liberal' looks to a satirical future and Bush 3.0
TED MILLS, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
February 22, 2006 12:00 AM
"History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce." Karl Marx (by way of Hegel) may have been describing the first and second terms of the Bush administration. Or he may have been thinking of Bob Potter's new comedy "The Last Liberal," a sequel of sorts to the much more serious "The Space Between the Stars," now onstage at the Center Stage Theater, a production of Dramatic Women.
Political satire is at turns easy and difficult. Easy because the Bush administration provides weekly fodder of outrage and incompetence for the nation's comedians; difficult because there is so much material that a Harriet Miers joke would already have to be explained a bit to make it work. (Q: Harriet who? A: Exactly).

Continue reading "Theater Review: The Last Liberal" »

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From today's S.B. News-Press:

'Fourth Wall' is entertaining and troubling
By TED MILLS
NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT

Following on the heels of Genesis West's production of Caryl Churchill's deconstructionist "Blue Heart" last month, Ensemble Theatre Company's presentation of A. R. Gurney's "The Fourth Wall" adds to the boundary-breaking this theater season.
The play's title alone suggests something meta-theatrical will be up. The invisible fourth wall that separates performer from audience -- can it really be torn down? And does this mean an evening of mortifying audience participation?
Thankfully not, but Mr. Gurney's play is an odd duck. Not too radical to upset the general public, it hints at subversion but hedges its bets in the second half. I can imagine many being entertained and pleased by Mr. Gurney's work, but I can't imagine many being deeply satisfied with it.
But there's lots to like. We open on a suburban living room, radiant in warm, rosy colors. Two characters enter: Roger (Robert Lesser), a "successful businessman," and Julia (Gillian Doyle), an old friend from New York. The dialogue is overwritten; the performances wooden.

Continue reading "Theater Review -- The Fourth Wall" »

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From the News-Press:

Play asks if collage can save the republic
By Ted Mills
NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

If we are, as a recent issue of Wired proclaimed, the era of the remix, with a treasure chest of late 20th-century culture to plunder, then we should look back at pre-postmodernist, post-abstract expressionist, pre-pop collagist Robert Rauschenberg as one of the earliest remixers. His found-object works prompted walkouts and consternation, though his use of Americana was more affectionate than sarcastic.

Charles L. Mee's post-9/11 attempt to reclaim a forward-thinking view of America looks to Mr. Rauschenberg's collage for suggestions and asks if there's anything that we can reclaim to heal this republic, diseased and ailing from war and debt. Or is mom and apple pie a museum piece?

Continue reading "bobrauschenbergamerica - Theater Review" »

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My review of the latest production at SBCC, as it appeared in the News-Press:

Unfriendly Fire
Gulf War drama suffers script weaknesses
Mark Medoff's "Gunfighter: A Gulf War Chronicle," which opens Santa Barbara City College Theatre Group's fall theater season, is based on the true story of Lt. Col. Ralph Hayles, whose career was ruined in a friendly-fire incident during the 1991 conflict.

Despite the apparent culpability of others higher up, and the number of similar incidents that went unpunished, Lt. Col. Hayles was singled out, his life made miserable by the media upon his return home. Through the help of an investigative journalist, Rob Johnson from the Wall Street Journal, Lt. Col. Hayles was allowed to clear his name just before the Army reneged on his retirement funds.

It's a classic story of the little man scapegoated for the sins of the higher-up, and a mainstay of war drama.

Continue reading "Play Review - Gunfighter" »

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From this Sunday's News-Press:

Hot Young Thing: No, fans, I'm not talking about me, I'm talking about LibraryThing! If you like the Web and have a huge library of books, this may be the socializing software for you. Designed by Tim Spaulding, LibraryThing allows you to replicate your home library online. Once up, you can see people who share your tastes, post reviews, browse your collection and those of others, chat with people, and all sorts of things.

Before, I was about to catalog my collection with database software that would have resided on my computer only. But with LibraryThing I get the same functionality and the interconnectivity of the Web.

Continue reading "Latest Book Column - Library Thing and more..." »

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My review of Saturday night's performance of "Turn of the Screw" in Ventura just got published in ye olde NewsPress.

TURN, TURN, TURN
James' classic ghost story chills

For many of us who have encountered Henry James' "The Turn of the Screw," it most probably was in senior-year English.
And for many of us, it was plodding, full of long, long digressive sentences that feel like the main verb has upped and left, tired of waiting.

Yet, in many ways, the story's influence continues to be felt a full century after its initial publication. Alejandro Amen‡bar's film "The Others" kept the main elements, but remixed them into a modern ghost story. The two-player adaptation at the Rubicon Theatre reintroduces this tale of madness, sifting out the story from the prose. It leaves the ambiguity of the original intact even as it introduces several more levels of unanswered questions.

Continue reading "Turn of the Screw - Theater Review" »

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My latest column from the News-Press (sorry, their own links last for 7 days only):

BOOK CLUB CONFIDENTIAL

So we're kickin' into fall, or what the two-syllable crowd likes to call "autumn."

Your summer reading is finished. You got sand all over the dust jacket. You dropped "Anna Karenina" into the bathtub by accident and now the bleedin' thing has twice as many pages. You took a break from your book club because everybody was out on their brief American vacations driving, driving, driving somewhere. Or you went silly and added way too much to your towering "to be read" stack.

Don't feel bad. We all do it. In fact, I just cleaned up the house and found that I was subconsciously squirreling away books just so my stack wouldn't go so high. And now I've put them all in one place, I'm going to need a ladder. What was I thinking?

Continue reading "Book Club Confidential - Fall Reading" »

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(On Saturday I went to see Aretha Franklin play the S.B. Bowl. Here's my review from the News-Press.)


If the history of Aretha Franklin's career is that of a frustrated talent held down under her early Capitol Records deal, and then being allowed to flower under Jerry Wexler's production at Atlantic Records, then her struggle since the early 1970s has been a story of trying to find another worthy partner and living up to early promise.
There have been plenty of producers since, some very big names, from Curtis Mayfield to Narada Michael Walden and Babyface, but they've been either terribly mismatched or have resulted in some stultifyingly dull albums, glomming on to trends from disco to '80s drum machines and syrupy balladeering.
For the Queen of Soul, there's been much laurel-resting and Saturday night's appearance at the Santa Barbara County Bowl suggests she's content to do just that.
But for fans, it must be frustrating. Franklin tours with a huge band, which opened up the show with that most depressing of Las Vegas-style maneuvers, the "medley of hits," while the singer prepared offstage.
A medley is, on the whole, an admission that no surprises are to come either tonight or in the years to come, a living museum piece.
But perhaps Franklin's appearance made up for it. She's 63 now, and overweight, but still looking lovely in a dazzling white evening dress and purple chiffon scarf.
The singer launched directly into "Respect," but there was something lifeless about it. And then the dancers came on.

Continue reading "First Lady Comes Second" »

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Apparently, Friday is a good day. I have an article on the Rosenzweig Dance Company in the News Press (you may have to log in to see it), and an article on the low, low, low possibility of bringing light rail to S.B. County.

Posted by Ted Mills at 10:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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After turning it in a week ago, the Valley Voice have finally printed my review of The Nederlands Dans Theater II. Check it out. I did.

Posted by Ted Mills at 11:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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I like to think that someone out there, possibly in Taiwan, is learning more than they ever thought they'd know about Santa Barbara County politics, after following my series of portraits of the Board of Supervisors. This week I take on Gail Marshall who has been the most controversial of them all--and not intentionally.

I also got to review Laurel Canyon, which stars the lovely Kate Beckinsale. Which reminds me, whatever happened to Whit Stillman? Isn't he due for a new movie sometime?

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Talking about writing, here you can read my article on 2nd District Supervisor Susan Rose, my review of Gus Van Zant's Gerry, and my review of The Actors from the London Stage's version of The Tempest.

Posted by Ted Mills at 12:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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Apart from my blogging comments on Divine Intervention, I got write a full blown review of it for the Valley Voice. Here 'tis.
Divine Intervention Turns a Comic Eye on Occupation

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It's Friday and my profile on Naomi Schwartz has come out in the Valley Voice. For those of you outside S.B. County who don't know that Schwartz is one of our County Supervisors, the article may mean nothing. But give it a shot anyway.
Full circle with Naomi Schwartz:
First District Supervisor looks back on her career and ahead to looming state crisis

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It all seems like so long ago. In fact it was a week. At last my Cherry Orchard review has been posted.

Posted by Ted Mills at 11:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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I completely forgot that Friday was when my most recent piece was published in the Valley Voice. Here I tell you all you need to know about bioswales. What's a bioswale, you ask? Click and find out.

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It's Friday, and two of my most recent writings have been published. The first is the Valley Voice's cover story on Harriet Phillips and the Goleta Valley Land Trust. The second is my review of Narc

Enjoy and please send feedback if you'd like!

Posted by Ted Mills at 12:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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Spent today writing an article on the Goleta Valley Land Trust, which is a local organization awarding grants to organizations that want to preserve our open space. The president, feisty 79-year-old Harriet Philips, has a long history of politics and volunteer work, and you'll have to wait till next week to read my profile on her.

Jessica and I also went to see Narc, which featured Jason Patric and Ray Liotta yelling at various people in the first two-thirds of the film, only to end up yelling at each other. Again, you can read my review later.

In the meantime, here's a review that got published last month of Gangs of New York under my nom de plume.

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