••• A while back, Suzanne asked about the provenance of the two blue vases atop the Presidio Plaza Building next to the post office, and after I came up empty, D. wrote in with a theory that “the building was built by, owned by, or otherwise associated with Peter B. Kyne, the author of a well known book in the 1920s, The Go-Getter, or How to Be One, in which a blue vase was key to the plot. These blue vases were put on the building to honor the success of the book.” As appealing as that sounded, I was convinced that if it was true, we’d be able to find more info online. Then it occurred to me to ask the folks at the Santa Barbara Historical Museum—sure enough, they remembered a 1990 article from Santa Barbara Magazine.
••• Edible Santa Barbara noticed that the Pacifica Suites hotel on Hollister Avenue in Goleta is going to be rebranded as the Steward Hotel, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel (i.e., yet another Marriott brand). And apparently there will be an all-day restaurant, Terra, serving “hyper-local fresh California cuisine.”
••• From the county: “The Santa Barbara County Public Health Department has lifted the water contact closure for Miramar Beach and Fernald Point Beach. Recent ocean water quality testing conducted by the Department’s Environmental Health Services Division has confirmed the ocean water is now safe for recreational use in this area following recent sewage impacts.”
••• The State Street Trading Post—”a collective of makers and vintage merchants”—is opening at 1105 State Street (Anapamu/Figueroa).
••• Up now at My Pet Ram gallery: Work by Anders Lindseth (including the one below, done in crayon) and Raychael Stine, who “play with the interstitial space between observation and the act of creating imagery. Using symbols and common subjects as their catalysts, each embraces tradition while veering sharply from the prescribed formatting of landscape and figuration.”
••• February 9 at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art: “Parallel Stories examines what happens in fiction and life when artist couples work together. Celebrated author and recent winner of the Femina Prize for a foreign novel, Rachel Cusk returns to read from her Mann Booker Prize-nominated novel, Second Place. In this enigmatic and compelling tale, Cusk explores the complicated geometry of relationships—freedom and gender, art and suffering, ego and self-sacrifice, illusion and will. Her husband and artist, Siemon Scamell-Katz, joins her on the stage along with their longtime friend award-winning author Andrew Winer, whose novel, The Marriage Artist, provides a provocative snapshot of contemporary marriage.”
••• The Ojai Studio Artists are trying something new: “Studios across the Ojai Valley will open to the public in neighborhood-specific tours on the second Saturday of every month from February through August. Painters, sculptors, potters, weavers, printmakers, glass artists, jewelers and apparel makers are participating in the Ojai Studio Artists Second Saturday program, kicking off on February 11 with eleven artists in and around the Oakview area opening their doors. […] The February Oakview lineup includes landscape painter Shahastra Levy, painter of fantastical dreamscapes of the Ojai valley, Carlos Grasso, maker of gorgeous mystical abstractions and famed fashion printmaker Leslie Plimpton. The March event features 14 artists from the East Side of the Valley, followed in April by a Downtown group, the Arbolada in May, Mira Monte in June, the West End in July and Meiners Oaks in August. Check the OSA website for a full list of participating artists.”
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