NOMINATED for Academy Award for Best International Film.
NYTimes Critic’ Pick
Hirayama seems utterly content with his simple life as a cleaner of toilets in Tokyo. Outside of his very structured everyday routine he enjoys his passion for music and for books. And he loves trees and takes photos of them. A series of unexpected encounters gradually reveal more of his past. A deeply moving and poetic reflection on finding beauty in the everyday world around us.
SANTA BARBARA — UCSB Arts & Lectures presents Lauren Groff in conversation with Pico Iyer on Tuesday, April 9 at 7:30 p.m. at Campbell Hall. A three-time National Book Award finalist, bestselling novelist and short story writer, Lauren Groff spins highly imaginative fiction out of an acute awareness of the historical forces that shape human behavior. In a six-book oeuvre that spans centuries and embraces a variety of diverse settings, Groff elevates gripping storylines with electrifying prose and startling, unforgettable descriptions. Known for literary masterpieces such as Fates and Furies and Matrix, her latest novel is The Vaster Wilds, a thrilling adventure story set in the wilderness of colonial America. Both Groff and moderator Pico Iyer will be available following the presentation to sign books.
SANTA BARBARA — UCSB Arts & Lectures presents the Danish String Quartet on Wednesday, April 10 at 7 p.m. at Campbell Hall. The Danish String Quartet is joined by Finnish cellist Johannes Rostamo for the eagerly-anticipated capstone to their international Doppelgänger Project. In part IV, the Danish pairs Schubert’s String Quintet, frequently cited among the greatest of all works of chamber music, with a new piece titled Wreath – For Franz Schubert by renowned British composer Thomas Adès. Part III of the project was heralded by The New York Times as “ensemble music at its purest – a consensus interpretation, rendered selflessly in service of the group as instrument.”
Topic: “Traditional Indigenous Medicine – The Way of Ceremony & Sacraments”
Date: Wednesday, April 3rd, 2024
Times: 5:00pm to 9:00pm (Interview at 6:30pm)
Where: LoDo Studios, 216 E. Gutierrez Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101
(Please only park across the street on the Office Max side of the lot.)
Members are Free to attend The District House evenings, and are prioritized when we reach capacity.
Guests Welcome to purchase $50 tickets to The District House evenings.
With millions of Californians falling prey to financial frauds and scams, it’s important more than ever to learn how to protect your
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“This play is really special to me because I have written so many papers about ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream,’” said director and theatre instructor Laura Covault. “It seems whenever the characters disappear into the forest, they always come out transformed. There’s a love quadrangle, hilarity and a group of rag-tag wannabe actors who do a play within a play…and most important? It’s got fairies.”
Fee-waived dog adoptions, April 12-14 at the Camarillo and Simi Valley Animal Shelters. Preview our dogs at www.vcas.us/dogs. Learn about our adoption process at www.vcas.us/adopt. Questions? Please contact us at info@vcas.us or (805) 388-4341. Thank you for your support! Ventura County Animal Services
SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY — Lumina Alliance is thrilled to announce its upcoming fundraising event, Lumina Nights featuring Dancing with Our Stars, set to captivate audiences on Friday, April 12th, and Saturday, April 13th, at Thousand Hills Ranch in Pismo Beach. The event, presented by BHE Renewables, promises to be a dazzling night of entertainment, all while supporting a noble cause.
Lumina Nights featuring Dancing with Our Stars is a unique and exciting showcase that brings together local celebrities, community leaders, and prominent figures who will pair up with professional dancers to compete for the coveted title. The evening will be filled with sensational dance performances, laughter, and camaraderie, all in the spirit of raising funds for Lumina Alliance’s critical services that are facing significant government funding cuts in the coming year.
SOLVANG — Join us for an inspirational and educational lecture and book signing with George Rose at the California Nature Art Museum (formerly the Wildling Museum) in the Second Floor Valley Oak Gallery.
WESTLAKE VILLAGE — The two branches of the Southeast Ventura County YMCA are holding “Healthy Kids’ Day,” a free community event to inspire kids to keep their minds and bodies active during the summer. The Simi Valley Family YMCA Healthy Kids’ Day is Saturday, April 13 from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. and the Yarrow Family YMCA Healthy Kids’ Day in Westlake Village is Saturday, April 20 from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital Trauma Services, along with several local agencies, is hosting a FREE drive-up child car seat and booster check event. No prior registration is necessary.
OXNARD — The Oxnard Public Library announces the return of their Annual Local Authors Showcase on April 13th, 2024 from 1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. at the Downtown Main Branch (251 S. A St., Oxnard).
This year’s event will fill the Main Library’s second floor with authors selling and signing their books. Aspiring authors of all ages can also participate in the Library’s new panel discussions with authors who write within the three major age demographics (Adult, Young Adult, and Children). Engage with published authors and learn about the writing process and how one gets published.
Denmark’s Submission to the Academy Awards for Best International Film.
In 18th century Denmark, Captain Ludvig Kahlen (Mads Mikkelsen) – a proud, ambitious, but impoverished war hero — sets out to tame a vast, uninhabitable land on which seemingly nothing can grow. He seeks to start farming crops, build a colony in the name of the King, and gain a noble title for himself. This beautiful but forbidding area also happens to be under the rule of the merciless Frederik De Schinkel, a preening nobleman who realizes the threat Kahlen represents to his power. Struggling against the elements and local brigands, Kahlen is joined by a couple who have fled the clutches of the rapacious De Schinkel. As this group of misfits begins to build a small community in this inhospitable place, De Schinkel swears vengeance, and the confrontation between him and Kahlen promises to be as violent and intense as these two men.
Topic: “UNDIVIDE US”
Date: Wednesday, April 17th, 2024
Times: 5:00pm to 9:00pm (Screening at 6:30pm)
Where: LoDo Studios, 216 E. Gutierrez Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101
SANTA BARBARA — UCSB Arts & Lectures presents Herbie Hancock on Wednesday, April 17 at 8 p.m. at the Arlington Theatre. Experience a night under the spell of Herbie Hancock, jazz’s most versatile and influential keyboard player. As pianist for Miles Davis in the mid-1960s, Hancock helped pioneer a groundbreaking new sound in jazz. A trained engineer, he was among the first bop players to explore the potential of electric instruments and combine jazz with funk and rock. Hancock has garnered a Kennedy Center Honor, an Academy Award for his Round Midnight film score and 14 Grammys, including a prestigious Album of the Year for his 2007 tribute River: The Joni Letters.
Join us for an in-depth discussion about the business of sports with executives from Angel City Football Club of the National Women’s Soccer League and Cal Lutheran’s Sports Management Program Director Mark Orlando.
Angel City FC players will participate in a question-and-answer session. After the event, they will be on-hand for photos and an autograph signing.
SANTA BARBARA — UCSB Arts & Lectures presents RuPaul on Thursday, April 18 at 7:30 p.m. at The Arlington Theatre. If we’re all born naked and the rest is drag, this is RuPaul stripped bare. Pop culture icon and international drag superstar RuPaul invites you to a spiritual awakening to celebrate the release of his new memoir, The House of Hidden Meanings. Allow your mind, body and soul to be enveloped in RuPaul’s lyrically poignant stories on life, love and finding your voice. During this special event, RuPaul offers fans a manual for living – a personal philosophy that testifies to the value of chosen family, the importance of harnessing what makes you different and the transformational power of facing yourself fearlessly. Don’t miss the opportunity to hear RuPaul’s extraordinary story as told by RuPaul.
The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain: An evening of music & comedy in Ojai!
Thursday, April 18, 2024
7:00 PM – Doors Open 6:30
Libbey Bowl
210 S Signal St, Ojai
Noted photography scholar Beth Gates Warren will present a fascinating lecture on Julien Levy (1906–81), who is best remembered today as the art dealer who brought Surrealism to the United States. His eponymous New York City Gallery (1931–49) was generally regarded as the best place to view cutting-edge work by such artists as Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, Alberto Giacometti, Arshile Gorky, Frida Kahlo, and Man Ray.
SANTA MARIA — Allan Hancock College’s film and television program is celebrating the work of acclaimed director Tim Burton by hosting a retrospective of his work through the end of April.
The film and television program is partnering with the Friends of the AHC Library to host a screening of “Beetlejuice” on April 19 at 6 p.m., followed by a screening of “Big Fish” on April 26 at 6 p.m. Both movies will be shown in the screening room of the college’s Fine Arts Complex (Bldg. F, Room 257).
SANTA BARBARA — UCSB Arts & Lectures presents Antonio Sánchez Birdman Live on Friday, April 19 at 8 p.m. at The Arlington Theatre. After the success of Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman, which won four Academy Awards including Best Picture, drummer/composer Antonio Sánchez performed his dramatic Grammy Award-winning score live around the world.
In his Santa Barbara debut, the acclaimed soloist will perform a rousing program ranging from W. A. Mozart to Florence Price SUMMARY UCSB Arts & Lectures presents Randall Goosby Sat, April 20 | 7 p.m. | Hahn Hall Acclaimed for…
Don’t miss the Santa Paula Art Museum’s Fourteenth Anniversary Gala and Fundraiser this Saturday, April 20, 2024! In honor of the Museum’s Limoneira Building turning 100 this year, we’re going to party like it’s 1924! Join us inside the Museum for a Roaring ’20s evening of art, live music by Sophie Holt and Studio C, dancing, cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, a special painting demonstration, and more.
This free event is for all families, guardians, children, educators, and community members to join us for a day of activities, games, reading. Our special guest is children’s book author James Luna. James will be reading his The Runaway Piggy/El Cochinito Fugitivo book. The first 150 guests will receive a free copy of the book as well!
SANTA BARBARA — UCSB Arts & Lectures presents Rhiannon Giddens on Tuesday, April 23 at 8 p.m. at The Arlington Theatre. Singer and instrumentalist Rhiannon Giddens’ iconic brand of folk music spotlights people whose contributions to American musical history have been overlooked or erased, and advocates for a more accurate understanding of the country’s musical origins through art. A two-time Grammy Award winner, MacArthur fellow and composer, she was awarded the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Music for her debut opera Omar. Her highly-anticipated new solo album, You’re the One, was released in August. For this show, Giddens will be joined by opening act Charly Lowry.
Starbucks is opening a new store in China every 15 hours and TikTok is redefining American social media – even as tensions build over Taiwan, cyberhacking and threats to global health. For the first time in a generation, the world has entered an era dominated by two superpowers.
In conjunction with the exhibition Made by Hand/Born Digital (on view through August 25), this free flowing conversation between artist Yassi Mazandi and SBMA Curator of Contemporary Art James Glisson will cover her explorations with new technology, including NFTs, and her tendency to work with traditional mediums, like painting and ceramics, against the grain.
SANTA BARBARA — UCSB Arts & Lectures presents Alonzo King LINES Ballet on Friday, April 26 at 8 p.m. at The Arlington Theatre. Blurring the lines between classical and contemporary, San Francisco-based Alonzo King LINES Ballet is renowned for its impeccable technique, captivating dancers and rich visual works. Alonzo King’s newest creation, Deep River, uses spiritual music from Black and Jewish traditions alongside original compositions by Jason Moran to assert the power of hope in the face of seemingly impossible odds.
SANTA BARBARA – – UCSB Arts & Lectures presents Kronos Quartet | Five Decades on Wednesday, April 24 at 7:30 p.m. at Campbell Hall. For 50 years, San Francisco’s Kronos Quartet has challenged and reimagined what a string quartet can be, centering its work around the key issues of our time. Kronos has commissioned, performed and recorded works that engage with topics such as war and destruction, the climate crisis, social injustice and spirituality. Now, the multi-Grammy Award-winning quartet marks its anniversary with a program of new commissions, signature works from its vast repertoire and pieces from its Fifty for the Future project.
SANTA PAULA — The City of Santa Paula will host a public celebration to thank Chevron for donating the historic former headquarters of Union Oil Company of California to the City at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, April 27 at 1003 E. Main St., Santa Paula.
The City is celebrating the donation in conjunction with the 122nd anniversary of the City’s founding.
Union Oil Company of California was founded in a second floor office in 1890. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places and is a California Historical Landmark and Ventura County Historical Landmark. The building has also been home to the California Oil Museum. In 2023 the City held workshops to solicit community input for how the building will be used for the community’s benefit.
SANTA BARBARA —The Community Environmental Council and its long-time festival partner, CarpEvents, are thrilled to bring the Santa Barbara Earth Day Festival back to Alameda Park on Saturday, April 27 from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and Sunday, April 28 from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., 2024. Now in its 54th year, the Santa Barbara Earth Day Festival is one of the longest-running Earth Day celebrations in the country, and is one of the largest on the West Coast. Spanish-speaking staff will be on-hand (identified with “Hablo Español” name badges) to provide information and resources on electric vehicles, home energy eciency upgrades, how to become a climate activist, and more.
CEC’s Santa Barbara Earth Day Festival is FREE for attendees. Detailed information including maps and stage schedules are available online at www.SBEarthDay.org or in the Santa Barbara Independent Earth Day Festival Guide to be published on Thursday, April 25.
“We’re excited to welcome the community to our third annual OC Family Festival,” shared Dr. Oscar Cobian, interim president of Oxnard College. “This yearly tradition invites friends of Oxnard College to visit our beautiful campus for a day of fun and to learn about our award-winning programs. We are also looking forward to helping attendees consider their plans for attending college.”
In support of Earth-friendly practices Ventura Charter School’s EcoFest welcomes the community to head to the campus utilizing a variety of transportation options. Bicycle to event and receive bike valet services sponsored by Bike Ventura County. Through Gold Coast Transit District’s Youth Ride Free Program, students and children 18 and under ride free with no identification required. There will be a variety of entertainment for the whole family to enjoy, including a kid zone, an EV car exhibit, live music and dance and plenty more.
As the world’s foremost forest ecologist, Suzanne Simard has reshaped the way we understand the life and growth of plants. In her groundbreaking work Finding the Mother Tree, Simard explained how trees interact and communicate using below-ground fungal networks. Her research established the existence of “mother trees” that play an important role in the flow of information and resources in a forest. The concepts she developed have influenced everyone from earth scientists to artists – think James Cameron’s Avatarand Richard Powers’ The Overstory. Join Simard for a dazzling journey through the unseen world going on above our heads and under our feet.
New Venture Fair (NVF)
Wednesday, May 1 from 4:00 – 7:00 PM (PT) on Cal Lutheran’s Thousand Oaks Campus
You’re invited to the NVF in-person Expo and Awards Presentation! Join us to learn about these students’ startup ideas, and vote for your favorites. Open to everyone! Register here.
Join us for a celebration of global trade at the Port of Hueneme’s 11th Annual World Trade Week Event, celebrating its pivotal role in international trade. Ranked as California’s #4 seaport and excelling in handling fresh produce and automobiles, the Port stands as a cornerstone of global connectivity. Join us for enlightening discussions on logistics, technology and the profound impact of strategic partnerships on regional, state and national economies, as we unite importers, exporters, logistics providers and government agencies in fostering sustainable growth and prosperity.
As a World Trade Center licensee, the Port of Hueneme in concert with our strong team of local, regional, and national stakeholders, will host attendees as part of an overall theme to advance the businesses of Ventura County and expand our business community’s reach to the global marketplace.
The Santa Barbara Fair & Expo is an annual celebration of fun, entertainment, and cultural experiences that unites the community for a memorable event. Committed to providing a diverse array of attractions and activities, the fair strives to create lasting memories and traditions for attendees of all ages.
“This will be a multimedia spectacle using animation, art, dance and theater,” Castillo said. “With the technological tools we have in our hands, students are learning to collaborate and create pieces with various media, video backdrops, dancers, actors, animation and writers who are coming up with scripts to integrate everything,” Castillo said.
