Summer Solstice Parade began in 1974, as a birthday celebration for a popular artist and mime named Michael Gonzales. Michael belonged to a group called the Mime Caravan. After completing a long tour on the road, his birthday celebration spilled onto State Street as he and his friends danced through town wearing elaborate masks. It …
The Russian River resort town of Monte Rio is the only place I know of where seeing a Pink Elephant doesn’t necessarily mean you’re drunk. Of course, considering that the Pink Elephant is one of the North Bay’s preeminent dive bars, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re sober, either. Monte Rio is a depressed Northern California …
It seems that my interest in the events at the Earl Warren Showgrounds pattern closely a Titan weather report. For those not in the NASA circle, about every 15 years there is a change…quite similar to how I viewed the showgrounds.It began for me as a concert venue, in the days of black lights, bell …
We’ve lost James Brown and we’re not sure exactly sure what, where, or when it all went wrong regarding Michael Jackson, but it appears the void they have created has finally been filled. It comes in a small package and surprisingly from afar, India to be exact. The little guy’s stage name is Thavakalai (Tamil …
Fiesta – Old Spanish Days In the year 1924, two circumstances motivated the first Fiesta. First there had for some time been a feeling among the business people of the city that Santa Barbara should have an annual summer event to entertain and attract visitors. The city had come to be a favorite place for …
> Well he wasn’t dressed like this, and this isn’t really him anyway. But the moral of the story is that every town has it’s hero(s), and this one resides south of the border in the lobster town of Puerto Nuevo… Six of us had rented a three story, three bedroom condo on the ocean …
Stagecoach Road is one of Santa Barbara County’s most famous roads. It is part of the original Stagecoach Route when the coach’s ruled the terrain from 1861 to 1910. In 1910 the first automobile drove across the San Marcos Pass, effectively ending the stage coach era. However, Stagecoach Rd. remained the only means of traversing …
Sum Dim, Sum Don’t, Sum Just Dumb – Who else would end up in a Japanese restaurant in the middle of San Francisco’s Chinatown. The Sushi Boat Restaurant offers authentic Japanese cuisine and sushi, which is served in miniature boats floating around the chef’s table. Not being a sushi eater, I simply ordered beers. …
Never been there and probably does not exist today. Located in Santiago, Mexico (although which one, I don’t know). There are two Santiagos, not too far apart from each other, Northeast of Mexico City, one appears to be a city and the other a town. At any rate, one of them was home to the …
1979: Say What? Local law enforcement officials turn over to the FBI a printed note found next to the body of Roy William Dale, who died of an apparent suicide in a 1974 Chevy Camaro parked at a Fort Ross Road turnout. The cryptic note implicates Dale in the 1963 assassination of President Kennedy, stating …