Spring Arts Annual 2021
San Luis Obispo County’s News and Entertainment Weekly. Arts and entertainment listings for Spring 2021.
Cover Story
Spring Arts Annual: As the pandemic surge lulls, both virtual and in-person arts activities are ready to bring you joy
New Times’ annual Spring Arts issue brings you arts, music, and craft events from across the Central Coast. With the pandemic still going but possibly waning, arts events continue to be mostly virtual, but some in-person events are happening too! Calendar Editor Caleb Wiseblood compiled all the creativity San Luis Obispo and Northern Santa Barbara…
SLO County stays in red tier while posting orange tier-level numbers
San Luis Obispo County reported its best week for COVID-19 in more than four months on March 9, as new metrics showed a continued decline in case and positivity rates. The latest adjusted case rate of 5.7 per 100,000 residents and positivity rates of 1.9 percent overall and 2.1 percent in disadvantaged areas show SLO…
Pismo Beach to install four-way stop at James and Frances Way
The city of Pismo Beach is putting a four-way stop at the intersection of James Way and Frances Way, where several residents say they’ve had close calls with cars while attempting to cross the 65-foot wide roadway. At a Traffic Safety Committee meeting on Feb. 11, several residents complained about the intersection, which they said…
Lompoc’s Beattie Park now home to largest inclusive playground in Santa Barbara County
After a rainy morning, the clouds over Beattie Park in Lompoc begin to part around noon and the sun peeks out. Kids shriek and giggle as they leap from play structure to structure, fly down slides, and swing across monkey bars still wet from a morning drizzle. The brand new playground was unveiled on March…
SLO County rolls out new vaccine lottery system
San Luis Obispo County Public Health is moving away from a first-come, first-serve COVID-19 vaccination appointment system to a new lottery-based system—a change that officials say will “ease stress and ensure more equity” in the vaccination process. Instead of announcing the availability of new appointment slots each Thursday, which are getting gobbled up within a…
Questionable actions
Bizarre from the start, the Feb. 23 Port San Luis Harbor Commission meeting provided ripe fodder for a SNL spoof. It was complete with a white elitist badge-toting, take-no-prisoners “sheriff” from Texas and a gang of three schoolyard bullies. The night’s debacle was replete with misogyny on raw display, dismissal of a respected progressive Jewish…
Correction
In the Feb. 11 news story “SLO City Council to discuss report on June 1 police use of tear gas,” New Times misstated the author of the after-action review. The SLO Police Department produced the report, and James Bueermann was retained to review it. Δ
Be afraid, very afraid
Al Fonzi’s “The green-energy chimera” (Feb. 25) is a load of crap. Fonzi parrots the same old conservative, alternative reality BS talking points we’ve endured for the past four years. He offers no solutions, proposes no way forward, but keeps yelling: No, no, no! In Fonzi’s world it makes total sense to keep doing what…
Regarding two letters
For much of my life my place on the political spectrum was well on the left—slightly to the right of Che Guevara—but over the years I have mellowed a bit with time and experience nudging me inexorably toward the center, as far as I can get from the consummate idiots occupying either extreme. So you…
Iranian barbecue: Shekamoo Grill serves up succulent, flame-kissed Persian kabobs
Get some meat Find Shekamoo Grill on Instagram @shekamoogrill to figure out where that Persian kabob will pop up next. Koobideh—that’s pronounced coo-bee-deh—is the best grilled ground meat you will ever eat. Sometimes it’s just lamb, sometimes it’s just beef, but traditionally, it’s a combination of the two mixed with grated onion, sumac, salt, and…
Cambria’s ongoing cost
Ever since being elected to the Cambria Community Services District (CCSD) board of directors in November 2016, I’ve endeavored to keep the ratepayers of our community informed as to the ongoing costs of the Facility off of San Simeon Creek Road known initially as the EWS (Emergency Water Supply Project), then briefly as the AWTP…
I Care A Lot examines the infuriating practice of conservatorship of the elderly
I CARE A LOT What’s it rated? R What’s it worth, Anna? Full price What’s it worth, Glen? Full price Where’s it showing? Netflix Writer-director J Blakeson (The Disappearance of Alice Creed) helms this infuriating black comedy about professional conservator Marla Grayson (Rosamund Pike), who uses the legal system to gain guardianship of the elderly…
Live music returns to the Central Coast
Back in January, California lifted its ban on outdoor live music. It was only for outdoor venues where food is being served, and social distancing and masks were still required, but the good news is we’re now in the red tier, which means indoor concerts at 25 percent capacity for venues that serve food. In…
Greenland
What’s it rated? PG-13 When? 2020 Where’s it showing? Redbox Stuntman turned director Ric Roman Waugh (Felon, Snitch, Angel Has Fallen) helms this apocalyptic disaster thriller about a family struggling to survive and find safety as all life on Earth is imperiled by a cataclysmic comet from outer space. Skyscraper builder John Garrity (Gerard Butler)…
Thank you, Rep. Carbajal
In 2005, when he was 85 years old, former Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall was the subject of a feature-length profile in the LA Times. The Times rightly tagged Udall, one of the architects of the Wilderness Act, as “perhaps the politician most responsible for the public lands you hike, the rivers you kayak,…
Wounded Heroes
What’s it rated? Not rated When? 2021 Where’s it showing? Amazon, Google, and iTunes starting March 5 Written, directed by, and starring Michael Gier, this new documentary examines the troubling practice of overmedicating soldiers suffering from PTSD. Instead, it explores alternative treatments, starting with equine therapy, as well as ART (Accelerated Resolution Therapy), which essentially…
Cal Poly students and faculty collaborate on a new, interactive audio play and virtual dance concert
No place like home Shelter becomes available online on Saturday, March 6, while Floor Plan debuts on Saturday, March 13. Both productions will stream through the end of Cal Poly’s academic year. Visit theatredance.calpoly.edu to find out more. “We may ask you to walk around with us and dream with us. So, if you are…
COVID-19 relief funding offers local cities a chance to get creative in addressing homelessness
A Motel 6 that was turned into emergency homeless shelter space and supportive housing in Paso Robles is one of several fast-paced and unconventional efforts to address homelessness on the Central Coast amid the COVID-19 pandemic. But it’s one of the few that will remain when the pandemic is over. While the coronavirus and resulting…
Winning at civility
Just in case you don’t know how to make arguments in a civil way, the San Luis Obispo City Council gave a little rundown at its March 2 meeting. You know, like a civics class done over Zoom where nobody pays attention. Listen first, respect different opinions, show courtesy, criticize constructively, debate the policy not…
Purchased largely online, fentanyl deaths are increasing
Editor’s note: This is the second installment in a series documenting the prevalence of fentanyl in SLO County. The first, “Two Central Coast mothers lose their sons to accidental fentanyl consumption and want to warn others,” was published Jan. 21. As Cindy Cruz-Sarantos speaks about her late son, Dylan Kai Sarantos, a smile spreads across…
Art Center Morro Bay accepts entries for upcoming group show, Broken Nature
The Morro Bay Art Association (MBAA) is seeking artists to participate in Broken Nature, an upcoming visual media exhibition at Art Center Morro Bay. The take-in date for art submissions will be Tuesday, April 6, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Entries will be informally juried during the take-in, and the exhibit is scheduled to…
LGBTQ-plus town hall highlights mental health needs and local service gaps
A work in progress. That’s how a panel of local health service providers on Feb. 25 all described their efforts to better serve the LGBTQ-plus community in San Luis Obispo County. “Every day, it’s progress on that journey,” said Mark Lisa, CEO of Tenet Health Central Coast, which operates Sierra Vista and Twin Cities hospitals.…
SLO District Attorney offers to postpone prosecution for five protesters
During a virtual appearance in the San Luis Obispo County Superior Court on March 3, the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office recommended a misdemeanor diversion for five of the seven local Black Lives Matter protesters charged with endangering and violating the personal liberty of nonparticipants in a protest last July. Citing the community’s…
SLO city to open safe parking program at railroad square
Amid a worsening homelessness crisis, the city of San Luis Obispo is launching a new “safe parking program” in the coming weeks that will give local families and individuals a place to legally park and sleep overnight in their vehicles. Slated to open at Railroad Square—in a city-owned parking lot next to the SLO Railroad…
South County Rotary collects sleeping bags for the houseless
The Rotary Club of Pismo Beach and Five Cities is hosting its first ever sleeping bag drive this month, an effort to help those in the local homeless community who might be wary of staying in congregate shelters amid the COVID-19 pandemic. “We just are very touched by that,” Rotary Club co-secretary Margie Salame told…
Downtown San Luis Obispo seeks local artists to join May Flower Initiative
The deadline for volunteers to sign up for this year’s May Flower Initiative, a collaborative public art project to help beautify businesses in Downtown San Luis Obispo, is Monday, March 22. Once chosen, participants in the initiative will paint their own colorful floral designs on the windows of various properties, including storefronts, restaurants, retail, salons,…
New bill could eliminate whale entanglements, hurt crab fishery
The Whale Entanglement Prevention Act introduced on Feb. 10 proposes that trap fisheries such as the crabbing industry use ropeless gear by Nov. 1, 2025, to stop the injury or accidental death of endangered marine life. Authored by Assemblymember Rob Bonta (D-Oakland) in collaboration with Social Compassion in Legislation and the Center for Biological Diversity,…
Pismo and Grover consider consolidating dispatch services
The cities of Pismo Beach and Grover Beach are closer than ever to partnering up on emergency dispatch services, a possibility that’s been in the works for years and that the cities say could save money and improve emergency response strategies. At a meeting on March 2, Pismo Beach City Council unanimously voted to authorize…
