Seen Around Town by Lynda Millner
29+ years in business Licensed & Bonded Authorized Dealer Free Consultation
Riviera Project
805-962-4352 523 Garden Street Santa Barbara, CA www.CalCoastWindowtinting.com info@calcoastwindowtinting.com
Elizabeth Gilbert and Magic
(Top from left) Eric Phillips Chair of the Riviera/SBIFF board, Craig McCaw, and Bruce Heavin; (bottom) Susan McCaw and board member Lynda Weinman eating popcorn in the Riviera Theatre during renovation
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hanks to the late Michael Towbes, dreams do come true. He arranged to have the Riviera Theatre leased to the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) for 30 years. In partnership with the Towbes Group, a jointly funded renovation plan will transform the Riviera into a state-of-the-art, multipurpose theatre. Renovations now underway will include: comfortable seating, worldclass sound and projection systems, loop system for the hearing impaired, and heating and air conditioning. With the new elevator, the balcony lounge will be a place for panels, workshops, and Q&As to meet. It will also host receptions, filmmakers, and filmgoer gatherings. The theater is due to open this year, and the balcony lounge will be completed in 2018. This is the first capital campaign and has a goal of $5 million. They have already reached $4.5 million. Lynda Weinman (SBIFF board president) and her husband, Bruce Heavin, gave $2.5 million with the Hahn Foundation,
Ms Millner is the author of The Magic Makeover, Tricks for Looking Thinner, Younger and More Confident – Instantly. If you have an event that belongs in this column, you are invited to call Lynda at 969-6164.
and Susan and Craig McCaw coming in with $250,000 – and the list of donors goes on. There are still many naming opportunities. I was here for the first film festival, and over the past 30 years it has become one of the leading celebrations in the United States. Executive director Roger Durling says, “Making the Riviera Theatre our home is a major turning point for SBIFF. Ultimately, it will grow our stature and importance culturally, not just in the city, but on a national and international level as well.” The Riviera Project board of directors task force are Weinman and chair Eric Phillips. They took me on a walk, The Riviera with all the seats removed for remodeling
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explaining that the Cinema Society will still meet there but the theater will also showcase films that are open to the general public. There will be new and diverse year-round programs and events. The project will also preserve an important historic landmark. The theater was originally an auditorium designed by Alfred Eicher in 1926 as part of the UCSB’s Mesa Campus. As Lynda said, “Santa Barbara has never had a 24/7 community center focused on the art of film.” According to Steven Spielberg, “There is no substitute for going to the movies. There is nothing like it.” For more information, call (805) 963-0023.
UCSB Arts and Lectures brought us yet another sold-out program at the Granada with the appearance of author Elizabeth Gilbert in conversation with Pico lyer. Elizabeth is noted for her mega-best-selling memoir, Eat, Pray, Love. Pico has studied at Eton, Oxford University, and Harvard and written many books. His bio is long. He lives both here and in Japan with his wife, Hiroko. Their home in Santa Barbara burned down in a 1990 wildfire. I loved what he has since said about home, “For more and more of us, home has really less to do with a piece of soil than you could say, with a piece of soul.” He was there to interview Elizabeth. Before the Granada appearance, the Producers Circle met at the gorgeous home of Loren Booth on Fernald Point for cocktails, conversation, and a small Q&A with Elizabeth and Pico. Loren told us, “I’m happy to share this piece of paradise with you.” Miller McCune executive director Celesta Billeci especially thanked the sponsors Christine and William Fletcher and Gretchen Lieff with support from the Beth Chamberlin Endowment for Cultural Understanding and Community Partner the Orfalea family. Elizabeth commented on her latest book, Big Magic: “It was a long time coming, because I didn’t want to seem crazy (it’s mystical). Now at my age, I don’t care.” When quizzed on her writing habits she replied, “I do tons of research, so I don’t write all the time.” Regarding meditation, she thinks it’s terribly boring and she’s not good at it. Pico joined in by saying, “I never meditated in my life.” Elizabeth has no children, so thinks she’s not a good advisor but did offer, “You can’t make children into something. You can only show them by what you do and the way you live.” I would say creativity is Elizabeth’s life song. She wants us all to create not just those who think they are artis-
SEEN Page 404 • The Voice of the Village •
1 – 8 June 2017