Posted by paulrivas on: Thu 30th Sep, 2010

In a sterling mid-September addition to his oeuvre, the life artist Bubba Ray Robison took a wife. The unemployed Goleta loc married the Mexican-American MBA beauty Phelim Tavares at St. Ignatius Loyola Parish in Sacto, followed by two weeks in Greece. Father Art performed the ceremony, which featured music by Isla Vista mailman Jorge Lopez, who cut loose on Vale más un buen amor, and by the groom’s first niece Kaitlyn Mendoza, who did a Shania Twain song.

In Goleta, Bubba Robison is famous for his line drive in the Little League majors that knocked future Rockies outfielder Ryan Spilborghs out of the game. In international circles, the life artist is as talked about for his iconic textile works – crocheted purse finished with Cuban 3-peso Che Guevara coin and ‘It’s happening in Soledad’ t-shirt – as he is for his diplomatic efforts – convincing a Swiss man that there is really is such place as Gimmelwald and losing at Assassin’s Creed to the local Arabs in the in 125° heat of the Syrian desert.

The couple will reside in Pasadena.

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Tags: life artist bubba ray robison, phelim tavares, jorge lopez, vale más un buen amor, vicente fernández, kaitlyn mendoza, iconic textile, purse with che guevara goin, it's happening in soledad t-shirt, ryan spilborghs, goleta locs, mestiza queen, Rivas Cultural Services

Posted by paulrivas on: Fri 24th Sep, 2010

The best burrito in town that I'm aware of costs $7 at El Sitio in Goleta. Pollo or asada, salsa verde on the side. Had they been born 100 years later, the two women who work there would be $1000/day burrito chefs in Tokyo. Instead, they listen to Radio Bronco and just started taking credit cards.

The spot also currently features some of the very best bathroom graffiti. No gang tags, just this artful addition seamlessly embedded in the existing decor. Imagine the restraint it took to not start that last line with a capital 'A'. Impeccable, really.

Click photo to enlarge:

Embrace your dreams
Follow your heart
Cherish your life
and fuck off!

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Tags: el sitio means the spot, el sitio, bathroom graffiti, best burrito in town, ...and fuck off!

Posted by paulrivas on: Mon 13th Sep, 2010

Left Coast Books is the most exciting cultural phenomenon to hit downtown Goleta since the Mercury Lounge, which happens to be next door.

As secondhand bookshops go, owner Simon Taylor's operation is matchless. The volumes are clean and displayed simply: no teetering piles of genre fiction smelling of cat pee. The front third of the space is currently devoted to an art installation by Shirley Tse, a 2009 Guggenheim Fellow, part of a rotating exhibit called "The Grand Hotel Abyss: Art in California during the Great Recession": no aspiring starving artists or trust fund drunks need apply. The back patio is huge: no more fear of having to compromise your principles by doing book signings at Border's.

As locations go, a culture merchant couldn't do much better than to set up shop beside the only cool bar in Santa Barbara, where discerning local minds go to talk about why there are no cool bookstores in Santa Barbara. How long until Left Coast is open for Friday happy hour?

And lest anyone think that this guy the Mercury regulars call Simon lucked into a cushy location beside the epicenter of the local arts scene, let's remember that he's been selling books online for eight years and that in fact it's he that's doing us a favor. (If only he had books in Spanish, to carry the torch for his associate and mine, the late, great Evelyn Sage.)

Assert your position at the cultural vanguard by buying a book the old-fashioned way before it becomes cool again.

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Tags: left coast books, simon taylor, mercury lounge, evelyn sage, aspiring starving artists, trust fund drunks, sbnews, Rivas Cultural Services, the lurk