State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing One blustery autumn day in New York, Kate Lanier and Sheila Gray decided to take in a movie. It was late September, 2001. A […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing Chris Jensen is giving me a tour of his palace—a lamplit, lived-in, wood-colored grotto that would be a little more expansive but for the […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing [Outside Geneva, Switzerland: July 4, 2012] The one-and a-half-minute patchwork video seems to be someone’s idea of a highlight reel. Physicist Joe Incandela is […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing On the evening of November 25 I stood in our condo complex driveway and stared like a Cro-Magnon Dimwit at the fire sweeping the […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing I am a jug-eared jackanape of 7 years old. My close-cropped air force brat haircut reveals a misshapen head like a lopsided jelly bean. […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing When the invitation arrived we were excited by one of its particulars. The hosts, our dear old friends the Smiteepupps (names have been changed […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing Francis Ford Coppola—writer, director, producer, Brando-wrangler—is a raving fan of the short story. In 1997 (for instance) he launched the much-garlanded literary and art […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing It’s said that in all the vast panoply of living things on Earth, only the human animal is conscious of the fact that death […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing Oh the memories. Look at this grand old photo. Once upon a time! Me clutching a baseball glove! Under that sweet baseball cap there […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing Yeah, it’s a weird scene. A young Santa Barbara longhair in slightly timeworn blazer and freshly ironed slacks is being shown around an L.A. […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing On 9 November, 1989, East Berlin’s longtime Communist party boss Günter Schabowski is giving a press conference and stammers out a note he’s been suddenly […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing When I was about 15 my sister, Jill—a trophy-festooned equestrian—took me horseback riding. I was uneasy with the whole deal because I’ve always been […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing Between bites of bagel, Joe Schneider—late of Schneider Autohaus—is patiently explaining why it’s so hard to land a spaceship on the moon. “One of […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing How to describe the indescribable? Lotusland is a horticultural fireworks display, a kaleidoscope with roots. Lotusland’s aesthetic embrace has the playfully mesmerizing palette of […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing Spring has arrived. Our unfortunate fealty to the numbing Age of Reason precludes our playful use of the word “Miracle”, even as we dance […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing What is Life? The two competing theories are at odds. Intelligent Design supposes we are the deliberate invention of a Supreme Creative Intelligence outside […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing She doesn’t tiptoe in. She runs into Arjen’s room, or walks briskly, anyway. It’s probably too breathless to write ‘She bursts into Arjen’s room!’ — […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing I remember very little about winning my Academy Award®. The evening was a blur and I sometimes wonder if it really happened. I vaguely […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing The Universe giveth, and the Universe taketh away (to paraphrase), as has been seen. John Ridland, UCSB Professor Emeritus of English, can say a word […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing At this writing a fire yet rages. Begun as a smoldering spark somewhere in the woods near St. Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing One sunny afternoon in the deeply-felt 1970s, I broadsided a light pickup truck driven by a school acquaintance named Bud. I was driving home […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing “Sometimes in stars or the swift flight of seabirds I catch a moment of you. That’s why I walk all alone, searching for something […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing I take no pride in confessing that when I first heard of England’s King Henry VIII, I thought he was named after the Herman’s […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing Imagine the pantheon of classic film as a beautiful, vaulted cathedral. Its gently lit interior is neatly populated with marble statuary representing famous movie […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing When Olga Duncan disappeared from her Garden Street apartment, her newish husband Frank wasn’t terribly concerned at first. We were less prone to anxiousness […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing I moved to Santa Barbara in 1986 with a band. There, I said it. That was long ago and far away. In the interim […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing [The management would like to introduce this week’s essay with a clarifying aside. The theme of the piece is “Jeff’s return to the gym […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing Some years ago our white Honda station wagon died. Well, not exactly. A mere 72 hours of curbside quiescence and she was expensively tagged […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing Yeah, baby. You’ve probably seen me promenading about this American Riviera in my ill-advisedly tight black tee-shirt and ancient Chuck Taylors, strutting down State […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing “Writer’s Conference”. This horror-term is enough to break the spirit. Whisper these two little words to the most intransigent prisoner in the joint and […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing So I finally checked my privilege. What do you think happened? That’s right; they threw it onto the wrong plane and it ended up […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing 6:30p – Brian Wilson, our own acid-washed Beethoven and an older man now, is touring his misbegotten Pet Sounds album for the last time. […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing So I get a message from my pal Eddie. Our high school reunion is coming up in October. Did I get the e-mail announcement? […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing Santa Barbara. The American Riviera. Selfie-by-the-Sea. Our natty little village goes by many names and has, over time, worn many guises, from Spanish colonial […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing When Juliane Heyman and her parents and brother walked up into the Pyrenees Mountains one night, the object was not a moonlit picnic in […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing In the turbulent weeks before D-Day—the massive allied coastal invasion that heralded the beginning of the end of WWII—a Royal Air Force Stirling bomber […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing In the very heart of our domed Xanadu-by-the-Sea, there exists a publicly beloved green idyll; a sun-dappled shire of exotic flora laced by twisty […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing The interview was going better than I could have hoped. The 30-something kid had taken a shine to me—a real shine. “Well…” he said, […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing Something truly indescribable is happening in downtown Santa Barbara. That was the rumor, anyway. As any local knows, something indescribable erupting in downtown Santa […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing The Patty Duke theme says it best: “Meet Cathy, whose lived most everywhere, from Zanzibar to Berkeley Square. But Patty’s only seen the sights […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing Right; 2017. Who do you think you’re kidding? Hey, I’m all for Time’s Inexorable Passage and the ghastly wearing away of my physical being […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing Religious conviction is a tough game. Given the strangeness of what we are asked to believe (let alone give our lives to), it’s all […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing (Terrific photo above is ©Fritz Olenberger) About a year and a month ago, I was driving my 13 year-old daughter and her longtime ballerina […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing In 2015, Kerry Witzeman decided to stop in at the doctor to see what the deal was with a nagging little urinary tract thingy […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing By the time we arrive in the late afternoon, honey-colored autumn sunlight is slanting into the Santa Barbara Courthouse’s grand arched breezeway, painting the […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing In the 80s they revived The Twilight Zone for a little while. The new series wasn’t as stridently dread-inducing as Serling’s original, and the […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing The summer of 1967. Hoo boy. They called it the Summer of Love, because even then the Branding geniuses in the National Archives knew […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing Dave and I meet one evening at the Famous Fish Warehouse or whatever it’s called, a few blocks up from the beach. It’s one […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing These questions haunt our age: Why do men with bushy Friedrich Nietzsche moustaches torment us by eating eat ice cream cones? By what strange […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing I love to fly and it shows. The big screen and its cheery hieroglyph at the front of my section of seats shows the […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing I haven’t always been this badass, powerfully attractive finger-snappin’ older gentleman riding the beach town vibe with mad panache. In 1973 I lived […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing Day 1 – The Ascent As we head north to Big Sur from Santa Barbara along Historic Highway One, the famously serpentine route winds […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing Why does the country seem to become more interestingly spiritual as you move from east to west? Out east you have Plymouth Rock and […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing Dear visitors from across the Pond; here comes summer, and your opportunity to visit world famous California during its high season! Yes, everything you’ve […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing The human race can just get over itself now. On the other hand we are the exalted inventors of the Lunar Lander and Franco […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing Kinky Friedman is recumbent on a floral couch in Karen Jones’ dimly lit, pleasantly cluttered living room on a Saturday night in Santa Ynez […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing I’m an NPR guy, okay? Yeah, I got beat up by the bike rack in 7th grade like most nascent liberals, earned my […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing Kimmie Dee; Stand-up comic. Impresario. There’s a lot going on. For one thing, she’s nonstop. One is tempted to call her a dynamo, […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing From sea to shining sea, the republic is taking a cold shower. And whether one partakes of said shower to snap […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing The known universe, for all the cosmological head-scratching it engenders, is essentially a very large, mostly empty void in which rocks of various sizes […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing Love is in the air. What’s worse, civil authorities have warned that, thanks to prevailing winds, this free-floating toxic event is headed our […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing I turn in my seat to watch as they quietly enter the Arlington’s half-light in whispering twos, threes and fours, peering through the […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing There was a time when your teacher of classical dance and your teacher of classical piano were of a like taxonomy, so to speak. […]
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood…
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing When Spock reports a distress call from Starbase 11, the easily distracted USS Enterprise takes another whimsical warp-speed detour from her 5-Year Mission […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing The driver today is Nick. His wrinkled ‘At Your Service’ piece of paper, above the driver’s seat and to the right in an […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing December (sometimes called “The Holidays”) is rife with strange rituals made familiar through repetition. A large pine tree in the living room here, […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing Oh, and here comes the holiday season like a runaway Edsel, excuse me. It’s always a little surreal how suddenly it shows up. Another […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing Paul Williams. You know him. Hai Karate aftershave, Lancer’s sparkling wine. His name and brand are adrift back there in the soft-focus, Foster Grant […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing At 6am on an otherwise dull Monday morning in 1968, a group of 12 black students strolled without ceremony into UCSB’s Computer Center in […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing >> There is no biological basis for our whole, endless, enhanced consciousness. It is rooted in a non-local space. – Dr. Pim van Lommel: […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing Here’s a lighthearted, summery question to get the season’s beach theme going; are we history’s pawns, or its masters? The occasion of my asking […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing On Father’s Day in 1996, my new son Sammy was a 9-month-old blob with a bright orange, vaguely reptilian tuft of hair atop his […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing Living in Santa Barbara, one receives a lot of visitors (he began unpromisingly). For years I’ve been a regular habitue of Santa Barbara Airport […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing My mother-in-law is visiting from Holland, an unlikely country spread across an undersea declivity from which the water, over the centuries, has been ingeniously […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing Are we blessed creatures, or only a self-impressed residue of the Big Bang? Is life sacred? These questions tend to bring out the worst […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing In the buzzing, vibrant center of the beautiful UCSB campus sits a squat concrete box. This is Kerr Hall. Simultaneously cube-like and angular (not […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing I occupy a very particular demographic; balding 50-somethings who don’t know how awful they look in skinny jeans. We are many. It’s nearly an […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing Santa Barbara, celebrated the world over as a vacation paradise, planted by the Gods of Commerce ‘twixt mountain and sea, is awash in […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing I visited the Temple this past weekend. We needed milk. “Oh, we LOVE Trader Joe’s!” someone hissed with enthusiasm by the unsalted peanut butter. […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing I am reminded of all the strange cowboy television of my youth, of how approximately we recreate the past, and most acutely of my Barbara […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing ‘The Elderly’ seem hesitant to embrace their brand. When you pat them consolingly on the cardigan and yell at them that it’s time for […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing Mitchell Kriegman had a big problem. He’d been summoned to the office of Jean Doumanian, newly anointed Executive Producer of Saturday Night Live, deep […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing My mother’s name is Aloha. That’s just the beginning. She’s had an interestingly nomadic life; born into the Army and later married into the […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing It will surprise some to learn that the Saint Barbara after whom our fair town is named is not Streisand, but a reportedly beautiful […]
State Street Scribe by Jeff Wing Three thousand miles away from California’s Santa Ynez Valley, the Manhattan Racquet & Tennis Club’s members comprise the tippity-top of the East Coast’s cork-sniffing […]