She Likes to Watch

Among the advantages of being a stone’s throw away from Santa Barbara has to be the celebrity sightings.

Although San Luis Obispo County has had its share of famous residents — director King Vidor, game show guru Alex Trebek, president’s son Steve Ford — Santa Barbara is a haven for Hollywood types.

Oprah Winfrey, Steve Martin, Kenny Loggins and Jeff Bridges all call the Gold Coast home. Comedian extraordinaire John Cleese owns a ranch there.

Luckily for us, Cleese seems perfectly happy to show his famous face in public.

He appears May 15 at UC Santa Barbara’s Campbell Hall for “An Evening with John Cleese.”

The event, a benefit for the university’s Arts and Lectures movie series, will feature a screening of that 1975 comedy classic “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.”

Cleese will introduce the movie and, afterward, answer questions about “Holy Grail” and his enormous body of work (”Monty Python’s Flying Circus,” “Fawlty Towers,” “A Fish Called Wanda,” etc., etc.).

Tickets are $20, or $10 for UCSB students.

For more information, call (805) 805 893- 3535 or visit https://artsandlectures.sa.ucsb.edu/index.aspx.

Hankering for a dose of digital media?
The Short Attention Span Digital Video Festival is back for a sixth year of funny, fascinating and moving short films.
Sponsored by Cuesta College, the festival showcases digital films — one to 20 minutes long — by students from around the world. Organizers work with the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival.
Catch the first screening this Thursday at the Palm Theatre, 817 Palm Ave., in San Luis Obispo. Tickets are $10.

Here’s a sampling of the 17 short films you’ll see at Short Attention Span:

“Snip Crunch”: A pack of scissor wolves hunt for their paper sheep lunch.

“Eternal High”: A teenager captures his true-life struggle with depression and thoughts of suicide on film.

“Sailing the Star of India”: Modern men and women explain why they sail on the world’s oldest working tall ship in this film about the Star of India, the Maritime Museum of San Diego’s star attraction.

“SI SE PUEDE!?”: A mini-documentary covers the May 1, 2006, immigrant march in Los Angeles, combining sights and sounds with music and the spoken word.

“Plight of the Windie: Birds of Mystery”: This three-minute mockumentary tells the amazing tale of an endangered species of birds. The birds are plastic and powered by rubber bands but their owners don’t seem to notice.

“ORIZURU”: A forbidden love lost in the atomic ashes of Hiroshima.

“My Name Is Wallace”: A lonely, mentally challenged man finds love and redemption with a sex hotline operator.

Short Attention Span will screen more films on Nov. 8 at the Palm Theatre. The festival is also sponsoring November screenings in Los Angeles and Boston.

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Monty Python fans will want to catch John Cleese at UC Santa Barbara next week.
Cleese will introduce a screening of “Monty Python’s Life of Brian” on Tuesday, May 1. The comedian, co-creator of Britain’s famous “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” and star of “Fawlty Towers” and “A Fish Called Wanda,” will also answer questions about the classic, controversial “Life of Brian” after the film.
Tickets are $20, $10 for UC Santa Barbara students. Visit the event Web site for more details.