Contestants scribbled on paper or tapped on their laptops with only 15 minutes to finish a grueling writing assignment. They’d come to Fess Parker’s Doubletree in the last week of June to attend the Santa Barbara Writers Conference, and as a bonus got to compete in the reality TV style challenge called the Ultimate Write-Off. Viewers can share in the fun by tuning in to Part 1 of the Ultimate Write-Off TV special on cable channel 17.
The competition was the brainchild of Cheri Steinkellner, Montecito resident and former head writer for Cheers, and Marcia Meier, SBWC Executive Director, welcomed the addition to the many activities offered. On the first day the Reagan Room filled with anxious participants. Steinkellner invented unique writing tasks for each of the six days, which included writing poetry for a chosen prop, creating a musical number for a work never before put to music, and coming up with dialogue with a partner in the style of famous writers such as David Mamet and Tennessee Williams. One day the assignment centered around food in honor of celebrity guest judge Fannie Flagg.
Different judges tallied up scores at the end of every day’s event. At the awards banquet at the close of the Conference four winners were announced. Some who competed found the race for top honors nerve-racking. But no matter who won, all the contestants enjoyed themselves and got to pump their writing muscles.
The 36-year-old Santa Barbara Writers Conference is the nation’s preeminent conference for writers interested in improving their craft, primarily through workshops that focus on the reading and critiquing of each writer’s work.
The Ultimate Write-Off was videotaped and edited by Lisa Angle of Ninety Degrees Media, who is also on staff at The Santa Barbara Channels that runs cable channels 17 and 21. Second camera operator on the program was Victoria Minnich, whose short documentary World’s Easiest Catch premiered at last year’s Ocean Film Festival
Here’s s five-minute sneak preview of the two-part Ultimate Write-Off:
Find more videos like this on The Santa Barbara Writers Conference
For further air dates and times check the channel 17 schedule. Part 2 of the Ultimate Write-Off will premiere on channel 17 sometime in October.
Have you seen the largest animal to ever live on the earth? I have. Right out in the Santa Barbara Channel, about an hour from my house, is one of the best places in the world to view blue whales. Estimates calculate the pre-whaling population of these mammoth creatures at 275.000, and today the population is gauged at only 5,000. Just 2,000 of those travel in the Northern Hemisphere, where they can get up to 90 feet long and weigh as many tons. Interestingly enough, in the Southern Hemisphere they get even bigger, reaching over 100 feet long, and as is true in baleen whales, the females are larger than the males. So technically the largest animal to ever live on earth would be a female, Southern Hemisphere blue whale, and I haven’t seen one of those—but I have seen a blue whale, and WOW!
Imagine sitting on the bow of a 60 foot boat with its engines off. At least ten spouts can be seen all around you in the distance. Then, without warning, a blue whale surfaces right next to you. So close even the lady who works in the galley yells. This happened to me right off Santa Cruz Island on the Rachel G in 2002. I’ve seen many other blues since then, and smelled them too—they have horrible breath when they’re feeding on little, shrimp-like krill. Just like the tourists who come to Santa Barbara County for the great restaurants and wines, the blues come here for the five-star kill in the Channel, and they can eat a couple ton of it a day.
Anyway, the reason I get to see so many blues, and whales in general, is that I’m part of the Channel Islands Naturalist Corps. This group of volunteers is managed jointly by the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary and the Channel Islands National Park. We talk to passengers on whale watch boats in Ventura and SB, and lead hikes on the Channel Islands. I’ve lead hikes on Santa Cruz Island and usually do whale interpretation on the Condor Express at least once a month. In the summertime when blues and humpbacks flock to the Channel, I use the Sanctuary’s camera to take photo ID pictures.
The photos go to Cascadia Research where they are cataloged under the supervision of John Calambokidis. He identifies individual whales by the unique patterns around their dorsal fins or the underside of their flukes, and he figures out where their journeys take them and which other whales they hang out with.
On August 16, 2008 I happened to be on the Condor Express, camera in hand, when we came upon Calambokidis in his skiff tagging blues.
When asked how a researcher in what amounts to a dingy tags an eighty-something foot blue whale, Calambokidis answered, “Carefully.” He pulled up along side the Condor and gave a Q&A and demo of the long poles they use. The large orange suction cup tags fell off not long after being affixed.
Megan McKenna, from the Scripps Whale Acoustic Lab, will use the data collected to see if blue whales in the shipping lanes can hear ships coming and if the whales try to move out of the way of approaching ships. In wake of four blues washing up dead on Southern California shores last year, It’s an important study.
We actually saw two tags on the whales. The smaller yellow ones were put on earlier that month by Dr. Bruce Mate of Tagging of Pacific Predators. These are meant to stay on for several months and communicate with sattlelites, so hopefully we’ll be able to track these whales on the Internet soon.
Notable passengers on the Condor that day included Hayden Panettiere and Jeff Pantukoff of Save the Whales Again/The Whaleman Foundation, and Bernardo and Diane Alps of American Cetacean Society LA Chapter.
