John Cleese and the Knights Who Say "NI"

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.

Music for lunch and dinner

Kick your weekend off right today with a free concert by The Mudskippers.
The Dixieland jazz group performs at noon First Presbyterian Church of San Luis Obispo, 981 Marsh St. It’s part of the church’s monthly Brown Bag Concert series.
Doors open at 11:45 a.m. Don’t forget to bring your own lunch to munch.

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Want to warm up for mariachi singer Manuel Enrique’s performance at the California Mid-State Fair this weekend?
Fans of the traditional Mexican music can get their fill at the 12th Annual Santa Barbara Mariachi Festival, 5:30 p.m. Saturday at the Santa Barbara Bowl.
The play list includes Mariachi Cobre, Omar Arreola, Mariachi Imperial, Mariachi Divas and Chula Vista Youth Mariachi. Concert-goers will also catch performances by Mercedes Castro and Amparo de la Jilguerillas
Tickets are $38.50 to $88.50, and can be purchased at the Santa Barbara Bowl box office, 1122 N. Milpas St. in Sant Barbara. For more information, call 962-7411 or visit their Web site.

On Sunday, watch Atascadero singer Manuel Enrique perform with Mariachi Mexicanismo at the fair’s Budweiser Fort Frontier Stage. The concerts, which are free with fair admission, take place at 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.
The Paso Robles Event Center is located at 2198 Riverside Ave. in Paso Robles.
Call (805) 239-0655 or visit www.midstatefair.com for more information.

Champagne, glamour, sex and respect

As I sat crushed between two full-grown males in a Subaru headed to Santa Barbara, the thought flitted through my head a few times: “Why I am doing this?”
In a word: Günther.
Günther, for the uninitiated, is Eurotrash personified — a strutting Swede whose silly, irresistibly catchy club-mix hits include "Ding Dong Song" and "Teeny Weeny String Bikini."
His look: Mullet, mustache and leather pants so tight they must be airbrushed on. Did I mention the pop-star pout?
Günther rarely plays in the United States, so when my friends found out the Swedish star was performing at UC Santa Barbara for FREE this past Friday night, we piled into the car.
We arrived at Storke Plaza around 9:30 p.m. to a scene straight out of "EuroTrip."
Thousands of college kids and pop culture addicts crowded the concrete square, dancing to the poorly amplified DJ and sporting the kind of sleek, shiny look popularized by Ukrainian discotheques. I even heard a few European accents.
Then Günther and his ubiquitous Sunshine Girls strode onstage. He wore a leather jacket and giant shades. His blonde and brunette co-stars wore — what else? — strapless sequined tops and fringe-laden miniskirts.
The Sunshine Girls sang. Günther strutted. And the crowd went wild.
Enthusiastic fans hurtled themselves and whatever was handy at the stage as security guys pulled out the more aggressive crowd-surfers. Songs from 2004's "Pleasure Man" and an upcoming album thudded through the speakers.
The concert came to a halt only when a shoe landed squarely on a Sunshine Girl’s sparkling bust. As Günther might say, less champagne, more respect, please.
Günther and the girls huffed offstage, but it didn’t take much to convince them to return for a multi-song encore. You can’t keep a lover-man down.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Is Günther for real? Or is he, as my theory goes, an elaborate gag concocted to weasel a few krona out of fans of VH1’s “I Love The 80s”?
Decide for yourself at the following link.
A warning: Gunther’s sexually suggestive lyrics and racy videos make this Web site neither work-safe nor family friendly, so please proceed with caution.

-- Sarah L.

Lightning strikes in Santa Barbara

Fans of Coachella, Burning Man and other alternative festivals will want to check out Lightning in a Bottle, a three-day event showcasing music, art and the environment.
The festival runs May 11 through 13 in the same 40-acre campground north of Santa Barbara used by the Live Oak Musical Festival. It's being produced by Los Angeles event firm The Do LaB.
Expect to see:
• About 40 musical acts, featuring techno, tribal beats, dance music and more. Artists include Freq Nasty, Bassnectar, Heavyweight Dub Champion, Ganga Giri and Kid Beyond.
• Fire-breathers, stilt-walkers, acrobats and a host of vaudeville/circus-style performers. Check out groups like the March Fourth Marching Band, Vau de Vire Society, El Circo and the DoLaB’s own Lucent Dossier Vaudeville Cirque.
• Workshops on sustainable living, crafts, meditation and yoga.
• Countless art exhibits, plus live mural painting.
• Eco-friendly measures like a massive solar panel array, hemp-and-soy ink merchandise, organic food and biodegradable plates and flatware.
And, organizers note, Lightning in a Bottle is family-friendly. Kids ages 12 and under are free. Weekend admission for ages 13 to 16 costs $30, payable at the gate.
Three-day passes are $120 to $130. Day passes are also available for Saturday, May 12 and Sunday, May 12, although the price has yet to be determined.
Call 1-866-55-TICKETS (8-4253) for more information.