It was an unusually warm afternoon – the 9th of October as I recall. A Friday appearing this average couldn’t have been more deceptive. What was brewing under the surface of gentle waves and a warm breeze was bound to be perhaps one of the best Friday afternoons the Geography department at UCSB sees on a yearly basis. By this point you are probably thinking to yourself there must be many great Friday afternoons in the department of Geography at UCSB. What could possibly be so phenomenal about this one? Well, this time each year, the faculty, staff, and graduate students all bring their families to feast together in area D of Goleta beach in an event known as the annual fall barbeque. With a great turnout of around 100 people more or less, this year’s barbeque can easily be called a great success.
Raffle drawings, tender tri-tip, scrumptious desserts, tasty appetizers, croquet, beach frisbee, live funk/jazz music, and, of course, some of the best battles over the true meaning of Geography were just a few of the many great things to transpire at this year’s barbeque. Of course, we can’t forget the memorable dedication of a much-deserved golden shovel gifted to Dr. Oliver Chadwick on behalf of Dr. Dar Roberts for all of the great work Oliver has done this past 3 years as departmental chair.
Much thanks to Dr. Pimptastic (Brett Hartman, Micah Brachman, Nareg Djabrayan, Traves Holland, Chiqui Mendez, and Michael Toomey) for providing great music this year. The live music was a welcome newcomer to this annual tradition… and, for the record, Dr. Dan Montello made a great guitar fill-in for a few songs!
Also many thanks to the behind the scenes Barbeque committee who provided all of the settings, organization, tri-tip, carbs, wine and, of course, the always popular Dos Equis. This committee was headed by Dr. Dan Montello and Dr. Martin Raubal, along with grad volunteers Michael Marshall, Micah Brachman, Antonio Medrano, and Michelle Himden.
As one last thank you, we can’t forget the many thanks deserved by Timothy Niblett and Reggie Archer who helped so much by bringing in GSA funding to help with this event. All in all, with car troubles threatening to offer a shaky start to this year’s barbeque, in the end things couldn’t have turned out better! Thank you so much to everyone for making this a memorable annual barbeque!
Editor’s note: Many thanks to grad student Michelle Himden for providing this article. Michelle and fellow grad student Alan Glennon also provided the photographs of the event, all of which can be seen on our Event Photos page.
