Lake County News,California

Arts & Life

: Editor; Posted On Thursday, 05 October 2017 22:11; 05 October 2017

Arts Council holds First Friday Fling Oct. 6; show features winners of fair art contests

**Six-year-old Brooklyn Young of Kelseyville, Calif., won best of** show in the junior division for her artwork at the 2017 Lake County Fair in Lakeport, Calif. Courtesy photo.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lake County Arts Council’s Main Street Gallery will host its monthly First Friday Fling on Oct. 6 from 5:30 to 7 p.m.

Enjoy the work of thirteen artists hanging in the Main Gallery as well as work in the Linda Carpenter Student Gallery which features visual and written work that is based on the novel “Station Eleven” and the Big Read program.

The gallery is especially pleased to present the blue ribbon winners of artwork from the Lake County Fair.

**Artist Terry Durnil’s pastel took best of** show at the 2017 Lake County Fair in Lakeport, Calif. Courtesy photo.

More than 25 artists will be showing their winning pieces of art. Artists range from a 6-year-old to seasoned artist Terry Durnil’s pastel that took best of show.

Meet the artists and other art lovers in viewing these wonderful pieces of art while listening to the mellow sounds of Travis Rinker on guitar, sipping the fine wines of Mt. Konocti winery and enjoying tasty appetizers.

The Main Street Gallery is located at 325 N. Main Street in Lakeport, telephone 707-263-6658.

**The First Friday Fling on October 6, 2017, at the Main Street Gallery in Lakeport, Calif., will feature a showing of the work of first place winners from the Lake County Fair. Courtesy photo.**

: Ted Kooser; Posted On Sunday, 01 October 2017 22:00; 30 September 2017

American Life in Poetry: Homecoming

I'm very fond of poems in which the poet stands at a distance from whatever is going on and offers a report.

This poem by Dorianne Laux, from her book “What We Carry” (BOA Editions, Ltd.), gives us the flavor of an entire high school homecoming by observing just one father and daughter. And the third person in this third-person poem is, of course, the poet. Laux lives in North Carolina.

Homecoming

At the high school football game, the boys
stroke their new muscles, the girls sweeten their lips
with gloss that smells of bubblegum, candy cane,
or cinnamon. In pleated cheerleader skirts
they walk home with each other, practicing yells,
their long bare legs forming in the dark.
Under the arched field lights a girl
in a velvet prom dress stands near the chainlink,
a cone of roses held between her breasts.
Her lanky father, in a corduroy suit, leans
against the fence. While they talk, she slips a foot
in and out of a new white pump, fingers the weave
of her French braid, the glittering earrings.
They could be a couple on their first date, she,
a little shy, he, trying to impress her
with his casual stance. This is the moment
when she learns what she will love: a warm night,
the feel of nylon between her thighs, the fine hairs
on her arms lifting when a breeze
sifts in through the bleachers, cars
igniting their engines, a man bending over her,
smelling the flowers pressed against her neck.

American Life in Poetry does not accept unsolicited manuscripts. It is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Poem copyright ©1994 by Dorianne Laux, “Homecoming,” from What We Carry, (BOA Editions, 1994). Poem reprinted by permission of Dorianne Laux and the publisher. Introduction copyright ©2017 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006.

: Editor; Posted On Thursday, 28 September 2017 22:00; 27 September 2017

Soper Reese screens ‘The Thing’ on Oct. 4

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The GenX Cinema series presents John Carpenter’s “The Thing” on Wednesday, Oct. 4, at 7 p.m. at the Soper Reese Theatre in Lakeport.

Middletown Art Center hosts classes on photography, graphic novel Oct. 7 and 8

MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – Storytelling will be the focus of classes at the Middletown Art Center, or MAC, this weekend.

‘Battle of the Sexes’ touches on cultural, social issues

BATTLE OF THE SEXES (Rated PG-13)

The tennis match showdown in “Battle of the Sexes” is a trip down memory lane for an audience old enough (which in the context of an event from 1973 would suggest a demographic with not an enormous box office draw) to remember Bobby Riggs and Billie Jean King.

The former men’s tennis champ and all-around hustler Bobby Riggs is a footnote now to the history of the sexual revolution, while Billie Jean King has her name on the tennis center in Flushing Meadows, New York that is the home of the U.S. Open championships.

At the ripe age of 55 in 1973, Bobby Riggs (Steve Carell) pioneered the self-made, colorful media-age celebrity who wrestled with his gambling demons at the expense of his family and increasingly frustrated socialite wife Priscilla (Elizabeth Shue).

Not exactly the domesticated type, Riggs favored late-night card games with his cronies in high-stakes wagering that allowed him once to snag a Rolls-Royce that became a thorny acquisition not so easily explained to his disapproving spouse.

His promises to quit gambling were so hollow that Priscilla eventually left him, seeing how she failed to tame his wild instincts and his complete lack of interest in a boring desk job in the family corporation.

For certain, the highly publicized tennis match is the main event, a public circus with far-reaching social implications that impacted the personal lives of two very different athletes who represented factions within an evolving societal construct.

Emma Stone is brilliant as Billie Jean King, turning in a chameleon-like performance so eerily adapting the mannerisms and physical look of her subject that she’s practically a doppelganger for the tennis star, but not in a bad way.

For his part, Steve Carell brings the flamboyant energy that is absolutely crucial to the character of the flashy self-promoter and spotlight-loving provocateur who championed the male chauvinist image, if for no other reason than to get back in the media glare.

Bobby Riggs was way past his prime as a tennis player, but he could not resist an opportunity to reinvent himself as a media-based celebrity willing to say inflammatory things with such bravado that controversy was inevitable.

On the other hand, Billie Jean King, almost half the age of Riggs, was a rising star who pressed the fight for equality in tennis, where women were making a fraction of the men’s prize money.

With the help of her brassy, hard-nosed business partner Gladys Heldman (Sarah Silverman), King, assisted by the management skills of her husband Larry (Austin Stowell), pioneered the Virginia Slims tour, which allowed women to set the financial terms of their participation.

The issue of King’s sexuality is explored with sensitivity and a degree of nuance, if only because her affair with hairdresser Marilyn Barnett (Andrea Riseborough) would have ruined her career if it had become public knowledge at the time.

King is also shown to be conflicted by her newfound proclivities because she considered her husband Larry to be more than a friend and lover. To his dismay, Larry figures out what is happening on the tour, and yet King herself struggles with guilt feelings.

When the top female player at the time, Australian Margaret Court (Jessica McNamee), accepts a challenge from Riggs to a match and then proceeds to lose in straight sets, it becomes inevitable that King must step into the breach to face down a boisterous Riggs.

Most appropriately, “Battle of the Sexes” climaxes with the exhibition match staged at the expansive Houston Astrodome, with an audience of 90 million tuning in, resulting in the biggest event on television since the moon landing.

To set the scene as the circus that certainly Riggs wished to have, the male contender arrives in the arena on a chariot to promote his Sugar Daddy sponsor, while King is carried by half-naked men looking like Greek warriors.

Though serious themes of gender equality, sexuality and other social issues run throughout the unfolding events, the film often has a light-hearted tone, due in no small measure to the goofy and funny antics of Riggs playing the part of a sexist pig.

When it comes to the match itself, there are no surprises in store for the foregone conclusion, but the intensity of King’s play is an interesting strategic move: just be sure to wear down your opponent by having him chase balls all over the court.

“Battle of the Sexes,” though committed to being an entertaining pleasure, covers a lot of ground in its exploration of cultural, social and political issues, including the insertion of doctored archival footage of famous ABC sportscaster Howard Cosell.

But most of all this film is all about entertainment, and the fact that it is centered on a story from long ago should not deter audiences of all adult ages to enjoy it.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.

: Editor; Posted On Wednesday, 27 September 2017 22:00; 27 September 2017

Six Sigma Ranch and Winery is Featured Guest for MAC’s Sept. 20 ‘Palette to Palate’ series

MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – The Middletown Art Center will feature Christian and Rachel Ahlmann and the wines of Six Sigma Ranch and Winery for Palette to Palate – an inspiring pairing of wine and art on Saturday, Sept. 30, from 6 to 7:30 p.m.