LAKEPORT, Calif. – La Voce del Vento Chamber Players present the third in a series of chamber music concerts on Sunday, March 1, at 3 p.m. at the Soper Reese Theatre.

The program includes the world premier of a woodwind quintet composed by Eureka resident Michael Kibbe.

Additional woodwind quintets to be performed are by Haydn, Dich, Milhaud, Durocher and Persichetti. 

Featured artists are Patricia Jekel, flute; Beth Aiken, oboe; Nick Biondo, clarinet; Ann Hubbard, bassoon; and Randy Masselink, horn.

Reserved seat tickets are $20 and $15, and are available online at www.soperreesetheatre.com ; at the theater box office, 275 S. Main St., Lakeport from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Fridays; or at The Travel Center, 1265 S. Main St., Lakeport, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

For more information call 707-263-0577.

NORTH COAST, Calif. – Five young writers (ages 16-25) will be able to attend the Mendocino Coast Writers Conference Aug. 6 to 8 on a full scholarship.

The “5 Under 25” scholarships are merit-based; no entry fee is required.

Applicants, please submit an application form, writing sample and brief cover letter between March 15 and May 15.

The three-day conference takes place at the Mendocino campus of College of the Redwoods in Fort Bragg.

For detailed information check the Web site at www.mcwc.org .

KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE (Rated R)

Think of the great secret agents James Bond, Jason Bourne, Jack Bauer, Napoleon Solo, and then throw in Chloe Grace Moretz’s Hit-Girl from the “Kick-Ass” films for good measure, and you’ll have a good idea of Colin Firth’s role models for his super-suave, cool spy Harry Hart in “Kingsman: The Secret Service.”

To help keep matters in perspective for a new action thriller that dispenses a real kick, the directorial duties performed by Matthew Vaughn in the original “Kick-Ass” is a true progenitor for his work in “Kingsman,” which also appears very much to take great pleasure in rendering the hero valiant and brave in an oddly cartoonish way.

The film’s prologue involves an agent named Lancelot (Jack Davenport) being killed in the snowy mountaintop lair (shades of “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”) of a super-villain whose henchwoman wields lethal legs (shades of Rosa Klebb in “From Russia With Love”).

Barely a few minutes in and the James Bond allusions abound, with many more to come.

Jump forward to the present day 17 years later, and Harry Hart still shoulders the blame for the unfortunate death of Lancelot, whose grown son, Gary “Eggsy” Unwin (Taron Egerton), is a street kid with no prospects as he spends his time hanging out with local thugs at a London pub and caring for his drug-addicted mother.

Hart, often going by the code name of Galahad, resolves to honor the memory of his colleague by recruiting Eggsy into the Secret Service.

For this plan to work, Eggsy will have to compete with upper-crust university graduates for a spot within the Kingsman organization.      

The training program is rigorous and fraught with dangerous exercises. The other recruits are mostly dispensable, with the exception of the resourceful Roxy (Sophie Cookson), the only person who befriends the outsider Eggsy, who manages to succeed with street-smarts where pedigree proves to be insufficient to the task.

A nice touch to suggest the stylish nature of this action thriller is that the top secret British spy agency is housed in a Savile Row haberdashery named “Kingsman,” which has the secret passageways, hidden rooms and underground tunnels that recall the central headquarters for “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.,” or maybe even “Get Smart.”

I almost forgot about Austin Powers being in the mix. The Dr. Evil-type role is played to the hilt by a lisping Samuel L. Jackson’s eccentric billionaire Richmond Valentine, an environmental wacko and tech genius with an insidious plan to drastically curb overpopulation and deal with climate change by giving away free cell phones that would trigger the users to commit violent acts.

Valentine is a megalomaniac with delusions of grandeur. His dirty work is carried out by Gazelle (Sofia Boutella), whose prosthetic legs turn into sharp blades that dismember victims like a hot knife through butter. That Valentine is a nut job weirdo is proven by the fact that he wears Google Glasses and a variety of Yankees baseball caps. 

Meanwhile, the well-tailored Hart treats his charge Eggsy like a “Pygmalion” project, teaching proper etiquette and getting him fitted for his first bespoke suit at the Kingsman tailor shop.

A lot of the fun is the evolving relationship between mentor and protégé, with Eggsy adapting nicely to a sophisticated style.

Without a doubt, “Kingsman” is irreverent in tone and content. How else to explain the villain strategizing in the White House with the president, in a scene which clearly suggests Obama in a silhouette?

What about Hart wiping out an entire gathering of redneck worshipers in a rural Kentucky church? On top of all, dubious politicians and statesman conspire with Valentine’s perfidious schemes.

In the climactic finale, Eggsy – assisted by Mark Strong’s Merlin, the gadget-master of the Kingsman agency – takes on Valentine and Gazelle in a showdown that becomes so violent that heads literally explode like fireworks at a Fourth of July celebration.

The very last scene is, to say the least, a little bit cheeky, which won’t be explained here, but involves one of Valentine’s hostages, the Princess of Sweden, who is apparently only too happy to be rescued by the now-dapper Eggsy, acting very much like James Bond by arriving at her chamber with a bottle of champagne.

Even Michael Caine, once the espionage agent Harry Palmer, gets in the act with brief appearances as Arthur, the avuncular agency head.

The star power belongs to Colin Firth, who is spectacularly lethal, elegant and cool under pressure.

Taron Egerton is remarkable as the street tough-turned-suave agent and will be worth watching in the future.

“Kingsman: The Secret Service,” which is based on the graphic novels of Mark Millar, takes an insolent, sassy tone to the spy business, delivering a mix of impudent comedy and over-the-top violent action that fits with the cartoonish legacy of this genre.

In short, “Kingsman,” a spy film on steroids, is a lot of fun.

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

LOWER LAKE, Calif. – The Lower Lake High Drama Department will perform its annual Comedy & Tragedy Night on Wednesday, Feb. 25, at 7 p.m., in the Lower Lake High multipurpose room.

The evening will be filled with talented actors performing award-winning monologues, duet scenes and the one-act play entitled, “So You Wanna Be A Cheerleader,” which received a Silver Medal at the Lenaea High School Theatre Festival in Folsom.

The Lenaea Festival, which was held Feb. 6 to 8, hosted 62 high schools and had 1,290 participants.

“I was so proud of our kids! We competed against some big schools. To receive one medal would’ve been great, but we brought home three,” said Lower Lake High drama teacher Tracy Lahr.

The evening will be filled with laughter and perhaps some tears. It’s a night that you don’t want to miss.

Tickets are $5 at the door.

For questions call 707-994-6475, Extension 2735, or 707-295-7806.

The Dalai Llama has said that dying is just getting a new set of clothes.

Here’s an interesting take on what it may be like for the newly departed, casting off their burdens and moving with enthusiasm into the next world.

Poet Kathleen Aguero lives in Massachusetts.

Send Off

The dead are having a party without us.
They’ve left our worries behind.
What a bore we’ve become
with our resentment and sorrow,
like former lovers united
for once by our common complaints.
Meanwhile the dead, shedding pilled sweaters,
annoying habits, have become
glamorous Western celebrities
gone off to learn meditation.

We trudge home through snow
to a burst pipe,
broken furnace, looking
up at the sky where we imagine
they journey to wish them bon voyage,
waving till the jet on which they travel
first class is out of sight—
only the code of its vapor trail left behind.

American Life in Poetry 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 2013 by Kathleen Aguero from her most recent book of poems, After That, (Tiger Bark Press, 2013). Poem reprinted by permission of Kathleen Aguero and the publisher. Introduction copyright 2015 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. They do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

UKIAH, Calif. – Mendocino College Professor Jody Gehrman will offer a two-day community extension workshop dedicated to helping aspiring novelists take their ideas to the next level.

“So many writers, from beginners to professionals, get stuck at some stage when writing a novel,” said Gehrman. “I know that feeling very well. Sometimes we need help getting the project in motion again. I want to give people the writing tools I’ve gathered over two decades.”

Gehrman, author of 10 published novels and many award-winning plays, will cover a variety of topics, from refining their ideas to understanding their publishing options.

“There’s never been a more exciting time to be a writer. It’s also a chaotic, confusing time, with all the old rules falling away,” said Gehrman. “The indie publishing revolution means the doors have been flung wide open. Now the masses are surging through those open doors, which means everyone has to work harder to get their work noticed.”

The cost is $108 per person. Handouts will be provided.

Participants should come ready to write, as lectures and discussions will be followed by guided writing exercises.

Workshop will be held Saturday, March 14, and Saturday, March 21, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on both days.

For more information on the workshop please contact Jody Gehrman, 707-468-3150 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

To register, contact the Mendocino College Business Office, 707-468-3236.