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Arts & Life
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- Written by: Editor
LUCERNE, Calif. – The Lucerne Alpine Senior Center will host its monthly “ Open Mic Lucerne” event on Saturday, April 26.
The event will take place from 6 to 11 p.m. at the center, 3985 Country Club Drive.
The last Saturday of the month marks this month’s fun rock and roll event with talent assisting from all venues.
A variety of performers are on stage after the house band FOGG starts out the evening with classic, heavy metal rock and roll with original numbers and covers of your favorites.
FOGG and other entertainers will wrap up the evening by 11 p.m.
Bands and individuals are already signing up for April. The last two months events saw full venues, so sign up early.
Call 707-245-4612 or 707-274-8779 for your reserved time or come and sign-up on site beginning at 5 p.m. Saturday night. Don’t miss this chance.
Lake County abounds with experienced and fresh talent. Come see and hear the exciting performances. Being in the audience is great fun and free. If you are a performer, this is a great opportunity to show off your talent.
Music, comedy, mime, readings, and any other activity that is family-oriented will be appreciated. Room is also available for dancing and relaxing. There is no charge for attendance or performance.
This is a child-friendly event, so bring the whole family. For those wishing an inexpensive snack, tasty treats are available starting at $2 per plate.
All proceeds from the meal benefit the Lucerne Alpine Senior Center, a nonprofit that serves Northshore senior populations with onsite lunches, Meals on Wheels and advocacy.
For more information about services or Open Mic Lucerne, call the Lucerne Alpine Senior Center at 707-274-8779.
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- Written by: Ted Kooser
I was born in April and have never agreed with T.S. Eliot that it is “the cruellest month.” Why would I want to have been born from that?
Here’s Robert Hedin, who lives in Minnesota, showing us what April can be like once Eliot is swept aside.
This Morning I Could Do/A Thousand Things
I could fix the leaky pipe
Under the sink, or wander over
And bother Jerry who’s lost
In the bog of his crankcase.
I could drive the half-mile down
To the local mall and browse
Through the bright stables
Of mowers, or maybe catch
The power-walkers puffing away
On their last laps. I could clean
The garage, weed the garden,
Or get out the shears and
Prune the rose bushes back.
Yes, a thousand things
This beautiful April morning.
But I’ve decided to just lie
Here in this old hammock,
Rocking like a lazy metronome,
And wait for the day lilies
To open. The sun is barely
Over the trees, and already
The sprinklers are out,
Raining their immaculate
Bands of light over the lawns.
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 Robert Hedin from his most recent book of poems, Poems Prose Poems, Red Dragonfly Press, 2013. Poem reprinted by permission of Robert Hedin and the publisher. Introduction copyright 2014 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.
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- Written by: Tim Riley
BAD WORDS (Rated R)
Making his feature directorial debut with the subversive black comedy “Bad Words,” Jason Bateman has no problem turning himself into a truly horrible human being, willing to crush the hopes and dreams of overly ambitious grade school students.
Bateman’s Guy Trilby is a 40-year-old deadbeat who finds a loophole in the rules of the Golden Quill national spelling bee and decides to cause trouble by hijacking a competition that rightfully belongs to the deserving pre-teen contestants.
Starting at the regional level, Guy harasses contest officials, outraged parents and the kids who dream of victory and fame, to say nothing of prize money and academic recognition. His verbal assaults are uncouth and profane.
Possessed of a photographic memory, Guy cites the arcane rules of spelling bee contests to point out that his failure to graduate from the eighth grade has made him eligible, regardless of age and experience, to enter the competition.
Indignant contest officials are powerless to keep Guy out of the orthography contests. By the way, orthography is another word for spelling. This word is gratuitously inserted here as a teachable moment, in keeping with the spirit of the contests.
The spelling bee administrator Dr. Deagan (Allison Janney) is determined to have Guy eliminated from the field. That’s why he must spell inaccessible words, including “slubberdegullion.” Fittingly, it’s an archaic word that means a slovenly or worthless person.
Undeterred and unbowed by the vitriol that comes his way, Guy presses on to each new level of the spelling bee, intent on making it to the national Golden Quill event. He’s being sponsored by a publication whose reporter is following his every move.
Journalist Jenny Widgeon (Kathryn Hahn) aids and abets Guy’s qualifying for matches because she has the exclusive rights her subject’s story. Toxic chemistry between them leads to sporadic bouts of hostile sex.
Par for the course, Guy bullies his way through his relationships and into the competitions against nervous adolescents who are easily rattled by his wild antics of verbal abuse and nasty practical jokes.
Guy treats every contest as if he were a UFC cage fighter. His take-no-prisoners approach to winning is alternately funny and unsettling. You feel bad for the kids that are victimized by Guy, but you can’t help laughing, sometimes awkwardly, at the insanity.
Making it to the national championship is Guy’s dream and a nightmare for the organizers, who decide to make his life miserable. His accommodations at the Sportsman’s Lodge include a cot inside the hotel’s utility closet.
Continuing his odious campaign of intimidation, Guy finally meets his match with awkward 10-year-old spelling whiz Chaitanya Chopra (Rohan Chand), a precocious competitor who is completely unfazed by Guy’s antagonistic approach to life.
An unlikely alliance emerges between these two disparate contenders. At first, it seems that Guy is mostly interested in the fact that the Indian boy he calls Slumdog has a mini-bar in his hotel room a few doors removed from the utility closet.
Yet, great chemistry develops between the sweet-natured kid and the ornery middle-aged person who keeps people at arms’ length. Guy takes the kid on a night ride of mischief, inappropriately and hilariously involving strippers, smoking, boozing and shoplifting.
Mostly, Guy treats everyone rudely as the tries to embarrass and outwit the various parties that would deny him the championship trophy. He’s not above being caustic even to his only possible friend, the fellow 10-year-old rival who is best-prepared to actually win.
An unrepentant misanthrope, Guy takes the greatest pleasure in tormenting the Golden Quill’s imperious chief Dr. Bowman (Philip Baker Hall), who is even more unwavering in a quest to get Guy purged from the playing field.
Jason Bateman deserves kudos for his maiden voyage into directing, unafraid to make himself look bad in the service of delivering a good film that showcases great talent and excellent dialogue provided by Andrew Dodge in his first feature screenplay.
A degree of sentimentality creeps into “Bad Words” as the contest winds down to its climactic end. Fortunately, it’s measured so that “Bad Words” does not lose its hard edge of dark comedy.
A quirky black comedy, “Bad Words” is wickedly funny, but its protagonist is often so deeply unlikeable that appreciation of this film may have its limits for some viewers.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
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- Written by: Editor
LAKEPORT, Calif. The Funky Dozen comes to the Soper Reese Theatre at 7 p.m. Friday, April 18, playing fun and funky hits from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.
Led by Larry Thompson, this popular group is also bringing some of its new songs to the show.
All the music features a beat that keeps the dance floor crowded.
All seats for “Third Friday Live” are $10. Tickets are available online at www.SoperReeseTheatre.com ; at the Theatre Box Office, 275 S. Main St., Lakeport on Fridays 10:30 am to 5:30 pm,; or by phone at 707-263-0577.
Tickets also are available at The Travel Center, 1265 S. Main, Lakeport; Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The Soper Reese Theatre is a restored, historic, performing and motion picture arts venue established in 1949. It operates under the guidance of the nonprofit Lake County Arts Council. The 300-seat theater brings dance, music, film, plays and poetry to all members of the Lake County community.