Arts & Life

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Written by: Editor

Published: 12 September 2013

UPPER LAKE, Calif. – Lake County Wine Studio is hosting a book signing party with author Roni McFadden on Sunday, Sept. 15, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., to celebrate her second book, “The Longest Trail.”

“The Longest Trail” carries readers through a spellbinding new work by McFadden.

As a young teen, McFadden left behind the confusion and pain of her unhappy preteen years. She tells of how she went up – up onto horses, up the road to a man who could help her, and up the mountain, to where she could see clearly and breathe deeply. And, finally, up to another place where only some can go.

As she travels "The Longest Trail," McFadden evolves from a girl stumbling along treacherous and twisted paths to become a strong young woman who knows where she is going, how to get there, and understands she will have help along the way.

Having had the visions, seen the petroglyphs, felt the grinding stones, and carrying obsidian chips with her, McFadden knows the strength of the spirits of the ancients, knows their energy can be used by anyone who feels their vibrations.

Spending all of her teen years in the High Sierras riding horses and managing horse-packing tours, McFadden learned about animals, people and life.

In the time since then she has continued on "The Longest Trail," adding the wisdom of another 40 years to her perspective as she relives, and recreates those years on the pages of her new book.

As you ride with McFadden up the trail in this book, you will know the joy, fear, grief, humor, beauty and wonder she experienced in the high country, in Altadena, Calif., and all along the way, as she journeyed to this time and place.

McFadden is the mother of four and grandmother of 14. She now lives in Willits with her husband of 41 years, John.

Little did they know when moving to Northern California that the property they bought and built their house on once was part of the Ridgewood Ranch, home of the famous racehorse Seabiscuit.

Shortly after moving McFadden began a career with the equine veterinarians that have cared for the horses at the ranch for over 25 years, and through that connection she was able to write and publish her first book. ³

“Josephine – A Tale of Hope and Happy Endings” is a children's book about a great-granddaughter of the legendary Seabiscuit who becomes orphaned at four days of age and follows the filly as she is accepted by a surrogate mare.

All proceeds from the sale of “Josephine” go to The Howard Hospital Foundation and the T.R.A.I.L. therapeutic riding program at the Ridgewood Ranch in Willits. McFadden's association with Josephine and the Ridgewood Ranch enabled her to start her own small publishing company, which she named The Biscuit Press.

Although she no longer has horses of her own, she continues to work for Redwood Valley Equine, and enjoys her friend's horses. One of her greatest pleasures now, as she gets older, is watching her grandchildren grow and thrive. As she nears retirement age she feels there might be a few more books in her.

McFadden will be at the studio from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday to greet visitors and to sign sold copies of her book.

Refreshments will be provided and wine will be available for sale by the taste of by the glass. Wine tasting will feature varietals currently on sale as well as featured samplings of Olof Cellars wines and Fore Family Cabernet Sauvignon.

Lake County Wine Studio is a gallery for display of arts and a tasting room, wine bar and retail shop for the fine wines of Lake County.

The gallery is located at 9505 Main St. in Upper Lake. It is open Mondays, 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.; 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays; and Fridays, 1 p.m. to 8 p.m.

For more information call Lake County Wine Studio at 707-275-8030 or 707-293-8752.

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Written by: Editor

Published: 11 September 2013

UKIAH, Calif. – “YOUNG: Emerging Artists of Mendocino County,” the first exhibit of the 2013-14 academic year at Mendocino College, will present the work of ten artists under the age of 40.

Alyssum Wier, exhibit curator and Art Gallery Management instructor at the college, asked artists to respond to the following questions:

• If we define an emerging artist as someone who has entered the marketplace or exhibition arena with some degree of confidence or success, what does it mean to be an emerging artist of Mendocino County?
• In the 1960s, 1970s, and even 1980s, artists living in Mendocino County may have been working in intentional or unintentional isolation from metropolitan centers. In a new era of instant connectivity and collapsed distances from urban centers, what does it mean to be an emerging artist of Mendocino County now?
• Does living here offer a choice between isolation and connectivity?
• Do increased options for connection make it easier or more difficult to “emerge” as an artist?

In response, the work assembled for this show by participating artists Anne Beck, Hopi Breton, Genine Coleman, Tessa Crawford, Rose Easterbrook, Tobin Keller, Dietmar Krumrey, Adrianna Oberg, Andrew Power, and Solange Roberdeau may evoke the landscapes of Mendocino County (Breton, Coleman, Easterbrook, Keller, Power, Roberdeau) or it may hover in a placeless or abstract philosophical space (Beck, Breton, Crawford, Krumrey, Oberg).

Reflecting on the theme, participating artist Andrew Power of Redwood Valley states: “My relation to the remote county of Mendocino was and is a huge influence. It not only informs my work, but is a big part of my reason for working at all.”

Willits Artist Genine Coleman further reflects: “In many respects I feel that living and creating here in Mendocino gives me the opportunity to use the location as a beacon of a larger voice to be heard beyond Mendocino. I think this county has much to offer to those living beyond its boundaries in the way of example … as long as creativity is applied to the notion of ‘emerging’ this location fosters out of the box thinking as a necessary tool for survival.”

Whether from Mendocino County or transplanted here, these artists reveal through their work that they are innovative with materials, technically skilled, and emerging now.

The public is invited to an opening reception at the gallery on Thursday, Sept. 12, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Regular gallery hours are Tuesday through Thursday from 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. and by appointment.

The exhibit runs through Oct. 27.

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Written by: Lake County News Reports

Published: 07 September 2013

“Dying is easy. Comedy is hard.”

This maxim has been around for some time, and it bears a lot of truth about the difficulty of launching successful comedy series on network television.

Peter O’Toole’s washed-up actor Alan Swann uttered these words in the 1982 film “My Favorite Year.”

The famous quote has been attributed to many, from Edmund Kean to Groucho Marx and Joseph Stalin, though the murderous Russian tyrant is an unlikely source of humor.

New comedy series are a big part of the landscape for the FOX network this fall, and yet when speaking to TV critics during the recent press tour, Kevin Reilly, president of Fox Entertainment, had not much to say, other than to answer critical questions about “Dads.”

In fairness, Reilly did lump the comedy “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” with the mystery-adventure drama “Sleepy Hollow,” noting how “surefooted these two shows are right now, right out of the gate.”

Well, this was a rare occasion when a TV network executive was not engaging in hyperbole or deception. The aforementioned shows may be two of the best new series on the schedule.

Part of the FOX strategy is to create a strong comedy block on Tuesday nights, leading off with the half-hour new series “Dads” and “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” during the eight o’clock hour and ending with returning comedies “New Girl” and “The Mindy Project.”

Unlike the practice of the other major networks to launch new series during the traditional Nielsen week starting Sept. 23, FOX begins a week earlier, so look for the new Tuesday night comedy block to premiere on Sept. 17.

The spirit of “Barney Miller” lives within the new comedy “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” set in the police workplace where a diverse group of colleagues get a new captain, Andre Braugher’s Ray Holt, with a lot to prove in a far-flung district in the New York borough of Brooklyn.

Evident from the pilot episode, the key to the mayhem in the Brooklyn precinct is Andy Samberg’s Detective Jake Peralta, a gifted investigator with the best arrest record among his colleagues, but also a carefree goofball studiously oblivious to the usual norms.

A stickler for rules and regulations, Captain Holt’s arrival as the commanding officer at the Nine-Nine precinct puts a crimp in Detective Peralta’s jocular style, attempting to force him to now follow standard decorum and even wear a tie to work.

Samberg is hilarious in his efforts to not-so-subtly undermine authority while continuing to be an outstanding police officer, and his eagerness to nab crooks is fueled by a dogged competition with his comely colleague, Detective Amy Santiago (Melissa Fumero).

The ensemble comedy features interesting characters, such as Joe Lo Truglio’s Detective Charles Boyle, a brilliant but bumbling workhorse who pines for the abrasive, opinionated Detective Rosa Diaz (Stephanie Beatriz), with whom he stands no chance at all.

Chelsea Peretti is the eccentric and self-absorbed civilian officer manager Gina Linetti, and the always wonderful Terry Crews is Sergeant Jeffords, a linebacker of a man who lost his nerve after his wife had baby twin girls named Cagney and Lacey.

I predict “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” is FOX’s new comedy hit, but Kevin Reilly spent precious time at the press conference defending some offensive aspects of “Dads,” another comedy from the creators of “Family Guy.”

Seth Green and Giovanni Ribisi are two successful guys in their mid-30s whose lives get turned upside down when their inappropriate and pain-in-the-neck patriarchs move in. Gifted actors Martin Mull and Peter Riegert, playing their dads, may not save this show from early demise.

Another comedy, not scheduled until later in the fall season, is “Enlisted,” an irreverent military-themed comedy (shades of “M.A.S.H.”) about three brothers on a small Army base in Florida and the group of misfits who surround them.

Geoff Stults is the natural born leader, Sergeant Pete Hill, who was on a path for a huge military career until one mistake overseas got him booted stateside, where his two younger brothers are stationed.

With its goofy, sarcastic sensibilities, “Enlisted” looks like a potential winner. It may even shape up to have some of the Army humor reminiscent of “Sgt. Bilko,” the great vintage TV series starring Phil Silvers, not the middling Steve Martin movie of the same title.

The FOX team gave us a military cap emblazoned with the title of the show, but this small gift has not affected my judgment on “Enlisted.” I just tell you this as a matter of full disclosure.

Now that we have run down the list of new comedies, let’s focus on a show of a different nature, one that Kevin Reilly rightly described as a winner “right out of the gate.”

That show, to premiere on Monday, Sept. 16, before being moved to a Friday night slot, is “Sleepy Hollow,” a modern-day version of Washington Irving’s classic novel in which Ichabod Crane is resurrected and plunged 250 years into the future.

In the FOX version of “Sleepy Hollow,” Tom Mison’s Ichabod Crane is a Revolutionary War hero who is brought back to life in the contemporary world of the Hudson Valley, where things are different than envisioned by the Founding Fathers.

Revived alongside Ichabod Crane is the infamous Headless Horseman who is on a murderous rampage in the present-day Village of Sleepy Hollow, creating a major catastrophe for the local police force.

Of course, no one believes Ichabod’s tales of America’s past and dire warnings about the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, but young cop Abbie Mills (Nicole Beharie) has had her own supernatural experiences and she teams up with Ichabod to embark on a mission to stop evil.

Judging by the pilot episode, “Sleepy Hollow” looks like it will draw a fan base of the younger male demographic and those who enjoy supernatural mysteries and adventure.

Waiting in the wings for a midseason replacement is “Almost Human,” a science-fiction action-packed police procedural set 35 years in the future, when police officers are partnered with highly evolved human-like androids.

Karl Urban plays a detective who survived a horrific attack and wakes up after a 17-month coma to find he can’t remember much, is outfitted with a prosthetic leg and suffers from mental atrophy and depression.

Nevertheless, instead of being on disability, he rejoins the police force, though he must be partnered, much to his displeasure, with a robot.

I have not seen a pilot of this show, but I am already thinking “Robocop.” We’ll wait and see.

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