LAKE COUNTY – On Saturday, Nov. 21, Carolyn Hawley and Raul Gilbert will feature the book, “Beethoven: His Spiritual Development” by J.W.N. Sullivan on the new KPFZ program “Word Weavers.”
Discussion of this classic book will be accompanied with selected examples of Beethoven’s music, which Hawley will discuss.
Word Weavers is broadcast at 4 p.m. Saturdays on KPFZ, 88.1 FM.
Usually, it’s just fun to scope out the players milling around the beachfront hotel’s grand entry, watching the inevitable hustle of film deals about to go down. But then, I gaze out the windows facing the expansive beach, wishing that I were somehow magically transported to the French Riviera.
Waking from my reverie, I realize that November’s chilly air in Southern California will guarantee that starlets in bikinis won’t be catching the eye of grateful paparazzi. Glamor gives way to the hard realities of the AFM’s prime reason for existence, namely bringing together buyers and sellers of films, TV programs and videos into one big, glorious orgy of screening 445 motion pictures in 27 languages over the span of eight days.
Who can possibly watch that many movies? I calculated that it might be possible to see approximately 100 films, give or take a few, over that period of time if only one endured them in a 24-hour per day marathon.
Foregoing an impossible film schedule, the next best thing appeared to be a visit to the hospitality suite of the infamous Troma Pictures, a company that embraces schlock cinema with the blind devotion normally found in a cult.
Troma made a name for itself with “Surf Nazis Must Die” and “The Toxic Avenger” series, classic films that remain prominent in the company’s catalog. I was hoping for something really outrageous, but discovered Troma is still pushing “Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead,” a film so bad that it got the nerds from “Ain’t It Cool News” worked up into an approving frenzy.
Realizing that sex sells around the globe, the Troma folks are also pushing “The Sexy Box,” which is nothing but a descriptive term for the packaging of four sex comedies that were apparently made long before anyone thought “Porky’s” was a good idea.
Despite the garish displays in its suite, Troma hasn’t cornered the market on bad taste or even low-rent horror films. Still, it’s a challenge to find advertising flyers that trump the delightful grotesqueness of the Troma marketing plan.
Giving it a try is a company called Imagination, which promotes “Smash Cut” with the picture of a leggy young nurse holding two bloody, severed hands. Idream Independent Pictures is selling “Fired” by using the imagery of a woman’s naked torso as she holds a decapitated head in her bloody hands behind her back.
All in all, the bad taste award goes to Amadeus Pictures for its film “Polanski,” which illustrates the vile Polish film director in the throes of forcing himself upon an underage girl. Incredibly enough, the advertising flyer notes that Roman Polanski was involved in a “sex scandal and fled to France where he has lived a rather reclusive life.” A sex scandal is when a prominent politician is fooling around with an intern of legal age, paying an expensive call girl for kinky sex, and running off to Argentina for a tryst with a “soul mate.” Unlike dumb politicians, Polanski is a criminal who belongs in jail, notwithstanding what some dimwitted Hollywood types would like to believe.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and this idiom is perfectly useful at AFM. Fred Dryer, not heard from since his TV series “Hunter,” is starring as a county sheriff in “Death Valley.” He’s not to be confused with the considerably younger Eric Christian Olsen, who’s starring in another “Death Valley,” which is about a violent motorcycle gang.
Imitation also takes shape in the similarity of advertising. Two beautiful blondes are featured in similar seductive poses for the films “Women in Trouble” and “Stripped Naked,” with the only difference being that the babe in the latter film is also holding a gun, mainly because she’s described as having “a killer body and a gun.”
AFM is the place to come to find the forgotten stars of yesterday. Look, it’s Peter Falk and George Segal starring as old cronies on a road trip from Florida to Sin City in “3 Days to Vegas.” I am embarrassed to say that I didn’t know Peter Falk was still alive, but the Internet says he’s been placed in a conservatorship. Hey, that probably beats working in a film that might not even get a video release.
Amazingly, Dolph Lundgren is still making movies, but it should not be surprising that in “Icarus” he plays a trained KGB assassin. As long as filmmakers need someone to pay a Soviet heavy, Lundgren’s career remains safe, at least for now.
Action pictures will always be a staple for the AFM crowd, as these pictures, unlike comedies, often translate well to foreign markets. I particularly like the advertising flyer for “Rambo V: The Savage Hunt.” After recently completing “Rocky XXII,” Sylvester Stallone, likely qualifying any day now for Medicare, remains an unstoppable force.
The same probably can’t be said for Arnold Schwarzenegger, even as his political career winds down. The Governator is not going to be starring in the 2010 version of “Conan,” a project being promoted by Nu Image, even though no actor has apparently yet signed on to flex his muscles.
I’d like to end on an upbeat note, but first I must point out that the spirit of Mel Brooks still lives, though now in a foreign land. “Hitler Goes Kaput” looks like a piece of inspired lunacy. The film is billed as “the best action comedy to come out of Russia ever.” Given the gloomy past of the old Soviet Empire, that’s probably not an overstatement.
In any case, it should be observed that AFM does deliver some promising films of great artistic merit. One to keep an eye on is “From Time to Time,” starring the venerable Maggie Smith as the grandmother to a young boy who discovers he has the power to travel through time.
Attending the AFM is a fun, interesting exercise for any who loves the movies. Much like browsing through a flea market, it’s a joy to discover some gems.
I now recall that last year “The Men Who Stare at Goats,” with its impressive cast, looked like a possible winner as it was being sold at the market, and now a year later that impression proved to be prescient.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
MIDDLETOWN – The work of fabric artist Shirley Dodge is on display in the sanctuary at Middletown Community United Methodist Church through Nov. 24.
Featured are Dodge's painted cotton wall hangings.
The display is open to the public on Sundays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., on from 9 a.m. to noon on Wednesdays and Fridays.
“We are excited to have these original abstract works displayed in the sanctuary,” said Pastor Voris Brumfield. “It is our desire to regularly solicit artworks for display after Jan. 1, 2010, for monthly exhibits.”
Shirley Dodge has painted and printed fine fabrics and art pieces for interior design for many years and has exhibited her paintings and drawings in Northern California.
Dodge is known primarily for her fabric design in the interior design centers in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Previous to the fabric design work, her paintings have been exhibited in one person and group shows throughout California, receiving various awards.
She received her bachelor of arts degree in art and a teaching credential from Sonoma State University. Dodge received the Evans Memorial Award in the Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival, and her fabric installation was chosen for exhibition in the Dyer’s Art Exhibit, a major exhibit of more than 30 textile artists working within the Pacific Basin, sponsored by the Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles, curated by Jack Lenor Larsen.
During this time, Dodge developed her custom hand-painted fabric yardage, for interior design nationally. She was honored by invitation to a textile exhibition at the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum, at the Smithsonian Institute in New York in 1984.
Her line of custom painted fabrics, “Von Stith Prints,” was featured in designer showrooms nationally and developed in her studio in Sebastopol.
She and her husband Wayne Stith moved to Hidden Valley Lake in 1989, where she has continued her design work, has been teaching art to young children, and designing and sewing clothing and hand bags.
For more information contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
UPPER LAKE – Tom Griesgraber, one of the world’s masters of the Chapman Stick, will be appearing at the Tallman Hotel on Saturday, Nov. 21, along with classical guitarist Bert Lams.
“Thanks to Tom’s family connections here in Lake County, we were really lucky to fit into a current West Coast tour he’s making with Bert Lams,” said Tallman owner Bernie Butcher.
“If people haven’t heard this truly amazing instrument – the Chapman Stick – played to perfection, they’re in for a real treat. Lakeport’s own Bob Culbertson brought down the house on this instrument during our Concerts with Conversation series last year, so I’m really looking forward to hearing this duo of stick and guitar,” Butcher said.
An honors graduate of the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Tom Griesgraber tours widely performing on the Chapman Stick, a unique 12-string guitar and bass hybrid played more like piano with both hands sounding notes.
"I’m proud to see one of my instruments used in such a creative way,” Emmet Chapman says of Tom’s mastery. Chapman invented the instrument named after him in 1969 and he has been promoting its use ever since.
Griesgraber is an active composer and arranger for the instrument and his shows include a mix of original material as well as arrangements ranging from Bach to the Beatles. His newest solo release "Sketchbook" features original compositions along with music by Bach, Bob Dylan and Oliver Nelson.
Bert Lams initially gained notice in 1980 as first laureate in a youth music contest in Brussels. He then went on to earn an honors degree in the study of classical guitar, eventually teaching at the Brussels Academy of Music. Since 1993, he has toured the world and released six albums with the California Guitar Trio.
The show starts at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 21, in Riffe’s Meeting House next to the Tallman Hotel, 9550 Main St. in Upper Lake. Only 40 tickets at $25 are available by calling the Tallman Hotel reservation desk at 707-275-2245.
Tickets allow holders a 10-percent discount on a dinner purchase at the Blue Wing Saloon & Café before the show.
People interested in the show can get a preview at www.Stick.com/features/artist/ .
Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick
(NY: Penguin Books, 2007. 480 pp. $16.00, ISBN 978-0-14-311197-9)
Native American Studies/ American History
Every November “first Thanksgiving” experts come out of the wood work; articles appear in newspapers and magazines. Even segments on the evening news will appear retelling the national myth surrounding “The First Thanksgiving.”
What if, for once, instead of hearing “the story we know” we could hear “the story we need to know”?
Nathaniel Philbrick vividly brings to life the experience of the immigrant Mayflower passengers as well as the native Americans in “Mayflower.”
It is, he says, “a story of courage, community and war,” but it is also a story of peace and people working together across significant divides.
It is a story that spans decades although, as Philbrick points out, for many modern-day Americans American history begins with the Mayflower and moves immediately on to the American Revolution. The years in between are perhaps the most telling however, and comprise the story “we need to hear.”
The immigrants who arrived on the Mayflower in 1620 were not all pilgrims, and those who were arrived in a much different state than their original plans had called for.
In the beginning this group of outlaw religious zealots (as they would have been looked upon by most English citizens) formed a single church in Holland (where they had fled to avoid arrest in England).
In Holland they realized that while they wanted to be free from the religious laws in England, they still wanted to raise their children as English. The only solution seemed to be to move the congregation to an English colony.
While a majority of the congregation voted for this plan, by the time it was implemented less than a quarter of them would actually go, choosing instead to remain in Leiden, Holland.
To fill the ships (there were two!) they were forced to allow “strangers” chosen by the company backing their voyage to accompany them. One of the ships sank and the final passenger list that set sail on the Mayflower was close to 50 percent pilgrims, 50 percent strangers.
The pilgrims had been able to keep pretty much to themselves in Holland, but they were forced to work closely with the strangers to create their new community.
For the pilgrims this was as difficult a step as many envision getting along with the native Americans would have been. They rose to the occasion however and created the Mayflower Compact as a civil authority both the pilgrims and strangers could agree to.
Another surprising aspect of the true tale of the Mayflower immigrants is that although they made many mistakes in their first year of relations with the natives, they did forge working relationships and engaged in the political process of the natives themselves.
Because Massasoit, the chief sachem of the Pokanokets, had saved their lives, the Pilgrims remained politically allied with him and over the next 50 years helped defend his tribe against other tribes numerous times.
This is particularly amazing because the Mayflower was not the first ship, nor its occupants the first Europeans, the Pokanokets had encountered and the earlier encounters (plural!) left a wake of fear, slavery and well-earned distrust.
The first Thanksgiving was a gathering of about 150 souls – Pokanokets, pilgrims and strangers. The Pokanokets outnumbered the immigrants nearly two to one.
The feast greatly resembled an English harvest festival and not at all what the pilgrims would have called a “thanksgiving celebration” but it was a testimony to the partnership between the two cultures.
It would be nice if the story could end on that happy note, but the story did not end then and did ultimately lead to war. King Philip's War was, percentage-wise, even bloodier than the Civil War. This, too, is part of the story we need to know.
Philbrick’s “Mayflower” is an engaging history and ably utilizes primary documents left by the pilgrims and first generation of settlers while at the same time making the story accessible to 21st century minds.
“Mayflower” is perfect reading material for your Thanksgiving holiday, but if you have a long drive ahead of you, you may want to consider getting the abridged version on CD.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Geri Williams is a local book fancier.
The show will take place from 7 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.
Celebrating their 13th year together, Four Shillings Short perform on a fantastic array of instruments from around the world – including the North Indian sitar, hammered dulcimer, mandolins, banjo, whistles, recorders, medieval and renaissance woodwinds, charango, bowed psaltery, guitar, and even a krumhorn.
The husband/wife duo of Aodh Og O’Tuama from Cork, Ireland and Christy Martin from California, tour in the US and Ireland, live as full-time minstrels and have been bringing their one-of-a-kind eclectic blend of music around the country since they first met and fell in love in 1995.
The Corkman's Clipper Irish Pub is located at 14677 Lakeshore Drive in Clearlake, telephone 707-994-9933. Visit the pub's Web site at www.corkmansclipper.com .
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