Lake County News,California

Arts & Life

: Elizabeth Larson; Posted On Wednesday, 03 October 2018 03:54; 03 October 2018

Mendocino Coast premiere of ‘Wilder than Wild’ set for Oct. 8

**Destroyed vehicles and homes in the Tubbs fire of October 2017. Photo courtesy of the producers of “Wilder than Wild.”**

MENDOCINO, Calif. – A dramatic new documentary about wildland fires and how we can make our communities fire safe will debut this weekend in Mendocino County.

“Wilder than Wild” will be screened at Preston Hall, 44867 Main St. next to the Presbyterian Church, in Mendocino.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m., with the film beginning at 7 p.m.

Admission is free.

The hour-long documentary reveals how fuel buildup and climate change have exposed Western wild-lands to large, high intensity wildfires, while greenhouse gases released from these fires accelerate climate change.

This vicious cycle jeopardizes our forests and affects us all with extreme weather and more wildfires, some of which are now entering highly populated wildland/urban areas.

A sequence in “Wilder than Wild” shows how the Tubbs fire in Santa Rosa and the Redwood Valley fire, which began on Oct. 8, 2017, caused the destruction of 4,658 homes and killed 44. It shows how the "fires of the future" can include urban areas.

"Things are changing," said one firefighter, "If we don't change, we're going to see even more homes annihilated in these types of fires."

Following the screening there will be a panel discussion with Mendocino Fire Chief Ed O’Brien, Fire Captain Eric Chisholm and Mary Mayeda, who heads the Mendocino Fire Safe Council.

The moderator is the event’s organizer filmmaker Jim Culp.

For further information call 707-937-3755, or e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

: Ted Kooser; Posted On Monday, 01 October 2018 03:12; 01 October 2018

American Life in Poetry: Three Days with the Long Moon

**Ted Kooser. Photo credit: UNL Publications and Photography.**

A poem is an object carefully assembled of words, a "thing" that readers must reckon with just as they'd reckon with any other object.

The title poem of Adrian Koesters' new book, Three Days with the Long Moon, published by BrickHouse Books, sets out a number of disparate elements, then observes: "…this pen making / a thing of them."

So it's the "pen" in the hand of the poet that assembles the singular "thing" from the details. And that's how a poem comes to be.

This poet lives in Omaha and was one of our very able assistants on this column.

Three Days with the Long Moon

That field nag, old-penny
swayback. Low hawk, to
ducks in train to a quad of geese,
in case. Last night, the long

moon lay it seemed a tissue
of snow, but then dawn told
that wasn't so. Late morning, now,
the fire, the hearth, eggs

sitting for the mute plate
and fork, this pen making
a thing of them. Two more nights—
waterfowl safe and noisy

in the dusk, the low rails
running flank to the river
at midnight—find what they'll
make of that river, this moon.

American Life in Poetry does not accept unsolicited manuscripts. It is made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2017 by Adrian Koesters, "Three Days with the Long Moon," from Three Days with the Long Moon, (BrickHouse Books, 2017). Poem reprinted by permission of Adrian Koesters and the publisher. Introduction copyright ©2018 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.

: Debra Fredrickson; Posted On Friday, 28 September 2018 02:07; 28 September 2018

Local mandolin players featured in special Baroque Concert

LAKEPORT, Calif. – Talented regional mandolin players will be featured in this weekend’s special Lake County Symphony’s Chamber Orchestra Baroque concert.

The concert will take place at 2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 30, at the Soper Reese Theatre.

David “Gus” Garelick and Gail Sharpsteen are founding members of the Gravenstein Mandolin Ensemble, in Sebastopol.

For the past 11 years, this group has been performing mandolin music from around the world: Classical music from the Baroque Era, Choro music from Brazil, Klezmer music from Eastern Europe, Italian music, Spanish music, and much more.

Gus Garelick originally learned mandolin from his Russian relatives, and quickly discovered the rich tradition of mandolin music, from the folk music of Russia and Eastern Europe to American Bluegrass, Brazilian Choro, Italian Ballo Liscio music, and classical works by Vivaldi, Mozart and Beethoven.

He was a member of the Berkeley Mandolin Ensemble in the 1980s, where he first performed the Vivaldi Mandolin Concerto. Years later, upon moving to Sonoma County, he was delighted to find people willing to form a new mandolin ensemble. He also plays violin in the Lake County Symphony.

**David "Gus" Garelick. Courtesy photo.**

Gail Sharpsteen learned to play the mandolin when she inherited her grandfather’s 1923 Gibson in the 1980’s.

She also learned to play the mandocello, and more recently the mandola, and plays all three instruments (but not at the same time!) with the Gravenstein Mandolin Ensemble.

Sharpsteen’s primary instrument is the violoncello and she is active in chamber music and theater music in Napa, Sonoma and Lake counties.

She has played in the cello section of the Lake County Symphony for the past four years.

The special concert has open seating and a lower admission fee of $10 (under 18 are free) and is not part of the Symphony’s main concert season.

The Soper Reese Theatre is located at 275 S. Main St., Lakeport.

Debra Fredrickson is a volunteer with the Lake County Symphony.

: Elizabeth Larson; Posted On Monday, 01 October 2018 03:17; 01 October 2018

GenX Cinema presents ‘Fright Night” Oct. 10

**GenX Cinema will present “Fright Night” on Wednesday, October 10, 2018, in Lakeport, Calif. Courtesy image.**

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The GenX Cinema series presents the 1985 horror film, “Fright Night,” starring Chris Sarandon and Roddy McDowell, on Wednesday, Oct. 10, at 7 p.m. at the Soper Reese Theatre in Lakeport.

Entry is by donation.

A playful, loving homage to the golden age of horror, yet completely its own beastly fun ride of frights and thrills.

The tale, about a ”normal” man living next to a vampire, neatly parodies Alfred Hitchcock and John Hughes movies, and writer/director Tom Holland litters his rattling story with as many laughs as jolts.

The film is rated R with run time of 1 hour 34 minutes, and is sponsored by Blair Drywall and Painting.

The Soper Reese Theatre is located at 275 S. Main St., Lakeport, 707-263-0577, www.soperreesetheatre.com.

: Tim Riley; Posted On Sunday, 30 September 2018 00:40; 30 September 2018

‘The House’ clocks in with scares; ‘Magnum P.I.’ on TV

THE HOUSE WITH A CLOCK IN ITS WALLS (Rated PG)

An interesting situation is at hand with director Eli Roth, a master with horror films, as the one at the helm of delivering a presumable kids’ movie with “The House with a Clock in Its Walls.”

Don’t be surprised then if “The House,” with elements of Harry Potter sorcery but scarier, might be a little too forbidding for really young children too easily frightened by creepy animated dummies and menacing jack-o’-lanterns.

Recently orphaned 10-year-old Lewis Barnavelt (Owen Vaccaro) is a focal character sent to live with his oddball uncle in a creaky old mansion that holds a secret revealed by the film’s title.

The stage is set when Lewis arrives one night and Uncle Jonathan (Jack Black) is wearing a kimono and holding forth with such eccentricity that one wouldn’t blame Lewis for taking the next bus back to wherever he came from.

The weirdness of the gothic mansion is that, while every room seems to be overwhelmed with ticking clocks and creepy artifacts, hidden within the walls somewhere is a ticking doomsday clock ready to be triggered by a supernatural power.

Enrolling at a new school, Lewis is ostracized for being a geeky misfit so lacking in athletic ability that no one chooses him for their intramural basketball team until he later comes into his own with some magic power.

As a naturally curious child, Lewis unearths some of the mansion’s secrets. The discovery explains why his uncle spends so much time verbally sparring and bantering with next door neighbor, Mrs. Zimmerman (Cate Blanchett).

The mansion’s previous owner is the evil wizard Isaac (Kyle MacLachlan), whose remains in the local cemetery is set free by sorcery only to wreak havoc that propels the elements of true horror.

At this point, we learn that Lewis’ uncle is a warlock and Mrs. Zimmerman, his cohort, is a witch, albeit they seem benevolent as their desire is to stop Isaac from setting off the doomsday clock.

Lewis begins to master the dark arts and finds this might be a good way to handle school bullies when he’s not busy using supernatural powers on the home front.

In the end, the inevitable Armageddon is staged inside the mansion with Lewis, his uncle and Mrs. Zimmerman fighting with vigor to repel the evil force of Isaac.

The fun of “The House” may hinge on the enjoyment of the odd combination of fantasy, horror and oddball humor.

‘MAGNUM P.I.’ ON CBS NETWORK

The long-running “Magnum, P.I.,” starring Tom Selleck in the titular role, made its mark in the 1980s as one of the most popular private investigator series on the CBS television network.

Now after several decades have passed, CBS is rebooting the series appropriately enough with a younger cast of the same primary characters, with a sense of familiarity delivered in a fresh milieu.

The new “Magnum P.I.” stars Jay Hernandez as Thomas Sullivan Magnum, a former Navy intelligence officer who served in Afghanistan. Now living in Hawaii, Magnum is joined by war buddies Rick (Zachary Knighton) and chopper pilot TC (Stephen Hill) in a series of adventures.

Similar to the original series, Magnum, wearing Hawaiian shirts and a Detroit Tigers cap, lives at the estate of unseen millionaire Robin Masters as a security consultant while dabbling in private eye work on the side.

It may be hard to master the charm of Tom Selleck but Hernandez is off to a good start in the first episode made available for preview. Even though the role of Higgins now goes to a female (Patricia Weeks), the new Magnum’s charisma may hit a few snags with her.

Juliet Higgins, an attractive former British MI 6 agent, referred to as the “major domo,” will clash with Magnum on everything from his use of the estate’s red Ferrari to his freewheeling ways.

The first episode begins with a preposterous rescue mission in North Korea but quickly settles into the venue of Oahu where Magnum and his buddies try to solve the mystery of another friend from the war who is kidnapped and viciously tortured and beaten to death.

A familiar detective series trope is trotted out when Honolulu police detective Katsumoto (Tim Kang) threatens Magnum with obstruction if he meddles in a homicide investigation. You can guess how this will play out.

Magnum’s ethnicity hardly warrants a mention until during an ocean dive when Magnum banters with Rick and tells him that Rick should worry because sharks prefer white meat.

“Magnum P.I.” has great Hawaiian scenery, plenty of action and casual sense of humor that serves Magnum and his buddies well. It could follow in the successful footsteps of the updated version of the “Hawaii Five-O” series.

During the summer press tour, executive producer Peter Lenkov reported that talks were engaged with Tom Selleck and that “we went to him first to get his blessing.” I’ll take that as an endorsement for a new series that is worth a look.

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

: Middletown Art Center; Posted On Thursday, 27 September 2018 02:58; 27 September 2018

Restore Project features linocut printmaking Sept. 29

**John Jennings and participant Elen V Marsh. Courtesy photo.**

MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – Join artist John Jennings and create linocuts at Middletown Art Center this Saturday, Sept. 29, from 1 to 5 p.m.

Adults and teens (12 and up) of all levels of art making experience, from newbies to professionals, are invited to attend this fun and inspiring class for just $5.

“In my journeys through the various modes of printmaking, I’ve found none quite as dynamic as block printing, which includes linocuts,” explained Jennings. “The range of possibilities runs from the exquisitely delicate lines and gradient colors of the Japanese landscape artists to the almost primitive strokes of the European Expressionists. In our class I hope to introduce the participant to the magic of block printing: from the drawing stage to the transfer of the drawing to the linoleum block, to the carving of the block to printing of the image. The thrill of pulling the rice paper off the block and seeing your work in ink on the page is like no other.”

Please register in advance for all Restore classes at www.middletownartcenter.org/restore, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 707-809-8118. Space is limited and reservations are required.

The Restore project provides low-cost classes most weekends through May 2019. Fall and early winter classes provide opportunity to learn or refine skills in a variety of materials and techniques, including clay, woodworking, metalworking, concrete, dry point, block printing, and more.

Late winter and spring classes will focus on personal and collaborative projects, studio time, mentoring and guidance to create work. Learn more about Restore class scheduling at www.middletownartcenter.org.

While participants can join for just one class, MAC encourages folks to come to a series of classes and collaborate in project design and implementation for a new Art Walk on Rabbit Hill, and/or to work towards a large-scale personal work for exhibition at the EcoArts Sculpture Walk.

A public call for work for the Sculpture Walk will be posted in January. Entries to the Sculpture Walk will be juried.

On Saturday, Oct. 6, the Restore project features concrete vessels with Emily Scheibal. On Oct. 13, local poet Georgina Marie will lead the Writers Workshop.

Work from writing and printmaking classes will contribute to MAC’s second chapbook of writings and images, as well as work for readings or exhibition.

The first chapbook, “Resilience – a community reframes disaster through art,” is available for purchase at MAC or on the MAC Web site.

The Restore project was made possible thanks to support from the California Arts Council, a state agency, with additional support from local organizations, businesses, and individuals. Visit www.ca.arts.gov to learn more about the California Arts Council’s important work in communities and schools throughout California.

The Middletown Art Center is located at 21456 State Highway 175 at the junction of Highway 29. Be a part of the growing arts scene in South Lake County by becoming a MAC member, by coming to Restore printmaking this Saturday, or by attending one of the many arts and cultural events or classes at MAC.

Visit www.middletownartcenter.org or like the Middletown Art Center on Facebook to stay up-to-date with what’s happening at MAC.