Arts & Life

Details

Written by: Elizabeth Larson

Published: 18 April 2019

UPPER LAKE, Calif. – The annual winter/spring “Concerts with Conversation” series at the Tallman Hotel in Upper Lake continues on Sunday, April 28, at 3 p.m. in Riffe’s Meeting House next to the hotel.

This unique program features Steve Seskin, one of the leading country songwriters and entertainers in the business today.

Seskin will be backed by David Landon, a master guitarist and songwriter in his own right.

“David Landon is a good friend whose band we’ve lucky to have at the Blue Wing on occasion,” says Tallman owner Bernie Butcher. “When David mentioned that he’d done a number of fun educational gigs with the great Steve Seskin, I jumped at the chance to book them both for a concert.”

Seskin is popular in Nashville and throughout the country for his songwriting skills. His material has been recorded by Tim McGraw, Neal McCoy, John Michael Montgomery, Kenny Chesney, Collin Raye, Peter Frampton, Waylon Jennings, Peter Paul and Mary, and many others.

Seskin has won many awards over a long career. His song "Don't Laugh At Me,” featured in the video below, was a finalist for CMA "Song of the Year" in 1999 and he was nominated to the Nashville Songwriters Association Hall of Fame in 2014.

He enjoys mentoring other songwriters and playing his own material in front of people interested in learning more about the songwriting process.

Singer, songwriter and guitarist David Landon began his professional career in Paris, where he was a steady fixture in the European club and festival circuit.

Landon returned to the US in 1995 and has since formed his own band, released 5 CDs and played in countless recording sessions. He and his band are a favorite at the Blue Wing and he has been featured at the annual Blue Wing Blues Festival.

Tickets for the April 28 concert at $25 plus tax are available by calling the Tallman Hotel at 707-275-2244, Extension 0. Coffee and cookies are served to guests.

The hotel is also offering a 10-percent discount on hotel bookings that weekend for people purchasing tickets to the concert.

Details

Written by: Middletown Art Center

Published: 17 April 2019

MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – Middletown Art Center’s Restore project features a writers’ workshop with Clive Matson this Sunday, April 21, from 1 to 5 p.m.

Adults and children age 12 and up of all levels of experience are invited to come to one or monthly writers workshops that will be offered until May 2019.

A long-time Bay Area author and poet, Matson uses his own methodology based on his book “Let the Crazy Child Write!” to allow writers to delve into their unconscious and express that itch or urge that the creative unconscious wants to release.

Matson’s workshops focus on writing and sharing with positive feedback, providing a safe and encouraging environment for writers of all levels of experience.

As Matson expresses it, “We recognize three voices in the writer’s psyche: ‘Editor,’ ‘Writer’ and ‘Crazy Child’ – or creative unconscious. The Editor is the ‘should ‘ voice, as in: you should write everything perfectly the first time, you should make money with your writing, and, you should make no spelling errors. The Writer organizes your writing life, finds blank paper and pens that work, makes time to sit at the computer or go to a coffeehouse with a notebook. The Crazy Child is the urge to write, that itch in your psyche or body that wants to get out into the world. We’ll tell the Editor and Writer to take a walk and let your Crazy Child write whatever it wants.”

To learn more about Clive Matson, check out his Web site at http://matsonpoet.com/.

Please register in advance for this and 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. The cost is $5. Pre-registration is required, as space is limited.

Class this Sunday is one of two final Restore writing workshops. The last one will be on May 11 with Georgina Marie and Casey Carney. Participants are encouraged to submit work to contribute to MAC’s second chapbook of writings and images at class this Sunday, April 21.

Writers may also read at an Open Mic Spoken Word event on April 19, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Woodland Community College Culinary room, and at a curated reading on June 1 at the re-opening of EcoArts Sculpture Walk 2019 between 5:30 to 8 p.m.

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

The Restore project provides Lake County residents with low-cost art classes and the opportunity to learn or refine skills in a variety of materials and techniques. The project comes to a close in May. Remaining classes in printmaking, and in creation and installation of a collaborative sculpture for Rabbit Hill are coming up. Visit www.middletownartcenter.org/events to learn more.

The Restore project was made possible with 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.

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 participating in Restore, or by attending one of the many arts and cultural events or classes at MAC.

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

Details

Written by: Ted Kooser

Published: 15 April 2019

Ezra Pound commanded America's poets to "Make it new."

And here's a good example. Has there ever been another poem written, and written beautifully, about children playing among laundry drying on a line?

Thomas Reiter, who lives in New Jersey, is a poet whose work I've followed for many years. His most recent book is “Catchment.” This poem appeared in the Tampa Review.

Pinned in Place

A bed sheet hung out to dry
became a screen for shadow animals.
But of all laundry days in the neighborhood
the windy ones were best,
the clothespins like little men riding
lines that tried to buck them off.
One at a time we ran down the aisles
between snapping sheets
that wanted to put us in our place.
Timing them, you faked and cut
like famous halfbacks. But if a sheet
tagged you it put you down, pinned
by the whiteness floating
against a sky washed by the bluing
our mothers added to the wash water.
Could anyone make it through those days
untouched? You waited for
your chance, then jumped up and finished
the course, rising if you fell again.
Later, let the sky darken suddenly
and we'd be sent out to empty the lines.
All up and down the block, kids
running with bed sheets in their arms,
running like firemen rescuing children.
All night those sheets lay draped
over furniture, as though we were leaving
and would not return for a long time.


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 ©2018 by Thomas Reiter, "Pinned in Place," from Tampa Review, (No. 55/56, 2018). Poem reprinted by permission of Thomas Reiter and the publisher. Introduction copyright ©2019 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.