Lake County News,California

Arts & Life

: Soper Reese Theatre; Posted On Sunday, 10 June 2018 03:33; 10 June 2018

Ben Rosenblum Jazz Trio performs at Soper Reese June 17

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Ben Rosenblum Jazz Trio, led by an award-winning Juilliard-trained jazz pianist, is slated to perform at the Soper Reese Theatre at 7 p.m. Sunday, June 17.

Soper Reese screens ‘Father Goose’ June 26

**Cary Grant and Leslie Caron star in the 1964 comedy, “Father Goose.” Courtesy photo.**

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The delightful 1964 romantic comedy, “Father Goose,” starring Cary Grant and Leslie Caron, screens at the Soper Reese Theatre on Tuesday, June 26, at 1 and 6 p.m.

Fifth ‘Resilience’ exhibit opens June 9

**Resilience at the Fore Family Vineyards Tasting Room. Courtesy photo.**

KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – On Saturday, June 9, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., the public is invited to Fore Family Vineyards Tasting Room in Kelseyville for an opening reception of the fifth Resilience exhibit.

The exhibit includes paintings from the Resilience project’s intuitive painting, encaustic and printmaking classes.

The Resilience chapbook of poetry and images will be available to peruse and order and several poems will be read. Wine by the glass will be available for purchase along with complimentary appetizers.

The exhibit will be on view until July 1.

The Fore Family Vineyards tasting room is located at 3924 Main St. Kelseyville and is open Friday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Inspired by nature’s resilience as a mirror for our county’s recovery after devastating wildfires, the MAC’s Resilience project has provided opportunities for adults and teens, to reframe the fire experience, which impacted us all directly or indirectly, into creative expression and aesthetics.

More than 220 individuals ranging in age from 12 to 85, of all levels of artistic experience, have attended affordable classes in photography, creative writing, painting and printmaking once or many times since June 2017.

“It has been very exciting to hear and see people’s interested and heartfelt responses to the work in the shows we have opened thus far in Lakeport and Middletown,“ said artist and Project Director Lisa Kaplan. “In addition to the healing and enriching aspects of art-making, a key goal of our project is to weave art into daily life throughout Lake County. That’s why we’re opening Resilience project exhibits in multiple locations, and each one is different. Our chapbook called Resilience, a community reframes disaster through art, which includes powerful writings and images, is also available to preorder at the opening, at the Main Street Gallery, at MAC and online. It’s a moving and beautiful collaborative effort by participants that honors our collective recovery.”

MAC continues to spread and share the healing power of art with this new exhibit at Fore Family Vineyards tasting room.

Additional exhibits of Resilience work are on view at Main Street Gallery, Lakeport City Hall, and Lake County Courthouse.

More Resilience exhibits will soon be opening at Clearlake City Hall and at the Adventist Health Hospital Mountain View Café in Clearlake in the weeks to come. Visit middletownartcenter.org for details.

Also currently on view is “Resilience: Art In Dialogue” with Nature exhibit at the art center, which is a hybrid of the EcoArts tradition and the resilience theme. This impressive and earthy exhibit also includes selections from the Resilience project. You can see it Thursday 11-4, Friday 11-6, Saturday 10-6, and Sunday 11-4.

MAC is grateful to the California Arts Council, Adventist Health, Lake County Arts Council and other local partners, agencies and businesses for their support of Resilience and their ongoing commitment to assisting MAC in providing local, affordable, quality access to the arts and art-making.

The Middletown Art Center is located at 21456 Highway 175, at the junctions of Highway 29 in Middletown.

Visit middletownartcenter.org to learn more about the many arts, culture and community happenings at MAC including this week’s Blues Farm benefit for Hardester’s employees.

Registration for MAC’s Adventures in Art and Storytelling summer camp – a unique extravaganza of visual and performing arts for children Kindergarten through grade 9 is now in process.

Visit www.MiddletownArtCenter.org to learn more about what’s happening at MAC or sign your child up for camp. Be a part of the burgeoning arts and culture scene in south Lake County.

: Tim Riley; Posted On Sunday, 10 June 2018 03:20; 10 June 2018

Stand-alone ‘Solo’ a fun ride in the ‘Star Wars’ universe

SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY (Rated PG-13)

Cynics might view the latest “Star Wars” chapter, based on the characters created by George Lucas, to be another big payday for the franchise now in the hands of Disney, but “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” focused on a young Han Solo, is likely to be a crowd-pleaser.

That Alden Ehrenreich as Han has no tangible physical similarity to a younger version of Harrison Ford, a beloved figure who could not easily be substituted by another actor, is relatively immaterial given that he plays the role with a familiar cocky swagger and self-confidence.

When we first meet Han he is a street urchin living in the intolerably totalitarian state of servitude to the hideous Lady Proxima (voiced by Linda Hunt) running a slave labor camp on the desolate industrial planet of Corellia.

Self-assured enough to believe that he can pilot any purloined vessel, Han boldly attempts an escape in an exciting levitated speeder chase in the company of his girlfriend Qi’ra (Emilia Clarke). Circumstances conspire to foil their mutual flight.

Eluding the stormtroopers on his own, Han finds his only viable option to flee is to join the Imperial Army. Talking his way off the hellish Corellia, there’s a nice tidbit about how Han the street person gets his last name courtesy of military enlistment.

Vowing to become a pilot so that he may return one day to rescue Qi’ra, Han’s scheme is delayed for about three years while serving as an infantry soldier for the Empire, fighting a senseless battle that looks doomed to failure.

This reluctant call to duty causes him to fall in with dodgy officer Tobias Beckett (Woody Harrelson) and his partner Val (Thandie Newton), who are running a band of smugglers planning a heist of a highly volatile super fuel known as coaxium.

Before “Solo” kicks into the high gear of a heist caper on a dangerous mission of a train robbery in a snowy mountain pass, Han meets his soon-to-be lifelong friend and co-pilot Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo) under a less than desirable situation fraught with menace.

While Han is a maverick scoundrel with a good heart, he and Chewbacca, demonstrating impressive skills, are recruited into illicit activity by the temperamental Beckett for the sole purpose of repaying debts to the odious Dryden Vos (Paul Bettany).

What Han wants more than anything is to own an airship and he figures that his share of the coaxium bounty will allow him to fulfill his dream and return to Corellia. As often happens with a criminal scheme, things just don’t work out as planned.

Getting on the wrong side of Dryden Vos leads to some surprises on his space yacht filled with the beautiful people, one of whom turns out to be Qi’ra, now elegantly dressed as the second-in-command to Vos, much to Han’s dismay.

In many respects, “Solo” has the feel of a classic Western, where Han has a gun strapped to his hip as if he were about to engage in a High Noon showdown. Han’s swagger comes naturally when he struts into a tavern with the look of a gunfighter.

That Western appearance is vividly on display when Han saunters into a saloon at Fort Yspo and ends up in a rigged card game with notorious gambler Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover) before returning later for a bet in which he wins the coveted Millennium Falcon.

With the help of Lando’s cruiser, Han convinces Vos that his compatriots should live to see another day if they can steal raw coaxium on the mining planet of Kessel and getting it refined on Savareen while on the way to completing this dangerous mission.

As a reluctant partner, Lando exudes mystery as the suave rogue who has a great sense of humor in his scheming persona. The mission introduces his robot pilot L3-37 (voiced by Phoebe Waller-Bridge), a greatly memorable character, among a few, in this science-fiction canon.

What might be missing for many aficionados of the franchise is that there is no truly villainous character of any stature like Darth Vader or even Supreme Leader Snoke. We have to satisfy ourselves with Lady Proxima and Dryden Vos, neither of which is all that remarkable.

It may not matter much to “Star Wars” fans to note that “Solo” was a troubled production, rescued by director Ron Howard who had to redo most of the film when the producers fired the pair of original directors in mid-shoot for being too loose with the essential elements.

To Howard’s credit, the dangerous escapades for Han, Chewbacca and assorted allies are filled with endless twists and turns, insidious betrayals, forceful showdowns, and close calls where many scenes are one cliffhanger after another.

“Solo: A Star Wars Story,” surviving bumps in the road during filming, turns out to be a credit to the franchise. The fully-developed origin story for Han and Chewbacca works well in the backdrop of relentless excitement that undergirds the slick thrills of non-stop action.

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

: Jan Cook; Posted On Thursday, 07 June 2018 01:43; 07 June 2018

Library hosts ‘Word Round-up’ writing workshop for teens

LAKEPORT, Calif. – Are you a teen who likes to write? Do you want to meet other writing teens and work with a professional writer?

If so, the Lake County Library invites you to the “Word Round-up,” a writing workshop open to teens aged 12 through 18.

Richard Schmidt, Lake County’s poet laureate for 2018 to 2020, will conduct the writing workshop at the Lakeport branch of Lake County Library, located at 1425 N. High St. The workshop will meet on June 9, June 23, July 14 and July 28 from 1 to 2 p.m.

Schmidt, a longtime resident of Lake County, is Lake County's 10th poet laureate and will serve in that capacity for the next two years.

His mission is to promote literary expression, poetry and prose, in our community.

He has published a collection of short stories, a novella, a book of cowboy poetry and an anthology of writings with the Lakeside Writers Guild.

“Word Round-up” is free and all supplies will be provided, so there’s no need to bring anything except your imagination.

The Lake County Library is on the Internet at http://library.lakecountyca.gov and Facebook at www.Facebook.com/LakeCountyLibrary .

Jan Cook is a technician with the Lake County Library.

: Editor; Posted On Tuesday, 05 June 2018 22:27; 05 June 2018

Roy Zimmerman to perform at Coffee House Concert June 15

KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – The Coffee House Concert series is bringing well-known musician and political satirist Roy Zimmerman to Kelseyville on Friday, June 15, at 7 p.m.