UPPER LAKE, Calif. – The Tallman Hotel continues its 2016 series of “Concerts with Conversation” series on Saturday, Feb. 13, with an informal concert by the renowned folk duo of Alisa Fineman and Kimball Hurd.

This Valentine’s weekend tradition at the Tallman starts at 7:30 p.m. in the intimate Meeting House next to the hotel.

“Alisa and Kimball have performed for us in February the past two years,” commented Tallman owner Bernie Butcher. “The audience loved them both times so I jumped at the chance to have them back this year on the eve of Valentine’s Day.”

Based in Santa Cruz, Fineman and Hurd travel extensively and are favorites in the San Francisco and Monterey Bay areas.

They’ve earned national acclaim for their world music repertoire and songwriting abilities as well as their engaging personalities. Vocal harmonies are nicely blended with instrumental prowess on guitar, mandolin, dobro and banjo.

As a musician and songwriter, Fineman’s inspirations have included Joni Mitchell, Odetta, Willa Cather, Kate Wolf and Mary McCaslin. As with these artists, her repertoire of songs speak of love, of a sense of place, and an appreciation for the earth's beauty and fragility, as well as life's sometimes difficult choices.

Following a recent performance, the Monterey Bay Weekly commented that “Alisa and Kimball are a fresh duo with gorgeous harmonies, an exquisite blend of acoustic instruments and insightful lyrics that speak directly to the heart ... They replenish the world with beauty on every level and are good medicine for the soul.”

This will be the third in the Tallman’s 2015-16 series of Concerts with Conversation.

Coming up on March 5 is a chamber concert headed by oboe virtuoso Laura Reynolds and featuring local artists Beth and Tom Aiken. The series concludes on April 16 with the Macy Blackman Trio featuring Nancy Wright on sax.

Tickets for the Feb. 13 show are priced at $25 plus tax per person and may be purchased by calling the Tallman Hotel at 707-275-2244, Extension 0.

More background information on Fineman and Hurd can be found at www.alisafineman.com/ .

A friend told me recently that he tries to keep in touch with people he's known even though they don't put any effort into doing that themselves.

Here's William Trowbridge, who lives in Missouri, making an effort. His most recent book is “Put This On, Please” (Red Hen Press, 2014).

Long Distance to My Old Coach

The reception's not bad, across 50 years,
though his voice has lost its boot-camp timbre.
He's in his 80's now and, in a recent photo,

looks it, so bald and pale and hard to see behind
the tallowing of flesh. Posing with friends,
he's the only one who has to sit—the man

three of us couldn't pin. "The Hugger,"
they christened him before my class arrived—
for his bearlike shape and his first name, Hugh.

He fostered even us, the lowly track squad.
"Mr. Morrison," I still call him. "You were
the speedster on the team, a flash," he recalls

with a chuckle. That's where his memory of me
fades. And what have I retained of him beyond
the nickname, voice, and burly shape? The rest

could be invention: memory and desire's
sleight-of-hand as we call up those we think
we've known, to chat about the old days

and the weather, bum hips and cholesterol,
our small talk numbing as a dial tone,
serious as prayer.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation ( www.poetryfoundation.org ), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. We do not accept unsolicited submissions. Introduction copyright © 2016 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.

MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – The Middletown Art Center's new exhibit, “Animism,” opens on Saturday, Feb. 6.

The exhibit opens with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m. at the center, located at 21456 State Highway 175. It runs through March 20.

Animism is the belief that everything has a spirit: earth, animals, plants, humans, rivers, mountains, sun, moon, stars, galaxy, universe and multiverse.

Lake County residents and visitors will be able to enjoy this juried show highlighting artistic exploration of animism through all types of mediums.

Opening receptions at MAC are fun, well-attended and highlight an evening of art, music and community.

David Neft will be providing music during the reception. Participating artists and members of MAC will also be on hand to engage the audience and share in the experience.

MAC is a nonprofit arts organization and vibrant cultural hub that integrates art education, exhibitions and events.

MAC immediately resumed classes following the Valley fire to encourage the public’s engagement in self-expression and healing through the arts.

The center has provided free and subsidized classes to those in greatest need. Donations are needed to continue to support MAC's nonprofit work. When you support MAC through membership or donation, you support our community.

Located at the junction of Highways 29 and 175 in Middletown, the old Middletown Gymnasium has been transformed into a beautiful space for contemporary art and performance events.

The back portion of the building serves as a studio where classes in drawing, painting, ceramics, drama and more are offered for children, teens and adults.

Check out class offerings at www.middletownartcenter.org . MAC is open Friday to Saturday, noon to 6 p.m., and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. or by appointment.

Middletown Art Center offers an array of memberships and art opportunities and can accept donations online at www.Middletownartcenter.org or at P.O. Box 1616, Middletown CA 95461.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – Bring all your favorite sweethearts, young and old, to the Valentine’s Day Contemporary Chamber Music concert at the Soper Reese on Sunday, Feb. 14, at 3 p.m.

The second in a four-part series produced by Beth Aiken and Jeff Ives, this concert features the haunting harp sounds of San Francisco-based Triskela as well as the saucy Classical Latin beats of Panamericana from the Ukiah area.

All seats are reserved. Tickets are $20 and $15. Children 18 and under are free.

Triskela Harp Trio's sound can be described as “California Celtic,” weaving world folk traditions, early music and original works into a soundscape that transports listeners to an other-worldly place.

Triskela's arrangements for lever harp, voice, Irish whistle, flute and percussion are intricate and refined, yet accessible and always from the heart.

Panamericana is composed of musicians from Lake and Mendocino counties, with Steve Baird , string bass and vocals; Ellie Siegel , mandolin and percussion; Tom Aiken, piano and keyboards; Will Siegel, guitar; and Beth Aiken, oboe and English horn.

Tickets online at www.SoperReeseTheatre.com ; at the theater box office, 275 S. Main St., Lakeport on Fridays, 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; or by phone at 707-263-0577.

Tickets also available at The Travel Center, 1265 S. Main, Lakeport, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

THE FINEST HOURS (Rated PG-13)

Out of curiosity, I entered the phrase “most daring rescue mission in the history of the Coast Guard” into the Firefox browser, resulting in at least one entry for the “most extreme rescue” in 2008 of survivors on the sinking Alaska Ranger ship in Alaska’s frigid Bering Sea.

And yet, there were multiple entries for the much older and impressive story of Coast Guard heroism that took place during a nor’easter off the coast of Massachusetts in the bitter cold of February 1952 when the oil tanker SS Pendleton was split in half by a treacherous storm.

Directed by Craig Gillespie (“Million Dollar Arm”), the extraordinary true story of the greatest small boat rescue in Coast Guard history is brought vividly to life in full-blown thrilling fashion in “The Finest Hours.”

The key to understanding how insanely impossible the rescue mission appeared to be is to know that four brave souls set forth in extremely choppy waters in a 36-foot motorized, wooden lifeboat that had a maximum capacity load of twelve people.

Before setting off on what objectively looked like nothing less than a suicide mission, the film takes time to introduce the pivotal character of youthful Coast Guard Captain Bernie Webber (Chris Pine) as he nervously awaits a blind date with Miriam (Holliday Grainger).

In the setting of seaside Chatham, Massachusetts, where the Coast Guard station is located, Miriam is a local telephone operator who has become acquainted with Bernie only through conversations over the phone line.

Meeting only months before the disaster that comes in the winter of 1952, Miriam and Bernie undertake a whirlwind romance, ending with Miriam actually being the one to propose marriage to the somewhat startled seafarer.

On the day of the storm, the shy, cautious Bernie is seen trying to work up the courage to inform his superior, Warrant Officer Daniel Cluff (Eric Bana), a recent transplant unfamiliar with the New England seas, of his upcoming wedding plans.

Meanwhile, as the storm rages unabated, out in the Atlantic somewhere off the coast of Cape Cod, all that remains of the broken SS Pendleton is the stern still staying afloat by the poise of first assistant engineer Ray Sybert (Casey Affleck) thinking outside-the-box.

The tanker’s captain was lost at sea, leaving the crew members on the verge of mutiny, with most of them having no fondness for the aloof, unpopular engineer, though they come to realize he may be their only hope of salvation.   

It was not an easy task for Sybert to convince the motley crew of salty characters to trust his instincts so that they would pull together, albeit reluctantly, under very trying and challenging circumstances.

Standing out among the diverse group of the tanker crew, from novices to old hands, are the sensible lieutenant (John Ortiz), the jovial ship’s cook (Abraham Benrubi), and the craven blowhard (Michael Raymond-James).

Setting off on the rescue mission, Bernie gets help from veteran Coast Guard seaman Richard Livesey (Ben Foster), who harbors doubts from the get-go, and two other volunteers (Kyle Gallner and John Magaro).

Perhaps the most quotable lines of “The Finest Hours” is when Bernie accepts the dangerous assignment by observing that in the Coast Guard, “they say you have to go out. They don’t say you have to come back in.”

The first challenge, powerfully captured by the 3-D technology that is sufficiently used here, is for the small boat to clear the hazardous sandbar known as the Chatham Bar, only to make it out to sea where 60-foot waves require incredible navigation skills to surmount.

The early goings at sea with the small boat dealing with the harsh waves and howling weather are spectacular, and things get only more dicey when the Coast Guard boat loses its compass when knocked around by huge waves.

As the crew of the Pendleton can only wonder if any rescue is on its way, Sybert has managed to buy some precious time by steering the tanker onto a sandbar where it sits precariously while seawater continues to rush into the engine room.

Eventually, the Coast Guard boat makes its way to its destination, and here the rescue drama becomes extremely effective for the tension created when 32 men brave the hurricane-force winds and turbulent waters to reach the safety of a small boat not designed to hold so many.

“The Finest Hours” turns into a great story of courage, honor, duty and determination. Though Chris Pine’s Bernie Webber comes off wooden and reserved, the heroic nature of the rescue is something to behold.

The end credits of “The Finest Hours” nicely play homage to the true story through a montage of newspaper headlines and photos of the real heroes. It’s worth the wait to recapture this stirring moment in history that is largely unknown.

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

It’s been more than a decade since “The X-Files” went off the air after a long run on the FOX Television network, but now FBI agents Mulder and Scully are resurrected for what is billed as a “six-episode event.”

FOX is also bringing the devil to reside on Earth, even if only temporarily, finding refuge in the City of Angels, where Hollywood itself is located in an area one would hardly describe as heavenly.

Based on DC Comics characters created by Neil Gaiman and Sam Kieth, FOX is taking a flyer on the otherworldly “Lucifer,” where smooth-talking Tom Ellis, all the more debonair for his British accent, is the titular figure in a new twist on the police procedural.

Tom Ellis, for those who may not recall, had a recent stint on the USA Network in the eponymous role in “Rush,” playing a hard-partying Los Angeles doctor with an unorthodox medical practice administered to wealthy clients and celebrities seeking anonymous treatment.

In many ways, Ellis’s role of Dr. William Rush is not too far removed on what he is called upon to do in “Lucifer,” considering that he has landed once again in California’s largest city, this time as the original fallen angel seeking a new adventure that puts him right in the middle of wealth and celebrity status.

Bored and unhappy as the lord of hell, Lucifer Morningstar has abandoned his duties down-under to set up shop on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, running the upscale nightclub Lux that is a magnet for rich hipsters and women who look like models.

Apparently one of the perks of being the devil is the ability to transform into a rakish character that is charming and charismatic. In the first episode, he’s hanging with a pop star brutally murdered outside his Lux nightclub.

The murder attracts the attention of LAPD homicide detective Chloe Decker (Lauren German), who initially is dismissive of Lucifer. But she becomes intrigued by his talent for drawing out people’s secrets.

In what is a surprising twist, Lucifer, for all of his bad boy sensibilities, desires to dispense justice and teams up Decker to solve the pop star’s murder. Moreover, Decker is immune to the devil’s so-called charms, and this in turn creates a challenge for Lucifer.

Meanwhile, God’s emissary, the angel Amenadiel (D.B. Woodside) has been sent to Los Angeles to convince Lucifer to either set up shop in Las Vegas, the original sin city, or return to the underworld. I am just kidding about the first part, but it would make sense, don’t you think?

In essence, what “Lucifer” delivers is a new turn on the police procedural of buddy cops, given that while Lucifer and Decker may team up to solve crimes, Lucifer’s interest is about why people choose to do evil.

The return of “The X-Files” after so many years comes at a time when tapping into rampant paranoia is made easier by the increasing number of conspiracy theories that abound on the Internet. “X-Files” creator Chris Carter mentioned researching more than 500 such Web sites for ideas.

Flashbacks to an alien crash site in New Mexico in 1947 sets the stage for contemporary mythology of government conspiracies to cover up everything from alien encounters to federal concentration camps set up by FEMA.

The first episode of “The X-Files” is heavy on exposition that serves to revive the folklore of Chris Carter’s fervid imagination channeled through Fox Mulder’s (David Duchovny) obsession with investigating the baffling mysteries of the universe.

In the intervening years, Gillian Anderson’s agent Dana Scully has moved on since the FBI closed the X-Files division.

Her work as a surgeon at a Washington, D.C. hospital is focused on helping children with physical deformities, and she exhibits little interest, at first, in being drawn back into exploring the unexplained.

For his part, Mulder has remained a true believer, living the life of a hermit obsessed with real and imagined conspiracies. Early on, to set the proper mood, Mulder mulls the question: “Are we truly alone, or are we being lied to?”

In his heart, Mulder agrees with second part to his question. One must ponder the thought of him sitting in his remote cabin wearing the proverbial tin-foil hat as a precautionary measure against the reach of the military-industrial complex spying on his every move.

Though Scully may be reluctant to pick up where the X-Files left off, Mulder manages to lure his former partner back into the fold when they meet alarmist talk-show host Tad O’Malley (Joel McHale).

The opinionated TV talker rambles about conspiracies from the false flag of 9/11 to NSA data mining and phone conversation surveillance, but his discovery of a mystery woman with an alien abduction tale is all that is necessary to revive Mulder’s instinctual fixations.

The show’s maxim of “the truth is out there” is the guiding principle to the revival of “The X-Files,” and that’s all that might be necessary for the legions of fans of the original series.

As for me, I am waiting for someone to explain the mystery of pop culture fascination with the Kardashians.  
  
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.