KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – Local farmer and fiddler Teale Love will be the guest performer at the Lake County Community Co-op’s annual Gratitude Gathering Dec. 1.
The event will begin at 6 p.m. at the Riviera Homeowners Club House at 9689 Soda Bay Road across from the the Riviera Market.
The potluck event is open to the public, co-op customers and owners.
Love, a retired minister who purchased 20 acres with his wife Chris in Lake County in 1997, offers his organically grown produce through the co-op and raises goats in the Kelseyville area.
He plays Irish fiddle with various groups throughout the county, including Uncorked, and had played weekly at Mollie Brennan’s beginning in 2007.
“Teale is such a genuine soul. His fiddling is straight from the heart. Very uplifting,” noted co-op member JoAnn Saccato, “and his organically grown produce is some of the best that we offer.”
Love will play at the co-op’s annual Gratitude Gathering, a potluck event that will feature free give aways, recognition of co-op participants and a reflection of the year’s activities.
For more information on the event, visit the co-op’s Web site at www.lake.coop or call 707-513-5226.
For more information on Teale Love, visit his Web site at www.lovefarms.net .
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Theatre Co. is planning auditions for its next play, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.”
The play, which also was adapted for the big screen, is based on the classic novel by Ken Kesey.
There are parts available for 13 men and four women.
Auditions will be held from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 4, and Wednesday, Dec. 5.
An additional audition and possible callbacks will be held on Saturday, Dec. 8, at 10 a.m.
All auditions will be held at the Gard Street School Theater in Kelseyville.
Performances will take place the first three weekends of March.
If you have any questions, contact the director, Armand Plato, at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
During the height of the Cold War, at a time when President Ronald Reagan identified the Soviet Union as the “evil empire,” director John Milius tapped into the 1980s zeitgeist with the original “Red Dawn.”
The 1984 film became a cult-classic that showcased young actors Charlie Sheen, Lea Thompson, C. Thomas Howell, and Jennifer Grey, along with a slightly older Patrick Swayze.
The original premise of “Red Dawn” involved the Soviets invading the United States, followed by the resistance movement that arises when a group of heroic teenagers band together to repel the occupying force.
Fast forward to 2012, and the principal foe is now North Korea, launching a full-scale attack on the Pacific Northwest. You’d think that China would be the more likely invaders, but they are probably waiting to see if we’ll repay our national debt first.
The face of the enemy has changed, but the tactics employed by the guerrilla insurgency are pretty much the same. Once again, it’s up to a bunch of kids to be the frontline of freedom fighters.
A few minutes pass after the obligatory introduction of the primary teen characters, and “Red Dawn” kicks into high gear with a most unexpected aerial attack of North Korean paratroopers descending on Spokane, Wash.
A murderous, cruel Captain Cho (Will Yun Lee) moves his troops so quickly through town that barely a handful of teens make a getaway to the woods outside town, while most others are rounded up like concentration camp victims.
Jed (Chris Hemsworth), an Iraq War veteran, and Matt (Josh Peck), the high school quarterback, are brothers whose father, Tom Eckert (Brett Cullen), is a ranking police officer.
The Eckert family has the natural instinct to fight back. As such, Jed, as the result of his military training, becomes the de facto leader of a budding rebel group that includes mostly Matt’s high school pals.
As the quarterback of the high school football team, Matt enlists classmates and friends, including Robert (Josh Hutcherson), the tech geek, and Daryl (Connor Cruise), the mayor’s son.
Other members of the core group include Danny (Edwin Hodge), the star receiver and Matt’s best friend, and Toni (Adrianne Palicki), a pretty girl with a major crush on Jed. Meanwhile, Matt’s cheerleader girlfriend Erica (Isabel Lucas) is incarcerated in an internment camp.
As a battle-tested Marine on leave, Jed knows what it takes to live off the land while improvising effective insurgent attacks upon the unsuspecting North Koreans who may be growing complacent after the ease with which they conquered the Pacific Northwest.
Early on, the North Korean invaders prove themselves to be murderous villains, randomly killing civilians for the slightest infractions and generally terrorizing the population into subservience.
Bonding as a team, the rebel youth take on the moniker of “Wolverines,” in honor of the football squad. That Jed’s younger brother is a hothead results in some complications, considering that he’s fixated on liberating his girlfriend from a heavily guarded prison camp.
Nevertheless, the Wolverines gradually become more efficient in carrying out random acts of violence against the symbols of foreign occupation, going so far as to wipe out command posts, patrol units and fortified areas.
“Red Dawn” becomes the fantasy revenge picture it was intended to be. The idea of North Korea successfully invading America is far-fetched, to say the least, but the audience nonetheless delights in well-orchestrated action sequences that involve plenty of explosions and gunfights.
During the course of the insurgency, the young fighters are joined by a trio of grizzled retired Marines led by the spirited Tanner (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), just in time for a major vital assault on the occupier’s main communications center.
“Red Dawn” is solid for its action, which mainly requires the insurgents to take their fight to the streets in a gripping attempt to outwit and overcome the intruders, causing major disruptions with nicely timed explosions and gunfire ambushes.
Notwithstanding the wickedness of the communist enemy, “Red Dawn” seems so implausible that if the lunatic Kim Jong-Il were still alive, even he would probably have a difficult time accepting the premise. But the little creep would be thrilled with the notion.
The bulk of “Red Dawn” is all about the action, thereby becoming the type of contemporary action thriller that is, simply put, satisfying popcorn fare.
DVD RELEASE UPDATE
A gangster film that plays more like a Western, “Lawless” captured the brutality of a Prohibition-era battle between moonshiners and corrupt lawmen. Now it’s available on DVD and Blu-ray.
Inspired by the biographical novel “The Wettest County in the World,” the film version of the adventures of the Bondurant Brothers follows a quest for a piece of the American Dream, albeit an illegal one.
The three brothers (Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy and Jason Clarke) fight to maintain their hold on the bootlegging business that is under attack from urban gangsters.
The youngest brother aspires to become Public Enemy No. 1, reaping the benefits that go along with the trappings of a dangerous criminal.
A mysterious woman named Maggie (Jessica Chastain) enters the picture, working in the family business and becoming the girlfriend to the oldest brother.
Living up (or is it down?) to its name, “Lawless” has plenty of brutal violence, with guns blazing aplenty. Special features include “The True Story of the Wettest County in the World.”
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
FORT BRAGG, Calif. – Celebrate the holidays with a something for the whole family.
The Pops Orchestra, under the direction of Les Pfutzenreuter, will play your favorite holiday music with special guests In the Mix, The Acafellas, Sine Nomine, Dan Fowler, and the Fort Bragg High School Choir.
There will be a Mexican Posada, snacks and treats, pictures with Santa, and during the day a Craft Fair, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Festivities begin at 6 p.m. and the concert at 7 p.m.
Tickets are available at the door, Harvest Market, Tangents and Out of This World, and online at www.symphonyoftheredwoods.org .
The unpleasant reality of today’s world is that the global economy is not so hot. This makes the selling of films problematic when countries like Greece and Italy are floundering in a state of financial distress.
The economic picture isn’t so rosy on the home front, but at least we have the American Film Market pushing all types of independent films on weary buyers from around the globe. It’s a film industry stimulus package.
The annual American Film Market (AFM) allows the global film industry to converge in the sunny seaside city of Santa Monica for eight days of deal-making on films in every stage of development and production.
The lesson of hard economic times is that the public is historically in mood for escapism, and what better way to forget your troubles than to spend a few hours at the cinema or watching the latest DVDs?
That may explain why AFM is boasting an increase of buyers and more buying companies attending, with over 440 movies from more than 30 countries being screened at local venues, including 82 world premieres.
Trends are important to the film industry, not just ones affected by demographics. Yet, the youth market must be served, which explains the popularity of the “Hunger Games” franchise that is just getting under way.
Meanwhile, we can thankfully put to rest the whole romantic vampire/werewolf fantasy nonsense of the “Twilight Saga,” which mercifully ends with “Breaking Dawn Part 2” this month.
OK, I must confess that I never once watched Kristen Stewart’s Bella Swan falling in with Robert Pattinson’s vampire Edward Cullen. If I commit to watching five film installments, it will have to be something like James Bond.
AFM seeks to fill the void for the youth market with the usual mix of B-grade horror and zombie films, along with a few teen sex comedies that seem relatively dated and quaint.
The best way to get a flavor of the schlock cinema on offer is to visit the hotel rooms and suites where the independent film companies peddle their wares like sidewalk vendors in New York’s Chinatown.
Of course, the setting is the elegant surroundings of the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel, where the occasional glimpse of the majestic Pacific Ocean is a compensating factor.
The traffic in the halls and hotel rooms of the beachfront hotel seemed rather subdued this year, holding almost as much excitement as a Saturday night bingo game.
The most fun to be had is a search for the worst possible films. To that end, my first stop has to be a visit to Troma Pictures, purveyors of classic cinema like “The Toxic Avenger” and “Surf Nazis Must Die.”
Troma apparently has been resting on its laurels. Their only upcoming film is a sequel called “Return to Nuke ‘Em High,” and though it has maniacs, mutants and half-naked girls, it offers no promise of new ground in sleaze.
Just like last year, the zombie film genre remains very much alive (if that’s the way to put it) at AFM. In “A Little Bit Zombie” a mild-mannered office manager, infected by a virus, tries to keep it together so as not to incur the wrath of his bridezilla-to-be.
“101 Zombies” has a typical premise. A small southern town finds itself the center of a zombie apocalypse when tainted local moonshine half its residents into the flesh-eating undead.
The Dutch are getting into the zombie business with “Kill Zombie!,” a tale of four hung-over friends, emerging after one night in jail, to find that Amsterdam has been ravaged by a zombie outbreak.
Even the Chinese, the ones from Taiwan, are promoting what is billed as the “first genre movie combining apocalypse and zombie in Chinese film history” in a cataclysmic bloodbath called “Zombie 108.”
There are plenty of horror films, running the gamut from the “Saw” variety to the more traditional. A company called Nu Image was promoting “Texas Chainsaw 3D” and “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D.” They looked to be the same, so it was a bit confusing.
Nu Image was also promoting a film in development called “Before I Go to Sleep,” based on a bestseller, about a woman whose memories disappear every time she falls asleep. Produced by Ridley Scott, the film is notable because it will star Nicole Kidman.
The premise of “Falling Down,” which starred Michael Douglas as an unemployed engineer, is taken to the extreme in “Axed.” Here the guy who loses his job goes on a murderous rampage against his ex-boss and his own family.
It’s also fun to come across film titles that remind you of an entirely different film. One such film is “Bring Me the Head of the Machine Gun Woman.” The titular character is a ruthless hit-woman, who appears in the advertising dressed in a bikini and toting heavy weapons.
Destruction of the earth is also a big theme. “Independence Daysaster” coincides with the North American continent burning to rubble on the 4th of July. Giant spiders conquer the world in “Archnoquake,” and in “Ghostquake” the spirits of the dead are unleashed by a massive earthquake.
According to the Mayan calendar, our planet comes to an end in late December. “End of the World” brings about Armageddon when mysterious plasma spheres pummel the earth’s surface. Fortunately, this movie is not likely to be released in time to stoke our fears.
On a brighter note, Myriad Pictures is promoting Academy Award winner Sir Ben Kingsley as an ordinary man who reaches his breaking point in the action-thriller “A Common Man.”
AFM is also the place where you can find the forgotten stars of the past.
For instance, Steve Guttenberg stars in a German-produced film called “Fatal Rescue.” My guess is that we’ll never see this thriller stateside.
The American Film Market is a fun place to learn about what type of films appeal to the global market.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
