The Lake County Symphony performed its annual Mother's Day concert on May 11. Photo by Jay Johnson.

KELSEYVILLE – It has been said that the most perfect musical instrument ever conceived is the full symphony orchestra. However, occasionally an inspired leader will join with equally inspired musicians to create a program of stunning individual performances, and this is what happened at Sunday's annual Mothers Day concert at Kelseyville High School.

During the course of the two-hour program no fewer than a dozen of the orchestra's 50-plus members were saluted by conductor John Parkinson and the audience for their outstanding work.

Among them were trumpeters Gary Miller, Jay Johnson and Tom Woodville, who brought the audience to its feet with their dazzling performance of Leroy Anderson's o brass classic "Bugler's Holiday" and Nick Biondo and Peter Stanley who teamed up on Anderson's other instrumental hit "Clarinet Candy."

Others winning individual recognition were flautist Catherine Hall, Oboist Beth Aiken and trombonist Larry Price and two percussionists, Sean Chiles on timpani and Scott Wise on drums. Special recognition was accorded keyboardist Tom Aiken who swapped his usual instrument to play an ancient Royal manual typewriter in a rendition of Anderson's campy "The Typewriter." At its conclusion Aiken ceremoniously ripped the paper from his typewriter and presented it as a memento to a bemused Parkinson.

The three numbers, along with the ever-popular "Blue Tango" was the symphony's salute to Anderson, a leader in America's light classical musical genre on what would have been the composer's 100th birthday. In his tribute to Anderson Parkinson noted that he had been a fixture for many years as an arranger for the Boston Pops, then conducted by Arthur Fiedler. He also took time to preface most of the orchestra's other numbers with brief explanations about the songs and their writers and performers.

The concert opened on an upbeat note with "The Trolley Song" and continued with a series of numbers drawn from MGM's 1974 movie "That's Entertainment'" which also was the theme of the concert, which – with the exception of the Leroy Anderson pieces – focused almost totally on music from Broadway and Hollywood.

Included among the latter were "Singin' in the Rain," "The Boy Next Door," "You Made me Love You," "Broadway Melody," "Over the Rainbow" and others. From the former came "An American in Paris," a medley from "Chicago," "April in Paris," "Mack the Knife," "I Got Rhythm," Peg O' My Heart" and "It's Only a Paper Moon."

On this special day with many mothers praying for sons and daughters on distant battlefields, the symphony's moving rendition of John Williams' "Hymn to the Fallen" from "Saving Private Ryan" was especially poignant, particularly with the concluding muted drumbeats by percussionist Wise.

Following intermission the 14 youngsters representing the CLPA Youth Orchestra took the stage, with three numbers: "Dance" by Bela Bartok, Irving Berlin's "God Bless America" and Richard Meyer's "Tangerine Rag." Orchestra director Wes Follett, who was acknowledged by Parkinson for his role in training and inspiring young Lake County musicians, noted that his was truly an all-American program, since Bartok had spent the final years of his life in the United States.

The Youth Orchestra will present a special concert at Kelseyville's Presbyterian Church on Sunday, June 8 at 8:30 pm. The public is invited and admission is free.

Paula Samonte, the Ukiah jazz singer who has often teamed up with Parkinson in past performances, then took the microphone to render three numbers that were especially arranged for her by Parkinson. They were "I've Got the World on a String," "Don't Get Around Much Any More" and "Orange Colored Sky."

Her sultry delivery and precise timing brought sustained applause from the 300-plus people in attendance. She also announced that she was booked for two performances at the newly-opened Soper-Reese Community Theater in Lakeport, to take place in September.

With the exception of one year, when illness forced her to withdraw, Samonte has been a fixture at the annual CLPA Christmas concerts, but announced today that she would have to skip this year's holiday concert due to the fact that she has been invited to appear in a featured role at an international music festival taking place in Rome. Conductor Parkinson, the orchestra and the audience all joined in wishing her well.

After the concert the entire orchestra posed for a photo, staged and shot by trumpeter Jay Johnson, who doubles as a professional photographer. Clear Lake Performing Arts plans to use his picture extensively for printed materials and also on the group's Web site at www.clearlakeperformingarts.org.

CLPA concert arrangements chairman, Hope Brewer, is busily planning for the fall and winter concert season which will include two Lake County Symphony performances. Dates, times and locales will be announced when performances are booked.

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Host Phil Mathewson did some poetry and sang some original songs. Lorna Sue Sides recited some of her more sensuous poems and Joanne Bateni read an anti-war poem.

Our youngest performer was 6 year old Madison Dessele, who played the piano for about a minute and covered her entire repertoire. She just started taking lessons and we expect great things from her in the future. Her dad then played his guitar and sang a few tunes.

Scotty McNeil sang his “Kelseyville” song and played a little “Ode to Joy” by Beethoven on the house piano.

Our resident magician, Phillip Martin, made a late appearance and forgot his famous cards. Cherie Holden from Watershed Books saved the day by lending a deck. Thank you, Cherie. Martin also tried some psychic readings and some coin tricks.

Tom Nixon performed some of his original songs including “Going up to Clearlake” and then accompanied Anthony, who played the musical saw. Anthony, the saw player, explained that musical saws are usually accompanied by other instruments so Phil and Tom played along with him before he did his solo. Thanks to everybody who came by.

Don’t forget the Thursday variety show at 4 p.m. All acts are welcome.

Cafe Victoria is located at 301 Main St. in Lakeport, telephone 263-1210.

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The master of ceremony's work schedule prompted the change which should be permanent at least for now.

Check with Phillip Martin, 928-5543, or email him to get on his mailing list at card_man21@hotmail.com. Hope to see you there.

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Lori Petres (center), with Bill Edmunds directly behind her, at the April 25 reading. Courtesy photo.

CLEARLAKE – It was a sincere pleasure hosting local author Bill Edmunds’ newly published historical fiction book “All Roads Lead to Zion” event at Wild About Books, store owner Lori Peters reported.

Edmunds, whose reading was April 25, has done extensive research on the historical and biblical accounts of the few days before Christ’s crucifixion.

Spring and the passing of Easter had peaked many readers interest on the subject, said Peters.

“Bill and his family were generous to our readers by providing much background information and printed maps for further enjoyment of the book,” she said.

Wild About Books is located at 14290 Olympic Drive in Clearlake. Call 994-9453 or visit www.wildaboutbooks.net.

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The new “Indiana Jones” movie can’t arrive soon enough. Lately, I have seen more than my share of romantic comedies, which has not necessarily been a bad thing. For instance, new films coming out now include “What Happens in Vegas” and “Speed Racer.” The latter film, a glossy mix of animation and live-action, is geared to a younger audience. On the other hand, “What Happens in Vegas” takes full comedic advantage of Sin City’s marketing campaign, turning the famous slogan on its ear.

Gleeful debauchery and insane indulgence aside, some things just don’t stay behind in Vegas, particularly when a marriage ceremony at a tawdry wedding chapel carries the full weight of a binding legal entanglement.

Unfortunate circumstances bring two very unlikely people together in miserable matrimony. But first, “What Happens in Vegas” introduces the two central characters who decide for vastly different reasons to vacation in Vegas.

Jack Fuller (Ashton Kutcher) is the ultimate slacker and party dude who is fired by his own father (Treat Williams) from the family’s furniture manufacturing. His polar opposite is Joy McNally (Cameron Diaz), a buttoned-up commodities trader on Wall Street, who gets dumped by her fiance at her own surprise birthday party.

In a coincidence that only happens in the movies, Jack takes his best buddy Steve “Hater” Hader (Rob Corddry) on the trip, where they check into a Vegas hotel only to find that the room is already occupied by Joy and her best friend Tipper (Lake Bell). After resolving this unhappy arrangement, Jack and Steve convince the two girls to go out for a night on the town, which is facilitated by the concierge’s eagerness to comp their festivities.

This quartet of partygoers is a mismatched group for many reasons. A second-rate lawyer, Steve fancies himself a ladies man, even if his charisma barely surpasses that of a serial killer. His obnoxious behavior finds its equal in Tipper’s unrelenting hostility. The rowdy weekend becomes a random blur of frantic activity lubricated by massive amounts of alcohol. When the dust settles in the early morning, Joy and Jack painfully discover they tied the knot in a ceremony witnessed by drunken revelers.

Before the two vacationing New Yorkers can figure out how to quickly dissolve their union, Jack uses Joy’s last quarter to play a slot machine which incredibly pays out a cool $3 million. Now an impending marital split will be complicated by sizable community assets.

Back in Manhattan, a cranky judge (Dennis Miller) decides to sentence the bickering pair to “six months of hard marriage.” By freezing the prize booty, the judge forces the irresponsible couple to prove that they done everything possible to make the impromptu marriage work. The first one to fail in this mission will lose all the loot to the other.

Since Joy has to move into Jack’s messy bachelor pad, it’s going to be a very trying battle of the sexes. Not surprisingly, Jack and Joy will do their best to sabotage the other, and of course, their friends Steve and Tipper will become willing and supportive combatants on each side. They even have to attend marriage counseling with Queen Latifah. But many tricks are employed to undermine the marriage. Joy rounds up a bevy of beautiful women in order to lead Jack astray at a party. Jack tries to get her snooty ex-fiance Mason (Jason Sudeikis) to woo her again.

“What Happens in Vegas” thrives on the formulaic approach to romantic comedy. Very little happens that is unexpected or terribly surprising, but nevertheless there are plenty of laughs. While Joy is trying hard to move up the corporate ladder, it is the laid-back Jack who manages to impress her demanding boss (Dennis Farina) on a company retreat. Is it any wonder where these mismatched lovebirds will end up? Ashton Kutcher and Cameron Diaz have the right chemistry for their respective roles of wayward slacker and uptight professional.

DVD RELEASE UPDATE

I think I mentioned last week that the weird stuff ends up on DVDs. If you liked horror comedies such as “Shaun of the Dead” and “An American Werewolf in London,” then “Botched” could be your cup of tea.

Gore and violence run rampant, but much of it is so over-the-top that it seems calculated to induce laughs, at least the nervous kind.

Stephen Dorff stars as two-bit professional thief sent to Russia to steal a priceless antique cross locked in a safe on the penthouse floor of a Moscow skyscraper. During the heist, Dorff and his thuggish Russian henchmen are trapped by the police and forced to take hostages.

Unfortunately for them, they seek refuge on the 13th floor, where things get really dicey. Decapitations and impalements are just part of the fun. “Botched” may be destined for cult status.

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

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Easily dismissed as just one more chick flick in a recent spate of similar efforts, “Made of Honor” puts a rather obvious spin on the formulaic romantic comedy, even though subversively tilting its action to a male point of view.

To be sure, any film geared to a wedding ceremony is almost certainly a lure to the female audience, unless of course that film stars Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson as freeloading bachelors.

This time around, the handsome Patrick Dempsey, apparently called McDreamy for his role in TV’s “Grey’s Anatomy,” is the pivotal character in the oddly titular role. Women may not mind that he’s a cad.

In a strange role reversal, Dempsey’s Tom is introduced at the film’s beginning a decade ago as the campus Lothario, eager to bed every coed with the zeal of an oversexed frat boy. Crawling under the covers with a college girl in a case of mistaken identity, Tom gets his comeuppance from an unwilling partner, Michelle Monaghan’s Hannah, a sober-minded individual who will not be randomly seduced by a drunken partygoer.

Oddly enough, Tom and Hannah manage to become best friends, a platonic relationship that has the feel of a close bond between brother and sister. Fast forwarding to the present day, Tom and Hannah spend time together in New York City as friends supporting each other. It seems like a one-sided affair, with Tom usually confessing his unbendable rules of dating, such as not having two consecutive dates or calling a potential date within 24 hours of a chance encounter.

Tom’s social life is revealed as a revolving door of sexual conquests, where impossibly beautiful women practically fling themselves at his feet. At this point, the film is more like a male fantasy, because real life is unlike that, even for the most adept womanizers.

For reasons unexplained, Tom has more magnetism and sex appeal than James Bond and has had more bedroom triumphs than Wilt Chamberlain. If he kept a little black book, it would be the size of a Manhattan telephone directory. In his rare spare time, Tom hangs out with a bunch of buddies who, with the exception of the obligatory married guy (Kadeem Hardison), would be hard-pressed to get any date on a Saturday night.

What Tom, in his state of arrested development, has failed to realize is that the girl of his dreams has been the one constant in his life. When Hannah goes overseas to Scotland on a six-week business trip, it dawns on this slow learner that his life is empty without her.

He knows he doesn’t want to end up like his father (Sydney Pollack), who’s marrying his sixth trophy wife while fully realizing that a pre-nuptial agreement is certain to be tested in relatively short order. In between the usual trysts, he mopes around because Hannah is gone, calling her often in the middle of the night. He resolves to reveal his true feelings upon her return, intending to propose matrimony.

Hannah’s eventual homecoming is fraught with a great surprise, but only to Tom. Anyone else would see this disaster coming, when Hannah announces that she’s engaged to a handsome and wealthy Scotsman, heir to the family’s distillery business. The aristocratic Colin McMurray (Kevin McKidd) lives in a castle on a scenic lake. He’s also tremendously athletic, almost too good to be true.

Tom can’t bear the thought of losing Hannah, especially when she plans to move overseas. When Hannah asks Tom to be her “maid of honor,” he reluctantly agrees to fill this curious role, expecting his best chance to sabotage the wedding is from within.

Naturally, Hannah’s girlfriends are aghast at Tom’s selection for the matrimonial honor. One of these friends harbors a bitter resentment of a one-night stand gone horribly wrong, and she goes to great lengths to disrupt Tom’s essential role of bridal planner.

Meanwhile, Tom’s basketball-playing buddies constantly razz him, while offering some misguided advice. Culture shock sets in when Tom and the wedding party end up in Scotland, and the snooty McMurray clan is somewhat aghast at Tom’s gender-bending role. There’s even an ongoing gag about a clueless grandmother mistaking a sex toy for a necklace.

“Made of Honor” is so thoroughly predictable that it is virtually impossible to find anything surprising or even remotely ingenious. That’s not to say there aren’t some funny things happening, or that some of dialogue isn’t zippy and humorous.

The breezy quality of the comedy on display probably has much to do with the nice chemistry between Tom Dempsey and Michelle Monaghan, both of them likable even though only one has the heart and character worthy of that positive trait.

DVD RELEASE UPDATE

We can use this space to report on the odd and strange in the film business.

You can’t get much weirder than “Teeth,” a story galvanized by the vagina dentata mythology in which a young girl develops choppers in the most unexpected place.

A jaw-dropping horror film (to coin a gruesome phrase), “Teeth” stars newcomer Jess Weixler and John Hensley in a twisted tale of female empowerment, which the Hollywood Reporter called “the most alarming cautionary tale for men,” a description that one would be hard-pressed to improve upon when you consider “Fatal Attraction” so greatly unnerved the male audience.

The teenage star is so innocent that she is not even aware of her own basic bodily functions, and discovers quite by accident that she is anatomically very unique. Watch this DVD at your own peril.

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

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