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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Actor-singers age 18 or older are invited to audition for the original stage musical “Even In Shadow” which will be shot on video in Lake County.

Actor-singers and singers who are non-actors (18 or older) also are welcome to audition for the soundtrack, which will be recorded in-studio before the video is released.

This is a great opportunity for those who may not match the look or visual age of one of the characters but can deliver a fitting vocal.

Information on the production is on the Web site, www.eveninshadow.com, with a list of characters and their sides.

You may audition online or come to one of the live auditions listed below.

Live audition dates are Thursday, July 11, at 7 p.m., and Saturday, July 13, at 1 p.m., at the Kelseyville Presbyterian Church Friendship Hall, 5340 Third St.

The deadline for online auditions is Monday, July 15, at 11:59 p.m.
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KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – On Saturday, June 29, The Farallons will return by popular demand to perform at the Coffee House Concert Series.

The concert begins at 7 p.m. at Fore Family Winery, 3020 Main St. in Kelseyville.

The Farallons put on a sensational performance last year to a nearly sold out crowd.

The Petaluma trio brings its special “folk and roll” sound using three-part harmonies and great instrumentation.

Tickets are $20 each and can be purchased at www.uuclc.org, Watershed Books in Lakeport and at the Fore Family Winery.

Some tickets may be available at the door, though seating is limited.

The concert is sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Community of Lake County and hosted by Fore Family Wines.
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Art by Anna Sabalone.

UPPER LAKE, Calif. – The Lake County Wine Studio is presenting monthly art classes with wine, co-hosted with artist Anna Sabalone.

This month's wine and art session with Sabalone is scheduled for June 23 and will feature a scene of elk in a meadow landscape drawn in inks. The session time is 1:30 to 4 p.m.

The class fee of $40 covers all of the provided art supplies needed along with step-by-step guidance and a glass of Lake County wine.

Reservations are required for each month's class as participation is limited to 12 people.

Sabalone was born and raised in Lake County. She has been involved in the Lake County Arts Council since her teen years.

She attended the University of California, Santa Barbara and the University of Leeds, England for her undergraduate degree in English, history and anthropology.

She earned her teaching credential and Masters of Education from UCSB and has been teaching art, English, history and academic decathlon at Upper Lake High School since 2008.

For class schedule, reservations and additional information, contact Susan Feiler at 707-293-8752.

Lake County Wine Studio is both a gallery for display of arts and a tasting room, wine bar and retail shop for the fine wines of Lake County.

Artists’ shows are held on a monthly basis with art and wine receptions held the first Friday and subsequent Saturday of each month.

The gallery is located at 9505 Main St., in Upper Lake. It is open Thursday through Monday, from 1 to 7 p.m., and Friday from 1 to 8 p.m.

For more information call the studio at 707-275-8030.

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Ted Kooser. Photo credit: UNL Publications and Photography.

I’m afraid that if I’d asked my grandparents what the past was like they’d say it was “hard,” and that would be it.

But Megan Arlett is privileged to have a grandmother who knows how to enchant us with colors and odors and sounds. Arlett was born in the U.K., grew up in Spain, and now lives in Texas.

I Ask My Grandmother What Trinidad Was Like in 1960

Paradise with a thousand stings, she replies.
Deep blue and blazing sky. Incessant cicadas,
scuttle of bug and roach. Fleas, mosquitos,
the threat of scorpions. Men leaning on doorposts,
crowding the bar. Smoking, drinking,
laughing descendants of slaves. Fire coral burns,
reef-edge barracudas. Truly lovely.
Matriarchal, she says, women with eight children
by many different men. The men would leave
as the spirit took them. I want
to know all the forces one can call spirit.
Tall, swaying fronds of the sugar cane fields.
Distant roar heralding a downpour. Snapping turtles.
Nearby shanty town, she says,
streets full of rubbish, rats in the gutter.
I admired the colonial-style homes, she says.
Colonial, I say.
Separate servant quarters and grounds
filled with samaan trees, the balconies overflowing
with hot-colored orchids and the locusts drawn close
by the palatial lights, colorful and clawing,
their hooks sunk deep into the bare skin of a sweating back.

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 Megan J. Arlett, “I Ask My Grandmother What Trinidad Was Like in 1960,” from Third Coast, (Spring/Summer, 2018). Poem reprinted by permission of Megan J. Arlett 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.
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‘SHAFT’ (Rated R)

During the era of Blaxploitation cinema in the early 1970s, Richard Roundtree was the original macho private detective and the epitome of cool when the exploits of John Shaft first came to the big screen in the eponymous “Shaft.”

Even though Samuel L. Jackson may be a senior citizen, he still has what it takes to be the man of action who punches first and asks questions later as he works the tough streets of Harlem in the 2019 version of “Shaft.”

This reboot is a combination of action and comedy, which should be obvious from the film’s trailer, but more than that, it is unapologetically retrograde for its swaggering action and its political incorrectness.

Jackson’s John Shaft is everything you might expect for a tone lifted right out of the Seventies. There is plenty of outdated sexist lingo and more than a few expletives, including Jackson’s signature curse word (which we’ll leave out of this review).

An early flashback reveals that Shaft is in a relationship with Maya (Regina Hall) and they have a baby boy. Another violent ambush convinces Maya that it’s time to get out of Harlem for the safety of their son.

In the present day, Shaft’s progeny is JJ (Jesse T. Usher), a buttoned-down MIT graduate who now works as a data analyst in the Manhattan office of the FBI. His world is far removed from that of the father he has never known.

When his ex-junkie best friend meets a mysterious untimely death, JJ needs the kind of help that only his streetwise father can provide to navigate Harlem’s heroin-infested underbelly.

Imagine the shock for Shaft when meeting his adult son, who recalls with disappointment all the inappropriate holiday gifts from his father including porn magazines and a box of condoms at an age when he hadn’t even reached puberty.

Soon thereafter, the jokes are flying when Shaft muses that Maya raised a “white boy” who by his manner of meticulous fashion sense and grooming allows for the facile jab that casts him as manifestly metrosexual.

Unlike his tough, playboy father, the mild-mannered JJ hates guns, drinks coconut water and hasn’t got the gumption to ask his longtime crush Sasha (Alexandra Shipp) out on a date.

As Shaft and son team up to run rampant through tenement buildings and the mean streets of Harlem, there may not be any logical or persuasive storyline, but that doesn’t really matter.

To prove the Shaft genetic traits may yet course through JJ’s veins, Shaft’s own father, now played by the iconic Richard Roundtree, gets in the act for a climactic showdown with bad guys that requires a vast supply of weapons and ammunition.

The throwback attitude of “Shaft” is almost certain to engender a dichotomy between a mostly satisfied audience and probably the majority of critics who may have their finely-tuned sensibilities offended.

“Shaft” shouldn’t be taken seriously by anyone. Its irreverent spirit deliberately mines the humor of the Shaft family generational gap. Mindless fun at the expense of Shaft’s character as a cultural icon is what is offered.





‘CITY ON A HILL’ ON SHOWTIME

In the early 1990s, Boston was rife with violent criminals emboldened by local law enforcement agencies in which corruption and racism was the norm (and racism may still be a vexing issue in this supposedly enlightened city according to the Boston Globe’s reporting).

The ten-episode series of “City on a Hill” running on Showtime creates a fictional account of African-American Assistant D.A. Decourcy Ward (Aldis Hodge) driving change during a tumultuous time in an unwelcoming city.

More than anything, it’s not surprising that this series, executive produced by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck among others, bears familiarity to Boston crime movies such as “The Departed,” with Damon as a career criminal, and “The Town” directed by Affleck.

Coming from Brooklyn and a stranger to the ways of Beantown, Decourcy forms an unlikely alliance with corrupt yet venerated FBI veteran agent Jackie Rohr (Kevin Bacon) who has the morals of an alley cat.

Ordinarily, the uncouth, brash Jackie, who snorts coke and cheats on his wife, and the straight-arrow, principled Decourcy would not work well together, and at first Jackie is scornful of a black prosecutor.

But then, Jackie is contemptuous of just about everybody on either side of law, which is evident when he inserts himself into the thick of an investigation of armored car robbers from Charlestown, a working-class Irish community.

The two lawmen, whose lives are further complicated by conflict with their wives, are on a path that should lead them eventually to the gang of robbers led by Frankie Ryan (Jonathan Tucker), who is incongruously a devoted family man with a day job at a local supermarket.

“City on a Hill,” based on the first three episodes made available for review, looks promising for a gritty crime drama where the characters, even the secondary ones, stand out as fascinating for their troublesome prejudices, shortcomings and conflicts.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
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MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – Middletown Art Center is offering Adventures in Art Summer Camp for ages 5 to 14.

The camp will be presented in two sessions this year: “Around the World,” June 24 to 28, focuses on multicultural designs and art expressions from around the world; and “Movement Dynamics,” July 8 to 19, an exploration of kinetics through art making and movement.

Both sessions will take place Monday through Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Children will engage in creative projects and explorations that incorporate art making, dance, music and whole child enrichment.

In Around the World, children will create a passport and “travel” around the world, exploring diverse culturally inspired activities including African Indigo textile designs and African Dance, Chinese dragon masks and dragon dance, murals, calligraphy and more.

Movement Dynamics includes hula-hoop construction, decoration and hula-hooping practice, pop-up books, mobiles, dance, rhythm making, kinetic sculptures and more.

Both sessions will conclude with an exciting performance by participants. A short clip from last year’s camp can be seen above.

The cost is $150 for session one (one week) and $300 for session 2 (two weeks) or $35 daily drop-in, and includes healthy snacks and all materials and supplies.

Registrations by June 23 are eligible for $25 discount per week. Visit www.middletownartcenter.org/camp to register and learn more.

The session one staff is comprised of MAC teaching-artists: Lauren Schneider, credentialed art teacher with more than 20 years of experience teaching kindergarten through 12th grades, and Jessie Beck, African dance instructor and first grade teacher at Cobb Mountain Elementary.

Laura Kennedy, mixed media and performance artist, and Darina Simeonova, architect and artist will join them for session two, and musician Victor Hall will make guest appearances in both sessions.

Both sessions of Adventures in Art promise to be unique and nurturing immersive arts experiences.

Sign your child up for Adventures In Art at MAC today. Go to www.middletownartcenter.org/camp to learn more and reserve your child’s spot, or call 707-809-8118.

Middletown Art Center is a local nonprofit dedicated to weaving the arts into the fabric of our community.

Learn more about exhibits, events, and classes happening at MAC and how you can support a thriving community through the arts with your MAC membership at www.middletownartcenter.org.

MAC is located at 21456 Highway 175 at the corner of Highway 29 in the heart of Middletown.

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