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Arts & Life

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UPPER LAKE, Calif. – The Upper Lake Senior Center invites community members to a free art workshop on Saturday, Jan. 26, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

What has been your emotional experience of recovery from the fire that affected us all 6 months ago?

Chloe Karl, MSW, will facilitate this workshop. Use art and words to express your emotions as you experienced this fire.

All are warmly welcomed. Art supplies will be supplied. Bring a neighbor or friend.

For more information call Linda Kelly of the Lake County Arts Council at 707-263-6658.

The Upper Lake Senior Center is located at 9470 Mendenhall Road.

Claudine Pedroncelli is a volunteer at the Upper Lake Senior Center.
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From left to right, Dorothea May, Dorian May and Gabe Yanez will be featured at the “Concerts with Conversation at the Tallman Hotel in Upper Lake, Calif., on Sunday, January 27, 2019. Courtesy photo.

UPPER LAKE, Calif. – The annual winter concert series at the Tallman Hotel in Upper Lake opens its 2019 season on Sunday, Jan. 27, at 3 p.m. in Riffe’s Meeting House next to the hotel.

The program features saxophonist and musicologist Francis Vanek, backed by the Dorian May Trio, playing selections from the various genres and eras in the evolution of jazz in America.

“We really enjoy these concerts,” said Tallman owner Bernie Butcher. “It’s a relaxing Sunday afternoon with some of the finest musicians in the area. This one with Francis Vanek and the Dorian May Trio should be particularly educational as well as entertaining.”

Along with the musical selections, Francis Vanek will chronicle the development and evolution of the major styles of America’s unique musical form, including blues, jazz standards and collective improvisation.

Francis Vanek was brought up in Pittsburgh and attended Duquesne University. He has a master’s degree in music from University of Nevada, Reno, where he later joined the jazz faculty, teaching jazz improvisation and classes in music history.

Backing Vanek will be the acclaimed Dorian May Trio with Dorian May on piano, Dorothea May on bass and Gabe Yanez on drums.

The group is led by Dorian May whose degree in classical piano performance has laid the groundwork for an exceptional career as a master of the jazz piano.

Tickets at $25 + tax are available by calling the Tallman Hotel at 707-275-2244, Extension 0.

Coffee and cookies are served to guests. The hotel is also offering a 10-percent discount on hotel bookings that weekend for people purchasing tickets to the concert.

Francis Vanek will perform at the “Concerts with Conversation at the Tallman Hotel in Upper Lake, Calif., on Sunday, January 27, 2019. Courtesy photo.
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‘A DOG’S WAY HOME’ Rated PG

Best-selling author W. Bruce Cameron has carved out a niche in his heartwarming stories about man’s best friend that become fodder for cinematic family-fare. If you’ve read the book or seen the movie “A Dog’s Purpose,” you get the idea.

Now along comes “A Dog’s Way Home,” another Smith adaptation, which explores a canine journey that also tugs on the heart. The dog in question is Bella (voiced by Bryce Dallas Howard), rescued from an abandoned home slated for demolition.

Finding a home with Lucas (Jonah Hauer-King), a medical student and worker at the VA hospital, and his mom Terri (Ashley Judd), a war veteran suffering from PTSD, Bella is adorable but nevertheless considered a pit bull outlawed by city ordinance in Denver.

Motivated by malice, the animal-control officer, corrupted by a real estate developer’s distaste for how Lucas has interfered with his plans to raze property inhabited by feral cats, captures Bella when she runs free in the neighborhood.

Lucas and his co-worker and eventual love interest Olivia (Alexandra Shipp) are devastated by the treatment of Bella, with Olivia calling out the city policy as basically “racism for dogs.”

Retrieving the lovable dog from the pound, Lucas and Terri have no other choice than to send Bella to live 400 hundred miles away with Olivia’s relatives in New Mexico.

Since Bella had been trained to be familiar with the notion to “go home,” she decides to do just that. Thus begins a long and often hazardous journey through small towns, forests and mountain ranges.

The quest to find Lucas affords our canine heroine a chance to meet all sorts of interesting characters of both the human and animal variety. Food and shelter prove not so easy to obtain, and this leads to some interesting situations.

Early on, Bella falls in with some four-legged friends who have a daily routine of dumpster-diving as well as begging for food scraps from a few humans only too willing to share leftovers and other treats.

When all alone on her journey, Bella becomes ingenious in how she steals food from a convenience store or a family’s backyard barbeque. These occasions lend themselves to a humorous touch.

Out in the wild, Bella witnesses a pair of hunters killing a cougar, befriending its cub left behind. This act of kindness has ramifications later on when Bella is confronted by a pack of vicious wolves.

Considering that the journey takes over two years, Bella lives for a time with a gay couple who found her when hiking. Later on, Bella becomes attached to a homeless veteran (Edward James Olmos) who needs companionship.

“A Dog’s Way Home,” targeted for family entertainment and appealing to dog lovers, is so heavy on sentiment for the love of furry companions that one is likely to get misty-eyed. That will be the case when Bella is reunited with her family.



‘SCHOOLED’ ON ABC NETWORK

By now, the ABC sitcom “The Goldbergs,” set in the ‘80s, has set a standard for yet another family thriving on dysfunction. What should we expect from its spin-off, the new sitcom “Schooled,” which is set in the ‘90s if only to place a key character in the right perspective?

Lainey Lewis (AJ Michalka), the girlfriend of Barry (Troy Gentile) in “The Goldbergs,” has found her hopes of being a rock star dashed, so she tries out for the job of music teacher at her former high school.

Looking for a steady paycheck (actually, she wants to be paid up front in one lump sum), Lainey’s qualifications are so thin that she states her credentials as “I love music; I work well with children, probably.”

The school principal, John Glascott (Tim Meadows), is not exactly sold on hiring Lainey until Beverly Goldberg (Wendi McLendon-Covey), making a cameo appearance and meddling as always, seals the deal for Lainey to fill the position.

By all measures, Lainey was not exactly a stellar student, of which she is reminded by Coach Rick Mellor (Bryan Callen), who has his hands full trying to mold his star basketball player to work as a team member rather than going it alone as could a superstar like Michael Jordan.

In the first episode, Lainey proves to be rough around the edges, which may be expected from a novice teacher who just happens to oversleep on the first day without bringing a note from home.

The best student in the music class turns out to be the rebellious Felicia (Rachel Crow, fifth place winner in “The X Factor), niece of the principal, and she’s not thrilled that her uncle plans for the class to hold a doo-wop concert.

If we are grading on the curve, “Schooled,” at its early stage as a freshman show, might achieve a C+, but there’s hope it could find its comedic voice to reach for a higher score. The cast is talented enough to raise the bar.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
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A sea turtle. 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 Sunday, Jan. 27, and will feature an a sea turtle created with chalk pastels.

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 (UCSB) and the University of Leeds, England for her undergraduate degree in English, history and anthropology. She earned her teaching credential and Master’s of Education from UCSB and has been teaching art, English, history and academic decathlon at Upper Lake High School since 2008.

The 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.

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

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

The 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.

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

For a class schedule, reservations and additional information, contact Susan Feiler at 707-293-8752.
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Ted Kooser. Photo credit: UNL Publications and Photography.

I've had my eye on Americans' obsessions for more than 70 years and I can't remember a time when public lying got as much attention as it does today. Attention yes, but consequences, no.

I recently happened upon this clever poem about lying by Judith Askew. It's from her book On the Loose, from Bass River Press, South Yarmouth, Massachusetts, and she, too, is from Massachusetts.

Bakery of Lies

My favorite is the cream puff lie,
the kind inflated with hot air,
expanded to make an heroic-sized story.

Another is the cannoli, a long lie,
well-packed with nutty details,
lightly wrapped in flakey truth.

A macaroon isn't a little white lie,
but it's covered
with self-serving coconut.

The apple tart carries slices
of sour gossip, only
slightly sweetened with truth.

Then there's the napoleon,
an Iago lie of pernicious intent,
layer upon layer of dark deceit.

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 ©2016 by Judith Askew, "Bakery of Lies" from On the Loose, (Bass River Press, 2016). Poem reprinted by permission of Judith Askew 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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