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Bowl and photo by Emily Scheibal.

MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – An introductory class on sculpting with concrete will be offered as part of the Restore Project at the Middletown Art Center on Saturday, Oct. 6, from 1 to 5 p.m.

Artist Emily Scheibal will guide participants through the process of forming vessels out of quick-setting concrete. Line, shape, form and texture will take on new meaning.

Students will create their own vessels as simply or as ornately as they wish as Scheibal demonstrates her techniques using quick-set concrete over existing forms. Additional elements will be covered such as pigment, binders, and armatures.

Adults and children age 12 and up of all levels of art making experience, from newbies to professionals are invited to attend this fun and inspiring class for just $5. MAC will provide concrete and forms.

Participants are encouraged to bring their own rubber dish gloves. Extra items such as durable scissors and large bowls or buckets to mix concrete are appreciated (stainless steel, enameled, or rubber bowls, plastic buckets).

Instructor Emily Scheibal’s work can be seen at www.emilyscheibal.com and at www.quinterrastudio.com.

Please register in advance for all Restore classes at www.middletownartcenter.org/restore, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 707-809-8118. Space is limited and reservations are required.

The Restore project provides Lake County residents with low-cost art classes and the opportunity to learn or refine skills in a variety of materials techniques. Classes take place most Saturdays through May 2019.

Fall and winter classes include clay, woodworking, metalworking, felting, concrete, dry point, block printing and more. Late winter and spring classes will focus on personal and collaborative projects, studio time, mentoring and guidance to create personal and group work.

“While folks can join for just one class, we encourage participants to come to a series of classes to collaborate in project design and creation of a new Art Walk on Rabbit Hill. This concrete class will be particularly useful in thinking about what we can do as a community there,” explained MAC Program Director Lisa Kaplan.

“We’ll also be working towards personal projects for the EcoArts Sculpture Walk at Trailside Park, which we will reopen in June,” said Kaplan. “Both Rabbit Hill and Trailside Park were burned in the Valley fire and we are excited to revitalize those outdoor public spaces.”

A public call for work for the Sculpture Walk will be posted in January. Entries will be juried.

On Saturday, Oct. 13, also from 1 to 5 p.m., acclaimed Lake County poet Georgina Marie will return to MAC to lead the Writers Workshop.

Writing and printmaking workshops will contribute to MAC’s second chapbook of writings and images, as well as work for readings or exhibition.

The first chapbook, “Resilience – a community reframes disaster through art,” is available for purchase at MAC or on the MAC website. Learn more about RESTORE scheduling at www.middletownartcenter.org.

The Restore project was made possible with support from the California Arts Council, a state agency, with additional support from local organizations, businesses and individuals.

Visit www.ca.arts.gov to learn more about the California Arts Council’s important work in communities and schools throughout California.

Middletown Art Center is located at 21456 State Highway 175 at the junction of Highway 29. Be a part of the growing arts scene in South Lake County by becoming a MAC member, by joining MAC this Saturday and participating in Restore, or by attending one of the many arts and cultural events or classes at MAC.

Visit www.middletownartcenter.org or “Like” Middletown Art Center on Facebook to stay up-to-date with what’s happening at MAC.
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NIGHT SCHOOL (Rated PG-13)

Kevin Hart and Tiffany Haddish make a great pair as student and teacher, respectively, in “Night School.” For the uninitiated, Hart, a comedian of short stature, seems to be a regular immature screw-up and Haddish basks in the glow of a big splash last year in “Girls Trip.”

The premise of this comedy is fairly simple, despite the fact that six writers, with one of them being Hart, have a hand in crafting a story that is at best uneven yet nevertheless filled with enough gags and laughs.

Hart’s Teddy Walker is a high school dropout. In an early scene, Teddy makes a big stink during the SAT exams, walking out on his classmates and informing them he’s going to succeed in the real world without a diploma.

Soon thereafter, Teddy’s making his mark as the top salesman at an Atlanta barbeque grill store. He drives a fancy sports car and lives way beyond his means. In short, though not referring to his height, Teddy is a showboat.

One thing he has going for him, which could prove his undoing during his deceptions, is a beautiful girlfriend in savvy businesswoman Lisa (Megalyn Echikunwoke) who favors an expensive lifestyle.

How their relationship will last becomes a question once he loses his job in an explosion and resorts to menial work at a fast food joint. Meanwhile, he learns from old school pal Marvin (Ben Schwartz) that he’ll need a GED to get a position as a financial analyst.

The comedic scenes start to roll when he joins a night school class taught by Carrie (Tiffany Haddish), a tough cookie who won’t tolerate Teddy’s frivolous behavior in a classroom filled with hopeless losers.

The great ensemble includes a housewife (Mary Lynn Rajskub) eager to free herself from her children, a Mexican waiter (Al Madrigal) who wants to be a singer or dental hygienist, a furniture mover dumber than a lampshade (Rob Riggle), and Romany Malco’s conspiracy nut.

Unfortunately for Teddy, the school principal (Taran Killan) is an old nemesis from high school days who wants nothing more than to be a thorn in his side. Thus, Teddy organizes a heist of the GED exam and all sorts of mayhem breaks loose.

“Night School” gets a passing grade for its humor and laughs if the scoring is done on the curve. In any case, this comedy is a silly trifle that amuses in the moment but is unlikely to leave a lasting impression beyond a date night outing.



‘THE GOOD COP’ ON NETFLIX

Netflix has an eclectic mix of programming, but it may be fair to say that a lot of its series tilts to an edgier genre than you would find on network television. “The Good Cop” would likely fit right in on the CBS or FOX schedule.

A taste for traditional fare in a police procedural with plenty of wisecracking and one-liners should hold appeal for an older demographic. After all, “The Good Cop” has Tony Danza starring as Tony Caruso, a former hotshot NYPD detective out on parole for corruption charges.

As a condition of his release, Tony has to live with his uptight, nerdy son Tony Jr. (Josh Groban), an NYPD detective who goes by the name T.J. as if to separate himself from the tarnish placed on the family name.

Ordered to stay away from police work, Tony insinuates himself into every case assigned to his son. While father and son won’t work as a team, they make a terrific odd couple almost as if Tony Randall and Jack Klugman were police detectives suffering each other’s foibles.

As opposed to the disgraced rogue Tony the failed role model, T.J. is so by-the-book and straight-laced that he argues the moral imperative about the offense of his father pinching sugar packets from IHOP and napkins from Dunkin’ Donuts.

The family dynamic may be dysfunctional, but they both need each other for different reasons. In the first episode, both father and son end up as suspects in the shooting death of a cop plugged by bullets traced back to T.J.’s police-issued handgun.

The resolution of the case has a few twists and turns but in the end you know some logical explanation is at hand for why T.J. is no more a cold-blooded killer than Mother Teresa. “The Good Cop” won’t disappoint as far as tidy outcomes are achieved.

The show has some delightful banter and wisecracks. A veteran cop tells a colleague that a lot of things don’t make sense. He makes his case by questioning such things as “why are nickels bigger than dimes.”

He goes on with asking “why does Hawaii have an interstate highway,” and “why did The Flintstones celebrate Christmas.” This is the sort of thinking that could lead to interesting parlor games.

“The Good Cop,” benefitting from the pairing of Tony Danza and Josh Groban, is easy to take for an entertaining diversion from grittier cop fare.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
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“Into the Beautiful North” is the book for the 2018 Lake County Big Read. Courtesy image.


MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – Come explore the characters of the NEA Big Read novel, “Into the Beautiful North,” through art at the Middletown Art Center on Sunday, Oct. 7.

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Destroyed vehicles and homes in the Tubbs fire of October 2017. Photo courtesy of the producers of “Wilder than Wild.”

MENDOCINO, Calif. – A dramatic new documentary about wildland fires and how we can make our communities fire safe will debut this weekend in Mendocino County.

“Wilder than Wild” will be screened at Preston Hall, 44867 Main St. next to the Presbyterian Church, in Mendocino.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m., with the film beginning at 7 p.m.

Admission is free.

The hour-long documentary reveals how fuel buildup and climate change have exposed Western wild-lands to large, high intensity wildfires, while greenhouse gases released from these fires accelerate climate change.

This vicious cycle jeopardizes our forests and affects us all with extreme weather and more wildfires, some of which are now entering highly populated wildland/urban areas.

A sequence in “Wilder than Wild” shows how the Tubbs fire in Santa Rosa and the Redwood Valley fire, which began on Oct. 8, 2017, caused the destruction of 4,658 homes and killed 44. It shows how the "fires of the future" can include urban areas.

"Things are changing," said one firefighter, "If we don't change, we're going to see even more homes annihilated in these types of fires."

Following the screening there will be a panel discussion with Mendocino Fire Chief Ed O’Brien, Fire Captain Eric Chisholm and Mary Mayeda, who heads the Mendocino Fire Safe Council.

The moderator is the event’s organizer filmmaker Jim Culp.

For further information call 707-937-3755, or e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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