Monday, 25 November 2024

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Arts & Life

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PerePressure. Courtesy photo.


MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – The Middletown Art Center invites the public to celebrate life and community Saturday, Aug. 25, from 7 to 10 p.m.

Dance to grooves and beats provided by DJ Nic and spoken word by local rap artist PerePressure.

After all that we that have been through in the past month – and in the past three years – a celebration of Lake County community spirit is in order. So let’s dance!

Cover charge is $10. No host bar onsite offers wine, beer, and champagne as we are also honoring friends with August birthdays. Folks with late Leo and early Virgo birthdays get their first drink free or half off admission (must show ID).

This will be a great community event even for those who don’t dance.

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

Visit www.middletownartcenter.org to learn more about MAC and the burgeoning arts scene in South Lake County.

Be sure to catch this energized and fun music and dance event.


DJ Nic and Brian Ward. Photo by Middletown Art Center staff.
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MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – FALLOUT (Rated PG-13)

Over the past two decades, the now middle-aged Tom Cruise has performed in the most mind-blowing stunts in the “Mission: Impossible” films, and the sixth installment of the franchise in “Mission: Impossible – Fallout” proves he’s only getting better.

By now, the storyline is familiar for Cruise’s Ethan Hunt, team leader of the Impossible Missions Force (IMF) with his cohorts Benji (Simon Pegg), the source of comic relief, and the sturdy Luther (Ving Rhames), as they take on the most difficult and sensitive assignments.

Though a standalone film, “Fallout” picks up with the villain, Solomon Lane (Sean Harris), not only seeking revenge for what Ethan did to him in “Rogue Nation” but still working in cahoots with a terrorist group.

“Fallout” is all about a convoluted espionage mission that is full of misdirection, double-crosses, and shocking revelations. Nevertheless, it is easier to follow in the movie rather than writing about it at the risk of giving away too many surprises.

Going back to the series’ television roots, “Fallout,” though it relies heavily on Ethan’s uncommon feats, finds the IMF as a true team with Benji and Luther in pivotal roles, while former CIA director Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin) helps push back on bureaucratic intransigence.

The central mission is to retrieve three metal spheres of plutonium that mad scientist Nils Debruuk (Kristoffer Joner) wants put to use to wipe out three holy sites, including the Vatican, as the start to a new world order.

A clever set-piece involves the IMF team staging a clever impersonation of a recognizable personality to obtain vital information. This puts them on the trail of going after Solomon Lane during a daring heist of a police transport on the streets of Paris.

Life is made more difficult for Ethan and his team when new CIA director Erika Sloane (Angela Bassett) proves hostile to the IMF’s tactics and assigns ruthless CIA agent Walker (Henry Cavill) to join the mission to locate the terror group known as the Apostles.

Rebecca Ferguson’s MI6 agent Ilsa Faust is back with her own agenda, and Ethan’s former wife shows up in the Himalayan mountains on a medical mission in the crosshairs of a terror plot.

Much physical action is demanded of Ethan, and it is all very exciting and suspenseful. He sprints across rooftops in London, races a motorcycle against traffic in Paris, dangles by a rope from a helicopter and then pilots the craft through dangerous ravines in Kashmir.

“Fallout” is plausibly the most exciting of all “Mission: Impossible” films, and the best action picture of summer. 



BRITBOX: NEW STREAMING BRITISH TV OUTLET

To state the obvious, television viewing is now far removed from the old days of three major networks before the proliferation of cable channels and now streaming services.

Netflix and Hulu have their turf in streaming programs, and now the relative newcomer BritBox, a streaming service formed by the British channels BBC and ITV, has enough of a presence to warrant inclusion into the Television Critics Association press tours.

BritBox is for the devoted Anglophiles who just can’t get enough of British TV in classic programming such as “Doctor Who” and “Fawlty Towers,” along with Agatha Christie variations.

During the summer press tour, Soumya Sriraman, president of BritBox, announced that its service has “found its center of gravity” by being “uniquely poised to blend the immediacy of broadcast with the swagger of a digital streamer, a broad streamer if you will.”

That swagger served to bring John Cleese to his first BBC sitcom since “Fawlty Towers” in a role tailor-made for his natural inclination to delivering amusing and sarcastic comments.

“Hold the Sunset” showcases Cleese’s comedic talent in the role of Phil, a tender soul in love with his old flame, Edith (Alison Steadman), who happens to live across the road from him.

While she’s been a widow for a few years, her children live locally and drop by regularly. She enjoys daily visits from Phil, who persists in his desire for marriage until she one day agrees.

Meanwhile, complications arise when her 50-year-old son Roger (Jason Watkins) shows up on her doorstep with a large suitcase. He’s left his wife and kids, and a good job, in an attempt to find his lost happiness.

A period piece set 10 years after World War II, “The Bletchley Circle: San Francisco” tells the story of two women who served as code-breakers during the war who are drawn to the Pacific Coast by a string of murders that share grisly similarities with a British cold-case.

With Jean (Julie Graham) and Millie (Rachel Stirling) grappling with post-war domesticity and unfulfilling jobs, “Bletchley Circle” thrusts them into the midst of thrilling social change and the ability to discover their own potential at solving murders and other high-stakes crimes.

“BritBox” will provide access to a wide assortment of British TV as limitless as a Las Vegas buffet. As an example, you can get as much David Suchet as Hercule Poirot that anyone could want.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
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Ted Kooser. Photo credit: UNL Publications and Photography.

My mother's best friend, Ruth Stickfort Kregel, was "Aunt Sticky" to my sister and me, and today I feel like telling you a little about this woman we loved.

This poem is from my new book, “Kindest Regards,” published by Copper Canyon Press.

Post Office

The wall of identical boxes into which
our Aunt Sticky sorted the daily mail
was at the far end of her dining room,
and from the private side looked like
a fancy wallpaper upon which peonies
pushed through a white wooden trellis,
or sometimes like crates of chickens
stacked all the way to the ceiling.
I'd learned by then – I was a little boy –
that a thing can look like one thing
on one day and another on another,
depending on how you might be feeling.
There were times when we were there,
having our coffee and sweet rolls,
when some woman on the lobby side
would with a click unlock her box
and leaning down, peer inside to see
if she had mail, and see us at the table,
Mother and Father, my sister and I
and our postmistress aunt, and call out,
"Yoohoo, Sticky! I see you have company!"
and waggle her fingers, waving hello.

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 Ted Kooser, "Post Office," from Kindest Regards, (Copper Canyon Press, 2018). Poem reprinted by permission of Ted Kooser and the publisher. Introduction copyright ©2018 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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CLEARLAKE OAKS, Calif. – Rock and Roll and Blues Hall of Famer Elvin Bishop and his Big Fun Trio will perform as part of the Cache Creek Vineyards Summer Concert Series in Clearlake Oaks on Saturday, Aug. 25.

Bishop and his trio – Bob Welsh on piano and guitar and Willy Jordan on cajón (a hand-played Peruvian drumbox) and vocals – will celebrate the release of their new Alligator Records album, “Something Smells Funky ‘Round Here.”

The music is rootsy, spirited, humorous and soulful, performed by serious musicians hell-bent on having a good time.

Bishop, a natural storyteller, is as slyly good-humored and instantly crowd-pleasing as he was when he was scoring Southern rock-styled hits during the 1970s or cutting award-winning blues albums over the last 30 years.

For five decades, he has never stopped touring or releasing instantly recognizable music featuring his groundbreaking playing, easygoing vocals, and
witty lyrics.

Doors open at 6 p.m. at the winery, 250 New Long Valley Road.

Tickets range from $25 to $80.

For more information call 707-998-1200 or visit www.cachecreekvineyards.com.
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Lion by Christalene Loren.


MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – Join artist Christalene Loren and learn advanced techniques in paper maché this Saturday, Aug. 18, from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Middletown Art Center.

The class will focus on mask making.

Participants are invited to engage with masks for Día de Muertos, Halloween or as totems, spirit guides or inner hero.

Learn this affordable and doable technique of sculpting as part of the Restore project for just $5.

Adults and teens 12 up of all artistic backgrounds are welcome to join. All materials are supplied but this is also a good opportunity to reuse your paper grocery bags.

“Now more than ever after the recent fires, we encourage all Lake County residents to engage in art making of all kinds, to express themselves and release stress and trauma,” said artist and Director Lisa Kaplan. “Being creative is healing, enriching and fun!”

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. Learn more about Restore scheduling and preregister for all classes at www.middletownartcenter.org/restore.

The next Restore class will be Sculpting with Felt with Alana Clearlake on Sept. 8.

September through May will feature Restore classes most Saturdays (or Sunday from time to time.

The project will culminate with the reopening of the EcoArts Sculpture Walk at Trailside Park, and a new Rabbit Hill Art Trail.

Restore offers opportunities for both personal and collaborative artworks.

Be a part of the growing arts and culture scene in South Lake County by becoming a MAC member, by participating in Restore, or by coming to any of the many arts and cultural events or classes at MAC.

Visit www.middletownartcenter.org or like Middletown Art Center on Facebook @ARTMiddletown to stay up to date with what’s happening at MAC.
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LAKEPORT, Calif. – The 1948 adventure drama, “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre,” starring Humphrey Bogart, screens at the Soper Reese Theatre on Tuesday, Aug. 28, at 1 and 6 p.m.

Entry to the film is by donation.

John Huston directs this superior morality play shot entirely on location in Mexico.

It’s one of the best movie treatments of the corrosiveness of greed, with Bogart in perfect pitch playing a decent guy whose character slowly crumbles before the god of gold.

Huston won Oscars for both Director and Screenplay while his father, Walter Huston, won a Best Supporting Actor award for the same film.

The movie is sponsored by Frank and Michaelee Murphy. Not rated. Run time is two hours and six minutes.

The Soper Reese Theatre is located at 275 S. Main St., Lakeport, 707-263-0577, www.soperreesetheatre.com.

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