The discussion period will take place from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, July 3, in advance of a wine and appetizer reception featuring Fore Family Vineyards, which takes place from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Kriken is a Vietnam veteran who holds a master's degree in fine arts. He's worked as an artist, sculptor and foundryman.

He has been an instructor at the Richmond Art Center and director of the Berkeley Art Foundry. His career has featured more than 40 exhibitions, and numerous private, state, city and federal commissions.

He founded his Nordhammer Foundry in Kelseyville in 1979.

In 1984 he worked with Robert Graham on the statues of athletes that greeted visitors to the Olympic Stadium in Los Angeles.

Kriken created the three-dimensional, life-size sculptures and did the bronze fabrication and art work for the California Vietnam Memorial in Sacramento, dedicated in 1988.

In June, three of Kriken's large-as-life bronze statues were on display at The Moving Wall, a traveling Vietnam War memorial that visited the Lake County Fairgrounds in Lakeport.

Kriken's work will be on display at the Lake County Wine Studio through August.

The Lake County Wine Studio is located on the corner of First and Main streets is historical downtown Upper Lake, across from the Tallman Hotel and Blue Wing Saloon & Cafe.

For more information call Susan Feiler at 707-293-8752 or 707-275-8030.

Bill Noteman & The Rockets always draw a crowd when they perform around Lake County. Photo by Harold LaBonte.

LAKEPORT – Perennial favorites Bill Noteman & The Rockets rocked Library Park as part of the summer concert park series Friday night.

The group performed on the warm, clear evening before an appreciative audience of several hundred people, many of whom took the opportunity to dance.

The five-piece band includes members Bill Noteman, vocals, harmonica and guitar; David Neft, piano; Larry Platz, guitar; Dave Falco, bass; and drummer Steve DuBois.

Many of those in attendance were looking forward to Saturday's VW Show and Shine, the annual vintage Volkswagen car show with lots to do that will take place in Library Park from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

More than a dozen of the German-built vehicles were parked nearby through the evening.

Harold LaBonte contributed to this report.

Front man Bill Noteman during one of the band's numbers on Friday, June 26, 2009. Photo by Harold LaBonte.

Hundreds of people packed into the park on Friday, June 26, 2009, to enjoy Bill Noteman & The Rockets. Photo by Harold LaBonte.

The show and sale will feature the first 50 of 100 oil paintings depicting current people, locations and events in the cities and countryside surrounding Mount Konocti.

The show will be open during the Museum’s regular operating hours, Wednesday through Saturday, from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. (closed Saturday, July 4, for the holiday). Visitors can meet the artist at the Museum on Wednesdays from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Geare’s oil-painting project theme coincides with the current efforts by Lake County to acquire 1,520 acres on top of Mount Konocti. The acquisition is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, encompassing all four peaks and putting much of the mountain into public hands for perpetuity.

Geare will donate 20 percent of the proceeds of the sales to the Lower Lake Historic Schoolhouse Museum and 10 percent of the proceeds to help preserve Mount Konocti as open space. Information about the acquisition is available online at www.PreserveKonocti.org .

An active member of the California Art Club, Oil Painters of America, Lake County Arts Council, and the Konocti Plein Air Painters, Geare has studied art privately and in small groups with renowned artists Rafael Maniago, Margot Lennartz and Junn Roca.

With Edgar Payne and the early California impressionists as influences, Geare’s passionate expressions of life in Lake County are of museum-quality. One of her paintings hangs in the Naval Historical Museum in Washington D.C.

Geare held a showing of the “100 Views of Mount Konocti” in December and, in conjunction with Lake County Wine Studio in Upper Lake, donated $400 toward the Mount Konocti acquisition fundraising efforts.

To view samples of Geare’s artwork, visit www.gearestudios.com .

Lower Lake Historic Schoolhouse Museum is located at 16435 Main St., Lower Lake.

For more information about the benefit show and sale, call 707-995-3565.

Here is a chance to catch them with a full band at the Blue Wing Saloon & Cafe on Monday, June 29, from 6:30 p.m. to 9 pm.

Wilhelm's Bottle Rock Blues & Rhythm Band now has a traditional rhythm section of piano, bass and drums. This will be the new lineup's debut performance.

Live videos of Wilhelm and Knepalm can be viewed at www.youtube.com/TheMonkeybeat .

The event begins at 2 p.m.

“Journey to Rhyolite” is Bartholomew's fourth book.

The book focuses on Nathaniel, who makes a journey to Rhyolite, “the greatest boom town in the west.”

Nathaniel hopes to make his fortune, be reunited with his love, Annabelle, and find the man he murdered back in Baltimore.

Bartholomew lived in big cities such as New York and San Francisco before settling down in Lake County, where he's putting his interesting life experiences to work as an author.

“He has discovered that the most fantastic tales are the ones that really happened,” a biographical note at www.smashwords.com/profile/view/Bart explains.

Ancient artifacts are one of his interests, and he has published several articles on the subject, according to his biography. In addition to writing fiction he studies petroglyphs and local history.

Wild About Books is located at 14290 Olympic Drive, Clearlake, telephone 707-994-9453.

Visit Bartholomew's Web site at http://chargedbarticle.org/ . “Journey to Rhyolite” also can be purchased at http://norlightspress.com/our-books.html#Journey-To-Rhyolite .