The master of ceremony's work schedule prompted the change which should be permanent at least for now.

Check with Phillip Martin, 928-5543, or email him to get on his mailing list at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Hope to see you there.

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By Lee Torliatt

George Washington may never have slept here, but Luther Burbank definitely took a snooze or two in Lake County.

The mineral springs of Lake County became an attraction for vacationers from Sonoma County and elsewhere as early as the 1860s and the fun continued well into the 1950s.

One of the most popular places was Hoberg's, founded by Gustav and Mathilde Hoberg late in the 19th century. Donna Hoberg, a descendant, does a good job of mixing pictures and text to show how the many resorts of the area developed. She notes that Burbank, Santa Rosa's noted plant wizard, got away from the hustle and bustle of Sonoma County several times in the 1920s, staying in what was known as the Spring cabin with his wife and niece. 

Things did not always go well for resorts at the Lake. The spacious Witter Hotel, built for $250,000 in 1906, suffered financial tremors after the San Francisco earthquake and was sold for $15,000 ten years later. Shades of our current real estate shakes. 

Hoberg's, a destination for many residents of Sonoma County and the greater Bay Area, fared better. Governor Earl Warren, movie star Lee Carrillo and World War II hero Hap Arnold of Sonoma joined in the fun. Name bandleaders included Freddy Martin, Xavier Cugat and Tommy Dorsey; singer Tennessee Ernie Ford dropped by to sing "Sixteen Tons" and play a round of golf or two. Sal Carson and his orchestra regularly provided dancing under the stars starting in 1945.

Ozzie Coulthart, with frequent blasts from his trumpet, is remembered as being the "resort character," acting as a combination emcee and recreation director in the 1950s.

(Torliatt is editor of the Sonoma County Historian, the quarterly journal of the Sonoma County Historical Society.)

The Judd Apatow comic factory, churning out raunchy, bawdy comedies at a rapid clip, is at it again, this time with the inspired writing of a star pupil who apparently learned much from writer-director Apatow after stints in his TV series and “Knocked Up.”

Drawing on personal experience of failed romance, Jason Segel penned the script for “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and thereby became perfect for the starring role of the person victimized by the brutal heartbreak inflicted by the film’s titular character. As the film’s producer, Apatow has turned over the directing reins to Nicholas Stoller, a collaborator on many TV and movie scripts. Evidently, Apatow’s repertory company has the magic touch.

As the title implies, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” is about the painful heartache of a romantic split, in which Jason Segel’s Peter Bretter is devastated that his beautiful girlfriend, Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell), is dumping him.

This movie achieves, perhaps, the most awkward, yet funny breakup ever seen. Peter is just getting out of the shower at his home, when Sarah shows up. Expecting a daytime tryst, Peter drops his towel, revealing the full monty for all to see. Obviously, he was clueless about the real reason for her unexpected visit. As he refuses to put on clothes, the inevitable separation talk becomes increasingly uncomfortable and clumsy, but in a completely hilarious fashion.

In many ways, Peter and Sarah are a very unlikely couple. She’s a glamorous TV star on a crime series, one that is spoofed delightfully as a “CSI” type show in which she and William Baldwin are engaged in earnest sleuthing. A musician with a slacker attitude, Peter has been scoring the music for her hit TV series, thus he’s unable to completely shake any ties to the very appealing actress. He’s reduced to sitting around his house in the same pair of sweatpants and eating cereal from gigantic bowls.

After a fruitless bout of womanizing and a meltdown on the job, Peter believes that not having Sarah in his life may well destroy it forever. At the urging of his brother Brian (Bill Hader), whose advice is not always helpful, Peter takes an impulsive trip to Hawaii to clear his head.

Unfortunately, Sarah is already staying at the same swank resort hotel with her new flame, self-absorbed hipster and British rocker Aldous Snow (Russell Brand). Peter’s extended stay at the beach resort becomes problematic and discomfiting, especially since Sarah has all too many public displays of affection with the obnoxious rock star. Wallowing in too many fruity cocktails and hysterical crying jags, Peter torments himself with the reality of Sarah’s new shallow life.

Relief from self-pity comes in the form of flirtations with very pretty hotel desk clerk Rachel (Mila Kunis), whose laid-back approach tempts Peter to rejoin the world of the living. Rachel offers emotional support, and soon gets Peter to loosen up a bit with a few lively encounters with some of the locals, which don’t always go smoothly.

Deciding to take surfing lessons from Chuck (Paul Rudd), the typical stoner whose brain has been fried beyond repair, he flails away in the waves, enduring one mishap after another. Then, there are the strange run-ins with hotel staff, mostly with the creepy waiter Matthew (Jonah Hill) who’s anxious for Aldous to listen to his musical demo CD.

“Forgetting Sarah Marshall” delivers plenty of unforgettable comedy, generating laughter not just for Peter’s sad predicament but for the sarcastic banter that sometimes elevates the dialogue beyond the merely sophomoric. However, this being an Apatow production, the humor is not on the level of high-brow Noel Coward witticisms.

Despite the raunchy comedy and the shock value of Peter’s disrobing, this movie seems a whole lot tamer than “Superbad,” dwelling as it does on the Peter’s essentially sweet vulnerability. Still, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” pushes the boundaries, earning a well-deserved R rating.

DVD RELEASE UPDATE

There’s a TV channel for practically every taste. Just in case the Sci-Fi Channel doesn’t offer enough programming choices, Fox Home Entertainment has just released “Alien Nation: Ultimate Movie Collection.”

Continuing where the original television series left off, this DVD collection includes all five suspenseful sci-fi movies for the first time. These films follow the action-packed adventures of Los Angeles police detective Matt Sikes (Gary Graham) and his partner George Francisco (Eric Pierpoint), an alien fugitive slave who must, along with his brethren, struggle to assimilate into life on his adopted planet Earth, without sacrificing his own cultural identity.

The “Ultimate Movie Collection” kicks off with “Alien Nation: Dark Horizons,” when the fate of the entire planet is on the line as a Purist group develops a virus designed to kill all Newcomers. An abundance of bonus materials include gag reels, storyboards and photo galleries.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.

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Easily dismissed as just one more chick flick in a recent spate of similar efforts, “Made of Honor” puts a rather obvious spin on the formulaic romantic comedy, even though subversively tilting its action to a male point of view.

To be sure, any film geared to a wedding ceremony is almost certainly a lure to the female audience, unless of course that film stars Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson as freeloading bachelors.

This time around, the handsome Patrick Dempsey, apparently called McDreamy for his role in TV’s “Grey’s Anatomy,” is the pivotal character in the oddly titular role. Women may not mind that he’s a cad.

In a strange role reversal, Dempsey’s Tom is introduced at the film’s beginning a decade ago as the campus Lothario, eager to bed every coed with the zeal of an oversexed frat boy. Crawling under the covers with a college girl in a case of mistaken identity, Tom gets his comeuppance from an unwilling partner, Michelle Monaghan’s Hannah, a sober-minded individual who will not be randomly seduced by a drunken partygoer.

Oddly enough, Tom and Hannah manage to become best friends, a platonic relationship that has the feel of a close bond between brother and sister. Fast forwarding to the present day, Tom and Hannah spend time together in New York City as friends supporting each other. It seems like a one-sided affair, with Tom usually confessing his unbendable rules of dating, such as not having two consecutive dates or calling a potential date within 24 hours of a chance encounter.

Tom’s social life is revealed as a revolving door of sexual conquests, where impossibly beautiful women practically fling themselves at his feet. At this point, the film is more like a male fantasy, because real life is unlike that, even for the most adept womanizers.

For reasons unexplained, Tom has more magnetism and sex appeal than James Bond and has had more bedroom triumphs than Wilt Chamberlain. If he kept a little black book, it would be the size of a Manhattan telephone directory. In his rare spare time, Tom hangs out with a bunch of buddies who, with the exception of the obligatory married guy (Kadeem Hardison), would be hard-pressed to get any date on a Saturday night.

What Tom, in his state of arrested development, has failed to realize is that the girl of his dreams has been the one constant in his life. When Hannah goes overseas to Scotland on a six-week business trip, it dawns on this slow learner that his life is empty without her.

He knows he doesn’t want to end up like his father (Sydney Pollack), who’s marrying his sixth trophy wife while fully realizing that a pre-nuptial agreement is certain to be tested in relatively short order. In between the usual trysts, he mopes around because Hannah is gone, calling her often in the middle of the night. He resolves to reveal his true feelings upon her return, intending to propose matrimony.

Hannah’s eventual homecoming is fraught with a great surprise, but only to Tom. Anyone else would see this disaster coming, when Hannah announces that she’s engaged to a handsome and wealthy Scotsman, heir to the family’s distillery business. The aristocratic Colin McMurray (Kevin McKidd) lives in a castle on a scenic lake. He’s also tremendously athletic, almost too good to be true.

Tom can’t bear the thought of losing Hannah, especially when she plans to move overseas. When Hannah asks Tom to be her “maid of honor,” he reluctantly agrees to fill this curious role, expecting his best chance to sabotage the wedding is from within.

Naturally, Hannah’s girlfriends are aghast at Tom’s selection for the matrimonial honor. One of these friends harbors a bitter resentment of a one-night stand gone horribly wrong, and she goes to great lengths to disrupt Tom’s essential role of bridal planner.

Meanwhile, Tom’s basketball-playing buddies constantly razz him, while offering some misguided advice. Culture shock sets in when Tom and the wedding party end up in Scotland, and the snooty McMurray clan is somewhat aghast at Tom’s gender-bending role. There’s even an ongoing gag about a clueless grandmother mistaking a sex toy for a necklace.

“Made of Honor” is so thoroughly predictable that it is virtually impossible to find anything surprising or even remotely ingenious. That’s not to say there aren’t some funny things happening, or that some of dialogue isn’t zippy and humorous.

The breezy quality of the comedy on display probably has much to do with the nice chemistry between Tom Dempsey and Michelle Monaghan, both of them likable even though only one has the heart and character worthy of that positive trait.

DVD RELEASE UPDATE

We can use this space to report on the odd and strange in the film business.

You can’t get much weirder than “Teeth,” a story galvanized by the vagina dentata mythology in which a young girl develops choppers in the most unexpected place.

A jaw-dropping horror film (to coin a gruesome phrase), “Teeth” stars newcomer Jess Weixler and John Hensley in a twisted tale of female empowerment, which the Hollywood Reporter called “the most alarming cautionary tale for men,” a description that one would be hard-pressed to improve upon when you consider “Fatal Attraction” so greatly unnerved the male audience.

The teenage star is so innocent that she is not even aware of her own basic bodily functions, and discovers quite by accident that she is anatomically very unique. Watch this DVD at your own peril.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.

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There’s a new chick-flick at the local Cineplex where the action is set in Philadelphia, as in Pennsylvania’s major city. Merely coincidental, the film arrives on the heels of that state’s big primary, but Hillary Clinton is nowhere to be found in a venue that still suggests “Rocky.” Rather, this comedic adventure is called “Baby Mama,” starring two female stars of “Saturday Night Live.”

Now, I have to admit, sheepishly, that I laughed at many of the jokes in this female-oriented comedy. As a result, I have scheduled a doctor’s appointment to have my testosterone levels checked, just in case I am precipitously on the verge on some inexplicable male menopausal meltdown. At least I am not crying during soap operas, mainly because I don’t watch any.

Perched for a long time as a cast member and co-anchor of “Weekend Update” on “Saturday Night Live,” Tina Fey has made her mark in another comedy series on NBC, while Amy Poehler continues on for a seventh season in the late night weekly comedy show. Together, Fey and Poehler have great chemistry as an odd couple as mismatched as Oscar and Felix. Fey’s Kate Holbrook is a career-driven executive at an organic market chain.

Financially secure, she lives in a swank Philadelphia apartment that reflects her fastidious nature. Having put her personal life on the back burner, the unmarried Kate suddenly realizes her biological clock is ticking. After visiting several sperm banks, Kate discovers that she is infertile, and therefore, decides to visit the surrogacy center run by Chaffee Bicknell (Sigourney Weaver).

The solution for her wish to have a child is realized by the availability of Angie Ostrowiski (Amy Poehler) to become the surrogate mom. Free-spirited Angie is the suburban Philly equivalent of trailer park trash. When interviewing for the surrogate position, Angie shows up with her equally trashy common-law husband Carl (Dax Shepard), a deadbeat who’s anxious to take advantage of Kate’s generous cash offer for services rendered.

Angie is hardly the ideal candidate for motherhood, as she indulges in activities that should be off limits, such as smoking, drinking and eating junk food while watching the worst of daytime TV. Angie is one fistfight away from being a guest on the “Jerry Springer Show.”

Entering the nesting mode, Kate buys all the appropriate child-care books and childbirth DVDs, enrolling herself and Angie in a birthing class. But Kate is consumed with her work schedule, which includes satisfying the desires of her New Age hippie boss Barry (Steve Martin, in a hilarious role) to open a flagship store in an area ripe for gentrification.

Yet, Kate’s plans for a perfect pregnancy are turned upside down when Angie leaves Carl and moves into Kate’s apartment, seeing that she has no money or place to live. Now that they have to share the tight quarters of an apartment, it is inevitable that the friction between two very dissimilar characters will erupt into pandemonium.

While wiseguy doorman Oscar (Romany Malco) watches with bemusement, the comings and goings of the anxious mother-to-be and the flighty surrogate create a real sideshow. Though Angie is given to many bottom-feeding tendencies, including the inappropriate use of a bathroom sink, Kate begins the inevitable mellowing process, which soon has her taking up a romantic interest in local smoothies bar owner Rob (Greg Kinnear), an erstwhile lawyer who is consumed with an unnatural bitterness towards big competitor Jamba Juice.

Even guys will detect the predictable plot twists of female rivalry that runs rampant through “Baby Mama,” but still there is a good deal of enjoyable humor, mainly due to the wisecracks and banter between the leading ladies. “Baby Mama” employs plenty of broad gags, delivering a tidy sense of comedic convenience that won’t leave a lasting impression. At the bottom line, it’s fun but not a must-see comedy.

DVD RELEASE UPDATE

I think there’s a whole new industry churning out horror films from the Far East, and not just Hong Kong. But if it weren’t for DVDs, we’d probably not even know about gruesome cinema from Thailand.

The latest to hit our shores is the aptly-named “Sick Nurses,” a gory, violent film set in the hallways of a run-down Bangkok hospital.

“Sick Nurses” follows a clandestine team of nurses and a chief surgeon who sell human body parts and whole bodies on the black market for a profit.

When one of the nurses threatens to expose the operation, she is instantly attacked, killed and wrapped in a body bag to be sold by her cohorts.

A bloodthirsty spirit, she emerges from the dead seeking revenge for her untimely death, attacking each victim and forcing them to perform violent acts against themselves and others.

I hope someone will release an anniversary version of “The Sound of Music,” if only to balance the equation.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.

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Film noir for contemporary times is the easiest description to put on the violent, gritty “Street Kings,” an exercise in the search for the darkest corners of the brutish, nasty landscape of urban Los Angeles.

This brutal action film has a fine pedigree in its creative team. Director David Ayer was the writer and co-producer for “Training Day,” notable for how it turned Denzel Washington into a real tough, troubled character. Moreover, the “Street Kings” screenplay is based on an original story by James Ellroy, who has made a name for himself by uncovering the dark side of Los Angeles in crime novels that were adapted for the big screen, including “L.A. Confidential” and “The Black Dahlia.”

“Street Kings” wastes little time jumping into the fray of the mean streets of the City of Angels. The conflicted, tortured central character is veteran LAPD cop Tom Ludlow (Keanu Reeves), who wakes up each morning with a seriously disturbed stomach and an almost insatiable desire to start sipping vodka from little airline bottles.

This is a guy living on the edge, tormented by his inner demons. After all, Ludlow finds life difficult to navigate after the sudden, mysterious death of his wife. At the film’s opening, Ludlow is flying solo in a dangerous sting operation with a nasty bunch of Korean thugs. Mainly, he’s in search of their hideaway, which appears to be the nerve center for the trafficking of drugs, guns and young victims of a sex slave operation.

In keeping with his apparent rogue status, Ludlow busts into the suspects’ abode with his guns blazing. He doesn’t bother with Miranda warnings or other niceties. But to make the crime scene look good, Ludlow leaves evidence behind that he acted in self-defense while rescuing some underage girls.

Meanwhile, his former partner, Detective Terrence Washington (Terry Crews), appears on the scene for the investigation and immediately suspects that Ludlow has something to hide. Before things get messy, Ludlow’s boss, Captain Wander (Forest Whitaker) steps in to back up his protégé.

Tension rises when it is apparent that Washington may have implicated Ludlow in unsavory conduct that has drawn the attention of Internal Affairs investigators. Soon, Ludlow finds himself being scrutinized by Internal Affairs Captain Biggs (Hugh Laurie), who grows suspicious that something rotten is happening. Biggs’ skepticism increases exponentially when Washington is gunned down in a liquor store by masked gang bangers. What’s worse is that Ludlow becomes implicated in the detective’s death because he was on the scene when the shootings occurred.

At this point, Captain Wander draws the wagons in a circle, getting members of his unit to help Ludlow clear his name of wrongdoing. For his part, Ludlow is troubled by the violent murder of his former partner, even though he had become a snitch. He sets out to find the killers, while others on the force seem too eager to hamper the pursuit of a serious investigation.

Even if he’s turned into a renegade cop, Ludlow wants to do the right thing, and so he teams up with young detective Paul Diskant (Chris Evans) to go after the truth. An investigation by Ludlow and Diskant takes this unlikely duo into the meanest neighborhoods of the city.

In the rough and tumble world of chasing down street toughs, Ludlow and Diskant hook up with criminal figure Scribble (Cedric “The Entertainer” Kyles), who guides them to a pair of very unsavory characters. Needless to say, the encounter with thugs leads to a blazing gun battle, which happens to be just one of many.

“Street Kings” thrives on a cavalier explosion of gruesome violence, somewhat reminiscent of “Training Day” and any number of brutal cop films where the constant bursts of carnage and bloodshed are palpable.

“Street Kings” is stoked by so much energy and thrills that there’s barely enough breathing room, and the obvious deficiencies of the plot are easily glossed over. But for action junkies, the payoff is just too good to care much about the absence of logic and reason.

DVD RELEASE UPDATE

There are “small films,” sometimes underrated or failing the attention of blockbusters, that demand our attention because they are unusually good. “Little Miss Sunshine” was such a gem. A good case can be made to put “Juno,” the story of an unwed teen who decides to carry her pregnancy to full term, in this class.

Hailed with well-deserved critical acclaim, “Juno” is a witty and smart comedy that is lifted by the performance of Ellen Page as the title character, a quirky teen with an offbeat personality.

Apropos of nothing, it is interesting to note that screenwriter Diablo Cody is a former stripper, who seems to have a really good ear for dialogue.

“Juno,” being released in two different editions, will have the usual plethora of deleted scenes, commentaries and special features.

For some strange reason, I feel compelled to tell you that the press release says “Juno” will be the first Fox Home Entertainment DVD at Starbucks company-operated locations in the United States.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.

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