Tuesday, 19 March 2024

Arts & Life

“Reciprocity” workshop participants building sculpture for EcoArts. Photo by MAC staff.

MIDDLETOWN, Calif. — The Middletown Art Center invites the public to co-create a sculpture honoring the Hitch, or “Chi,” for the EcoArts Sculpture Walk.

In a rare opportunity to blend wisdom from the past with current issues, we will incorporate traditional bundling, stick bending and cordage making taught by culture bearers and artists Corine Pearce, Joe Weber and Luya Rivera to create sculptural work and raise public awareness to the plight of the hitch.

Pearce, Weber and Rivera will share native stories and wisdom, and traditional approaches to caring for the trees and the land.

They will discuss dwindling hitch populations, their importance to local Indigenous people, ecosystems and current efforts to preserve and strengthen their populations.

Known by the region’s Indigenous people as "chi,” the hitch’s spawning was a time of celebration when tribal members would gather to collect food for the year and visit each other.

The chi has been a staple food and cultural mainstay of the original Pomo inhabitants of the region since time immemorial.

Tribal elders recall the hitch being plentiful and filling creeks. Expanding development and agriculture, declining water quality, gravel mining, invasive species, removal of cultural fire from the land, habitat loss and drought took their toll.

The decline of the chi is the result of a legacy of environmental injustice and land dispossession in the Clear Lake watershed.

Last spring, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife convened a multi-agency state, federal and tribal summit to highlight the needs of the hitch and its risk of extinction.

The summit led to commitments by multiple agencies and tribes to take decisive actions to collect data, preserve streamflows, and enforce on illegal diversions and stream modifications as well as allocating funds for migration barrier removal projects and finalizing a grant to the Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians to conduct stream flow and groundwater monitoring in Clear Lake hitch spawning areas.

The public is warmly invited to attend one or both days of this weekend’s free event on Saturday, Oct. 7, and Sunday, Oct. 8.

Saturday's activities begin at Trailside Park at 10 a.m. and move to the MAC studio ending at 3:30 p.m. Sunday’s activities will take place at MAC from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

No experience is required and people of all abilities, ages and backgrounds are welcome (children under 15 with parents or guardians). Please bring clippers, loppers and gloves if you have them, plenty of water and a lunch. Snacks will be provided.

This event is part of the “Reciprocity” project aimed at revitalizing the EcoArts Sculpture Walk through community-engaged artmaking. It’s funded primarily by an Upstate California Creative Corps grant.

Please sign up in advance at www.middletownartcenter.org/reciprocity.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake County Community Radio is hosting a memorial benefit concert on Oct. 1 for longtime radio personality Ron Green.

Join the KPFZ family for what is sure to be a memorable and fun event dubbed by the organizers, “For the Love of Ron Green.”

It’s an outdoor concert so bring your lawn chairs, put on your dancing shoes and plan on having a good time in Green’s memory.

Concert admission is free.

Green is lovingly remembered for his radio show, “The Philadelphia Lawyer,” a listener and member favorite on KPFZ. Green used his show as a platform for his advocacy of civil rights and justice.

As a director on the LCCR Board, Green advocated for community radio through the many fundraising concerts he produced, most recently the Moonalice and The Barry Melton concerts.

“It is with grateful hearts that we honor Ron’s legacy with a special event in his memory,” said LCCR Board President Olga Martin Steele.

The concert is a memorial and celebration of Green’s life. He made countless contributions to the community he loved, especially community radio.

His wife, Linda Lake and their family will attend along with Green’s many radio friends and listeners and those he helped over the years prior to retiring from his law practice.

“It will be a reunion of sorts,” Lake said. “A time to reconnect with old friends and make new ones. Ron knew so many people from different walks of life.”

Music for the concert will be provided by The Andre Williams Band and Beatz Werkin. Food by La Chilanguita and wine by Cache Creek Vineyards and Winery may be purchased on site.

Commemorative T-Shirts will be sold by KPFZ and donations to the Ron Green Memorial Fund are gratefully accepted at the gate or by mail to: LCCR, Inc., P.O. Box 446, Lakeport, Ca 95453. Proceeds will go to the Ron Green Memorial Fund to support KPFZ.

Cache Creek Vineyards and Winery is located on 250 New Long Valley Road, off Highway 20 in Clearlake Oaks. Gates open at 1 p.m. and the music starts at 1:30 p.m. Please leave pets at home.

“We want to thank the musicians, the Cache Creek family and La Chilanguita for their generosity in supporting this event,” said LCCR Vice President Dennis “Pop” Booth.

A few tables are available for purchase. For more information leave a message at the KPFZ office, 707-263-3640 or text 916-849-8170 and someone will get back to you.



‘THE EQUALIZER 3’ RATED R

The one thing to know about “The Equalizer” franchise is that Denzel Washington’s Robert McCall is a retired government assassin who struggles with his past and seeks redemption as an avenging angel to provide justice on behalf of the oppressed.

“The Equalizer 3” opens with a bang, or more accurately the aftermath of a massacre of mobsters at a Sicilian winery, and the carnage of dead bodies is a bloody scene, including the gruesome shot of one with a hatchet planted smack in his forehead.

The winery is a front for a smuggling operation of dangerous drugs from Syria where the export from Italy of illicit contraband apparently goes undetected by the authorities.

Two gangsters show up with a child who remains in the Jeep (one can’t start too young in the mafia family business). After surveying the damage, the mafiosos end up in a cellar where McCall is being held at gunpoint.

Has our former CIA agent/assassin come an ignominious end? You can probably guess the outcome from the trailer alone, when McCall tells his captors they have nine seconds to decide their fate.

A righteous vigilante, however, may not always escape unscathed, and in this case, McCall is shot in the back and turns up being treated at a doctor’s home in a picturesque village on the Amalfi coast.

When the doctor asks McCall “Are you a good man or a bad man?,” and the answer is “I don’t know,” it may be an admission that the assassin is conflicted that his life of violence may not have been the absolute right path.

The story takes a slower pace for a time while a now vulnerable McCall recovers and forges a friendship with the doctor, Enzo (Remo Girone), and gradually immerses himself in the laid-back lifestyle of Southern Italy.

Unfortunately, not everything is peaceful in the town of Altomonte (not to be confused with the real city of the same name in the province of Cosenza). The first sign of trouble is when a fish seller is beaten for not keeping up with protection payments.

As McCall gets back on his feet with the help of a cane, he starts to enjoy the local culture. A favorite spot is a café run by Aminah (Gaia Scodellaro), who is puzzled by the American’s affinity for tea.

Aminah tells our favorite tough guy that tea is for old ladies and Englishmen, prompting him to eventually enjoy an espresso or cappuccino, or whatever is the local custom.

While McCall settles into life in the tranquil coastal village, he decides to go by the name of Roberto and becomes friendly with the townsfolk, and soon enough he takes a visceral dislike to the local mafia known as the Camorra.

The criminal element, run by brothers Vincent (Andrea Scarduzio) and Marco (Andrea Dodero) with a vicious streak that renders them easy targets for McCall’s retribution, seek to decimate the town to further their dream of building a casino, among other enterprises.

Having been rescued from the shooting by kind police officer Gio Bonucci (Eugenio Mastrandrea), a loving family man not in the pocket of the gangsters, McCall takes note of the brave policeman’s refusal to be threatened by the Camorra.

One night while having dinner at a local restaurant, McCall watches thugs harassing Gio in the presence of his wife and young daughter. At this point, McCall’s solemn gaze draws attention from the volatile Vincent.

McCall has grown fond of the locals, befriending merchants and citizens, and even a priest. As a result, he puts the cynical, sneering Vincent on notice by a most painful grip of his hand that extortion and intimidation of his friends won’t be tolerated.

A deadly beatdown of the mafia goons is inevitable, but a side plot emerges when McCall anonymously connects with CIA agent Emma Collins (Dakota Fanning) and enlists her help to deal with the broader conspiracy of the mafia’s criminal enterprise.

Even as he had become welcomed by the citizenry of Altomonte, McCall remains a mysterious figure who resorts to brutal violence against the mafia in the shadows and mostly out of the public eye.

The villains are so irredeemably vicious and cruel that the vigilante spirit captures an audience lusting for revenge that McCall dishes out with no reservation and no apology.

“The Equalizer 3” is billed as the third and final chapter of the franchise, and there’s no doubt that Denzel Washington has entered into the Liam Neeson realm of aging action figures who still pack a powerful punch.

The series may verge on the grindhouse territory favored by Quentin Tarantino, as director Antoine Fuqua has demonstrated a penchant for gritty crime thrillers, most notably in “Training Day,” one of his earliest films.

What makes “The Equalizer 3” rise, in large measure, above a routine thriller with plenty of gore and mayhem is that Washington’s charisma, toughness and earnest demeanor prove a winning combination.

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



‘A HAUNTING IN VENICE’ RATED PG-13

Kenneth Branaugh returns for a third time as famed detective Hercule Poirot in “A Haunting in Venice,” an unsettling supernatural thriller based upon Agatha Christie’s lesser-known novel “Hallowe’en Party.”

Take it from the filmmakers making it known that this adaption of the famous British mystery writer’s work is a slightly different story than what’s in the book. The intent was to make the story a bit more dire.

One inescapable deviation from Christie’s novel is that the location moves from the English countryside to haunted Venice and the story happens on one haunted night rather that over the course of several days, almost a week.

It’s All Hallows’ Eve in an eerie Venice in the years following World War II, where celebrated sleuth Poirot now resides, apparently retired and living in a self-imposed exile.

Poirot may be aloof, but he’s able to afford the full-time services of Vitale Portfoglio (Riccardo Scamarcio), a bodyguard to shield him from the beseechers of his erstwhile services.

Comfortable in his new ways, Poirot resists entreaties to get involved with his craft until along comes crime novelist Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey), who has made the sleuth a character in her writing.

Oliver may be suffering an existential crisis just like Poirot, but she lures him out of his shell to attend a Halloween Night séance at the palazzo of former opera singer Rowena Drake (Kelly Reilly).

The faded elegance of the palazzo is reportedly haunted, though Poirot is skeptical of notion of the place being inhabited by ghosts even if the stormy night seems like the perfect setting for the supernatural.

A celebrity medium, Joyce Reynolds (Michelle Yeoh) is in attendance in an effort to summon the spirit of Alicia (Rowan Robinson), the daughter of the opera singer. For her part, Oliver hopes that Poirot will prove the clairvoyant to be a fraud.

Oddly enough, Poirot is almost a victim when he’s nearly drowned while bobbing for apples in a basin. But the first dead body turns up when a guest is impaled on a statue.

As is the case with most murder mysteries, the ensemble of guests may include a suspect or two. There’s the nervous Dr. Ferrier (Jamie Dornan) and his precocious young son Leopold (Jude Hill); Alicia’s onetime fiancé Maxime (Kyle Allen); and housekeeper Olga (Camille Cottin).

Reverting to his nature, Poirot locks down the palazzo for the night, announcing that no one can leave until he uncovers the killer. The less said about the plot the better, since revealing too much may spoil the surprises.

True appreciation of Agatha Christie cinematic adaptations for the adventures of Hercule Poirot are best found in films of the Seventies such as “Murder on the Orient Express” and “Death on the Nile,” both of which have been remade in recent years.

“A Haunting in Venice,” though not quite the mystery thriller as good as previous iterations of the Branagh-led franchise, at least has the benefit of a being more appealing to an adult audience weary of repetitive superhero fare.



‘THE RINGLEADER: THE CASE OF THE BLING RING’ ON HBO

The HBO Original documentary film “The Ringleader: The Case of the Bling Ring,” the true story of celebrity robberies, debuts on Sunday, October 1 on HBO and will be available to stream on MAX.

In a candid, first-time interview with Rachel Lee, the so-called teenage mastermind behind a string of high-profile celebrity robberies in 2008 and 2009, “The Ringleader” examines the motivations of Lee and a group of her friends.

Breaking into celebrity homes in Hollywood to ransack and steal, the teens were fueled by the climate of celebrity excess as well as grappling with mental health issues and addictions.

Dozens of homes were burglarized by a surprisingly unsophisticated crime ring of youth from Calabasas. At the center of the controversy is 19-year-old Rachel Lee who led the burglaries at the homes of Paris Hilton, Orlando Bloom, and Lindsay Lohan.

Lee remained silent while the media and her former friends branded her the ringleader of a series of crimes that captured the culture’s fascination. Over ten years later and following a prison sentence, Lee speaks for the first time about her role in the crime spree.

The ringleader outlines the culture of celebrity worship that prevailed in the early 2000s, when socialites and Hollywood stars flaunted their wealth and designer lifestyles on social media and popular reality shows.

Driven by the need to be seen as a cool kid in high school and to emulate the lives of her idols, and using celebrity websites to track her victims’ whereabouts, Lee and her friends targeted celebrity homes to help themselves to over three million dollars’ worth of valuables and cash.

Chronicling the months of burglaries, the drama that transpired in the aftermath of the arrests and prosecutions, and the subsequent casting of blame, “The Ringleader” sheds light on a culture that led troubled teenagers to covet the lifestyles of the rich and famous.

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




‘THE RETIREMENT PLAN’ RATED R

Billing “The Retirement Plan” as an action comedy might be a stretch, but there is something quite amusing about the ineptness of so many henchmen of a crime lord unable to fulfill what seems an easy enough assignment.

As the story opens, a man and a woman are making a getaway from an apparent heist of what turns out to be the film’s MacGuffin, the object or device that serves merely as a trigger for the plot.

In this case, it happens to be a flash drive that belongs supposedly to Donnie (Jackie Earle Haley), a crime boss with a hair-trigger temper which might be the result of him having to report to his psychotic superior (Grace Byers).

Jimmy (Jordan Johnson-Hinds) and his wife Ashley (Ashley Greene) realize that they have just bought themselves a monumental pile of trouble with this theft and need an escape plan.

Ashley hides the flash drive in their young daughter Sarah’s (Thalia Campbell) backpack and puts her on a flight to the Cayman Islands with a note to locate a man named Matt (or Jim?), who turns out to be her estranged father (Nicolas Cage).

Holding Jimmy hostage, Donnie tells Sarah that she will be accompanied by his Shakespeare-loving henchman Bobo (Ron Perlman) and another thug to retrieve the flash drive unless someone or everyone will die.

Of course, Matt doesn’t realize that he has a granddaughter and he’s not well equipped to take care of her since he’s retired from his government work and savors the beach bum lifestyle.

Unknown to Ashley when she arrives at her father’s beachside home with Bobo and the goon is that Matt has been hiding his special skills, namely that he’s a retired special forces soldier trained as an assassin.

When Donnie’s goon ends up dead, Bobo kidnaps Sarah, which leads to the unlikely formation of a bond when the young girl’s affinity for reading “Othello” triggers an interesting dynamic with her Shakespeare-quoting captor.

Aside from Matt easily killing Donnie’s successive wave of goons showing up in the Caymans, other characters involve Matt’s old boss (Lynn Whitfield) and her seemingly duplicitous right-hand (Joel David Moore) getting in on the action.

Even some political intrigue comes into view when a mysterious powerful figure (Rick Fox) has a great interest in the flash drive that may propel his political ambitions for high office.

In many respects, “The Retirement Plan” is quite conventional as an action picture with Nicolas Cage channeling his inner rage in a most effective way of killing countless bad guys that would otherwise hurt his family.

At a nicely moving and relatively swift pace, this action film offers some welcome humor in unusual ways. Arguably, best of all is Bobo’s comically awkward phone calls with Donnie in which he’s always at a loss to explain how every attempt to kill Matt proves to be a failure.

If not easily found at a local cinema, “The Retirement Plan” seems almost certainly to end up on a streaming service in relatively short order. A pickup by Netflix or Amazon seems possible, and it will offer a fun diversion.



‘SPY OPS’ ON NETFLIX

An eight-part documentary series on Netflix, “Spy Ops” might be the thing for anyone interested in a perspective on real world events ranging from an assassination plot on Pope John Paul II to the initial intrusion into Afghanistan following the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001.

The first episode is “Operation Jawbreaker,” when CIA operatives land in the part of Afghanistan under the control of the Northern Alliance, the mortal enemies of the hated and ruthless Taliban.

The leader of the Northern Alliance is Ahmad Shah Massoud, the biggest enemy of the Taliban seen from archival footage since he meets an untimely death.

Narrator for a good part of the episode is the late Gary Schroen, the Jawbreaker Team Leader for the CIA. He reports that it was known that Osama bin Laden was the leader of al-Qaeda and hiding somewhere in Afghanistan.

An interesting part of this episode is the reminder that American withdrawal two years ago has resulted in the “horror of the Taliban enveloping the country” even more completely than it did before 9/11.

The second episode “Operation Just Cause” is the story of how America came to invade Panama in order to depose its strongman General Manuel Noriega, who was trafficking drugs and had once been on the CIA payroll for a long time.

Noriega, nicknamed “Pineapple Face” for his pockmarked facial features, is portrayed as a double-dealing opportunist working for the CIA and selling U.S. intelligence secrets to Cuba.

There’s a news clip of Dan Rather reporting on the United Nations General Assembly deploring the invasion of Panama as a “flagrant violation of international law.”

The “Operation Pimlico” tale of MI6 orchestrating the extraction of a Soviet double agent from Moscow is fascinating like a Jack Ryan or James Bond spy story.

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

Pomo Basket from the Lake County Courthouse Museum in Lakeport, California. Photo by Corine Pearce.

MIDDLETOWN, Calif. — The Middletown Art Center announced the commencement of “Water Basket,” which opens with a pomo basket design panel discussion at Twin Pine Casino on Sunday, Sept. 17, from 2 to 3:30 p.m.

Featured artists and culture bearers include Millie Simon, Wanda Quitiquit, Eric Wilder, Patty Ray-Franklin, Corine Pearce, Meyo Marrufo and Buffy Thomas, with an introduction from Moke Simon. The event is free and open to the public.

“Water Basket” is a unique and monumental project the scale of which Lake County has not seen.

The goal is to paint Middletown’s two water tanks on Rabbit Hill with 360-degree murals inspired by pomo basketry.

The mural design will reflect the area’s history, people and ecology utilizing geometric and organic shapes that are symbolic of animals and plants native to the region.

The project is a collaboration between Middletown Rancheria of Pomo Indians of California, Pomo artists, Callayomi County Water District and the Middletown Art Center.

It’s funded in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional funding from the Middletown Rancheria, the water district and public support.

“Our cultural heritage is needed to uplift our people from grief and pain. Traditional aspects must be reestablished not as a textbook lesson or an artifact behind glass, but as a living art through practice,” said Middletown Rancheria Tribal Chair Moke Simon about the project.

An open call for proposals is available at www.middletownartcenter.org/waterbasket.

A series of workshops led by Pomo cultural artists Corine Pearce, Meyo Marrufo and Eric Wilder, will support native and nonnative participants in realizing their artistic vision.

“Water Basket” invites Indigenous people to bring expressions of their innate cultural heritage into public space and nonnative people to learn about Pomo cultural heritage. Individual, collaborative, and intercultural or multigenerational proposals are encouraged. MAC’s intercultural staff will provide artistic and technical support to prepare a 2-D rendering, as well as materials and supplies.

“The tanks hold the water of life. ‘Water Basket’ honors our people as stewards of the land and the connection that we have to the land and the water,” said Buffy Thomas, project coordinator, a member of Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians.

A jury composed of representatives from Middletown Rancheria Tribal Members, regional cultural practitioners, water district board members, Middletown community members, the Middletown Area Merchants Association and town hall, and MAC artistic staff will assess proposals and select two to three proposals for each tank to move to public input at several Middletown locations.

Final selection will be made by the water district and Middletown Rancheria.

“As a public agency for the community of Middletown, we are seeking to beautify public space and uplift and reflect the unification, regeneration, and revitalization of our community as a whole post-fire, while recognizing the First People and original culture of this land,” said Todd Fiora, general manager of Callayomi County Water District.

Learn more about the project and the call for proposals, RSVP for the panel discussion and reserve your spot for upcoming workshops at www.middletownartcenter.org/waterbasket.

Middletown Art Center is a Lake County nonprofit dedicated to engaging the public in art making, art education, and art appreciation.

Through exhibitions, performances, workshops and community events, the Art Center provides a platform for diverse voices and perspectives, striving to create an inclusive and accessible space for all.

To learn more and donate to support “Water Basket” and other MAC programs visit www.middletownartcenter.org or call 707-809-8118.

The MAC is located at 21456 State Highway 175 in Middletown.



Upcoming Calendar

19Mar
03.19.2024 9:00 am - 12:00 pm
Board of Supervisors
19Mar
03.19.2024 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
Lakeport City Council
22Mar
03.22.2024 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
‘Steel Magnolias’
23Mar
03.23.2024 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
‘Steel Magnolias’
24Mar
03.24.2024 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm
‘Steel Magnolias’
30Mar
03.30.2024 9:00 am - 2:00 pm
Lakeport Community Cleanup Day
31Mar
03.31.2024
Easter Sunday
1Apr
04.01.2024
Easter Monday
15Apr
04.15.2024
Tax Day

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