UKIAH, Calif. – Friday, Sept. 21, is International Day of Peace.

In order to honor the day and celebrate the many cultures of our community and beyond, Mendocino College and Rotary Club of Ukiah have partnered to host an inaugural International Day of Peace concert and performance featuring Cascada de Flores, dancers from the local SPACE Theatre, and Ballet Folklorico of Petaluma.

The event will take place on Sept. 21 in the Mendocino College Center Theatre, Ukiah campus, and doors will open at 5:30 p.m.

Cascada de Flores is a professional ensemble that presents concerts as a duet to a sextet, bringing the nostalgic song and traditions of Mexico and its neighbors into simple and beautiful arrangements that allow space for both improvisation and pure expression.

Cascada de Flores has recorded now four albums, collaborated in numerous projects, including theater and cinema and toured several areas of the United States.

In Mexico they have been delightfully received in venues such as The Central Plaza in Mexico City with Jorge Saldaña, la Tasca in Jalapa, and lately in the beautiful Biblioteca Henestrosa in Oaxaca City and the main festival of Tezoatlán, Oaxaca.

They even traveled to study with the trovadores of Santiago de Cuba. Cascada de Flores is now a phenomenon, cherished by the Latinos that hear them, and opening the minds of its non-Latino fans. Opening minds and hearts to the real stories of Mexico and Latin America has become this group's unofficial mission.

For more information about Cascada de Flores visit http://www.cascadadeflores.com/.

A cash bar with beer, wine, and refreshments will be available and proceeds from the event will support Rotary Club of Ukiah activities and scholarships for students.

Tickets for the event are: $15 for adults, $5 for children 12 and under, and free for Mendocino College students.

To purchase tickets visit https://bpt.me/3602118 or call 707-467-1008.

The Mendocino College Ukiah campus is located at 1000 Hensley Creek Road, Ukiah.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Back Porch Project from Mendocino County comes to the Soper Reese Theatre at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 21.

This lively group combines the diverse musical backgrounds of folk, blues, classic rock, jam band, and alt country to create their own brand of easy listening “folkgrass.”

The sweet blend of vocal harmonies and tasteful instrumentation sounds of The Back Porch Project will put everyone in just the right mood.

Rodney Grisanti (mandolin), Sid Bishop (guitar and harmonica), Steve Hahm (guitar and vocals), Roseanne Wetzel (vocals), Ken Ingels (percussion), and Steven Keith (bass) have been playing together in different groups and combinations in the Ukiah Valley for years.

When they first came together on a hot July night on Steve’s back porch to do some pickin’, they were pretty sure they had something special.

Sid Bishop has been playing guitar and harmonica for almost 40 years. His greatest musical influences are Jerry Garcia, The Beatles, Neil Young, Bob Dylan and Motown.

Steven Keith is a tie-dye slingin' Texan from Las Vegas who lives in Hopland and plays a mean bass. His wife can sing too, and the two are known to perform rock and roll acoustic covers at a few local haunts under the name "Steve & Shug."

Rodney Grisanti began making noise and recording it in Memphis, Tennessee in the early 1980s. Currently, Rodney makes noise and records it on a daily basis in and around Ukiah.

Ken Ingels is the owner of the recording studio, Russian River Studio, and is also a master rhythm keeper.

Stephen Hahm plays acoustic guitar and banjo. His musical tastes range from folk to classic rock, lounge crooners to indie or anything else that has a good melody and groove.

Roseanne Wetzel has been performing since she was a young child in a variety of fields ranging from jazz bands, funk bands, choirs, symphony events, musicals and operas. Most recently, you may have seen her grace the stage as part of the Funky Dozen or with the Ukiah Symphony's concert, “Kick off Your Shoes! Tribute to the Big Band Dance.”

All seats are $15 each, open seating. Dance floor open. To purchase tickets go online at www.SoperReeseTheatre.com, or to The Travel Center, 1265 S. Main, Lakeport, Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

For more information call 707-263-0577.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife is conducting an art contest to select the design for the state’s 2018-2019 upland game bird stamp.

The California Upland Game Bird Stamp Art Contest is open to all U.S. residents ages 18 and over.

Entries will be accepted from Nov. 20 through Dec.7.

This year’s stamp will feature the white-tailed ptarmigan (Lagopus leucuraI).

This smallest of North American grouse species exhibits a dramatic change in plumage from a mottled or a barred brown-yellow during breeding in spring to a pure white during the winter months, allowing this chameleon of the bird world excellent camouflage on the ground year-round in its alpine habitat.

In California, ptarmigan occupy the highest elevations of the Sierra Nevada from Alpine County south to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park.

Entries must include at least one white-tailed ptarmigan, preferably in a habitat or setting representative of California. Entries will be judged on originality, artistic composition, anatomical accuracy and suitability for reproduction as a stamp and a print.

The contest will be judged by a panel of experts in the fields of ornithology, conservation, art and printing. The winning artist will be selected during a public judging event, with the date and location to be announced later.

An upland game bird validation is required for hunting migratory and resident upland game birds in California.

The money generated from stamp sales must be spent on upland game bird-related conservation projects, education, hunting opportunities and outreach. CDFW sells about 175,000 upland game bird validations annually.

Any individual who purchases an upland game bird validation may request their free collectable stamp by visiting www.wildlife.ca.gov/licensing/collector-stamps.

For collectors who do not purchase a hunting license or upland game bird validation, or for hunters who wish to purchase additional collectible stamps, an order form is also available on the website.

For contest information and entry forms, please visit www.wildlife.ca.gov/upland-game-bird-stamp.

David Mason is the former poet laureate of Colorado and a professor of literature and writing at Colorado College. His most recent book is The Sound: New and Selected Poems, from Red Hen press. I very much like the way in which the muddy boots both open and close this poem, in which not one but two biographies are offered to us in less than a hundred words.

The Mud Room

His muddy rubber boots
stood in the farmhouse mud room
while he sat in the kitchen,
unshaven, dealing solitaire.

His wife (we called her Auntie)
rolled out dough in the kitchen
for a pie, put up preserves
and tidied, clearing her throat.

They listened to the TV
at six, he with his fingers
fumbling the hearing aids,
she watching the kitchen clock.

Old age went on like that,
a vegetable patch, a horse
some neighbor kept in the barn,
the miles of grass and fences.

After he died his boots
stood muddy in the mud room
as if he'd gone in socks,
softly out to the meadow.

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 ©2017 by David Mason, "The Mud Room." Poem reprinted by permission of David Mason. 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.

PEPPERMINT (Rated R)

Long ago, Charles Bronson perfected the righteous vigilante in “Death Wish.” In recent times, we have had Liam Neeson in the “Taken” series and Denzel Washington in “The Equalizer” films to pick up the mantle of heroes exacting revenge on stereotyped bad guys.

“Peppermint” brings a new twist to this genre in that a strong female character gets into the action of meting out personal justice. Jennifer Garner, who showed her action chops in the TV show “Alias,” mirrors what Liam Neeson brought to his action hero role in “Taken.”

Garner’s Riley North, a working mother living in a Los Angeles suburb with her husband Chris (Jeff Hephner) and young daughter Carly (Cailey Fleming), has a life that seems fairly typical of the average family.

Chris, who runs an auto repair shop, is looking to get ahead financially on an unfortunate deal that would put him in the crosshairs of a Mexican drug cartel. Backing out of an ill-advised scheme comes too late for him.

Near the Christmas holiday on an outing to a local carnival, Chris is gunned-down in a hail of machine gun fire, while Carly is also caught in the crossfire, all of it happening while Riley witnesses the tragedy.

The justice system fails Riley in epic fashion when her identification of three gang members in court gets tossed by a corrupt judge. Only two LAPD detectives seem to have taken her interest for justice to heart.

Disappearing for five years, Riley returns to Los Angeles as an avenging angel seeking street justice. During her absence she trained in martial arts and all sorts of weaponry to become the female equivalent of Jason Statham.

The three thugs that got off scot-free are found hanging from a Ferris wheel and the corrupt lawyers are also dispatched. It doesn’t take long then for the detectives (John Ortiz and John Gallagher, Jr.) to figure out that Riley North is back in town with a vengeance.

While the crooked judge is confronted to a brutal demise, Riley’s primary focus is going after the cartel operation of Diego Garcia (Juan Pablo Raba), who was responsible for the hit placed on her husband.

To sum up what takes place, suffice to say that Riley goes on a rampage through the cartel’s warehouse and Garcia’s heavily-armed estate with the kind of shootings and explosions that Keanu Reeves employed to take out his adversaries in “John Wick.”

“Peppermint” is almost certain to offend the sensibilities of pretentious critics who object to brainless vigilante violence.

It’s no coincidence that the film is directed by Pierre Morel, the director behind “Taken.” This means that “Peppermint” is designed for the same audience and not for the art-house crowd.

Some people have wondered why the title of the film is “Peppermint,” and my take, for what it’s worth, on this is that the young daughter asks for peppermint ice cream on the fateful night of the shooting. It’s simply symbolic.

Whether “Peppermint” turns out to be your flavor or not depends on how you may have reacted to other films in the same genre. It does check all the boxes for an action-filled revenge fantasy.



‘YOU’ ON LIFETIME

Obsession is nothing new to the type of dramas, whether in movies or series, that are the staple of the Lifetime Channel. “You” delivers a ten-part series that explores the dangers of dating in the social media age.

The basic story is the twisted courtship of a seemingly mild-mannered manager of a Manhattan used bookshop specializing in rare editions and a poetry grad student who happens to be browsing the shelves.

Penn Badgley’s Joe Goldberg, exuding an outgoing charm, finds Elizabeth Lail’s attractive Guinevere Beck looking through the stacks for literature of interest and he is immediately smitten.

His notice piqued by her perky nature, Joe wastes no time checking her out through social media, discovering that she goes by her last name and hangs out with snooty friends at local bars.

In fairly short order, by stalking like a perverted voyeur, he spies on the ground-floor apartment where the large windows allow a peak into Beck’s private life, noticing that her boyfriend appears motivated solely by a booty call.

An interesting facet to the story is that “You” explores the creepy mind of a stalker by allowing Joe to do voice-over narration that sheds light on his on sociopathic mind to save Beck from unworthy suitors.

Things turn disturbing and unnerving very quickly when Joe tricks Beck’s sleazy boyfriend Benji (Lou Taylor Pucci), an obnoxious rich-boy promoting a brand of artisanal soda, into the soundproof basement of the bookstore.

Not having gone deep into the series, I am just wondering what fate awaits the lecherous professor who put the moves on Beck during an after-work meeting to discuss her position as a teaching assistant. Whatever the case, “You” looks to have a lot of surprises in store.

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

MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – Middletown Art Center is hosting a writers workshop led by poet Russell Reza-Khaliq Gonzaga on Sunday, Sept. 16, as part of the Restore project.

The class takes place from 1 to 5 p.m. at the center, located at 21456 Highway 175, in central Middletown.

The cost is $5. Pre-registration is required, as space is limited.

Adults and children age 12 and up of all levels of experience are invited to come to one or many monthly writers workshops that will be offered until May 2019.

Participants will have opportunity to submit writings and images created in Restore printmaking classes to be included in the Restore chapbook, which will be published in June.

Russell Reza-Khaliq Gonzaga is an award-winning writer and arts educator. Poet Laureate Emeritus of Lake County (2012-2014), he has represented San Francisco for three years at the National Poetry Slam and served as Reno's Poetry Slam Master.

As activist and educator, Gonzaga received the Certificate of Honor and has had a day named after him by San Francisco's mayor and Board of Supervisors.

He has worked in several prominent programs including Youth Speaks, Writers Corps, California Poets in the Schools, Cazadero Performing Arts Family Camp, and Oakland Fine Arts Summer School program.

His own adult writers workshop, “Elyseum,” has fostered many talented writers who have become professional authors, journalists and poets laureate.

Visit www.middletownartcenter.org or like Middletown Art Center on Facebook to stay up to date with what’s happening at the center.