MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – Join artist John Jennings and create linocuts at Middletown Art Center this Saturday, Sept. 29, from 1 to 5 p.m.

Adults and teens (12 and up) of all levels of art making experience, from newbies to professionals, are invited to attend this fun and inspiring class for just $5.

“In my journeys through the various modes of printmaking, I’ve found none quite as dynamic as block printing, which includes linocuts,” explained Jennings. “The range of possibilities runs from the exquisitely delicate lines and gradient colors of the Japanese landscape artists to the almost primitive strokes of the European Expressionists. In our class I hope to introduce the participant to the magic of block printing: from the drawing stage to the transfer of the drawing to the linoleum block, to the carving of the block to printing of the image. The thrill of pulling the rice paper off the block and seeing your work in ink on the page is like no other.”

Please register in advance for all Restore classes at www.middletownartcenter.org/restore, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 707-809-8118. Space is limited and reservations are required.

The Restore project provides low-cost classes most weekends through May 2019. Fall and early winter classes provide opportunity to learn or refine skills in a variety of materials and techniques, including clay, woodworking, metalworking, concrete, dry point, block printing, and more.

Late winter and spring classes will focus on personal and collaborative projects, studio time, mentoring and guidance to create work. Learn more about Restore class scheduling at www.middletownartcenter.org.

While participants can join for just one class, MAC encourages folks to come to a series of classes and collaborate in project design and implementation for a new Art Walk on Rabbit Hill, and/or to work towards a large-scale personal work for exhibition at the EcoArts Sculpture Walk.

A public call for work for the Sculpture Walk will be posted in January. Entries to the Sculpture Walk will be juried.

On Saturday, Oct. 6, the Restore project features concrete vessels with Emily Scheibal. On Oct. 13, local poet Georgina Marie will lead the Writers Workshop.

Work from writing and printmaking classes will contribute to MAC’s second chapbook of writings and images, as well as work for readings or exhibition.

The first chapbook, “Resilience – a community reframes disaster through art,” is available for purchase at MAC or on the MAC Web site.

The Restore project was made possible thanks to support from the California Arts Council, a state agency, with additional support from local organizations, businesses, and individuals. Visit www.ca.arts.gov to learn more about the California Arts Council’s important work in communities and schools throughout California.

The Middletown Art Center is located at 21456 State Highway 175 at the junction of Highway 29. Be a part of the growing arts scene in South Lake County by becoming a MAC member, by coming to Restore printmaking this Saturday, or by attending one of the many arts and cultural events or classes at MAC.

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

KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – Iconic singer/songwriter Eliza Gilkyson, with special guest Nina Gerber, will perform at the Coffeehouse Concert Series in Kelseyville on Saturday, Oct. 6.

The concert begins at 7 p.m. at the Fore Family Vineyards Tasting Room, 3020 Main St. in Kelseyville.

Seating is limited, and tickets are only available in advance; at Fore Family Vineyards Tasting Room, Watershed Books or at www.uuclc.org .

The concert is sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Community of Lake County.

Gilkyson’s latest album, “Secularia,” is recently released and the reviews have been fantastic.

With nearly a dozen records under the renowned folk label Red House, Gilkyson is producing the best music of her career. Gilkyson's music, in the classic folk music tradition, offers a vivid reflection of these times.

“Secularia” is a collection of spiritually charged songs that don't fit within the parameters of traditional religious beliefs.

Her songs challenge us to embrace a more inclusive perspective, to respect all life and be accountable for our actions.

Nina Gerber has released solo CDs as well as produced, arranged and performed with many other folk singers.

Gerber continues to prove with her guitar that some of the truest and most emotional communication requires no words.

When combined with the voice of another musician of heart, the result is unforgettable.

For more information, call 707-812-2788.

KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – While at the Pear Festival this Saturday, be sure to check out the open house and craft fair hosted by Kelseyville Seniors Inc.

Enjoy complimentary refreshments while you shop the large selection of handmade items at the center, 5245 Third St., in downtown Kelseyville from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Seating will be available.

It will also be a great opportunity to learn about the transformation of the senior center building into the Kelseyville Event Center.

Take a peek at the new stonework, paint job and outside lighting recently completed. Find out how community donors are making this happen, and what you can do to be a part of it.

The craft fair will include local crafts by Creative Homeworkz, Tina's Jewels, Sudsy Lady, Carolyn Vasquez Feather Art, Crochet by Nicol, Gina Powers Jewelry & Ornaments, Wright Creative Crafts & Jewelry, The Traveling Boutique and Dania Designs.

KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – The Konocti Art Society shows and sells art at the WestAmerica Bank during the Kelseyville Pear Festival, which takes place from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 29.

KAS artists display many types of art – watercolor, oil, acrylic, original ceramics, prints and cards.

Many pieces of "pear art" will be on display on the WestAmerica Bank counter during the month of September, which is a raffle benefiting the Lake County Arts Council’s Summer Youth Art Camp.

Tickets can be obtained by depositing money into the KAS bank account. The cost is $5 for six tickets or $1 each. Tickets will also be available the day of the festival.

The drawing for several pieces of art will be held at 3 p.m. Sept. 29 in the bank.

It's been a very long time since I was young, but I remember the giddiness of first love, and David Steingass, a Wisconsin poet, shows us in this poem how poetry can both recall and reflect that kind of emotional excitement.

This is from his book, Hunt & Gather, from Red Dragonfly Press.

Youth

I vowed I'd quit ciggies on the heel of the mother
Of all hangovers. The world at noon pulsed a first

Columbus Ohio spring day. I'd fallen in love
Of course, as recently as chem lab and held

The ghost of her smell
In my clothes. Or lips

If I'd been lucky. My blood thunk
Thunk-thunked, the way a cut feels

As you bend to tie shoes. The way life
Tingles the first day it breaks loose

To crawl your skin. Dizzy,
I ran through milky sap and

Sycamore-leafed streets, mixing the smells
Of just-thawed earth with essence of girl

My blood steamed. I understood lost-at-sea as glamorous
Isolation, the way a hummingbird's movement through two

Eye blinks allows it to vanish and
Re-appear. My wings blurred hinges

Among worlds. Nothing held me. Nothing
Could catch me. I'd run this way forever.

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 ©2016 by David Steingass, "Youth," from Hunt & Gather: Poems New and Selected, (Red Dragonfly Press, 2016). Poem reprinted by permission of David Steingass 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.

THE PREDATOR (Rated R)

Arnold Schwarzenegger made his mark in the Eighties with films like “The Terminator,” “Conan the Barbarian” and “Predator,” the latter of which he quite astutely did not join in any of the sequels.

“The Predator,” written and directed by Shane Black, takes a departure from the past, infusing this action thriller with tongue-in-cheek humor and wisely skipping any misguided links of previous films in the franchise to the “Alien” films.

But even with the new touches of Shane Black’s vision, based on the director’s affinity for thrilling action mixed with a sense of humor, the question is whether the “Predator” franchise is necessary to be revived at this time.

At best, “The Predator” is an action-filled B-movie that would probably play best at local drive-ins, if such theaters remained in plentiful supply. But that doesn’t mean it’s lacking as an entertaining diversion.

The action gets off to a fast start when Quinn McKenna (Boyd Holbrook), a former Special Forces Army Ranger turned mercenary soldier, is in Mexico on a mission to rescue hostages held by a drug cartel.

The arrival of an alien spaceship scrambles the hostage liberation effort, and McKenna and his squad are faced with a deadly encounter with the Predator, a fearsome creature with physical strength unmatched by any human.

Barely escaping as the only survivor, McKenna is able to retrieve some alien gear, including a helmet and a metal casing for the forearm. He ships the equipment back home to his son, Rory (Jacob Tremblay).

Once the package arrives, Rory, a loner afflicted with autism who is bullied at school because he’s a genius, tinkers with the alien equipment, triggering the Predator’s ability to track down what McKenna managed to steal.

Upon returning to the States, McKenna is taken by the government for mental observation and is put on a military prison bus with a group of veterans suffering from PTSD who know each other from group therapy.

The soldiers, known as the “Loonies,” include the suicidal Nebraska (Trevante Rhodes), Tourette’s Syndrome victim Baxley (Thomas Jane), wise-cracking Coyle (Keegan-Michael Key), enigmatic Lynch (Alfie Allen), and fanatic Nettles (Augusto Aguilera).

For the sake of survival, this motley crew of “Loonies” bands together with McKenna and commandeer the prison bus to head off to McKenna’s home to save Rory. In the getaway, they pick up the terrified Casey Bracket (Olivia Munn).

A biologist called to help the government study a captured alien held in a secret bunker, Casey had managed to escape when the sedated creature awoke and killed just about everybody in a bloody rampage.

Of course, McKenna’s kid, who figured out the alien code, is placed in serious jeopardy. But one of the funniest scenes is when the Loonies end up at the home of McKenna’s estranged wife (Yvonne Strahovski) to locate Rory and unnerve her with their lunatic banter.

“The Predator,” fittingly enough with Shane Black’s desire not to take things too seriously, goes all-in for over-the-top thrills with a climax so wild on top of the alien spaceship that one can only marvel at the audacity.

In the end, “The Predator” is a joyride into thrilling action where the raging battles with the Predator may not be truly suspenseful or frightening but fun nevertheless.



‘TOM CLANCY’S JACK RYAN’ ON AMAZON PRIME

Jack Ryan was to author Tom Clancy what James Bond was to Ian Fleming. Both heroes have had a long and successful run in source novels and plenty of cinematic iterations. Now along comes “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan” for an eight-episode run on Amazon Prime.

Even though both prolific authors are no longer with us, their family estates keep the franchises going, and in most cases that’s a good thing.

The “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan” series allows John Krasinski (“The Office”) to bring an everyman quality to the CIA analyst evolved from a desk job to a daring action hero in the hot spots of the Middle East.

Krasinski’s Jack Ryan first appears as a mild-mannered drone dwelling in his office cubicle tracking suspicious financial transactions that signal significant terrorist funding operations happening in Yemen.

Following in the footsteps of actors like Harrison Ford, Alec Baldwin and Ben Affleck, Krasinski’s Ryan is similarly tossed into the cauldron of dangerous missions out in the field.

The first episode puts Jack Ryan on the spot with an assignment to cross-examine a terrorist, an obligation to which Ryan responds: “I’m an analyst. I don’t interrogate people. I write reports.”

Ryan would not have been in this predicament but for having gone behind the back of his superior, James Greer (Wendell Pierce), whose prickly nature is manifested in frequent outbursts.

As a former Marine who saw action in Afghanistan, Ryan may be an egghead who enjoys baseball and riding his bike, but he’s the right guy to step up his game.

“Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan,” a nice contemporary addition to the franchise, is entertaining and could easily merit a binge-watching turn.

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