LAKEPORT, Calif. – The GenX Cinema series presents the 1984 family film, “The Karate Kid,” starring Pat Morita and Ralph Macchio, on Wednesday, July 11, at 7 p.m. at the Soper Reese Theatre in Lakeport.

Entry is by donation.

This exciting, sweet-tempered, heart-warming story, with one of the most interesting friendships seen in a film in a long time, is directed by John G. Avildsen who also directed “Rocky.”

Pat Morita is simply terrific, bringing the appropriate authority and wisdom to his part as the Yoda-like karate instructor, a part for which he won an Academy Award nomination.

Ralph Macchio delivers a sympathetic and believable performance as Morita’s teenage student who desperately needs a way to put down the school bully.

The film is rated PG with run time of 2 hours 2 minutes, and is sponsored by Leather Feathers.

The Soper Reese Theatre is located at 275 S. Main St., Lakeport, telephone 707-263-0577.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The scariest summertime flick ever, “Jaws,” starring Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw, screens at the Soper Reese Theatre on Tuesday, July 10, at 1 and 6 p.m.

Entry to the film is by donation.

Director Steven Spielberg paces this 1975 film beautifully, so that one is always on edge, tensed for the scary moments that turn out to be false alarms, and left totally unprepared for the real shocks.

The film was the winner of three Academy Awards including best musical score by John Williams.

The movie is sponsored by John H. Tomkins Tax Consultants. Rated PG. Run time is 2 hours and 4 minutes.

The Soper Reese Theatre is located at 275 S. Main St., Lakeport, 707-263-0577, www.soperreesetheatre.com.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – Comedian Marc Yaffee and his daughter, musician, Alicyn Yaffee, bring a night of Jazz and Jokes to the Soper Reese Theatre, Saturday, June 30 at 7 p.m.

Marc Yaffee is a co-star of the Showtime special, “Goin' Native: The American Indian Comedy Slam,” and has also been seen on the Latino Laugh Festival and Comics Unleashed.

Alicyn Yaffee, a jazz guitar vocalist based in New York City, has toured across North America and Europe.

The Yaffees, both former Kelseyville residents, will be joined by comedian Ruben Mora. Mora has performed across the region, including at the Punchline and Improv Comedy clubs.

"I actually started my comedy career when I lived in Kelseyville, so I am excited to come back to Lake County," said Yaffee. "And I know Alicyn would not have pursued music professionally if not for the opportunity to play under Tom Aiken in the Kelseyville High School Jazz Band."

Marc Yaffee recently shot the TV pilot, “Almost Americans,” where he plays a comedian teaching citizenship to new immigrants.

The show's cast also includes Gerry Bednob (Mooj from The 40 Year Old Virgin), and Steven Michael Quesada (Agent Gomez from Breaking Bad).

Marc Yaffee also co-starred in the premier episode of the new standup series, “First Nations Comedy Experience” for the First Nations Experience Network.

Alicyn Yaffee released her debut album, “Someone Else,” on Mad Dog Junkyard Records and will begin recording a followup album later this year.

Tickets, $15 in advance and $18 at the door, are now available at www.soperreesetheatre.com; at the Travel Center, 1265 S. Main St., Lakeport, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; or at the Soper Reese Theatre Box Office, 275 S. Main St., Lakeport, two hours before show time and on Fridays from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

James Crews, who lives in Vermont, was for two years our assistant at American Life in Poetry.

A fine poet in his own right, he has just published a new book, “Telling My Father,” the winner of the 2017 Cowles Poetry Prize from Southeast Missouri State University Press.

Strict Diet

Though the doctors said no salt,
salt was all my father craved.
His body bloated, skin water-logged
and gray, still he wanted potato chips,
honey-baked ham, greasy slabs
of Polish sausage from Piekutowski's.
He begged for pepperoni pizza,
garlic butter, ribs slathered in sauce.
But when I did the shopping,
I searched only for labels that said
low sodium and no preservatives, instead
bringing home heads of broccoli,
turkey burgers, shredded wheat.
And when he died anyway,
guilt gnawed me like an ulcer—
how could I have denied him
his few final pleasures?—
until I found Big Mac wrappers
stuffed under the car seat,
jars of pickles in the hall closet,
and hidden among wads of tissues
near the night stand, his stash—
a half-used canister of salt.
I sat down on his sagging mattress
now stripped of stained sheets
and studied that blue label
with the girl in the yellow dress
holding her umbrella against a rain
of salt still falling from the sky.

American Life in Poetry does not accept unsolicited manuscripts. It is made possible by The Poetry Foundation ( www.poetryfoundation.org ), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2017 by James Crews, "Strict Diet," from Telling My Father, (Southeast Missouri State Univ. Press, 2017). Poem reprinted by permission of James Crews 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.

Two blockbuster films continue to suck up a lot of the oxygen in multiplexes, which explains why other big budget films are going to hold off for now while the Star Wars chapter “Solo” and comical film “Deadpool 2” are holding on to top spots at the box office for now.

Let’s turn to taking a look at the television landscape on the ABC Fall schedule, which now won’t include “Roseanne” due to the titular star’s racist tweet resulting in the show being cancelled faster than a Jesse Owens dash at the 1936 Olympics.

By the way, if you miss comedian Tim Allen’s popular family comedy “Last Man Standing” that has been off the air for more than a year, then grab the remote come fall and find it reincarnated on another primetime network.

To see how a network doesn’t need to revive a series but just a kernel of an idea behind other shows, there is no need to wait for the fall because ABC is airing a new series starting June 21.

In “Take Two,” Eddie Cibrian’s lone-wolf private investigator is talked into allowing Rachel Bilson’s Sam Swift, the former star of a hit cop series whose epic breakdown is broadcast to the public, to shadow his moves as she’s desperate to restart her career.

Rachel Bilson’s rehabbed private eye is hoping to emulate Hank Azaria’s boozy sports announcer who had a meltdown on his radio broadcast and worked his way back into the minor leagues in the IFC network’s series “Brockmire,” now in its second season.

The analogy may not be spot-on but the old memory bank recalls the same network airing “Moonlighting,” where Cybill Shepherd’s Maddie Hayes, a former top model no less, ends up owning a detective agency and soon enough she’s working cases with Bruce Willis’ David Addison.

After years of watching television, you start to wonder how scriptwriters make it work, and then along comes “A Million Little Things” about a group of friends in Boston who have bounded under unusual circumstances. Some achieved success and others are struggling on many fronts.

The wake-up call to reassess the need to finally start living is one dies unexpectedly, and along the way they discover that friends may be the one thing to save them from themselves.

“A Million Little Things” stars the always funny Ron Livingston as Jon, Romany Malco as Rome, Allison Miller as Maggie, David Giuntoli as Eddie, Christina Moses as Regina, Christina Ochoas as Ashley, James Roday as Gary, Stephanie Szostak as Delilah and Lizzy Greene as Sophie.

The star of “Castle,” Nathan Fillion, looks to be the perfect choice of the prime role in “The Rookie,” in which he’s small-town guy John Nolan who, after a life-altering incident, is pursuing his dream of being an LAPD officer.

As the force’s oldest rookie, Nolan is met with skepticism from some higher-ups who see him as just a walking midlife crisis. But if he can use his experience to keep up with the young cops and the criminals, his grit and sense of humor may triumph in this new chapter of life.

“Single Parents” is an ensemble comedy following a group of single parents as they lean on each other to help raise their 7-year-old kids and maintain some kind of personal lives outside of parenthood.

The group meets Taran Killam’s Will, a 30-something guy who’s been so focused on raising his daughter that he’s lost sight of who is as a man. Falling into the rabbit hole of dealing with PTA meetings and little princesses looks a situation for intervention.

The stars ending up in this orbit of parenthood include Leighton Meester as Angie, Kimrie Lewis as Poppy, Jake Choi as Miggy, Marlow Barkley as Sophie, Tyler Wladis as Graham, Grace Hazelett as Emma, Sadie Hazelett as Amy, Devin Trey Campbell as Rory and Brad Garrett as Douglas.

As a traditional Irish-Catholic family, the Clearys are the focus of “The Kids Are Alright,” set in a working-class neighborhood outside Los Angeles, as they navigate changes during one of America’s most turbulent decades.

Michael Cudlitz’s Mike and Mary McCormack’s Peggy raise eight boisterous boys who live out their days with little supervision. The household gets turned upside-down when the oldest son returns home and announces he’s quitting the seminary to go off and “save the world.”

“The Fix” arrives midseason and the interesting thing is that former prosecutor Marcia Clark (the O.J. Simpson trial) is a co-writer of this new legal drama about a Los district attorney who suffers a devastating defeat when prosecuting an A-list actor for double murder.

Another anticipated series on the horizon is “Whiskey Cavalier,” a dramedy that follows the adventures of a tough FBI agent played by Scott Foley assigned to work with a badass CIA operative played by Lauren Cohan.

A lot more will be reported about this and other networks new lineup of the fall programs when stars and show creators show up for panels at the summer TV press tour.

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

MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – Middletown Art Center's Adventures in Art and Storytelling Summer Camp starts next Monday, June 18, and runs through Friday, June 29.

The camp runs, Monday through Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

“Join us on our flying carpets where we'll journey to imaginary lands where legends, heroes and myths are born,” said Lauren Schneider, one of two credentialed teachers leading the camp. “We'll be creating stories and building our village community through a variety of artistic expressions including painting, sculpture, book making, mask making, music making, dancing and more!”

Register your child in grades K-9 for an unforgettable and rich immersive, cultural and creative experience.

Teachers are artist Lauren Schneider who has taught multiple age groups extensively in the Konocti School District and Cobb Elementary and African dance teacher Jessie Beck.

The cost is $250 for the two weeks or $125 per week and includes materials, supplies and healthy snacks.

Visit www.middletownartcenter.org/classes or call 707-809-8118 to register and learn more.

Sibling discounts are available as are partial work-trade options and partial subsidies for those in need of assistance.

It promises to be a unique and super fun creative adventure, not to be missed.