How to resolve AdBlock issue? 
Arts & Life
- Details
- Written by: Editor
MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – Middletown's monthly Summer Movie Series in the park will feature “Monster Trucks” on Saturday, June 10.
The free outdoor movie showing will begin at dusk – or around 9 p.m. – at the Middletown Square Park, in front of the library and senior center complex on Highway 29/Calistoga Road.
Bring chairs and blankets, come early with a picnic and enjoy a movie at the park.
For more information, visit www.middletownareamerchants.com or call 707-987-0998.
- Details
- Written by: Editor
MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – Middletown Art Center has announced the start of its second “Resilience” workshop series, “Writing Resilience.”
Thanks to a Local Impact Grant from the California Arts Council and local support, MAC is able to offer Lake County communities its project Resilience.
Resilience provides broad access to the arts for adults of all ages and teens ages 12 and up.
It consists of four monthly five-hour classes that are offered first through fourth Saturdays, June 2017 to May 2018.
All classes will run from noon to 5 p.m. with a 30-minute break. This schedule provides easier connection to Lake Transit from Clearlake for those who want to use public transportation.
The fee is $5 per session. Preregistration is preferred as space is limited.
Resilience workshops cycle through the month with week one, photography; week two, poetry/written and spoken word (June 10); week three, painting (Sunday 6/18 due to Middletown Days); and week four, drawing/printmaking (June 24).
Resilience kicked off last weekend with Photographing Resilience, which was a “fun and inspiring learning experience” according to photographer Ruth Stierna.
Photographing Resilience will be offered next on Sunday, July 9, due to holiday weekend, and generally the first Saturday of the month.
The first “Writing Resilience” for poetry/written and spoken word will take place this Saturday, June 10.
It will be facilitated by Clive Matson, published author and poet, with a career of 40-plus years teaching creative writing.
Matson uses his own methodology based on his book “Let the Crazy Child Write!” to allow writers to delve into their unconscious and express that itch or urge that the creative unconscious wants to release.
As Matson expresses it, “We recognize three voices in the writer’s psyche: ‘Editor,’ ‘Writer’ and ‘Crazy Child’ – or creative unconscious. The Editor is the ‘should ‘ voice, as in you should write everything perfectly the first time, you should make money with your writing, you should make no spelling errors. The Writer organizes your writing life, finds blank paper and pens that work, makes time to sit at the computer or go to a coffeehouse with your notebook. The Crazy Child is the urge to write, that itch in your psyche or body that wants to get out into the world. We’ll tell the Editor and Writer to take a walk and let your Crazy Child write whatever it wants.”
To learn more about Clive Matson, check out his Web site at http://matsonpoet.com/ .
“The Resilience project focuses on nature’s recovery and rebound as an inspiration and mirror for our own resilience after the fires of 2015 and 2016,” said Lisa Kaplan, executive director at MAC. “People of all backgrounds, abilities and experience from professional to newbies are encouraged to attend and engage with the arts and creative expression.”
To register for “Writing Resilience” this Saturday or any other of the upcoming Resilience classes, or to learn more, visit www.middletownartcenter.org/resilience .
Middletown Art Center is a local arts nonprofit dedicated providing art opportunities, art education, cultural enrichment, and ecological awareness, contributing to the social and economic well being of rural Lake County.
MAC’s operations are supported by donations and membership as well as sales in the gallery. Visit www.middletownartcenter.org to learn about MAC’s current exhibit or how you can support MAC.
Middletown Art Center is located at 21456 Highway 175, at the junction of Highway 29.
- Details
- Written by: Editor
COBB, Calif. – The Friends of Boggs Mountain group is excited to announce the world premiere performance of “Firestorm,” a sonata in three movements by pianist and composer Karen Rhoads on Saturday, June 10.
The event will take place, weather permitting, at 11 a.m. at the Cobb Elementary School outdoor amphitheater, 15895 Highway 175.
Rhoads began composing the work in the aftermath of the Valley fire.
The admission-free benefit (donations encouraged) will be open to the community, and sponsored by Friends of Boggs Mountain with support from Evanger's Dog & Cat Food Co.
Children are welcome, and refreshments will be provided.
The performance will be followed by a slow-paced, easy nature hike led by naturalist Darlene Hecomovich, who will share local flora and fauna.
The hike will take place from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., starting at the school, Bring water and a hat.
For more information or to RSVP, call or text 707-321-4964 or email
- Details
- Written by: Ted Kooser
We're taught to never speak ill of the dead. Well, then, what do we do? Perhaps we forgive. Here's a lovely poem by Sarah White, who lives in New York. It's from her book from Deerbrook Editions, Wars Don't Happen Anymore.
Nothing But Good...
I will not speak ill of Jack Flick.
I will rarely look
at the scar he made on my cheek
one summer at the lake.
I won't speak ill of Jack whose freckles
and gangly legs are gone.
So is the drained face I saw when he saw
what he'd done with a sharp rock
nonchalantly skipped.
I will speak well, for it was somewhat
sweet to lie on the dock while Jack
and his friends bent down
and wiped my face with a sandy towel.
I will speak well of them,
for most are gone
and the wound proved small.
I will speak well, for the rock
missed my eye. I can hardly find
the scar. Jack went into the air
corps, fought in one of the wars,
retired, and lived less than a year
before his tender heart gave out.
I will speak well of Jack.
American Life in Poetry does not accept unsolicited submissions. 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 ©2015 by Sarah White, “Nothing But Good . . . ,” from Wars Don't Happen Anymore (Deerbrook Editions, 2015). Poem reprinted by permission of Sarah White and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2017 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.
