COBB, Calif. – The Friends of Boggs Mountain (FOBM) cordially invite the community to a delightful melding of music and nature with Karen Rhoads at the classical piano on Saturday, June 27, at Boggs Mountain Demonstration State Forest.

Rhoads will play from 10 to 10:45 a.m. and again from 11:15 a.m. to noon. Admission is free.

Rhoads is a Cobb resident and FOBM board member. While growing up in Springfield, Ill., she studied piano with several teachers, most notably, with well-known instructor, George Ecklund.

“I had drifted away from my music over many years. As my parents aged and became ill, I wanted to reach back to good times when we enjoyed music together,” said Rhoads.

The head of the Santa Rosa Junior College music department put Rhoads in touch with Dr. Rudolph Budginas to help her get back “in the groove.”

“Rudolph not only has a performance career; he is that rare genius who also teaches brilliantly,” she adds.

Rhoads will play favorite selections by Bach, Chopin, Schumann, Scriabin, Grieg and Kuhlau, providing introductory comments about each piece.

The community is invited, and children are welcome. Bring folding chairs or blankets, and relax and enjoy the music in a shady grove at Boggs.

The site is wheelchair-accessible with assistance. Refreshments will be provided.

Boggs Mountain Demonstration State Forest is at the end of Forestry Road, about 1.5 miles north of Cobb off Highway 175.

For more information, contact Karen at 707-321-4964 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

LAKEPORT, Calif. – La Voce del Vento Chamber Players present “Brasstasticks” on Sunday, June 21, at 3 p.m. at the Soper Reese Theatre. 

The brass quintet’s featured musician is Gary Miller who plays alongside R. Dale Spencer, Mike Thompson, Brynn Stirling and Jacob Turner. 

The program includes selections from the music of George Gershwin and such fanciful pieces as “The Flight of the Tuba Bee” and “Zombie Apocalypso.”

Reserved seat tickets are $20 and $15, and are available online at www.soperreesetheatre.com ; at the theater box office, 275 S. Main St. in Lakeport from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Fridays; or at The Travel Center, 1265 S. Main St., Lakeport, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. 

For more information call 707-263-0577.

I once knew an artist who seemed to live on those little envelopes of free sugar that one can find on tables in restaurants. And he took the little “watercolor pans” of jelly, too, stuffing his pockets.

Here’s a poem by Ned Balbo, who lives in Baltimore, about another sugar snatcher.

The Sugar Thief

If it was free, you taught, I ought to grab it
as you did: McDonald’s napkins, pens,
and from the school where you were once employed
as one of two night shift custodians,
the metal imitation wood wastebasket
still under my desk. But it was sugar
that you took most often as, annoyed
on leaving Dunkin’ Donuts, pancake house,
and countless diners, I felt implicated
in your pleasure, crime, and poverty.
I have them still, your Ziploc bags of plunder,
yet I find today, among the loose
change in my pockets, packets crushed or faded—
more proof of your lasting legacy.

American Life in Poetry 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 2010 by Ned Balbo, “The Sugar Thief,” from The Trials of Edgar Poe and Other Poems, (Story Line Press, 2010). Poem reprinted by permission of Ned Balbo and the publisher. Introduction copyright 2015 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. They do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

JURASSIC WORLD (Rated PG-13)

Memory loss can sometimes be a good thing. This is particularly true when failing to remember inferior movie sequels, such as the first two that followed the success of Steven Spielberg’s original adaptation of the Michael Crichton’s novel with 1993’s “Jurassic Park.”

While we’re at it, I could just as easily forget the misfire of the three “Star Wars” prequel films that followed the great trilogy that began in the summer of 1977, when George Lucas was on top of his game.

It’s hard to imagine, but there’s a real chance that Disney’s upcoming Episode VII of “The Force Awakens” will be a welcome relief. So if the Magic Kingdom can work wonders, returning to the essence of “Jurassic Park” can do the same 22 years later with “Jurassic World.”

What’s terrific about “Jurassic World” rests not just with the spectacular special effects. The return to the basics of Spielberg and Crichton’s original blend of science fiction and boundless imagination is nicely realized in the fantasy world of a theme park filled with spectacular yet previously extinct creatures.

Jurassic World is a fully operational luxury resort, situated on an island off the coast of Costa Rica, where thousands of guests explore the wonder and brilliance of the most magnificent living prehistoric marvels and interact up close with them every day.

Overseeing every nook and cranny of the theme park is the career-driven Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard), who finds herself unexpectedly saddled with the responsibility for her visiting nephews, the surly teen Zack (Nick Robinson) and younger sibling Gray (Ty Simpkins). Claire’s not exactly the nurturing type.

The most appealing central character is Chris Pratt’s Owen, an ex-military expert in animal behavior working at a secluded research base on the periphery of the main park. Given his role in “Guardians of the Galaxy,” Pratt is most fitting as an Indiana Jones-type of adventurer.

Owen is years into a training study with a pack of aggressive velociraptors, over which he’s established an alpha relationship that balances the animals precariously between reluctant obedience and predatory revolt.

Willing to upset the wobbly balance and harmony of nature is the billionaire benefactor Simon Masrani (Irrfan Khan) who’s employed Dr. Henry Wu (BD Wong), a geneticist of dubious ethics, to engineer a genetically modified dinosaur that has never walked the Earth before.

The secretive new breed designed to attract more inquisitive visitors to Jurassic World is the massive and mysterious Indominus rex.

Tourists have become jaded with docile dinosaurs roaming around freely. Kids hitch rides on gentle triceratops. The giant whale that swallows dangling sharks whole is like a Sea World attraction.

The park owner wants to satiate the public appetite for more thrills and danger, and Indominus rex may be the answer. The hybrid dinosaur is bigger, badder and with larger teeth eager to chomp on the domesticated prehistoric creatures as well as the two-legged park visitors.

Moreover, the Indominus rex is not only cruel (it devours its sibling), but highly intelligent as it fools its human minders in a brilliant escape from a seemingly impenetrable walled-in holding pen.

Meanwhile, Vincent D’Onofrio’s Hoskins, a security contractor, has problematic intentions as he appears mostly preoccupied not with human safety but trying to harness the incredible power of the dinosaurs as military weapons.

Not surprisingly, “Jurassic World,” just like its predecessors, gets its adrenaline rush from the perils that lurk to threaten key characters, here namely Claire’s nephews who are blithely rolling around the countryside in a gyroscope when all hell breaks loose.

It’s up to former Navy man Owen to step into the role of the hero, teaming up with the impeccably dressed and coiffed Claire to rescue the kids. The only thing Owen is missing is a fedora and bullwhip, but his action hero status doesn’t really require the use of any props.

In typical Spielberg fashion, there’s satisfying family bonding that emerges from the wreckage of rampaging dinosaurs. Claire grows more protective of her nephews, who are coping with the unfortunate circumstance of their parents getting a divorce that will fracture the family.

There is also the obvious moral story that tinkering with nature to create a new dinosaur made up of spare parts and questionable DNA is an act of playing God that is not going to end well.

What is likely to end well is a box office bonanza for the studio that has produced a thrilling action adventure story fueled by very impressive computer-generated special effects.

“Jurassic World,” an almost formulaic reboot of the original film, delivers the action goods in dazzling manner.

Put in other terms, the “Jurassic Park” franchise roars back to relevance with plenty of thrills and chills in the supremely breathtaking awe of the terrific dinosaur mayhem of “Jurassic World.” Fans of the original should be gratified by the exciting results.

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

COBB, Calif. – The family friendly "Rock On!" concert will be presented on Saturday, June 13.

The one-day music festival will take place at Jellystone Park, 14117 Bottle Rock Road, Cobb. 

Gates open at 2 p.m. Parking is free. Music begins at 3 p.m. and lasts until 8:30 or 9 p.m. 

The concert features four local rock bands: The Fargo Brothers, Johnny Tsunami & The Hurricanes, Beatz Werkin' and Hilarie & Milton.

Approximately 20 local vendors will offer services and handmade crafts for sale. Snacks, ice cream, beer and wine can be purchased at the Jellystone Park store. Jellystone also will be selling beer and wine at the concert.

Alcohol purchased outside the campgrounds, glass bottles and pets will not be allowed inside the concert grounds. Attendees are encouraged to bring their own coolers, water, folding chairs or blankets, sunscreen, sun umbrellas and hats, and extra cash for food and craft vendors.

Tickets can be purchased with cash at the entrance for $15 each, or two time bank credits for time bank members. Children 12 and under may attend for free.

Advance tickets, which cost $13 each, are available until 10 a.m. Thursday at The SPOT Juice Bar in Middletown, Watershed Books in Lakeport and Sphynx Urban Clothing in Clearlake. Advance tickets will be available at Jellystone Park store until Friday at 8 p.m. 

Following the Rock On! concert on June 13, there will be an after party featuring the rock band Audio Design from 8 p.m. to midnight at the Village Pub, 21365 Highway 175, Cobb.

For information about camping at Jellystone Park, call 707-928-4322. More details are on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Friends-and-Family-Productions/802857313134499?fref=ts .

How’s this poem for its ability to collapse all the years from childhood to middle age in a matter of fifteen short lines? George Bilgere is one of this column’s favorite poets. He lives and teaches in Ohio.

The Wading Pool

The toddlers in their tadpole bodies,
with their squirt guns and snorkels,
their beautiful mommies and inflatable whales,
are still too young to understand
that this is as good as it gets.

Soon they must leave the wading pool
and stand all day at the concession stand
with their hormones and snow cones,
their soul patches and tribal tattoos,
pretending not to notice how beautiful they are,

until they simply can’t stand it
and before you know it
they’re lined up on lawn chairs,
dozing in the noonday sun
with their stretch marks and beer bellies,
their Wall Street Journals and SPF 50.

American Life in Poetry 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 2014 by George Bilgere from his most recent book of poems, Imperial, (Univ. of Pittsburgh Press, 2014). Poem reprinted by permission of George Bilgere and the publisher. Introduction copyright 2015 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. They do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.