MIDDLETOWN, Calif. — The public is invited to “Harlem Voices,” a powerful musical performance and experience at the Middletown Art Center, this Saturday, March 8, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

Written and composed by Rev. Clovice Lewis Jr., M.Div., “Harlem Voices” is a story about resilience in the face of systemic racism and white supremacy while celebrating the enduring power of art to inspire change.

The performance at MAC features seven original musical numbers performed by three vocalists, a string quartet and piano, with chorus by My Divas.

The art center will transform into the Black Jay Speakeasy set in the 1920s. Guests are encouraged to dress in Prohibition Era or fancy attire and participate in the speakeasy experience.

Tickets are currently available for $25, and limited. Prohibitions Era inspired food (by Goddess of the Mountain) and beverages are available for purchase. Advance orders of food requested. For more information or to purchase tickets visit middletownartcenter.org/harlemvoices.

Lewis is a composer well known in Lake and Mendocino County as a music educator and cellist participating in both local symphonies, He is a social justice advocate and an ordained Unitarian Universalist Minister.

In partnership with MAC, Lewis was recently awarded a prestigious Humanities for All grant from California Humanities to bring this two-part opus to life.

“Harlem Voices” has been the focus of his work since 2019. It is composed in a style Lewis calls “jazzical” – a blend of genres that makes this musical unique.

“I firmly believe that art has the unique ability to dismantle the cognitive dissonance that often shields people from their moral and spiritual truths,” Lewis said. “My life's work is dedicated to articulating the lived experience of a Black man in this country — for as long as it takes. No regime built on ignorance and bigotry will deter me. I will continue to champion justice through creativity, as long as I can hold a pen in my hand!”

Performing musicians and vocalists come from the Bay Area and Mendocino County and include Lake County’s own singer songwriter and activist Blue Ryon and My Diva’s: Barbara Clark, Laura McAndrews Sammel, Jo Fay, Brenda Vickers Gravesen.

Additional concert performances with a twelve piece orchestra will take place at the Soper Reese Theatre May 30, 31, with a matinee on June 1.

This is an urgent call to action for our community members to support a project that brings world-class artistry to Lake County and amplifies the voices of marginalized communities.

“Harlem Voices” is made possible by an award from California Humanities, a nonprofit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Visit www.calhum.org. 

Matching funds are required and donations are graciously accepted to help the partners meet their fundraising goals for this meaningful project. For more information visit MiddletownArtCenter.org/Harlem-voices.

Middletown Art Center is a nonprofit dedicated to engaging the public in art making, art education, and art appreciation and providing a platform for diverse voices and perspectives, striving to create an inclusive and accessible space for all.

To learn more and donate to support this or other MAC arts and cultural programs visit middletownartcenter.org. Contact MAC at 707-355-4465, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

KELSEYVILLE, Calif. — The Lake County Rural Arts Initiative, or LCRAI, is excited to announce the next round of the Teacher Art Grant Fund.

Thanks to generous contributions from the Lake County Wine Alliance, Lake County’s chapter of 100+ Women Strong, individual donors and corporate sponsors, the award amount for this round has been increased from $100 to $200 per teacher.

The “We Love Teachers” art grant is open to any educator serving transitional kindergarten through 12th grade students in a Lake County public or charter school (not privately funded).

Some teachers use these funds to purchase basic art supplies for their students, including crayons, construction paper, paint and glue. Others invest in art-related equipment for the classroom and specialized project-based supplies.

Grant applications will be available on the LCRAI website and will be accepted until March 14 or until the available funds are depleted.

Funds will be distributed via Venmo or PayPal by April 30.

Founded in February 2018, LCRAI aims to promote Lake County as an arts and culture destination.

Past initiatives have included mural projects around the lake, public art installations, and the sponsorship of Teacher Art Grants. This year, the board has committed to focusing on art integration in schools, fully supporting the grant program.

Research indicates that when children and teens engage in the arts, their self-esteem and academic performance across all subjects improve.

Since launching the grant program, LCRAI has fulfilled 542 grant requests, providing nearly $55,000 directly to Lake County classrooms.

The all-volunteer board works diligently with minimal overhead costs, ensuring that donations go directly to funding as many art integration grants as possible.

To learn more about LCRAI, apply for the Teacher Art Supply Grant, or make a donation, please visit the organization’s website, LCRAI.org, or Facebook page at Facebook.com/ruralartsinitiative.

LCRAI is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization; all donations are tax-deductible.

‘WATSON’ ON CBS TELEVISION

Fictional detective Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick Dr. John Watson are enduring, popular figures as the result of the prolific work of British writer and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Going back to 1922 when John Barrymore played the titular role in “Sherlock Holmes” to a more recent portrayal of the famous sleuth by Benedict Cumberbatch in “Sherlock,” the character often assisting Scotland Yard has been in so many movies and TV shows that it is hard to keep track.

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson were characters from the Victorian era, which makes sense because Arthur Conan Doyle started writing about them in the late 19th century. Recent adaptations of his works have transported them to the modern era.

Interestingly enough, CBS brought the characters to contemporary times last decade with “Elementary,” a popular series in which Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) left London for New York after being in rehab.

Holmes’ father made him live with a sober companion, Dr. Joan Watson (Lucy Liu), a former surgeon who quit after losing one of her patients. Paired together, they began consulting with the NYPD to solve difficult cases.

CBS is now back with another take on the famous detective’s associate in the series simply titled “Watson,” where the good doctor is a contemporary figure who witnesses his friend, in a battle with archenemy Moriarty, taking a plunge into a steep waterfall as the result of the fight.

Throwing caution to the wind, Dr. John Watson (Morris Chestnut) nosedives into the fall to attempt a rescue, only to end up hospitalized for what his loyal associate Shinwell Johnson (Ritchie Coster) later tells him was a traumatic head injury.

Sherlock Holmes did not survive, leaving his estate to Watson so that he could create the Holmes Clinic Diagnostic Medicine in the city of Pittsburgh six months after recovering his memory.

With the help of his trusty aide Shinwell, Watson hires a quirky crew of medics to handle obscure cases, where each episode, at least in the beginning, focuses on the rare affliction of one patient.

The central cast members are Eve Harlow’s neurologist Ingrid Derian, Inga Schlingmann’s immunology specialist Sasha Lubbock, and Peter Mark Kendall pulling double-duty as twin infectious disease experts Stephens Croft and Adam Croft.

The Croft brothers are identical twins, of course, but their personalities diverge in a major way. One is very loquacious. The other seems to be emotionally stunted, which fits for Stephens since he doesn’t even like the way some pronounce his given name.

Serving in the role of the clinic’s medical director is Watson’s ex-wife Mary Morstan (Rochelle Aytes), who doesn’t let divorce get in the way of providing some balance to the operation by tempering Watson’s more unorthodox methods.

Not to be left out is Randall Park’s Moriarty, who appears at the beginning in the tussle with Sherlock at the Swiss waterfall. Will this criminal mastermind and Sherlock’s archrival suddenly reemerge from the dead, like Patrick Duffy’s Bobby Ewing in the “Dallas” series?

In the first episode, a pregnant woman unable to sleep and fearing for her life is diagnosed with Fatal Familial Insomnia, a rare genetic condition that causes sleeping difficulties, memory loss, and involuntary muscle twitching. The condition worsens over time, and it’s life threatening.

In another episode, we learn that Foreign Accent Syndrome, a brain-related condition that affects your ability to make sounds correctly, is a legitimate medical condition that might be treatable.

During a virtual CBS press tour, Morris Chestnut wanted everyone to know that “all the medicine on this show is real” and it “has been vetted by numerous medical professionals.” Who’s going to challenge an episode delving into a diagnosis so rare that maybe your family physician doesn’t even know it?

Show creator and writer Craig Sweeny made it known that in writing a medical procedural he was writing “about cases at the very edge of human knowledge,” while also observing that the show was designed to allow you to “learn a little bit more about yourself and your genes.”

What the series has going for it is the charisma of Morris Chestnut, which is evident not just in the show but when he explained his previous roles always played it straight as a doctor, but here he’s a “doctor and detective in addition to being in the whole Sherlock mythology.”

As a medical show, “Watson” leans into its investigative streak, because this modern version of one of history’s greatest fictional detectives turns his attention from solving crimes to solving medical mysteries.

The show’s conceit of unwinding mysteries rather than crimefighting is not entirely satisfactory as mixing Sherlock mythology with complex medical obscurities does not seem like it will prove to be a winning formula over the long haul.

On the plus side for all it’s worth, viewers will learn a few things about incomprehensible medical conditions that may well elude even some practitioners. However, would this knowledge even be useful for a trivia contest?

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

‘LOVE HURTS’ RATED R

The first installment of the “Die Hard” franchise is thought in many circles to be a Christmas movie. If that’s a defensible position, then “Love Hurts” is by all measures a Valentine’s Day cinematic excursion.

If Feb. 14 is a day to celebrate love and affection, “Love Hurts” is a curious choice. However, it apparently qualifies to be holiday-themed because the action takes place on the day where gifts are typically flowers and boxes of chocolate.

Still, a movie could be even less connected to the spirit of Valentine’s Day, which was the case with 1982’s horror film “Hospital Massacre” (aka “Be My Valentine, or Else,”) and several slasher films that included 1981’s “My Bloody Valentine” and the 2009 remake “My Bloody Valentine 3D.”

The central character of the seemingly mild-mannered Milwaukee realtor Marvin Gable (Ke Huy Quan “Everything Everywhere All at Once” Oscar winner) bakes his own pink heart-shaped cookies to share with his office staff on Valentine’s Day.

A cheerful salesman incredulously excited to pitch bland tract homes to prospective buyers, Marvin finds that his dark past as a hitman working for his crime lord older brother Alvin “Knuckles” Gable (Daniel Wu) has come back to haunt him.

Aside from his ruthless exterior, Knuckles’s twisted devotion to family leads to an inability to let go of Marvin that, coupled with an obsessive need for control, creates a volatile relationship at the heart of the story.

Subsequently, Marvin gets swept into a vortex of family dysfunction when he gets a cryptic greeting card from former criminal partner Rose (Ariana DeBose) which simply reads “Hiding isn’t living.”

Having unrequited feelings, so it seems, for Rose creates a problem for Marvin because he’d been instructed by his brother to kill her. Now that she’s very much alive, a Knuckles goon called The Raven (Mustafa Shakir) shows up at Marvin’s office and not to enjoy a holiday cookie.

Mayhem ensues with martial arts moves that rely on more than just high kicks and brutal punches. Kitchen wares and furniture figure into the ballet of violence, as Marvin must fend off thugs of all stripes.

Aside from the poetry-spouting Raven, who ends up being enamored by Marvin’s frazzled assistant Ashley (Tio Tipton), bantering hoodlums Otis (Andre Eriksen) and King (Marshawn “Beastmode” Lynch), prove to be more dangerous and lethal henchmen hunting down Marvin.

While romantic chemistry between Marvin and Rose is virtually non-existent, the mismatched pair of Otis and King have a magical partnership, driven by King’s street-smart wisdom contrasting with Otis’s philosophical ramblings that delivers the most memorable comedic moments.

When heavily-armed gangsters show up at an open house showing to a young couple, the gunfire and destruction of the property is bonkers, and yet Marvin tries his best to put a nice spin on everything for his clients.

Besides the surfeit of nicely choreographed fight scenes that are exciting for action fans, “Love Hurts” tie to a Valentine’s theme goes not much further than Raven reading poetry to Ashley, while romance eludes the lovelorn Marvin.



‘YOU’RE CORDIALLY INVITED’ ON AMAZON PRIME VIDEO

With stars Reese Witherspoon and Will Ferrell, respectively as the sister and the father of rival brides tossed into conflict over a wedding venue, Amazon Prime’s “You’re Cordially Invited” is supposedly a romance story and comedy, but it appears ultimately to be neither.

Ferrell’s Jim, a widower and borderline helicopter dad, wants only the best wedding for his daughter Jenni (Geraldine Viswanathan) when she announces an engagement to Oliver (Stony Blyden), who doesn’t look like viable marriage material.

Nevertheless, for Jim nothing is too good for his only child, and so he books a reservation for the nuptials to take place at the historic Palmetto House on a small Georgia island resort where he married his late wife.

Meanwhile, Witherspoon’s neurotic Margot, a Los Angeles television producer, has distanced herself from her disapproving Georgia family, except for her younger sister Neve (Meredith Hagner), for whom she is the wedding planner.

The film shows promise at the start when Margot shows up at the resort to discover the double booking of a venue that can only accommodate one party. This sets the stage for a showdown between Margot and Jim that falters not long after the first verbal punches are thrown.

Strange and even creepy moments unfold at the resort, from Jim ending up in a hotel room wrestling with an alligator to father and daughter singing an inappropriate song that borders uncomfortably on being incestuous.

All things considered, even if you are a fan of Reese Witherspoon and/or Will Ferrell, “You’re Cordially Invited” is a wedding invitation to which the best response would be to politely refuse due to another commitment, like finding a better romantic comedy.

Speaking of comedy, the best humor comes from supporting cast member Leanne Morgan’s Gwyneth, the sex-crazed alcoholic wife of one of Margot’s siblings whose ribald one-liners deliver some laughs. With few good moments, the film flounders from its formulaic construct.

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

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Calling all Lake County Dancers!

Do you want to share your talent at the 2025 Spring Dance Festival?

The Lake County Arts Council is holding auditions on March 1 at the Lakeport Dance Center to find this year's top talent.

Those who wish to audition must notify the Arts Council so that they can assign an audition time.

Submit basic information about your dance by following the link below: https://forms.gle/CgNPQAaWhbZUEuq29. 

Participants must be able to attend the following key dates at the MAC at Lakeport Unified in Lakeport:

• Dress rehearsal on April 11 from 5 to 9 p.m.;
• The show on April 12 from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

This show has been a time-honored local tradition for over 40 years, and you are welcomed to participate in celebrating dance in Lake County.

All proceeds from the show support the efforts of the Lake County Arts Council.

For more information, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call Blair at 209-269-6766.

‘THE NIGHT AGENT’ ON NETFLIX

There is so much original programming on streaming services, with Netflix churning out a lion’s share of domestic and foreign TV series and films, that it is easy to overlook what proves to be captivating entertainment.

The spy thriller series “The Night Agent” had its first season run two years ago, and now it’s back with the second season. Better late than never to catch up on the first season with a binge-watch.

Even with a shift in the tone and underlying mission of the second season, “The Night Agent” requires being immersed in the totality of its origin series, so as to have the full flavor of the main characters who return. Fortunately, both seasons can be found on Netflix.

Some may wish to compare “The Night Agent” to Showtime’s long-running espionage thriller “Homeland,” in which Claire Danes’ CIA officer with a bipolar disorder suspects Damian Lewis’ Marine held in captivity for eight years to be connected to a terror plot.

The connection between the two series rests with the broader concept of dangerous cat-and-mouse games that threaten national security along with a heavy dose of political intrigue and domestic terrorism. “The Night Agent” is definitely tuned into an overall conspiratorial theme.

To understand the appeal as well as premise of this political thriller, we must start with knowing that FBI agent Peter Sutherland (Gabriel Basso), fairly new to the job, becomes what should be at least an unsung hero for saving riders on a Washington, D.C. metro subway from a bombing attack.

Regardless of Peter’s heroics in finding the bomb and getting passengers safely off the train, he’s inexplicably under suspicion and relegated to a desk job in the basement of the White House with the sole responsibility of answering a phone at the Night Action desk.

The phone serves as a line for field agents to call when something goes horribly wrong, which happens rarely. His first call eventually comes from cybersecurity expert Rose Larkin (Luciane Buchanan), getting the number from her aunt and uncle who turnout not to be an ordinary elderly couple.

While Rose was visiting her relatives, a pair of assassins, Dale (Phoenix Raei) and Ellen (Eve Harlow) arrive at their house, and Rose is dispatched to use a phone down the street to call for help on the Night Action line.

Not wanting to leave any loose ends, the ruthlessly mysterious hired killers, apparent foreign actors, realize that they need to track down Rose as the only possible witness to the murder of her relatives.

Finally, Peter’s boring routine of idly waiting for a call has been interrupted as he must spring into action to help Rose, a frantic civilian suddenly embroiled in a plot where she desperately needs protection.

Peter brings her in from the cold, setting up a meeting with his ally in the White House, Diane Farr (Hong Chau), the chief of staff to President Michelle Travers (Kari Matchett), who faces her own share of political intrigue.

Jockeying for position inside the White House leads to its own scheming and deception. Peter ends up answering to two masters. Besides the president’s right-hand in Diane Farr, he’s also answering to Jamie Hawkins (Robert Patrick), deputy director of the FBI.

Complicating matters for Peter’s untested agent are the fact he must navigate the treacherous waters of palace intrigue. His loyalty to the chief of staff creates tension with the FBI’s deputy director, but an interesting dynamic is that it looks like just about everyone has got something to hide.

Peter is gradually pulled into a political conspiracy that points to a foreign mole inside the White House. Worse of all is that Peter is thrown into dangerous situations that require dealing with malevolent actors.

A few episodes into the first season reveals a tangential subplot that involves Vice President Redfield’s (Christopher Shyer) daughter Maddie (Sarah Desjardins), a college student not fond of her father or his career.

The rebellious Maddie may be a target herself, which gets complicated when she ditches her Secret Service detail that consists of exacting agent Chelsea Arrington (Fola Evans-Akingbola) and veteran agent Erik Monks (D.B. Woodside), returning to duty after a near-fatal on-the-job injury.

As the series moves to its conclusion, a wild conspiracy targeting the President puts Peter into another tight spot, but which allows him to prove his worth far beyond manning a nighttime phone.

The second season thrusts Peter into a foreign assignment in Bangkok, where he’s teamed up with seasoned operative Alice (Brittany Snow). Things get deadly when they are on the tail of a rogue agent selling top secret documents.

The mission goes wrong, and Peter goes off the grid, much to the alarm of his hard-nosed stateside handler Catherine Weaver (Amanda Warren). Hiding out in New York and dodging assassins, Peter is soon reunited with Rose.

Season 2 of “The Night Agent” is looking as promising as the origin series. If you enjoy conspiracy-related spy thrillers, this should be the series to check out.

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