LAKEPORT, Calif. – Retired California Highway Patrol Lt. Steve Davis will celebrate the publication of his book “22E … Officer Down” at Watershed Books in Lakeport on Friday, May 24.

The event will take place from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.

When CHP Officer Sonny Tyler is gunned down on a rural Northern California road near Eureka in 1970, the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office puts their best man on the case.

Det. Sgt. Don Regan works obsessively to solve the case and keep a promise he made to Officer Tyler's 9-year-old son, Casey. But the clues are few and they lead nowhere, and eventually the case goes cold.

In 1987, Casey – now a CHP officer himself – joins forces with soon-to-retire Sgt. Regan to reopen the cold case, with a dramatic outcome waiting for them both.

Join Davis and crime novel enthusiasts for good conversation and refreshments.  

Watershed Books is located at 305 N. Main St., Lakeport.

For more information, call 707-263-5787 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

LAKEPORT, Calif. – Broadway came to Lake County in grand fashion on Sunday, May 11, when the Lake County Symphony teamed up with vocalist Shelly Trumbo-Mascari and the talented young musicians of the CLPA Youth Orchestra, to present selections from a series of blockbuster musicals.

The afternoon concert at Lakeport’s Soper-Reese Theatre was sponsored by Clear Lake Performing Arts.

Entitled “Salute to Broadway” the concert was a compilation of some of the biggest hits from the hottest musicals produced during the golden years of the Great White Way – the 1920s to the 1960s, selected and usually arranged by the orchestra’s Music Director and Conductor John Parkinson.

The high spirits of the Mothers Day presentation were dampened somewhat by the news that Carl Stewart, the gifted musician and singer who had enlivened past concerts, had recently died.

Announcer Doug Rhoades called for a moment of silence in the darkened theater as a memorial to Stewart, whose contributions to the local music scene had been numerous and outstanding.

Susan Condit, conductor of the CLPA Youth Orchestra, opened the show with two pieces designed to spotlight the talents of her young musicians.

The first, Matt Turner’s “Tango Expressivo,” featured the intricate and tantalizing rhythms of Argentina’s classic dance, which were performed flawlessly.

This was followed by a change in mood and tempo for the theme from “Les Miserables” with senior symphony members Andi Skelton, Sienna S’Zell, Jeff Ives, Clovice Lewis, Patricia Jekel and Austin Ivees lending background support.

At its conclusion the orchestra won extended applause for the virtuosity of its performance.

Prior to the opening of the main event Parkinson noted that open seating at the 11 a.m. rehearsal – originally intended to attract young people, who are admitted free – had resulted in a full house.

Adults – in order to enjoy the more relaxed atmosphere of the rehearsal – are charged just $5 and are seated on a “first come, first served” basis.

“Everyone knows these songs and they like to hum along,” Parkinson said, “including me, as everybody heard since I inadvertently left my mike on.”

He then proceeded to lead the orchestra through an opening medley of music from George M. Cohan, Fats Waller, Rogers and Hart, Lerner and Lowe and others, all segueing into the following number with no breaks between.

At this point the program shifted from a shotgun selection of hits to music from individual musicals, starting with Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “The King and I,” which included “Whistle a Happy Tune” and “March of the Siamese Children.”

“The Sound of Music” featured nearly a dozen numbers, with favorites such as “Sixteen going on Seventeen,” “Getting to Know You” and “Edelweiss” as well as a few familiar to theatergoers but which were eliminated from the movie version.

“The Quest” from “Man of La Mancha” – known more popularly as “The Impossible Dream” – was original slated to be sung by Carl Stewart, but in his unfortunate absence was played by the entire 60-plus member orchestra.

“Fiddler on the Roof” saw the symphonic dances “Wedding Dance No.1,” the “Perchik & Hodel” dance, “Chava Sequence” and “To Life Dance.”

After intermission the ladies of the CLPA Auxiliary auctioned off a basket of special Mothers Day gifts as a fundraising device.

Parkinson also presented a special commendation to violist Aaron Bielenberg, a CLPA scholarship recipient who has played for most of his young life with, first, the youth orchestras of CLPA and finally as a member of the symphony.

He also gave special recognition to Youth Orchestra Conductor Condit and Symphony concertmaster Andi Skelton. Both are not only orchestra members, but also play key roles in CLPA youth music activities.

“I don’t know what we would do without them” Parkinson said.

After a second-half introduction of George and Ira Gershwin’s “Strike up the Band” vocalist Shelly Trumbo-Mascari took the stage to deliver her swinging version of Cole Porter’s “I Get a Kick Out of You,” and then the Gershwin’s classic “Summertime.”

She ended her set with a melodic interpretation of “As Time Goes By” as arranged for her by Parkinson, who earlier had confessed that he was a lifelong devotee of Big Band music.

The shows finale was reserved for “76 Trombones” the signature piece of Meredith Willson’s “The Music Man” and by its end virtually the entire audience was on its feet, sending waves of applause over the performers.

The concert ended the Symphony’s current season, although the CLPA Youth Orchestra will hold its final concert at the Soper-Reese on June 9 at the usual 3 p.m. start time.

Also, groups from both orchestras will appear at the CLPA-sponsored “Art and Wine in the Park” event taking place on June 22 at Library Park in Lakeport.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) is conducting an art contest to select the design for the state’s 2013 upland game bird stamp.

The California Upland Game Bird Stamp Art Contest is open to all U.S. residents ages 18 and over. Entries will be accepted from May 13 through July 13, 2013.

This year’s stamp will feature the sooty grouse, and art contest entries must include at least one adult sooty grouse.

Entries will be judged on originality, artistic composition, anatomical accuracy and suitability for reproduction as a stamp and a print.

The contest will be judged by a panel of experts in the fields of ornithology, conservation, art and printing. The winning artist will be selected during a public judging event, with the date and location to be announced later.

An upland game bird stamp is required for hunting migratory and resident upland game birds in California.

The money generated from stamp sales must be spent on upland game bird-related conservation projects, education, hunting opportunities and outreach.

CDFW sells about 200,000 upland game bird stamps annually, which includes sales to collectors. Hunters are no longer required to attach the stamp to their license.

However, CDFW still produces the stamps, which can be purchased at http://www.dfg.ca.gov/licensing/collectorstamps/ .

For contest information and entry forms, please visit http://www.dfg.ca.gov/upstamp .

It’s a difficult task to accurately imagine one’s self back into childhood. Maybe we can get the physical details right, but it’s very hard to recapture the innocence and wonder. Maureen Ash, who lives in Wisconsin, gets it right in this poem.

Church Basement

The church knelt heavy
above us as we attended Sunday School,
circled by age group and hunkered
on little wood folding chairs
where we gave our nickels, said
our verses, heard the stories, sang
the solid, swinging songs.

It could have been God above
in the pews, His restless love sifting
with dust from the joists. We little
seeds swelled in the stone cellar, bursting
to grow toward the light.

Maybe it was that I liked how, upstairs, outside,
an avid sun stormed down, burning the sharp-
edged shadows back to their buildings, or
how the winter air knifed
after the dreamy basement.

Maybe the day we learned whatever
would have kept me believing
I was just watching light
poke from the high, small window
and tilt to the floor where I could make it
a gold strap on my shoe, wrap
my ankle, embrace
any part of me.

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 ©2012 by Maureen Ash. Reprinted by permission of Maureen Ash. Introduction copyright © 2013 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. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

IRON MAN 3 (Rated PG-13)

Shane Black made his mark in Hollywood mainly for original screenplays of high-octane action films such as “Lethal Weapon” and “The Last Boy Scout.”  

For “Iron Man 3” Black performs the double duty of writer and director.

This duality explains, in large measure, why “Iron Man 3” has its fair share of loud noise and explosions, including the surreal destruction of Grauman’s Chinese Theater carried out by the red-eyed minions of a mad scientist.

To its credit, “Iron Man 3” works fairly well as a stand-alone entertainment, beginning with a flashback to New Year’s Eve 1999 at a swank affair in Switzerland, where Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) rebuffs the entreaties of a tech geek.

Flash forward to the present, the nerdy scientist, Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce), though still weird, now looks like a male model for Abercrombie & Fitch, albeit one with a diabolical plan for world domination, or possibly nothing short of global annihilation.

Killian holds a grudge that Tony Stark, whose alter ego is Iron Man, rejected his program for a project called Extremis, so now he’s in cahoots with an Osama bin Laden-style terrorist named the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley).

Apparently, Killian’s thugs are an army of zombie-like characters who outwardly look like normal humans, but they turn their bodies into a red-hot fury of molten flesh and then explode like human grenades for maximum devastation.

Worn out from too many superhero duties, the eccentric billionaire Tony Stark, suffers from anxiety, causing him to ceaselessly tinker with refinements to his armored Iron Man suit. This results in our hero being a mere mortal for much of the film.

His old pal, Captain Rhodes (Don Cheadle), ends up carrying the load of action heroism. Meanwhile, Stark is also paying little attention to his love interest Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow).

Spurred on by taunts from Stark, the Mandarin launches a full-scale rocket assault on the industrialist’s Malibu seaside mansion, blowing the entire estate into a pile of rubble at the bottom of the ocean.

In the manner of bin Laden’s videotaped threats, the Mandarin interrupts global television programming with diatribes intended to inflict fear of the latest terrorist assault.

Still fiddling with his metal suit, Stark tests a new system that allows him to fly through the air only partially armored while the other pieces hurtle in his direction as if he were a large magnet.

Testing his prototype armored suit leads him to the backwoods of Tennessee where his only ally is a young orphaned kid (Ty Simpkins) who helps the superhero piece together the mystery of the Mandarin.

The clock is running because the Mandarin continues to hijack the airwaves and threatens to bring America to its knees if President Ellis (William Sadler) does not exceed to his outrageous demands.

As expected in the Iron Man franchise, there are plenty of great action set-pieces, even if Stark spends much of his time outside his alter ego comfort zone.

Most spectacular of all is the hijacking of Air Force One, resulting in Iron Man having to fly through the air to rescue about a dozen people blown out of the plane, turning the exercise into what resembles an aerial circus act.

Of course, as with all action-fueled adventures in the superhero genre, the climax is a spectacular battle on the massive loading structure at an unidentified shipping port.

The climactic showdown proves to be too big a job for just one man, so Iron Man is joined by his War Machine colleague, Captain Rhodes. The reunion of the pair allows for them to engage in easygoing banter.

What makes the “Iron Man” franchise entertaining in many ways is the ease with which Robert Downey, Jr. infuses his character with affable wit and charm, along with a superb knack for delivering biting one-liners with facile nonchalance.

Without a doubt, “Iron Man 3,” fittingly as it is based on a comic book, has its cartoonish aspects. Nevertheless, it strives for a higher purpose than just being loaded with special effects.

Though it is hard to imagine the “Iron Man” character inhabited by anyone other than the quirky, fevered Downey, the best of all this time around is Ben Kingsley, whose surprises should not be revealed.

If you are game to sit through endless minutes of credits (where it appears that half of everyone in Hollywood was involved in the production), there’s an amusing session of Tony Stark in a bit of psychoanalysis at the very end.

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

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Soper-Reese Community Theatre will present the local musical group Twice As Good during its Third Friday Live concert on May 17.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m., and the show will take place from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the theater, 275 S. Main St., Lakeport.

The May 17 performance will be the 10 year celebration show for Paul and Rich Steward, the father and son musical duo that makes up Twice As Good.

Come and dance to the dynamic duo's high energy blues, soul, and rock and roll with screaming guitar and soulful vocals, backed up by their own Twice As Good band.

The theater has an open dance floor with table or loge seating. Snacks and beverages are available for purchase.  

Tickets cost $10 per person and can be purchased through the theater's Web site, www.soperreesetheatre.com , or at the theater box office from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Fridays; at The Travel Center in the Shoreline Shopping Center in Lakeport from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays; or at the Tallman Hotel on Main Street in Upper Lake.

For more information visit www.soperreesetheatre.com
 or call 707-263-0577.