LAKEPORT, Calif. – Lake County Live! once again visited the Soper-Reese Community Theatre in Lakeport on Sunday, Aug. 26, with a show featuring outstanding music and an audience that was amused and entertained throughout the program.

Lake County Live! Is a one-hour radio show, broadcast live on Lake County Community Radio station KPFZ at 88.1 FM and streamed live on the Internet at www.kpfz.org .

The in-theater audience gets to “peek” into the world of live radio, while watching voice performers and musicians on stage during the show.

This month, music was provided by Majide! This trio includes Paul Kemp on piano, Jim Leonardis playing sax and vocals by Machiko. Classic smooth jazz was the main theme, with an occasional blues variation.

Joining them during the show was the a cappella group EarReverence, who returned to the stage after appearing in January during the premier broadcast of Lake County Live! The group features Nick and Valerie Reid, Carol Cole Lewis and Bill Bordisso.

Always tight with their harmonies and style, they delighted the audience with a couple of popular songs, and elicited a lot of laughter with a couple of others. As always, EarReverence proved to be irreverent.

“With the continuing characters we’ve developed, such as the Ladies of the Lake, and both new and returning musical guests, our audience is always appreciative and responsive,” said show creator and producer Doug Rhoades. “We started this venture back in January, and at that time never knew whether the concept would be accepted on the air or in the theater. I think since we just completed our eighth show, and people are asking about the next one, that question has been answered. We have a home here.”

Lake County Live! provides a venue in the theater for local talent, including musicians, vocalists, writers and more, building on a template established during the first show in January of this year.  

Each show features two or three musical guests or groups, plus comedy from a stock cast of players, including Kris Andre, Pamela Bradley, Suna Flores, Vicky Parish Smith, Richard Smith and others.

Rhoades ties it together by performing hosting duties, as well as appearing in several of the comedy bits during each show.   

“We are grateful for the support we’ve had, and want to thank KPFZ and the Soper-Reese for their support, as well as all of those associated with both who volunteer to help each month.  We’re also thankful for the support of Lake County News, who has been there since we started,” Rhoades added.

The program airs live on the last Sunday of each month. Tickets are available at the theater box office at 275 S. Main in Lakeport on Fridays from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., at the Travel Center, 1265 S. Main in Lakeport, and online at www.soperreesetheatre.com .

Show information can be found at www.lakecountylive.com , as well as at www.facebook.com/lakecountylive .

Questions about the show can be directed to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Art House Gallery will hold its Third Friday Gala showcasing local artists on Sept. 21.

The event will take place from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the gallery, located at 15210 Lakeshore Drive, Clearlake.

This month’s featured artist is Karen Magnuson.

In addition to shows the gallery offers courses in music and art for children and adults.

For more information call the gallery at 707-994-1716 or visit http://thearthousegallery.net/ .

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – “The End of the Line,” Second Sunday Cinema’s free film for Sept. 9, is a compelling documentary on the scary results of over-fishing by factory fishing boats all over the planet’s oceans.

If things continue as they are now, many experts predict that the oceans will be fished out by 2048.

Considering that fish are the major source of protein for over a billion of the world’s inhabitants, this is something that needs our urgent attention and action.

Some might ask, well, if we just stop industrialized fishing operations, won’t the fish quickly rebound?

Not necessarily.

Within the last quarter century, there were vast schools of cod off the Newfoundland coast. Due to plummeting numbers, fishing for cod was made illegal there a few years ago.

But this has has proved to be too little to late. Cod have not rebounded. There are too few at this point to reliably find each other to reproduce, and drag-trawling in many places scrapes the sea floor clean, destroying fish nurseries.

But on a positive note, this film tells us how we each, as individuals, can make a positive difference in the fate of many edible fish species.

As always, Second Sunday Cinema’s venue is the Clearlake United Methodist Church at 14521 Pearl Ave, in Clearlake.

Doors open at 5:30 p.m.; the film will start at 6 p.m.

The film is completely free.

For more information, call Shannon Tolson at 707-889-7355.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lake County Arts Council will host its next First Friday Fling on Sept. 7.

The fling will take place from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Main Street Gallery, 325 N. Main St., Lakeport.

The First Friday Fling will introduce the work of Carmon Brittain, Judy Cardinale, John Hart, Karon Thomas and Terri Pyle.

Currently showing at the gallery are Bruce Vandraiss, Lois Freon, Linda Becker, Carol Yanagitsubo, Leonora McKenzie, George Waterstaat and Heidi Thomason.

Cathy Hall will provide music and Moore Family Winery will pour its vintages. Finger food also will be offered.

This month the Linda Carpenter Gallery again will feature an exhibition of “Summer of Peace” art.

For more information contact the Lake County Arts Council, 707-263-6658.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Theater Co. is continuing rehearsals for “The Cemetery Club,” a comedy by Ivan Menchell.  

The production is a benefit for the Lakeport Senior Activity Center “Meals-On-Wheels” program, which provides food to home bound seniors throughout Lake County.  

With more than 60,000 meals being provided each year, the expenses are huge, and cuts in funding have made it necessary to do fundraisers to supplement the costs. Seeing a great show is a fun way to help out.

There is nothing more satisfying for a director than to have a strong cast a well as a competent crew when putting on a play.  

The cast consists of Cindy Strong (Lucille), Kathleen Escude (Doris) and Cathy O’Connell (Ida). They portray three Jewish widows who have been friends for years.  

After the respective deaths of their husbands, they get together once a month for tea and to go clean up their husband’s cemetery plots.  

Their interaction with each other as they go about their daily lives is the stuff that makes life interesting with many quirky and humorous scenes.

Doug Burns (Sam the Butcher) brings a sense of adventure and maybe romance to the story and Michele Chapman (Mildred), surprises everyone when she arrives on the scene.  

These five performers make a perfect ensemble for this funny and poignant play.

Marg Brooks is the director, with Maheanani Phillips as her able assistant director. Cindy Strong is producer and Wink Winkler does his magic with the sets, lights and sound. Winkler will be assisted in painting the sets by Mike Ernst, a very talented artist. Josh Blair is stage manager.

Performances will take place at the Lakeport Senior Activity Center with a dinner show opening night.  

Production dates are Friday, Sept. 21, at 7 p.m. (doors open at 5:30 p.m. and dinner at 6 p.m.); Saturday, Sept. 22, at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.; Friday, Sept. 28, at 7 p.m.; and Saturday, September 29, at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Tickets for the dinner show are $20 and all other performances are $12, and can be purchased at the Lakeport Senior activity Center, 527 Konocti Ave. from 9 a.m to 1 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, telephone 707-263-4218; The Salon at High Street Village, 1847 North High St., Lakeport, telephone 707-413-7250; and Cheese’s Main Street Pizza, 145 N. Main St., Lakeport, telephone 707-263-0777.

Perhaps by the time this column appears, our economy will have improved and people who want to work can find good work.

Minnie Bruce Pratt, who lives in Syracuse, N.Y., has a new book, mentioned below, in which there are a number of poems about the difficulties of finding work and holding on to it. Here’s an example:

Temporary Job

Leaving again. If I didn’t care, I wouldn’t be
grieving. The particulars of place lodged in me,
like this room I lived in for eleven days,
how I learned the way the sun laid its palm
over the side window in the morning, heavy
light, how I’ll never be held in that hand again.

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 ©2011 by Minnie Bruce Pratt from her most recent book of poems, Inside the Money Machine, Carolina Wren Press, 2011. Reprinted by permission of Minnie Bruce Pratt and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2012 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.