UPPER LAKE, Calif. – Lake County Wine Studio is presenting a one-night performance show with guitarist/song writer Jack Williams on Wednesday June 6, at 7 p.m.

Williams’ music, rooted in his native South Carolina, was shaped by a 54-year career of playing folk, rock, jazz, R&B, classical and the popular music of the 30s, 40s and 50s.

He is counted among the most dynamic performers on today’s “folk” music circuit.

Williams is an uncommonly unique guitarist, a writer of vivid songs with a strong sense of place, and a storyteller in an old Southern tradition who further illustrates each tale with his guitar.

A sought-after artist on all contemporary acoustic music stages, from coffeehouses and festivals to music halls and city arts stages; from acclaimed appearances at Newport, Boston, Philadelphia, Kerrville, New Bedford SummerFest Folk Festivals, his musicianship, songs, stories and commanding presence have established him as an uncommonly inspiring and influential performer.

Friendships with two great singers had an enormous impact on Williams’ career and on the development of his own singing voice.

In 1973, his relationship with the late Harry Nilsson resulted in an album effort at RCA during an ill-fated period of music industry turmoil.

Until 2002, he sometimes toured as solo accompanist to his friend, the late Mickey Newbury, with whom he co-wrote, co-produced and recorded a live album and video, “Nights when I am Sane” (reissued as “Winter Winds”).

From 1958 through 1988, along with playing jazz trumpet and classical guitar, Williams was best known as an electric guitarist in a series of original rock bands and smaller acoustic ensembles.

As a hired-gun guitarist in the Deep South of the Civil Rights-Easy Rider 1960s, Williams’ bands accompanied the likes of John Lee Hooker, Big Joe turner, Jerry Butler, Hank Ballard, the Shirelles and the Del-Vikings.E nriched from these varied influences, Williams’ music is truly an “All-American Southern” music.

In the late 1960s he gave in to his troubadour nature and began performing solo – singing and playing a gut-string guitar and touring from coast to coast.
Seats are available at $20-plus tax per person. Light refreshments will be served; beer and wine will be available for purchase.

For reservations and additional information, contact Susan Feiler at 707-275-8030, 707-293-8752 or e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Lake County Wine Studio is located at 9505 Main St. in Upper Lake.

UPPER LAKE, Calif. – Lightning Rod Gallery is pleased to present new paintings and drawings by well-known Lake County artist Tamsen Donner.  

The show, entitled “ Animals Like Us,” continues Donner's recognition of, and affinity for, the dignity, humor, and mystery of the animal kingdom, among whom we number.

“We’re all part of the natural order,” Donner said. “It’s a dangerous belief that humans are at the top of some hierarchy.”

A California native, Donner traveled the world with her family as a child, spending time in Mexico, England, France and Italy, as well as Texas, Vermont and New York.

She attended various art schools in some of those places, earning her bachelor's degree at the University of Texas.

Always an independent thinker, she balances her knowledge of the accepted art canon with her own personal list of influences: Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Marisot, Caillebotte, Diebenkorn and Bischoff.

Widely shown in galleries in California and abroad, Donner’s paintings and drawings are at once evocative and whimsical.

She paints with oil on board, layering the paint in a process driven technique that is fresh and painterly.

She also is a master of the quick ink sketch, adding watercolor sparingly but to great affect in a series of small drawings.

Donner will be at the gallery for a reception from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, May 19. Stop by to see the work and meet her.

“Animals Like Us” will be up from May 19 to July 19.

Lightning Rod Gallery is located at 9475A Main St., Upper Lake.

Hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

For more information, call Susan Saunders at 707-275-8018 or 415-254-1846, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., like the gallery on Facebook or check out the gallery at www.lightningrodgallery.tumblr.com .

FORT BRAGG, Calif. – The Fort Bragg Center for the Arts Music Series presents two acclaimed American artists, violinist Dan Smiley and pianist Jonathan Shames, in concert on Sunday, May 20.

The concert begins at 3 p.m. in Preston Hall, Mendocino.

Tickets, which are $20, are available at Fiddles and Cameras, Harvest Market, Main Street Books, at www.brownpapertickets.com and at the door.

Smiley and Shames will perform “Sonata for Piano and Violin in A major” by Mozart, “Fantasy in C major for Violin and Piano” by Franz Schubert and “Sonata for Violin and Piano in E minor” by Edward Elgar.

The Smiley-Shames Duo has been recognized as an exceptional collaboration presenting performances of the great masters with power, technical brilliance and artistry.

Julliard graduate Smiley served for more than a decade as principal second violin for the San Francisco Symphony.  

He will be remembered locally as former concert master for the Mendocino Music Festival and as soloist in the Prokofiev and Brahms concertos.  

Last year he gave a haunting performance of the Barber Violin Concerto with the Symphony of the Redwoods.  

Pianist/conductor Shames won the l982 Moscow International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition.  

Since then he has performed, recorded and conducted in France, Finland, South Korea and Russia and the U.S.

As a chamber musician Mr. Shames has performed with the Colorado, Moscow, Audobon and Vega String Quartets.

The Smiley-Shames Duo has inspired audiences with powerful performances infused with technical brilliance and deep artistry.

We’ve published a number of engaging poems about parenthood in this column, and we keep finding more. Here’s Wendy Videlock, who lives in Colorado, taking a look into a child’s room.

Disarmed

I should be diligent and firm,
I know I should, and frowning, too;
again you’ve failed to clean your room.
Not only that, the evidence
of midnight theft is in your bed—
cracked peanut shells and m&m’s
are crumbled where you rest your head,
and just above, the windowsill
is crowded with a green giraffe
(who’s peering through your telescope),
some dominoes, and half a glass
of orange juice. You hungry child,

how could I be uncharmed by this,
your secret world, your happy mess?

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 ©2003 by Wendy Videlock from her most recent book of poems, Nevertheless, Able Muse Press, 2011. Poem reprinted by permission of Wendy Videlock 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.

THE AVENGERS (Rated PG-13)

Fanboys of the Marvel Comics universe will flock to see writer-director Joss Whedon’s “The Avengers” with the same fervor that once gripped teen girls swooning over “The Beatles” arrival in America.

No words of criticism or discouragement will dissuade the built-in audience. Fortunately, in the case of “The Avengers,” the summer movie season starts off with grandiose explosive excitement.

Imagine, if you will, a gathering of disparate superheroes called into action by the existential threat of Earth’s demise at the hands of a lunatic Norse god.

The menace becomes real when the small but unlimited power of the extraterrestrial energy source of Tesseract rears its ugly force, opening up a portal to the dark side of space.

This allows the villainous Loki (Tom Hiddleston) to recruit an army of aliens in order to launch an assault on vulnerable earthlings just ripe for domination, or so he believes.

The deranged Loki, of course, is the adopted brother of the virtuous, hammer-throwing Thor (Chris Hemsworth), one of the superheroes to be called to action by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson).

It is Fury’s organization, S.H.I.E.L.D., which recognizes war has been declared and mobilizes the superheroes of the Marvel Comics universe to combat mode.

Naturally, Thor, who has battled his adopted brother in the past, joins the group. Captain America (Chris Evans), who has been snoozing since the end of World War II, is revived from his slumber.

The egomaniac Tony Stark, aka Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.), is joyously on board, playing his sarcastic attitude to the hilt as he lobs delightfully funny, barbed jabs at fellow superheroes.

The mild-mannered Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo, new to the role), who turns into the Incredible Hulk when stirred by anger, is also capable of verbal sparring. But first, he has to be retrieved from missionary work in India.

Superheroes, accustomed to doing big things, also possess large egos. As a result, they don’t really like each other all that much. In itself, this makes for interesting character development.

After all, Joss Whedon realizes that there has to be a lot more to a successful superhero action film than just unlimited battle scenes and destruction. We have to find our superheroes worthy of attention.

Other players on the scene include the archer Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and the aptly-named Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), the expert killer in martial arts.

I don’t believe it would be wise to give away too much of the story, but insatiable action fans will need to exercise a degree of patience while awaiting the full-scale assault on New York City.

Between the wisecracks and eager moments of one-upmanship, the superheroes are shown to be ordinary mortals in terms of the emotional baggage they carry with them.

The most complex character might be Bruce Banner, a brilliant scientist who labors mightily to keep his anger management issues in check.

Ultimately, after all the characters have been well-defined and their personalities are allowed to shine, “The Avengers” gets down to some serious business.

Tony Stark’s massive headquarters near Grand Central becomes ground zero for the alien attack. The explosive finale is a colossal battle in which most of Manhattan is leveled to the ground.

Because the front end of “The Avengers” allowed so much time for exposition and character development, the non-stop action at the back end seems all the more purposeful and satisfying.

“The Avengers” is a dream come true for all those who love these superhero characters. I am not sure how the next movie of this kind will be able to top this one.

When the film’s end credits begin to roll, be sure to stick around for a couple of surprises.

DVD RELEASE UPDATE

The popular detective drama starring Robert Urich as cool private eye Dan Tanna gets another DVD release with “Vega$: The Third Season, Volume 1.”

This 3-disc set features action-packed episodes centered on the detective who drives around Sin City in a vintage bright red Thunderbird, solving cases with the help of his loyal staff.

I don’t much care for how the entire season is broken up into volumes. We may have to wait a few months for Volume 2 of the Third Season, but at least for now there are 12 episodes to enjoy.

Until a package arrived in the mail, I had no idea that the “regular guy” spy story of “Chuck” had come to an end.

You too can catch all 13 episodes from Season 5, plus over 3 hours of never-before-seen bonus features, in the DVD release of “Chuck: The Complete Fifth and Final Season.”

The bonus features include 6 all-new featurettes, 2 full-length commentaries, deleted scenes, gag reel and an extended version of the series finale episode.

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

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lake County Arts Council's Main Street Gallery will host summer youth art camp classes.

The classes will take place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays.

Classes will be offered in acrylics, beading, collage, crafts, drawing, pastels, silks, watercolors and much more.

Registration begins May 20.

The Main Street Gallery is located at 325 N. Main St., Lakeport, telephone 707-263-6658.