LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A broad range of musical styles on the keyboard will be presented at the Soper-Reese Community Theatre on March 24 by six well-known professional pianists from the region.  

Musicians will combine their talent and years of experience to benefit fundraising efforts for the arts and education in Lake County.

The Soper-Reese Community Theatre is partnering with the Lake County Friends of Mendocino College to sponsor the second annual Professional Pianists Concert.

The evening begins at 6 p.m. with a no-host reception, followed by the concert at 7 p.m.

Lake County artists Tom Aiken, Tom Ganoung and David Neft will be joined by performers Spencer Brewer, Elena Casanova and Elizabeth MacDougall from Mendocino County.  

The concert will feature all the pianists on stage throughout the evening as they trade stories and play musical selections that range from classical to jazz, boogie woogie to Cuban.

Tickets are $25 for regular reserved and $30 for special reserved and may be purchased at the box office on Fridays, 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., or by phone to 707-263-0577.

The Soper-Reese is located at 275 S. Main St. in Lakeport.

The Travel Center in the Shoreline Shopping Center, 1265 S. Main St., Lakeport, also sells tickets, Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.  Tickets may be purchased online at www.soperreesetheatre.com .

Major sponsors and friends supporting this concert are Mendo Lake Credit Union, Savings Bank of Mendocino County, Lincoln Leavitt Insurance, Bruno’s Property Management, Wildhurst Vineyards, Strong Financial Network, John H. Tomkins Tax Consultants, Peggy Campbell CPA, Cliff and Nancy Ruzicka, Cameron and Sharon Reeves, Jim and Wilda Shock, Pat and Lori McGuire and Pam Scully of Lakeport Furniture.

About the musicians

Tom Aiken

In obtaining his master’s degree with honors in music from California State University, Chico, Tom Aiken studied organ and harpsichord concentrating on music written before 1750 and the works of JS Bach.  

His graduate work was in baroque performance practices and music theory. While working on his classical studies he became fascinated by improvised music and jazz.

The long-time instrumental and vocal music instructor in the Kelseyville schools, Aiken is retired and enjoys performing and volunteering in the community.

Spencer Brewer

For more than three decades, Spencer Brewer has been a composer-pianist-producer on the cutting edge of instrumental music, inspiring audiences worldwide with his piano skills and unique melodies.

His music has been featured on virtually every television and radio station in the world.

Brewer wrote the national theme songs for the YMCA and Big Brothers/Big Sisters and contributed music for the feature film, “Heartwood,” among others.  

As a local community producer, he has helped organize hundreds of successful local events, including the popular Sundays in the Park in Ukiah.  

From his Laughing Coyote recording studio in Redwood Valley, he has recorded hundreds of artists, film scores and radio commercials.

Elena Casanova

Cuban-born Elena Casanova has a passion for her native music.

For most of her life, she has been bringing the soul of the Cuban Masters to audiences across this country.  

She studied at the Alejandro Garcia Caturla Music Conservatory in Havana, the San Francisco Conservatory, Pacific Union College, and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in piano performance from the University of Redlands.  

Casanova’s projects include composing the score for “Still Life,” a short film that was accepted into the Cannes Short Film Festival.  

She often performs as a soloist with the Ukiah Symphony Orchestra.

Tom Ganoung

Tom Ganoung is an active performer (concert stage, weddings, social events) and instructor in both Lake and Mendocino counties.  

He has been teaching, composing, recording and performing since arriving in Lake County in 1988.

His work with the Ukiah School of Music and the Allegro Scholarship Program benefits gifted and talented musicians.  

Ganoung has recorded with other local composers and pianists, and performs with the Lake County Symphony Orchestra.

Elizabeth MacDougall

Ukiah native Elizabeth MacDougall has been teaching piano at Mendocino College since 1985. She received her bachelor of music in piano performance and her master of music in piano performance and pedagogy from the University of the Pacific.

MacDougall has studied piano with and been coached by outstanding master instructors.

Her first CD, “New Perspective,” features her exquisitely-performed works of Chopin, Beethoven, Debussy, Mozart and Bach.

David Neft

David Neft toured the western United States and Canada as a member of “Syndicate of Sound,” a Bay area rock band, and has opened for BB King, the Steve Miller Band, the Temptations and Tower of Power.  

He has a bachelor’s degree and teaching credential from Cal State East Bay (Hayward).  

Neft jumped on a piano stool at the age of seven and has been steadily working on his keyboard skills ever since. He was an original member of “Bill Noteman and the Rockets.”  

As a solo pianist performing at special events, he specializes in classic songs from the 1920s to 1960s.

The Soper-Reese Community Theatre is a restored performing arts venue that seats 300 patrons and is operated by an all-volunteer management team under the auspices of the Lake County Arts Council.

The Lake County Friends of Mendocino College, an affiliate of the Mendocino College Foundation, supports the College and its Lake Center in educating leaders, fostering intellectual growth and enriching lives by creating opportunities to invest in a better future for our students and communities.

FORT BRAGG, Calif. – Carolyn Steinbuck is the featured soloist in a piano concerto by Shostakovich in the Symphony of the Redwoods’s Spring Concert conducted by Allan Pollack at Cotton Auditorium in Fort Bragg.

Also on the program are Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, and Schumann’s Symphony No. 2.

Performances are Saturday, April 14, at 8 p.m., and Sunday, April 15, at 2 p.m.

Tickets can be purchased online at www.symphonyoftheredwoods.org ; at the door; or at Tangents, Harvest Market or Out of This World.

Call 707-964-0898 for more information.

Sarah A. Chavez is a California poet, and here she writes about the yearning of children to find, amidst the clutter of adult life, places they can call their own.

In Childhood

In childhood Christy and I played in the dumpster across the street
from Pickett & Sons Construction. When we found bricks, it was best.
Bricks were most useful. We drug them to our empty backyard
and stacked them in the shape of a room. For months
we collected bricks, one on top another. When the walls
reached as high as my younger sister’s head, we laid down.
Hiding in the middle of our room, we watched the cycle
of the sun, gazed at the stars, clutched hands and felt at home.

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 Sarah A. Chavez. Reprinted by permission of Sarah A. Chavez. 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.

21 JUMP STREET (Rated R)
 
In the early days of the FOX TV network, “21 Jump Street” was a hip TV drama about undercover cops, with a novice Johnny Depp in a starring role.

With “Superbad” comedian Jonah Hill in one of the starring roles for the reinvention of an almost-forgotten TV series, it’s clear the cinematic “21 Jump Street” is a different breed of cool cat.

To be kind, Jonah Hill is no Johnny Depp, but then neither is Hill’s co-star and partner on the police force, Channing Tatum, even though he’s a force of nature that exudes a certain amount of charisma.

As the film opens in 2005, Tatum and Hill, respectively playing Jenko and Schmidt, are the polar opposites during their senior year of high school.

The good-looking jock type, Jenko is an amiable lug who coasts through the school on his charm and sense of entitlement that comes from being tight with the popular crowd.

Copying the style of Eminem’s Slim Shady, complete with the bleached hair, the academically brilliant Schmidt is a walking disaster who hangs out with the perennial losers and outsiders.  

Fast forward seven years, and we find Jenko and Schmidt enrolled in the police academy, where Schmidt is pressed into service to help Jenko improve his dismal written test scores.

After graduation, the duo is assigned to bike patrol duty in the local park, where one day they nab a drug dealer in an arrest that they exuberantly celebrate with unprofessional behavior.

The fallout from this arrest lands the pair in the special Jump Street unit where youthful-looking officers are assigned to undercover duty in the local schools.

Posing as brothers and living with Schmidt’s parents, Jenko and Schmidt return to their old high school to bust a drug dealing ring that’s run by a snotty rich kid who’s into recycling and expects to go to Berkeley.

Not unexpectedly, Jenko and Schmidt start to relive their high school days with a greater sense of purpose, thinking incorrectly that they have all the right answers this time around.

When their identities become mixed up, the results are hilarious.  

Jenko, the former campus stud, falls in with the nerds, while the socially awkward Schmidt finds acceptance from the cool crowd.

While their Jump Street colleagues keep solving cases, the hapless pair spends more time trying to adjust to new rules of behavior and fitting in with the school scene.

Schmidt enrolls in a drama class, determined to become Peter Pan in the school production, probably for no better reason than his forbidden crush on Molly (Brie Larson).

Oddly enough, Molly is in a semi-open but unfulfilling relationship with Eric (Dave Franco), the big man on campus who just happens to enjoy talking about composting as much as he likes being the major drug supplier.

Meanwhile, Jenko struggles through his science class, but gets teamed up with the bright kids who enjoy blowing up things and teaching him how to do the same.

As Jenko and Schmidt try to ingratiate themselves with Eric, the drug dealer requires them to consume his product in order to prove that they are ordinary students and not undercover narcs.

Fueled by the powerful drugs, Jenko nearly destroys his classroom in a crazed attempt to diagram a scientific experiment in a burst manic energy.

This being a comedy, though one full of action, “21 Jump Street” is bursting with hilarious surprises as Jenko and Schmidt trip over themselves in their charade to fool fellow students and teachers.

“21 Jump Street” may be the first movie to have a serious car chase that involves stretch limos with the cops and bad guys shooting at each other from the sun roofs.  

The perceived plot of the two officers trying to do convincing undercover work is secondary to the free flowing type of mayhem that Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum bring to their roles.

Indeed, there’s complete excess of wacky craziness in this enjoyable comedy.  The best humor is not from the wild stunts, chases and party scenes, but from the comedic chemistry of the odd couple of the two lead characters.

TCM CLASSIC FILM FESTIVAL

The place for film buffs to gather next month will be at the third annual TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood, from April 12 to April 15.

Once again, the classic old-time theater palaces of Graumann’s Chinese Theatre and the Egyptian, in addition to the modern Arclight and the venerable Cinerama Dome, will host special screenings.

A three-film tribute to legendary filmmaker Stanley Donen will include an appearance by Audrey Hepburn, who starred in the Donen films to be screened, including “Charade,” “Two for the Road,” and “Funny Face.”

Dick Van Dyke, who needs no introduction, will introduce a retrospective of Laurel and Hardy film shorts and discuss the influence of these comedians on his life and career.

A slew of old horror films will be offered, including “The Wolf Man” (1941), starring Lon Chaney, Jr., and “Frankenstein” (1931), with Boris Karloff in the titular role.

Keep an eye on this space leading up to the TCM Classic Film Festival for more information on a great lineup of classic films.
     
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.

UPPER LAKE, Calif. – Lake County Wine Studio is hosting a silk painting class with local artist and Serendipity Boutique owner Diana Liebe on Sunday, March 18, from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Liebe will demonstrate the process and each participant will paint and take home a hand-painted silk scarf.

Liebe is a former art teacher at both the high school and college levels, and actively teaches art workshops around the county.

Cost of class is a $20 materials fee and space is limited to 12 persons.

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.

Psychologists must have a word for it, the phenomenon of shifting the focus of sadness from the source of that sadness to something else. Here’s a fine poem on this subject by Penelope Scambly Schott, who lives in Oregon.

Second Tour

While my husband packed to fly back to Vietnam,
this time as a tourist instead of a soldier,

I drove to the zoo to say goodbye to the musk oxen
who were being shipped out early next morning

to Tacoma. We were getting lions instead.
When I got there, it was too easy to park.

The zoo was closing early so they wouldn’t let me in.
I went back to my car and slid into the driver’s seat.

Sobs tore from deep in my chest, I who had never
seen a musk ox and never cared until now.

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 Penelope Scambly Schott, from her most recent book of poems, Crow Mercies, Calyx Books, 2010. Poem first appeared in Arroyo Literary Review, Vol. 2, Spring 2010. Reprinted by permission of Penelope Scambly Schott and the publishers. 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.