Dimitri Imbrunetti and Rafael Contreras won prizes at the recent Redwood Empire Fair Fiddle Contest. Courtesy photo.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Two young fiddlers each won a blue ribbon and prize money recently in the Redwood Empire Fair Fiddle Contest.
Dimitri Imbrunetti won a first in the Junior Junior Class and Rafael Contreras won a first in the Pee Wee Class.
Both boys are members of the Konocti Fiddle Club and the Clear Lake Performing Arts Junior Youth Orchestra.
The CLPA Youth Orchestra and Junior Youth Orchestra, will be starting a new season in mid September.
All ages and levels of string players are invited to join this exciting youth group. Since the discontinuation of the Schools String Program, Clear Lake Performing Arts is offering string instruction in this countywide orchestra.
The CLPA Youth Orchestra is planning a busy season with performances at the Soper Reese Theatre at the Lake County Symphony concerts and in June they will present their own spring concert.
If you are interested in joining the group or just want to learn to play a string instrument, call conductor Sue Condit at 707-533-9431 or coordinator Tamsen Serena at 707-928-9621.
Clear Lake Performing Arts not only supports the Lake Co. Symphony, but also sponsors many Youth Music Education opportunities.
In addition to the Youth Orchestra, CLPA offers music presentations in the schools, financial assistance to music students, and offers a College Scholarship Program for students who play in the Lake County Symphony.
Other members of the Konocti Fiddle Club, Clayton Rudiger, Eleanor Cook, Bobby Collier and Greg Bushta, also won ribbons at the Fiddle Contest.
The Konocti Fiddle Club is another Lake County group for all ages and all levels of fiddle players.
This group plays lively danceable folk tunes and many of the young members are also in the Youth Orchestra. This group works with Clear Lake Performing Arts to present in-school assemblies.
The Fiddle Club will be performing at the Bluegrass Festival on Sept. 10 and the Pear Festival on Sept. 24 at 11 a.m.
For information about the Fiddle Club, call Andi Skelton at 707-279-4336.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lake County Arts Council's Main Street Gallery has invited past and present "Judge's" and "People's Choice" award winners of the juried shows past and present to bring in their award winning work to the Main Street Gallery, on Sunday, Aug. 28.
The showing will take place from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
This is a special showing in recognition of the talented award winning artists of Lake County. It also will serve as a thank you for supporting the Lake County Arts Council/Main Street Gallery in its efforts to bring the arts to the Lake County community.
For further information call Judy Cardinale, Main Street Gallery director, at 707-279-9780.
If your award winning artwork has been sold contact Cardinale; you may be able to submit similar artwork.
Ted Kooser, US Poet Laureate from 2004 to 2006. Photo by UNL Publications and Photography.
Those of us who have gone back home to attend a reunion of classmates may have felt the strangeness of being a vaguely familiar person among others who, too, seem vaguely familiar.
Dana Gioia, who served the country for four years as the chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, is an accomplished poet and a noted advocate for poetry.
Not often do we see an R-rated movie from Disney, but a remake of “Fright Night” apparently requires vampires and their slayers to drop a few F-bombs.
Normally, I avoid horror films, namely because I just don’t feel like being terrified witless or having to watch more blood spilled than during an entire World War.
Based upon the 1985 film of the same title, “Fright Night” is thankfully not in the same league with the repulsive “Saw” franchise or the bloody “Friday the 13th” films.
To be sure, blood is spilled, but the scary parts don’t cause your hand to uncontrollably grip your seatmate or the hair on your neck to stand up.
Altogether different in tone and spirit, “Fright Night” intentionally seeks out amusement in its vampires, as opposed to the inadvertent humor one would find in the “Twilight” series.
Speaking of the teen vampire craze, “Fright Night” also delights in taking a few jabs at “Twilight” in some good-natured ribbing.
More importantly, this remake as well as the original takes great joy in mocking the popular culture’s weird fascination with vampires.
Where else would you encounter a vampire named Jerry? Shouldn’t a fearsome bloodsucker have a Gothic name, or even something like Drake, Vlad or Lucius?
It’s up to high school student Charley Brewster (Anton Yelchin) to convince his skeptical single mom (Toni Collette) and others that the handsome new neighbor Jerry (Colin Farrell) is from the dark side.
The problem for Charley is that he comes to this conclusion from the antics of his geeky old pal Ed (Christopher Mintz-Plasse).
Now hooked up with the hot Amy (Imogen Poots), Charley is desperately trying to fit in with the hip crowd, and talk of vampire-hunting doesn’t help his cause.
The setting for this story is awesome. Charley lives in a bland suburban Las Vegas housing tract, which looks like the developers abandoned before completion.
It’s the perfect hideaway for Jerry. Surely nobody will miss the slutty blonde across the street who works as an exotic dancer on the Vegas Strip.
Oddly enough, nobody except Charley seems to notice or care that Jerry is never seen in daylight and that all his windows are blocked out.
To Charley’s mom, Jerry is a working stiff on the graveyard shift in Vegas, just like many other unfortunate dwellers in this hopeless, forsaken suburban outpost.
As to be expected, Charley takes increasing risks to expose the vampire Jerry, breaking into his house and uncovering the torture rooms of his victims.
Realizing the need to find a vampire slayer, Charley seeks out Peter Vincent (David Tennant), a star magician pretending to be a vampire expert in a tacky Vegas act.
For his part, Tennant’s Vincent resembles Russell Brand, another self-indulgent Brit with the flair for a flamboyant gothic style and degenerate pretense. At least, Tennant is strangely funny when he revels in debauchery.
Farrell’s vampire Jerry has a charismatic personality and irresistible charm that only Charley alone can see through. However, no one will ever confuse Farrell with Bela Lugosi.
A remake may not be necessary, but “Fright Night” has lots of prickly, comic dialogue that is greatly amusing and vastly entertaining.
“Friday Night” moves at a nice pace, but oddly enough it hits a few spots where you expect the story to end. But that just leads to more fortunate surprises.
DVD RELEASE UPDATE
Just because the CBS Television network has decided that Charlie Sheen is supremely expendable now that he’s been cast aside from “Two and a Half Men” doesn’t mean that he is forever banished.
OK, maybe networks will be reluctant to take a chance on him, but you can still enjoy the irrepressible Charlie in another TV venue.
The DVD release of “Spin City: The Complete Fifth Season” might pass unnoticed save for the fact that this particular season introduced Sheen as the new Deputy Mayor and right-hand man to Barry Bostwick’s Mayor Winston.
Sheen came to the series to replace Michael J. Fox, whose character had to leave the Mayor’s office when taking the blame for his boss’ association with the Mafia.
Heather Locklear also stars as the mayor’s communications director, a position that puts her at odds with the sarcastic Sheen.
With Sheen and Locklear locking horns, the sparks will fly and so will the fun in “Spin City: The Complete Fifth Season.”
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
McKenna Faith of Ukiah, Calif., will be onstage with several well-known country singers when she performs in Santa Rosa, Calif., on Sunday, August 21, 2011. Photo by Carmen King.
McKenna Faith is a normal teenager, picking out her classes and getting ready to go back to school like the rest of the world, but this weekend she's sharing the stage with country music superstars.
On Sunday, Aug. 21, starting at 4 p.m. she will kick off the Sonoma Country Music BBQ at the Santa Rosa Fairgrounds, opening for “What Was I Thinking?” singer Dierks Bentley, “Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not?” singers Thompson Square and “Country Girl (Shake It For Me)” singer Luke Bryan (who currently has the No. 2 album on the Billboard charts). Another opener will be Santa Rosa singer Pete Stringfellow.
Faith's been singing since she was born (the doctor said she cried in perfect pitch). You could always find her chasing after her brother and sister, with a plastic microphone in hand.
Her dream to be a country star is not the typical teenager’s “life obsession” of the moment. Since she was 11, she's been pursuing her dream to make it big in country music. She's taken it very seriously from day one, taking voice and guitar lessons, and writing her own music. She has more then 25 original, copyrighted songs that she has written and co-written with Jenny Thompson and Daniel Morford.
But what could she possibly write about? She is only 16, after all. She says, “I write about things that happen in everyday life- God, boys, summer- I actually wrote a song called 'No Guts, No Glory' for the men and women that serve our country. I was inspired to say 'thank you' somehow, because we wouldn't have the freedom we have today without their sacrifices.”
Late last year she traveled to Nashville where she worked with famous producer Kim Copeland and recorded her debut album of original songs, Sugar & Spice. “I've got a lot of great feedback from the album" she says, "it's pretty crazy to have people from other countries write on your Facebook page that they got your CD on iTunes, and they love it.”
Faith’s album release party in January not only sold out, but over a hundred people had to be turned away at the door. Since then she has been touring and performing sold out shows promoting her album; recently opening for “19 & Crazy” singers Bomshel, American Idol's Casey James and the legendary Ramblin' Jack Elliot.
So put on your cowboy hat and boots and come out this Sunday to enjoy the sun and music at the Sonoma Country Music BBQ. It’s going to be a family fun-filled day starting at 2 p.m., with over 7,500 people expected to attend. Enjoy barbecue prepared by artisans who will be cooking up hundreds of pounds of ribs, chicken and tri-tip, and beer from some of the area’s finest micro-breweries.
There are still some tickets available for the Sonoma Country Music BBQ at www.sonomacountrymusicbbq.com and you can keep up with everything McKenna Faith by visiting her Web site www.mckenna-faith.com, and by “liking” her on Facebook, where you can win some brand new merchandise.
Her album Sugar & Spice is available locally at Dig! Music, on her Web site and on iTunes.
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