How to resolve AdBlock issue? Arts & Life
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
LAKEPORT, Calif. — The Lake County Symphony Association will present a performance by its Lake County Adult and Youth Concert Orchestra on Sunday, Sept. 21.
The concert will take place beginning at 2 p.m. at the Soper-Reese Theatre, 275 S. Main St., Lakeport.
Dr. Camm Linden will conduct.
Tickets cost $15 for general admission, with those 18 and under admitted for free.
The concert also is free for 2025 Lake County Symphony season ticket holders.
For more about the symphony association, visit its website.
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- Written by: Tim Riley
CRIME STORIES ON LIFETIME CHANNEL
During the month of September, the Lifetime Channel delivers three new “Ripped from the Headlines” movies for Saturdays, kicking off on Sept. 13 with “A Husband to Die For: The Lisa Aguilar Story (working title).”
This first film follows Lisa Aguilar (Keana Lyn Bastidas), a bright and loving woman who is newly married and expecting her first child with husband Darren (John McLaren).
Life seems picture-perfect as Darren, who dreams of becoming a professional golfer, appears devoted and driven. But Lisa soon discovers he’s living a dark double life. When she is viciously attacked in her own home, she and her unborn baby are left for dead.
Yet, Lisa miraculously survives and begins to unravel a horrifying truth: the man she trusted most may have tried to kill her. A cheating husband who doesn’t want to be a father may go to extreme lengths.
With the help of her grandmother Gabrielle (Marilu Henner), her devoted parents, and a determined legal team, Lisa embarks on a courageous journey to protect her child, seek justice and rebuild her life from the ground up.
Darren ultimately pled guilty for attempted murder. The biggest surprise for this film, however, might be Marilu Henner playing a grandmother to an adult woman. It’s a credit to the actress that she does not seem to be of that age.
A week later, on Sept. 20, the based on a true story “The Girl Who Survived: The Alina Thompson Story” trails 15-year-old Alina Thompson (Brielle Robillard), an aspiring model in Los Angeles during the ‘80s, who gets caught in the dangerous web of a serial killer.
Without the knowledge of her parents, Carl (Sam Trammell) and Nancy (Ashley Jones), Alina sneaks off to attend an amateur photo casting call to meet up-and-coming photographer William Bradford (Steve Byers).
Unbeknownst to Alina, William is a serial killer hiding in plain sight, using his charms to lure aspiring young women into secluded photo shoots that end up in unspeakable violence.
After their meeting, William becomes obsessed with Alina and her beauty and ultimately sets his sights on her as his next victim. But thanks to the protective instincts of Carl and a series of fateful twists, Alina manages to survive, where many others did not.
Though other young women were not so fortunate, “The Girl Who Survived: The Alina Thompson Story” has a happy ending for a teen saved by a caring father’s quick instincts.
For the final Saturday of September, “I Was a Child Bride: The Courtney Stodden Story” movie is part of Lifetime’s provocative I WAS/I AM franchise which spotlights the untold stories of women reclaiming their narratives.
“The Courtney Stodden Story” dives into the controversial story of Courtney Stodden (Holly Barrett), a teenager catapulted into international notoriety after marrying 51-year-old actor Doug Hutchison (Doug Savant) at just sixteen years old.
Narrated by the real-life Courtney Stodden and told through her perspective, the deeply personal biopic chronicles the controversial and emotionally complex journey of Courtney.
Encouraged by her mother Krista’s (Maggie Lawson) dreams of fame for her, Courtney was thrust into the spotlight when she married an actor who is more than three decades her senior.
The movie is a story of resilience and survival of a young girl coming of age under a harsh public eye whose voice was nearly lost, despite her mother’s own fractured dreams and decisions that shaped the unfortunate path Courtney was pushed to follow.
More than a retelling of sordid tabloid headlines, “I Was a Child Bride: The Courtney Stodden Story” is an exploration of child exploitation, trauma and transformation.
Hulu streams the ABC News “IMPACT x Nightline: Confessions of a Child Bride: Courtney Stodden’s Story,” which relates that now she’s divorced from Doug, she’s claiming to be a crusader for other young vulnerable women.
The Hulu program features interviews with Courtney and snippets of stories about how a sophomore in high school in Ocean Shores, Washington ended up meeting Doug Hutchison.
Courtney’s mother signed over consent to allow marriage to a man three times her age, and more astonishingly that the nuptials took place at Chapel of the Flowers in Las Vegas only two weeks after they met when Courtney wanted to take acting lessons from Doug.
Clips from the time Courtney was getting married revealed a young girl who looked much older than her age with the physique of a buxom Hollywood starlet like Pamela Anderson when she modeled in Playboy magazine.
Courtney also pushed back on being described as a “child bride,” preferring instead to being a “child who was exploited.” She also revealed being a virgin when married to a man older than her father when the marriage was consummated.
Not surprisingly, the Hulu program takes note of the “morbid curiosity” that everyone had about her wedding night at the Chateau Marmont hotel on the Sunset Strip.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — In celebration of her new book release, the Lakeport Library is welcoming award-winning Mendocino County poet Michelle Peñaloza for a reading of her work on Saturday, Sept. 27, at 2 p.m.
An audience Q&A will follow.
This event is sponsored by the Friends of the Lake County Library and the Lake County Literacy Coalition.
Michelle Peñaloza is the author of “All The Words I Can Remember Are Poems,” winner of the 2024 Lexi Rudnitsky Editor’s Choice Award and the James Laughlin Award, awarded by The Academy of American Poets (Persea Books, 2025).
Peñaloza is also the author of “Former Possessions of the Spanish Empire,” winner of the 2018 Hillary Gravendyk National Poetry Prize (Inlandia Books, 2019), and two chapbooks, “landscape/heartbreak” (Two Sylvias, 2015) and “Last Night I Dreamt of Volcanoes” (Organic Weapon Arts, 2015).
Some of her honors include the Frederick Bock Prize from the Poetry Foundation as well as grants from the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, the Community Foundation of Mendocino County, Upstate Creative Corps, 4Culture, Artist Trust, Literary Arts, and PAWA (Philippine American Writers and Artists).
You can find her work at The Seventh Wave, Poetry, Honey Literary, Bellingham Review, New England Review, Lantern Review, and featured in American Life in Poetry.
The proud daughter of Filipino immigrants, Peñaloza was born in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan, and raised in Nashville, Tennessee.
She now lives in Covelo, California.
The Lakeport Library is located at 1425 N. High St. in Lakeport.
For more upcoming events, visit the library’s website at http://library.lakecountyca.gov/.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
UKIAH, Calif. — The Mendocino College Art Gallery is honored to present “Urban Introversions: Master Works by Yu Ji,” an exhibition of large-scale drawings, paintings, and prints by internationally recognized academic realist Yu Ji.
The exhibition runs through Oct. 26, with an opening reception on Thursday, Sept. 4, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. The public is warmly invited to attend.
Yu Ji’s meticulous multi-figure compositions emerge from decades of drawing from life. Working in charcoal and oil, his works translate spontaneous urban sketchbook studies into introspective, layered studio paintings.
Each piece presents an inner world of solitary figures, often set in shared public spaces yet emotionally distant — meditations on individuality, cultural identity, and urban experience.
Born in China, Yu Ji earned his BFA from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing before immigrating to the United States during the Open Door Policy era. He went on to complete dual MFA degrees in Painting (1986) and Printmaking (1989) at SUNY New Paltz.
His early practice in New York was shaped by constant observational drawing in public spaces such as Washington Square Park, where he captured the human landscape of American life through fresh eyes.
In 1999, he relocated to Los Angeles, where the color and character of Southern California’s urban life reshaped his palette and compositional language.
“Many of Yu Ji’s paintings have a pensive interiority, with languid figures who, though placed together, often appear absorbed in their own thoughts … These invented compositions utilize complex spatial overlapping, including exquisitely subtle scale shifts,” said Jonathan Puls, professor of art and chair, Department of Art, Biola University.
The exhibition is curated by Jazzminh Moore, gallery director at Mendocino College, who first met Yu Ji as a student in 2001 during a workshop at the Academy of Realist Art (now Gage Academy) in Seattle. Her personal journey — from student to mentee to colleague — adds a deeply resonant context to the show.
“Yu Ji is a true master. That week working with him in Seattle changed my life. I uprooted and moved to Long Beach just to study with him. His teaching clarified everything for me—from the structure of shadow edges to the precision of color mixing. I’m beyond honored to now be presenting his work to our students and community,” said Moore.
Also featured in the exhibition is “Lost in Transection,” a collaborative video installation by Joe Ren, assistant professor of Digital Media at California State University, Bakersfield.
Ren’s work merges Yu Ji’s figurative imagery with contemporary symbols of American urban culture, creating a hybrid visual dialogue between drawing, print, and video.
Urban Introversions offers a rare opportunity to experience the work of a modern master whose commitment to observation, formal discipline and quiet intensity sets him apart in the contemporary art landscape.
The Mendocino College Art Gallery is located at 1000 Hensley Creek Road, Ukiah. Gallery hours are 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. Tuesdays, 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Wednesdays, and by appointment.
Admission is free and open to the public.
