LOWER LAKE – Popular local duo Mike Wilhelm and Neon will play at 2 Goombas in Lower Lake's Tuscan Village on the Friday after Thanksgiving, Nov. 27, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

The deli and restaurant is located adjacent the post office on Main Street.

 

Internationally renowned 67-year-old guitarist/vocalist Mike Wilhelm has had a long and varied professional career starting in Los Angeles in the early '60s. In 1964 he was a founding member of the Charlatans, the first of the "psychedelic" San Francisco rock bands who started a movement that swept around the world.

He has played venues from L.A.'s Troubadour to San Francisco's Avalon, Fillmore, Winterland and Cow Palace to both the Bottom Line, New York City and the Bottom Line, Nagoya, Japan. In 1997, the Charlatans were invited to play at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum and a video of that performance and accompanying interview are enshrined in the museum's archives.

 

A mannequin dressed in Wilhelm's Charlatans stage clothing is the centerpiece in the current exhibition entitled Something's Happening Here at San Francisco's Museum of Performance and Design in the War Memorial Building on Van Ness Ave. opposite the City Hall. The exhibition runs through August of next year.

 

Wilhelm has played in many well known venues in Europe including the Roundhouse, London; the Pavilion, Paris; the Paradiso, Amsterdam and (as a member of Flamin' Groovies) the largest of all, the 20,000 plus capacity Sportspalast in Berlin with headliners the Police. Lake County is indeed fortunate that Wilhelm decided to "retire" here in 1995.

 

Vocalist/percussionist Neon is blessed with a voice described by Wilhelm as "blue velvet." It is an apt description but it does not begin to capture the emotion she puts into her renditions of blues classics. To see and hear her perform is to become her fan. She has also had a long career and before deciding to settle in Lake County was lead singer with the well known Native American band the Troublemakers featuring harmonicist, actor and activist Gary Farmer.

 

The two have developed a musical chemistry that captivates the attention of the audience, a seamless melding of Wilhelm's unique fingerstyle guitar and barrelhouse baritone interwoven with Neon's beautiful, evocative voice and adept percussion rhythms plus their vocal riffs and harmonies which make their performances equal more than the sum of their parts. Their music runs the gamut from blues to Americana and folk to rock.

 

If you cannot make their Nov. 27 performance they will play again the following week on Dec. 4 at the same time and place. They will also appear on Monday, Dec. 21, with the Bottle Rock Blues & Rhythm Band at the Blue Wing Saloon & Cafe in Upper Lake from 6:30 p.m. until 9 p.m. on the occasion of Blue Wing proprietor Bernie Butcher's birthday.

 

For further information and live performance videos visit www.youtube.com/TheMonkeybeat or Google "Mike Wilhelm."

LAKEPORT – Watercolor artist Diana Liebe will teach a scarf silk painting class at the Lake County Arts Council's Main Street Gallery in Lakeport.

The class will be offered on Monday, Nov. 30, beginning at 9 a.m. will continue until painters finish around 2 p.m.

The fee for the class is $20 and Liebe will supply the scarves and all supplies for you to create your special Christmas gift.

Pre-registration is strongly recommended. To do so, please call the Main Street Gallery at 707-263-1871.

The Main Street Gallery is located at 325 N. Main St. in Lakeport.

LAKEPORT – On Sunday, Nov. 22, the full Lake County Symphony will marshal all 60-plus of its musicians to present a concert consisting of many most beloved compositions, selected by musical director and orchestra conductor John Parkinson.

Clear Lake Performing Arts' (CLPA) Fall Symphony Concert will take place at the Marge Alakszay Center at Clear Lake High School on Lange in Lakeport at 3 p.m.

These will include the “Academic Festival Overture” by Johannes Brahms who wrote it as a musical “thank you” to the University of Breslau which had awarded him an honorary degree the previous year.

Told that the university expected a tribute composition in return, Brahms – known for his curmudgeonly sense of humor – created a potpourri of student drinking songs intricately tied together in a carefully planned piece that calls for one of the largest musical ensembles of any of his compositions.

The joke, as it turned out, was on Brahms, when the overture became one of his best-known and most loved works.

Brahms' good friend Anton Dvorák composed another of Parkinson's choices for the Fall Symphony Concert. “The Slavonic Dance No. 8” is one of a series of pieces originally written for piano for four hands but later arranged for orchestra. The music reflects the rhythms and melodic shapes of the Czech folk music of Dvorák's native land, and became a hit shortly after they were performed.

Another contemporary of Brahms and Dvorák was French composer Camille Saint-Saens who turned to the bible as inspiration for one of his best-known works, the opera “Samson and Delilah.” Parkinson has selected the “Danse Bacchanale” from the third act as another piece from this period.

Saint Saens introduced portions of the opera to various audiences, but it was the eve of the Franco-Prussian war, and he could generate little interest. However, at the urging of Franz Liszt a German translation was introduced in the Wiemar republic to great acclaim and later in the U.S. and the rest of Europe to enthusiastic audiences. The opera, and the “Baachanale” in particular, remain standards in most opera companies.

For his fourth selection Parkinson rolls the calendar back to 1807, when Ludwig van Beethoven took the play written three years earlier by Heinrich Joseph von Collins and decided to set it to music. “The Coriolan” was a tragedy in the classic sense, with its main character a military man intent upon invading and destroying Rome with his army until, at the last minute, he finally heeds the pleadings of his mother and halts at the city's gate. Left with no way out he kills himself.

Beethoven set the theme to memorable music, specifically “The Coriolan Overture” with its structures and themes generally following the play closely.

The concert is presented by Clear Lake Performing Arts, the Lake County music support group that also funds the CLPA Youth Orchestra. These young musicians also take part in the program with a brief presentation under the direction of Wes Follett, that takes place just after the intermission.

The full orchestra then presents its rendition of of Beethoven's Symphony No. 5, sometimes called the “Destiny” or “Fate” Symphony. When he wrote it in 1808 Beethoven said that the signature rhythm (three short punctuations followed by one long) represented “fate knocking at the door” and in World War II it became the United States' musical declaration of “V for Victory,” with the three dots and a dash being the letter “V” in Morse code. “The Fifth” is perhaps Beethoven's most recognizable and popular work.

Admission is $20 for the general public and $15 for CLPA members.

Memberships in the nonprofit organization will be available at the door. However, with admission available at that day's performance the membership may be purchased at the reduced rate. As always, young people under 18 are admitted free of charge.

For more information contact Connel Murray, 707-277-7076.

LAKE COUNTY – On Saturday, Nov. 21, Carolyn Hawley and Raul Gilbert will feature the book, “Beethoven: His Spiritual Development” by J.W.N. Sullivan on the new KPFZ program “Word Weavers.”

Discussion of this classic book will be accompanied with selected examples of Beethoven’s music, which Hawley will discuss.

Word Weavers is broadcast at 4 p.m. Saturdays on KPFZ, 88.1 FM.

 

 

 

 

UPPER LAKE – Tom Griesgraber, one of the world’s masters of the Chapman Stick, will be appearing at the Tallman Hotel on Saturday, Nov. 21, along with classical guitarist Bert Lams.

“Thanks to Tom’s family connections here in Lake County, we were really lucky to fit into a current West Coast tour he’s making with Bert Lams,” said Tallman owner Bernie Butcher.

“If people haven’t heard this truly amazing instrument – the Chapman Stick – played to perfection, they’re in for a real treat. Lakeport’s own Bob Culbertson brought down the house on this instrument during our Concerts with Conversation series last year, so I’m really looking forward to hearing this duo of stick and guitar,” Butcher said.

An honors graduate of the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Tom Griesgraber tours widely performing on the Chapman Stick, a unique 12-string guitar and bass hybrid played more like piano with both hands sounding notes.

"I’m proud to see one of my instruments used in such a creative way,” Emmet Chapman says of Tom’s mastery. Chapman invented the instrument named after him in 1969 and he has been promoting its use ever since.

Griesgraber is an active composer and arranger for the instrument and his shows include a mix of original material as well as arrangements ranging from Bach to the Beatles. His newest solo release "Sketchbook" features original compositions along with music by Bach, Bob Dylan and Oliver Nelson.

Bert Lams initially gained notice in 1980 as first laureate in a youth music contest in Brussels. He then went on to earn an honors degree in the study of classical guitar, eventually teaching at the Brussels Academy of Music. Since 1993, he has toured the world and released six albums with the California Guitar Trio.

The show starts at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 21, in Riffe’s Meeting House next to the Tallman Hotel, 9550 Main St. in Upper Lake. Only 40 tickets at $25 are available by calling the Tallman Hotel reservation desk at 707-275-2245.

Tickets allow holders a 10-percent discount on a dinner purchase at the Blue Wing Saloon & Café before the show.

People interested in the show can get a preview at www.Stick.com/features/artist/ .

Once again, another year gone by, and I am standing in the lobby of the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel, pondering my first move in covering the annual American Film Market (AFM), the international swap meet for films, TV programs and stuff you’ll never see because even Netflix doesn’t carry all the direct-to-video titles in its seemingly endless inventory.

Usually, it’s just fun to scope out the players milling around the beachfront hotel’s grand entry, watching the inevitable hustle of film deals about to go down. But then, I gaze out the windows facing the expansive beach, wishing that I were somehow magically transported to the French Riviera.

Waking from my reverie, I realize that November’s chilly air in Southern California will guarantee that starlets in bikinis won’t be catching the eye of grateful paparazzi. Glamor gives way to the hard realities of the AFM’s prime reason for existence, namely bringing together buyers and sellers of films, TV programs and videos into one big, glorious orgy of screening 445 motion pictures in 27 languages over the span of eight days.

Who can possibly watch that many movies? I calculated that it might be possible to see approximately 100 films, give or take a few, over that period of time if only one endured them in a 24-hour per day marathon.

Foregoing an impossible film schedule, the next best thing appeared to be a visit to the hospitality suite of the infamous Troma Pictures, a company that embraces schlock cinema with the blind devotion normally found in a cult.

Troma made a name for itself with “Surf Nazis Must Die” and “The Toxic Avenger” series, classic films that remain prominent in the company’s catalog. I was hoping for something really outrageous, but discovered Troma is still pushing “Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead,” a film so bad that it got the nerds from “Ain’t It Cool News” worked up into an approving frenzy.

Realizing that sex sells around the globe, the Troma folks are also pushing “The Sexy Box,” which is nothing but a descriptive term for the packaging of four sex comedies that were apparently made long before anyone thought “Porky’s” was a good idea.

Despite the garish displays in its suite, Troma hasn’t cornered the market on bad taste or even low-rent horror films. Still, it’s a challenge to find advertising flyers that trump the delightful grotesqueness of the Troma marketing plan.

Giving it a try is a company called Imagination, which promotes “Smash Cut” with the picture of a leggy young nurse holding two bloody, severed hands. Idream Independent Pictures is selling “Fired” by using the imagery of a woman’s naked torso as she holds a decapitated head in her bloody hands behind her back.

All in all, the bad taste award goes to Amadeus Pictures for its film “Polanski,” which illustrates the vile Polish film director in the throes of forcing himself upon an underage girl. Incredibly enough, the advertising flyer notes that Roman Polanski was involved in a “sex scandal and fled to France where he has lived a rather reclusive life.” A sex scandal is when a prominent politician is fooling around with an intern of legal age, paying an expensive call girl for kinky sex, and running off to Argentina for a tryst with a “soul mate.” Unlike dumb politicians, Polanski is a criminal who belongs in jail, notwithstanding what some dimwitted Hollywood types would like to believe.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and this idiom is perfectly useful at AFM. Fred Dryer, not heard from since his TV series “Hunter,” is starring as a county sheriff in “Death Valley.” He’s not to be confused with the considerably younger Eric Christian Olsen, who’s starring in another “Death Valley,” which is about a violent motorcycle gang.

Imitation also takes shape in the similarity of advertising. Two beautiful blondes are featured in similar seductive poses for the films “Women in Trouble” and “Stripped Naked,” with the only difference being that the babe in the latter film is also holding a gun, mainly because she’s described as having “a killer body and a gun.”

AFM is the place to come to find the forgotten stars of yesterday. Look, it’s Peter Falk and George Segal starring as old cronies on a road trip from Florida to Sin City in “3 Days to Vegas.” I am embarrassed to say that I didn’t know Peter Falk was still alive, but the Internet says he’s been placed in a conservatorship. Hey, that probably beats working in a film that might not even get a video release.

Amazingly, Dolph Lundgren is still making movies, but it should not be surprising that in “Icarus” he plays a trained KGB assassin. As long as filmmakers need someone to pay a Soviet heavy, Lundgren’s career remains safe, at least for now.

Action pictures will always be a staple for the AFM crowd, as these pictures, unlike comedies, often translate well to foreign markets. I particularly like the advertising flyer for “Rambo V: The Savage Hunt.” After recently completing “Rocky XXII,” Sylvester Stallone, likely qualifying any day now for Medicare, remains an unstoppable force.

The same probably can’t be said for Arnold Schwarzenegger, even as his political career winds down. The Governator is not going to be starring in the 2010 version of “Conan,” a project being promoted by Nu Image, even though no actor has apparently yet signed on to flex his muscles.

I’d like to end on an upbeat note, but first I must point out that the spirit of Mel Brooks still lives, though now in a foreign land. “Hitler Goes Kaput” looks like a piece of inspired lunacy. The film is billed as “the best action comedy to come out of Russia ever.” Given the gloomy past of the old Soviet Empire, that’s probably not an overstatement.

In any case, it should be observed that AFM does deliver some promising films of great artistic merit. One to keep an eye on is “From Time to Time,” starring the venerable Maggie Smith as the grandmother to a young boy who discovers he has the power to travel through time.

Attending the AFM is a fun, interesting exercise for any who loves the movies. Much like browsing through a flea market, it’s a joy to discover some gems.

I now recall that last year “The Men Who Stare at Goats,” with its impressive cast, looked like a possible winner as it was being sold at the market, and now a year later that impression proved to be prescient.

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