LAKE COUNTY – We all knew, and now miss, the talented Joan Holman – actress, singer and photographer, and for many years a newspaper reporter in the Bay Area. She passed away at 94, having been on stage since her youth.

Many of us have been in a cast with her, or sung with her. We have seen her acting on every stage in Lake and in Ukiah, seen displays of her photography at the Lake County Fair and in the Main Street Gallery.

We have been in the audiences when she served so effectively as master of ceremonies. We have sat and discoursed with her at the gallery as she sat Tuesday mornings, for many years, behind the front desk.

There’s a lot to miss; she entered our worlds in many ways, and always memorably.

We’ve not seen any of her news stories from the old days. While she performed on stage so many times, she wasn’t in any movies. There are some photos of her acting, some on the Lake County Arts Council's Web site, but that is not the same as seeing a performance.

Perhaps somewhere there are CDs of the lake chorus that she sang with; I don’t know of any. Stage work is like that; when the performance is over, it is gone with the wind, leaving an impression, a memory that fades and gets put in the rarely accessed mental folders.

About the only really tangible evidence that we have of her creativity are her photographs. She took a great many in her travels, and she traveled frequently, to all the corners of the world. Once home, she would sort through the negatives and choose some to be blown up. Then she would sort through those prints for the best and frame them behind glass, submitting them to the Fair, and once a year or so having a show at the Gallery. It was an unusual Fair where she didn’t win a prize.

She had a good eye for the picturesque and the interesting. She found out-of-the way locales and familiar sights, and made each of them her own. Her photographic skills were good, and the images are clear and sharp and balanced. They look good on the wall. They sold in the gallery, and in Art in Public Places, but there are some left, and they are fine.

On Sept. 20 at 2 p.m. the Arts Council will have the last showing of the photography of Joan Holman.

The Arts Council will auction the complete collection of her framed large-format photography. It’s behind glass, matted and ready to hang. Her heirs have donated it to the Arts Council, in accordance with her wishes. The idea is to get the work into the hands of her friends; if the Arts Council can make a little out of it, that’s all to the good. The Arts Council does well on just a little.

Bert Hutt will be the auctioneer because he is really good at it, and we will serve drinks and snacks because we are really good at that.

We hope to see you there. After all, it is the last chance. Don’t miss it!

MIDDLETOWN – D’s Coffee & Tea Shop in Middletown will host its monthly Open Mic Night on Friday, Sept. 25, from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.

This is a free event.

 

All musicians, singers, storytellers, comedians and others are welcome.

This is fast becoming a big event so early sign up is encouraged.

Food and beverages will be available for purchase.

For more information or to sign up to perform please call 707-987-3647.

You might want to check the supplies of cocoa and tea, because that little taste of rain we just had portends a wet winter; it's an El Niño year.

Book lovers should be gloating “Let it rain!” because this looks like our year.

Here are just a few of the early fall fiction temptations.

Dan Brown is back with Robert Langdon in “The Lost Symbol,” releasing Tuesday, this time probing the connections of Freemasonry and Washington, D. C. Washington pols and critics reportedly are waiting breathlessly.

Book club favorite Anita Diamant, who captivated so many with "The Red Tent," gives us “Day After Night,” young women escaping to Israel from Nazi Germany.

Anita Shreve, who specializes in couples under great stress, “A Change in Altitude,” puts her protagonists in a Kenyan tragedy.

Lorrie Moore sets her post-9/11 novel, “A Gate at the Stairs” in the Midwest with a 20-year-old punster as her protagonist.

Margaret Atwood imagines another dystopia in “The Year of the Flood,” with much of the human race wiped out. (Guess: She'll somehow find the humor in that.)

Audrey Niffenegger, whose "The Time Traveler's Wife" was recently released for the big screen, follows it up with “Her Fearful Symmetry,” set in a London cemetery.

E.L. Doctorow's “Homer & Langley” examines the famous Collyer brothers, whose hoarding of old newspapers and other debris was world class. (Could have you putting down your book for a bit of tossing out.)

Kazuo Ishiguro, author of the lovely and melancholic "Remains of the Day," with another evocative title in “Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall,” stories connected by music.

Popular Spokane native author Sherman Alexie ("Smoke Signals") lightens it up with “War Dances,” a collection of stories.

Anne Rice, dominatrix of vampire novels for years, left the field for Christian themes about the time lots of competition moved in. She returns Oct. 27 (just in time for you-know-what!) with a hybrid of popular themes in “Angel Time: Songs of the Seraphim.” A killer meets an angel who gives him a chance at time travel to right some wrongs.

Sophie Annan Jensen is a book lover and retired journalist. She lives in Lucerne.

LOWER LAKE – The upcoming Old Time Bluegrass Festival at Anderson Marsh State Historic Park this Saturday will feature numerous musicians workshops that are open to anyone attending the festival.

A fiddle workshop will be led by Andy Skelton; a banjo workshop will be led by Pat Ickes and Dock Jekel, and a mandolin workshop will be led by Don Coffin and Eric Brittain.

If you are into flat picking guitar, a workshop by Jim Nunally and Dix Bruce is perfect. A beginning guitar workshop with Jim Williams is planned and a children’s song workshop with Scott Sommer and friends is also scheduled. These are both participation and demonstration workshops, so bring your instrument. Event organizers are encouraging.

The schedule of workshops will be on the bluegrass program when you enter the festival. Participants can sign up at the event, just go right to the workshop and participate, urged one of the event organizers, Don Coffin.

Advance registration is not required. “Bring your instrument, swap tunes, and have fun!” Coffin urged.

The Bluegrass Festival will be held from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. with advance tickets selling for $15 and tickets at the door are $20.

Featured entertainers include Laurie Lewis, Nina Gerber, and Susie Glaze and the Hilonesome Band. Go to www.andersonmarsh.org for tickets and information.

Anderson Marsh State Historic Park is located on Highway 53 between Lower Lake and the City of Clearlake.

LOWER LAKE – Internationally known guitarist/vocalist Mike Wilhelm and local favorite vocalist/percussionist Neon Knepalm will play at the Tuscan Village from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 11.

Tuscan Village is located next to the Post Office on Main Street in Lower Lake.

Videos of their previous performances there as well as at the Blue Wing Saloon can be viewed at www.youtube.com/TheMonkeybeat .