The Higher Logic Project. Courtesy photo. MIDDLETOWN, Calif. — Halloween events are taking place in Middletown on Sunday afternoon and evening.
From 2 to 6 p.m. Sunday you can come to a Day of the Dead celebration with DJ Dragonfly including face painting and an altar for loved ones passed at Dance Yogis in Middletown.
All family members are welcome and encouraged to participate in honoring ancestors in a fun and sacred way. Dance Yogis is located at 21248 Hwy 175 in Middletown. Participation is by donation, $10 to $20.
Then, from 7 to 10 p.m., the Higher Logic Project will perform outdoors in central Middletown at the Middletown Art Center.
It’s been a long time since this beloved Lake County-based band has performed locally and there is a lot of excitement around the event. Tickets are $15 and concert proceeds will benefit HLP friend Alma “Cötí” Husson, wellness.
The current configuration includes Dooby Wells lead singer, Chris Clark on bass, Travis Austin on guitar/voice, Peter Wilson on guitar, Zack Yurik drums, Gabriel Winter keyboards and Michael Gabriel voice and steel drum.
The concert will be postponed if it rains.
The Middletown Art Center is located at 21456 State Highway 175 in Middletown at the corner of Highway 29.
Forget about David Lynch’s 1984 version of “Dune,” because I certainly have and won’t revisit his vision for any comparison to director Denis Villeneuve’s take on Frank Herbert’s science-fiction novel.
Set thousands of years in the future, the year 10191 to be exact, “Dune” tells the story of Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet), a young man propelled by fate into an intergalactic power struggle.
The son of beloved, embattled ruler Duke Leto (Oscar Isaac) and powerful warrior priestess Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), Paul will be given the ultimate test of conquering his fear when fate and unseen forces pull him inexorably to the sands of the remote planet Arrakis.
An unwelcoming desert wasteland, Arrakis is home to an indigenous human civilization called the Fremen. The planet has been fiercely contested for generations for its valuable natural resource.
The allure of Arrakis is the fight for control of the Spice, a rare, highly valued, mind-expanding resource upon which space travel, knowledge, commerce and human existence all rely.
But those seeking to harvest the Spice must survive the planet’s inhospitable heat, hurricane-strength sandstorms, and monolithic sandworms that are justly feared with the kind of reverence usually reserved for gods.
The battle for Spice involves a trade war pitting House Atreides against House Harkonnen, the leader of which is the sadistic Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgard), a truly malevolent force ruling through fear and determined to feed his addiction to cruelty.
On the side of good is Josh Brolin’s irreverent and quick-witted Gurney Halleck, Duke Leto’s Warmaster, who has been forged in battle and will do anything necessary to protect House Atreides by overseeing Paul’s combat training.
The deadliest weapon for House Atreides is Jason Momoa’s Duncan Idaho, a legendary sword master and fearless pilot who serves as the eyes and ears of Duke Leto and defends members of the family as though they were his own.
Another wrinkle to be considered is that “Dune” is an incomplete take on Frank Herbert’s vision not easily translated to a cinematic adaptation, and it is understood that Villeneuve is looking to bring forward a second part to this movie.
Meanwhile, this big screen adaptation fully immerses the audience in the moving story of Paul’s coming of age against family rivalries, tribal clashes, social oppression and ecological disaster on the unforgiving, austere planet of Arrakis.
While the film may be streaming on HBO Max, “Dune” demands to be seen on the big screen to appreciate its stunning visual effects. On the other hand, viewer interest may wane for those who are less than avid followers of science-fiction.
‘THE CANTERVILLE GHOST’ ON BYUtv
In conjunction with BBC Studios, the cable network BYUtv turns the Oscar Wilde novella “The Canterville Ghost” into a four-part modern retelling of the humorous short story about an American family moving into a haunted British castle.
Premiering fittingly on Halloween, “The Canterville Ghost” stars Anthony Head as centuries-old Sir Simon de Canterville, the ethereal inhabitant of Canterville Chase, an estate purchased by Hiram Otis (James Lance), an American billionaire with ideas foreign to the locals.
Hiram and his psychotherapist wife Lucy (Caroline Catz) have three children, 22-year-old Virginia (Laurel Waghorn) and mischievous 12-year-old twins Franklin and Theodore (Joe and Tom Graves) who devise ways to torment Sir Simon.
For hundreds of years, the otherworldly and malevolent Sir Simon de Canterville, who considers himself Britain’s premier ghost, has taken immense pride in scaring the locals and terrorizing the tenants of his castle in rural England.
Even his own descendant Lord St. John Canterville (Harry Gostelow), who grew up in the castle, moved his family out when he could no longer take the haunting and abandoned the estate to an American willing to buy the ancient mansion with all of its contents.
For the lonely, unhappy spirit, the thought that anyone would move into his ancestral home is an insult, but it’s an even greater affront that a family of (gasp!) Americans would have the temerity to purchase his property.
That the uppity Americans are unwilling to be frightened by a ghost who wants them to skip back across the pond to their homeland is certainly unsettling to an apparition who believes he’s an experienced performer going about his haunting duties with enthusiasm.
But Sir Simon’s attempts to haunt the Otis family fall flat when the Americans greet his efforts with gift baskets and positive affirmations. He’s consumed with guilt and unable to go to eternal rest until he finds redemption he so desperately craves.
The Otis family has its own struggles. Virginia seeks solace after dropping out of law school and is the only one who doesn’t torment the ghost. Lucy and Hiram must navigate the treacherous and chilly waters of British aristocracy that abhors outsiders.
Like many of Oscar Wilde’s works, “The Canterville Ghost” has been adapted for films and television on many occasions. BYUtv may have a hit on its hands.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
Camm Linden will perform Haydn’s Piano Concerto in a special virtual concert on Sunday, Nov. 21, 2021. Photo courtesy of the Lake County Symphony Association. LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Members of the Lake County Symphony Association got a taste of Franz Joseph Haydn’s Piano Concerto No. 11 in August in a virtual presentation featuring LCSA Board President Camm Linden.
Now, Linden returns to the stage to play all three movements of Haydn’s Concerto in another virtual performance, conducted by John Parkinson.
The first public performance of this Concerto took place in Paris in 1784. According to the renowned Haydn scholar, H.C. Robbins Landon, this work soon became an audience favorite due to its “sparkling keyboard writing and general sense of energy.”
This joyful, upbeat musical offering was composed in a popular “galant” style which makes for easy listening. Watch for syncopated rhythms, crushed grace notes, and the passing of lyrical themes between the keyboard and orchestra.
Haydn is considered the “Father of the Symphony,” with 106 symphonies to his credit. Ironically, this was Haydn’s first concerto ever to include the use of wind instruments — something the current COVID-19 safety guidelines advise against.
So, the LCSA Chamber Orchestra is presenting this piece in a smartly adapted, all-strings version.
The symphony had hoped to play live and in person at the Soper Reese Theatre starting in November, but due to the County’s current COVID-19 numbers, this performance will once again be a virtual one, as will the very popular Christmas Concert.
The November concert premieres Sunday, Nov. 21, at 2 p.m. on Lake County Symphony’s YouTube channel.
Click on the link to LC Symphony Musicians on the LCSA website.
Linden is a longtime musician who studied piano at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she received the Duke Ellington Jazz Masters Award for Keyboard Excellence. She also earned a diploma in composition from the LA Film Music Institute and has a master’s in business management, along with a Doctorate of Music in composition and conducting.
Linden is semiretired from the motion picture industry where she specializes in composing scores for art films.
She also continues to work as an orchestra rehearsal conductor for various movie studio soundstages and recently has been engaged by several orchestral groups around the world to write arrangements for all non-wind instruments in the hopes of restarting their live music seasons during the pandemic.
Linden has traveled extensively performing on piano and guitar with her family music trio — vocalist Jude Darrin and pianist Slade Darrin — and has played both brass and percussion with orchestras from LA to Boston.
She currently plays trumpet (and sometimes, piano) with the Lake County Symphony Orchestra.
Kwame Dawes. Courtesy photo. The elegant irony of Elaine Equi’s lament — what the Germans, I am told, call, “Weltmüdigkeit” (world-weariness) — in her poem, “In an Unrelated,” about the very contemporary phenomenon of “the news cycle,” is that despite what may seem like a grand separation of human beings in the world, we, in the end, have a common sense of collective connection.
In other words, the poet recognizes that we are all in this thing together. This is one splendid use of poetry, to be the “campfire” of our humanity.
In an Unrelated By Elaine Equi
We have almost nothing left, no ground in common.
At best, a brand or maybe a miniseries.
No campfire to gather around. The big stories—peckish news
gets told in tweets, gets old so quickly.
In place of one place a billion tiny customized versions
appear targeted specifically to your tastes.
You see only what you want to see. Maybe you always did.
The Peacock channel is serious this year about celebrating Halloween for every kind of fan for the spooky season, which includes running all eight “Harry Potter” movies, though I am not sure how scary the franchise is to most viewers.
A better bet is the release of “Halloween Kills,” which is probably the thirtieth or so title in the “Halloween” franchise, which stars Jamie Lee Curtis and Nick Castle reprising their respective roles of Laurie Strode and Michael Myers.
To put everything into perspective, Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie Strode made her first appearance in “Halloween” in 1978 and was the sole survivor of Michael Myers’ killing spree. “Halloween Kills” has been released in theaters and is streaming on Peacock.
Talk about an odd couple pairing, rapper Snoop Dogg and media personality Martha Stewart host the competition special “Snoop and Martha’s Very Tasty Halloween” featuring talented bakers who face off in a delectable Halloween showdown.
Teams of three bakers, called “Scare Squads,” are tasked with baking and building a full sensory 12x12 Halloween world that people can literally explore. The catch? Their worlds must be inspired by the concept of fear. Imagine larger-than-life chocolate spiders.
New horror films to air include “Separation” from director William Brent and “You Should Have Left,” Blumhouse’s psychological thriller starring Kevin Bacon and Amanda Seyfried about an isolated country home where nothing is quite as it seems.
Classic monster movies are on tap. One of them being “Dracula,” which we assume is the 1931 version starring Bela Lugosi as the County. The Peacock classic films to be aired, including “Frankenstein” and “The Invisible Man” all come from Universal Pictures’ horror collection.
Halloween-themed episodes of favorite TV series will be shown, ranging from sitcoms like “Cheers” and “Everybody Loves Raymond” to silly gags on “Saturday Night Live” to dramas like “Law & Order” that go to serious places with their Halloween tales.
Even family-friendly thrills suitable for a younger audience are to be found with “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events” television series and the “Monster High” film series.
Starting on Oct. 29, TCM will deploy its extensive library of classic films to satisfy every taste in spooky, creepy, horrifying (and sometimes humorous) entertainment over the course of 48 hours of its Halloween Marathon.
The fun starts on Friday night, two days before Halloween, as Vincent Price stars in 1971’s “The Abominable Dr. Phibes” as a highly creative madman mimicking the Biblical plagues of Egypt to exact revenge on the doctors believed responsible for his wife’s death.
Two great classics of the genre follow: the granddaddy of all zombie pictures, George Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead” (1968) and “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” (1978). The last one is on late, but don’t fall asleep – you know what can happen!
The 1970s scream queen Linda Blair can be seen in 1981’s “Hell Night” and 1977’s “Exorcist II: The Heretic,” which offers the added treat of hearing the great Richard Burton utter the immortal line: “Pazuzu, king of evil spirits of the air, help me find Kokumo!”
Saturday, Oct. 30, is jam-packed with Halloween tricks and treats, including 1961’s “Creature from the Haunted Sea,” featuring an appearance by future Oscar-winning screenwriter Robert Towne (“Chinatown”).
The most famous mad scientist/monster team of all time gets its due in three films: James Whale’s original and still unsurpassed “Frankenstein” (1931), and the Hammer Films retelling in 1957’s “The Curse of Frankenstein,” starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.
The third film of this august group has a completely different take on the zipper-necked monster. That would be Mel Brooks’ hilarious spoof “Young Frankenstein” (1974), a classic film in its own right.
Speaking of British horror legends Lee and Cushing, they are the lead characters in the classic “Horror Dracula” (1958), respectively as the vampire Count Dracula and the vampire hunter Doctor Van Helsing.
Hammer, the leading British studio for shock and gore, is represented again with 1966’s “The Devil’s Own,” released in the U.K. as “The Witches,” in which Joan Fontaine seeks to outdo big sister Olivia de Havilland’s forays into the genre in the 1960s.
No compendium of great movie horror would be complete without at least some of the films released at RKO under the aegis of producer Val Lewton.
Eschewing monsters, shock effects and obvious gore, Lewton was remarkable for a series of low budget pictures that were subtle in their approach to the genre; dark shadowy tales of psychological terror that also fit them perfectly into TCM’s Noir Alley series.
Vincent Price starred in the original version of “The Fly” (1958) and in two of the notable series of loose Edgar Allan Poe adaptations made by Roger Corman in the 1960s, “Pit and the Pendulum” (1961) and “The Tomb of Ligeia” (1964), with a screenplay by Robert Towne.
For a big screen experience, Universal Studios and Fathom Events present a double feature at local cinemas on Saturday afternoon, Oct. 30, of “The Invisible Man” starring Claude Rains and “The Wolf Man” starring Lon Chaney Jr.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
Kwame Dawes. Courtesy photo. Bruce Willard’s poem, “Song Sparrow,” captures with such intimacy, the interruption of the comforting rituals of time: seasons changing, children growing older, water under the bridge, the world continuing its march.
Here, in the midst of this, our long and tumultuous pandemic “season,” I am struck by how familiar the breathlessness that Willard describes feels.
As with the best poems, the familiarity is formed through empathy — something that poetry teaches us, again and again.
Song Sparrow By Bruce Willard
That summer we opened the lake cottage, prehistoric sound of loons before us, decades of children at our back, familiar sound of water under the porch eaves.
A song sparrow hit the window just as summer began.
You held it in your hand bent over, unable to breathe another year, working your fingers under its feathers and bone.
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