Archive - Entertainment News Article

Iconic bluesman Charlie Musselwhite comes to Mammoth's Bluesapalooza

July 27, 2012

It’s not often you can walk around Mammoth and rub elbows with a legend.

At least one who’s not running, skiing, snowboarding or dirt-biking.

Yet at this year’s Mammoth Festival of Beers & Bluesaplooza (Thursday through Sunday, next week), concert goers at Sam’s Woodsite can run smack into Charlie Musselwhite, and that’s about as close to legendary as it gets in the blues world.

Musselwhite, a native Mississippian with 30 solo albums, is touring in support of his new recording, “The Well.” It is a highly autobiographical collection of songs that won a Grammy nomination this year.

Fido & Me — Dignity

July 27, 2012

“Oy vey, am I scared!”

“Fido,” I said, “what in the world is going on? You’re speaking Yiddish.”

“Oy vey, am I scared!”

“That’s what you said. What’s got your goat? What’s the matter?”

Fido inched closer to my chair, almost right on top of my feet. Then I heard it. Way off in the distance (to my ears, anyway): thunder.

“Oy vey,” Fido said. “Am I scared! And I’m speaking Doggish, not Yiddish. An offshoot.”

Music Festival nearing its 2012 summer finale

July 27, 2012

The Mammoth Lakes Music Festival enters its final week of concerts, featuring the Felici Piano Trio and distinguished guests at Cerro Coso College.

Tickets ($25 adult, $20 senior, $10 student) are available at the Booky Joint in Mammoth Lakes, at the door at 6:45 p.m. on concert nights or at www.ChamberMusicUnbound.org.

Paiute Palace announces jackpot winner

July 27, 2012

The Paiute Palace Casino in Bishop announced its most recent jackpot winner, Jeanette S. of Bishop. She won $771,170 on one of the newly installed Godzilla slot machines.

According to casino officials, Jeanette is a regular customer. The casino’s Bill Macdonald was happy that a local regular customer won the huge prize.

The Paiute Palace Casino is owned and operated by the Bishop Paiute Tribe. For current casino promotions visit www.paiutepalace.com

June Lake Loop Mountain Music Festival in fourth year

July 27, 2012

The fourth annual June Lake Loop Mountain Music Festival started yesterday (Thursday) and continues until July 29.

The festival features bands and a kids' camp, all in beautiful June Lake.

Events include a “Trout Town Jamboree,” a song writer’s showcase, an outdoors concert, a bluegrass bash, and a hangover pizza party (among other events).

Tickets range from $10-$20 for each event and proceeds help benefit the June Lake Loop Women’s Schoolarship Fund.

For more information, visit JuneLakeMusic.com.

Johnny Winter finds his roots

July 20, 2012

Veteran bluesman Johnny Winter says he never wanted to be a rocker.

In spite of his 1970 best-selling rock album “Johnny Winter … And,” featuring his brother, Edgar, Winter said he always was and always will be true to his first love: the blues.

“I wasn’t really happy crossing over to rock ‘n’ roll,” he said in a telephone interview from Charlotte, N.C., where he was to perform that night.

“That was my manager’s idea. I’d rather not be doing it. At the time, the blues was kind of fading out, and he thought I should do more rock.

Fido & Me —Organic Fido

July 20, 2012

“Forgive me, Fido, but I really never thought about what you were doing back in there. I know it’s a spot you like, but I’ve never really followed you, except to holler at you for digging around in someone’s yard.”

Fido made that “pulled-a-fast-one” grin on his puss.

“Hey hey hey hey! Just look!”

Fido had dug some semi-straight furrows in the dirt. Not really dirt, actually, but Mammoth dirt. That is, some dirt, mostly pumice.

“What is this, Fido?”

“It is my ‘Field of Dreams.’”

Local photographers at Mountain Light exhibit

July 20, 2012

Sweeping panoramic vistas, evocative landscapes and cultural portraits are featured in a new guest artist exhibit at Mountain Light Gallery.

Showcasing images by Sierra photographers Vern Clevenger, Jim Stimson, Londie Padelsky, Jerry Dodrill and John Dittli, the exhibit resonates with each artist's passion for exploration and their individually distinctive dedication to living a life immersed amid natural beauty.

Sierra Classic Theatre presents Shakespeare's "The Tempest"

July 20, 2012

The players of the Sierra Classic Theatre will open s six-day run of William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” beginning tonight at Sam’s Woodsite in Mammoth.

It is an audacious, if not tempestuous undertaking, directed by Lesley Bruns and performed under the trees at the venue.

The players ask for a $10 donation for those wishing to attend.

Although the theatre company will offer some chairs, the players ask members of the audience to bring their own chairs if they like, and a picnic.

Violin Auction Wednesday at Music Festival

July 13, 2012

The Sierra Music Festival opens this week at Cerro Coso College, with plenty of strings attached.

Actually, there are just four strings, but they are attached to a violin painted by Lady Jill Mueller and signed by Dave and Roma McCoy.

The instrument will be an item in Chamber Music Unbound’s Fifth Annual Auction after the opening Mammoth Lakes Music Festival concert at the college, with opening bids beginning at $1,000.

Fido & Me — Guardian Angel

July 13, 2012

“Fido, what’s wrong?”

“I have never been so worn out in all my life!”

“But it was just an overnight!” I said. “Piece of cake, old man.”

“Yeah, well, so you say.”

Fido walked to his dog bed and more or less dived into it, like a locomotive that has jumped the tracks. Nose first, cloud of dust, then silence. In no time, he was snoring.

As for me, I was a little tired after our first overnight in the mountains, but nothing out of the ordinary.
For Fido, though, his first overnight backpacking adventure was more of a strain than I’d figured.

Fido & Me —Ursus Familiarus

July 6, 2012

“I’m a BEAR!!!!”

Fido & Me —Sleepless in Mammoth

June 29, 2012

“FIDO?!?!?!?”

“Here I am! Hey hey hey hey!”

Fido scampered on over, full of beans as usual.

“Fido, have you been messing with my email? I’m getting all kinds of strange email from people I don’t know, in places I’ve never been, and I just have a hunch you’re behind this.”

“I love email,” Fido said. “You can connect with anyone!”

“I know, Fido, but I don’t want to be connected with EVERYone. I can see there is a green, pine pollen dogpaw print on my keyboard.”

Fido sat (obediently, for once in his life) at my side. He grinned.

RAW: Big art show next week, 60 artists to display their work

June 26, 2012

Mono Council for the Arts presents its 35th Annual Mammoth Celebrates the Arts Fine Arts and Contemporary Crafts Festival in the parking lot of Footloose Sports July 4-7 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday.

Fido & Me —Orthodox Fido

June 22, 2012

“FIDO! DAG-NABBIT!”

“Chomp chomp chomp, slurp slurp chomp.”

“Egad, Fido, I can’t take you anywhere!”

By now Fido was licking the pavement.

“This,” he proclaimed, “is just the best time EVER! Hey, will you look at THAT?”

Fido eyeballed the baked beans.

“FIDO!” I said, and gave him a tug on his nose leash.

It was his first-ever pig roast. It might be his last-ever, too, unless he can get a grip, and I told him as much.