"Bottle Shock" pops open at local theaters Aug 15

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At last, 'Bottle' is about to open

By Chris Smith, Press Democrat Columnist
Published: Sunday, July 20, 2008 at 4:30 a.m.
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''Bottle Shock" is coming.

The locally produced film, inspired by the 1976 Paris tasting that showed the world that California had learned to make great wine, will open Aug. 15 at several area theaters: the Sebastiani, Rialto Cinemas Lakeside and Napa's Cinedom.

The night before those public premieres, promoters of the SMART commuter-rail initiative will hold a benefit screening of "Bottle Shock" at the Rialto.

Two of the film's producers, Sonoma's Marc and Brenda Lhormer, will speak at the SMART premiere. For ticket information, e-mail events@smarttrain2008.org.

A glittery, private premiere happens this Saturday at Chateau Montelena, the movie's leading winery. That party is expected to draw "Bottle Shock" stars Alan Rickman and Bill Pullman, real-life winemakers Jim and Bo Barrett, and "Access Hollywood."

MORE PLAYTIME: Three years after the brilliant Jeffrey Kahane stepped down as music director of the Santa Rosa Symphony and took on the greater challenges of directing the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, he's approaching another change.

Kahane, who still lives in

Santa Rosa and continues to direct the L.A. Chamber Orchestra, has told Colorado he will lead its orchestra only through the 2009-10 season.

At nearly 52, Kahane said he thinks he overestimated how much work he could take on without neglecting his original love: performing on the piano.

NO ONE IN HEALDSBURG anticipated what would happen when city firefighters held a blood drive for Capt. Jason Boaz's wife, Shannon, a mother of two who was diagnosed recently with leukemia.

Hundreds of people packed the firehouse, and the entire City Council came. Some donors waited in line for three hours.

At the end, Blood Bank of the Redwoods folks computed that 233 potential donors gave 188 units of blood -- making it their biggest drive in at least 20 years.

And how sweet is this: Shannon Boaz couldn't be there, but her husband set up a Webcam that let her take it all in from her hospital room at Kaiser.

GRAFFITI'S AN ILLNESS that we hope the taggers will outgrow. But Santa Rosa anti-graffiti warrior Georgia Pedgrift isn't waiting for the urban malady to cure itself.

Georgia is a key player in a

large anti-graffiti conference (www.norcalgraffiti.com) that will occupy the Flamingo Hotel in Santa Rosa on Thursday and Friday.

The sessions are filled, but anyone interested in combating graffiti can stroll through the accompanying trade show. A hot item should be the graffiti-removal kits that volunteers can use to purge the scourge.

IT'S KNOT HARD: Baby boomer Edward Segal was in line at the Johnny's Java in Cotati when an opportunity arose for him to pass a dying art to a younger generation.

A 20-something man said to Edward, "Excuse me, sir. I see you're wearing a tie. I have to wear a tie today but I don't know how to tie it. Would you show me how to do it?"

Once they both had set aside their cups, Edward, a Sebastopol resident and CEO of the Marin Association of Realtors, removed his tie. He demonstrated the Windsor knot as the gracious, grateful young fellow followed along.

Chris Smith is at 521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.

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