Roni Benise’s fiery Spanish guitar melodies and high-energy rhythms weave a tapestry of emotions that have found favor with audiences across this vast country.

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen “Our Town,” Thornton Wilder’s much-loved tale of love and marriage, and life and death in a New Hampshire village in the early 20th century. Most of the dialogue is stored away in my head; so I am always amazed when it pulls me in again as it always does when a production draws that magical thread that connects Grovers Corners, New Hampshire, to anywhere else in the world, even Napa, California, in the year 2007.

For the last five years Kasandra Weinerth has been immersed in the Napa River.

Legendary singer, songwriter and three-time Grammy award winner Kris Kristofferson performs in concert Sunday at Lincoln Theater in Yountville

African-American revivalist string-band trio, the Carolina Chocolate Drops, performs Oct. 26 at Napa Valley Opera House.

It only makes sense that the images in the “Feast of Fine Art” currently at Copia celebrate the outdoors in gorgeous diversity. The plein air works from six Northern California artists will be auctioned at the end of this month as part of the annual Feast of Eden fundraiser for the Land Trust of Napa County.

Eric Nelson, long-time executive director of the Napa Valley Museum, will be leaving that post Nov. 1. He’ll be leaving the valley as well, to become director of Seattle’s Nordic Heritage Museum at the beginning of next year. There he’ll be overseeing that museum’s anticipated rise to national prominence as it moves and expands.

Napa composer Louise Canepa helped gather the forces for 90 minutes of varied musical programming this past Sunday at Yountville’s Lincoln Theater.

Ten years ago Robert Dubac figured out what women want. He popped open a Corona and invited us into his lopsided brain to witness his hilarious thought process known as “The Male Intellect: An Oxymoron?” This one-man show became a worldwide phenomenon as it proved that humor between the sexes is understood in any language.

Jimmy Lyons, the late co-founder of the Monterey Jazz Festival, used to say he was throwing a big party each year on a September weekend. A 50th anniversary is certainly cause to celebrate, and Lyons would have been proud to see that his successor Tim Jackson has carried on the tradition.