Once again Vintage High School’s drama department students have done their part to make Halloween a scream for everyone. Their annual haunted house — this year it’s the “Haunted House of Phobias” —  is open this week through Friday and on Monday, Oct. 29, and Tuesday, Oct. 30. It opens at noon for Vintage students, and again from 3 to 5 p.m. for the general public. Tickets are $1 and may be purchased at the door, located at the back of the Vintage High School Little Theatre. Children under 12 must be accompanied by an adult.  

Just in time for ghouls and goblins, Copia is presenting “Revenge of Thrillville’s Halloween Spookylau” in the facility’s theater Friday night.

“Skinflints and Scoundrels: Moliere’s Miser,” translated and adapted by Susan Zeder, opens the St. Helena High School theatre season Saturday, Oct. 27 at 7 p.m. This comical, quick-paced, play-within-a-play is directed by Dr. Mary Fullerton with additional performances Sunday, Oct. 28  at 3 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 3 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 4 at 3 p.m..

There’s something about Halloween that gets Susan Bartolucci’s creative juices flowing — not “creative juices” as in chardonnay or pinot noir, although she helps keep those juices flowing as well, being the matron of one of Napa Valley’s oldest wine producing families.

“Music From the Crooked Road,” the critically acclaimed national tour of old-time, bluegrass, mountain gospel and flatfoot dance comes to Lincoln Theater Napa Valley in Yountville this Sunday.

Napa High thespians open their 2007-08 season with an unsual offering: a rarely performed but highly acclaimed Depression-era fable, “The Diviners,” by Jim Leonard Jr.

Since 1973, San Jose Taiko has mesmerized audiences with the spellbinding sounds of taiko drums in fully choreographed, theatrically lit extravaganzas of musical sound.

Actors, folk singers, and paramours of Barbra Streisand may come and go, but a true storyteller is a gem that endures.

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.

Education

Thirty-three students at Justin-Siena High School earned the designation of AP Scholar by the College Board in recognition of their exceptional achievement on the college-level Advanced Placement Program exams.

Change your thinking, change your life.

From Register Staff

Dan Smith and Steve McDonagh, “Talk With Your Mouth Full”

Need some nuts and bolts tips on throwing a party? Who ya gonna consult?

Dan Smith and Steve McDonagh, “Talk With Your Mouth Full”

Dan Smith and Steve McDonagh, “Talk With Your Mouth Full”

Register Staff Writer

No one really knows where Santa Claus’ workshop is, but I could have sworn we’d ventured into realm of the elves. In front of us were all the trappings of Christmas: wreaths lining the walls, rolls and rolls of wrapping paper, and bins of bows and ornaments, candy canes, pine cones and silver bells.

The next monthly meeting of the Napa Valley Orchid Society takes place Friday, Oct. 26, at 7:30 p.m. at the Napa Senior Activity Center, 1500 Jefferson St., Napa.

It seems like I've been playing a lot of first-person shooters and sequels lately, so it's nice to play something different and original.

At age 12, Arianna Kampton of Napa is already an accomplished actress. Most recently, the St. John's Lutheran School student won the role of Harold the Herald in Napa Valley College's spring production of "The Emperor's New Clothes," a traveling play that made stops at several of Napa's elementary and middle schools.

Nickname: Fluffy Muffy, Miss Muffy or Pumpkin

Nickname: Handsome

“I do like crazy things,” Cece Sanchez said. “I’m just inspired by life.”

BERKELEY — A new line of wines saucily named Cleavage Creek and featuring models sporting discreet decolletage on the label has a surprising back story: The wines are part of a fundraising campaign to fight breast cancer; the models are survivors of that disease.

Nearly everyone is finished with harvest, or will be by week’s end. A few growers, including Pat Stotesbery, are hoping the rains will go and stay away until November, but so far the rains haven’t hurt the hardy cabernet grapes with its thicker skins and looser clusters. More than one grower comments that 2007 wines will be fantastic.

What is a good wine value?

Diamonds in the Rough, vintner Boots Brounstein’s annual fundraiser aimed at finding a cure for Parkinson’s disease, raised more than $100,000 last weekend for the Parkinson’s Institute in Sunnyvale.

Stomp grapes at Bourassa Vineyard’s harvest celebration Saturday, Oct. 20, from 1 to 4 p.m. Wine tasting — barrel, library and futures — is part of the event along with a food and wine paing demonstration by Julie Logue-Riordan, of Cooking with Julie.

Beaulieu Vineyard announced today that it will create a self-contained, state-of-the-art winemaking facility dedicated solely to the production of its flagship wine, Georges de Latour Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, one of Napa Valley’s iconic, benchmark wines.