Searching for something you haven’t heard before? You might try this group.

They call themselves Birds of Chicago, and they describe themselves as a musical collective.

At the core of this collective are JT Nero, of the Chicago rock and soul band, JT and the Clouds, and Allison Russell, of the Canadian urban folk band, Po’ Girl.

They’ll open at 6 p.m. Monday, May 27, for a 7:15 p.m. show starring California Honeydrops, in the “mini-amphitheatre” at the Lagunitas Brewing Company, 1280 N. McDowell Blvd., Petaluma.

Information: www.lagunitas.com.

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Fred MacMurray and his wife, actress June Haver, spent much of their time nearby on the Twin Valley Ranch, later renamed the MacMurray Ranch, on Westside Road near Healdsburg. HO Healdsburg Museum

By DAN TAYLOR
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Fred MacMurray is remembered as a successful screen actor, from his dark portrayal of a desperate man in the 1944 crime drama “Double Indemnity” to the title role in Disney’s “Absent–Minded Professor” in 1961.

Fred MacMurray and his wife, actress June Haver, reading a script, spent much of their time nearby on the Twin Valley Ranch, later renamed the MacMurray Ranch, on Westside Road near Healdsburg. HO Healdsburg Museum

Above all, he was the ultimate father figure, whether he was playing the exasperated dad in the original “Shaggy Dog” film in 1959, or the wiser, calmer patriarch in 12 seasons of TV’s “My Three Sons,” from 1960 to 1972.

In the Healdsburg area, MacMurray and his wife, actress June Haver, are also remembered as good neighbors who spent much of their time nearby on the Twin Valley Ranch, later renamed the MacMurray Ranch, on Westside Road.

The couple bought the property, a working cattle ranch, in 1941 and maintained it as a home-away-from-Hollywood for half a century.

Their daughter, Kate MacMurray, still lives on the property, now owned by Gallo of Sonoma, which maintains vineyards there and produces the MacMurray Ranch line of wines.

“Gallo purchased the ranch in 1996, and it’s still used for agriculture, which is what Daddy wanted. There are beautiful vineyards planted there now, but the homestead is the same,” MacMurray said.

Working with the Healdsburg Museum and Historical Society, MacMurray has collaborated on an exhibit of photographs, posters, mementos and memorabilia called “The Movie Stars Next Door: Fred MacMurray, June Haver at the MacMurray Ranch.”

“We’ve never done anything quite like this before,” MacMurray said. “Both of my parents had a very rich personal life, and of course, their film careers. I am so touched to have an exhibit this personal, and in Healdsburg, particularly, because Mom and Dad loved Healdsburg.”

Fred MacMurray died in 1991 and June Haver died in 2005, and although their daughter has hosted public events at the ranch, this is the first local museum exhibit.

Visitors to the Healdsburg Museum will see posters for “Double Indemnity” and other MacMurray films, and photos of his famous guests at the ranch, including actors Jimmy Stewart and Clark Gable, and comedian Red Skelton.

Displays also cover MacMurray’s hobbies — watercolor painting, fly fishing and skeet shooting — as well as Haver’s — painting and crewel embroidery. Artifacts include MacMurray’s saddle and several hats he wore in Western movies.

Healdsburg Museum curator Holly Hoods first approached MacMurray last year about staging an exhibit, which opened May 15 and runs until July 21.

“This exhibit came together because of the local interest in the MacMurray family ranch,” Hoods said, “and Kate MacMurray has been a longtime supporter of the museum.”

You can reach Staff Writer Dan Taylor at 521-5243 or dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com. See his ARTS blog at http://arts. blogs.pressdemocrat.com.

Fred MacMurray and his wife, actress June Haver, spent much of their time nearby on the Twin Valley Ranch, later renamed the MacMurray Ranch, on Westside Road near Healdsburg. HO Healdsburg Museum

FRED AND JUNE
What: “The Movie Stars Next Door: Fred MacMurray, June Haver and the MacMurray Ranch”
Where: Healdsburg Museum and Historical Society, 221 Matheson St., Healdsburg
When: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday, until July 21.
Admission: Free.
Information: 431-3325, healdsburgmuseum.org.

Bee Pollen Panna Cotta, at Canneti Roadhouse, in Forestville. (Christopher Chung/ The Press Democrat)

The restaurant that was previously Mosaic in Forestville has changed. Now it’s Canneti Roadhouse, with solid oak tables and a beautiful backyard for dining al fresco. Chef and owner Francesco Torre has done a fine job with the décor.

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The food isn’t bad, but it lacks pizzazz. Dishes that should sing only talk. Torre’s cooking is based on his Tuscan heritage; Tuscany is known for its flavorful dishes of meat — especially game — fresh vegetables, and bread. It’s sweet that chef Torre has named his restaurant after a road he walked from his home in Italy to his elementary school.

Tuna of the Chianti

But whatever excitement was there on Canneti Road should be translated into the dishes served up in Forestville. There’s not much excitement in “Tuna of the Chianti” ($12 **), as a dish of shredded pork, tondini beans, olive oil and herbs was called. It bore no resemblance to tuna. One of our diners noted that it was, fundamentally, pork and beans. And mildly flavored pork and beans, at that.

It was the deep flavor of sheep’s-milk cheese that enlivened the Sformato ($13 ***) and gave it full-throated taste. This soufflé — about 3½ inches in diameter and slightly deflated as it cooled — had that distinctive nutty flavor of a nicely aged pecorino cheese (pecora is Italian for sheep). Fava beans in a buttery sauce accompanied the soufflé, and a sprig of fresh thyme added some zip.

The pasta course included Maccheroni with Tuscan Meat Sauce ($17 **). The pasta was big fluted tubes that flattened after they were boiled, mixed with a very mild-flavored meat sauce. Perhaps it’s our familiarity with Bolognese meat sauce, with its acidic edge provided by a reduction of wine and tomatoes, that makes this Tuscan version seem bland by comparison. But with every bite, I kept hunting for that satisfying richness and didn’t find it.

It was surprising that the Saffron Risotto Cake ($19 **) was priced so high, given that the mild dish consisted of a rice cake in a swirl of butternut squash puree topped with curls of baked turnips that arrived cold. Fresh thyme tried to add its cheery perfume, but the cold turnip shavings prevailed.

A nice piece of Alaskan Halibut ($26 **½) was wrapped in a crespella (Italian for crepe) with rainbow carrots, pea leaves and uncured guanciale (fatty pig’s jowl) crisped in a pan. The savory crepe looked a lot like injera, the Ethiopian griddle bread. This plate had good flavor, but it arrived lukewarm when piping hot might have been better.

A skewer of Marin County Quail ($24 **) on a bed of large croutons with a serving of pickled onions offered slim pickings. The bed of bread cubes was, unfortunately, greasy and barely warm.

Crispy Angel Wings Tiramasu

Desserts, however, were more generous. Bee Pollen Panna Cotta ($9 **) with fennel marmalade and a shot glass of liquid dark chocolate was inventive and fun. Crispy Angel Wings Tiramisu ($10 **) was not the typical dessert made with cocoa powder and sweet liqueur. It was crunchy and came with rich mascarpone cream and an espresso sauce.

A seasonal Tuscan tasting menu is available for $55, or $85 with each of the four courses paired with wine.

Brick walls painted beige reflect sound, and so when the front dining room is full, it can get loud. Things are quieter in a smaller dining room halfway to the back room where a single long oak table can seat a large extended family or group of friends. From there, it’s just a few steps outside to the al fresco dining area with its own bar and lovely canopy of trees.

The 27 wines on the wine list include local whites and reds from the Russian River appellation, some good Clos Saron reds from the Sierra foothills, and 14 well-selected Tuscan wines, including a 2009 Rosso di Montepulciano for $36, a 2011 Maremma Sangiovese for $36, some lusty Chiantis and high-priced Sangioveses. Corkage is $20.

Service was swift but a bit obtrusive as several times one of our party was interrupted in mid-sentence by staff inquiring about our satisfaction or offering information about a dish.

To sum up: A nice spot in downtown Forestville serves Tuscan food that could use some amping up.

Jeff Cox writes a weekly restaurant review column for the Sonoma Living section. You can reach him at jeffcox@sonic.net.

CANNETI ROADHOUSE
Where: 6675 Front St., Forestville
When: Dinner from 5:30 to 9 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Lunch and dinner from 11:30 a.m. Thursdays through Sundays, closing at 9 p.m. Thursdays, 9:30 p.m. Fridays, 10 p.m. Saturdays, and 8:30 p.m. Sundays. Closed Mondays
Reservations: Call 887-2232
Price range: Expensive to very expensive, with entrees from $19 to $26
Website: NA

Wine list: **
Ambiance: **½
Service: **
Food: **
Overall: **

**** Extraordinary
*** Very good
** Good
* Not very good
0 Terrible

By ROGER MOORE
McCLATCHY NEWS SERVICE

The phrase “banality of evil” popped up when historians sought to explain the bland men and women who carried out the Holocaust, when critics looked for ways to describe the often dull villains that were not all that interesting, outside of their crimes.

Richard Kuklinski could be banality of evil’s poster-child. A poker-faced family man, from New Jersey no less, this real-life monster carried out cold-blooded killings for the mob for over a decade. Nothing glamorous about it, no sexual-sadistic glee evident on his part. Just a job, a cold calculation on who had to die, and how that death could be achieved without Kuklinski getting caught.

Michael Shannon has the voice and face of a mass murderer in this film, the sort of man who can tell he soon-to-be wife (Winona Ryder) “I dub cartoons for a living,” when in reality he duplicates porn films for the mob. And when mobster Roy Demeo (Ray Liotta) orders it, Kuklinski has no more compunction about killing for money than he does about making porn.

“The Iceman” establishes that this guy had a temper long before he was paid to murder for the mob. His rage is under control. He knows his place, which keeps him alive when Demeo and his lieutenants jerk him around.

Shannon makes Kuklinksi a stoic, quiet, guy who never talks about his methods. “Pray to God. Tell him to come down and stop me,” he tells one victim. He’s a little slow, maybe even conflicted, and he’s looking for a reason to believe.

Ryder is splendid as the mob wife who never acknowledges it. The dialogue is hard-bitten and Mamet-sharp. Co-writer/director Ariel Vroman keeps the mood foreboding. And Shannon, one of the most riveting actors on the screen today, never lets us forget that this guy has a low-IQ sort of cunning, an unaffected menace that would have made him a helluva poker player.

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MOVIE REVIEW
***1/2
Stars: Michael Shannon, Winona Ryder, Ray Liotta
Director: Ariel Vroman
Rating: R for strong violence, pervasive language, and some sexual content
Running time: 105 minutes

By COLIN COVERT
MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE

Blancanieves” (Spanish for Snow White) is enchantment at 24 frames a second. Relocating the Grimm fairy tale to 1920s Spain, adding bullfighting and flamenco dancing to the mix, and shooting it in silent black-and-white, suggests some kind of camp folly.

There is a wry dash of self-aware melodrama in this movie, but also a strain of romantic, eerie fantasy akin to that other masterful Spanish fable, “Pan’s Labyrinth.” It’s the kind of delirium you eagerly join.

We open in Seville’s grand bullring, where a famous matador (Daniel Giménez Cacho) thrills us with his artistry before being distracted by a photographer’s flash powder and crippled. With his wife dead in childbirth, their daughter Carmen (played as a child by sparkling Sofia Oria and later by lovely Macarena Garcia) is raised by her domineering stepmother Encarna (Maribel Verdú, a cobra in black satin).

The film builds up tension and then plays its comedic cards strategically. When the coldly smiling Encarna invites Carmen to settle into her bedroom in their lavish villa, the title card reads, “You’ll find it quite cozy.” Cut to the world’s most dismal coal cellar.
Encarna wants to keep Carmen from her father, but the two meet secretly and he tutors her in the art of bullfighting.

In an image that condenses a decade into a blink, we meet the vibrant young-adult Carmen. Perceiving a threat to her regal lifestyle, Encarna moves to eliminate father and daughter. Carmen escapes, but her memory is gone. Fate sends a troupe of bullfighting dwarves her way, and she joins their act. The female torero becomes a sensation for her grace, style and bravery. When Encarna recognizes the mysterious bullfighter Blancanieves as the still-living Carmen, a fatal confrontation is inevitable.

Pablo Berger’s strange, delightful movie is pure cinema, a demonstration of how much can be conveyed with a paintbrush of light and shadow, exquisite framing, expression and body language. It looks like a forgotten classic, yet it’s fresh as morning.

The film’s black-and-white world creates a world of sublime magical realism.

The finale offers a melancholy Iberian perspective on what it could mean to live ever after. It might be happily, and then again . . . Most films are experiences to be ignored or at best forgotten. “Blancanieves” is a little classic to be treasured.

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MOVIE REVIEW
Blancanieves
****
Stars: Maribel Verdú, Macarena García, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Sofía Oria
Director: Pablo Berger
Rating: PG-13 for some frightening images, adult themes
Running time: 104 minutes

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MOVIE REVIEW
Epic
**½
Stars: Voices of Beyoncé, Colin Farrell, Josh Hutcherson, Amanda Seyfried, Christoph Walz
Director: Chris Wedge
Rating: PG for mild action, some scary images, and brief rude language
Running time: 102 minutes

By ROGER MOORE
McCLATCHY NEWS SERVICE

Bad movies are rarely as much fun as these “Fast and the Furious” pictures. And make no mistake about it — they’re bad.

They stick to a rigid formula of hot cars, street races where skinny supermodels make up the audience, and impossible (and impossibly expensive) road heists.

Fans know that every character will have his or her moments to show off and that no beloved character will be killed off and stay dead. Fans know the cast keeps growing, just like the lineup of vintage and modern day hopped-up rides that power slide, drift and burn rubber through the digitally assisted chases and crash-ups. Bystanders’ vehicles may be crushed and squashed as collateral damage, but you never see the blood of innocents.

And fans know to stay through the credits, where the movies’ gift to cinema car culture just keeps on giving.

“Fast & Furious 6″ pulls our boys Dom and Brian (Vin Diesel and Paul Walker) out of retirement one more time to help the feds (Dwayne Johnson and Gina “Haywire” Carano) nail a British villain (Luke Evans, well cast) bent on world domination. He’s stealing parts for a “Nightshade” device that will knock out a nation’s communications, and he’s doing it with wedge-shaped ramp cars and such.

Dom and Brian leave their lovely ladies, Brian’s newborn baby and their Canary Islands retirement for London. And they get the team — played by Tyrese Gibson, Sung Kang, Ludacris and Gal Gadot — back together. The added incentive? Dom’s late love Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) is still alive and apparently one of the bad guy’s minions.

These movies are a collection of epic chases, epic brawls, dialogue zingers and guilty pleasures. Yeah, Diesel’s still a stiff, something that adding the colorful ex-wrestler Mr. Johnson to the mix only underlines. You can be muscle-bound and expressive, at ease in your skin. Not that Roman (Gibson) notices that. Given most of the funny lines, Gibson announces Johnson’s entrance with, “Why do I smell baby oil?”

The gang they’re battling is the spitting image of their own. “It’s like we’re hunting our evil twins!” When this comes out on video, you can make “I got this,” “We got your back” and “Get in the car” into a drinking game, thanks to how many times those weary cliches are repeated in the script.

The cars? Cooler than ever, with Dom’s passion for Chrysler / Plymouth / Dodge products extending to a big-winged Plymouth Road Runner Superbird of 1970s vintage. He’s chasing Letty, who drives a souped-up 1970s British Jensen Interceptor. And those are just for starters.

Every law in the book will be broken, from traffic infractions to laws of physics. It runs out of gas for 30 minutes or more in the middle of everything. But the easy bonhomie of the cast, the jokey tone of the script and in-your-face slam-bang action (a girlfight for the ages) make this junk food that goes down easily, no matter how little nutritional value it has.

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MOVIE REVIEW
Fast and Furious 6
**
Stars: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson, Gina Carano, Luke Evans, Michelle Rodriguez
Director: Justin Lin
Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action and mayhem throughout, some sexuality and language
Running time: 130 minutes

By STEVEN REA
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER

“Am I a happy man?” Henry Whipple asks, letting his rhetorical query float into the warm Iowa air.

Well, if you’ve just spent the previous 100 minutes of “At Any Price” following Dennis Quaid’s character – a farmer bent on expanding his acreage and beating out the competition to distribute genetically modified seeds over a wide swath of the Hawkeye State – you know the answer. His wife (a very good Kim Dickens) loves him but can hardly stand living with him. One son has gone off to climb the Andes. The other, Dean (Zac Efron), drives Figure 8 race cars – anything to avoid spending time with his father.

Even Henry’s mistress (Heather Graham) is looking elsewhere – like over there at his bare-chested boy, Dean.

Written and directed by Ramin Bahrani – whose smaller indie portraits (Chop Shop, Goodbye Solo) tracked people struggling to make ends meet and make a better life for themselves – At Any Price’s title says it all. Henry will stop at nothing, including bargaining for land with the grieving heirs of a neighboring farmer – at the farmer’s funeral. Dean, dragged along for the transaction, tries to shake off the shame with beads of sweat running down his neck.

And so the story of Henry Whipple is one of unbridled ambition. Quaid oozes surface charm, but the damage Henry is doing – to his family, friends, and even his farm – makes him hard to like, hard to care about. Bahrani seems less interested in getting at the heart of a man who has sold his soul than he is in showing how the hard facts of modern farming have literally and figuratively changed the landscape. (The Supreme Court just this week voted in favor of the giant agribusiness concern Monsanto in a case involving genetically engineered soybean seeds.)

“Expand or die” is Henry’s motto, and At Any Price’s all-too-obvious point is that if you expand, part of you will die – the part with the humanity, the empathy, the honest pride.

There are strong performances here – Efron nicely conveys the hurt and rage tearing Dean apart, and Maika Monroe, as his teenage trailer park girlfriend, shows vulnerability and feistiness. And Quaid isn’t bad – but he can’t find his way beneath his own salesman’s slick veneer.

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At Any Price
**1/2
Director: Ramin Bahrani
Stars:  Dennis Quaid, Zac Efron, Heather Graham, Kim Dickens, and Maika Monroe.
Rating: R (violence, profanity, sex, adult themes)
Running time: 105 minutes

By ROGER MOORE
McCLATCHY NEWS SERVICE

Slow, sentimental and somewhat sedated, the third “Hangover” movie isn’t so much exhausted of outrageous “Oh no, they DIDN’T!” ideas as it is spent of energy. And they knew it, too. The only raunchy moment is stuffed into the closing credits, a “we forgot to do that” afterthought.

They know they’re done. They just want to make sure we know.

“The Hangover Part III” becomes a fairly conventional caper comedy with the capers driven by the still-cackling, far-less-manic Mr. Chow, played right to the edge of caricature by the irrepressible Ken Jeong.

It begins with Alan (Zach Galifianakis) buying and accidentally decapitating a (digital) giraffe, driving his doting dad (Jeffrey Tambor) to a heart attack. And that’s just the first death.

Ditzy Alan needs an intervention, and that’s when the “Wolf Pack” (Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Justin Bartha) are commissioned to deliver him to a rehab facility in Arizona. On the way, they’re car-jacked by a mobster (John Goodman) who takes hapless Doug (Bartha, who’s had the “missing” role in all three films, poor fellow) hostage. The Wolf Pack has to track down the thieving Chow, who has escaped from a Thai prison.

“You introduced a virus into my life, Mr. Chow,” the mob boss bellows. Go fetch him. The boys promise to “take him out” to save Doug. That leads us to Tijuana and eventually back to where all this started — Las Vegas.

There’s only one funny cameo, and funny lines are rare and random this time — references to past escapades (“Did you get tested?”) and Mr. Chow’s peccadilloes (“Gimme some sugar”).

People and animals die.

Even the racist zingers feel like pulled punches: “We’re looking for an Asian guy. He’s short.” “They’re ALL short.”

As is the movie, though it plays considerably longer than the first two. As “Hangovers” go, “Part III” isn’t challenging or unpleasant, just instantly forgettable. It won’t take much to sleep this one off.

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MOVIE REVIEW
The Hangover Part 3
**
Stars: Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis, Ed Helms, Ken Jeong, Heather Graham
Director: Todd Phillips
Rating: R for pervasive language including sexual references, some violence and drug content, and brief graphic nudity
Running time: 100 minutes

Memorial Day is a two-sided holiday, juxtaposing remembrance of loved ones we’ve lost in war with the summer-kickoff fun of a long weekend.

The 55th Sonoma Valley Memorial Day observance starts at 11 a.m. Monday at the Sonoma Veterans Memorial Park, 126 First St. W., Sonoma. The speaker will be Francis J. Harvey, Secretary of the Army from 2004 to 2007.

Santa Rosa Memorial Park, 1900 Franklin Ave., will present its annual “Annual Avenue of the Flags” display from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday. John Logan of the Military Order of the Purple Heart will speak. There also will be live music and children’s activities. 542.1580, srmp.org.

The Santa Rosa Rural Cemetery’s Memorial Day ceremony starts at 1 p.m. Monday at the cemetery’s Franklin Avenue gate. 543-3292, ci.santa-rosa.ca.us

And on the lighter side:

Viansa Winery kicked off its three-day barbecue Saturday and it continues through Monday, with live music each day. Free admission. Wine and food for purchase. 25200 Arnold Drive, Sonoma. viansa.com.

The Russian River Rose Company’s “Tea and Memories in the Rose Garden” event also began Saturday and runs through Monday. Sip organic tea and relax amid more than 650 varieties of antique and modern roses, surrounded by vineyards. 1685 Magnolia Drive, Healdsburg. $4 donation. 433-7455, russian-river-rose.com.

Taft Street Winery launches the second season of its “A Little Street Music” free summer concert series with the Pulsators, from 3 to 6 p.m. Sunday. Tasting room opens at 11 a.m. Wine for sale. 2030 Barlow Lane, Sebastopol. 823-2049, taftstreetwinery.com.

Join Arista Winery for its Memorial Day Backyard Party from noon to 3 p.m. Sunday for a traditional Southern barbecue lunch, featuring a whole roasted pig, flatbreads from the backyard pizza oven, a live band and new wine releases. $85. 7015 Westside Road, Healdsburg. 473-0606, aristawinery.com.

For what’s open and closed in observance of the holiday click here