MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – This weekend at Middletown Art Center, or MAC, artists Sage Abella and Lisa Kaplan offer the community opportunity to process the stress of being on fire alert through a painting and mixed media approach to visual expression.

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Here's a beautiful poem evoking a vivid memory by David Mason, who teaches at Colorado College and has served his state as poet laureate.

There's not one extra word in this, and every word – with that word's singular music – is set in the perfect position.

This poem is from his forthcoming book, “The Sound: New and Selected Poems” (Red Hen Press, 2018).

Mending Time

The fence was down. Out among humid smells
and shrill cicadas we walked, the lichened trunks
moon-blue, our faces blue and our hands.

Led by their bellwether bellies, the sheep
had toddled astray. The neighbor farmer's woods
or coyotes might have got them, or the far road.

I remember the night, the moon-colored grass
we waded through to look for them, the oaks
tangled and dark, like starting a story midway.

We gazed over seed heads to the barn
toppled in the homestead orchard. Then we saw
the weather of white wool, a cloud in the blue

moving without sound as if charmed
by the moon beholding them out of bounds.
Time has not tightened the wire or righted the barn.

The unpruned orchard rots in its meadow
and the story unravels, the sunlight creeping back
like a song with nobody left to hear it.

American Life in Poetry does not accept unsolicited manuscripts. It is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2016 by David Mason, “Mending Time,” from The Sound: New and Selected Poems, (Red Hen Press, forthcoming in 2018). Poem reprinted by permission of David Mason and the publisher. Introduction copyright ©2017 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006.

BLADE RUNNER 2049 (Rated R)

A sequel to a cult favorite and ground-breaking science-fiction film that comes thirty-five years later suggests that insightful considerations are absolutely necessary to understanding the trajectory of the “Blade Runner” cultural significance.

First, we need to look back to the original “Blade Runner” and its pioneering of an entirely new cultural genre that might be described as “neo-noir cyberpunk,” an existential state that captures a bleak dystopian future.

The sequel arrives with “Blade Runner 2049,” and its director Denis Villeneuve, observing that the source material was a blending of the two genres of science fiction and film noir, aims for the surreal atmospheric existence of a defiled universe.

While it is not absolutely essential to have seen the original, it helps to know that Harrison Ford starred as a former blade runner named Rick Deckard who came out of retirement to track down and terminate four fugitive replicants that escaped from an off-world colony.

Deckard was reluctant to take on the job of hunting the life-like robots, but over the course of completing his mission he met and fell in love with Rachael, a beautiful, young woman who turned out to be a replicant.

Fast forward to 30 years later in “Blade Runner 2049,” and Ryan Gosling plays the role of an LAPD blade runner named K who oddly enough has difficulty with memories of his childhood to the extent that he starts to question his humanity.

But “Blade Runner 2049” has much to do with the conflict between humanity and technology, and the intersection of the two manifest themselves in Officer K’s home life where his only companion is Joi (Ana de Armas), who materializes as a life-like hologram.

As a result of tracking down an old-model replicant (Dave Bautista) living off-the-grid as a protein farmer, Officer K unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge an already dysfunctional society into a permanent state of chaos and ruin.

Consequently, Officer K’s discovery leads him on a quest to find Deckard, the former LAPD blade runner who has been missing for 30 years and wants to very much remain hidden at his lonely outpost in a decimated Las Vegas where only a flickering image of Elvis provides a human presence.

The future world of “Blade Runner 2049” is so bleak that you may be fascinated to learn that the climate of sunny Los Angeles has been so drastically changed that the average days are often more like the harsh, snowy conditions of Chicago in January.

Atmosphere and visual style are the two things that create a most compelling landscape in the environmentally degraded surroundings of a toxic wasteland. The bleak aesthetics are fascinating and make this film interesting to watch.

“Blade Runner 2049” is full of intriguing characters, including industrialist Niander Wallace (Jared Leto) who’s pulling the strings with his genetic engineering and Robin Wright’s tormenting police captain. Revealing too many details about these compelling players would be unwise.

To his credit, director Villeneuve has preserved and enhanced the strong image of what Ridley Scott, director of the original film, presented as a disturbing future that could be at the same time so seductive and frightening.

The dreary, desolate landscape and harsh realities of existence in “Blade Runner 2049” may not appeal to everyone, but it may fascinate the aficionados of a grim science-fiction realm.

‘Seal Team’ on CBS Network

Military-themed series are popping up on several network schedules this fall, but “SEAL Team” running on CBS television seems like the best fit for this type of drama and the core audience that taps into the top-rated network’s penchant for safe, dependable programming.

We already know that Navy SEALs are an elite military fighting force, often engaged in the most dangerous and critical missions. After all, they were the squadron that took down Osama bin Laden in his Pakistan compound.

This new drama series centers on David Boreanaz’s commanding role of Captain Jason Hayes in a tight-knit team that is seen in the first episode in a gunboat firefight with ISIL forces. But this show is about a lot more than just military operations.

The stress of war has taken a great toll on Jason. He’s estranged from his wife and children. Losing a colleague in combat is just as devastating as the death of any family member.

During the summer TV press tour, Boreanaz observed that “SEAL Team” is a “workplace show” and that his character has to “deal with his own inner turmoil” and the complexity of his personal life. Combat missions are important to the series, but not the end-all.

“SEAL Team” consists of a solid ensemble of actors, from Jessica Pare as a CIA liaison involved in mission planning to Neil Brown, Jr. as Jason’s trusted teammate. Boreanaz’s Captain Hayes may inspire many to follow him into battle during the run of this series.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lake County Arts Council’s Main Street Gallery will host its monthly First Friday Fling on Oct. 6 from 5:30 to 7 p.m.

Enjoy the work of thirteen artists hanging in the Main Gallery as well as work in the Linda Carpenter Student Gallery which features visual and written work that is based on the novel “Station Eleven” and the Big Read program.

The gallery is especially pleased to present the blue ribbon winners of artwork from the Lake County Fair.

More than 25 artists will be showing their winning pieces of art. Artists range from a 6-year-old to seasoned artist Terry Durnil’s pastel that took best of show.

Meet the artists and other art lovers in viewing these wonderful pieces of art while listening to the mellow sounds of Travis Rinker on guitar, sipping the fine wines of Mt. Konocti winery and enjoying tasty appetizers.

The Main Street Gallery is located at 325 N. Main Street in Lakeport, telephone 707-263-6658.

MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – Storytelling will be the focus of classes at the Middletown Art Center, or MAC, this weekend.

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I'm very fond of poems in which the poet stands at a distance from whatever is going on and offers a report.

This poem by Dorianne Laux, from her book “What We Carry” (BOA Editions, Ltd.), gives us the flavor of an entire high school homecoming by observing just one father and daughter. And the third person in this third-person poem is, of course, the poet. Laux lives in North Carolina.

Homecoming

At the high school football game, the boys
stroke their new muscles, the girls sweeten their lips
with gloss that smells of bubblegum, candy cane,
or cinnamon. In pleated cheerleader skirts
they walk home with each other, practicing yells,
their long bare legs forming in the dark.
Under the arched field lights a girl
in a velvet prom dress stands near the chainlink,
a cone of roses held between her breasts.
Her lanky father, in a corduroy suit, leans
against the fence. While they talk, she slips a foot
in and out of a new white pump, fingers the weave
of her French braid, the glittering earrings.
They could be a couple on their first date, she,
a little shy, he, trying to impress her
with his casual stance. This is the moment
when she learns what she will love: a warm night,
the feel of nylon between her thighs, the fine hairs
on her arms lifting when a breeze
sifts in through the bleachers, cars
igniting their engines, a man bending over her,
smelling the flowers pressed against her neck.

American Life in Poetry does not accept unsolicited manuscripts. It is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Poem copyright ©1994 by Dorianne Laux, “Homecoming,” from What We Carry, (BOA Editions, 1994). Poem reprinted by permission of Dorianne Laux and the publisher. Introduction copyright ©2017 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006.