I’ve lived on the Great Plains all my life, and if I ever left this region for too long, I would dearly miss it. This lovely poem by Carol Light, who lives in Washington state, reminds me of that.
Prairie Sure
Would I miss the way a breeze dimples the butter-colored curtains on Sunday mornings, or nights gnashed by cicadas and thunderstorms? The leaning gossip, the half-alive ripple of sunflowers, sagging eternities of corn and sorghum, September preaching yellow, yellow in all directions, the windowsills swelling with Mason jars, the blue sky bluest borne through tinted glass above the milled grains? The dust, the heat, distrusted, the screen door slapping as the slat-backed porch swing sighs, the hatch of houseflies, the furlongs of freight trains, and how they sing this routine, so sure, so sure— the rote grace of every tempered life?
Tarsem Singh, a director known for stunning art direction and highly developed visual storytelling ability, puts a new twist on the Grimm Brothers’ age-old fairy tale.
A haunting snowbound forest, a richly detailed hideout in a hollow tree, a magical castle, ornate palace rooms and sumptuous costumes all combine to deliver an extraordinary visual feast.
With a slightly revisionist glimpse at the Snow White legend, “Mirror Mirror” still looks very much like a Walt Disney production, except that it is not.
Fairy tales are no longer the exclusive domain of the Mouse Kingdom. That’s a good thing, because competition is bound to produce a better product, even though Lily Collins as Snow White looks perfectly turned out from Disney central casting.
A princess should always be enchanting and beautiful, and Lily Collins, a raven-haired beauty with porcelain-like skin, has the grace and spunk required of a Snow White cruelly mistreated by her evil stepmother Queen.
Even better is Julia Roberts, America’s Sweetheart, going very much against stereotype in the role of the wicked monarch, her usual pleasant smile now used in a sinister, creepy way to convey true menace.
After the beloved King (Sean Bean) vanishes, his ruthless wife, the evil Queen, seizes control of the kingdom and keeps her beautiful 18-year-old stepdaughter, Snow White, confined to her quarters in the palace.
The Queen’s kingdom is a sad, desolate place, where the once happy subjects are taxed into poverty to support the monarch’s lavish lifestyle, including grand soirées to attract an appropriate suitor.
With the royal finances in a shambles, the Queen is anxious to marry for money. Her target is young, handsome Prince Alcott (Armie Hammer), who is not easily fooled by the apparent age difference.
Instead, Prince Alcott stumbles upon Snow White at the royal party and is instantly smitten. How can you blame him for being attracted to real beauty and charm?
Of course, the jealous Queen banishes Snow White to a nearby forest, where she is to be eliminated by the Queen’s bumbling servant Brigton (Nathan Lane).
Snow survives and is taken in by a band of rebellious but kindhearted dwarfs, and in turn, the brave young woman blossoms into a warrior determined to save her country.
Meanwhile, back at the palace, Prince Alcott is put under a spell so that he will, against his wishes, marry the Queen and so deliver the riches of his native land to her evil purposes.
At this point, even the youngest, most naïve member of the audience will be fully aware of where things are going. It’s just a matter of time until the Prince and Snow White exchange the proverbial kiss.
Yet, there’s even a twist to that magical moment when the lips of the charming prince and the lovely princess meet for the first time; the spell cast on Alcott is the one to be broken.
The most fun to be had is when the merry band of dwarfs, who enjoy acting like highwaymen as they rob wayward travelers, creates grand mischief.
With names like Half-Pint, Napoleon, Grub, Butcher, Chuckles, Grimm and Wolf, the seven dwarfs are pranksters and renegades who are tamed by the arrival of Snow White into their hideaway.
For the general audience, even though it lacks grand ambition, “Mirror Mirror” has enough clever visuals and witty one-liners to entertain even the most hardened cynics. Or, at least one would hope.
In the end, this retelling of the classic fairy tale will be most appealing to the younger crowd, particularly girls attracted to a message of empowerment.
The winner in this film is Lily Collins, a promising actress possessing the style, beauty and elegance of a young Audrey Hepburn.
TELEVISION UPDATE
The nostalgia craze is still going full blast, first with “Mad Men” and now Starz delivers an original new series highlighting the decadent world of Miami Beach in the late Fifties.
Set in the glamorous world of the luxurious beachfront Miramar Playa Hotel, “Magic City” opens on New Year’s Eve, 1958, a tumultuous time in Miami and abroad. Only 90 miles away in Cuba, Castro’s rebels are closing in on Havana.
Running the hotel is Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Ike Evans, who’s confronted with a picket line organized by the local union that wants to shut down his hotel just as Frank Sinatra is scheduled for the blowout New Year’s Eve show.
Conjuring up ways to finance his dream, Ike has sold his soul to the devil, mob boss Ben “The Butcher” Diamond (Danny Huston), hence a lot of tension runs through the storyline.
Now married to a much younger former showgirl (Olga Kurylenko), Ike juggles conflicts and difficulties with his children by his former wife, two older boys and a young girl skeptical about her stepmother.
“Magic City” looks like a dramatic series with promise, and since it’s on the Starz cable network, the show is suitable for mature audiences only.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
LOWER LAKE, Calif. – On Friday, April 13, from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., Vigilance Winery in Lower Lake will host a free reception at the unveiling of a photo exhibit, “Exploring the Undiscovered Landscape” with nature photos of the Berryessa Snow Mountain region.
The region includes more than 500,000 acres of public lands located in the Northern Inner Coast Range stretching over 100 miles from Lake Berryessa to the Snow Mountain Wilderness in the Mendocino National Forest, including the watersheds of the eastern shore of Clear Lake.
The exhibit is sponsored by Tuleyome, a conservation organization based in Woodland working to protect both the wild and agricultural heritage of our region.
The group is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year and has engaged Northern California photographers Jim Rose, Andrew Fulks and Eric Machelder to provide some of their exquisite photographs.
Lead exhibitor Jim Rose has photographed some of California's wildest landscapes.
His early images appeared in the Sierra Club's small format book "The Last Redwoods and the Parkland of Redwood Creek" in 1969.
More recently, Rose's images have appeared throughout the California Wild Heritage Campaign. Now his work brings alive the unique and delicate beauty of the Berryessa Snow Mountain region.
Those who haven’t yet visited these places can experience them through Rose's images, from the surreal fog at Cold Canyon to a sunrise at Bean Rock north of Snow Mountain. As he says, “Lots happen when you use a tripod.”
Andrew Fulks grew up on the Peninsula in the Bay Area where he hiked the hills and grew to love wild places.
When he moved to Davis he began exploring the Berryessa Snow Mountain region. He started www.yolohiker.org to share his knowledge leading many hikes.
Fulks, currently UC Davis Reserve manager, was a founder of Tuleyome and serves as board president. His passion continues to be exploration and, he led the building of trails throughout the region, including Valley Vista, Annie’s and Berryessa Peak trails.
Eric Machleder lives in Mill Valley. His academic background is in biochemistry and cancer biology.
He describes himself as a photography hobbyist and he enjoys shooting images of wildlife while hiking around Marin County and beyond. The group is pleased that Machleder visited Zim Zim Falls and hope that he will continue to explore the Berryessa Snow Mountain region.
Additional information about the region and Tuleyome can be found at www.tuleyome.org or by calling 530-350-2599 or emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
Tuleyome is grateful to Shannon Ridge Winery for the generous donation of space and wine for tasting at Vigilance Winery 13888 Point Lakeview Road in Lower Lake.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – January's First Friday Fling will take place from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. April 6.
The event will take place at the Lake County Arts Council's Main Street Gallery, 325 N. Main St., Lakeport.
The First Friday Fling will introduce the work of Clementine Hall, Linda Richmond, Leonora McKenzie, John Winslow, John Eells and Leah Adams.
Currently showing at the gallery are Patsy Farstad, Lois Feron, Jacob Blue, Shelby Posada, Max Butler, Annette Higday, Diane Constable, Meredith Gambrel, Heidi Thomason, Naomi Key, Ellen Sommers, Kellie Denton, Barbara Sinor, Marge Bougas, Lynn Hughes, Kim Costa, Caroyln Wing Greenlee, Sherry Harris and Diego Harris.
The Linda Carpenter Gallery will feature photography by Clear Lake High School students under the instruction of Jan Hambrick.
Guitarist Travis Rinker will provide music and Lajour Estate Winery will pour their vintages.
For more information contact the Lake County Arts Council, 707-263-6658.
I don’t think we’ve ever published a poem about a drinker. Though there are lots of poems on this topic, many of them are too judgmental for my liking. But here’s one I like, by Jeanne Wagner, of Kensington, California, especially for its original central comparison.
My mother was like the bees
because she needed a lavish taste on her tongue, a daily tipple of amber and gold to waft her into the sky, a soluble heat trickling down her throat. Who could blame her for starting out each morning with a swig of something furious in her belly, for days when she dressed in flashy lamé leggings like a starlet, for wriggling and dancing a little madly, her crazy reels and her rumbas, for coming home wobbly with a flicker of clover’s inflorescence still clinging to her clothes, enough to light the darkness of a pitch-black hive.
I know the big movie of the week is “The Hunger Games,” but the studio did not screen it widely in advance, probably because it is a genre movie like “Harry Potter” and “Twilight.”
With a built-in audience eagerly in waiting, “The Hunger Games” is one of those bulletproof films that will likely do amazing business at the box office regardless of what critics have to say.
As an alternative, “The Raid: Redemption” is an Indonesian film that made its North American debut at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, where it gained a lot of buzz from an apparently bloodthirsty audience.
To call “The Raid” a mixed martial arts movie requires redefinition of that physical art to include machetes and machine guns along with a barrage of fists and feet causing maximum damage.
Directed by Welsh-born Gareth Evans, “The Raid” works from a deceptively simple premise, as practically the entire plot revolves around a police assault on a tenement building controlled by drug lord Tama (Ray Sahetapy).
First and foremost, this Indonesian action film is like an extended violent video game, almost entirely lacking in humanity. Don’t expect much beyond jaw-dropping, bloody brutality.
However, the one character with a compelling personal story is expectant father Rama (Iko Uwais), an honest cop with killer fighting instincts who has the primary role to play in the police raid.
The audience instinctively knows that Rama is the good guy when the film opens with him in a tender moment with his pregnant wife as he prepares for his big mission.
Within minutes, the focus of “The Raid” turns to Rama and his crew in a police van on their way to Tama’s 15-story tenement building, where the drug lord is holed up on the top floor.
Under the command of a mysterious police lieutenant, the tactical squad, armed with knives, pistols and automatic weapons, has an objective to secure one floor at a time in order to take down Tama.
This mission is incredibly dangerous and suicidal, as even the bravest cops have never been able to breach Tama’s fortress in the past. Not surprisingly, the stealth mission is quickly compromised.
Tama is a vicious criminal kingpin who uses his building to shelter his army of loyal dealers and many customers, all of whom are more than willing to take up arms against any invaders.
It takes only a matter of minutes for the police undercover operation to be blown, resulting in about half of the team being shredded in a barrage of gunfire and machetes.
Still, some of the cops manage to survive, including the valiant Rama, and they realize the only way out of their predicament is a determination to complete the mission and take out Tama for good.
The end result is a non-stop bloodbath that unleashes violence so brutal and unrelenting that “The Raid” might as well be marketed as a video game unsuitable for impressionable adolescents.
A serious drawback is the deficiency of character development which might give viewers a greater rooting interest in the heroic exploits of Rama and his dwindling crew.
Nevertheless, it’s very impressive to see Rama almost singlehandedly continue his explosive march through a seemingly endless parade of henchmen and drug-addled crazies.
Though not in wide release, “The Raid: Redemption” will find its audience looking for vicarious thrills in bloody action that makes audiences gasp.
TELEVISION UPDATE
Few television shows get more press coverage and less viewers than “Mad Men,” and that’s unlikely to change any time soon.
Anyone who has not been watching “Mad Men” on the AMC Network all along could not be expected to pick up on the storylines and intrigues of a Madison Avenue advertising agency.
It’s bad enough that the show has been on a long hiatus, and now the fifth season picks up somewhere in the mid-Sixties, when New York City loses its glamour as urban decay begins to set in.
The new season picks up where Jon Hamm’s debonair ad man Don Draper is making a go of his impulsive decision in the last season to propose to his secretary.
Those who were curious about Don’s rash engagement to Megan (Jessica Pare) will learn some interesting things in the season premiere.
Over at the Reelz Channel, Steven Seagal, who apparently has run out of opportunities for martial arts films, brings his crime fighting style to the new TV series “True Justice.”
Seagal leads a hardcore undercover team of Seattle cops who take on the local criminal element with the high-octane style that marked so many of his films.
One problem for “True Justice” may be the inability of the target audience to locate the Reelz Channel.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
Relentlessly violent 'Raid' is all about the action
Tim Riley
THE RAID: REDEMPTION (Rated R)
I know the big movie of the week is “The Hunger Games,” but the studio did not screen it widely in advance, probably because it is a genre movie like “Harry Potter” and “Twilight.”
With a built-in audience eagerly in waiting, “The Hunger Games” is one of those bulletproof films that will likely do amazing business at the box office regardless of what critics have to say.
As an alternative, “The Raid: Redemption” is an Indonesian film that made its North American debut at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, where it gained a lot of buzz from an apparently bloodthirsty audience.
To call “The Raid” a mixed martial arts movie requires redefinition of that physical art to include machetes and machine guns along with a barrage of fists and feet causing maximum damage.
Directed by Welsh-born Gareth Evans, “The Raid” works from a deceptively simple premise, as practically the entire plot revolves around a police assault on a tenement building controlled by drug lord Tama (Ray Sahetapy).
First and foremost, this Indonesian action film is like an extended violent video game, almost entirely lacking in humanity. Don’t expect much beyond jaw-dropping, bloody brutality.
However, the one character with a compelling personal story is expectant father Rama (Iko Uwais), an honest cop with killer fighting instincts who has the primary role to play in the police raid.
The audience instinctively knows that Rama is the good guy when the film opens with him in a tender moment with his pregnant wife as he prepares for his big mission.
Within minutes, the focus of “The Raid” turns to Rama and his crew in a police van on their way to Tama’s 15-story tenement building, where the drug lord is holed up on the top floor.
Under the command of a mysterious police lieutenant, the tactical squad, armed with knives, pistols and automatic weapons, has an objective to secure one floor at a time in order to take down Tama.
This mission is incredibly dangerous and suicidal, as even the bravest cops have never been able to breach Tama’s fortress in the past. Not surprisingly, the stealth mission is quickly compromised.
Tama is a vicious criminal kingpin who uses his building to shelter his army of loyal dealers and many customers, all of whom are more than willing to take up arms against any invaders.
It takes only a matter of minutes for the police undercover operation to be blown, resulting in about half of the team being shredded in a barrage of gunfire and machetes.
Still, some of the cops manage to survive, including the valiant Rama, and they realize the only way out of their predicament is a determination to complete the mission and take out Tama for good.
The end result is a non-stop bloodbath that unleashes violence so brutal and unrelenting that “The Raid” might as well be marketed as a video game unsuitable for impressionable adolescents.
A serious drawback is the deficiency of character development which might give viewers a greater rooting interest in the heroic exploits of Rama and his dwindling crew.
Nevertheless, it’s very impressive to see Rama almost singlehandedly continue his explosive march through a seemingly endless parade of henchmen and drug-addled crazies.
Though not in wide release, “The Raid: Redemption” will find its audience looking for vicarious thrills in bloody action that makes audiences gasp.
TELEVISION UPDATE
Few television shows get more press coverage and less viewers than “Mad Men,” and that’s unlikely to change any time soon.
Anyone who has not been watching “Mad Men” on the AMC Network all along could not be expected to pick up on the storylines and intrigues of a Madison Avenue advertising agency.
It’s bad enough that the show has been on a long hiatus, and now the fifth season picks up somewhere in the mid-Sixties, when New York City loses its glamour as urban decay begins to set in.
The new season picks up where Jon Hamm’s debonair ad man Don Draper is making a go of his impulsive decision in the last season to propose to his secretary.
Those who were curious about Don’s rash engagement to Megan (Jessica Pare) will learn some interesting things in the season premiere.
Over at the Reelz Channel, Steven Seagal, who apparently has run out of opportunities for martial arts films, brings his crime fighting style to the new TV series “True Justice.”
Seagal leads a hardcore undercover team of Seattle cops who take on the local criminal element with the high-octane style that marked so many of his films.
One problem for “True Justice” may be the inability of the target audience to locate the Reelz Channel.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
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