Jaimee Kuperman is a poet living and working in the Washington, D.C., area, and she shares with many of us the experience of preparing one’s self for a visit to the dentist.

Do you, too, give your teeth an especially thorough brushing before entering that waiting room?

The New Dentist

Driving to the new dentist’s office

the slow drive of a new place

with the McDonalds that I don’t go to

on the left, the mall two miles away.

The Courthouse and the Old Courthouse

road signs that break apart, the fork in the road

that looks nothing like a fork or a spoon, in fact

at best, maybe a knife bent in a dishwasher

that leans to one side. And I know the dentist

will ask about my last visit and want to know

in months that I can’t say some time ago

and I know he will ask me about flossing

and saying when I’m in the mood won’t be

the appropriate answer.

He will call out my cavities

as if they were names in a class.

I brush my teeth before going in.

It’s like cleaning before the cleaning person

but I don’t want him to know I keep an untidy

mouth. That I am the type of person who shoves

things in the closet before guests arrive.

American Life in Poetry 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 ©2010 by Jaimee Kuperman and reprinted from her most recent book of poetry, You Look Nice Strange Man, ABZ Poetry Press, 2010. Reprinted by permission of Jaimee Kuperman and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2012 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. They do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

CHRONICLE (Rated PG-13)

The essential account of “Chronicle” is how a trio of high school seniors acquires superpowers and then goes about the business of handling the moral complications.

In some respects, this story, as written by Max Landis (son of director John Landis), parallels in elemental ways the strangely unique powers of those kids in the recent “X-Men” films.

The fundamental difference between “Chronicle” and “X-Men” is that the kids in the former are not accustomed to their sudden newfound abilities and could desperately use the tutelage of Professor Xavier.

“Chronicle” also has a similarity with “Cloverfield” and “The Blair Witch Project,” where the hand-held camera, at times a bit jittery, records the action.

Andrew (Dane DeHaan), the least mature of the group, is also the most insecure. He uses a hand-held camera to record his life, initially for the purpose of documenting the abuse he suffers at the hands of his mean-spirited alcoholic father.

Andrew’s only friend is his cousin Matt (Alex Russell), a brainy dude with a penchant for quoting Plato and other philosophers. Matt constantly makes efforts to bring Andrew out of his self-imposed bubble.

The cool cat in the trio is easygoing Steve (Michael B. Jordan), a popular and charismatic athlete who’s running for class president, the likely front runner for any school election.

Normally, these three guys probably wouldn’t hang together, but fate draws them to a strange subterranean passageway where they encounter a glowing crystalline object.

Soon thereafter, they discover uncanny telekinetic powers to move small objects, from building a tower of Legos without the use of hands to stopping a baseball in midair.

With Andrew invariably taping their experiments, the guys elevate their innovative skill to a series of amiable pranks, as if they were filming their tricks for an episode of “Candid Camera.”

Boys being boys, it’s amusing when they remotely set off a leaf-blower to lift the skirts of cute cheerleaders or bewilder a grocery shopper by moving her car to a different spot in the parking lot.

As the sensible, levelheaded sort, Matt wisely attempts to convince his pals that their talent for moving objects carries a moral responsibility to not do harm to others.

At first, caution is exercised, but the desire to impress classmates becomes too overwhelming. Having never been popular, Andrew finds validation in a school talent show with impressive card tricks and juggling.

But the endeavor to honor a conscientious moral code becomes increasingly difficult when they are able to levitate themselves and fly through the clouds like Superman.

Distressed by his troubled home life, where his dying mother is hooked up to an oxygen tube, Andrew is more susceptible to the dark side of his supernatural gifts. His anger at the world is palpable and fierce.

Naturally, Andrew’s first instinct is to strike back at his abusive dad and to confront the vicious neighborhood bullies with a bit of comeuppance.

Then, the tone of “Chronicle” shifts to a darker, sinister place when it begins to chronicle, through Andrew’s ever-present camera, a mindset out of control.

From using his mind to crush cars and rob gas stations, Andrew graduates to full-on rage against society in general. An attack on the Seattle Space Needle fits into the pattern of destructive behavior.

“Chronicle” moves inexorably from the genial practical jokes to a climactic showdown in downtown Seattle that looks like a particularly nasty and violent alien invasion.

In the end, this science-fiction thriller is a cautionary tale about the corrupting influence of absolute power, but it’s got a lot of impressive destructive action to make the moral lesson attractive to thrill seekers.

DVD RELEASE UPDATE

This column has plugged the great old TV series on many occasions, including “Mannix,” the action-packed detective drama starring Mike Connors.

“Mannix: The Sixth Season,” including all the high-speed car chases, flying bullets and fistfights, vividly demonstrates the show’s on-going appeal.

Connors’ streetwise Joe Mannix, a hard-boiled and gritty private eye, defies all the rules and protocols as he fights crime on the streets of Los Angeles.

Gail Fisher, as Mannix’s faithful secretary Peggy Fair, plays a more involved role in many of her boss’ cases than ever before. In one episode, she goes undercover as a hooker.

“Mannix” is one of the iconic TV series from the late Sixties and early Seventies. “The Sixth Season” is well worth having in one’s DVD collection of great detective dramas.

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

LAKEPORT, Calif. – February's First Friday Fling will take place from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Feb. 3.

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 work from artists including Patsy Farstad, Naomi Key, Ellen Sommers, Kellie Denton, Barbara Sinor, Marge Bougas, Lynn Hughes, Kim Costa, Annette Higday, Diane Constable and Meredith Gambrel.

The Linda Carpenter Gallery will feature art work from Kelseyville Elementary School's third grade classes.

Phil Mathewson, also known as “Flipper,” will be the featured musician, with Cache Creek Vineyards pouring its wines.

For more information contact the Lake County Arts Council, 707-263-6658.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The first performance of the new variety show “Lake County Live!” will be rebroadcast on community radio this week.

The show, which took place last Sunday, Jan. 29, in the Soper-Reese Community Theatre in Lakeport, was broadcast live on KPFZ 88.1 FM and streamed it online.

The streaming link can be found at the radio station's Web site, www.kpfz.org. The debut show will be rebroadcast on 88.1 FM and online from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 2, and on Saturday, Feb. 4, from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.

For more information about the show, visit www.lakecountylive.com or www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-Live/278359985516181.

Guitarist David Burgess will perform in Kelseyville, Calif., on Sunday, February 12, 2012. Courtesy photo.

KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – Popular classical guitarist David Burgess, just back from a seven-city European concert tour, will make his second concert appearance in Lake County on Sunday, Feb. 12.

The concert, presented by Clear Lake Performing Arts, will take place beginning at 3 p.m. at Galilee Lutheran Church on Soda Bay Road in Kelseyville.

In his last appearance here more than a dozen years ago, Burgess brought down the house with his polished technique and flamboyant style and his folksy narratives about his choice of music – especially the music of Spain and Latin America, with particular emphasis on Brazil.

Now a resident of North Carolina, he has since performed around the world to universal acclaim, as well as recording for CBS Masterworks, the Musical Heritage Society, Tritone and Athena Records.

A former student of all-time guitar master the late Andres Segovia, he has won prizes in major competitions in New York, Mexico City, Toronto and Munich.

Since he has spent much of the last decade in Brazil rediscovering guitar music from that nation's past, his program will be weighted toward compositions from some of its finest composers and guitarists including Garoto, who appeared with Carmen Miranda, and also became a favorite of such musical luminaries as Duke Ellington and Art Tatum.

Others are Raphael Rabello, who recorded with virtually every major Brazilian artist of the late 20th century, and Yamandu Costa, who is recognized as today's finest Brazilian guitarist, as well as the late Antonio Carlos Jobim, the best-known composer of Bossa Nova.

Burgess has an encyclopedic knowledge of the guitar, from its earliest inventions in medieval Spain to the present, and shares that knowledge with his audiences, especially guitarists and students of guitar.

Youthful players in particular can always count on answers to their questions about the instrument – made especially easy at the CLPA-sponsored concert where youths under 18 are admitted free.

General public admission is $25, while CLPA members are $20.

Membership forms will be available at the door, with discounted admission applicable to the Burgess performance.

Most CLPA concerts take place at Lakeport's Soper-Reese Community Theatre, but a conflict in performance dates required changing to another venue, with the Galilee Church graciously offering their picturesque facility.

The church is located at 8860 Soda Bay Road, just half a mile south of the former Konocti Harbor Resort.

CLPA President Ed Bublitz urged those planning to attend to arrive a little early, to assure best seating, since space is limited. and seats are assigned on a first-come, first-served basis.

I Was Never Able To Pray

Wheel me down to the shore

where the lighthouse was abandoned

and the moon tolls in the rafters.

Let me hear the wind paging through the trees

and see the stars flaring out, one by one,

like the forgotten faces of the dead.

I was never able to pray,

but let me inscribe my name

in the book of waves

and then stare into the dome

of a sky that never ends

and see my voice sail into the night.

American Life in Poetry 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 ©2010 by Edward Hirsch, whose most recent book of poetry is The Living Fire: New and Selected Poems, Alfred A. Knopf, 2010. Reprinted from the Northwest Review, Vol. 48, No. 2, 2010, by permission of Edward Hirsch and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2012 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. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.