Ted Kooser, US Poet Laureate from 2004 to 2006. Photo by UNL Publications and Photography.

We who teach creative writing have been known to tell our students that there is no subject so common and ordinary that it can’t be addressed in a poem, and this one, by Michael McFee, who lives in North Carolina, is a good example of that.

Spitwads

Little paper cuds we made

by ripping the corners or edges

from homework and class notes

then ruminating them into balls

we’d flick from our fingertips

or catapult with pencils

or (sometimes after lunch)

launch through striped straws

like deadly projectiles

toward the necks of enemies

and any other target where they’d

stick with the tiniest splat,

I hope you’re still there,

stuck to unreachable ceilings

like the beginnings of nests

by generations of wasps

too ignorant to finish them

or under desktops with blunt

stalactites of chewing gum,

little white words we learned

to shape and hold in our mouths

while waiting to let them fly,

our most tenacious utterance.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2005 by Michael McFee, whose most recent book of poetry is The Smallest Talk, Bull City Press, 2007. Poem reprinted from Shinemaster, Carnegie Mellon Univ. Press, 2006, by permission of Michael McFee and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2011 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.

SOURCE CODE (Rated PG-13)

Recall, if you will, “Groundhog Day” in which Bill Murray was forced to relive the same day over and over again until he got it right. That film is one of the classics of American comedy.

The same will never be said for “Source Code,” which relies on a person repeating, ad nauseam, the same activity on a morning commute to Chicago.

For one thing, “Source Code,” as a sci-fi thriller, is deadly serious and far too repetitive to sustain a sense of foreboding. Besides, Jake Gyllenhaal, whose character is doomed to recurring time travel, is too one-dimensional and has no deft comic touch.

Decorated U.S. Army Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) wakes up in the body of an unknown man on a commuter train heading to Chicago.

His last memory is that of being shot down in Afghanistan. Now he’s seated across from pretty Christina (Michelle Monaghan) who keeps calling him Sean.

Disoriented and dressed like the teacher he is now supposed to be, Colter heads to the bathroom and discovers his reflection is the face of another man. Before he can figure out what is happening, the train blows up and he is hurtled back into a contraption that looks like a space capsule.

Locked into a confined space, Colter discovers he’s on a special mission and is debriefed by his handlers, Colleen Goodwin (Vera Farmiga) and the mysterious Dr. Rutledge (Jeffrey Wright).

Colter finds out that he’s been drafted into an experimental program to time travel as a passenger on the train in order to uncover the terrorist plot that involves more than just blowing up a commuter train. His mission is to find the bomb and unmask the perpetrators.

“Source Code” may feel a bit claustrophobic because almost all action takes place on a train headed for Chicago filled with commuters who make this daily trip.

The government experiment called the “Source Code” enables Colter to cross over into another man’s identity in the last eight minutes of his life. Since he’s catapulted from the future, Colter gets to relive the incident on a continuous loop, gathering clues each time, until he can solve the mystery of who is behind the bombs and prevent the next attack.

Naturally, Colter stumbles on plenty of false leads. What’s up with the surly commuter who may be moonlighting as a stand-up comedian? The kid with a backpack spends too much time on his cell phone. Is he communicating with fellow plotters?

The guy with a swarthy complexion and carrying a briefcase is acting oddly and even his sweating suggests nervous behavior of one up to no good. The tough guy with a laptop seems too preoccupied.

Of course, there are seemingly endless red herrings, otherwise the train wouldn’t blow up every eight minutes, over and over again.

After awhile, it appears that Colter may not mind so much the endless replay since a budding romance develops with Christina. The astute observer will note that any potential relationship is doomed from a practical standpoint, but this, being a Hollywood movie, demands a more satisfying ending.

Racing against the clock should offer an abundance of suspense and thrills. To some extent, the obstacles placed in Colter’s way often result in unexpected excitement.

In the end, however, “Source Code” is too mechanical and repetitive in arriving at a conclusion that is predictable and bordering on the slightly monotonous.

The film also lacks conviction and credibility in settling upon the identity of the guilty party. I’ll hold back from saying more about this for fear of spoiling any surprises.

TELEVISION UPDATE

On the occasion of a trip last December to visit family in New York City, I happened to catch the one-man Broadway show of veteran comedian and actor Colin Quinn.

He’s been a regular on the comedy show circuit, and his Comedy Central series “Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn” allowed his comedic rants to shine.

“Colin Quinn Long Story Short,” taped before a live audience for airing on HBO, showcases the comedian’s keen observations in an uproarious history of the world, juxtaposing modern-day human behavior with the rise and fall of empires.

From his personification of Caesar as the original Italian mobster to his complaints about ancient Greece and Antigone giving way to Costco and Snooki, Quinn is at his satirical best, taking on the attitudes, appetites and bad habits that have toppled the world’s most powerful nations.

Only someone like Quinn can contrast grocery shopping with territorial disputes and Plato’s cave allegory with the World Economic Forum. This is a program not to be missed.

“Colin Quinn Long Story Short” premieres on HBO in April.

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

The group will meet for pizza at 8 p.m. at Round Table Pizza, 821 11^th St., Lakeport.

If you have a business card it would be a good idea to bring them. If you don't and have access to a computer you can use a template and design one and print for a very low cost. If you do not have a business card, no worries. Come out for fun, networking, learning about the group and filmmaking.

If you need a ride or are willing to drive others without transportation please post on the discussion board and call Laura at 323-540-3982.

Ted Kooser, US Poet Laureate from 2004 to 2006. Photo by UNL Publications and Photography.

Go for a walk and part of whatever you walk through rides back on your socks. Here Peter Everwine, a California poet, tells us about the seeds that stick to us, in all their beauty and variety.

Back from the Fields

Until nightfall my son ran in the fields,

looking for God knows what.

Flowers, perhaps. Odd birds on the wing.

Something to fill an empty spot.

Maybe a luminous angel

or a country girl with a secret dark.

He came back empty-handed,

or so I thought.

Now I find them:

thistles, goatheads,

the barbed weeds

all those with hooks or horns

the snaggle-toothed, the grinning ones

those wearing lantern jaws,

old ones in beards, leapers

in silk leggings, the multiple

pocked moons and spiny satellites, all those

with juices and saps

like the fingers of thieves

nation after nation of grasses

that dig in, that burrow, that hug winds

and grab handholds

in whatever lean place.

It’s been a good day.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2004 by Peter Everwine, whose most recent book of poetry is From the Meadow: Selected and New Poems, Univ. of Pittsburgh Press, 2004. Poem reprinted from The Place That Inhabits Us, Sixteen Rivers Press, 2010, by permission of Peter Everwine and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2011 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.

SUCKER PUNCH (Rated PG-13)

Fanboy, a word not found in the dictionary sitting on my desk, refers to those who appear to be obsessive about such things as comic books and video games.

As such, fanboys may rejoice at the arrival of director Zack Snyder’s so-called visionary “Sucker Punch,” because the film is an epic fantasy science-fiction thriller that straddles the universe created by comic books and video games.

But anyone who values meaningful characters, reasonably smart dialogue and a coherent story would be well advised not to get suckered into this incredible mishmash of cinematic junk.

“Sucker Punch” begins with the plausibly fascinating scenario of a young girl institutionalized by her evil stepfather on a false pretense.

Baby Doll (a pouty-lipped Emily Browning), dressed in tight blouses and short skirts that appeal to the fanboy’s ultimate fetish, immediately starts to plot her escape from the Lennox House asylum for the mentally insane.

In this endeavor, she provides encouragement to fellow inmates, all young hot females dressed like they were waiting for clients at a Nevada brothel.

Come to think of it, they are pressed into service by the wicked warden Blue (Isaac Oscar) and his henchwoman, Madam Gorski (Carlo Gugino), a teacher who preps the girls to use dance routines to entertain an assortment of creepy male patrons.

Until the action becomes increasingly repetitive and boring, it was fun to watch Baby Doll’s recruits.

There’s Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish) and her sassy younger sister, Rocket (Jena Malone).

The dark-haired Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens) and the sensible Amber (Jamie Chung) round out the quintet of inmates who work up an escape plan, the execution of which relies upon Baby Doll’s mesmerizing trance during dance routines.

While dancing to techno music, Baby Doll conjures up visions of strange, distant worlds where she and her pals are engaged in battles with ancient Chinese warriors, fire-breathing dragons, armies of zombie Nazi soldiers, big snakes, and bomber pilots, just to name a few.

The only good thing about Baby Doll’s imaginary world is that Scott Glenn shows up as the guide to help the girls survive in the various alternate universes they happen to visit.

Still, even Glenn’s guiding hand helps not at all to make sense of these mind-numbingly dumb flights of fancy.

It’s really not worth mentioning, but Baby Doll sets in motion each dance routine for the sole purpose of acquiring items needed for an escape.

Because the action is like checking off a shopping list at the grocery store, that’s when it really feels tedious and repetitive.

Zack Snyder, who directed “300” with visionary zeal, appears capable of doing better than this trite, rote piece of work.

When Jon Hamm (Don Draper in “Mad Men”) shows up to perform a lobotomy at the film’s end, “Sucker Punch” has already succeeded in numbing the minds of the audience.

PAUL (Rated R)

Oddly enough, fanboys are front and center in the science-fiction spoof “Paul,” the story of two Brits visiting the geek’s celebration of the fanboy heaven that is the annual Comic-Con convention in San Diego.

The two British nerds on vacation are aptly played by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, who paired up so nicely in the comedies “Shaun of the Dead” and “Hot Fuzz.”

Based on their previous collaborations, it is wholly within the realm of credibility that these two guys are perfect comedy fodder for a buddy road trip movie with an alien on board.

Attending the convention where the visitors dress up in character, Pegg and Frost are, respectively, aspiring graphic designer Graeme Willy and would-be sci-fi novelist Clive Gollings.

As first-time visitors to the United States, Graeme and Clive rent an RV so that they can take a road trip across the Southwest in search of the landmark sites associated with UFO sightings.

But ending up in the rural areas of Nevada and New Mexico causes them to feel like aliens themselves. Imagine their surprise at encountering a real space alien by the name of Paul (voiced by Seth Rogen) on a deserted road late one night.

Though he has the huge head, wide eyes and skinny frame typically associated with our earthly vision of an alien, Paul is one strange laidback dude who fancies wearing tight shorts.

He’s crude and vulgar and has numerous bad habits, such as chain-smoking and constant boozing. His bad manners may be the result of the fact that he’s being hunted by the relentless agent Zoil (Jason Bateman) and two other goofy guys who look like wannabe Men in Black (Bill Hader and Joe Lo Truglio).

Not surprisingly, in a fitting homage to other sci-fi movies, there are references to Steven Spielberg’s seminal work while Sigourney Weaver has a brief, but key role that should remain a surprise.

While Graeme and Clive are the kind of guys who dream of an alien encounter, as long as it doesn’t involve intrusive probing of body parts, Paul’s arrival on the scene creates unsettling tension.

Almost immediately, Graeme bonds with the space creature, while Clive remains aloof and jealous of the budding relationship between his old pal and Paul. But everything that happens in “Paul,” including a good share of profanity and crudeness, is designed to garner laughs.

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are clever and funny, and it shows in their script for “Paul.” They also have fun with their secondary characters, from Jane Lynch as a wisecracking roadhouse waitress selling alien-related trinkets to Kristen Wiig as the eye-patch wearing religious zealot who falls for Graeme.

The tongue-in-cheek style of the two British comedians is very much in evidence in this very funny film’s spontaneity, resulting in laughs galore for “Paul.”

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

The Sima Piano Trio will perform in Mendocino, Calif., on Sunday, April 10, 2011. Courtesy photo.

MENDOCINO, Calif. – The Fort Bragg Center for the Arts Music Series presents the Sima Piano Trio on Sunday, April 10, at 3 p.m. in Preston Hall, Mendocino.

From Carnegie Hall to the Shanghai Theatre the group has performed around the world and is quickly becoming one of the leading young trios of its generation.

Members of the New York based group include violinist Sami Merdinian, cellist Ani Kalayjian and pianist Sofya Melikyan.

All are winners of international competitions, and all share an Armenian heritage.

They will perform trios by Armenian composer Gayane Tchebodarian, plus works by Mendelssohn and Dvorak.

Tickets are available at Harvest Market and Fiddles & Cameras in Fort Bragg, and Moore Books, Mendocino, or online at http://brownpapertickets.com/event/125475.

For more information call 707-937-1018.