Arts & Life

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Written by: Tim Riley

Published: 31 October 2021

‘DUNE’ RATED PG-13

Forget about David Lynch’s 1984 version of “Dune,” because I certainly have and won’t revisit his vision for any comparison to director Denis Villeneuve’s take on Frank Herbert’s science-fiction novel.

Set thousands of years in the future, the year 10191 to be exact, “Dune” tells the story of Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet), a young man propelled by fate into an intergalactic power struggle.

The son of beloved, embattled ruler Duke Leto (Oscar Isaac) and powerful warrior priestess Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), Paul will be given the ultimate test of conquering his fear when fate and unseen forces pull him inexorably to the sands of the remote planet Arrakis.

An unwelcoming desert wasteland, Arrakis is home to an indigenous human civilization called the Fremen. The planet has been fiercely contested for generations for its valuable natural resource.

The allure of Arrakis is the fight for control of the Spice, a rare, highly valued, mind-expanding resource upon which space travel, knowledge, commerce and human existence all rely.

But those seeking to harvest the Spice must survive the planet’s inhospitable heat, hurricane-strength sandstorms, and monolithic sandworms that are justly feared with the kind of reverence usually reserved for gods.

The battle for Spice involves a trade war pitting House Atreides against House Harkonnen, the leader of which is the sadistic Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgard), a truly malevolent force ruling through fear and determined to feed his addiction to cruelty.

On the side of good is Josh Brolin’s irreverent and quick-witted Gurney Halleck, Duke Leto’s Warmaster, who has been forged in battle and will do anything necessary to protect House Atreides by overseeing Paul’s combat training.

The deadliest weapon for House Atreides is Jason Momoa’s Duncan Idaho, a legendary sword master and fearless pilot who serves as the eyes and ears of Duke Leto and defends members of the family as though they were his own.

Another wrinkle to be considered is that “Dune” is an incomplete take on Frank Herbert’s vision not easily translated to a cinematic adaptation, and it is understood that Villeneuve is looking to bring forward a second part to this movie.

Meanwhile, this big screen adaptation fully immerses the audience in the moving story of Paul’s coming of age against family rivalries, tribal clashes, social oppression and ecological disaster on the unforgiving, austere planet of Arrakis.

While the film may be streaming on HBO Max, “Dune” demands to be seen on the big screen to appreciate its stunning visual effects. On the other hand, viewer interest may wane for those who are less than avid followers of science-fiction.



‘THE CANTERVILLE GHOST’ ON BYUtv

In conjunction with BBC Studios, the cable network BYUtv turns the Oscar Wilde novella “The Canterville Ghost” into a four-part modern retelling of the humorous short story about an American family moving into a haunted British castle.

Premiering fittingly on Halloween, “The Canterville Ghost” stars Anthony Head as centuries-old Sir Simon de Canterville, the ethereal inhabitant of Canterville Chase, an estate purchased by Hiram Otis (James Lance), an American billionaire with ideas foreign to the locals.

Hiram and his psychotherapist wife Lucy (Caroline Catz) have three children, 22-year-old Virginia (Laurel Waghorn) and mischievous 12-year-old twins Franklin and Theodore (Joe and Tom Graves) who devise ways to torment Sir Simon.

For hundreds of years, the otherworldly and malevolent Sir Simon de Canterville, who considers himself Britain’s premier ghost, has taken immense pride in scaring the locals and terrorizing the tenants of his castle in rural England.

Even his own descendant Lord St. John Canterville (Harry Gostelow), who grew up in the castle, moved his family out when he could no longer take the haunting and abandoned the estate to an American willing to buy the ancient mansion with all of its contents.

For the lonely, unhappy spirit, the thought that anyone would move into his ancestral home is an insult, but it’s an even greater affront that a family of (gasp!) Americans would have the temerity to purchase his property.

That the uppity Americans are unwilling to be frightened by a ghost who wants them to skip back across the pond to their homeland is certainly unsettling to an apparition who believes he’s an experienced performer going about his haunting duties with enthusiasm.

But Sir Simon’s attempts to haunt the Otis family fall flat when the Americans greet his efforts with gift baskets and positive affirmations. He’s consumed with guilt and unable to go to eternal rest until he finds redemption he so desperately craves.

The Otis family has its own struggles. Virginia seeks solace after dropping out of law school and is the only one who doesn’t torment the ghost. Lucy and Hiram must navigate the treacherous and chilly waters of British aristocracy that abhors outsiders.

Like many of Oscar Wilde’s works, “The Canterville Ghost” has been adapted for films and television on many occasions. BYUtv may have a hit on its hands.

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

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Written by: Debra Fredrickson

Published: 29 October 2021

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Members of the Lake County Symphony Association got a taste of Franz Joseph Haydn’s Piano Concerto No. 11 in August in a virtual presentation featuring LCSA Board President Camm Linden.

Now, Linden returns to the stage to play all three movements of Haydn’s Concerto in another virtual performance, conducted by John Parkinson.

The first public performance of this Concerto took place in Paris in 1784. According to the renowned Haydn scholar, H.C. Robbins Landon, this work soon became an audience favorite due to its “sparkling keyboard writing and general sense of energy.”

This joyful, upbeat musical offering was composed in a popular “galant” style which makes for easy listening. Watch for syncopated rhythms, crushed grace notes, and the passing of lyrical themes between the keyboard and orchestra.

Haydn is considered the “Father of the Symphony,” with 106 symphonies to his credit. Ironically, this was Haydn’s first concerto ever to include the use of wind instruments — something the current COVID-19 safety guidelines advise against.

So, the LCSA Chamber Orchestra is presenting this piece in a smartly adapted, all-strings version.

The symphony had hoped to play live and in person at the Soper Reese Theatre starting in November, but due to the County’s current COVID-19 numbers, this performance will once again be a virtual one, as will the very popular Christmas Concert.

The November concert premieres Sunday, Nov. 21, at 2 p.m. on Lake County Symphony’s YouTube channel.

Click on the link to LC Symphony Musicians on the LCSA website.

Linden is a longtime musician who studied piano at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she received the Duke Ellington Jazz Masters Award for Keyboard Excellence. She also earned a diploma in composition from the LA Film Music Institute and has a master’s in business management, along with a Doctorate of Music in composition and conducting.

Linden is semiretired from the motion picture industry where she specializes in composing scores for art films.

She also continues to work as an orchestra rehearsal conductor for various movie studio soundstages and recently has been engaged by several orchestral groups around the world to write arrangements for all non-wind instruments in the hopes of restarting their live music seasons during the pandemic.

Linden has traveled extensively performing on piano and guitar with her family music trio — vocalist Jude Darrin and pianist Slade Darrin — and has played both brass and percussion with orchestras from LA to Boston.

She currently plays trumpet (and sometimes, piano) with the Lake County Symphony Orchestra.

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Written by: Kwame Dawes

Published: 25 October 2021

The elegant irony of Elaine Equi’s lament — what the Germans, I am told, call, “Weltmüdigkeit” (world-weariness) — in her poem, “In an Unrelated,” about the very contemporary phenomenon of “the news cycle,” is that despite what may seem like a grand separation of human beings in the world, we, in the end, have a common sense of collective connection.

In other words, the poet recognizes that we are all in this thing together. This is one splendid use of poetry, to be the “campfire” of our humanity.

In an Unrelated
By Elaine Equi

We have almost nothing left,
no ground in common.

At best, a brand
or maybe a miniseries.

No campfire to gather around.
The big stories—peckish news

gets told in tweets,
gets old so quickly.

In place of one place
a billion tiny customized versions

appear targeted specifically
to your tastes.

You see only what you want to see.
Maybe you always did.

American Life in Poetry does not accept unsolicited manuscripts. It 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 ©2019 by Elaine Equi, “In an Unrelated” from The Intangibles (Coffee House Press, 2019.) Poem reprinted by permission of the author and the publisher. Introduction copyright ©2021 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Kwame Dawes, is George W. Holmes Professor of English and Glenna Luschei Editor of Prairie Schooner at the University of Nebraska.