MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – Artists are invited to submit work for the upcoming exhibit, “Home,” at the Middletown Art Center, Lake County’s premier contemporary art gallery.

The curatorial team seeks strong, well-crafted work in any medium that speaks to the places where humans and other living beings establish roots, the shelters we occupy, and our connection to the place we call “Home”.

Submissions are due via email Nov. 20. The exhibit will open with a hybrid virtual and on-site reception on the evening of Dec. 5 and run through Feb. 28.

“The work at the MAC is as impressive as work I have seen in boutique galleries throughout the Bay Area and Wine Country,” said Nicola Chipps, co-curator at MAC and former art and design consultant at Ærena Galleries in the Napa Valley. “With support from a CARES grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, MAC is leveraging digital tools such as virtual exhibits and hybrid opening receptions to reach a broader audience.”

MAC has been a beacon of resilience and hope during challenges of widespread social distancing, sheltering in place and continuous years of wildfires. A dynamic contemporary arts resource, the gallery features rotating exhibits of exceptional work by regional artists.

Applications and high-resolution (300dpi) jpeg images of work are due via email by Nov. 20. Delivery of accepted work is Nov. 30 or by appointment. The submission fee is $40 for three entries, or free to MAC Professional Members.

Download an application and learn more about the benefits of exhibiting at MAC at www.middletownartcenter.org/artists.

The MAC Gallery is open Friday to Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., or by appointment at 707-809-8118. You can also see the current show virtually at www.middletownartcenter.org/current.

The MAC continues to adjust and innovate during this time of COVID-19. Social distancing and masking are always observed.

Find out more about events, programs, opportunities and ways to support the MAC’s efforts to weave the arts and culture into the fabric of life in Lake County at www.middletownartcenter.org.

Over the years I haven’t chosen more than a few poems about the writing of poetry, mostly because if you don’t write poems you might not be interested.

But I do like this poem about poets by Richard Jones, from his new book “Avalon,” from Green Linden Press.

I, too, get up early to write in Nebraska, while Richard is up in Illinois.

Devotion

“Poetry not rest,” is trouble’s answer,
rising before the sun, setting out
in a gray light to the dull grumble
of thunder to balance the words
bottle or old wooden chair or bluebird
on a line’s life-or-death tightrope,
struggling to add color to the canvas,
purple or burnt umber, transcribing
seven violins crying to the willows,
or simply cutting a stem of rosemary,
the deep smell of earth for inspiration,
the earth and the grave, never resting,
working from sheer will and memory,
working with quill and ink if need be,
knowing trouble and rest won’t last,
that no one has the cure for this life
though we honor the day with words,
name the plow and extol the hammer,
knowing that even the poorest poet,
if a poet, is at a desk in a corner
of eternity, already long dead,
laboring to transform death to praise,
never wearying, never once losing faith.

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 (c) 2020 by Richard Jones, "Devotion," from Avalon, (Green Linden Press, 2020). Poem reprinted by permission of Richard Jones and the publisher. Introduction copyright @2020 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.

‘THE QUEEN’S GAMBIT’ ON NETFLIX

A seven-episode Netflix series centered on the story of a gifted young female challenging the mid-20th Century male-dominated world of competitive chess may not initially sound like great entertainment but it would be a grave mistake to harbor that misconception.

“The Queen’s Gambit,” the name for an opening chess move, is a story not only focused on the cerebral world of chess as a sport but also about obsession, addiction, and self-destructive behavior that threatens to undermine the brilliance of a child prodigy.

The opening setting is Paris 1967, with American chess whiz Beth Harmon (Anya Taylor-Joy) roused from her hotel room from what may have been a drunken night of debauchery for a bout with one the best chess players in the world.

The outcome of that match will have to play out at a later time, because the scene shifts back to Kentucky in the Fifties, when nine-year-old Beth (Isa Johnston) survives an automobile crash that kills her troubled, genius mother.

Born into a family that had once been financially secure and with an absentee father nowhere to be found, Beth was living in a decrepit trailer with her mother Alice (Chloe Pirrie) and now she’s an orphan.

Ending up at the Methuen Home for young girls that observes strict rules, the introverted Beth makes few friends, but does find common cause with an older, more cynical girl Jolene (Moses Ingram) who becomes an ally and lifelong friend.

Given that whip-smart Beth completes her classroom assignments faster than the others, she is tasked with cleaning chalkboard erasers in the basement, where she encounters the janitor playing solitary games of chess.

Intrigued by the custodian’s studious affection for the game, Bath watches the reclusive Mr. Shaibel (Bill Camp) moving the chess pieces on the 64-square board and eventually convinces him to become a mentor.

With an inquisitive mind that she may have inherited from her mother who had a doctorate from Cornell University, Beth quickly demonstrates a grasp for the game that would be unusual in a person so young.

In a fairly short amount of time, Beth manages to best the experienced player. Impressed by the youngster’s skill, Mr. Shaibel arranges for his student to enter a chess tournament at the local high school, where she thumps the practiced opponents.

Meanwhile, the orphanage doles out so-called vitamins on a daily basis to the kids, but the green ones are actually a tranquilizer that is intended to keep the girls docile but results in a mind-altering impact on Beth.

On the advice of Jolene, Beth saves the green pills for nighttime gazing at the dormitory ceiling to visually imagine huge chess pieces moving about in moves that emulate noted stratagems of chess grandmasters.

As a teenager, Beth is adopted by the Wheatleys who reside in Lexington, Kentucky. The notion of an idyllic new life is soon shattered by the fact that the aloof father Allston (Patrick Kennedy) is a traveling salesman who makes excuses to stay on the road.

The mother Alma (Marielle Heller), realizing her marriage is slipping away, is a functioning alcoholic and a gifted piano player who could have carved her own path if not for stage fright.

However tenuous the connection between Alma and Beth, the two of them forge a symbiotic relationship imbued with vulnerability and addiction. Both pop pills and Beth develops an unhealthy attraction to alcohol as an emotional crutch.

After winning the Kentucky regional chess championship by beating local whiz Harry Beltik (Harry Melling), Beth is primed for more contests, which garners the interest of Alma upon realizing prize money is at hand in chess matches.

Beth and her mother embark on a whirlwind of travel, while the media start to bring attention to the young chess prodigy. A tournament win in Cincinnati opens the door to more opportunities.

At the US Open in Las Vegas, Beth meets her equal in US champion Benny Watts (Thomas Brodie-Sangster), but with the good fortune of him on the sidelines the ability to become the American winner is within reach.

A trip to Mexico City allows Beth to meet Russian grandmaster Vasily Borgov (Marcin Dorocinski), the chess equivalent of the Great White Whale that Beth will eventually have to chase on her trajectory to greater fame.

Graced with terrific period settings that include glitzy Las Vegas, glamorous Paris and Cold War-era Soviet Union, “The Queen’s Gambit” is a visual treat of production values that one has to marvel at the precision of the details.

But more than gorgeous visuals, this limited series is a compelling character study of a chess player who remains an enigma to friends and competitors, seemingly reluctant to have serious emotional connections with anyone.

If anything, the performance of Anya Taylor-Joy as the chess master who battles her inner demons with varying degrees of success and failure is something to behold.

The leading character’s impressively skilled and glamourous outcast, often driven by anger or self-doubt, makes “The Queen’s Gambit” a worthy binge-watch.

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

MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – The public is invited to bring a drum to the Middletown Art Center Art Garden on the corner of Highway 29 and Highway 175 in Middletown for a community drumming circle taking place outdoors on Saturday, Nov. 7.

Musician and music teacher Victor Hall will facilitate the Life Rhythms Drum Circle from 4 to 5:30 p.m.

All ages are welcome. Donations will be accepted. Social distancing and mask-wearing will be observed.

Pre-registration with a donation is recommended, at www.middletownartcenter.org/classes. Your donation supports arts and education programming at MAC.

Join them in community and in healing through rhythm. While awaiting the final election results and manage other stress-inducing events, they welcome everyone to come together to use the rhythms of cultural and personal expression for the release of tension and anxiety and to reinforce our connection to the universal rhythms of life.

Space in the outdoor Art Garden is limited but no one will be turned away for lack of space or lack of funds.

The MAC is located at 21456 State Highway 175 at the junction of Highway 29 in the heart of Middletown.

The MAC Gallery is open Friday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. or by appointment at 707-809-8118.

The MAC continues to adjust and innovate during this time of COVID-19. Social distancing and masking are always observed.

Find out more about events, programs, opportunities, and ways to support the MAC’s efforts to weave the arts and culture into the fabric of life in Lake County at www.middletownartcenter.org.

BJ Omanson was raised near the Spoon River in Illinois, site of Edgar Lee Master’s Spoon River Anthology, and he has compiled a fine book of poems in Masters’ tradition called Stark County Poems, published by Monongahela Books.

Most of them are too long for this column, but here’s one that I like very much that fits our format.

Nowhere to Nowhere

When they sold off the farm she took the child
and caught a bus out of town—as for him,
with everyone gone and everything grim,
he opened a pint of bourbon, piled

pictures, letters and clothes in the yard,
doused them with kerosene, struck a match
and watched as they burnt to ashes, watched
and worked on his whiskey, working hard.

The next morning he caught an outbound freight
heading god-knows-where and he didn’t care—
he was down to nothing, a gypsy’s fare—
down to a rusty tin cup and a plate,

dice and a bible, a bedroll and fate,
down to a bone-jarring ride on a train
through country dying and desperate for rain,
running nowhere to nowhere and running late.


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 ©2017 by BJ Omanson, “Nowhere to Nowhere,” from Stark County Poems (Monongahela Books, 2020). Poem reprinted by permission of BJ Omanson and the publisher. Introduction copyright @2020 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.

‘GANGS OF LONDON’ ON AMC+ NETWORK

Brutal, gruesome violence on cable television is nothing new. Stabbings, amputated extremities, mutilations, beatings, slit throats, mauling by wild animals, crushed skulls and eye-gouging have become staples with many series.

We may think television programs like “Game of Thrones” and “American Horror Story,” to name two of a zillion, are unique on the scale of bloodshed, but then along comes the British entry of “Gangs of London” on the AMC+ ad-free premium service.

From the very first frame, “Gangs of London” wastes no time establishing its ruthless criminal underworld milieu. Dangling from a high-rise building, a victim witnesses his assailant pouring gas on the rope that holds him high above the ground.

Ignoring the pleas of his quarry, the man sets the rope on fire as it gradually burns through, dropping his prey screaming in pain from the flames to his inevitable death on the concrete pavement.

In a flashback to a week earlier, two jittery young men await a text message that sends them off to a seedy apartment building in Little Albania. Apparently, a drug deal is about to go down as one enters the building while the other waits in the getaway car.

Arriving moments later in a luxury sedan is Finn Wallace (Colm Meaney), the leading crime boss of London. For reasons not readily apparent, he enters the same building while his driver Jack (Emmett Scanlan) waits outside.

The young man waiting in the building, Darren (Aled ap Steffan), is on a mission, but exactly what we’re not sure. Then in a flash, Finn Wallace, standing outside an empty apartment, is gunned down in a hail of bullets.

As the head of an organization that united the city’s most prominent gangs, Finn’s demise leaves a huge power vacuum. First of all, nobody knows who ordered the hit that ostensibly employed two punks to do the dirty work.

With rivals everywhere and billions of British pounds at stake, it’s up to the impulsive, hot-tempered Sean Wallace (Joe Cole), with the help of the Dumani family, to take his father’s place.

The patriarch of the Dumani family is Ed Dumani (Lucian Msamati), and he has been Finn’s right-hand man and consigliere ever since they seized control of London’s underworld two decades ago.

A skilled tactician, Ed Dumani is an influential figure within the Wallace organization who explicitly runs the criminal side of the business. With the approval of his mother Marian (Michelle Fairley), Sean is ready to take the reins of the family enterprise.

Following his father’s funeral, Sean makes it known to the leaders of the city’s other gangs that his primary objective is to first find out who ordered the hit on Finn, followed by cementing his place at the top of the Wallace empire.

Since all of London’s organized criminal activity appears to get the green light from the Wallace clan, there may be any number of suspects that wanted to bump off Finn, which is another reason Sean is fixated on exacting revenge.

Flexing his underworld muscles, Sean orders all criminal business in the city to be held in abeyance until his father’s killer is identified. To no one’s pleasure, Sean manages to close all the ports to incoming contraband.

Haunted by the ghost of his father, Sean must prove to his enemies as well as his mother that he should be in charge, even if he must destroy the business. One crime lord observes that “a boy like him would burn cities just to convince the world he’s a man.”

Meanwhile, Elliot Finch (Sope Dirisu) is a bottom-rung criminal hoping to work his way up the Wallace organization for reasons that could easily imperil his own life, but he proves his worth by taking on some Albanian thugs with the help of Alex Dumani (Paapa Essiedu).

The brawl with the Albanians at the pub across the street from where the Finn Wallace funeral takes place is such an epically vicious fight that Elliot bounces one thug’s head so hard on the bar counter as to impale his face with a beer mug.

The storyline of revenge and criminal activity may seem straightforward but there is much to follow in terms of characters from the Wallace and Dumani families, to say nothing of the criminals from different nationalities operating on British soil.

Aficionados of the gangster genre may be intrigued by the callous and violently bloody carnage of “Gangs of London,” which despite being a cable program feels like a distant cousin of feature-length films such as “Goodfellas” and “Scarface.”

Anyone hoping that the setting of London might feature all the picturesque areas of the city that look so inviting will be disappointed. The scenery shifts too often from gritty slum areas to drab high-rise buildings under construction.

While “Gangs of London” does not stint on violence, the intense drama benefits from effective character development that keeps you wondering about the various threads of dangerous actions that can easily go astray.

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