‘TIGER KING: MURDER, MAYHEM AND MADNESS’ ON NETFLIX

Pop culture is thriving right now on Netflix if for no other reason than most of the people not involved with essential businesses are trapped at home and tuning into programming that might not have gained a lot of traction otherwise.

Could that be the reason for the sudden national obsession with “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness”? What explanation is there for the fascination with all the misfits on the margins of society that inhabit the strange world of exotic animals held in captivity?

Everyone seems to be talking about a character named Joe Exotic, the gun-toting redneck, gay polygamist with the bleached mullet who runs the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park in the middle of nowhere Oklahoma.

We are in the midst of a global pandemic with almost daily White House briefings from the coronavirus task force, and a presumed journalist asks President Trump if he’s considering a pardon for Joe Exotic now languishing in jail.

On to more of a serious matter is the question of whether Joe Exotic, whose real name keeps changing depending on the shedding of his birth surname to adopt a combination of names of the men he happens to marry, has obtained his long-sought-after celebrity status thanks to Netflix.

If he were not in prison right now, would Joseph Maldonado-Passage, aka Joe Exotic, be running for political office again, as he once did in his quixotic campaigns for president and then governor of Oklahoma in 2018, where he came in third in the Libertarian Party primary?

The seven-episode docuseries, featuring interviews of Joe and his employees, the oddball assortment of competitors, his campaign manager, shady businessmen, law enforcement officials and his greatest nemesis, raises more questions than answers about everything.

That Joe Exotic ends up in the Grady County jail is no surprise since the first episode establishes that he’s getting three square meals a day while languishing in a cell probably much more confined than the cages for his tigers.

Bragging of the over 200 tigers and other big cats in captivity at his animal park, the flamboyant showman Joe Exotic, dressed in colorful unbuttoned print shirts with a gun holster strapped to his waist, finances his operation by charging visitors to cuddle and play with tiger cubs.

Exotic’s tourist attraction draws the ire of his chief nemesis, Carole Baskin, the CEO of Big Cat Rescue based in Tampa, Florida, who maintains a sanctuary with her third husband Howard, who oddly enough could pass for a Prince Charles lookalike.

In her view, Carole maintains that the petting zoo aspect of the cubs which may make for great selfies is a form of abuse, but the real story is how these creatures become disposable when trafficked to other collectors.

As the series moves along, the bitter rivalry between Joe and Carole reaches such a disturbing level of hatred that the Oklahoma zookeeper regularly features the animal rights activist in various states of being harmed or killed in his Internet series of Joe Exotic TV.

Part of what motivates Joe’s extreme vitriolic behavior towards Carole, culminating in the murder-for-hire plot that lands him in the hoosegow for 22 years, is an outlandish conspiracy theory that she killed her previous husband and fed his remains to tigers.

The third episode has plenty of focus on the 1997 disappearance of kooky Carole’s second husband, the millionaire Don Lewis who spent a lot of time on frequent trips to Costa Rica. Exotic was only too eager to spread innuendos of foul play.

Other eccentric characters in the exotic animal trade are also highlighted and interviewed. The middle-aged Bhagavan “Doc” Antle, fashioning himself as a cult leader married to several young women, runs an animal park in Myrtle Beach.

Not to be outdone in the polygamy game, Exotic holds a wedding ceremony for his marriage to two men at the same time, one of which is the young Travis Maldonado who meets a tragic fate when demonstrating wrongly off-camera that a gun without its clip would not fire.

Another animal collector, featured only too briefly, is a former Miami drug lord Mario Tabraue, who claims that he inspired Al Pacino’s murderous character in “Scarface.” It’s astonishing that he comes off as more normal than others in Exotic’s weird orbit.

As for a shady businessman in the mix, enter Jeff Lowe, a felon who forms a partnership with a nearly bankrupt Joe to keep the animal park functioning and ends up in a bind for sneaking tigers into a Vegas hotel room.

We’ve only scratched the surface of the eccentric characters, some of them missing limbs and others lacking a good dental plan, that populate the surreal, strange world of the “Tiger King,” that is so appropriately subtitled as “Murder, Mayhem and Madness.”

The bottom line is that this Netflix docuseries is akin to watching a train wreck or a hundred car pileup on the interstate. Many of us have nothing more pressing to do than observe in disbelief.

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

LAKEPORT, Calif. – Due to COVID-19 virus concerns, the Lake County Symphony Association has announced the cancellation of this year’s Mother’s Day concert as well as the LCSA Home Wine and Beer Makers’ Festival, scheduled for June 20.

LCSA President Ed Bublitz said the action was necessary in order to comply with current health and safety regulations in California.

LCSA members and others who purchased tickets should have already received information about refunds or replacement options for the canceled concert.

Remaining concerts scheduled for this year – the August Baroque Concert, November Fall Concert and December Holiday Concert – are expected to take place pending approval by public health officials.

I'm writing this column on a summer day when a hungry crowd of Monarch butterfly caterpillars are eating the upper leaves of the milkweed just outside my door in Nebraska, and my wife and I are joyful that they're getting a good start at life.

The following poem is from Stuart Kestenbaum's new book, “How to Start Over,” from Deerbrook Editions. He lives in Maine and is the state's Poet Laureate.

Joy

The asters shake from stem to flower
waiting for the monarchs to alight.

Every butterfly knows that the end
is different from the beginning

and that it is always a part
of a longer story, in which we are always

transformed. When it's time to fly,
you know how, just the way you knew

how to breathe, just the way the air
knew to find its way into your lungs,

the way the geese know when to depart,
the way their wings know how to

speak to the wind, a partnership of feather
and glide, lifting into the blue dream.

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 Stuart Kestenbaum, "Joy," from How to Start Over, (Deerborn Editions, 2019). Poem reprinted by permission of Stuart Kestenbaum 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.

‘OZARK’ ON NETFLIX

Sometimes it’s OK to arrive late to the party, and now that there is more time for binge-watching TV series, catching up with crime drama series “Ozark” on Netflix offers up the chance for a long-run.

“Ozark,” perhaps because of its illicit drug trade milieu, has been compared to series like “Breaking Bad,” and with the Redneck Riviera setting of the Lake of the Ozarks, maybe it’s a little bit more like “Justified.”

Jason Bateman, occasional director and star, has taken a darker turn than usual in his character of Marty Byrde, a Chicago financial adviser whose wizardry in moving around large amounts of money draws attention from the wrong people.

For Marty, the wrong people are not just the FBI, but the particularly vicious Mexican cartel kingpin Del (Esai Morales) who has entrusted millions of dollars in his care, only to discover that Marty’s associates have been skimming a share of the profits.

An ugly fate befalls those who get sideways with the cartel, and though Marty is spared a gruesome terminal outcome, it’s likely only because he just might be indispensable to making things right.

Giving up the gleaming high-rise office and the nice suburban home, Marty uproots his wife Wendy (Laura Linney) and two children, Charlotte (Sofia Hublitz) and Jonah (Skylar Gaertner), for a move to lakeside living in Missouri.

Convincing the cartel that he can launder their drug money without drawing suspicion from the FBI in the Lake of the Ozarks, Marty goes about the business of looking for businesses that are either marginal or failing where he can pursue his trade.

Soon he’s involved with Rachel (Jordana Spiro), owner of a rundown resort motel, acquires a strip club by trickery and tangles with the conniving Ruth (Julia Garner), the sharp young member of a family of deadbeat crooks with designs of her own.

There’s also the not-so-small matter of tension in the Byrde family, from the revelation of Wendy’s infidelity to the teenage Charlotte’s angst and insolence to younger Jonah’s strange fascination with mutilated animals.

Almost everyone is grappling with demons in “Ozark,” from the undercover FBI agent monitoring the Byrde family who harbors secrets that could derail his career to a conflicted pastor holding services on the lake.

With comparisons to other crime dramas, “Ozark” has the surface feeling of being somewhat derivative, but it’s worth hanging in there to see if Marty can wiggle his way out of inevitable peril.





‘THE LOST CITY OF CECIL B. DEMILLE’ ON DVD

Cecil B. DeMille, early pioneer of American cinema, gained his directorial fame for the epic scale and cinematic showmanship of his films, most notably in the biblical-themed silent films “The Ten Commandments” (1923) and “The King of Kings” (1927).

DeMille obtained pop culture status in Billy Wilder’s 1950 film “Sunset Boulevard,” in which Gloria Swanson’s Norma Desmond, a demented former silent film star dreaming of a triumphant return to the screen, utters the famous line, “Alright, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up.”

Filmmaker Peter Brosnan, passionate in documenting an early tale of the famous director’s penchant for massive sets, devoted decades to an archeological detective story of unearthing the City of the Pharaoh in the sand dunes of a California beach.

“The Lost City of Cecil B. DeMille” has been re-released on DVD and streaming sites to coincide with the traditional Easter airing on television of “The Ten Commandments,” the Charlton Heston-as-Moses version that remains a popular Biblical story.

DeMille’s “lost city” refers to what Brosnan heard about in 1982 from his colleague Bruce Cardozo. In 1923, the pioneer filmmaker built the largest set in movie history for the silent film version of “The Ten Commandments” in the sand dunes of a California beach.

After the shooting had finished, the rumor was that the film set, which included 20 sphinxes and four 35-ton statues of Ramses, was buried in the sand dunes of the small town of Guadalupe in Santa Barbara County.

Nearly 60 years later, Brosnan began his quest to unearth the remains of the Egyptian setting with the help of archeologist John Parker, who eventually quit the project after growing weary of permitting snafus.

As narrator, Brosnan recounts the annoying red tape battles with government officials dismissively referred to as the “permit people” who dithered over whether an original exemption from regulations would hold up.

At one point, Brosnan is described as having a “Captain Ahab-type obsession” in recovering whatever artifacts of DeMille’s faux Egyptian grandeur would be discovered.

In true documentary fashion, Brosnan interviews people who were involved in different ways with the film and still alive to tell the tale, including a gentleman who was a kid when he snuck on to the Paramount lot to witness how DeMille staged the parting of the Red Sea.

For serious film buffs, “The Lost City of Cecil B. DeMille” also offers a fascinating look at the creation of epic films from the sand dunes of Guadalupe to location shooting in Egypt for the 1956 version of “The Ten Commandments.”

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

Jane Hirshfield, who lives in California, is one of our country's finest poets.

I found this beautiful meditation in “Poetry of Presence: An Anthology of Mindfulness Poems,” published by Grayson Books of West Hartford, CT.

Ms. Hirshfield's most recent book of poetry is the newly-published Ledger: Poems from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.

Meeting the Light Completely

Even the long-beloved
was once
an unrecognized stranger.

Just so,
the chipped lip
of a blue-glazed cup,
blown field
of a yellow curtain,
might also,
flooding and falling,
ruin your heart.

A table painted with roses.
An empty clothesline.

Each time,
the found world surprises—
that is its nature.

And then
what is said by all lovers:
"What fools we were, not to have seen."


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 ©1994 by Jane Hirshfield, "Meeting the Light Completely," from Poetry of Presence: An Anthology of Mindfulness Poems, (Grayson Books, 2017). Poem reprinted by permission of Jane Hirshfield 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.

‘TOM CLANCY’S JACK RYAN’ ON AMAZON PRIME VIDEO

As a prolific American novelist, Tom Clancy became very popular for churning out numerous books centered on espionage thrillers and military subjects, several of which became the source material for box office hits.

Amazon Prime Video is now streaming the entire second season of “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan,” based on characters created by the noted author, and John Krasinski returns in the titular role.

While Season 1 had Ryan globetrotting to the volatile Middle East and elsewhere, Season 2 introduces us to a new look for Clancy’s CIA analyst hero. Clean-shaved the first go around, now he’s got a full beard and working on Capitol Hill for Senator Jim Moreno (Benito Martinez).

To be sure, Jack Ryan started out in the first season as a desk-bound financial analyst for the CIA who uncovered a terrorist plot while working under the cantankerous James Greer (Wendell Pierce) before getting into the rough-and-tumble of espionage.

With Season 2, it’s no surprise that Ryan won’t linger for long in the stuffy hallways of Congress after he tracks a potentially suspicious shipment of illegal arms in the Venezuelan jungle.

Venezuela has been in the news plenty over recent years, having much to do with a succession of corrupt, tyrannical leaders, each one as odious as the other for decimating their country. Here’s looking at you, now deceased Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro.

The latest “Jack Ryan” seems very topical in many ways. Itching to get back into the fray, Ryan and his Senator boss head down to Venezuela for a “diplomatic” mission that does not go well.

The president of this South American country is Nicolas Reyes (Jordi Molla), who is so patently slippery and deceitful that he’s equally cartoonish and viciously thuggish. The wonderful Andy Garcia would have also been a great choice for this role.

Greer gets back in the picture when he gets sidelined from his new post in Moscow and ends up in Venezuela with Ryan just at the time President Reyes is facing a re-election campaign.

Reyes has an unexpected formidable opponent in Gloria Bonalde (Crisina Umana), a real contender whose husband, a former government Minister, has suspiciously been missing for more than a year.

On a covert mission with U.S. special forces, Ryan’s intel leads them up the Orinoco River to a compound deep in the jungle that is guarded by a bunch of mercenaries where contraband is located.

Before being relieved of duty in Venezuela, Ryan gets involved with mysterious Harriet “Harry” Baumann (Noomi Rapace), who might be a rogue agent but certainly knows about German hitman Max Schenkel (Tom Wlaschiha) who killed Ryan’s friend.

Ryan talks his superiors into letting him chase a lead in London to track down a shadowy figure behind the financing of arms deals, but it affords a chance for a cat-and-mouse game with the assassin Schenkel.

Then it is back to Venezuela for daring missions and political intrigue that makes “Jack Ryan” Season 2 worthy of binge-watching, especially now that we can’t leave home except for groceries and medicine.

An unanswered question is where will the next season take us on another thrilling adventure. Season 2 ends with a hint that there could be more corruption to be uncovered either at home or in connection with what was left behind in Venezuela.

BROADWAY ON YOUTUBE

Just like any other entertainment venue that would draw a crowd, New York’s Broadway theatres are closed for business at least until the middle of April but probably longer given the Big Apple’s notoriety as the nation’s current hotspot for the coronavirus pandemic.

Good news comes in the form of theater-loving audiences having another way to enjoy a show from home while theatres remain dark. London’s National Theatre will stream live productions for free on its YouTube channel.

Beginning on April 2nd, the inaugural broadcast will be Richard Bean’s hilarious slapstick comedy “One Man, Two Guvnors,” starring James Corden, who took home a Tony Award when the show transferred from London to Broadway.

“One Man, Two Guvnors,” similar to other productions to follow, will screen every Thursday at 11 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time and then remain available for seven days. The Playbill website provided this helpful link: www.youtube.com/user/ntdiscovertheatre

Here in the United States, James Corden is probably best known for taking over from Craig Ferguson a late-night television talk show that is now titled “The Late Late Show with James Corden” on CBS.

Eight years ago, I was fortunate to have been in New York and caught “One Man, Two Guvnors,” which is without any doubt one of the wildest, gut-busting hilarious comedy productions ever produced on Broadway, and I say this as a fan of the genre with no hesitation.

Nothing really beats seeing this type of production live on stage in front of an appreciative audience. Not sure how it will play out on television, but it is definitely worth giving a try, and I will hope to relive the joy once experienced in person.

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