Minnesota has many fine writers, gathered together by a deep and trusting affection for one another.

Freya Manfred has been an important part of that community for her entire life, having been brought up at the side of her father, Frederick Manfred, a master novelist of the American West.

Here's a poem from Freya's new book from Red Dragonfly Press, “Loon In Late November Water.”

Old Friends

Old friends are a steady spring rain,
or late summer sunshine edging into fall,
or frosted leaves along a snowy path—
a voice for all seasons saying, I know you.
The older I grow, the more I fear I'll lose my old friends,
as if too many years have scrolled by
since the day we sprang forth, seeking each other.

Old friend, I knew you before we met.
I saw you at the window of my soul—
I heard you in the steady millstone of my heart
grinding grain for our daily bread.
You are sedimentary, rock-solid cousin earth,
where I stand firmly, astonished by your grace and truth.
And gratitude comes to me and says:

"Tell me anything and I will listen.
Ask me anything, and I will answer you."


We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts. 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 ©2018 by Freya Manfred, "Old Friends," from Loon In Late November Water, (Red Dragonfly Press, 2018). Poem reprinted by permission of Freya Manfred and the publisher. Introduction copyright @2019 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.

‘FORD V FERRARI’ (Rated PG-13)

The title of “Ford v Ferrari” points to competitive racing but there’s so much more to this exciting film than the high-speed 200 miles per hour chases on the premier racetracks in America and overseas.

It’s the acrimonious clash between automotive industry titans Henry Ford II (Tracy Letts) and Enzo Ferrari (Remo Girone) that fuels the desire of the American manufacturer to upend Ferrari’s dominance at the 24 Hours of Le Mans race.

A young hotshot Ford executive by the name of Lee Iacocca (Jon Bernthal) pitches the idea that the post-World War II generation of young people are searching for automobiles that are more powerful, sexy and not the bland imitations of the Fifties models.

While his slide presentation doesn’t excite the other suits in the boardroom, Iacocca leads a delegation to Italy to present an offer to buy the Italian luxury sports car company, which Enzo Ferrari dismisses with contempt by spewing graphic slurs of Henry Ford II.

For Henry Ford II to entertain a challenge to Ferrari, which has been fueled by Ferrari’s insults that he is “fat” and that Ford Motor Company makes “ugly little cars in ugly factories,” he has to find the right team.

Enter Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon), the fearless Texan who beat the Ferrari team and won the Le Mans race in 1959, which proved to be the end of his racing career as he was shortly thereafter diagnosed with a grave heart condition.

Endlessly resourceful, Shelby reinvents himself as a car designer and salesman working out of warehouse space in Venice Beach with a team of engineers, led by Phil Remington (Ray McKinnon), and a crew of mechanics.

Next to Shelby, the other key player in the race world is the prickly British race car driver Ken Miles (Christian Bale) who operates a repair shop for foreign cars. He’s not exactly a people person and frequently offends his customers for not being savvy drivers.

The friendship between Shelby and Miles is marked by occasional conflicts when they come to blows, but they need each other to function as a team because Shelby can no longer race and Miles is like a race car whisperer who can take any car to the 7,000 RPM limit.

The Ford Motor Company recruits the firebrand visionary to design the ultimate race car, a machine that can beat even Ferrari, the perennial winner at Le Mans, on the unforgiving French track.

The early stages of the relationship that Shelby has with Henry Ford II hit rough spots due to heavy-handed corporate interference and the laws of physics that hinder the process of obtaining perfection in building the appropriate race car.

Worse still for Shelby, Miles and the ragtag crew of mechanics is that Henry Ford II has designated his right-hand man, senior vice president Leo Beebe (Josh Lucas), to oversee Ford’s racing program.

While Shelby’s team is developing and testing the race cars in the Ford program, the lead test driver Ken Miles, who is brilliant behind the wheel but also blunt, arrogant and unwilling to compromise, complicates the relationship with the corporate suits.

In particular, because there is a need to juice up the tensions with one person filling the role of the villain, Beebe does his best to manipulate Shelby and box-out Miles at every turn.

Adhering to the corporate playbook, Beebe doesn’t want the irascible Miles to be the poster boy for the Ford brand, dismissing him as a “beatnik” until Shelby retorts that Miles doesn’t fit that profile because he courageously drove tanks during World War II.

To be sure, Miles is rough around the edges but he’s a devoted family man to his supportive wife Mollie (Caitriona Balfe) and their young son Peter (Noah Jupe), who idolizes his dad and dreams of racing cars someday.

Along the way, there is plenty of gamesmanship between the Shelby team and Ford’s buttoned-up corporate executives, such as the time Shelby outfoxes Beebe in order to take Henry Ford II for a hair-raising test drive.

Following some failed attempts on the racetrack, the Shelby team eventually delivers the impressive and thrilling racing sequences that would eventually lead to the most satisfying victory at the 1966 Le Mans.

Getting to know the characters behind the stunning coup that knocked Ferrari off its dominant perch at the world’s most exclusive racing event is really the most fun of “Ford v Ferrari.”

The job of director James Mangold (“Walk the Line”) was made easier by the teaming of Matt Damon and Christian Bale as the lead characters who inhabit their roles, respectively, of the easy-going visionary and the caustic loose cannon who has problems with authority.

While car racing is a dangerous sport that is evident from the inevitable crash scenes, “Ford v Ferrari” delivers plenty of humor and witty zingers that come naturally in a highly competitive environment when tensions need a relief valve.

“Ford v Ferrari” deserves a winner’s trophy for delivering a solid entertainment.

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

MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – The Middletown Art Center is hosting its annual “Give Thanks” dance on Saturday, Nov. 23.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m.

DJs Blue and Nic will be digging deep into their archives, the result of many years of collecting.

“I’ve been threatening my friends with a Disco show for some time now. I’m handling the first set this Saturday, and it’s a labor of love to share these jubilant tracks. Disco is so much more than the Bees Gees and Village People,” said DJ Blue.

For the second set, mind bending, body shaking, soul soothing Funk, R&B, House, Hip Hop and Reggae will be spun by Nic to keep things moving.

Food and drink will be available. Children under 14 enter free, high school students $5.

Children’s movies will be playing in back. All proceeds from “Give Thanks” help keep MAC alive and offering quality arts and culture programming to Lake County communities.

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

Visit www.middletownartcenter.org to learn more about exhibitions, classes, events, volunteer opportunities and MAC memberships to support and sustain local arts or call 707-809-8118.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – At 7 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 7, the Rothstein Experiment opens the Christmas season at the Soper Reese Theatre with a unique concert encompassing the sentimental, sacred and serious.

The Rothstein Experiment invites you to put on your ugliest Christmas sweater and join them for an intimate evening of stories and songs, many personal and original. It’s fun for the whole family.

Ensemble leaders Matt and Jill Rothstein are accomplished musicians, arrangers and composers. Both were raised in Lake County and the pair have been leading musical ensembles for nearly a decade.

Matt Rothstein was recognized by DownBeat Magazine and the Grammy Foundation as a prodigious talent while in high school. Jill Rothstein began composing music at the tender age of eight and was the 2007 award winner for music theory and composition at Azusa Pacific University.

The group is comprised of Jill Rothstein, vocals, compositions, set design; Matt Rothstein, vocals, saxophone, arrangements; Tom Aiken, piano, keyboard, melodica; Jacob Turner, guitar; Steve Baird, vocals, bass, sousaphone; and Alex Aspinall, percussion.

Tickets are now on sale at $15 for adults; $10 for children between 12 and 18; and free for under 12. Seating is open.

The Soper Reese Theatre is located at 275 S. Main St., Lakeport. Tickets are available online at www.soperreesetheatre.com; or at The Travel Center, 825 S. Main, Lakeport, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

For more information call 707-263-0577.

I highly recommend a new anthology called Healing the Divide: Poems of Kindness and Connection, edited by James Crews and published by Green Writers Press in Brattleboro, Vermont.

Here's just one of the many fine poems, this one by Jeffrey Harrison, whose poetry we've published here before.

His most recent book is “Into Daylight” (Tupelo Press), in which this poem was originally published, and he makes his home in Massachusetts.

A Drink of Water

When my nineteen-year-old son turns on the kitchen tap
and leans down over the sink and tilts his head sideways
to drink directly from the stream of cool water,
I think of my older brother, now almost ten years gone,
who used to do the same thing at that age;

And when he lifts his head back up and, satisfied,
wipes the water dripping from his cheek
with his shirtsleeve, it's the same casual gesture
my brother used to make; and I don't tell him
to use a glass, the way our father told my brother,

because I like remembering my brother
when he was young, decades before anything
went wrong, and I like the way my son
becomes a little more my brother for a moment
through this small habit born of a simple need,

which, natural and unprompted, ties them together
across the bounds of death, and across time . . .
as if the clear stream flowed between two worlds
and entered this one through the kitchen faucet,
my son and brother drinking the same water.


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 ©2014 by Jeffrey Harrison, "A Drink of Water," from Healing the Divide: Poems of Kindness & Connection, ed., James Crews, (Green Writers Press, 2019). Poem reprinted by permission of Jeffrey Harrison and the publisher. Introduction copyright @2019 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.

‘BLUFF CITY LAW’ ON NBC NETWORK

We’re no longer in the era of “Perry Mason” even though it remains a pleasure to catch episodes of Raymond Burr in the titular role of the Los Angeles criminal defense attorney working for the accused both inside and outside the courtroom.

One of the longest-running legal drama series, “Perry Mason” had to be appointment viewing during the golden age of television when only a handful channels were available, unlike today’s surfeit of options.

In today’s climate, there is absolutely no good reason to calendar your favorite network programs for a set time on a weekly basis.

Streaming is so common that you can pick up a show like “Bluff City Law” to watch weeks or even months after the season premiere.

The question to ask is whether the return of Jimmy Smits to the courtroom is worth the effort. Granted, he has the chops for this type of role. After all, Smits was Victor Sifuentes, an attorney involved in plenty of hot-topic issues in the long-running “L.A. Law” series.

In “Bluff City Law,” Smits’ Elijah Strait is a prominent attorney heading up a Memphis law firm that for the most part represents the little guy fighting the system or some faceless corporate entity willfully engaged in bad behavior.

For some odd reason, some of the best legal dramas involve a bunch of lawyers that aren’t particularly likable. I’m thinking of how much I enjoyed the long run of “Suits” on the USA cable network.

Honestly, a show like “Suits” worked even though most of the lawyers were either devious, duplicitous, bad-tempered, egotistical, emotionally distant, abusive to clerks or terribly flawed in too many ways to count.

Elijah Strait has his own set of problems, namely that he’s estranged from his lawyer-daughter Sydney Strait (Caitlin McGee) who once worked in the family firm but left to work for what a plaintiff lawyer would call the “dark side.”

A tough corporate attorney, Sydney demonstrates in the series’ early stages that she’s fearless in the courtroom and shows no compunction about going for the jugular to crush a hapless victim hoping for a payday from a company with deep pockets.

The fight for social justice is apparently not exactly on Sydney’s agenda, but she does take great offense that her father was a serial philanderer, an unfortunate circumstance that caused her to take her talents elsewhere.

After barely speaking to her father for years, Sydney is suddenly thrust back into the family fold when her mother, who also worked at the firm, passes away unexpectedly.

The funeral brings father and daughter face-to-face after years of estrangement, and Elijah begs Sydney to return to fight for what’s right and to “change the world.” What’s left unsaid is giving up the big bucks of corporate work for the satisfaction of sticking up for principles.

During the summer TV press tour, executive producer Dean Georgaris intimated the series would strike a balance between legal cases and personal issues, but then added the first big case would be inspired by Monsanto’s legal troubles.

Once Sydney, despite the lingering resentment and distrust of her father, takes the plunge back into the family business, she proves that her killer instinct is very much in play going up against a corporate malefactor.

Fireworks fly in the courtroom, and Sydney crosses the line when she challenges what appear to be biased rulings issued by the judge and ends up held in contempt of court and forced into a timeout in a jail cell.

The case involves a manufacturer of an agricultural product that has caused one man to have terminal cancer. Now she’s fighting for the little guy in a death match contest with corporate titans.

It won’t take too much brainpower to figure out the end game of this courtroom battle. The fun part is watching the Strait family team maneuvering through the procedural aspects of the law.

In the end, that’s exactly what “Bluff City Law” has to offer, namely a procedural legal drama with few surprises. I prefer a show like “Suits” where it was often a puzzle as how the sharp lawyers would get out of legal jams.

What “Bluff City Law” has going for it is the steady hand of Jimmy Smits at the helm. But is it enough to carry the series for the long run, let alone even one season? I am thinking the odds are not in the show’s favor.

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