‘STUMPTOWN’ ON ABC NETWORK

The ubiquitous advertising for the new drama series “Stumptown” has been seen far and wide, not just on television but even on billboards and the side panels of city buses.

The ABC network believes that it has a winner for a show where Cobie Smulders plays strong, assertive and sharp-witted Army veteran Dex Parios, who is destined to get sideways with the police department when investigating cases.

Based on the series premiere, it would seem plausible to describe her as a private investigator relying on her military intelligence skills and an unapologetic style that puts her in the firing line of hardcore criminals and at odds with the police.

Perhaps afflicted with PTSD and fond of whiskey and beer, Dex is a flawed person who not only grapples with money problems but is haunted by a failed relationship and also cares for a little brother with Down syndrome. She carries more baggage than a 747 airliner.

The setting of “Stumptown,” most appropriately, is Portland, Oregon, which is more officially nicknamed Rose City but Stumptown (having to do with the city littered with tree stumps in the 19th century) follows as a close second in the moniker department.

The shame, as executive producer Jason Richman admitted during the summer TV press tour, is that the filming is done in Los Angeles, even though he said “we hope to take a unit up there … and infuse some Portland into the show.”

What captures the essence of Portland in the first episode is the famous neon sign for Portland’s old town. Another indicator of the local scene is a sign advertising “Portland’s best espresso.”

Coffee culture is a big deal in the Pacific Northwest. Maybe it’s the proximity to Seattle that explains the coffee scene, or the fact the city is populated by bicycle riders and hipsters who spend too much time in coffee shops.

An endearing quality of Dex is that she excels at being sarcastic, a trait in the same vein as James Garner’s mordant private eye Jim Rockford in “The Rockford Files.”

One of the best lines for Dex comes during an interrogation at the police station, as she observes that the detectives had offered to her what she calls “Portland’s crappiest coffee.”

This new series is adapted from Greg Rucka’s graphic novel of the same name in which the character of Dex Parios is a bisexual female private investigator with a gambling problem.

For “Stumpton” the series, this first episode establishes that Dex should sign up as a member of Gamblers Anonymous, if only because she’s betting a wad of cash at an Indian casino that she can ill afford to lose.

As for sexual orientation, the first episode has definitely gone in a different direction. A one-night stand with a bouncer and a fast hook up with Detective Hoffman (Michael Ealy) gives the impression that Dex is promiscuous with the opposite sex.

However, during the summer press tour, Cobie Smulders claimed her character is bisexual, noting that Dex is “going to be exploring all sorts of things” and “she’s very much up for whatever the night presents.” Well, we’ll just wait to see what entanglements are ahead.

After losing at the craps table, the relevance of her gambling problem is that a reluctant Dex is pressed hard by Native American casino owner Sue Lynn Blackbird (Tantoo Cardinal) to retrieve her kidnapped granddaughter.

That Dex is unafraid to mix it up with stereotypical bad guys has been established in the trailers showing her bruised and worse for the wear after letting Hoffman know she’s stashed two dudes in the trunk of her car.

As is often the case with any movie or TV show, the trailer reveals some of the best parts, such as the flying car stunt and Dex’s sarcasm when she lets a guy know she’s wearing her “second best bra” during a pat-down for a wire.

Regardless of where the show has been filmed, Portland looks very much like a seedy neighborhood with really poor lighting. The result is an atmosphere that borders on a neo-noir experience.

A fervent wish for “Stumptown” as it unfolds in upcoming episodes is for Smulders’ character to continue wisecracking and bantering with friends, the police and even the criminals.

“Stumptown” shows promise, if not for its storylines, at least for interesting characters, some of whom like Dex’s best friend bartender Grey (Jake Johnson) should hopefully have a bigger presence in the future.

While the kidnapping episode wraps up nicely with Dex saving the day in her inimitable style, the plot is secondary to the appeal of the characters, and Cobie Smulders proves she’s capable of carrying the show with her likable charm and plenty of moxie.

The ABC executives are counting on “Stumptown” along with “Emergence” to deliver hits on the fall schedule so that network television may be competitive with cable. The Portland-infused show deserves to have a chance.

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

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lake County Library will host several events during October and November in honor of Toni Morrison, the celebrated author who passed away earlier this year.

All events are free and open to the public.

Each library will present a special display about Toni Morrison and her works. The public is invited to learn more about this powerful author.

The library is offering copies of Morrison’s book, “The Source of Self-Regard,” while supplies last.

Lakeport Library’s Evening Book Club will meet in the library at 1425 N. High St. at 2 p.m. Oct. 26 and put on a special presentation about Morrison’s works.

The Happy Bookers club will discuss Morrison’s works on Oct. 24 at 2 p.m. at Redbud Library at 14785 Burns Valley Rd. in Clearlake.

At the Middletown Library Book Club, 21256 Washington St., there will be a discussion of Morrison’s book “Beloved” on Nov. 13 at 3:30 at Middletown Library.

Chloe Anthony Wofford, better known now as Toni Morrison, was born in 1931 in Ohio. She and Harold Morrison married in 1958 and were divorced in 1964.

Morrison drew her inspiration from black life in America, especially the lives of black women.

Her novels often explore the same themes – a sense of loss, roots, community and identity, ancestors, extreme situations, freedom and “bad men,” responsibility, good and evil, and loss of innocence.

As a child she gained an appreciation for heritage, language and music from her parents and it makes itself heard in her poetic prose.

She graduated from Howard University and attended graduate school at Cornell University before working as an editor at Random House.

In 1970 her first novel, “The Bluest Eye” was published. All told, she produced 11 novels, nine non-fiction works, five children’s books, two plays and a libretto in a writing career that spanned nearly 40 years. She also worked in publishing and taught at more than half a dozen colleges and universities.

“Beloved,” published in 1987, won both the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award in 1988.

Morrison’s many awards and honors include the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The Lake County Library is on the Internet at http://library.lakecountyca.gov and Facebook at www.facebook.com/LakeCountyLibrary .

Jan Cook is a library technician for the Lake County Library.

I'd guess that at least every other person reading this column did at one time, as a child, carry home some animal that he or she wouldn't be able to keep.

Here's Connie Wanek, who lives in New Mexico, remembering her son in just such a moment.

Connie's most recent book is a collection of her "Mrs. God" poems called Consider the Lilies, published by Will o' the Wisp Books.

Rain Changing to Snow

He came home from middle school
with a wet kitten tucked inside
his black leather jacket.
He'd found it shivering in the tall grass
flattened by rain.
It could only belong to him
for fifteen minutes
and it understood that, I think.
Though just a few weeks old,
already it expected disappointment.
Yet it began to purr,
this scrap of cloud-gray fur,
as he drew it forth to show me.
Castaway (its name
he said), so lonely and hungry
after the shipwreck of
another day at school.


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 ©2018 by Connie Wanek, "Rain Changing to Snow," (2018). Poem reprinted by permission of Connie Wanek. 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.

‘RAMBO: LAST BLOOD’ (Rated R)

Early in his career, Sylvester Stallone had many uncredited minor roles in a variety of films. In Woody Allen’s comedy “Bananas,” he played a thug who terrorized riders on a New York subway. Maybe this was the start to his film career as a tough guy.

Notably, Stallone is known for two successful franchise roles, the most significant and enduring being that of underdog boxer Rocky Balboa in the “Rocky” films. The other, of course, is the role of former Green Beret soldier John Rambo.

The fifth and possibly last installment, given the film’s title, of the “Rambo” franchise is “Rambo: Last Blood,” a brutal revenge story that is likely to be panned by many critics repulsed by anything remotely tuned to a “Death Wish” fantasy.

It will be interesting to find out if general audiences will be more approving of Rambo’s last stand, and my guess is that it will be more thumbs-up than down for the geriatric Stallone fully engaged once again as a killing machine.

At the end of the Rambo’s adventures in Burma in 2008’s “Rambo,” he returned to the United States and was seen walking down a dusty path to a horse ranch and past a rusted mailbox inscribed with his family name.

Eleven years later in “Last Blood,” Rambo has settled down on the family’s sprawling ranch in Arizona, where he’s found sanctuary and a sense of belonging, sharing his home with his adoptive family, Maria Beltran (Adriana Barraza) and her granddaughter Gabriela (Yvette Monreal).

A Vietnam veteran, Rambo is still afflicted with PTSD for which he pops pills on a regular basis. What’s more he’s better equipped that a small nation with an arsenal of firearms, swords, knives, claymore mines and even homemade weapons.

To the teenaged Gabriela soon to depart for college, Rambo has been a father figure that she calls Uncle John as she was abandoned by her father when she was little after her mother died of cancer.

From old friend Gizelle (Fenessa Pineda) in Mexico, Gabriela learns that her biological dad is living south of the border. Eager to find out why he left his family, Gabriela insists that she must learn the truth.

Knowing that the father was abusive and uncaring, Maria and Rambo try to dissuade Gabriela from a foolhardy venture but to no avail. Leaving the ranch in defiance, Gabriela travels across the border.

The reunion with the father ends in harsh rejection, and the next morning, when Gabriela doesn’t return home, a primal instinct kicks in for Rambo. Naturally, he sets out to find Gabriela, vowing to Maria he will not return without her.

The worst fears are realized when Rambo learns that Gabriela had been kidnapped from a nightclub and drugged by really bad guys that are part of a cartel running a sex trafficking operation that places young women into a prostitution ring.

In his first encounter with the bad guys in Mexico, Rambo suffers a beating so vicious that he’s left for dead, with ringleader Victor Martinez (Oscar Jaenada) carving a scar into his face.

Rescued by crusading journalist Carmen (Paz Vega), Rambo ends up in her care for several days until his wounds heal. As expected, he exacts revenge in a killing spree and saves a badly damaged Gabriela from a prostitution parlor.

The journalist, who fears for her safety from the vicious cartel that she’s investigating, had good reason to help Rambo. Her sister had been kidnapped and murdered by the same gang.

Leaving behind a pointed message for Victor’s brother Hugo (Sergio Peris-Mencheta) who runs the cartel, Rambo heads back to the ranch to prepare for the all-out war that will inevitably come to his door.

As we know from the beginning, Rambo’s expansive ranch property features an elaborate series of underground tunnels that are most likely in place as a reminder of wartime in Vietnam.

Elaborate planning is undertaken to prepare for the army of heavily-armed thugs of the Martinez cartel. Rambo booby traps his property with everything from mines and shotgun triggers to the type of terrifying traps and devices used by the Vietcong.

The grisly mayhem and graphic violence that comes when the bloodthirsty Hugo and his henchmen stage the siege on the ranch is an epic, vengeance-fueled showdown that is fast-paced, brutal and extremely grisly.

We know from the past that Rambo has well-honed survival skills such that a couple of dozen vicious hombres are no match for a guy pushed to bring retribution, suffering and death to those who have caused pain.

“Rambo: Last Blood” allows the war hero to seek revenge that is entirely predictable. Watching him prepare every deadly trap is to know exactly what is in store for those foolish enough to fight on his turf.

Any doubt about the outcome of Rambo’s battle indicates a lack of familiarity with the deadly skills this warrior has employed going back to “First Blood,” the original installment.

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

COBB, Calif. – Join Friends of Boggs Mountain for a morning of music and friends.

“Piano Under the Pines,” a performance and conversation with classical pianist Karen Rhoads, will take place on Saturday, Oct. 12, from 10 to 11 a.m. in the town of Cobb at the beautiful Cobb Mountain Elementary School outdoor amphitheater.

Rhoads will play works by Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Bach and Beethoven. She will also perform her three-movement sonata “Firestorm” which she composed in the aftermath of the 2015 Valley fire.

Relax, enjoy the music and commune with nature on a shady forested slope. Friends of Boggs Mountain is sponsoring this admission-free event (donations to FOBM are appreciated). Evanger’s Dog & Cat Food Company is a proud cosponsor. Children are welcome, and the site is wheelchair accessible. Refreshments will be provided.

Rhoads is a Cobb resident and longtime member of Friends of Boggs Mountain. She studied piano as a child and reconnected with her musical roots five years ago after not playing for over 30 years. She was seeking a mentor and friends suggested she contact Santa Rosa Junior College.

“They had heard that a world class pianist was teaching there,” she recalled.

The music department head put her in touch with Dr. Rudolf Budginas. an international concert artist. Dr. Budginas had won First Prize in the prestigious Los Angeles Liszt Piano Competition, among other awards.

“I auditioned really badly but Rudolf agreed to work with me. He turned out to be that rare genius who also teaches brilliantly,” Rhoads said. “My love for the piano was rekindled. I still meet him for the occasional session to work through new music and deal with technical issues.”

“At this event I’ll be playing favorite selections and providing introductory comments about the music. Listeners are invited to ask questions and comment between pieces,” she said. “This will be light commentary, I promise, appropriate for a fun morning at a lovely venue. This is not a music seminar!”

Cobb Mountain Elementary School is one-quarter mile north of Cobb on Highway 175. Cobb is eight miles northwest of Middletown. GPS: 15895 Hwy 175, Cobb, CA.

To RSVP or for more information, text or phone 707-321-4964 or email Karen Rhoads at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The 1965 comedy/western, “Cat Ballou,” starring Jane Fonda and Lee Marvin, screens at the Soper Reese Theatre on Tuesday, Oct. 8, at 1 and 6 p.m.

Entry to the film is by donation.

First rate parody of the Western genre and a showcase for Marvin’s comedic talents which brought him an Academy Award for his portrayal of good guy/bad guy twin brothers.

The story's plot lines are cleverly linked by Nat “King” Cole (in his last film appearance) and Stubby Kaye, a pair of banjo strumming balladeers.

Fonda is the young and innocent title character who turns herself into a gunslinger in order to avenge her rancher father’s murder.

The movie is sponsored by Tomkins Tax Consultants. Rated G. Run time is 1 hour and 37 minutes.

The Soper Reese Theatre is located at 275 S. Main St., Lakeport, 707-263-0577, www.soperreesetheatre.com.