This column has often emphasized the importance of poetry that notices what's right under our noses, and this poem by David Mason, the former poet laureate of Colorado, who is currently living in Tasmania, is a good example of what you can see if you stop to look.

Mason's most recent book of poetry is The Sound: New and Selected Poems, from Red Hen Press.

Are We Still Here?

Between the woodpile and the window
a line of small black ants is moving,
some to the north, some to the south.

Their constant industry is admirable,
as are their manners when they pause
in meeting to exchange a touch.

I must have brought their home inside
for fuel, heating my small house.
And if it burned I too would move

along all points of the compass rose,
touching my neighbors on the path.


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 David Mason, “Are We Still Here?” (2018). Poem reprinted by permission of David Mason. 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.

‘THE LION KING’ (Rated PG)

Searching for commercial success by tapping into its extensive library of animated classics, the Walt Disney Studios has turned this year into a string of live-action reboots that kicked off first with “Dumbo” and then “Aladdin.”

A quarter-century after its traditional animated release, “The Lion King” seemed a natural for the same treatment in what can be described as a photorealistic computer-animated remake that dazzles as a technical marvel.

On Broadway, “The Lion King” musical is now the third-longest running show in history, though it has far to go to catch up to “The Phantom of the Opera.” While theater tickets are far more expensive, the breathtaking stage production would be worth the price of admission.

The Jon Favreau-directed remake takes no discernable license with the source material, relying instead on the visual feast of digital wizardry to make the lion cub Simba so adorably cute that one forgets the animal is not real.

Of course, Simba (voiced as an adult by Donald Glover), heir to the throne of Pride Rock, is born to the regal Mufasa (James Earl Jones), ruler of the African wilderness, and Sarabi (Alfre Woodard), the loving queen mother.

The basic premise remains a Shakespearean-like tragedy in the vein of “Hamlet.” Mufasa’s treacherous brother Scar (Chiwetel Ejiofor), aided by a pack of vicious hyenas, conspires for the untimely death of the king to abet his ambition.

Tricked into believing responsibility for the unfortunate demise of his father, the traumatized Simba leaves the kingdom and wanders into exile in the desert where he is befriended by the meerkat Timon (Billy Eichner) and the warthog Pumbaa (Seth Rogen).

Scar takes over the rule of the kingdom and has his designs on Mufasa’s widow. While Simba may have found a carefree life in expatriation, the past is not easily forgotten as the memory of Mufasa’s wisdom never fades away.

The stretch for Simba spent adrift from what should have been his royal duties allows for plenty of good times with Pumbaa and Timon, the welcome source of the film’s comic relief, who practice the no worries mantra of “Hakuna Matata.”

Inevitably, the days of exile come to an end when Simba’s childhood friend Nala (Beyonce) shows up to make the case that he must claim his rightful position to snatch the crown from Scar and his gang of thuggish hyenas.

While “The Lion King” does not drift far afield of the original animated story, the longer running time of this remake is filled partly by expanded music. It’s reassuring that Elton John’s “The Circle of Life” remains a stirring opening number.

The good fortune of James Earl Jones reprising the role of Mufasa is evident in the fact that there is hardly any voice more authoritative than his. Chiwetel Ejiofor does justice to the conceit of the believable villain stealing the show.

Lamenting Disney’s self-assured rehash of the original 1994 animated version could be a pointless exercise. The studio is under no delusion that box office success is at hand for “The Lion King” as the visual achievements, at a minimum, should engender great interest.





‘POINT BLANK’ ON NETFLIX

Movie buffs might recall that “Point Blank” was the innovative 1967 crime story starring Lee Marvin and Angie Dickinson. On the other hand, Netflix’s “Point Blank” reaches back to the 2010 French film of the same title for a remake of the same premise.

The Americanized version running on the streaming service sticks to the basic story of a male nurse, forced by the kidnapping of his wife as a hostage, to save the life of a criminal and effectuate an escape from hospital confinement.

“Point Blank” starts off with propulsive action promise. A man fleeing the crime scene of a murder is chased by gun-toting henchmen in a fast-paced adrenaline rush that is abruptly interrupted by a vehicular hit-and-run.

This is how career criminal Abe (Paul Grillo), badly injured and also wounded by gunfire, ends up in the care of the ER nurse Paul (Anthony Mackie), who hopes to become a doctor but is, for the moment, preoccupied by impending fatherhood.

Abe’s younger brother Mateo (Christian Cooke), a jittery bundle of nerves, kidnaps Paul’s very pregnant wife Taryn (Teyonah Parris) as collateral for the nurse’s unwilling cooperation to elude the authorities.

With Abe guarded by a police officer and shackled to a hospital bed, Paul’s reluctant collaboration for escape is the only play that seems reasonably feasible if Abe has any chance to prove he’s being framed as the prime suspect in the murder of the assistant district attorney.

A missing flash drive has incriminating evidence of police corruption, and hardnosed Lieutenant Regina Lewis (Marcia Gay Harden) has self-serving reasons for being so anxious to retrieve it.

“Point Blank,” a derivative B-movie full of gun fights, car chases and explosive thrills, is a serviceable entertainment that deviates from its quick pace with moments of humor courtesy of a pint-sized gangster’s obsession with classic cinema.

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

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Alana Clearlake is an artistic pearl living under the pines in Lake County.

Her newest painting, “Hard Rain,” is a labor of deep concern, the love of her family and the planet, and a work of masterful artistry.

Currently part of the Nature exhibit at Middletown Art Center, Clearlake worked on the piece daily between November 2018 and June 2019.

This Friday, July 26, from 7 to 8:30 p.m., you can hear Clearlake talk about the making of “Hard Rain” and her other works in felt on view at MAC.

“Hard Rain” is a 13-panel progression of climate conditions and intensity. It spans just over 16 feet. The rendering of light and transparency in the opaque medium of felt is striking. Clearlake’s execution of rain, storm, and sea are brilliant and dramatic.

“I worry for my children and grandchildren, and regret that my generation did not act quickly enough to make change,” explained Clearlake.

In addition to “Hard Rain,” eight of her Memories of Sea Ranch sculptures hang in the Nature exhibit.

For several years, Clearlake has been exploring hand made felt, creating a body of work which includes felt paintings and sculptural “vessels.” The colors she mixes are unusually vivid, and the shapes, textures and organic materials used are a unique synthesis of her consciousness, artistry and temperament.

She is a prolific painter, sculptor, jeweler, enamel worker and felt maker. Her work has been published in Craft Magazine, and exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the U.S. and internationally.

In 2006, Clearlake and her husband Jim relocated from the Bay Area to a spacious old fixer upper in the Pine Grove area on Cobb Mountain. She is one of a growing number of accomplished contemporary Lake County artists whom the MAC is proud to feature.

Catch the “Hard Rain” art talk with Alana Clearlake this Friday evening. Admission is free. Wine and iced herbal tea will be available for purchase to sip as you listen and wonder. There will be time for discussion, some demonstration, and questions and answers. Clearlake is a truly innovative and remarkable local artist.

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

Stay up to date on all classes, exhibits and events, and consider a membership to support this valuable Lake County arts and culture resource at www.middletownartcenter.org.

If you've ever been released at last from a lengthy illness you know that the world can look different, strangely illuminated.

Here's a poem about that kind of awakening by Judith Harris, who lives in Washington, D.C. Her most recent book is Night Garden from Tiger Bark Press.

April, After Six Months in the Hospital

In the bedroom,
I notice you’ve stacked
my things into piles,
clusters of everyday items:

my grandmother’s costume beads,
spare reading glasses,
prescription bottles

that have long expired.

It is getting dark.
Through the window,
the moon shades in its marble.

And another woman
appears in my mirror,
this one too heavy,
the other, too old, to be me.

Now, I run my fingers
over a layer of dust on the tabletop
where, in my absence,

you’ve gathered my poems,
early drafts without
beginnings or endings,

while in the backyard,
the cherry blossoms bloom,
and black-capped chickadees
sate at the feeder,

the garden still waiting
for whatever might come.


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 Judith Harris, “April, After Six Months in the Hospital.” Poem reprinted by permission of Judith Harris. 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.

'STUBER' (Rated R)

The familiar mismatched buddy action-comedy has often worked really well.

Mel Gibson and Danny Glover, as police detectives of different temperaments in “Lethal Weapon,” turned the genre into a successful franchise that spawned a television series.

Melissa McCarthy’s foul-mouthed police detective and Sandra Bullock’s methodical FBI agent were a hoot in “The Heat” when they clashed as polar opposites forced to work together in trying to capture a drug lord in Boston.

The magical chemistry of incompatible partners is the basis for “Stuber,” a comedy that conceivably has more in common with “The Odd Couple,” or better yet with “48 Hrs” when Eddie Murphy’s convict was granted a prison furlough to help Nick Nolte’s cop hunt down a killer.

For the film’s opening, LAPD detective Vic Manning (Dave Bautista “Guardians of the Galaxy”) is introduced working with his partner Sara Morris (Karen Gillan) in hot pursuit of drug dealer Tedjo (Iko Uwais).

The chase results in tense, breathtaking action sequences that are seemingly inspired by the dazzling opening of a James Bond film. The tone is set for fast-moving violence, which ends up badly.

Though much time has passed, like Captain Ahab with vengeance on his mind and his hunt of the giant White Whale, Vic won’t abandon his quest to find the criminal who murdered his partner, even if he has to ignore orders of his superior, Captain McHenry (Mira Sorvino).

One day, leaving his eye doctor’s office after having Lasik surgery, Vic receives a tip on the whereabouts of the elusive Tedjo and the huge deal about to go down.

For Vic, there’s no time to waste in dealing with the brass to go after his quarry. With his eyes blurry and unable to drive, Vic acts impulsively to commandeer an Uber-driven Nissan Leaf.

Without any police backup, the middle-aged Vic, an old school alpha-male, is the kind of guy who shoots first and asks questions later. He’s a human battering ram hell-bent on confrontation and physical violence.

The risk-averse Stu (Kumail Nanjiani), a chatty, mild-mannered clerk in a sporting goods store, moonlights as an Uber driver trying to make enough money to finance a spin gym business to get the girl of his dreams, Becca (Betty Gilpin).

While Becca strings along Stu without any romantic intent, Stu has to cope with the condescending attitude of Richie (Jimmy Tatro), the manager of his father’s store who overcompensates for his bundle of insecurities by nicknaming his clerk by combining his name with a well-known ridesharing app.

Obsessed with saving his five-star driver’s rating, Stu is aghast when Vic, unfamiliar with the ways of technology in general and Uber protocol in particular, jumps in the front passenger seat and demands to be driven all over Los Angeles to follow up leads.

If “The Odd Couple” had been the story of two dissimilar police officers, then Stu would be Tony Randall’s fussy, emotional Felix Ungar and Vic would be Jack Klugman’s messy Oscar Madison.

The film’s humor stems from the generational divide between Vic and Stu, two guys who couldn’t be more different. A sensitive beta-male, Stu relies on empathy and wit. He cries at the movies and TV shows. Well, he cries at just about everything.

The muscle-bound Vic thinks feeling are for women and very young kids. He could care less that Stu is eager to please his customers with all types of treats, like chocolate bars, bottled water and charging devices.

Vic just might give Stu his precious five-star seal of approval, but only if he can keep his electric vehicle running long enough to complete the chase that even has a wild shootout out with Tedjo’s thugs at a veterinarian’s office.

Besides Vic’s eye surgery happening at an inopportune time, his estranged daughter Nicole (Natalie Morales), a sculptor, has a gallery opening that same evening, an event to which she hopes her neglectful dad would attend as he promised.

Predictably enough, during a full day driving all over the county, the gabby Stu, a Millennial obsessed with social media and its impact on his professional life, and the stoic Vic, a traditional angry action hero of the past, are bound to have some of effect on each other.

Will Stu the pacifist learn to fight and stand up for himself? Will he finally realize that Becca, who says she’s breaking up with boyfriend and suggests a friends-with-benefits moment with Stu, is not worth the chase?

Will Vic mellow out, maybe just a little bit, even though most of the time he looks and acts like a guy who would rather rip off your limbs than acknowledge a brief moment of tenderness or compassion?

As the journey rolls along with some moments of humor mixed in with often extreme action sequences, “Stuber” falls back on the common plot convention that disparate characters can influence each other.

To that end, “Stuber” offers few surprises, but the volatile chemistry between the cop and the Uber driver has its flashes of fun. Yet, overall the film is a soufflé that doesn’t rise to the occasion.

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

UPPER LAKE, Calif. – The Lake County Wine Studio is presenting monthly art classes with wine, co-hosted with artist Anna Sabalone.

The next wine and art session with Sabalone is scheduled Sunday, July 21, and will feature a scene of cacti painted in watercolors and chalk pastels.

The session time is from 1:30 to 4 p.m.

The class fee of $40 covers all of the provided art supplies needed along with step-by-step guidance and a glass of Lake County wine.

Reservations are required for each month's class as participation is limited to 12 people.

Sabalone was born and raised in Lake County. She has been involved in the Lake County Arts Council since her teen years.

She attended the University of California, Santa Barbara and the University of Leeds, England for her undergraduate degree in English, history and anthropology.

She earned her teaching credential and Masters of Education from UCSB and has been teaching art, English, history and academic decathlon at Upper Lake High School since 2008.

For class schedule, reservations and additional information, contact Susan Feiler at 707-293-8752.

The Lake County Wine Studio is both a gallery for display of arts and a tasting room, wine bar and retail shop for the fine wines of Lake County.

Artists’ shows are held on a monthly basis with art and wine receptions held the first Friday and subsequent Saturday of each month.

The gallery is located at 9505 Main St., in Upper Lake. It’s open Thursday through Monday, 1 to 7 p.m., and Friday from 1 to 8 p.m.

For more information call LCWS at 707-275-8030.