Ted Kooser. Photo credit: UNL Publications and Photography. Ibbetson Street is a journal that comes out twice a year and does a fine job selecting its poems.
I like this one by Kenneth Lee, a gynecological pathologist in Boston, whose most recent book is Gravity Waves.
TV commercial producers have learned that it's effective to put a dog in with the people, and here we have dogs and their friends in a poem. And this week you get a new word, "aliquot," to go with your coffee.
Symbiosis
I sit with my thermos of coffee on the mall: a mile-long promenade, arcades of elms flanking a generous aliquot of benches.
But at this early hour it starts to dawn: I am the only one without a dog. So, a witness to an ancient symbiosis, as it's evolved within a modern city:
The dogs, I note, are smaller, the owners less ferocious. The former sniff then poop, the latter, like potty-training parents, pat their heads, gather it in plastic doggy-bags.
It's no longer for the hunt or for protection; both species have adapted to survive hard loneliness inside a small apartment.
Three decades ago, in “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” Michael Caine was the debonair con artist who was challenged by the lowbrow Steve Martin in a competition to claim the turf of a swank French Riviera resort.
“The Hustle” is a gender-swap of the same premise, with Anne Hathaway’s Josephine Chesterfield, a seemingly aristocratic Brit who works cons at a glitzy casino in the south of France town of Beaumont-sur-Mer.
A master criminal, Josephine lives in a glamorous seaside mansion with snooty butler Albert (Nicolas Woodeson) as an accomplice. She’s also assisted by corrupt local police captain Brigitte Desjardins (Ingrid Oliver).
Meanwhile, in New York City, Rebel Wilson’s low-rent Penny Rust is running small-time online scams to sucker gullible men into helping her fictitious sister, who looks like a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model.
Running into trouble with the law, Penny takes her con artist talents to Europe, where she meets Josephine on a train, and then ends up in the same French coastal town to horn in on Josephine’s action, just like Steve Martin did to Michael Caine.
Josephine’s well-ordered world is upended by the brash Penny, an Aussie who is as free-form and fun-loving as the seductive Josephine is calculated and cunning in targeting wealthy men.
Where Penny plied her trade ripping off her marks in neighborhood bars, Josephine fills her safe with massive diamonds after ensnaring her prey at an upscale resort. Despite their different methods, they are masters of the art of the fleece, albeit on dissimilar scales.
The stakes get considerably higher when young tech billionaire Thomas Westerburg (Alex Sharp), seemingly naïve and kind-hearted, comes into play as the next target for the grafters.
But just like the movie that inspired “The Hustle,” Penny and Josephine up the ante with a bet that the first one to scam Thomas out of $500,000 wins, and the loser has to leave town.
Penny resorts to faking blindness to gain the upper-hand, but Josephine poses as a renowned German psychologist who would be able to cure what is perceived to be a medical condition that Thomas describes as hysterical blindness.
Rebel Wilson tries to liven up things with her physical slapstick routines. A few one-liners land with a punch, but other than that there is little humor in “The Hustle.”
The result is that this so-called comedy tries to con the audience out of its money. Don’t fall for the scam. If anything, just watch “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” instead.
THE NBC FALL SEASON
This is the time of the year that the major television networks conduct the upfront sessions to pitch advertisers for their upcoming series premieres for the fall season.
Greater press interest kicks in during the summer press tour in July and August, but for now we can get a peek at the early information that networks release.
NBC has its sights set on one new drama series and two comedies, all of three of which feature lead actors already known for their television experience.
The one-hour drama series “Bluff City Law” stars Jimmy Smits as lawyer Elijah Strait at a celebrated Memphis firm. Smits is best known for playing an attorney on NBC’s “L.A. Law” and “The West Wing,” and ABC’s “NYPD Blue.”
Caitlin McGee, in the role of Strait’s daughter Sydney, used to work at her father’s firm until their tumultuous relationship got in the way.
After barely speaking to him for years, Sydney is suddenly thrust back into the family fold when her mother passes away, and then, hoping to reconnect with the daughter he loves, Elijah asks Sydney to rejoin the firm.
She agrees despite her lingering resentment and distrust because working alongside her father is her best hope at changing the world, if they can ever get along.
Though he has been in many TV series, Kal Penn made his mark in the “Harold & Kumar” movies. In the half-hour comedy “Sunnyside,” Penn’s Garrett Modi had been living the American Dream as the youngest New York City Councilman ever.
As a politician, he was rubbing elbows with the elite and attending star-studded parties. His focus on the glamour of the office, instead of doing the job, put him on a downward spiral when he’s busted for public intoxication.
Naturally, his stupidity was caught on tape and ended his career. Now, Garrett’s crashing with his sister and wondering where it all went wrong, until he starts working with a diverse group of idealists.
Bradley Whitford, best known for “The West Wing,” stara as former Princeton music professor Arthur Cochran in “Perfect Harmony,” a half-hour comedy about finding inspiration in the most unlikely places.
Stumbling into choir practice at a rural small-town church, the professor finds a group of singers who are out of tune in more ways than one.
Despite the ultimate clash of sensibilities, Arthur and his newfound cohorts may just be the perfect mix of individuals to help each other reinvent and rediscover a little happiness, just when they all need it most.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
Woodland Community College students engaged in the process of co-curating in the Middletown Art Center Gallery in Middletown, Calif. Photo courtesy of Middletown Art Center staff. MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – The Middletown Art Center is bustling with activity as class participants and teachers prepare for the opening reception of “Community Works” on Saturday, May 18, from 5 to 7 p.m.
The exhibit is comprised of work created in three different programs that took place at MAC this past year: Woodland Community College Lake County Campus Art 4A and the exhibit “Emerging”, the Restore project, and ArtVentures for Homeschoolers, each taught by MAC artists.
“It’s the diversity of work and artists that makes the show!” said Susan Littlefield who participated in the Art 4A class.
“We worked together to choose and hang our best works, and the arrangement created a new piece of art in and of itself. It reflects the collaborative and supportive spirit of our class,” added Ava Kennedy.
The 2018 spring semester was the first time Woodland Community College, or WCC, offered art classes at the MAC.
“I am so pleased that we are able to offer affordable access to quality semester-long art courses for WCC,” said course instructor and MAC Programs Director Lisa Kaplan. “This class was very similar to a Foundation Drawing class I taught at the Art Institute of California, San Francisco in the late 1990s, except that WCC students are not necessarily preparing for a career in the arts. But they were receptive to the rigor and quality of instruction and learning and it shows up in their work, and in the exhibit.”
Woodland Community College will continue to offer classes at MAC during the 2019-20 academic year beginning with Art 4B in the fall.
Those interested in developing skills drawing the human figure, landscapes, and architecture should sign up for class at https://wcc.yccd.edu/admissions/apply-today/ . A prerequisite of a basic drawing class, or commensurate experience or course work is required. Contact the WCC or the MAC to learn more.
Mixed media, woodworking and prints from the Restore project have also been carefully placed in the MAC gallery’s attractive spaces. The Restore project now drawing to a close provided Lake County residents with low-cost art classes on weekends from July 2018 through May 2019, and the opportunity to learn or refine skills in a variety of materials and techniques.
Classes were open to adults of all ages and teens and included monthly writers workshop, printmaking, sculpture and mixed-media.
Participants engaged in both personal and in collaborative projects like Vertical Pathways at Rabbit Hill, which opens Friday, May 17, from 5 to 7 p.m.
The collection of work on view in the gallery now is inclusive and compelling. Come to the reception this Saturday and see for yourself.
The Restore project was made possible with support from the California Arts Council, a state agency. Visit www.ca.arts.gov to learn more.
View “Community Works” and see what kind of art our community is up to. Be a part of enjoying and sustaining the arts and culture in Lake County by becoming a MAC member, by participating in classes, or by attending one of the many events at MAC.
Visit www.middletownartcenter.org or “Like” Middletown Art Center on Facebook to stay up-to-date with what’s happening.
MAC is located at 21456 State Highway 175 at the junction of Highway 29.
UPPER LAKE, Calif. – May 18-19 is Wine Adventure Weekend in Lake County and the Tallman Hotel in Upper Lake adds to the festivities by pairing jazz virtuosos Mads Tolling and Jeff Massanari in a Concert with Conversation in the Meeting House next to the Hotel on Saturday, May 18.
“Jeff Massanari is an amazing guitarist whom we’ve gotten to know well because he has a summer house here in Lake County,” said Tallman owner Bernie Butcher. “When Jeff mentioned that he’d done a number of gigs with Mads Tolling, who I’d been blown away by at a show at Yoshi’s in Oakland, I jumped at the chance to book them both for a concert here.”
A Berklee School of Music graduate, Jeff Massanari has been performing and teaching jazz and blues since he was a teenager. He is fluent in many styles including straight-ahead jazz, fusion, blues, rock and country.
Massanari is often called on to accompany visiting artists with the San Francisco Symphony at Davies Hall. He also has a long-term commitment to bringing jazz to high school students in the North Bay Area.
“Jeff put together an amazing show for us last year with the vocalist Kenny Washington,” said Butcher, “and I’m really looking forward to this one with Mads.”
Also a Berklee graduate, summa cum laude, Mads Tolling is a Danish-American violinist, violist, composer and two-time Grammy Award-Winner. A former member of the Turtle Island Quartet, he has recorded five albums as a bandleader with his own groups, including his current touring band Mads Tolling and the Mads Men.
Tolling has received commissions to write and solo with symphony orchestras and he has performed several times with Jeff Massanari along with such luminaries as Chick Corea and Ramsey Lewis.
Tickets for the concert on Saturday May 18, cost $25 plus tax and are available by calling the Tallman Hotel at 707-275-2244, Extension 0. Coffee and cookies are served to guests.
The Hotel is also offering a 10 percent discount on hotel bookings that weekend for people purchasing tickets to the concert.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The 1949 action adventure, “Wake of the Red Witch,” starring John Wayne and Gail Russell, screens at the Soper Reese Theatre on Tuesday, May 28, at 1 and 6 p.m.
Entry to the film is by donation.
Wayne plays a complicated, two-fisted character who is capable of much love and hatred in this unusual and dreamlike tale of the high seas set in the East Indies.
Fine performances from Wayne and Russell, and in fact from the entire cast.
The movie is sponsored by the Konocti Bay Sailing Club. Not rated. Run time is 1 hour and 45 minutes.
The Soper Reese Theatre is located at 275 S. Main St., Lakeport, 707-263-0577, www.soperreesetheatre.com .
Ted Kooser. Photo credit: UNL Publications and Photography.
How many of our mothers set aside what they wanted to do with their lives and chose instead to make good lives for us?
This poem is from Faith Shearin's sixth book, Darwin's Daughter, published in 2018 by Stephen F. Austin State University Press. Shearin, of West Virginia, has become one of this column's favorite poets.
My Mother's Van
Even now it idles outside the houses where we failed to get better at piano lessons, visits the parking lot of the ballet school
where my sister and I stood awkwardly at the back. My mother's van was orange with a door we slid open to reveal beheaded plastic dragons and bunches
of black, half-eaten bananas; it was where her sketchbooks tarried among abandoned coffee cups and
science projects. She meant to go places in it: camp in its back seat and cook on its stove while
painting the coast of Nova Scotia, or capturing the cold beauty of the Blue Ridge mountains at dawn. Instead, she waited behind its wheel while we scraped violins,
made digestive sounds with trumpets, danced badly at recitals where grandmothers recorded us
with unsteady cameras. Sometimes, now, I look out a window and believe I see it, see her, waiting for me beside a curb,
under a tree, and I think I could open the door, clear off a seat, look at the drawing in her lap, which she began, but never seemed to finish.
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