UKIAH, Calif. – Now in its 11th year, the Friends of the Mendocino College Library, an affiliate of the Mendocino College Foundation, is offering its fall reading series.
This series will kick off with well-known Ukiah Poet Laureate Bill Churchill.
The first reading, with Churchill, will take place on Thursday, Oct. 16, at 7 p.m. in room 4210 on the Mendocino College Ukiah Campus, 1000 Hensley Creek Road in Ukiah. Room 4210 can be found upstairs in the new college library.
Churchill is currently serving as the Ukiah poet laureate and teaches at Mendocino College and Santa Rosa Junior College, where he also has been a California Poet in the Schools since 1998.
His publications include Song of Seasons, Controlled Burn, Durmiendo Con Fantasmas/Sleeping with Ghosts and El Velo/The Veil.
Churchill's work has been included in journals such as First Leaves, Americas Review, Santa Clara Review and Frontera-Esquina.
He also has been a featured poet at the Summer Dream Poetry Festival in Vancouver, B.C. in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013.
Following the reading, there will be an open mic session to allow audience members to recite their poetry. Sign ups will take place prior to the reading and during the break.
Additional authors in the series include Lake County Poet Laureate Casey Carney on Nov. 16 at Mendocino College’s new Lake Center in Lakeport, and novelist Waights Taylor Jr. on Nov. 20 at the Ukiah Campus.
For more information, please check the college Web site at www.mendocino.edu or call 707-468-3051.
Courtroom dramas don’t seem to make it to the big screen with the frequency that John Grisham novels were once adapted for theatrical release.
Not based on a book, “The Judge” is an original, with a story and screenplay put together by members of the film’s creative team.
Having directed raunchy, R-rated comedies “Wedding Crashers” and “The Change-Up,” David Dobkin would seem an unlikely candidate for the same duties in an ambitious legal drama.
And yet, he also co-wrote the story, so it would appear his talents grow more diverse by the project.
For “The Judge,” the filmmakers did themselves a great favor by landing A-list actors for the starring roles of the father-and-son dysfunctional family members.
Robert Downey Jr., excellent outside his superhero comfort zone, and Robert Duvall, always brilliant, are near perfect as one could hope as the reckless son and stern father, respectively.
Downey stars as big city defense attorney Hank Palmer, who returns to his childhood home in rural Indiana where his estranged father, the town’s judge (Duvall), becomes the prime suspect in a hit-and-run murder.
Hank sets out to discover the truth, but not without having to unpack a lot of emotional baggage.
We first glimpse the high-priced lawyer Hank in a Chicago courtroom, mounting a solid defense for a white collar client that is obviously guilty.
That Hank is the counsel that every high-lass criminal wants by his side in a courtroom is understandably irritating to prosecutor Mike Kattan (David Krumholtz).
Exchanging heated words with the prosecutor outside the courtroom, Hank is a master manipulator of the law who keeps his scruples in check because his services are only available to the highest bidder. As he coolly professes to his nemesis, “Innocent people can’t afford me.”
During the middle of a high-profile trial, Hank receives a message that his beloved mother has just passed away.
Hank has had no contact with his dad, and his mom is the one person in his family that he had remained in touch with for the past 20 or so years. His mom’s death is the only event that can draw him home.
What waits for him in the idyllic town of Carlinville, a place caught in a time warp, however, is much more than a memorial service, and far from a warm welcome.
Neither his older brother Glen (Vincent D’Onofrio) nor younger one Dale (Jeremy Strong) is ecstatic for Hank’s return. To Joseph Palmer, Hank is definitely not the prodigal son.
Family resentments abound. Glen, we learn, looked to have a promising future as a professional baseball player, which was cut short by an unfortunate accident that may or may not be blamed on Hank.
On the other hand, Dale, the mentally challenged gentle presence, is witness to family dysfunction by his use of the ever-present Super 8 camera.
A complex character, Hank has created a strong protective wall around his emotional being, choosing to deflect even the slightest opportunity for self-reflection with sarcastic humor and intellectual superiority.
His marriage is falling apart and he only cares about his young daughter, though he rarely has time for child-rearing.
Judge Joseph Palmer, though, he may be a man of many contradictions, represents the old guard who sees just about everything in black and white, probably because he’s served as the town’s magistrate for more than four decades. He’s all about honor and protecting his legacy of meting out fair justice. Naturally, the judge does not appreciate his son’s scheming approach to legal matters.
Everyone’s comfort zone is upended when on a rainy night Joseph takes a drive in his vintage Cadillac and returns home with a dented fender and evidence of a possible hit-and-run accident.
The problem is that the dead victim was a local thug that the judge had previously sent to prison.
The senior Palmer claims not to recall the events of that evening, and perhaps there are good reasons why he can’t.
The prosecutor assigned to the case, Dwight Dickham (Billy Bob Thornton), is determined to find the judge guilty.
After a local attorney (Dax Shephard) bungles the defense, Hank reluctantly steps in, though his father is not too keen for his help.
Though there is plenty of verbal sparring in the judicial chambers, “The Judge” is more family drama than courtroom drama.
One of the best scenes, outside Hank’s efforts to needle prosecutor Dickham, is when prospective jurors are interviewed as part of the jury selection process. The acceptance or exclusion of potential jurors results in some of the most humorous moments.
Not to be overlooked is Hank’s verbally brilliant takedown of a bunch of lowlifes in a bar itching for a fight but backing off in the evitable oral onslaught of a defense attorney’s skewering. Robert Downey, Jr. has a knack for delivering humiliation tinged with sarcasm and biting wit.
“The Judge” may not be the most compelling legal drama, but with Robert Downey, Jr. and Robert Duvall in total command of challenging figures in family and legal wrangling, this film proves to be truly effective and entertaining.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
I’d guess everybody reading this has felt the guilt of getting rid of belongings that meant more to somebody else than they did to you.
Here’s a poem by Jennifer Maier, who lives in Seattle. Don’t call her up. All her stuff is gone.
Rummage Sale
Forgive me, Aunt Phyllis, for rejecting the cut glass dishes—the odd set you gathered piece by piece from thirteen boxes of Lux laundry soap.
Pardon me, eggbeater, for preferring the whisk; and you, small ship in a bottle, for the diminutive size of your ocean. Please don’t tell my mother,
hideous lamp, that the light you provided was never enough. Domestic deities, do not be angry that my counters are not white with flour;
no one is sorrier than I, iron skillet, for the heavy longing for lightness directing my mortal hand. And my apologies, to you, above all,
forsaken dresses, that sway from a rod between ladders behind me, clicking your plastic tongues at the girl you once made beautiful,
and the woman, with a hard heart and softening body, who stands in the driveway making change.
American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation ( www.poetryfoundation.org ), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright 2013 by Jennifer Maier from her most recent book of poems, Now, Now, University of Pittsburgh Press, 2013. Poem reprinted by permission of Jennifer Maier and the publisher. Introduction copyright 2014 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. They do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.
Here’s a lovely poem for this lovely month, by Robert Haight, who lives in Michigan.
Early October Snow
It will not stay. But this morning we wake to pale muslin stretched across the grass. The pumpkins, still in the fields, are planets shrouded by clouds. The Weber wears a dunce cap and sits in the corner by the garage where asters wrap scarves around their necks to warm their blooms. The leaves, still soldered to their branches by a frozen drop of dew, splash apple and pear paint along the roadsides. It seems we have glanced out a window into the near future, mid-December, say, the black and white photo of winter carefully laid over the present autumn, like a morning we pause at the mirror inspecting the single strand of hair that overnight has turned to snow.
American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation ( www.poetryfoundation.org ), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright 2013 by Robert Haight from his most recent book of poems, Feeding Wild Birds, Mayapple Press, 2013. (Lines two and six are variations of lines by Herb Scott and John Woods.) Poem reprinted by permission of Robert Haight and the publisher. Introduction copyright 2014 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. They do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Second Sunday Cinema's free films for Sunday, Oct. 12, provide the strongest of contrasts between the extremes in wealth and poverty.
The films to be shown Oct. 12 are “The Queen of Versailles” and “Bonsai People.”
The venue is the Clearlake United Methodist Church at 14521 Pearl Ave.
Doors open at 5:45 p.m. The first film starts at 6 p.m.
Admission is free.
In the US, billionaires Jackie and David Siegel and family live in an “overcrowded” mansion of 26,000 square feet. But they are building a 90,000 square foot palace just because, as David says, he can.
Only 30 minutes of “The Queen of Versailles” will be shown.
Meanwhile in Bangladesh, the poorest of women lack the tiny amount of funds required to put a roof without gigantic holes in it on their hovels.
But M. Yunus, who founded the Grameen (or village) Bank, loans funds to poor women so they can launch tiny businesses and use the profits to feed, clothe and educate their children. Or to keep the rain out.
This film, “Bonsai People,” is in uplifting and inspiring contrast to the crass overconsumption of the Siegels.
No, I haven’t read the book. Just about everybody else, it would seem, has devoured Gillian Flynn’s thriller novel “Gone Girl” with exceptional passion.
My reading preferences tilt primarily to nonfiction, everything from politics and history to sports and culture.
Apparently, I am missing out on the Gillian Flynn phenomenon, and as a result, I am unable to form an opinion as to whether the screenplay is faithful to the book.
The educated guess is that the film is, indeed, true to the source material, if for no other reason than Flynn adapted her story for the big screen.
“Gone Girl” is directed by David Fincher, whose resume includes films from “Fight Club” to “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.”
Amusingly, the press notes don’t mention his extensive biography, only pointing out that Fincher directs movies, television, commercials and music videos, with the caveat that “he hopes that people like them, but if they don’t, it is not for lack of effort.”
Lack of effort is not a problem for Fincher’s “Gone Girl,” nor is it an impediment for the actors, with Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike, front and center as married couple Nick and Amy Dunne, the latter a semi-celebrity for having been the inspiration for a popular series of children’s novels in which she’s known as Amazing Amy.
The origin story for Amy and Nick Dunne begins in New York, when their attraction to each other plays out with a sexual intensity that seems a little perverse, as if their acts of passion foretell trouble ahead at some point.
In one of many flashbacks, we see them engaged in a quick tryst in a dark corner of a public library.
The early years of marriage were apparently blissful, with Nick a major magazine writer and Amy gliding along as the sexed-up “cool girl” who never developed her own persona as the result of growing up in the long shadow of her alter-ego, the impossibly perfect “Amazing Amy.” And yet, her nebulous identity looms large when the mystery kicks in.
In the present day, Nick and Amy have relocated to his Missouri hometown, drawn to the Midwest for family reasons and due to the economic downturn, which has caused Amy to leverage her trust fund into a highly-mortgaged property in a town for which she has little interest for the long term.
Meanwhile, Nick is teaching at a local college and running a local tavern with his supportive sister Margo (Carrie Coon), a refreshingly opinionated straight-talker who has her brother’s back when the going gets tough.
And the going gets tough rather quickly on the occasion of the couple’s fifth wedding anniversary, when Nick comes home after a morning walk and visit to his bar.
He finds broken furniture and signs of a struggle. His wife is missing and nothing suggests her vanishing is not out of the ordinary.
Two local detectives (Kim Dickens and Patrick Fugit) are on the case, and at first, they treat Nick’s concern for his missing wife with fitting belief. After traces of blood are found on the kitchen floor, Nick becomes the prime suspect.
To make matters worse, within a matter of a few days, Amy’s disappearance becomes the object of media frenzy and the townsfolk volunteer for search parties and candlelight vigils.
In the public eye, Nick comes across as a husband not sufficiently apprehensive about his missing wife.
The negative power of tabloid journalism comes impressively to the fore when a national TV talk show host (Missy Pyle) endlessly speculates about Nick’s culpability in the unexplained departure of an attractive woman who is a sympathetic figure, no doubt as the result of her literary alter-ego’s continuing popularity.
On the other hand, Nick’s media persona is not pretty. He appears somewhat petulant and resentful, holding back secrets.
Moreover, his relationship with Amy’s parents is distant and vaguely hostile. Appearing at a vigil in front of a large missing poster with Amy’s picture, Nick is more uncomfortable than appropriately distraught.
Public opinion moves swiftly to confirm the suspicion of the police that Nick is the culprit. The two detectives take great interest in Amy’s diary, which paints an unflattering picture of Nick’s past behavior.
The media storm becomes even more intense when Nick has no other choice than to hire high-powered defense attorney Tanner Bolt (Tyler Perry).
Even a sharp lawyer is unable to keep Nick from flailing in the media spotlight. On the other hand, Amy’s vanishing becomes a kind of hall of mirrors in which tantalizing and savage secrets lead to more of the same.
At this point, it would be impossible to say more about what is happening for fear of disclosing any of the many twists and turns that hold real surprises.
“Gone Girl” offers many questions: Who is Nick? Who is Amy? How did they come to this state of affairs in only five years of marriage?
The film has plenty of voice-overs that offer both Nick and Amy the opportunity to put forth their sides of the story.
“Gone Girl” is a riveting multidimensional mystery thriller, alternately perverse and disturbing and chilling in the depravity of bloody events that are shocking and astounding.
“Gone Girl” is likely to be as appealing to movie audiences as to readers of the best-selling novel.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
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