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Arts & Life
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- Written by: Ted Kooser
Just as it was to me, Insha’Allah will be a new word to many of you, offered in this poem by Danusha Laméris, a Californian. It looks to me like one of those words that ought to get a lot of use.
Insha’Allah
I don’t know when it slipped into my speech
that soft word meaning, “if God wills it.”
Insha’Allah I will see you next summer.
The baby will come in spring, insha’Allah.
Insha’Allah this year we will have enough rain.
So many plans I’ve laid have unraveled
easily as braids beneath my mother’s quick fingers.
Every language must have a word for this. A word
our grandmothers uttered under their breath
as they pinned the whites, soaked in lemon,
hung them to dry in the sun, or peeled potatoes,
dropping the discarded skins into a bowl.
Our sons will return next month, insha’Allah.
Insha’Allah this war will end, soon. Insha’Allah
the rice will be enough to last through winter.
How lightly we learn to hold hope,
as if it were an animal that could turn around
and bite your hand. And still we carry it
the way a mother would, carefully,
from one day to the next.
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 2014 by Danusha Laméris, from her recently released first book of poems, The Moons of August, Autumn House Press, 2014. Poem reprinted by Danusha Laméris and the publisher. Introduction copyright 2015 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. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.
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- Written by: Tim Riley
The FOX Television network launches the new year’s programming schedule with a powerful new drama about the head of a music empire whose three sons and ex-wife all battle for his throne.
Simply titled “Empire” and with a storyline reminiscent of King Lear, this new series is a hip-hop Shakespearean drama.
The network’s publicity team is putting a lot of effort into promoting a series with a primarily African-American cast.
Given the musical theme, it’s the kind of show that lends itself to clever marketing, emphasizing the potential gold to be mined from hit songs.
Speaking of gold, a surprise package arrived in the mail during the holidays. A faux-gold record surrounded by miniature album covers inside a frame carried a plaque with a personalized inscription that noted that I was the recipient of this commemorative item for the “Empire” premiere.
Mind you, this unique gift holds no sway over a dedicated reviewer. Only the first episode of “Empire” has been made available for review, and I would say the jury is still out.
In fact, I am too easily distracted by the onslaught of the midseason’s new shows and conceivably may not even get around to viewing the second episode.
Yet, “Empire” has some good things going for it.
For one, Terrence Howard, in the central role, is a compelling actor. If you’ve seen him in “Hustle & Flow,” you get the idea.
Here, he’s Lucious Lyon, the CEO of Empire Entertainment, a former street thug who started out as a drug dealer to finance his artistic talent as a rap star before becoming a record mogul.
Though charismatic and crafty, Lucious is not a particularly likable guy. After all, he let his then-wife Cookie (Taraji P. Henson) take the rap, and a 17-year prison stint, for selling drugs to finance his musical career.
Now, she’s out of the joint and is not about to be pushed aside from the family’s lucrative musical empire.
Diagnosed with an incurable disease that will have him incapacitated in a matter of three years, Lucious puts the King Lear element into gear by having his three sons compete to take over his crowning achievement, without destroying his already fractured family.
Oldest son Andre (Trai Byers), college-educated and possessed of a brilliant business mind, is the current chief financial of the company, and would seem the natural heir to the family empire.
Andre is assisted by his manipulative and like-minded wife Rhonda (Kaitlin Doubleday). But Andre lacks the charisma that Lucious believes is crucial to running the company.
Meanwhile, Lucious’s favorite is his youngest son Hakeem (Byshere Gray), a gifted musician and a spoiled playboy who values fame over hard work.
Given his frivolous temperament, Hakeem would seem to be most unlikely heir to the throne. But his artistic mood is most in sync with that of his father.
The middle son Jamal (Jussie Smollett) is a sensitive soul and musical prodigy who, unlike Hakeem, shies away from the spotlight.
Jamal also happens to be gay, which infuriates and embarrasses his homophobic father. Flashback scenes to Lucious’ cruel treatment of Jamal’s effeminate behavior are unsettling.
In the first episode, Cookie reasserts her position in the family business in a grand way. Part of her gambit appears to be a thorn in the side of her ex-husband, who has taken up a very attractive younger woman, Anika Gibbons (newcomer Grace Gealey), who also fills the position of head talent scout for Empire Entertainment.
The obvious play for Cookie is to persuade Jamal to break out of his shell and take a more active role in advancing his career with musical gigs to be seen by more than a handful of close friends. Certainly, Lucious has done nothing to help Jamal capitalize on his enormous talent.
For now, at least in the first episode, Lucious remains firmly in control of Empire Entertainment, relying on the sage advice and support of his longtime friend and chairman of the board, Vernon Turner (Malik Yoba).
But Cookie is a force of nature that Vernon and the other board members will find challenging.
“Empire” is an emotional chess game that threatens to tear the Lyon family apart. In that sense, the series could be a hip-hop version of “Dynasty,” set to a number of songs that fit the show’s themes.
The original soundtrack is written and produced by legendary artist Timbaland.
FOX is taking a big gamble on “Empire,” the type of show that, like “Power,” to cite just one example, may be better-suited for cable, where more audacious programs tend to thrive.
On the flip side, “Empire” is a series that would be most unlikely to appear on CBS, a network that skews to the older demographic.
Then again, if “Empire” catches on, I will have to decide if my personalized framed gold record could take up a more visible position than resting inside a closet stuffed with other relics of entertainment memorabilia.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
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- Written by: Editor
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Soper Reese Theatre presents a new series in classical music, one concert for each of the first four months of 2015.
Entitled La Voce del Vento (Voice of the Wind), the chamber series features woodwind instruments as the centerpiece of each program.
The first concert takes place on Sunday, Jan. 11, at 3 p.m.
“La Voce del Vento chamber players intend to open the performance horizon to make woodwind instruments available to audiences in a close and intimate setting,” explained Ann Hubbard, who originated the concept of this woodwinds chamber group in 1982. “I’m pleased to make the Soper Reese Theatre the new home for these performances and delighted that the voices of the woodwinds can be heard and appreciated.”
The program for Jan. 11 is a Beethoven quintet fur klavier und blaser in Eb major, op. 16 and a Mozart quintet fur oboe, klarinette, horn, fagott und klavier in E major, KV 452.
Performing will be Beth Aiken, oboe; Nick Biondo, clarinet; Ann Hubbard, bassoon; Randy Masselink, horn with special guest Aaron Ames, piano.
Aaron Ames was raised in Ukiah and is currently teaching at the James C. Harper School for Performing Arts in Lenoir, North Carolina.
He received his master’s degree in music performance in 2010 from Appalachian State University, and was invited to join Pi Kappa Lambda, the musician’s academic honors society.
Beth Aiken resides in Kelseyville and is the principal oboist with the Lake County Symphony, Ukiah Symphony and Symphony of the Redwoods. She earned her bachelor of arts degree in music at Humboldt State University and has been teaching in public schools since 1984.
Nick Biondo currently performs with Symphony of the Redwoods, the Ukiah Symphony Orchestra, the Ukiah Saxophone Quartet and “The Funky Dozen” rock/funk band. As an inaugural member, he has been playing for 34 years with the Lake County Symphony.
Ann Hubbard resides in Lucerne and is principal bassoonist with the Lake County Symphony, Symphony of the Redwoods and the Ukiah Symphony. She attended the Juilliard School and Curtis Institute of Music, and was a founding member of Midsummer Mozart Festival Orchestra in San Francisco.
The concept of the La Voce del Vento chamber series in Lake County was initiated by Hubbard.
Randy Masselink studied horn with Neil Sanders, former principal horn of the London Philharmonic and with Dale Clevenger, former principal horn of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He played with orchestras in Italy and Switzerland for 16 years and is now teaching music in the Healdsburg School District.
Tickets are on sale now for each concert at $20 and $15 levels. Persons 18 years of age and under are admitted free. All seats are reserved.
A $10 series discount is available if tickets to each of the four concerts are purchased by Jan. 11.
Concerts that follow the Jan. 11 performance will take place on Feb. 15, March 1 and April 12.
Tickets are available online at www.soperreesetheatre.com or at the theater box office, 275 S. Main St., Lakeport from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., or at The Travel Center, 1265 S. Main St., Lakeport, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.
For more information call 707-263-0577.
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- Written by: Ted Kooser
Billy Collins, who lives in New York, is one of our country’s most admired poets, and this snapshot of a winter day is reminiscent of those great Chinese poems that on the virtue of their clarity and precision have survived for a couple of thousand years.
His most recent book of poetry is Aimless Love: New and Selected Poems, (Random House, 2013).
Winter
A little heat in the iron radiator,
the dog breathing at the foot of the bed,
and the windows shut tight,
encrusted with hexagons of frost.
I can barely hear the geese
complaining in the vast sky,
flying over the living and the dead,
schools and prisons, and the whitened fields.
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 2014 by Billy Collins, “Winter,” (Poetry East, No. 82, 2014). Poem reprinted by permission of Billy Collins and the publisher. Introduction copyright 2015 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.