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Arts & Life
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- Written by: Ted Kooser
As a writer and reader, there’s hardly anything I enjoy more than coming upon fresh new ways of describing things, and here’s a sparkling way of looking at an avalanche, by Marty Walsh, who lives in Maine.
The snow's/feet slip
out from
under it
and down
the mountain
slope it comes
flat on its back
white skirt
and billowy
petticoats
blowing
back over
its head,
whiplashing
rickety
pine sapling
as it passes,
bowling boulders
left and right
until it comes
to a juddering
sudden heart-
thumping stop
just shy
of the little village
in the valley far below.
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 Marty Walsh, whose most recent book of poems is Furniture Out in the Woods, Marty Walsh, 1999. Poem reprinted from Plainsongs, Vol. XXXIV, No. 1, by permission of Marty Walsh 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.
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- Written by: Tim Riley
NIGHTCRAWLER (Rated R)
The title “Nightcrawler” has the vague sound of a horror film, and though it is not, the premise is grounded in the horrifying possibility of TMZ-style journalism taken to extreme measures to capture the tabloid mantra of “If it bleeds, it leads.”
The dark side of television news is not confined to the latest escapades of frivolous celebrities and anyone named Kardashian.
“Nightcrawler” explores the underbelly of so-called journalism in which freelance bottom-feeders seek out footage of the sensationally gruesome scenes of domestic violence, murder and vehicle accidents.
Jake Gyllenhaal, a versatile actor who has also played his share of troubled characters, stars as intense, borderline sociopath Louis Bloom, the titular character of “Nightcrawler,” a title that is fitting for one engaged in the sleazy business of trolling the police scanners for hot tips of the grisliest crime incidents.
At the film’s opening, Louis is a random petty thief, though so devoid of any scruples that he has no problem beating up someone who tries to prevent him from stealing scrap metal from a junkyard for a quick monetary fix.
Clearly, Louis is unhinged and callous enough to fit right in with those who might profit from others’ misery.
Stumbling upon an accident scene involving a woman barely escaping an exploding vehicle, Louis encounters Joe Loder (Bill Paxton), a roaming videographer who chases down ghastly accident scenes and peddles his footage to local TV newsrooms in Los Angeles anxious to titillate audiences with as much bloody carnage as they can get away with.
The impressionable Louis, lacking any moral compass and eager to make a fast buck, is intrigued by the possibility of a new career as a “nightcrawler,” a fitting job for his nocturnal pleasures, only slightly removed from his penchant for illegal activities.
In fact, Louis uses purloined goods to obtain a video camera and an old police scanner so that he can tap into the “if it bleeds, it leads” mantra of late night TV news.
His first attempts at acting as paparazzi of the crime scene don’t go so well, but his luck soon changes with awesome footage.
An eager buyer for what Louis has to sell is Nina Romina (Rene Russo), a hardened news director at the lowest rated TV news station in Los Angeles.
Ever the cynic, Nina schools Louis in the finer points of tabloid news, letting him know that crimes against people in the wealthier neighborhoods are what drive the TV ratings.
Not burdened by any moral reservations, Nina is all too willing to whisper into the ear of a news anchor that an already shocking story needs to be punched up with more graphic details.
Nina expresses her view that the TV news should be akin to a “screaming woman running down the street with her throat cut.”
Equally unbound by the norms of respectable reporting, Louis, assisted by his perplexed assistant Rick (Riz Ahmed), goes to great lengths to obtain his stories, willing to manipulate the crime scenes to his benefit and interfering with police investigations and first responders when it most suits his purposes.
Louis goes to extremes in his work not only because he wants to topple Joe Loder as the prime go-to guy for gruesome footage, but he’s also driven by persistent, reckless ambition to succeed.
Even though he’s an uneducated man with a violent streak, he knows how to read every situation to maximize his advantage.
“Nightcrawler,” perhaps not always intentionally, aims for many things in its expose of the shady world of tabloid journalism.
The film could be considered a satire of the current state of TV journalism, or it might be fateful commentary on our endless obsession with tabloid-style sensationalism. It’s also a character study of a strange man fixated on the dark side.
Chilling and disturbing, “Nightcrawler” offers the viewer the opportunity to form a number of opinions. Louis Bloom is either evil or was seduced by evil; maybe it’s both.
Los Angeles turns into a postcard of the seamy side of life, realized into a modern version of the tarnished image of the City of Angels so visible in “Chinatown.”
Dark and frequently creepy, consistent with the oddly weird Louis Bloom, “Nightcrawler” taps into a visceral feeling about society’s strange fascination with rubber-necking journalism, unable to resist looking at the ten-car pileup or the sad tale of a nasty home invasion.
“Nightcrawler” just might be the unfortunate parable of our voyeuristic times.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
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- Written by: Editor
LAKEPORT, Calif. – Lake County Poet Laureate Casey Carney will give a reading at the Mendocino College Lake Center on Sunday, Nov. 16.
The reading will begin at 2 p.m. at the center, 2565 Parallel Drive in Lakeport.
Admission is free to the event, which is presented by the Lake County Friends of Mendocino College and Friends of the Mendocino College Library.
Carney – Lake County's poet laureate for 2014 through 2016 – is a lifelong artist who expresses her creativity through poetry, writing, photography, performance art and teaching.
Holding a master’s degree in dance, Carney is a professional choreographer, and has taught dance and participated in numerous dance concerts in Los Angeles.
She has studied with such notables as Bessie Schonberg, Jeff Slaton, Bella Lewitzky, Risa Steinberg and Gloria Newman.
Carney also has performed as a soloist at the Los Angeles Dance Kaliedoscope Festival.
A former special education teacher, Carney currently is involved with mentoring at-risk youth.
She believes in the power of creativity in helping people to connect with their individual voice and to bring that voice into the world. She is interested in a multidisciplinary approach to expression and healing.
Carney is working on her manuscript of poetry titled “How to tell a Party from a Disaster.”
Following the reading, there will be an open mic session to let audience members recite their poetry.
Sign-ups will take place prior to the reading and during the break.
For more information call 707-468-3051.
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- Written by: Editor
UKIAH, Calif. – The Mendocino College Theatre Arts Department will present “Eurydice,” Sarah Ruhl’s magical and beautiful adaptation of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice.
The play will run Nov. 7 to 16 in Mendocino College’s Center Theatre on the Ukiah Campus.
According to director Reid Edelman, “Ruhl has put her own highly imaginative spin on the classic myth drawn from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, an ancient story which has lent itself to innumerable retellings. This is an enchanting play which will touch people’s hearts.”
Orpheus and Eurydice is the myth in which on the wedding day of the beautiful Eurydice, to the musician Orpheus, tragedy strikes.
Eurydice steps onto a pit of vipers, dies and is swept away to the underworld of Hades.
Orpheus’ grief overwhelms him; he travels to the underworld and plays music which melts the lord of the underworld’s heart.
Hades agrees that Orpheus can lead Eurydice back to the world of the living, but with one condition: Orpheus must promise not to look back at Eurydice until they reach the surface.
Orpheus, undone by his own doubts, looks back, losing his love forever.
The myth has been interpreted widely by poets, playwrights, psychologists, philosophers, musicians and filmmakers through the generations.
In the version of the story in production at Mendocino College, playwright Sarah Ruhl adds the character of Eurydice’s dead father (played by Jonathan Whipple), whom Eurydice (played by theater major Melany Katz) meets when she goes to the underworld.
“The play examines the nature of love, memory, and earthly connectedness,” said Edelman. “Ruhl wrote the play as a sort of love letter to her own deceased father, and it is brimming with humanity. The play celebrates the power of both poetry and music in connecting us to others. It is one of the most affecting plays that I have ever encountered.”
In this production, the musician Orpheus (played by Max Hovland) is a moody modern guitarist, and the Lord of The Underworld (played by DonMike Chilberg) is a child who grows and shrinks in the spirit of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.
Ruhl also adds the haunting character of the “Nasty Interesting Man” (played by theater major Thomas Kenney) and a “chorus of stones,” actors and dancers who comment on the action and torment Eurydice in the underworld.
The Stone Chorus features Scott Andrews, James Blake, Melissa Chapman, Ayla Decaire, Thomas Kenney, Marco Orozco, Maheanani Phillips and Megan Regan.
An evocative musical score by college recording arts instructor Rodney Grisanti and students in his Recording Arts classes will enhance the production.
There also will be original dance sequences choreographed by college dance instructor Eryn Schon-Brunner.
This play is appropriate for most audiences, though its themes of love, death, memory, language and music will be most appreciated by those ages 12 and older.
The production features a cast of 12 local performers, as well as impressive scenery and costumes created by students in Mendocino College’s theater, art and costuming classes under the direction of faculty members Kathy Dingman Katz, Gregory Byard, Lisa Rosenstreich and Theatre Technician Larry L. Lang.
Several members of the production are students in the college’s new Conservatory Cohort Group, a learning community of students engaging in a pre-professional conservatory-style training experience.
The play is being stage managed by Charlyn Keyser with the assistance of Alice Gully and Sarah Davis.
Eurydice opens on Friday, Nov. 7. Performances will run for two weekends only, through Nov. 16.
Performances are at 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 7, and Saturday, Nov. 8; 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 13; 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 14, and Saturday, Nov. 15; and 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 16.
Tickets – $20 general, $15 students and seniors – are available at the Mendocino Book Co., at Mendocino College Bookstore and online at www.ArtsMendocino.org .
The performance on Thursday, Nov. 13, is a special discount night, with all tickets costing only $10.
Audiences are encouraged to purchase tickets in advance.
For more information, call 707-468-3172 or visit www.mendocino.edu/CVPA .