If we haven’t done it ourselves, we’ve known people who have, it seems: taken a vacation mostly to photograph a vacation, not really looking at what’s there, but seeing everything through the viewfinder with the idea of looking at it when they get home.

Wendell Berry of Kentucky, one of our most distinguished poets, captures this perfectly.

The Vacation

Once there was a man who filmed his vacation.
He went flying down the river in his boat
with his video camera to his eye, making
a moving picture of the moving river
upon which his sleek boat moved swiftly
toward the end of his vacation. He showed
his vacation to his camera, which pictured it,
preserving it forever: the river, the trees,
the sky, the light, the bow of his rushing boat
behind which he stood with his camera
preserving his vacation even as he was having it
so that after he had had it he would still
have it. It would be there. With a flick
of a switch, there it would be. But he
would not be in it. He would never be in it.

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 2012 by Wendell Berry, whose most recent book of poems is New Collected Poems, Counterpoint, 2012. Poem reprinted from New Collected Poems, Counterpoint, 2012, and used with permission of Wendell Berry and the publisher. Introduction copyright 2013 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.

NORTH COAST, Calif. – U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-5) announced Benjamin Yu from Jesse M Bethel High School in Vallejo as the winner of the 2013 Congressional Art Competition.

Benjamin’s artwork, titled “Monotony,” will represent California’s 5th Congressional District in the U.S. Capitol, where it will be displayed starting June 4 for one year.

Benjamin and a guest will be flown to Washington, D.C. to attend an awards ceremony in June.

“Every year I am impressed by our student artists’ talent and creativity,” said Thompson. “Many thanks to everyone who participated in this year’s competition, and the parents, teachers and judges who make this annual event possible. Congratulations to Benjamin. I am honored to be able feature his artwork in the U.S. Capitol.”

“He really has a gift for embracing discoveries in his work. Although, he’s a perfectionist and spends a lot of his time pre-thinking what he is going to do, he does come across some experimental moments and he actually discovers in his work something new,” said Jesse M Bethel High School Art Teacher, Dr. Randall Goni.

Benjamin is a senior in high school. This fall he will attend the Academy of Art University in San Francisco as a Fine Arts Major on a full scholarship.

Benjamin was one of five regional winners chosen by local artist judges. The four other finalists were:

• Lake County winner: Micah McDaniel from Kelseyville High School;
• Contra Costa: Jessica Loyd from John Swett High School;
• Napa winner: Maia Rios from Vintage High School;
• Sonoma County: Annika White from Cardinal Newman High School.

The Congressional Art Competition began in 1982 to provide an opportunity for members of Congress to encourage and recognize the artistic talents of their young constituents. Since then, over 650,000 high school students have been involved with the nation-wide competition.

Congressman Mike Thompson is proud to represent California’s 5th Congressional District, which includes all or part of Contra Costa, Lake, Napa, Solano and Sonoma counties.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – Broadway came to Lake County in grand fashion on Sunday, May 11, when the Lake County Symphony teamed up with vocalist Shelly Trumbo-Mascari and the talented young musicians of the CLPA Youth Orchestra, to present selections from a series of blockbuster musicals.

The afternoon concert at Lakeport’s Soper-Reese Theatre was sponsored by Clear Lake Performing Arts.

Entitled “Salute to Broadway” the concert was a compilation of some of the biggest hits from the hottest musicals produced during the golden years of the Great White Way – the 1920s to the 1960s, selected and usually arranged by the orchestra’s Music Director and Conductor John Parkinson.

The high spirits of the Mothers Day presentation were dampened somewhat by the news that Carl Stewart, the gifted musician and singer who had enlivened past concerts, had recently died.

Announcer Doug Rhoades called for a moment of silence in the darkened theater as a memorial to Stewart, whose contributions to the local music scene had been numerous and outstanding.

Susan Condit, conductor of the CLPA Youth Orchestra, opened the show with two pieces designed to spotlight the talents of her young musicians.

The first, Matt Turner’s “Tango Expressivo,” featured the intricate and tantalizing rhythms of Argentina’s classic dance, which were performed flawlessly.

This was followed by a change in mood and tempo for the theme from “Les Miserables” with senior symphony members Andi Skelton, Sienna S’Zell, Jeff Ives, Clovice Lewis, Patricia Jekel and Austin Ivees lending background support.

At its conclusion the orchestra won extended applause for the virtuosity of its performance.

Prior to the opening of the main event Parkinson noted that open seating at the 11 a.m. rehearsal – originally intended to attract young people, who are admitted free – had resulted in a full house.

Adults – in order to enjoy the more relaxed atmosphere of the rehearsal – are charged just $5 and are seated on a “first come, first served” basis.

“Everyone knows these songs and they like to hum along,” Parkinson said, “including me, as everybody heard since I inadvertently left my mike on.”

He then proceeded to lead the orchestra through an opening medley of music from George M. Cohan, Fats Waller, Rogers and Hart, Lerner and Lowe and others, all segueing into the following number with no breaks between.

At this point the program shifted from a shotgun selection of hits to music from individual musicals, starting with Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “The King and I,” which included “Whistle a Happy Tune” and “March of the Siamese Children.”

“The Sound of Music” featured nearly a dozen numbers, with favorites such as “Sixteen going on Seventeen,” “Getting to Know You” and “Edelweiss” as well as a few familiar to theatergoers but which were eliminated from the movie version.

“The Quest” from “Man of La Mancha” – known more popularly as “The Impossible Dream” – was original slated to be sung by Carl Stewart, but in his unfortunate absence was played by the entire 60-plus member orchestra.

“Fiddler on the Roof” saw the symphonic dances “Wedding Dance No.1,” the “Perchik & Hodel” dance, “Chava Sequence” and “To Life Dance.”

After intermission the ladies of the CLPA Auxiliary auctioned off a basket of special Mothers Day gifts as a fundraising device.

Parkinson also presented a special commendation to violist Aaron Bielenberg, a CLPA scholarship recipient who has played for most of his young life with, first, the youth orchestras of CLPA and finally as a member of the symphony.

He also gave special recognition to Youth Orchestra Conductor Condit and Symphony concertmaster Andi Skelton. Both are not only orchestra members, but also play key roles in CLPA youth music activities.

“I don’t know what we would do without them” Parkinson said.

After a second-half introduction of George and Ira Gershwin’s “Strike up the Band” vocalist Shelly Trumbo-Mascari took the stage to deliver her swinging version of Cole Porter’s “I Get a Kick Out of You,” and then the Gershwin’s classic “Summertime.”

She ended her set with a melodic interpretation of “As Time Goes By” as arranged for her by Parkinson, who earlier had confessed that he was a lifelong devotee of Big Band music.

The shows finale was reserved for “76 Trombones” the signature piece of Meredith Willson’s “The Music Man” and by its end virtually the entire audience was on its feet, sending waves of applause over the performers.

The concert ended the Symphony’s current season, although the CLPA Youth Orchestra will hold its final concert at the Soper-Reese on June 9 at the usual 3 p.m. start time.

Also, groups from both orchestras will appear at the CLPA-sponsored “Art and Wine in the Park” event taking place on June 22 at Library Park in Lakeport.

STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (Rated PG-13)

Never attracted to the dozen or so “Star Trek” television shows and about equal number of films with original TV cast members, I would never be mistaken for a Trekkie.

Until George Lucas mucked up his franchise with inane “prequels” of increasingly dubious merit, “Star Wars” was terrific, namely for interesting characters, good humor and exciting action.

On the other hand, the original “Star Trek,” at least to my untrained eye, appeared more cerebral and weighed down by too much mystical philosophy. That’s not a bad thing, but the action was usually paced by gradualism.

As unlikely as it is that I would ever become a Trekkie, I have been won over by director J.J. Abrams’ new vision of a rebooted “Star Trek” pulsating with high-octane action and plenty of humor.

“Star Trek Into Darkness” even improves upon Abrams’ maiden voyage with the 2009 “Star Trek,” which introduced the young generation of Starfleet leaders, including the brash James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) trying to live up to his father’s legacy.

The action picks up soon after where things left off four years ago. Captain Kirk’s command of the USS Enterprise is tested when he and his crew attempt to save a primitive society from a volcano poised to erupt.

Spock (Zachary Quinto), the half-human, half-Vulcan first officer trapped in harm’s way on the volcano’s edge, is rescued by Captain Kirk in direct violation of a prime directive from the Federation.

Returning his ship safely to Earth, Kirk is demoted to First Officer by Admiral Pike (Bruce Greenwood). We know from the first film that the swaggering Kirk is impulsive and willing to bend the rules, and here he is no different.

While punished for insubordination and writing false reports, Kirk is soon pressed back into service when a terrorist attack destroys the Federation underground headquarters in 23rd Century London.

On top of that, rogue Starfleet officer John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch) also conducts an above-ground aerial assault on a Federation conclave, killing some key members and thus necessitating Kirk’s return to command of the Enterprise.

The motivations of the dastardly terrorist are not immediately known, though later revelations prove that he’s a recognizable foe with an agenda more fully explained by mysterious torpedo tubes placed aboard the Enterprise.

On a mission to exterminate Harrison with extreme prejudice, the Enterprise is sent to the planet Kronos by a belligerent Admiral Marcus (Peter Weller) to seek the hiding place of the renegade.

Capturing Harrison is fraught with great risk and danger, since Kronos is an outpost for the hostile Klingons, who view any incursion on their planet as an act of war.

Turning the Enterprise into a warship creates onboard conflicts between Kirk and Spock, as they argue over the moral issues of an order to assassinate Harrison rather than to bring him back to stand trial.

As unlikely as it may seem, Spock, the pensive, logical Vulcan who can never tell a lie, is in the middle of a rocky romantic entanglement with Zoe Saldana’s tough-minded, yet sexy Uhura.

The Enterprise is populated with other familiar, lovable characters, from Simon Pegg’s funny and frantic Scotty to Karl Urban’s sardonic yet urgently attentive medical officer Bones.

As expected, John Cho’s Sulu is aloof and confident at the controls, while Anton Yeltsin plays Chekov with youthful, untested resolve.

New to the Enterprise crew is a stowaway, the uninvited science officer Carol Marcus (Alice Eve) with suspect motives, an attractive blonde who most certainly will get Kirk’s attention. Creating some wariness for the crew is the fact that she’s the daughter of Admiral Marcus.

The action sequences in “Star Trek Into Darkness” are cranked up to an impressive magnitude, from the violent confrontation with the Klingons to an intergalactic battle in space that nearly destroys the Enterprise, causing Kirk to improvise to bring the ship back to San Francisco.

The return to the City by the Bay results in a massive amount of destruction to the skyscraper buildings, resulting in a stunningly visual representation of wholesale destruction of property and human lives.

Though this may be presumptuous on my part, I feel there are many segments of this film that evoke memories of the past, perhaps to breed familiarity or to render homage. Some may point to the need to revisit some of the early “Star Trek” films.

Whatever the case may be, the thrilling “Star Trek Into Darkness” delivers genuine excitement that allows this venerable franchise to continue to go boldly forward and to live long and prosper.

I hope the hardcore “Star Trek” fans may find this new direction appealing, but I do not feel qualified to speak for that constituency.

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

LAKEPORT, Calif. – Retired California Highway Patrol Lt. Steve Davis will celebrate the publication of his book “22E … Officer Down” at Watershed Books in Lakeport on Friday, May 24.

The event will take place from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.

When CHP Officer Sonny Tyler is gunned down on a rural Northern California road near Eureka in 1970, the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office puts their best man on the case.

Det. Sgt. Don Regan works obsessively to solve the case and keep a promise he made to Officer Tyler's 9-year-old son, Casey. But the clues are few and they lead nowhere, and eventually the case goes cold.

In 1987, Casey – now a CHP officer himself – joins forces with soon-to-retire Sgt. Regan to reopen the cold case, with a dramatic outcome waiting for them both.

Join Davis and crime novel enthusiasts for good conversation and refreshments.  

Watershed Books is located at 305 N. Main St., Lakeport.

For more information, call 707-263-5787 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) is conducting an art contest to select the design for the state’s 2013 upland game bird stamp.

The California Upland Game Bird Stamp Art Contest is open to all U.S. residents ages 18 and over. Entries will be accepted from May 13 through July 13, 2013.

This year’s stamp will feature the sooty grouse, and art contest entries must include at least one adult sooty grouse.

Entries will be judged on originality, artistic composition, anatomical accuracy and suitability for reproduction as a stamp and a print.

The contest will be judged by a panel of experts in the fields of ornithology, conservation, art and printing. The winning artist will be selected during a public judging event, with the date and location to be announced later.

An upland game bird stamp is required for hunting migratory and resident upland game birds in California.

The money generated from stamp sales must be spent on upland game bird-related conservation projects, education, hunting opportunities and outreach.

CDFW sells about 200,000 upland game bird stamps annually, which includes sales to collectors. Hunters are no longer required to attach the stamp to their license.

However, CDFW still produces the stamps, which can be purchased at http://www.dfg.ca.gov/licensing/collectorstamps/ .

For contest information and entry forms, please visit http://www.dfg.ca.gov/upstamp .