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Arts & Life
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- Written by: Ted Kooser
Our sense of smell is, as you know, not nearly as good as that of our dogs, but it can still affect us powerfully.
A good writer, like Tami Haaland of Billings, Montana, can show us how a single odor can sweep us back through time.
A Colander of Barley
The smell, once water has rinsed it,
is like a field of ripe grain, or the grain held
in a truck, and if you climb the steel side,
one foot lodged on the hubcap, the other
on the wheel, and pull your body upward,
your hands holding to tarp hooks, and lift toes
onto the rim of the truck box, rest your ribs
against the side, you will see beetles
and grasshoppers among the hulled kernels.
Water stirs and resurrects harvest dust:
sun beating on abundance, the moist heat
of grain collected in steel, hands
plunging and lifting, the grain spilling back.
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. “A Colander of Barley” from When We Wake in the Night by Tami Haaland, 2012 WordTech Editions, Cincinnati, Ohio. Poem reprinted by permission of Tami Haaland 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.
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- Written by: Lake County News Reports
Gambling on a wide swath of genres for its new series, ABC may be rolling the dice with abandon on the success of its fall TV schedule.
Seven new shows is a heavy load to promote. And yet even a stable network like CBS is launching five new series. Of course, perennial also-ran NBC is running with a half-dozen freshman shows.
So many new shows on all of the networks (FOX also has a bunch), to say nothing of cable options, highlights an inherent problem with the television fall season.
There’s very little time for a new show to catch the attention of the viewing public. How do you cut through the clutter? How do you decide to give a show more than one chance to impress you?
ABC is banking on Marvel’s “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” to deliver big in its opening salvo. The Marvel pedigree of “The Avengers” and Josh Whedon’s executive producing skills are the starting ingredients for massive goodwill.
Clark Gregg reprises his role of Agent Phil Coulson from Marvel’s feature films, as he assembles a small, highly select group of worldwide law enforcement agents. They investigate the new, the strange, and the unknown across the globe, protecting the ordinary from the extraordinary.
Coulson’s team consists of Agent Grant Ward (Brett Dalton), highly trained in espionage, and Agent Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen), expert pilot and martial artist. Chloe Bennet’s Skye, a meddlesome new recruit and computer hacker, joins the team.
By the way, “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” is not the story of superheroes. The team consists of mortals battling the forces of evil. Don’t expect the Hulk or Iron Man to drop in on the action.
In the hour that follows the Marvel series is a comedy block of two new series, which should be known as the dysfunctional family hour. “The Goldbergs” may well be ABC’s most promising new comedy, or in fact the series with the greatest potential.
Set in 1985, “The Goldbergs” taps into the zeitgeist of that era, where family members had to interact with each other because nobody was texting or sending emails. The real star of the show is the family matriarch, Wendi McLendon-Covey’s Beverly, overbearing and hyper-emotional.
Jeff Garlin is the gruff, hot-tempered father given to plenty of yelling. George Segal is the beloved grandfather who is the wild man of the clan, a shameless Don Juan who shares his insights on women with the youngest of the Goldberg children, 11-year-old Adam (Sam Giambrone).
Tony Gentile’s Barry, just turned 16 and overly emotional with severe middle child syndrome, is anxious to get his own car, if for no other reason than to escape his crazy family. At first glance, “The Goldbergs” are worth a continuing look.
The comedy of “Trophy Wife” is what the title implies. Reformed party girl Kate (Malin Akerman) becomes the third wife of an older man, Pete (Bradley Whitford), and suddenly finds herself the stepmother to three children.
What’s worse is that Pete’s ex-wives are still around. First wife Diane (Marcia Gay Harden), an intense meddler and overachiever, is quick to disapprove of Kate. Second wife Jackie (Michaela Watkins), a New-Age neurotic mess, is an intrusive flake.
Meanwhile, Pete’s teenage kids have trouble relating to Kate for different reasons. The daughter is skeptical of Kate’s fumbling attempts to win her trust, while the son may be struggling with a fixation on his dad’s beautiful, young spouse.
James Caan tries his hand at comedy in “Back in the Game” as the beer-swilling, cantankerous former baseball player, Terry “The Cannon” Gannon Sr., who became the single father to Terry Gannon Jr., who happens to be a girl (Maggie Lawson) that was raised to be an athlete.
The younger Terry, a single mother to an uncoordinated young boy, finds her son wanting to play ball with other kids that couldn’t make a team. Of course, mom becomes the softball coach and must endure meddling as well as heckling from her own father.
“Back in the Game” looks like another dysfunctional family comedy, given how James Caan is downright temperamental and quirky in his approach to life and bonding with his family.
“Super Fun Night” is a showcase for the comic talents of Rebel Wilson, who parties every Friday night with her two best female friends, but complications arise when she falls for a handsome British attorney.
Speaking to TV critics during the summer press tour, president of NBC Entertainment Paul Lee claimed that ABC is the “Number One women’s network” and that his network has a “focus on empowered women.” I am thinking he had in mind the launch of Rebel Wilson as the TV star of a female driven show tailored to her obvious flair.
A potentially very interesting, maybe even rewarding, new drama is “Lucky 7,” a show that defies effortless categorization. The premise is about a group of seven gas station employees in Queens, New York, who have pooled their money for years in the lottery, and then win the big jackpot.
The cast of characters is all over the map, from Matt Long’s earnest hard-worker in desperate need of cash because of his pregnant girlfriend, to Isiah Whitlock Jr.’s store manager, possibly the nicest guy in the world.
Others include a single mother, a second generation Pakistani immigrant girl, an ex-con who needs to pay off a debt to vicious thugs, and a middle-aged cashier struggling to lose weight.
The odd man out at the workplace is the mechanic who fell behind on payments to the weekly pool due to pressures at home from his demanding wife.
As “Lucky 7” unfolds, even in the first episode, some ugly things happen with consequences certain to reverberate during the whole season. Secrets will bubble to the surface and everyone will have to overcome obstacles to enjoy their new-found wealth.
Based on the British hit “The Syndicate,” a BBC series that apparently has not aired in the United States, “Lucky 7” may, in fact, get lucky in its series run, in part because the premise is ripe for intrigue and also because Steven Spielberg is the executive producer.
The last new series for this fall is a spinoff from “Once Upon a Time,” and just so you don’t miss the connection, it is entitled “Once Upon a Time in Wonderland.”
In Victorian England, young and beautiful Alice (Sophie Lowe) tells an impossible tale of a strange new land that exists on the other side of a rabbit hole. Of course, everyone thinks she’s nuts and doctors try to erase her memory.
But Alice knows this world is real, and she’s saved by the irrepressible White Rabbit (John Lithgow), and together they tumble down the rabbit hole to a Wonderland where nothing is impossible.
I wish I could walk you through the essentials of this mystical world that beckons Alice, but I have not seen a preview. You’ll just have to take your chances in the rabbit hole, if you will.
To keep its street cred with the female demographic, ABC returns “Revenge” and “Betrayal” to the Sunday night lineup, thus offering an alternative to watching Sunday Night Football on NBC.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
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- Written by: Editor
KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – The vocal quartet EarReverence heads an evening of entertainment presented by the Unitarian Universalist Community of Lake County on Friday, Oct. 4, in Kelseyville.
“I’m Herbert,” a one-act comedy with Linda Guebert and Deon Pollett, is also on the program, and a gourmet vegetarian dinner will be available.
EarReverence has performed both locally and regionally and has received rave reviews for its a cappella renditions of an eclectic mix of musical numbers. The group is made up of Bill Bordisso, Valerie Reid, Nick Reid and Carol Cole-Lewis.
“I’m Herbert” by Robert Anderson is a very funny sketch about two old, old people who each had more than one marriage and perhaps a fling or two in their younger days. Unfortunately, when they reminisce, they are more than a little hazy on the details.
On the vegetarian dinner menu is Moroccan vegetable stew with couscous, mixed green salad with olives, artisan breads, and a fresh fruit dessert.
The event will be held at First and Main streets in Kelseyville. Dinner begins at 6 p.m., with entertainment at 7 p.m.
Tickets are $20 for both, $10 for entertainment only.
Reservations are required for dinner. Call 707-256-8134 for information and tickets.
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- Written by: Ted Kooser
There are thousands of poems about caring for the old, but I have never before seen one like this, in which a caregiver wades with an elderly person out into deep water, literally and figuratively. It’s by Marie Thurmer, a poet now living in Nebraska.
A Grandfather
We waded in the shallows,
holding his hands, then just
fingertips, as his feet
slowly lifted off the bottom.
The land did not stop
at the waterline, but simply
became unreachable.
His worn face bobbed above
the waves, breath in an O
as our words, fistfuls
of shimmering minnows,
scattered, lost on their way
to him. The tide carried
him out, then back a bit,
a gradual letting go into dark
waters, and we, still
in the ebb, could almost
mistake that O
for the response we wanted—
on the ins, I’ll remember you,
on the outs, goodbye.
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 Marie Thurmer, and reprinted by permission of the poet. 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.