An exchange of stories is frequently one of the first steps toward a friendship. Here’s the recollection of one of those exchanges, by Dorianne Laux, who lives and teaches in North Carolina.
Family Stories
I had a boyfriend who told me stories about his family, how an argument once ended when his father seized a lit birthday cake in both hands and hurled it out a second-story window. That, I thought, was what a normal family was like: anger sent out across the sill, landing like a gift to decorate the sidewalk below. In mine it was fists and direct hits to the solar plexus, and nobody ever forgave anyone. But I believed the people in his stories really loved one another, even when they yelled and shoved their feet through cabinet doors, or held a chair like a bottle of cheap champagne, christening the wall, rungs exploding from their holes. I said it sounded harmless, the pomp and fury of the passionate. He said it was a curse being born Italian and Catholic and when he looked from that window what he saw was the moment rudely crushed. But all I could see was a gorgeous three-layer cake gliding like a battered ship down the sidewalk, the smoking candles broken, sunk deep in the icing, a few still burning.
SAUSALITO, Calif. – A very special event will happen at Presidio Yacht Club on Thursday, July 5, when the Blues Hall Of Fame's San Francisco Ambassador Monica Dupont presents certificates inducting several great blues artists into the Blues Hall of Fame.
Musicians being inducted are Alice Stuart, Lake County's Mike Wilhelm, Ron Thompson, Volker Strifler, Addie, Mitch Woods and Stompy Jones.
Legendary blues artists from the Bay Area will be posthumously honored as well. In her personal invitation to participants Dupont writes, "Many talented people will be there, sitting in and showing their love and support. This will be a great evening!"
The house band for this historic event is Mike Wilhelm & Hired Guns augmented by special guest stars including Dupont, multi-instrumentalists Gary Novak and Buzzy Linhart, guitarist/vocalist Volker Strifler, Stompy Jones vocalist Christopher Binnings, drummer Bill Baron, the Ravines, vocalist/guitarist Rev. Rabia and many more outstanding players.
The event will be recorded on video for the BHOF archives.
Presidio Yacht Club is on Somerville Road in Ft. Baker, Sausalito and offers a striking and unique view of the Golden Gate Bridge from its Horseshoe Cove location on the water's edge. It has a dance floor and full bar.
Hostess Maria Perrin starts serving a home-cooked dinner at 5 p.m. for the nominal cost of $8.
The music starts at 7 p.m. and continues until 10 p.m. A $5 donation is requested for the musicians. Yacht Club members gratis.
Julie Suk is a North Carolinian who, like all good writers, has taught herself to pay attention to what’s happening right under her nose. Here’s a good example of her poetry.
Loving the Hands
I could make a wardrobe with tufts of wool caught on thistle and bracken.
Lost—the scraps I might have woven whole cloth.
Come watch, the man says, shearing sheep with the precision of long practice, fleece, removed all of a piece, rolled in a neat bundle.
I’ve been so clumsy with people who’ve loved me.
Straddling a ewe, the man props its head on his foot, leans down with clippers, each pass across the coat a caress.
His dogs, lying nearby, tremble at every move—as I do, loving the hands that have learned to gentle the life beneath them.
The mere mention of Adam Sandler’s involvement in another raunchy comedy will send some smug, high-brow film critics into paroxysms of utter despair and contempt.
For that reason alone, it’s a guilty pleasure to see the Brooklyn-born comic gleefully poke the snooty type right in the eye. “That’s My Boy” does the trick, in spades.
The film is rated R for the following reasons: crude sexual content throughout, nudity, pervasive language and some drug use. That’s the least of this film’s offenses.
Hide the women and children from the multiplex. This Adam Sandler production is clearly intended for a male audience that revels in juvenile humor and stunted emotional development.
“That’s My Boy” is a comic variation of the Mary Kay Letourneau story, the middle-school teacher who gained national notoriety for a torrid affair with her 13-year-old pupil, resulting in not one, but two, offspring.
The outrageous film story begins when Sandler’s young teen Donny Berger meets the girl of his dreams. Only trouble is she’s his smoking hot teacher, Mary McGarricle (Eva Amurri Martino).
While serving detention for Ms. McGarricle, Donny picks up lessons that are not on the curriculum. It all goes bad during a very embarrassing moment at the school assembly.
The teacher is sent to the women’s state prison for statutory rape, leaving Donny to raise their love child after he turns 18 years old.
Not surprisingly, Donny was not prepared to be a dad; his parenting skills were nonexistent. For starters, he named his son Han Solo Berger and had a large tattoo of the New Kids on the Block etched on his back.
Because the young Donny was involved in a scandalous affair, he became a minor celebrity who enjoyed a period of tabloid fame for being seduced by a sexpot teacher. For a short time, he cashed in on the infamy of this scandal with a reality TV show.
Now, 30 years later, Donny is an obnoxious, blustering alcoholic loser from the wrong side of Boston. Wearing his hair in the style of an 80s boy band member, Donny is hardly ever without a can of Budweiser in hand.
Meanwhile, Han Solo, who left home and changed his name years ago, is now successful Wall Street executive and hedge fund manager Todd Peterson (Andy Samberg).
Remaining the perpetual slacker, Donny is in big trouble, owing tens of thousands to the IRS. He figures that getting in touch with his son is the only way to get the money he needs to stay out of jail.
Todd, who suffers from anxiety, is about to be married to the lovely Jamie (Leighton Meester), who comes from a snooty rich family living in a seaside mansion.
The desperate Donny shows up for the wedding weekend, introducing himself as an old friend of Todd and bringing the bride-to-be a totally inappropriate wedding gift.
Donny’s scheme is to arrange a father-son reunion with the mother (Susan Sarandon) at the correctional facility, where a big payday awaits with a filmed interview on a tabloid TV news program.
For the time being, the self-absorbed Donny, misguided in his attempts to reconnect with his estranged offspring, turns the weekend of wedding festivities upside down.
To liven up things, Donny enlists the help of his old pal Vanilla Ice (playing himself) so that a dull bachelor party evening is not ruined by Jamie’s uptight family.
Donny gets the bachelor group to visit Classy Rick’s Bacon and Legs strip club, where the featured stripper is very overweight black dancer Champale (comedienne Luenell).
Sandler affectionately populates the film with a group of interesting characters. New York Jets coach Rex Ryan appears, improbably, as an extreme New England Patriots fan who advises Donny on financial matters. James Caan is a belligerent priest.
Tony Orlando (yes, the singer) plays Todd’s slimy boss. Singer/actress Ciara plays Champale’s daughter Brie. Even former child star Todd Bridges makes an appearance as Vanilla Ice’s colleague at a fast food joint.
The odd thing about Adam Sandler is that even when he plays the most outrageous, juvenile loser, he manages to retain a certain measure of sweet-natured personality.
As for “That’s My Boy,” this offensive, over-the-top comedy is filled with unrelenting raunchiness, gross-out humor and bad taste. Still, there are plenty of laughs in this film, if you let yourself go.
FILM BOOK UPDATE
Once in a while, an interesting film book comes to my attention, thanks to the efforts of a vigilant publicist.
Those who love horror films, the cheesier and sleazier variety, will probably get a kick out of “The Slasher Movie Book.”
This book, by J.A. Kerswell, chronicles the glory days of the horror subgenre that brought murder, mayhem and corn-syrup blood to the big screen.
Greatly illustrated with stills and colorful posters, “The Slasher Movie Book” provides an unmatched exploration of the early foreign influences of the slasher genre.
The book serves as a guide to classic cult hits “Friday the 13th” and “Nightmare on Elm Street” as well as more obscure flicks such as “Savage Water” and “Bloodbeat.”
Filled with trivia and interesting facts, the best feature of this book is the graphic retro poster art. Horror aficionados will love this artful tribute.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – A new exhibit featuring art based on Lake County wildlife will be featured at the Bell Hill Tasting Room.
The display will host a number of local artists including Dennis Blum, Richard Seisser, Judy Cardinale, Sunny Franson, Patty Oates, Jim Warren, Sharon Fenton, Kathy Dufra and Michelle Price.
A welcome reception will be hosted in the tasting room on Sunday, June 24, from 1 p.m. to 3 pm. Normal tasting fees apply.
Each artist's work displays a different medium and landscape setting, offering many different viewpoints of Lake County wildlife.
The exhibit will run through the end of July.
The Bell Hill Tasting Room is located at 125 Park St. in Kelseyville.
For more information contact Julia Martelli at 707-490-4400 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – In June, Poets and Writers, a national organization that supports working writers, renewed their grant to the Lake County Arts Council and Mary McMillan.
This grant supports the free public writing workshop offered monthly in Lakeport, where writers meet at the Main Street Art Gallery, 325 N. Main St., at 6:30 p.m. on the first Thursday of each month.
The Lake County Arts Council sponsors the workshop, and former Lake County Poet Laureate Mary McMillan facilitates it.
Residents from all over Lake County come to the Writers Circle to share memoirs, fiction, essays or poems they have written – or just to listen and get inspired.
More seasoned writers and writers just beginning join together to offer feedback, build their skills and find new ideas.
Aged 19 to 90, some people come only one or two times, and others show up every month.
Poets and Writers provides this grant through a grant it has received from the James Irvine Foundation.
For more information contact Mary McMillan at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
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