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Arts & Life
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- Written by: Middletown Art Center
MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – The Middletown Art Center presents “Indigenous Poetics,” a poetry reading event hosted by Lake County Poet Laureate Georgina Marie Guardado on Saturday, June 4, from 4 to 6 p.m.
The public is invited to join Guardado and guests at the MAC or on Zoom.
This event will celebrate Indigenous voices in conjunction with MAC’s current project “Weaving: Weaving Baskets, Weaving Bridges,” a year-long project designed collaboratively by Pomo culture bearers and MAC team members.
Guardado has curated this reading, inviting a monumental group of readers who collectively are from Lakota, Dakota, Cherokee, Passamaquoddy, Amazonian, Koyungkowi, Mojave, Peruvian and Mexican Indigenous backgrounds.
Lake County poet Mia Ruiz and Ukiah poet, also Ukiah Poet Laureate Emerita, Linda Noel will read from their body of work, along with Bay Area poets Alison Hart and Nanette Deetz, both compelling and influential poets who are pillars in their communities.
Seating at MAC is limited so reserve your spot in advance at www.middletownartcenter.org/weaving.
Zoom participants are also asked to register in advance so that the MAC staff can adjust technology accordingly. A suggested donation of $10 is requested however no one will be turned away for lack of funds.
Weaving is supported in part by the California Arts Council, or CAC, and the generosity of local Indigenous and non-indigenous community members. To learn more about how the CAC supports arts engagement throughout California visit www.arts.ca.gov.
Middletown Art Center is located at 21456 State Highway 175 at the junction of Highway 29.
To find out more about MAC events, programs, opportunities, and ways to support the MAC’s work weaving the arts into the fabric of life in Lake County visit www.middletownartcenter.org or Like/Follow Middletown Art Center (@mtownartcenter) on Facebook and Instagram to stay up-to-date with what’s happening at MAC.
- Details
- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
No theater experience is necessary to try out.
The show is a fundraiser sponsored by the Lake Family Resource Center and will feature dinner and dessert.
If you are interested in any aspect of the production, you are invited to the senior center on Friday, June 3, or Saturday, June 4, at 6 p.m.
The Lakeport Senior Center is located at 527 Konocti Ave.
- Details
- Written by: Kwame Dawes
There is a stretch of childhood that can be filled with such vivid images, yet it is often hard to determine whether what is being recalled is memory of our experience, or a memory of what we have been told.
Jessica Abughattas’ poem, “Watching My Mother,” ends with such optimism and confidence, even though the details of what she remembers are a stylized and beautiful version of disquiet.
In this elegant poem, she enacts the strange magic of how we often organize memory in a manner that allows us to survive.
Watching My Mother
By Jessica Abughattas
Beside the Ford Thunderbird,
a suitcase splayed open.
She collects her clothes
from the driveway.
The yellow jumper collapses
into a million threads of saffron.
She keeps dropping them.
They wither and dissolve,
petal by petal
into pavement.
Her hands are rivers.
Her eyes, mascara bats.
Her hair is crying.
I am five and perfect.
American Life in Poetry does not accept unsolicited manuscripts. It is made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2020 by Jessica Abughattas, “Watching My Mother” from Strip (University of Arkansas Press, 2020.) First Published in Nelle, Issue Two, 2019. Introduction copyright ©2022 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Kwame Dawes, is George W. Holmes Professor of English and Glenna Luschei Editor of Prairie Schooner at the University of Nebraska.
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- Written by: Tim Riley
‘THE LINCOLN LAWYER’ ON NETFLIX
A television series can’t get much better than having a police procedural or a legal drama based on the books of prolific author Michael Connelly, and “The Lincoln Lawyer” proves to be eminently watchable over the period of its 10 episodes.
For this series on Netflix, Connelly serves as executive producer to bring his iconoclastic criminal defense attorney Mickey Haller to the small screen almost a dozen years after Matthew McConaughey played the smooth-talking counselor in the movie of the same title.
No small measure of success for “The Lincoln Lawyer” goes to creator David E. Kelley, a graduate of Boston University with a Juris Doctor degree, who practiced law only to find his hobby was writing a legal thriller screenplay.
The rest is history for Kelley as he first wound up as a writer and story editor on Steven Bochco’s NBC legal series “L.A. Law,” and eventually became the creative force for other series like the courtroom drama “The Practice” and its spinoff “Boston Legal.”
That Michael Connelly is gifted at creating notable characters is well-established with a series of books about LAPD detective Harry Bosch, a character so brilliantly brought to the small screen by Titus Welliver in “Bosch” and now “Bosch: Legacy.”
With Harry Bosch and Mickey Haller steeped in the turf of the Los Angeles police and legal establishments, one would hope for some crossover plot lines to bring them together but that is not to be, at least for this first season.
As “The Lincoln Lawyer” opens, Mickey Haller (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, a charismatic character in his own right) is first seen at the beach, wistfully staring at the ocean waves and thinking back to an accident that derailed his life for more than a year.
Fate was apparently not kind as Haller became addicted to painkillers following the accident, putting his career on hold. Known for working from the back seat of his Lincoln SUV, Haller at least didn’t have to keep up with office expenses.
Now sober, he’s dealing with two ex-wives, the first one being Neve Campbell’s Maggie McPherson, nicknamed “McFierce” for being a tough prosecutor, who is the mother of their teenage daughter Hayley (Krista Walker).
The second former spouse is Lorna (Becki Newton), who steps in to help Haller get his professional life back on track as the best defense attorney in Los Angeles once a fortuitous circumstance drops unexpectedly in his lap.
After old colleague Jerry Vincent is gunned down in a parking garage, Haller is summoned to the chambers of presiding Judge Mary Holder (LisaGay Hamilton) to be informed that Vincent bequeathed his entire practice to the Lincoln Lawyer.
Understandably for being aware of the lawyer’s recent history, Judge Holder is wary of handing over all of Vincent’s cases unless Haller agrees to being monitored with weekly meetings to validate his competency.
The Vincent portfolio consists of a variety of cases, some of them low-level criminal offenses and the pro bono case of Izzy Letts (Jazz Raycole), a recovering addict charged with theft of an ostensibly valuable necklace.
There is, however, one very substantial criminal case that has all the makings of a celebrity media clown show that is tabloid fodder. An obnoxious rich, white guy billionaire is charged with the murder of his wife and her lover.
The high-profile murder trial of videogame developer Trevor Elliot (Christopher Gorman) takes on immediate urgency for Haller since his client insists that his courtroom drama must start as soon as possible, even if more time is needed for the attorney’s preparation.
The court of public opinion has already tried the odious tech entrepreneur to be guilty as charged, and the evidence appears overwhelmingly to point to a slam dunk guilty verdict.
Having to juggle some other cases at the same time while also dealing with ongoing family issues, such as sparring with the prosecutor's ex-wife and trying to be more involved in his daughter’s life, Haller’s charm can only do so much.
To spend more time on his homework, Haller hires Izzy to be his chauffeur, because he claims to work better when his Lincoln is in motion while listening to jazz music. Indeed, he’s not your typical counselor.
Not all legal work is motor-driven. Haller has taken over Vincent’s downtown office with Lorna as the assistant and his best friend Cisco (Angus Sampson), a motorcyclist who once rode with a gang, acting as sidekick and private investigator.
Haller’s world is populated with colorful characters, reminding one that he’s almost like a legal version of James Garner’s private eye on “The Rockford Files,” and even more so when having to deal with skeptical, hard-nosed police detective Griggs (Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine).
“The Lincoln Lawyer” works best off the charm of its leading character and those in his orbit. The plot moves at a nice pace and the courtroom dialogue is often riveting. Overall, this is a series deserving of an encore.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.