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Arts & Life
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- Written by: Kwame Dawes
Ethelbert Miller is the master of the short, pithy lyric, packed with tenderness, a gentle wit, and moments of satisfying resonance.
Here is an ode to Spring that is also, at once, a love lyric. Though the object of affection in his poem “Beloved” is Spring, it is easy to see how the longing, the desire, the impulse to announce love of Spring, captures the sentiments of romantic love.
But since we are now in the throes of winter, it is also fitting to meditate with Miller on our longing for the rebirth of love’s season.
Beloved
By Ethelbert Miller
Please forgive me for forgetting.
I wanted to go outside and look for you.
I was told this was impossible.
I was instructed to stay indoors.
But my words for you need sun.
My heart needs air.
I love you Spring.
I miss your warmth.
Come unlock my door.
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 E. Ethelbert Miller, “Beloved” from Washingtonian Magazine, May 15, 2020. Poem reprinted by permission of the author and the publisher. 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
‘RAY DONOVAN: THE MOVIE’ ON SHOWTIME
Two years ago, viewers were left hanging after the conclusion of the seventh season of “Ray Donovan” when Showtime, to the consternation of the fan base, abruptly cancelled the series its creative team had planned to wrap up in a finale year.
Now comes the feature-length ending in “Ray Donovan: The Movie,” which picks up the storyline after the last season when the husband (Graham Rogers) of Ray’s daughter has been gunned down on a Brooklyn street and Ray’s father Mickey (Jon Voight) flees with purloined stocks.
Closure can be cathartic, and in the case of the saga of Ray Donovan (Liev Schreiber), a Los Angeles-based fixer skirting the law and ethics for his elite clientele during the first five seasons, the movie works its way to a fairly untidy and chaotic closing.
Not surprisingly, a day of reckoning is at hand in which the brooding Ray, conflicted in a series of flashbacks to his childhood clashes with his strutting younger father (Bill Heck), faces off with Voight’s aging ex-con Mickey, relentlessly sleazy and dangerous as always.
Throughout the series run, there was always a volatile relationship between the mobster father and son, stretching back to the first season when Mickey was released from prison and Ray was hoping recidivism would send his murderous father back to the slammer.
The entire Donovan family, with its roots in the working-class part of Boston, has issues. Ray’s older brother Terry (Eddie Marsan) is a former boxer suffering from Parkinson’s disease.
Ray’s younger brother Bunchy (Dash Mihok) has a substance abuse problem connected to molestation as a child. The movie brings out the truth of the death of Ray’s teen sister. Half-brother Daryll (Pooch Hall) has his own set of issues.
To say the Donovan family is dysfunctional is an understatement. With a father like Mickey, it’s little wonder everyone has problems. In his own inimitable way though, Ray goes about trying to clean up the messes of his clients as well as those of family.
Most satisfying for the hardcore fans is the movie’s sharp focus on the complicated Donovan family, most particularly on the troubling dynamic of Ray and Mickey being at odds over the history of a lifetime.
The younger versions of father and son in numerous flashbacks add needed texture to a relationship that deviated from the norms of social behavior. Chris Gray’s Ray displays a pragmatic maturity as opposed to Bill Heck’s charismatic yet irrational and impulsive Mickey.
To enjoy “Ray Donovan: The Movie” it’s inevitable that the narrative elements of the travails of the complex characters are only fully understood with an appreciation of the seasons that preceded.
Discussing the undercurrents of intrigue and violence that plague the Donovan family risks revealing key points that are best to be discovered, though arguably “Ray Donovan: The Movie” does arrive at an ending that seems fitting and rather predictable.
Arguably, the “Ray Donovan” series had so many moving parts, chiefly when the focus was on family rather than Ray’s fixer role for private clients, that many fans may come away with the impression the movie does not suffice to tie up many unresolved plot elements.
NORDIC NOIR AND MORE ON VIAPLAY
Who can keep up with the ever-changing landscape of streaming services? Now along comes Viaplay, accessed through Comcast Xfinity, a streaming service that offers Scandinavian drama, crime and comedy programs.
Our winter television press tour will feature two Viaplay original productions. “Partisan” follows Johnny (Swedish-Lebanese actor Fares Fares), a mysterious man who enters Jordnara, a seemingly idyllic gated community running a thriving organic farm, to work as a truck driver.
He is actually a Swedish secret police agent assigned to infiltrate the community and unearth criminal activity. The mastermind (Johan Rheborg) of Jordnara is suspected of money laundering and embezzlement.
Johnny’s arrival at the farm coincides with two other new members: teenage sisters Nicole and Maria. The two seem out of place and it soon becomes apparent that young girls before them (and like them) who come for an elite gymnastics program vanish without a trace.
The intrigue of Nordic Noir in “Partisan” builds when the Swedish agent begins to suspect foul play and is driven by a mission that cuts deep into him. Johnny’s drive will push him to sacrifice everything for his beliefs.
The drama “Love Me” poses the question of how love can change life. Through a story of friendship, grief and romance spanning three generations of Stockholmers, this Viaplay series embraces one of humanity’s biggest questions in a way that is sometimes touching and often comic.
A Norwegian police procedural series, “Wisting,” starring Sven Nordin as senior police detective William Wisting, already has two seasons under its belt and will be a perfect fit for streaming.
As an aside, long ago I attended a Norwegian opera in Los Angeles which was so depressing that it made the darkest German opera of Richard Wagner seem like a lighthearted romp. Here’s hoping Viaplay’s Nordic Noir is more thrilling than bleak.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
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- Written by: California Department of Fish and Wildlife
Livermore native Sue Crow Griffin’s image of affection displayed by a mother bobcat to her offspring along an Alameda County walking path has earned the 2021 grand prize in the 10th annual California Wildlife Photo of the Year contest.
In a virtual celebration today, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, or CDFW, Director Charlton H. Bonham named Griffin’s photograph the best among all entries in the yearlong contest.
The contest is presented by California Watchable Wildlife and CDFW’s Outdoor California magazine and sponsored by the Sierra Nevada Conservancy and Out of This World Optics.
“When you see this image, your jaw will drop,” said Bonham. “What’s special about this particular image is the way it shows emotion. There’s caring here, love and a sense of tenderness. And on top of that, it’s just a super cool photograph.”
California Sen. Steve Glazer (D–Contra Costa) joined Bonham to present Griffin with a Legislative Resolution for her accomplishment. Traditionally the winner’s legislative representative invited him/her to the floor of the California Legislature to announce and honor the winning photo. For the last two years, the presentation has been virtual as a result of pandemic restrictions.
Griffin recalled how she captured the shot. She said the adult bobcat had just called the youngster to her to offer a fresh caught ground squirrel. The pair greeted each other on the limb of a felled tree before the youngster accepted the squirrel and disappeared into the wooded background.
“I know we’re not supposed to put human emotions on the cats, but it was just so tender,” she said. “The mom had brought back the food; the kitten had eaten and then they were sharing some time on this log and then they butted heads — it was just precious.”
Griffin began walking as a way to improve her health and eventually started taking pictures of what she would see on her journeys. Griffin discovered all sorts of wildlife on her daily outings, ranging from bald and golden eagles to coyotes, foxes and a wide variety of birds.
But the bobcats are what did it, she said, noting that she didn’t have any experience with photography before her walks.
Director Bonham selected the grand prize winner from 17 contest finalists. The contest had a record 741 entries this year.
Contest sponsors this week presented the finalists’ entries across social media, offering viewers a chance to see all the top images and build anticipation for today’s announcement. Additionally, the images are currently being showcased in an indoor digital display in the lobby of the new California Natural Resources Building in downtown Sacramento.
In addition to Griffin’s bobcat photograph, the finalists on display include:
• Long-tailed Weasel races across field (Douglas Croft);
• Pacific Forktail Damselfly (Andrew Lincoln);
• Black-tailed Jack rabbit at Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge (Larry Whiting);
• Urbane Digger Bee pollinating in white cosmos (Andrew Lincoln);
• Baldfaced Hornet versus California Yellowjacket (Robin Agarwal);
• Osprey catches morning meal (Douglas Phillips);
• Bald Eagles in the Angeles National Forest (Andrew Lee);
• Yellowed-bellied Marmots in Yosemite National Park (Vishal Subramanyan);
• Coyote leaping for food in Yosemite National Park (Alice Cahill);
• Golden Eagle versus Ground Squirrel (Shravan Sundaram);
• Northern Pygmy Owl in Santa Cruz Mountains (Robin Agarwal);
• Spotted Owls at Golden Gate National Recreation Area (Maximilian Rabbitt Tomita);
• Sea lions at Channel Islands National Park (Ken Howard);
• California Condors at Tejon Ranch (Loi Nguyen);
• White-tailed Kites midair food transfer (Don Henderson);
• Great Gray Owl at Yosemite National Park (Vishal Subramanyan).
In addition to the contest winner, two other photographers received special recognition from sponsors California Watchable Wildlife and Sierra Nevada Conservancy. California Watchable Wildlife chose Alice Cahill’s shot of a leaping coyote as a favorite, while the Sierra Nevada Conservancy picked Vishal Subramanyan’s photo of a pair of Yellowed-bellied Marmots.
Outdoor California and California Watchable Wildlife first sponsored the contest in 2011 as a way to acknowledge photographs that illustrate the diverse wildlife and the viewing experiences found throughout the state’s natural and wild lands. California Watchable Wildlife celebrates the state’s wildlife and diverse habitats by promoting the value of wildlife viewing to individuals, families, communities and industries while fostering awareness of and support for conservation and protection efforts. Outdoor California magazine showcases the work done by CDFW to protect and enhance the wildlife and natural habitat found across the state.
Sierra Nevada Conservancy joined as a contest sponsor after the first year to encourage more representation from a region rich with a diversity of wildlife. The other sponsor, Out of This World Optics, has presented previous winners with high-end outdoor gear, such as high-powered spotting scopes.
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- Written by: Kwame Dawes
Like music, one supposes, food, the memory of its procuring, preparing and consuming, leaves an indelible mark on us that is visceral and easily stirred.
We all must eat, and so we all know our own private litany of foods of our childhood.
Susan Nguyen calls her poem an “Ode to Hunger,” reminding us that the line between satiation and need is so thin, and sometimes sits at the heart of what many of us remember about the insecurities of our food supply.
Which is why her ode to hunger is a praise song to the food that defeats hunger: the simple humble foods of our sustenance.
Ode to Hunger
By Susan Nguyen
Praise SPAM fried with fish sauce and sugar
jackfruit, 25lbs. of it carved on newspaper, latex sap sticking fingers
Praise Kraft mac and cheese: small miracle of powdered cheddar
pork floss in the big Tupperware
Sara Lee Praise soy sauce and rice
Shrimp Cup Noodles, 3 minutes ‘til done
Praise the soft insides of baguettes
the first star fruit, pocketed and sliced
to Chef Boyardee
to durian, sweet scent of garbage
to pickled mustard greens, Lean Cuisine
pizza bagels after school
Praise Women, Infants, and Children
banana blossoms, heart thinly sliced in vinegar, drained of all color
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 ©2021 by Susan Nguyen, “Ode to Hunger” from Dear Diaspora, (University of Nebraska Press, 2021). Poem reprinted by permission of the author and the publisher. 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.