After my mother died, her best friend told me that they were so close that they could sit together in a room for an hour and neither felt she had to say a word.
Here's a fine poem by Dorianne Laux, about that kind of silence. Her most recent book is “The Book of Men” (W.W. Norton & Co., 2012) and she lives in North Carolina.
Enough Music
Sometimes, when we're on a long drive, and we've talked enough and listened to enough music and stopped twice, once to eat, once to see the view, we fall into this rhythm of silence. It swings back and forth between us like a rope over a lake. Maybe it's what we don't say that saves us.
It's said that each of us undergoes gradual change and that every seven years we are essentially a new person.
Here's a poem by Freya Manfred, who lives in Stillwater, Minnesota, about the changes in a long marriage.
Her most recent book is “Speak, Mother,” published by Red Dragonfly Press.
This Stranger, My Husband
The older we get the stranger my husband becomes, and the less certain I am that I know him. We used to lie eye to eye, breathing together in the immensity of each moment. Lithe and starry-eyed, we could leap fences even with babies on our backs.
His eyes still dream off toward something in the distance I can't see; but now he gazes more zealously, and leaps into battle with a more certain voice over politics, religion, or art, and some old friends won't come to dinner.
The molecules of our bodies spiral off into the stars on winds of change and chance, as we welcome the unknown, the incalculable, the spirit and heart of everything we named and knew so well— and never truly named, or knew, but only loved, at last.
UKIAH, Calif. – The Friends of the Mendocino College Library and the Friends of the Mendocino College Theatre announced that theater director and playwright Carey Perloff will be visiting Mendocino College on Sunday, Feb. 21.
Perloff will speak at 3 p.m. in the Mendocino College Library, room 4210, at the Ukiah main campus, 1000 Hensley Creek Road in Ukiah.
Her book, “Beautiful Chaos,” will be on sale starting at 2:30 p.m. and also following her lecture at 4 p.m.
The event will be followed by a reception with food and beverages provided by the Mendocino College Foundation. Perloff will be available to autograph copies of “Beautiful Chaos.”
Earlier in the day, Perloff will offer a master class specifically for college theater conservatory students, but the book talk at 3 p.m. is free and open to the public.
The event is part of the college library reading series which brings notable writers to the campus each semester.
Perloff, who helms San Francisco’s flagship theater company, The American Conservatory Theatre (A.C.T.), will speak about her new book “Beautiful Chaos,” which chronicles her past 20 years as A.C.T.’s artistic director.
Perloff arrived at A.C.T. in 1992, just following the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake which left the company literally in ruins.
The company’s home, the historic Geary Theatre, was in rubble and the ensemble’s finances and morale were equally crushed.
Perloff set about rebuilding the building and the company which now continues to flourish more than 20 years later.
Perloff has worked extensively with playwright Tom Stoppard, having directed his plays numerous times at A.C.T.
This semester the Mendocino College Theatre Arts Department will present Stoppard’s gorgeous play “Arcadia” (running March 11-20) under the direction of adjunct faculty member Jason Davis.
“Arcadia” figures prominently in Perloff’s book and will surely be a topic addressed in her college talk.
According to college theater director Reid Edelman, “Attending the Perloff event will be a great way to whet your appetite for 'Arcadia' and to enhance your appreciation of the play.”
Perloff’s dream from a young age was to become an archaeologist and discover the next Troy; this led her to study ancient Greek at Stanford and then to migrate to theater, where she learned to direct by staging Greek tragedies outdoors.
At age 27, she was hired to run New York’s Classic Stage Co. In 1992, A.C.T. hired her to become the company’s third artistic director, following founder Bill Ball and Ed Hastings.
She has made the company a true destination for passionate, literate and diverse theater.
Perloff is a recipient of innumerable awards and honors, including two Drama-Logue Awards, an OBIE Award for Artistic Excellence, a Lucille Lortel Award, and the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres from the government of France. She is truly n major figure in American theater.
According to Edelman, “Perloff’s visit is a major event for our town, our college and our theater community. Please come join us for this very special presentation.”
For more information, please contact Reid Edelman, theater director, at 707-468-3172 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
Jessica Silva is director of community relations and communication at Mendocino College.
Just when the thought comes to mind that another superhero film from the Marvel Comics universe would be one too many, the sardonic “Deadpool” arrives on the scene with a perverse, conflicted hero to turn the genre completely upside-down.
An unconventionally humorous tone is quickly established during the self-mocking opening credits which set the stage for comic relief. Instead of actor names, we get “hot chick,” “British villain” and “moody teen,” among many others.
The scatological reference to the producers in these credits also suggests the subversive enterprise is truly a team effort, given that Ryan Reynolds, the titular star of “Deadpool,” is also one of the producers. The unnamed director Tim Miller fares no better as “overpaid tool.”
The opening scene is a great setup for the type of mayhem and carnage that Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool thrives upon when confronting legions of bad guys in pursuit of the film’s ultimate villain, his nemesis Ajax (Ed Skrein), the British architect of a sadistic torture factory.
The collision of vehicles and the intense shootout on a freeway launch the central conceit of the bitter rivalry between Deadpool and Ajax.
It also allows for the introduction of two characters from the X-Men universe that become supporting if not reluctant allies for Deadpool.
Flashbacks soon follow to establish that Reynold’s Deadpool is, in fact, Wade Wilson, a former Special Forces soldier who functions as a mercenary-for-hire and hangs out at Sister Margaret’s Home for Wayward Girls, a clandestine tavern for like-minded operatives.
The owner of the tavern is the wisecracking Weasel (T.J. Miller), who’s also a savvy arms dealer and a good friend to Wade. Ironically, Weasel operates a tote board with a betting pool on the life expectancy of his patrons, which serves to give Wade his new superhero identity.
The backstory reveals that Wade finds the true love of his life in the most unlikely place. Vanessa (Morena Baccarin), a sexy, tough cookie, works in a strip club. A poignant love story follows for Wade and Vanessa, who fall in love because of their flaws, rather than despite them.
Their beautiful romance is cut short when Wade discovers he has terminal cancer, and soon thereafter, he’s approached by an agent of the super-villain Ajax with an offer of a rogue experiment that would leave him with accelerated healing powers and incredible strength.
Aided by his statuesque henchwoman Angel Dust (MMA champion Gina Carano), the sadistic Ajax gleefully tortures with an experimental treatment that leaves Wade so horribly disfigured that he later dons a spandex uniform that could have been taken from Spider-Man’s closet.
At a certain angle, one might look at the unfolding superhero action story, as twisted as it may be given the circumstances, as both a revenge tale and a psychological profile of Deadpool’s resilience to adversity.
Unquestionably, the ultimate goal for Deadpool is vengeance against the evil person who destroyed his personal life. That he’s now living with a blind senior citizen he found on Craigslist is another motivating factor.
Living with his roommate, the sassy, sarcastic and tough Blind Al (Leslie Uggams), Deadpool has not yet reunited with Vanessa, but he’s certainly found himself in an “odd couple” relationship that brings more unexpected comic relief.
Deadpool is a really chatty superhero, such that others can barely get a word in edgewise, because he’s constantly filling silences with lucidly insane wisecracks. His edgy jokes break the proverbial fourth wall.
Even those who align with Deadpool find themselves on the receiving end of caustic remarks. To wit, the X-Men characters that come to his aid for the inevitable climactic showdown with Ajax and his henchmen feel the brunt of his mockery.
But then, the X-Men hardly need ribbing. There’s Colossus (Stefan Kapicic), a towering figure who resembles a metallic Hulk. Deadpool indulges his usual scorn when referring to the buzz-cut sporting Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand) as “Sinead.”
Considering that an unmasked Deadpool’s face looks like a roadmap to hell, or at best a topographical map of Utah, he’s been unwilling to show himself to Vanessa, but the day of reckoning comes with the climactic battle, which pales in comparison to the freeway shootout.
Without a doubt, “Deadpool” is likely the raunchiest of superhero films, and as such, the R rating tilts to the hard side, given the amount of foul language, violence and even casual sex and nudity that fill the big screen.
Nevertheless, “Deadpool” is a lot of fun because Ryan Reynolds is the real deal in delivering an endless stream of sarcastic wisecracks and witticisms. But this is no superhero film for the pre-pubescent crowd drawn to comic book adventures.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
Among the current movie choices the one with the most fascinating title is “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.”
Now, I am not really into the romantic fiction popularized in English literature by Jane Austen, but then zombies are probably more contemporary than 19th century novels.
Nevertheless, this aforementioned zombie film is possibly what George A. Romero, having resurrected, as it were, the undead in his seminal film “Night of the Living Dead,” would likely have contemplated to wreak havoc on British upper class society.
The Coen brothers are also filmmakers who enjoy turning tradition on its head, as exemplified in their body of work from the black comedy crime thriller “Fargo” to the stoner comedy crime film “The Big Lebowski” and to the Western cat-and-mouse drama “No Country for Old Men.”
The latest target for Joel and Ethan Coen, in their shared role as writers, directors and producers for “Hail, Caesar!,” is a scattershot homage to the fading Golden Era of the Hollywood studio system during the post-World War II period of societal changes.
Even if the glamorous façade of Tinseltown was beginning to crack, the Hollywood film industry still churned out sword-and-sandals epics, bold Technicolor musicals often featuring Gene Kelly, Busby Berkeley-style aquatic spectaculars, and a healthy dose of Westerns.
The Coens acknowledge the glittering allure of this era by putting George Clooney in the key role of vain and spoiled movie star Baird Whitlock, the leading man in a Biblical spectacle, while Scarlett Johansson is an aquatic film star loosely patterned on Esther Williams.
Though “Hail, Caesar!” has a plot that seemingly lacks continuity and coherence, the objective appears to be to pull back the curtain and showcase the unexpected humor and industry drama found behind the scenes at the fictitious Capitol Pictures.
I am not sure what to make of the kidnapping plot of Baird Whitlock by industry members of the Communist Party who hold him for ransom for $100,000.
Imagine that – the Marxists are looking for a big payday. Even a Soviet submarine ends up in the picture off the coast of Malibu.
The real central figure of this film is Josh Brolin’s Eddie Mannix, head of production at Capitol Pictures and the studio’s “fixer,” who spends his days putting out fires, from the sexual peccadilloes of his stars to coaxing religious leaders to sign off on his latest Biblical epic.
Set in the early 1950s, “Hail, Caesar!” opens fittingly enough with Mannix working in the late hours of the night, just before dawn, as he arrives just ahead of the police to keep one of the studio’s prized starlets from being arrested on a morals charge.
Meanwhile, at the Capitol Pictures studio lot security is apparently quite lax since Mannix is often hounded by twin sister gossip columnists Thora and Thessaly Thacker (both played by Tilda Swinton), each sporting an outlandish hat typically worn at the Kentucky Derby.
Swinton’s turn as the columnists is smartly amusing because as identical twins they can only be distinguished by the fact that one claims to have 19 million readers while the other alleges 20 million. The funny thing is the siblings are bitter rivals who hate each other.
The forward motion of the plot, such as it is, focuses on vignettes of the various studio stars in action.
Scarlett Johansson’s DeeAnna Moran, a free-spirit who talks like a sailor on shore leave, faces the scandalous predicament of being an unmarried pregnant woman needing Mannix’s help for a public relations cover-up.
Frances McDormand has a brilliant, albeit all-too-brief, turn as an acerbic chain-smoking film editor.
Channing Tatum fares better with more screen time in his role of a sailor-suited song-and-dance man who puzzles Mannix with his strangely suspicious behavior.
The actor who steals the show in many respects is Alden Ehrenreich’s aw-shucks cowpoke Hobie Doyle, the studio’s rising star in a string of successful B-movie Westerns, who nevertheless struggles as much with his acting abilities as he does with his drawl.
Playing against type, Hobie is foisted upon famed snooty British director Laurence Laurentz (Ralph Fiennes) to star in a sophisticated drawing-room drama, for which he is completely ill-suited.
The funniest scene happens when Laurentz attempts through various takes to get Hobie to utter one line of dialogue with the elocution of a sophisticate. Hobie’s charm is that he’s probably the only honest person in show business.
The intent of this showy Coen brothers venture, overstuffed with a lot of name talent, was to produce a love letter to the studio system laced with acerbic edge that the brothers can famously deliver.
In spite of its flaws, “Hail, Caesar!” has a number of comical conceits that prove workable, with George Clooney game once more to play the doofus as he has in several Coen films.
The hilarious moments, however, may be overshadowed by the end result of a somewhat jumbled mess.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
UPPER LAKE, Calif. – Lake County Wine Studio (LCWS) and artist Diana Liebe are presenting monthly sip and paint parties.
The February wine and watercolor session will be held on Saturday, Feb. 13, from 1:30 to 4 p.m.
Liebe is a former art teacher at both the high school and college levels. She has been very involved in the Lake County Arts Community since moving here from Mendocino County 11 years ago, and actively teaches art workshops around the county.
The class fee of $40 covers all of the painting supplies needed along with Leibe’s step-by-step guidance and a glass of fine Lake County wine.
Reservations are required for each month’s class as participation is limited to 12 people.
The Lake County Wine Studio is located at 9505 Main St. in Upper Lake and is open Monday, 1 to 6:30 p.m.; Tuesday to Thursday, Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 7 p.m.; and Friday from 1 to 8 p.m.
