It pains an old booklover like me to think of somebody burning a book, but if you’ve gotten one for a quarter and it’s falling apart, well, maybe it’s OK as long as you might be planning to pick up a better copy. Here Ron Koertge, who lives in Pasadena, has some fun with the ashes of love poems.
Burning the Book
The anthology of love poems I bought for a quarter is brittle, anyway, and comes apart when I read it.
One at a time, I throw pages on the fire and watch smoke make its way up and out.
I’m almost to the index when I hear a murmuring in the street. My neighbors are watching it snow.
I put on my blue jacket and join them. The children stand with their mouths open.
I can see nouns—longing, rapture, bliss— land on every tongue, then disappear.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – Historian and author Mark Rawitsch will present a reading of his recently released book, “The House on Lemon Street: Japanese Pioneers and the American Dream,” on Sunday, April 7.
The reading will begin at 2 p.m. in Room 7050 of the new Lake Center, 2565 Parallel Drive, Lakeport.
It is open to the public with free admission.
In 1915, Jukichi and Ken Harada purchased a house on Lemon Street in Riverside, Calif. Close to their restaurant, church, and children's school, the house should have been a safe and healthy family home.
Before the purchase, white neighbors objected because of the Haradas' Japanese ancestry, and the California Alien Land Law denied them real-estate ownership because they were not citizens.
To bypass the law, Mr. Harada bought the house in the names of his three youngest children, who were American-born citizens. Neighbors protested again, and the first Japanese American court test of the California Alien Land Law of 1913 – The People of California v. Jukichi Harada – was the result.
Bringing this little-known story to light, “The House on Lemon Street” details the Haradas' decision to fight for the American dream.
Chronicling their experiences from their immigration to the United States through their legal battle over their home, their incarceration during World War II, and their lives after the war, this book tells the story of the family's participation in the struggle for human and civil rights, social justice, property and legal rights, and fair treatment of immigrants in the United States.
Sandra Dallas of The Denver Post has called the book “[A] highly engaging history of the California Japanese.”
Susan Hasegawa of San Diego City College has said of the author, “Rawitsch teaches that history, the creation of history, and preserving our history occurs in our backyard, not in some far-off place.”
Rawitsch is currently the dean of instruction at the Willits Center and the Lake Center for Mendocino College, and “The House on Lemon Street” is his first book.
It recently received the inaugural Crader Family Book Prize in American Values awarded to a first book which best exemplifies individual liberty, constitutional principles and civic virtue. Rawitsch was awarded a $1,000 honorarium for his winning entry.
The reading is sponsored by the Lake County Friends of Mendocino College and the Friends of the Mendocino College Library, affiliate groups of the Mendocino College Foundation.
For more information, call 707-263-4944 or visit www.mendocino.edu .
At this early stage, the year 2013 is shaping up as a busy one for hardcore action films, often starring or featuring aging superheroes who still have drawing power at the box office.
Dwayne Johnson, not yet old but who’s been around for awhile, and Bruce Willis, who is charitably almost a member of the senior action circuit, have starring roles in “G.I. Joe: Retaliation.”
This latest film, based on the Hasbro toys, is a sequel to “G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra,” a film I did not see due to some valid excuse. I think I have a doctor’s note for missing the screening.
In any case, with this type of action film, it hardly matters if you miss one of them, what with the action being largely generic and cartoonish, easily explained by any twelve-year-old boy.
The film begins with some promise as Channing Tatum’s Duke and Dwayne Johnson’s Roadblock, elite squad members of the G.I. Joes, bond over some video games and family life.
Unfortunately, Tatum doesn’t stick around very long. He may have had a commitment to appear in another film that looked more promising for his future.
The action begins with an incursion into North Korea to extract a prisoner. Maybe that lunatic Kim Jong-un got an early look and decided this was as good a time as any to threaten nuclear war on the United States.
Out in the field, the G.I. Joes are betrayed by sinister forces, resulting in most of the group being eliminated in one horrific aerial attack of their base camp.
The sole survivors are Roadblock, the new recruit Flint (D.J. Cotrona), and the tough but sexy Lady Jaye (Adrianne Palicki). The assault appears to be the handiwork of Cobra Commander (Luke Bracey), but I am not entirely sure.
What is apparent is that the President (Jonathan Pryce) is a clone of the duly elected commander-in-chief. As part of the Cobra conspiracy, the faux U.S. leader ordered the termination of the G.I. Joes.
Meanwhile, up in the Himalayas, Snake Eyes (Ray Park) and Jinx (Elodie Yung) are engaged in great martial arts combat as they attempt to capture the traitorous Storm Shadow (Byung-hun Lee).
The fight sequences are even more dramatic and exciting when Snake Eyes and Jinx battle a slew of ninjas while flinging themselves on ropes tied to the sheer mountainside cliffs.
Given that the alien force of Cobra has taken over the White House, Roadblock and his decimated crew turn to the only person who can help them in their dire need.
Retired General Joe Colton (Bruce Willis), who coined the nickname for the G.I. Joes, is the only soldier to be trusted. He also knows something combating diabolical plots.
For someone no longer on active duty, General Colton’s private residence contains more weaponry and ammunition than an entire Army base. In every room, there are hidden closets and cabinets full of assault weapons.
Meanwhile, the fake President has convened a summit of nuclear powers, including North Korea, China, Russia, France, Britain, and India. His dastardly plan is a game of nuclear chicken aimed to force all others to disarm.
For reasons that are not really evident, the President appears bent on total nuclear annihilation of planet Earth. A total wipeout of civilization seems counterintuitive if you seek world domination. What is to be gained from a scorched earth?
Of course, not everything makes sense in an action film like “G.I. Joe: Retaliation.” It’s all about the choreography of great gun battles, martial arts stunts and hand-to-hand combat.
One thing “G.I. Joe” is not about is a sensible plot and snappy dialogue, though the faux President, smarmy and oozing with villainy, spouts some of the best nasty lines as if he were the bad guy in a James Bond film.
The most underused character is Cobra Commander. You’d think he would be a commanding figure of sheer malevolence and supreme villainy. Instead, he’s practically a cipher.
“G.I. Joe: Retaliation” is a film likely to be reviled by critics. Bu I think it offers its target audience pretty much what they want in an action film of this kind. On the plus side, the film moves at a great pace with plenty of thrilling stunts.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Two Lake County children were honored at a ceremony at Taco Bell in Lakeport on Tuesday.
The children entered an art contest sponsored by the Lake County Children’s Council in honor of Child Abuse Awareness Month.
Children enrolled in the Lake County Office of Education ASES After School program participated in the contest to design artwork which will be featured on placemats at the Lakeport Taco Bell.
During the month of April, all trays at Taco Bell will use the colorful placemats in order to draw attention to Child Abuse Awareness Month.
The first place winner is Cheyanne Medina, a second grader from Upper Lake Elementary School. Second place winner is Jaqueline Castro, a third grader from Kelseyville Elementary School.
The drawings may be seen at Taco Bell in Lakeport for the month of April.
Artwork from all children who entered the the contest will be displayed at the “Lake County Cares for our Kids” Children’s Festival being held on Saturday, April 13, at Library Park in Lakeport.
This free festival will be held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and will feature activities and entertainment for families.
Robert Morgan, who lives in Ithaca, New York, has long been one of my favorite American poets. He’s also a fine novelist and, recently, the biographer of Daniel Boone. His poems are often about customs and folklore, and this one is a good example.
Living Tree
It’s said they planted trees by graves to soak up spirits of the dead through roots into the growing wood. The favorite in the burial yards I knew was common juniper. One could do worse than pass into such a species. I like to think that when I’m gone the chemicals and yes the spirit that was me might be searched out by subtle roots and raised with sap through capillaries into an upright, fragrant trunk, and aromatic twigs and bark, through needles bright as hoarfrost to the sunlight for a century or more, in wood repelling rot and standing tall with monuments and statues there on the far hill, erect as truth, a testimony, in ground that’s dignified by loss, around a melancholy tree that’s pointing toward infinity.
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 Robert Morgan, whose most recent book of poems is Terroir, Penguin Poets, 2011. Poem reprinted from The Georgia Review, Spring 2012, by permission of Robert Morgan 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.
