Jane Hirshfield, who lives in the San Francisco Bay area, is one of our country’s finest poets, and I have never seen a poem of hers that I didn’t admire. Here’s a fine one that I see as being about our inability to control the world beyond us.
The Promise
Stay, I said to the cut flowers. They bowed their heads lower.
Stay, I said to the spider, who fled.
Stay, leaf. It reddened, embarrassed for me and itself.
Stay, I said to my body. It sat as a dog does, obedient for a moment, soon starting to tremble.
Stay, to the earth of riverine valley meadows, of fossiled escarpments, of limestone and sandstone. It looked back with a changing expression, in silence.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Soper-Reese Community Theatre in Lakeport is presenting a special Third Friday Live “After The Park” concert on Friday, July 20, featuring Short Stax with special guest Machiko.
The theater is located at 275 S. Main St.
Join them after the “Cheating Daylight” concert in the park in Lakeport. Doors will open at 7:30 p.m.
All tickets are $10. Food and drinks will be available for purchase. The dance floor is down and ready.
Machiko is a classically trained musician, a singer from Tokyo, Japan.
Short Stax consists of local musicians “Mojo” Larry Platz, guitar; David Neft, keyboard and bass; and Steven DuBois on drums.
You may recognize them as three-fifths of Bill Noteman and the Rockets. The music is all instrumental, a la The Meters, Booker-T and the MG’s and The Crusaders – kind of funky bluesy, a bit rockin’ jazzy, but all fun.
“This is a new side project,” said Mojo. “We have always loved instrumentals and share a love of anything that came out of Stax Records in the 60s, hence the name, ‘Short Stax’. So far we have been well received, playing Cobbstock, the Soper Reese Theater, Kelseyville Pear Fest, Cotati Summer Concerts, the Santa Rosa Farmers Markets and several local wineries. We also opened for the legendary Robert Cray.”
David and Mojo have been playing together since 1983.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – Watershed Books will host an artistic opportunity to create one-of-a-kind bookmarks with the help of local artist Diana Liebe on Friday, July 20.
The workshop will take place from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the bookstore, 305 N. Main St.
The age group is 8 to 12.
Come and enjoy the fun, have refreshments and stay cool.
For more information call Cheri Holden at 707-263-5787 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
Starting with “Batman Begins” in 2005, writer and director Christopher Nolan envisioned an epic trilogy for the story of Gotham’s Caped Crusader, a superhero without any real superpowers.
The conclusion arrives in spectacular fashion with “The Dark Knight Rises,” which begins at a point eight years after “The Dark Knight,” notwithstanding the fact that the second film was released in 2008.
A lengthier passage of time allows for the consequences of actions taken by Batman and others, including Commissioner Gordon and D.A. Harvey Dent, to have percolated into a state of palpable anxiety.
Action begins with a daring opening sequence that would be the envy of any James Bond film. An incredible skyjacking of another aircraft gives us our first chilling glimpse of the evil embodied by terrorist Bane (Tom Hardy).
Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale), having retired the Batman cape and cowl in his subterranean hideaway, has turned into a Howard Hughes-like recluse at Wayne Manor, absent the neurosis of keeping a germ-free environment.
To allow Gotham the veneer of law-and-order serenity on the surface, Batman slinked away into oblivion, taking the blame for the demise of Harvey Dent, whose martyrdom brought an end to crime in the metropolis.
The sensitive and sensible Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman), his conscience wracked by the truth, knows only too well that the crime-free status of Gotham is predicated upon lies. Soon enough, he will need Batman’s return.
Trouble is quickly brewing from multiple sources. Corruption is evident below the surface. A slimy businessman is taking a run at a hostile takeover of Wayne Enterprises.
True malevolence arrives with thuggish terrorist Bane hatching a plan to undermine the institutions of the city, beginning with a violent assault upon the Stock Exchange.
A terrifying figure, Bane has his face covered in a strange mask that serves not to conceal his identity, but to regulate the transmission of painkilling medication. Bane resembles Darth Vader, but without the charm.
Notwithstanding Bane’s unvarnished villainy, the first bad guy to seize Bruce Wayne’s attention is Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway), a cat burglar he catches in the act of lifting family jewels from the Wayne Manor safe.
Of course, Selina represents Catwoman, but oddly enough she is never called Catwoman. For his part, Bruce is intrigued by the cunning sexy vamp’s facile ease of delivering witty quips and sharp barbs.
Selina brings welcome humor to a film that is heavy on a dark, gloomy mood. She also helps get Bruce’s Batman back into the game, considering that he’s out of shape and still healing from old physical wounds.
In a way, Selina helps Batman to focus his attention on the bigger problem posed by Bane’s terrorist plot to destroy Gotham with nuclear weapons, but not before bringing down the city’s financial empire.
As if inspired by the French Revolution and the attack on the Bastille, Bane and his thugs launch an assault on the local prison to free those incarcerated by the Harvey Dent law that brought an end to crime.
Having rigged bombs in the city’s sewer system, Bane figures a way to trap most of Gotham’s police force below ground in subway tunnels and other passageways.
Few people outside of Batman and Commissioner Gordon grasp the immediate gravity of the situation, though rookie cop John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) displays earnest integrity and courage with great conviction, earning himself a leading role in the fight for Gotham.
Other key players are Wayne Enterprises CEO Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), the steady hand on the weapons programs needed to fight crime, and new board member Miranda Tate (Marion Cotillard), a wealthy philanthropist interested in an environmental project.
During much of the early going, the angst-ridden Bruce Wayne is attended by his faithful butler Alfred (Michael Caine), who grows increasingly frustrated that his boss has retreated so fully from engagement with the outside world.
Egged on by the wisecracks of Selina and the dastardly acts of Bane, Bruce Wayne undergoes training to bring himself into fighting shape, as the inevitable showdown with the masked villain is a real doozy.
“The Dark Knight Rises” delves into social-political issues of the day, though one could reasonably come away with differing opinions or interpretations.
Corruption and treachery are not limited to the establishment. Bane’s thugs run a kangaroo court where the death penalty is imposed freely and without due process by Scarecrow (Cillian Murphy).
One could ask if the violent attack on the Stock Exchange is an expression of discontent with income inequality or does it represent the Occupy Wall Street movement taken to the reprehensible violent extreme of mob rule anarchy?
Pondering the philosophical implications of perhaps conflicting points of view is a mental exercise soon overcome by brutish, sustained violence. To be sure, Bane is clearly a nihilist committed to destroying many innocents.
What does not appear so debatable is that “The Dark Knight Rises,” with exciting chases, superior effects and spectacular stunts, is not far removed from the comic-book underpinnings created by Bob Kane and published by DC Comics.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
NICE, Calif. – R&B singer Kayla Bell and guitarist Lindy Day have formed a rock/blues duet and will perform at the Meals On Wheels second annual benefit this Saturday, July 21, at 4 p.m.
This event benefits the Lucerne and Lakeport Senior Centers and features vendors, raffles, food, drinks and will take place at 3297 East Highway 20 in Nice.
Bell and Day are bringing their unique talents to Lake County and their set contains covers from Adele, to Norah Jones to the Beatles.
Bell is able to cover a variety of genres, her favorite being blues. She has 15 years’ experience singing and began her career in the Bethel African Methodist Choir in Marysville, Calif., and recently sang the National Anthem at the Lakeport July 4 fireworks event.
Day is a local guitarist known for performing classical guitar with her partner, Native American flute performer Kevin Village Stone.
Although she’s known in Lake County for her classical guitar, Day’s roots go back to Manhattan, New York, where she played electric guitar in indie bands.
“Modern indie music is about the furthest thing from classical guitar as you can get,” said Day. “But when you’re a working musician, you’ve got to be proficient in lots of genres. Plus, it’s really nice to be able to switch from Beethoven to Clapton on a whim.”
For more event information call 707-275-2366.
For more information on Lindy Day, Kayla Bell or Kevin Village Stone, visit www.WhisperingLight.com or call 707-245-5968.
I’d guess that many of you have looked at old snapshots taken of you by doting relatives and tried to recall what it was like to be that person in the picture who seems to be you yet is such a stranger today. Here Linda Parsons Marion, who lives in Knoxville, Tennessee, touches upon the great distance between then and now.
Snapshot
My mother sends the baby pictures she promised— egg hunting in Shelby Park, wooden blocks and Thumbelina tossed on the rug, knotty pine walls in a house lost to memory. I separate out the early ones, studying my navel or crumbs on the tray, taken before my awareness of Sylvania Superflash. Here I am sitting on the dinette table, the near birthday cake striking me dumb. Two places of wedding china, two glasses of milk, posed for the marvelous moment: the child squishes the fluted rosettes, mother claps her hands, father snaps the picture in the face of time. When the sticky sweet is washed off the page, we are pasted in an album of blessed amnesia. The father leaves the pine house and sees the child on weekends, the mother stores the china on the top shelf until it’s dull and crazed, the saucer-eyed girl grips her curved spoon like there’s no tomorrow.
