Fruitvale

The parallels are unmistakable: An innocent young 22 year-old black man, Oscar Grant, a frightened Transit cop, a situation spiraling out of control, one gun, one bullet.  The rest you know.  Only this wasn't Florida.  This deadly incident took place in 2009 on the Fruitvale BART Station in Oakland.  And the new movie, "Fruitvale Station," staring Michael Jordan as real-life Oscar Grant, is a powerful examination of Clark's last day before his deadly appointment in Samarra.

Michael Jordan, as Oscar, turns in an extraordinarily nuanced performance, capturing perfectly this man-child struggling to get his life back on track, both saint and sinner.  Supported by Melonie Diaz as his girlfriend and Octavia Spencer (from The Help) turning in another wonderful performance as his long-suffering mother, the movie moves in close (physically, with the camera keeping the viewer in  intimate contact with the characters, close enough to read their faces, close enough to allow you to keep that connection of familiarity and recognition.)  And it's the sheer normalness of the characters that becomes so moving.  Just people doing the best they can, living their lives, trying to keep themselves and families upright.  Until pointless tragedy strikes.

While this powerful film's ending feels a bit truncated --the suddenly black screen followed by a textual coda about the rest of the story -- transit cop claimed he thought he was reaching for his taser but grabbed his gun instead, served 11 months for the killing, the sad collision of "justice" and "law"-- it remains a very powerful, moving, beautifully acted and beautifully put together film.

And certainly a timely film, considering we're supposed to be engaged in a "racial dialogue."  It's hard to imagine a more apt "racially dialogued" movie than this one. But films seen as "black" often have a hard time finding a large audience.  And a serious, tragic "black movie" is even more of a hard sell.   I went to the noon Sunday showing at the Underground Theatre, and there were only about 8 people there.  I can hope more people take time to see this haunting, timely, serious film. But history shows that hope is likely to be folly.  Given a choice between "Fruitvale Station", a "black film" and "Wolverine," a loud, slashing fantasy, I know which one will win out.    

A Sunday Soup

It's summer, and if your garden crops are starting to come in, it's likely you have lots of zucchini.  Most gardeners plant zucchini because it grows so easily.  Alas, most people can get by with very little zucchini in their lives, a little going a long way, while the garden produces lots and lots of the stuff.  So, what do do?

Well, here's the world's simplest soup.  It came from the editor of Bon Appetit, who confessed that he like totally ripped it off from his mom. This recipe should also work with yellow squash, too.   

Zucchini Curry Soup

olive oil
1 med onion, diced
3 med zucchini, diced
1 qt low sodium chicken broth
1 tsp curry powder
optional: pinch of adobo chile powder, black pepper, to taste. Can also vary the amount of curry powder to taste.

Saute onions until soft, add curry powder, stir, add zucchini, stir and cook about 10 min.  Add it all to chicken broth.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 25 min until soft and cooked through.  Remove from heat, adjust seasonings, let cool a bit and puree with stick blender (or blender).

Eat.
Yum.

20 Feet, Indeed

Don't miss the documentary "20 Feet from Stardom," now playing at the Palm Theatre
 ( www.thepalmtheatre.com ) .  It tells the tale of some of the best known of rock and roll's  "back up" singers.  Originally, all back up singers in the 1950's were nice, neatly dressed, boring white ladies standing behind Perry Como or Dean Martin and politely adding harmony.  With the breakout of rock and roll, black music came onto the main stage, yes, too often hijacked by white performers, but black back up singers came too, and transformed popular music. (The clips of powerhouse Tina Turner, with her mile high legs topping a holy-cow! fringed mini-mini-miniskirt and her crazy-assed, berserker back up ladies reminds one just how electric and transformative they were.  And young.  Oh, so young.) 

The whole phenomenon of "back up" singing never really crossed my radar, which is what made this film so interesting -- 90 minutes of muttering, "Gosh, I didn't know that."  The talent on display is phenomenal, the survival of these women, most of whom are still singing is heartening (they're still singing back up for movie sound tracks, records, with a few "out front," still touring with Springsteen and The Rolling Stones). 

But ultimately, it's the documentary's unfolding disquisition on "fame" and "talent" and "art" and " music" and "soul" that haunts:  How rare it is to achieve stardom, how little fame has to do with talent or hard work.  How divorced fame and stardom are from true greatness and art.  How breaking out from the background can be too high a price to pay (as so many artists who achieved fame discovered, then paid for  with their disordered, self-destructive lives). How transforming from a back up to the solo role is, in many ways, impossible -- a case of turning a tap dancer into an opera diva  -- because there are two entirely different talents  at work; one standing alone, the other tuned exquisitely to creating a whole. And how, ultimately, fame is a game of luck, its value fleeting, while the work -- the song, the voice, the music -- is its own gift, its own demanding taskmaster, its own reward.

After seeing the film, I thought the title had it's own irony.  Given the talent and musicianship of these women, I think it is the lead singers who are 20 feet from greatness. Not the other way around.  

 

Lucky Us

I'm willing to bet very few of you reading this know about one of the most amazing resources in this county: the Hearst Cancer Resource Center.  It's located in the back of French Hospital, at 1941 Johnson Ave in SLO, is funded by community donations, endowments and, of course, the incredibly generous support of the Hearst Family and Hearst Foundation.  

The Center offers an extraordinary array of services, classes, lectures, counseling, social services and support programs, access to the Jennifer Diamond Cancer Resource Library, and a nurse navigator, one person who will help anyone newly diagnosed with cancer to coordinate the vast array of help available.

Among the activities offered every month, --free -- for cancer patients and their families and caregivers are nutrition counseling, support groups, Qigong and Tia Chi Chih classes, art therapy classes, guided meditation class, a children & teens support group, prostate support group, energy balancing sessions and even a "warm yarns" knitting circle which makes warm colorful scarves and hats that are given to patients undergoing chemo treatment. In short, an astonishing array of services and programs all aimed at supporting cancer patients and their families..

In addition, the center has been putting on a wonderful series of lectures for the general public on nutrition and general health.  Again, they're free and are open to the public.  One recent program I've been attending is a three-part lecture series on Women's health that is being held in the beautiful Oak Glen Pavilion at the San Luis Botanical Garden (in El Chorro Regional Park on Hwy. 1).  They serve a continental breakfast, have a series of speakers and cover a variety of topics all dealing with health, nutrition, well being..  The next one upcoming is on Women's Heart Health, and will be held Saturday, Sept. 14, 8:30am, lecture program at 9.m.  Call the Hearst Cancer Resource Center for reservations-- 542-6234.

Again, these lecture series are free and are really informative and fun.  So if you or anyone you know  are interested in staying healthy or improving your health, or know somebody dealing with any kind of illness (doesn't have to be cancer, any chronic disease can be improved with better health), visit their website -- www. frenchmedicalcenter.org  or call the center at 542-6234   

If you get on their mailing list, you'll be notified of their various programs.  One of which is an upcoming one on Healthier Living: Your Life, Take Care, on Fridays, Aug 2,9,16,23,30, Sept. 6, from 1-3:30 and covering topics ranging from How to manage symptoms, depression management, appropriate use of medications, how to successfully deal with symptoms, including fatigue, pain, isolation, and communicating effectively with family, friends and doctors.  All great information to know if you're coping with any kind of long-term health treatment which, if you're of a certain age, all of us are, in one way or another. 

Which is why this resource center is so wonderful.  In their outreach programming, they're hoping to give even more people information that can improve their health.  And what's not to love about that?

Coffee Lovers Alert

Big banner hanging over the SLO Roasted Coffee factory in Los Osos announcing:  Open House, Aug 17, 12pm. - 4 pm.  Last time they did that was around Christmas last year, had tours of the coffee production, including a sample roasting, taste-testing stations with different coffees, in short a wonderful opportunity to see up close our wonderful local coffee company.

Giddy Up

Buck Brannaman, the Horse Whisperer featured in the wonderful documentary, "Buck," will be offering a class/clinic at the Santa Ynex Equestrian Center in Santa Ynes ( http://syvea.org/SpecialEvents.html )  (Email Syvesquestrian@ gmail.com) on October 26-27.  If you've got a horse that needs work or if you need work on your horsemanship, might be a splendid opportunity to work with one of the best. The website doesn't have any further information posted yet but an email might get times and cost. 

And if you've never heard of Buck Brannaman, go get the DVD "Buck."  It is splendid. 

Your Sunday Poem

I recently bought a most extraordinary poetry anthology, "The Rattle Bag," edited by Seamus Heany and Ted Hughes.  (Available in paperback, so head down to your local bookstore and order it.)  Both of these men are well known poets and, according to the introduction, "This anthology massed itself like a cairn.  . . . [the poems] were picked up one by one and left in situ without much initial thought being given to the stuff already in the pile or the position that they might occupy in the final shape."  In short, the anthology started rather as a kind of day book.  And when it came time to actually edit this vast collection of poetry from all over the place and time, it was decided to simply arrange it in alphabetical order (by title or first line) which "allows the contents to discover themselves as we ourselves gradually discovered them -- each poem full of its singular appeal, transmitting its own signals, taking its chances in a big,voluble world."

Which makes reading this collection an activity full of surprise.  Like this amazing poem by Miroslav Holub (translated from Czech by Jarmila Milner) (The term "jade" is listed in the glossary as "horse.")

Bullfight 

Someone runs about,
someone scents the wind,
someone stomps the ground, but it's hard.

Red flags flutter
and on his old upholstered jade the picador
with infirm lance
scores the first wound.

Red blood spurts between the shoulder-blades.

Chest about to split,
tongue stuck out to the roots.
Hooves stamp of their own accord.

Three pairs of the bandoleros in the back.
And a matador is drawing his sword
over the railing.

And then someone (blood-spattered, all in)
stops and shouts:
Let's go, quit it,
let's go, quit it,
let's go over across the river and into the trees,
let's go across the river and into the trees,
let's leave the red rags behind,
let's go some other place,

thus he shouts,
or wheezes,
or whispers,

and the barriers roar and
no one understands because
everyone feels the same about it,

the black-and-red bull is going to fall
and be dragged away,
and be dragged away,
and be dragged away,

without grasping the way of the world,
without having grasped the way of the world,
before he has grasped the way of the world.