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Friday, May 3, 2024
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Port Townsend Library Friends President Deb Vanderbilt, left, discusses the organization of the Friends’ bookshop at the library’s “Pink House” Learning Center. Leader photo by Kirk Boxleitner
PT Library Friends present March 16 Book sale
By Kirk Boxleitner   The Friends of the Port Townsend Library invite the public to their first book and media sale of 2024 on Saturday, March 16, at the Uptown Community Center at the … more
Sunrise at North Beach
Poetry from our readers
Each dawn a fresh start Sunrise in a mud puddle Where will your path lead?    — Melissa Layer   more
Tony Furtado races to arrive at Port Townsend in time for his March 30 concert. Courtesy photo
Tony Furtado returns to PT with two musical partners in tow
By Kirk Boxleitner   Rainshadow Recording’s concert series on Saturday, March 30, will showcase both a veteran artistic partnership and a relatively newfound musical … more
A variety of vegetables, herbs, and flowers can thrive in a straw bale garden. March is a good time to begin conditioning bales to prepare them for spring planting. Photo courtesy of Barbara Faurot
From straw to table: Gardening with straw bales
For generations, straw bales have been used to grow a steady supply of fresh vegetables, fruits, and flowers. Like other traditional gardening practices, they’re enjoying a resurgence as … more
Where is the body
Carole Marshall It was there just yesterday, saw it with my own eyes. Pretty sure it was yesterday, but time can get away from me if I don’t pay attention. Time notwithstanding, the … more
Here’s what happened last week
Ned Luce Yes, read on, for this is another edition of current news and ignorable drivel from the geography south of QFC (the one in Port Hadlock), revealing but a few of the exciting and … more
Local 20/20 is an all-volunteer, grassroots organization located in Jefferson County, dedicated to promoting sustainability and resilience. Artwork by Tracy Grisman
Back to the Future: The Rs
By Tracy Grisman Special to the Leader   I’ve been trying to stay positive about life these days. As things seem to be falling apart at the seams, I turn my attention toward … more
By Kirk Boxleitner For all the films that have been so hotly debated this Oscar season — I will now remind everyone forever that Godzilla is no longer just "King of the Monsters," but also a literally Academy Award-winning onscreen presence — I find it slightly disappointing that two films that offered some of the more unexpected turns in cinema over this past year were all but shut out among the Oscar contenders. Although it received five Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, "American Fiction" only won Best Adapted Screenplay for writer-director Cord Jefferson, while "Saltburn" didn't even receive a single Oscar nomination. Fortunately, they're both currently streaming online. "Saltburn" on Amazon Prime Video: University of Oxford scholarship student Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan) is lonely on campus, until he's taken under the wing of charismatic child-of-privilege classmate Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi), which eventually leads to Felix inviting Oliver to the Catton family's opulent country house, Saltburn, for the summer. "Saltburn" is unsubtle about its initial direction, as Oliver's awed observations allow us to vicariously bask in the frivolous and somewhat decadent affluence of the estate's aristocratic parents and their spoiled children, entitled extended relations and social hangers-on who have overstayed their welcomes. "Saltburn" recruits proven and established acting talents such as Rosamund Pike, Richard E. Grant and Carey Mulligan, but then lets them run on a slightly amusing autopilot, like Henry James characters being test-driven by Bret Easton Ellis. The real breakout performer here is Keoghan — an "It" boy who's recently distinguished himself in the Marvel Cinematic Universe's "Eternals," "The Banshees of Inisherin," and the Apple TV+ miniseries "Masters of the Air" — as he surprises and misleads viewers by turns, weaponizing his distinctive yet ambiguous facial features to obfuscate the film's impending narrative shift. That "Saltburn" succeeds at yanking the rug out from under those watching comes down to the subtle emotional shadings of what Keoghan reveals, over the course of the film, but for all the ingenuity and due diligence with which "Saltburn" lays the groundwork for its biggest revelation, I found that it left a slightly curdled aftertaste on my tongue. "Saltburn" is marginally less restrained in showcasing the graphic excesses and consequences of a "royal" family's debauchery than Denis Villeneuve was with House Harkonnen in "Dune: Part Two," so exercise caution. "American Fiction" on MGM+: College literature professor Thelonious "Monk" Ellison (Jeffrey Wright) finds himself facing the same struggle for Black authors that Robert Townsend chronicled for Black actors in 1987's "Hollywood Shuffle," as Monk is pressured to accommodate misconceptions that white audiences harbor about the supposedly "authentic" Black experience. After Monk's well-written novels are repeatedly rejected by publishers and readers alike, for not validating well-intentioned but self-serving white stereotypes about Black hardships, and Monk's mother Abigail (Leslie Uggams) requires expensive elder care, he manufactures a persona as a poorly educated Black criminal, to sell his "true" story to whites who can't get enough of exploitative tales of Black pain. From the white student who objects to her Black professor's study of historic Southern literature not censoring "the N-word," to the panel of white literary judges who recruit two Black authors to be "more diverse," then override those Black judges' disapproval of a book's pandering portrayals of Black people, "American Fiction" shows us how white people who are ostensibly opposed to racism wind up perpetuating it as a direct result. Wright rivals character actors such as Howard Hesseman and James Le Gros in delivering a lived-in depiction of someone so bone-weary of continual disappointment that they've all but resigned themselves to a state of perpetual disgruntlement, but "American Fiction" is far from a one-man show, with Uggams, Sterling K. Brown and Tracee Ellis Ross all joining Wright to evoke the feel of an authentically affectionate and fractious family. There's even an adorable romantic subplot, although not from the couple you might expect. Even better from a storytelling standpoint, Jefferson's screenwriting and direction play creatively with the process of how fictional tales are constructed, as authors weigh how their characters should act, and how their narrative threads should (or shouldn't) be resolved. Seeing the always-welcome Keith David indignantly ask Jeffrey Wright why the writer allowed his half-baked character to get shot made me laugh out loud. Indeed, the stylistically varied options presented during the film's conclusion are perhaps the most hilariously honest representations of the commercial and ego-servicing considerations that determine a screenwriter's preferred finale, ever since Woody Allen's Alvy Singer rewrote reality to give himself a happy ending in "Annie Hall.
Don’t let ‘Saltburn’ and ‘American Fiction’ get lost in the Oscar shuffle
By Kirk Boxleitner   For all the films that have been so hotly debated this Oscar season — I will now remind everyone forever that Godzilla is no longer just "King of the … more
PTCD logo from The Art Marker Project
PT Creative District hosts meetup March 28
By James Robinson   Local artists, creatives and community members are encouraged to learn about Port Townsend’s recently released Arts and Culture Plan at a special networking … more
East Jefferson Fire Rescue firefighters Alex Sviridovich and Curtis Beery participated in the 33nd annual Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Firefighter Stairclimb on March 10. Photo courtesy Curtis Beery
East Jefferson firefighters climb stairs to fight cancer
By Kirk Boxleitner   On Sunday, March 10, 13 members of East Jefferson Fire Rescue took part in the 33nd annual Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Firefighter Stairclimb, up the … more
Jefferson Country Forest. Courtesy Photo.
A breakthrough model for forest conservation
By Heidi Eisenhour District 2 Jefferson County commissioner   In the first week of February, Jefferson County completed one of the final steps in preserving 951 acres of complex, … more
Teen suspects arrested for threatening with gun at park and ride
By Kirk Boxleitner   Three teenaged suspects were arrested March 6 and arraigned March 12 due to a reported gun incident. Port Townsend Police Deputy Chief Jeff Thaxton spoke to … more
Savannah Fuentes brings an authentic flamenco performance to Eaglemount Winery March 16. Courtesy photo
Flamenco song and dance comes to winery March 16
By Kirk Boxleitner   Port Townsend will get to sample a taste of authentic flamenco song and dance Saturday, March 16, at 8 p.m., when the Eaglemount Winery and Cidery at 1893 S. Jacob … more
(L-r) TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET as Paul Atreides and AUSTIN BUTLER as Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen in Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures’ action adventure “DUNE: PART TWO,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release.
‘Dune: Part Two’ offers the adaptation Herbert’s novel deserves
By Kirk Boxleitner   Denis Villeneuve stuck the landing. I've only followed Villeneuve's filmmaking career since "Sicario" in 2015 — he's been directing feature films since … more
Home fire extinguished in Paradise Bay
Special to The Leader   East Jefferson Fire Rescue responded to a reported structure fire in Paradise Bay at approximately 2:30 a.m. on Monday, March 4. Several neighbors called … more
Coast Guard aids in boat rescue off Marrowstone Island
Special to The Leader   Emergency responders were dispatched for a vessel on the rocks on the east side of Marrowstone Island on Saturday, March 2. East Jefferson Fire Rescue … more
Port Townsend State of the City address reviews successes, challenges
By James Robinson   Port Townsend City Manager John Mauro kicked off Monday’s State of the City address by identifying successes in 2023, major challenges, and lessons learned, … more
Double-check signatures for March 12 ballot deadline
By Kirk Boxleitner   The deadline to return your ballot for the 2024 Jefferson County presidential primary election is Tuesday, March 12, at 8 p.m. at one of 10 local drop-box … more
State of the newspaper
These past 12 months have brought many changes for us here at The Leader. Last February, I took the helm as publisher once again. During that time we’ve crafted a new Leader; one that … more
Letters
Religious Fervor   It is hard to have guessed that one of the current threats to our 248-year-old democracy would spring from the phrase “one nation under God.” But the … more
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