Jon Adler of Sacramento shows off his Chinese crested during the World’s Ugliest Dog contest at the Sonoma Marin Fair in Petaluma, Friday June 25, 2010. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat) 2010

Less-than-lovely dogs will receive special recognition at this year’s World’s Ugliest Dog contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair in Petaluma.

It’s the 25th anniversary of the contest that celebrates ugly canine mugs that are sometimes so warty, splotchy or drooly that only their owners can truly appreciate their beauty.

“It’s really over the top,” organizer Vicki DeArmon said. “There is quite a lot of fanfare for the 25th year.”

The “Dog Days of Summer” fair begins Wednesday and runs through Sunday, with special days for kids, seniors, farmers and families. The Sonoma-Marin Fair is one of the few that includes all activities — carnival rides, concerts and attractions — in a single entry price.

Syndicated radio personalities Bob & Sheri will host the World’s Ugliest Dog contest on Friday, bringing their fun-filled perspectives on the lineup of dogs vying for the top prize. The day includes a dog-lover’s festival with special canine events all day.

So far, 25 dogs are signed up for the anti-beauty contest, about half of which are new contestants.

“We have poodles, terriers, tons of pugs, for some reason, and some Chinese crested,” DeArmon said. “There’s a big mix. Generally, the winner seems to be a new dog, so it may be one of those ugly mutts.”
Mugly, a Chinese crested who trudged his ugly mug from Peterborough, England, to compete last year, is not defending his crown.

Fans of the dogs will be able to have the contestants “paw-tograph” a new book, “World’s Ugliest Dogs,” which chronicles the history of the event with photos and stories.

The rest of the fair promises to bring old favorites and new fun, including concerts from Kellie Pickler, Kix Brooks, the Marshall Tucker Band, Loverboy and Fiesta Latina.

While most of the attractions are at eye level — livestock shows, a dizzying choice of deep-fried foods, ring-toss games, exhibits ranging from crafts to cool new products — you might want to look up from time to time.

There, you’ll see fancily dressed stilt walkers from Stilt Circus, who will be performing throughout the fairgrounds each day.
The fair opens at 1 p.m. Wednesday, with discounted admission before 5 p.m.

With construction ongoing near Highway 101 and East Washington Street and at the new East Washington Place shopping center adjacent to the fairgrounds, organizers recommend carpooling and allowing extra time to arrive, especially for those going to the evening concerts.

You can reach Staff Writer Lori A. Carter at 762-7297 or lori.carter@pressdemocrat.com.

For more events or to list author events in our calendar, visit The Press Democrat’s events listings at pressdemocrat.com.

SUNDAY (JUNE 16)

Katherine Hastings and Daniel Coshnear, 1:30p.m.
Third Sunday Salon, Healdsburg Literary Guild, Bean Affair, 1270 Healdsburg Ave., Healdsburg. Details, healdsburgliteraryguild@gmail.com.

MONDAY (JUNE 17)

Michael Pollan, “Cooked,” 7 p.m.
In Cooked, Michael Pollan explores the previously uncharted territory of his own kitchen. Here, he discovers the enduring power of the four classical elements—fire, water, air, and earth—to transform the stuff of nature into delicious things to eat and drink. Apprenticing himself to a succession of culinary masters, Pollan learns how to grill with fire, cook with liquid, bake bread, and ferment everything from cheese to beer.
NOTE: Ticket comes free with the purchase of Michael Pollan’s newest book, “Cooked.” To receive a ticket, books must be purchased at Copperfield’s Petaluma store or online at copperfieldsbooks.com/boxoffice. Optional “Plus One” ticket available to purchaser for $5.
The Seed Bank, 199 Petaluma Blvd. N., Petaluma.

TUESDAY (JUNE 18)

Lauren Conrad, “Infamous: A Fame Game Novel,” 7p.m.
Infamous brings Lauren Conrad’s juicy, gossipy Fame Game series to a stunning conclusion.  As the star of MTV series The Hills, Lauren Conrad understands Hollywood life. She uses insider knowledge to tell the story of Madison Parker, Kate Hayes, and Carmen Curtis, stars of The Fame Game, the reality TV show that follows the girls as they try to become famous in L.A.  Kate and Carmen are about to become big stars, but they’re going to have to survive some backstage drama first. Madison is learning hard lessons about fame as she deals with backstabbing “friends” and family, out-of-control paparazzi, and a scandal reported in every tabloid.
Copperfield’s Books, 140 Kentucky St., Petaluma. 762-0563, copperfieldsbooks.com.

WEDNESDAY (JUNE 19)

Dr. Rebecca Bailey, “Safe Kids, Smart Parents: What Parents Need to Know to Keep Their Children Safe,” 7p.m.
Leading family psychologist and personal therapist to Jaycee Dugard, Rebecca Bailey tells parents how to keep their children safe in this accessible, must-have guidebook, with a foreword by Terry Probyn, Jaycee’s mother.
Copperfield’s Books, 775 Village Court, Santa Rosa. 578-8938, copperfieldsbooks.com.

THURSDAY (JUNE 20)

Ramsey Hootman, “Courting Greta,” 7:30 p.m.
Samuel Cooke knows most women wouldn’t give him a second glance even if he were the last man on earth. He’s the cripple with crutches, the nerdy computer genius every female past puberty feels compelled to mother. So when he leaves his lucrative career to teach programming to high schoolers, romance definitely isn’t on his radar.  Perhaps that’s why Greta Cassamajor catches him off guard. The sarcastic gym coach with zero sense of humor is no beauty—not even on the inside. But an inexplicably kind act toward Samuel makes him realize she is interesting.  Samuel is certain she won’t accept his invitation to dinner—so when she does, he’s out of his depth. All he knows is that he’ll do whatever it takes to keep her as long as he can. Pretending he’s got his class under control? Easy. Being vulnerable enough to admit why he ditched his programming career for teaching? Um, no. That would require honesty. And if there’s one thing Samuel can’t exist without, it’s the lies he tells himself.  In this poignant, witty debut, Ramsey Hootman upends traditional romance tropes to weave a charming tale of perseverance, trust, and slightly conditional love.
Christopher Hill Gallery, 326 Healdsburg Ave., Healdsburg. Details, Copperfield’s Books, 433-9270.

SATURDAY (JUNE 22)

Mac Barnett, “An Evening with Mac Barnett,” 7 p.m.
Join New York Times bestselling children’s book author Mac Barnett as he discusses his many acclaimed works, including Extra Yarn, Chloe and the Lion, The Clock Without a Face, Guess Again, Billy Twitters and his Blue Whale Problem and the Brixton Brothers mysteries.
Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista Blvd., Corte Madera. 415-927-0960, bookpassage.com.

To submit book events for consideration in this column, contact Sara Peyton at sara.peyton@gmail.com at least three weeks in advance of the event.

The beginning of love is awkward enough. But add in two social misfits in every sense of the title, and the results hold the potential for disaster.

In the book, “Courting Greta,” Samuel Cooke has spent the majority of his life fighting society’s view of who he is – a skinny and crippled computer genius who has never been the subject of a romantic encounter. Seeking out a drastic change in his life, Samuel ends his successful career as a computer programmer to become a computer teacher at a school in Healdsburg.

It’s there that he meets the school’s gym coach, Greta Cassamajor, better known as “Cass”, and who strongly resembles Coach Shannon Beiste, “The Beast” from Glee.

Cass is avoided by everyone at the school – teachers and students. She’s an ox of a woman, as large as Samuel is scrawny. Her temper is easily provoked. She appears to have no friends, though she is loyal to keeping her team on the winning side. Right from the start, Samuel is warned to just stay out of her way by his colleagues and students. But something about Cass is intriguing to Samuel, eventually urging him to pursue this hard to please woman.

Author Ramsey Hootman, a native of Healdsburg, spins a story of two people generally ignored by society, and makes them so endearing you cannot help but fall in love with them. In her debut novel, she proves that you can’t judge a book by its cover as secrets and past betrayals are brought to the surface of both characters, sharing the reasons for each brick they’ve put in place to keep others at bay. And through the course of the book, Hootman paints the portrait of a perfect love that has blossomed from imperfections.

Some of the hidden highlights:

- Ramsey Hootman is only the pen name for the author. If you know her real name, look for a brief appearance by her “alter” ego.

- The town of Healdsburg paints the backdrop of the story, and even includes town favorites like the Future Farmers parade and festival.

- Alumni of Healdsburg High may have an easy time envisioning the halls and classrooms described in “Courting Greta,” as much of the book takes place there.

“Courting Greta” officially releases this week in bookstores. To celebrate, Ramsey Hootman, with Copperfield’s Books, is holding a Book Release Reading and Reception on June 20th at the Christopher Hill Gallery (326 Healdsburg Ave, Healdsburg) from 7:30-9:30 p.m. Join in as Ramsey reads from her novel, signs copies, and answers questions. The event is free, and includes gourmet cupcakes from Moustache Baked Goods and sparkling cider.

For more information about this event and the book, Courting Greta, visit www.RamseyHootman.com.

COURTING GRETA BOOK RELEASE PARTY
When: Thursday, June 20, 7:30-9:30 p.m.
Where: Christopher Hill Gallery, 326 Healdsburg Ave., Healdsburg
Info: www.RamseyHootman.com

By MICHAEL O’SULLIVAN
WASHINGTON POST

As a scriptwriter, actress Brit Marling has so far demonstrated an unerring instinct for creating meaty, if somewhat hard-to-swallow, roles for herself.

Her 2011 breakout film “Another Earth,” which she wrote with director Mike Cahill, centered on a guilt-ridden young woman who’s torn between two equally far-fetched options: having an affair with the husband of the woman she accidentally killed in a car accident or starting over in a parallel universe that scientists recently discovered on a mirror image of our planet.

Then, in “Sound of My Voice,” she played a messianic cult leader/self-help guru who may be a time traveler from the future.

In “The East,” the actress-writer-producer reunites with fellow Georgetown graduate Zal Batmanglij, her director and co-writer on “Sound of My Voice,” for a far more earthbound, yet no less fascinating, assignment. Here, Marling plays a private investigator who, while going undercover to flush out the members of an anti-corporate anarchist collective, experiences something akin to Stockholm Syndrome. The difference is she’s not a hostage bonding with her captors, but a rat who gradually starts to sympathize with those she’s paid to rat on.
As usual, Marling is a pleasure to watch for the psychological complexity and contradictions of her character. This time, the story almost lives up to the performance.

Marling plays Jane, or “Sarah” as she’s known to the members of the East, the eco-terrorist cell that her employer (Patricia Clarkson) asks her to infiltrate after a number of embarrassingly high-profile incidents meant to expose and/or punish people who run companies that pollute, poison or otherwise harm the Earth and those who live on it. Soon she’s moved in with the group, a ragtag band of unwashed hippies who squat in a derelict house in the woods.

Except they’re not exactly squatting.

It turns out that the ramshackle mansion is the childhood home of the group’s charismatic leader, Benji (Alexander Skarsgard), a slumming member of the same monied class that most of their victims occupy, and a man with complicated rationales for the crimes he commits, or as the group calls their actions, “jams.” These jams typically follow an “eye-for-an-eye” model of retribution. The home of an oil company executive whose tanker has leaked will be flooded with crude oil, for example. Sometimes, the penalty is much, much harsher.

Like Benji, others members of the group reveal themselves to have personal motivations behind their politics as well. One by one, the members unpack their pasts for Sarah, along with their prejudices. As it turns out, they’re often in it for revenge, along with environmental justice. As Izzy (Ellen Page), a particularly angry, vendetta-driven cultist, says, “Whoever said, ‘Two wrongs don’t make a right’ has never been wronged.”

“The East” is a pretty taut thriller. Will Sarah get exposed before she gets the information her boss wants? And how much of her growing sympathy for the group’s arguments is based on reason, as opposed to her physical attraction to Benji?

Marling and Batmanglij are also interested in the moral questions the film raises. Are violent means justified if the end is good? And how much violence? When does deterrence cross the line to spite? With the exception of Benji, the members of The East aren’t ideologues so much as idealists. They allow themselves the luxury of debate, questioning and regret.

Also hope.

It’s for these reasons that “The East” satisfies, in ways that Marling’s earlier vehicles didn’t. Its head is in the clouds, but its feet are grounded in reality.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

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MOVIE REVIEW
The East
***
Stars: Alexander Skarsgard, Ellen Page, Brit Marling, Toby Kebbell, Shiloh Fernandez, Patricia Clarkson, Julia Ormond, Aldis Hodge, Billy Magnussen
Director: Zal Batmanglij
Rating: PG-13 for thematic elements, violence, some disturbing images, sexual content and partial nudity
Running time: 116 minutes

By STEVEN REA
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER

I’m not sure how “Before Midnight” will play to audiences unfamiliar with its two predecessors.

Can the uninitiated catch up with Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke’s characters at this harder, decidedly less romantic juncture in their lives — he’s a novelist, she’s an environmentalist, and they are the married parents of twin, towheaded girls — without experiencing both Jesse and Celine’s heady Viennese walkabout (1995′s “Before Sunrise”) and their rueful but beautiful Paris reunion (2004′s “Before Sunset”)? Will “Before Midnight” mean anything?

I think so, but I can’t say for certain, nor can the passionate cult of Before-istas who have followed Jesse and Celine over the last 18 years.

But what I can say is that “Before Midnight,” which finds the couple walking and talking, and driving and talking, and drinking and talking, and holed up in a hotel room and talking, offers a remarkably intimate and provocative study of a marriage.

Here are a man and a woman caught up in the everyday realities of a relationship, rearing children, trying to balance careers with filial responsibilities, and wondering if they still love each other, or did they ever?

Of course, not every husband and wife get to mull these matters — the mundane and the metaphysical — while they’re vacationing at a to-die-for villa on the Peloponnesian coast of Greece. And that is where Jesse and Celine find themselves, guests of a sage old novelist (the cinematographer Walter Lassally) and a small coterie of family and friends.

It is the couple’s last few days after an extended stay, and Jesse has just bid his teenage son (a terrific Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick) goodbye, taking him to the airport for the trip back to Chicago, where he lives with his mother, Jesse’s ex.

And the return drive to this idyllic home — a long, extended take — finds Jesse suggesting that maybe they should move from Paris to Chicago, so he can be closer to his son. Which isn’t what Celine, dedicated to her work, with a new post in her future, wants at all. By the time they pull up at the villa, the mood is sour.

Directed by Richard Linklater, as were “Before Sunrise” and “Before Sunset,” with a fluidity and grace that is exhilarating, “Before Midnight” is at once loose and improvisatory and diligently structured.

Hawke, revisiting this keen if narcissistic American writer, displays an intense restlessness, and a humor that can turn quickly bitter. Delpy, as the hopelessly French Celine, is raw, wifty, passionate, and cuttingly smart. The two actors share the writing credit with Linklater — all of them clearly invested in, and deeply aware of, who these people are.

In a summer of numbing, effects-driven spectacle and formulaic blockbusters (and it’s only the first week of June!), “Before Midnight” serves as an invigorating antidote.

This is a movie that mines deep beneath the surface of human feeling. It will make you think — about love, about life, about two people who aren’t real, except that they’ve become so for so many of us in this improbably successful indie franchise.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

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MOVIE REVIEW
Before Midnight
****
Stars: Julie Delphy, Etahn Hawke, Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick
Director: Richard Linklater
Rating: R for sexual content/nudity and language
Running Time: 107 minutes

Pork belly biscuits with maple glaze and pickled onion is served at the Chalkboard Restaurant in Healdsburg. (Conner Jay/The Press Democrat)

Chalkboard, a new small-plates restaurant in Healdsburg, occupies the space that was Cyrus.

Where Cyrus was lush and very deluxe, Chalkboard is rustic. No tablecloths. Hard wooden chairs. Hollowed-out stones planted with succulent echeverias on the tables. The floors are bare wood.

But many of the built-in features of Cyrus remain, to the benefit of the new regime headed by Chef Shane McAnelly, who has master chef Doug Keane’s personally-designed kitchen to work in. Cyrus’s comfy full bar at the restaurant’s entrance is almost the same, and the dining room’s vaulted ceilings still make a bold architectural statement.

What’s really different is the food. Keane’s creations were haute cuisine, earning two Michelin stars and Best Chef Pacific from the James Beard Foundation. McAnelly’s fare is wholesome California cooking with Sonoma County flair. Menus are seasonal, with vegetable, meat, and fish crudos, soups and salads, house-made pastas, and plenty of red and white wine flights. Among the 16 whites and 27 reds offered by the bottle, the 2011 “Dutton Ranch” chardonnay from Dutton Goldfield at $56 and the 2009 “Donna Chiara” aglianico from Colli di Lapio, Campania, at $52 stand out.

English pea soup with dungeness crab

Many of the garden vegetables are sourced from the restaurant’s three-acre organic potager at Chalk Hill Estate Vineyards, and what a treat that is for the cooks and the customers. Nothing beats the flavor of food just picked from the garden. But it’s what you do with it that counts, and McAnelly has some good moves in his repertoire. For Pea Soup ($3 **½) for instance, he makes a soup base with onions, bay leaf, and mint and stirs in a puree of fresh garden peas. Now he puts a big pinch of Dungeness crabmeat in a shot glass and fills it with the chilled soup. It’s refreshing, although a bit too salty.

From the Chalk Hill garden comes Fava Bean and Baby Artichoke Salad ($9 **½). The favas are boiled in their pods, then husked out of their grey jackets so they’re tender and a bright, rich green. The baby artichokes could have used some kind of flash cooking or marinating, as their slices were chewy and tough to eat. The beans and chokes were mixed with little arugula, which is just hitting its stride right now. The leaves are still small, tender, and not nearly as aggressively peppery as they’ll be later in the summer. The salad is dressed with a lemon citronette — basically a vinaigrette made with lemon juice instead of vinegar so it’s more wine-friendly — and topped with a snow of grated pecorino romano cheese.

From the menu’s raw section came the Hamachi Crudo ($12 **). Hamachi is farmed yellowtail, and the Japanese farmers who raise them overfeed them with rich food so they grow quickly to harvestable size. The fish eat a fatty diet and get little exercise, and so the flesh is oily and soft. The five tiles of fish used in this dish are fresh enough, but they have the drawbacks of farmed hamachi. Each tile is topped with avocado, a bit of ruby grapefruit, and a couple of thin rounds of peppery jalapeno. The acid grapefruit does help cut the fat, but the texture is still unappealing. It would be better with a wild-caught, sustainably managed fish.

A colorful plate of veggies and dip fresh from the Chalkboard Restaurant’s garden

Cauliflower Gratin ($8 **½) comes in an iron serving dish. Cauliflower florets in a sauce made with cheddar cheese and Bear Republic IPA beer smells dutifully of cheese and hot beer, and is lavished with crunchy bread crumbs.

Three Beef Sliders ($10 ***) are worth every penny as they explode with flavor. First, pickles go on the bottom buns, then juicy beef patties, a bit of blue cheese, meaty-sweet short-rib marmalade, and bacon aioli to top them off. They’re little but they’re lovely.

Strozzapreti ($13 **), which means “priest chokers,” (the Italian sense of humor) were a tasty bowl of house-made, pencil-shaped pastas tossed with short-rib ragu, broccoli florets, crème fraiche, and horseradish gremolata.

The “Candy Bar” with brownie, caramel, roasted milk chocolate cremeaux and nougat ice cream

For dessert: The Candy Bar ($8 ***). A small brownie is topped with caramel. A little tower of roasted milk chocolate cremeaux sits beside it, accompanied by a scoop of nougat ice cream showered with peanut crunch. Very, very sweet.

To sum up: Chalkboard’s a low-key, comfy spot for snacks and drinks.

Jeff Cox writes a weekly restaurant review column for the Sonoma Living section. You can reach him at jeffcox@sonic.net.

Photo gallery: Chalkboard Restaurant

CHALKBOARD
Where: 29 North St., Healdsburg
When: Bar opens at 4 p.m. Dinner nightly from 5 until 9 p.m.
Reservations: Call 473-8030
Price range: Moderate, with small plate entrees from $10 to $17
Website: chalkboardhealdsburg.com

Wine list: **
Ambiance: **½
Service: ***
Food: **½
Overall: **½

**** Extraordinary
*** Very good
** Good
* Not very good
0 Terrible

By ROGER MOORE
McCLATCHY NEWS SERVICE

The lads of Hollywood’s “Pot Pack” get together for a riotous riff on the Rapture in “This Is the End,” an often hilarious, generally irreverent comedy about the biblical apocalypse as seen through the windows of a movie star’s mansion.

Seth Rogen & Co. cooked up this all-star romp, a much funnier, less preachy and just as credulous take on New Testament accounts of The End as the equally blasphemous “Rapture Palooza.”

Inventing versions of their real selves to play, “End” begins with old Rogen pal Jay Baruchel visiting him in Los Angeles, getting baked and complaining about Rogen’s running mates — James Franco, Jonah Hill and their ilk.

Baruchel (“She’s Out of My League”) is then dragged to a rowdy party at Franco’s Architecture Digest showplace of a home, where Franco can’t remember his name. Hill fawns all over him, unconvincingly trying to persuade Baruchel that they shouldn’t be enemies. And Craig Robinson (“The Office,” “Peeples”) entertains one and all by leading the mob in a few choruses of “Take Yo’ Panties Off.”

The first thing that works here is this madcap party, where Jason Segel rips his undemanding, formulaic TV comedy (“How I Met Your Mother”) to Kevin Hart.

Emma Watson endures the ogling of the lads and Rihanna ups her cool quotient by slapping Michael Cera, who consumes mass quantities of coke and sex and generally punctures his effeminate nice-boy image. The party is so funny it could be its own movie.

And then The End begins. Baruchel is the surrogate for the audience, the one who sees the beams of light pulling the righteous up into heaven.

Since nobody at the party was “Raptured,” nobody believes him.

When the earth quakes, the fires begin and doom rains down — “Tsunami? Zombie invasion?” — most partygoers are quickly consumed.
The five leads, in various states of outrageous denial, are left to fend for themselves.

Baruchel reads the Bible to them and points out the signs and the pictures of Satan.

“I know that dude. He’s from ‘Where the Wild Things Are’!”

And then Danny McBride shows up.

Everybody in this movie sells the concept and works up a fine lather over their peril and their petty personality conflicts. But as he did in “Pineapple Express,” McBride takes things to a new level. His redneck rage, contempt for the “sell-outs” and career stumbles and the very profession they all share blasts from his lips — every line a killer, no line quotable in polite company.

When he’s in it, “End” is the living end of rapture spoofs. When he leaves, the energy plunges.

Rogen, who co-wrote and directed this, lets the fun go on too long. But the effects are grand and often R-rated, and for a movie as over the R-rating line as this one often is, there’s a surprisingly sweet message about the road to redemption.

So if you see only one End Times movie this summer, make it the Pot Pack’s installment. “This is the End” is the going-away party of apocalypse movies.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

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MOVIE REVIEW
This Is the End
***
Stars: James Franco,Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill,Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson, Emma Watson, Paul Rudd, Rihanna
Directors: Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen
Rating: R for crude and sexual content throughout, brief graphic nudity, pervasive language, drug use and some violence
Running time: 107 minutes

By ROGER MOORE
McCLATCHY NEWS SERVICE

This Superman settles scores. And takes his shirt off.

This “Man of Steel” flies up, up and away, with his teeth bared and his fists clenched.

This Lois Lane knows his story, straight off. There’s little mystery about him.

If every generation gets the Superman it deserves, “Man of Steel” suggests we’ve earned one utterly without wit or charm, a grim, muscle-bound 33-year-old struggling to reconcile the past he is just learning about, trying to fit in with a military that may or may not consider him a threat but that needs his help when his fellow Kryptonians come to call.

“Man of Steel” is a radical re-interpretation of the Superman myth, no sin in itself. The Zack (“300″ / “Sucker Punch”) Snyder version, scripted by David S. Goyer (story by Christopher Nolan), dwells much longer on Krypton and re-arranges the story, hurling us into the adult Kal-El’s Wolverine-like loner life as an American adult, showing us his formative childhood with his adoptive parents the Kents (Diane Lane and Kevin Costner) only in flashbacks.

It gives his Kryptonian nemesis, General Zod, a mission — however misguided. And a point of view. So Michael Shannon, who plays him, isn’t all that scary. Without the wit, winks, flirtation and old-fashioned sentiment of the “Truth, justice and the American way” take on the character, all Henry Cavill (“Immortals”) has to do is mix it up in a lot of “Transformers” inspired brawls with armored-plated aliens and occasionally agonize over it all.

Yes, most of the far sillier “Transformers” movies were more fun.

From its production design — ugly, black, insectoid spaceships — to its instantly forgettable Hans Zimmer musical score, this movie goes out of its way to remove itself from the Christopher Reeve “Superman” movies. And it is the poorer for it.

Russell Crowe and Ayelet Zurer play the parents who pack their baby up and ship him off their doomed planet. The sad resignation of the Marlon Brando version of father Jor-El is lost because General Zod stages a coup, mid-planetary meltdown, giving this overlong prologue shoot-outs and armored brawls. And Crowe’s Jor-El never quite goes away.

We spend far too little time with the story’s heart, the ways the baby is embodied with good old-fashioned heartland virtues. Costner and Lane have the film’s best scenes.

“Decide the kind of man you want to be,” Clark Kent’s dad tells him, urging him to keep his ID secret, to use his powers sparingly, with care. The grown-up Clark wanders the bars and crab fishing fleets, committing the occasional supernatural act of compassion and the occasional supernatural fit of pique.

Amy Adams is an over-achieving Lois Lane, totally clued in on the evidence of an alien among us by the military. Laurence Fishburne is a dull Daily Planet editor Perry White.

Take away the antecedents (no Jimmy Olsen, boy photographer), strip the character’s Americanness (to make it easier to sell overseas) and it’s still a competent movie — state of the art explosions, implosions and what-not.

But take away the whimsy and the fun, and one has to wonder why Snyder, Goyer, Nolan and Warner Bros. bothered.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

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MOVIE REVIEW
Man of Steel
**
Stars: Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon, Russell Crowe, Ayelet Zurer, Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne
Director: Zack Snyder
Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence, action and destruction, and for some language
Running time: 143 minutes

English writer Samuel Johnson once remarked, “Angling or float fishing I can only compare to a stick and a string, with a worm at one end and a fool at the other.”

Be that as it may, the ancient rite has been passed along for generations. Here are a few places in the North Bay where you can dangle a line and reel in a good fish story, if nothing else.

If you’ve got a young angler in training, the experts at King’s Sport & Tackle in Guerneville recommend Riverfront Regional Park in Healdsburg, where you’ll find two lakes stocked with bass, bluegill and catfish. The family-friendly fishing hole is open from 8 a.m. to sunset daily.

You can access the Russian River as well, through a trail between the two lakes, but fishing rules are different there. Barbs must be pinched and you can only use artificial lures, no live bait.

In Bodega Bay, it’s been a banner year for California king salmon.

“The fish are right in front of the harbor in about 200 feet of water,” said Victor Gonella, president of the Golden Gate Salmon Association, a coalition that protects and restores habitat in the San Francisco Bay-Delta region. “Fish in the 20-pound class were common last week.”

Captain Rick Powers of Bodega Bay Sport Fishing said some of the fishermen walked off his New Sea Angler boat last week with a catch worth nearly $1,000.

“I think it’s going to be one of the most productive salmon seasons that we’ve seen in many years,” he said. “The fish are huge.”
When the salmon aren’t biting, Powers goes afer rock cod and ling cod, Dungeness crab and California halibut.

With his new boat, the 56-foot Surf Scooter, Powers can offer multi-day excursions for albacore and tuna, salmon and rock cod. The custom charters will provide gourmet meals and overnight accommodations.

For information: www.bodegabaysportfishing.com or 875-3495.

Dean Bordigioni, 54, holds his 11-week-old son, Coltrane, while watching his two-year-old daughter, Anni Lucia, throw a bocce ball at their home, near Santa Rosa, on Thursday, June 6, 2013. (Christopher Chung/ The Press Democrat)

By Meg McCONAHEY and DIANE PETERSON
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Dads come in all shapes, sizes and personalities. And thanks to their long span of procreative years — actor Steve Martin became a dad at age 67, the late Tony Randall at 77 — they come in all ages as well.

The average age for first-time fathers in the U.S. is now about 28. That’s old enough for a man to gain some maturity and establish a career, but still young enough to have the stamina to keep up with kids.

But what of the dads at the farther ends of the spectrum? We invited one man who started in his early twenties and another man who was almost 50 when his first child was born — both fathers of three young children — to share their perspective on parenthood as experienced in very different seasons of life.

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Griffin Bean with his older boys Avery, 7, and Finn, 5. (Christopher Chung/ The Press Democrat)

Griffin Bean, 32, first met his wife, Mia, at a church youth function when he was 18 and she was 17. The chemistry did not click, but they reconnected two years later, and swiftly tied the knot in October 2002 after just six months of dating. He was nearly 22 and she was 20.

Their first son, Avery, was born on Father’s Day in 2005, the night before Bean had to fly to Texas to report for basic training as an Air Force reservist.

Now employed as a mobile mechanic and electrician, Bean is the proud father of three boys, including 8-year-old Avery, 5-year-old Finn and 4-month-old Rowan.

What are the benefits of early fatherhood?

Bean: I’ve got the energy to play and keep up with them and not worry about am I going to break my back keeping up with them? With kids, your priorities are set, and your motivation is set. Life guidance is built in. But you still get to be a kid and play with toys. I still have my Legos and Brio trains from when I was a kid.

What do you find challenging after fatherhood at your age?

Bean: You see your peers who don’t have kids, and they’re out having fun. But with kids, the costs are far outweighed by the benefits.

What lessons has fatherhood taught you?

Bean: I wasn’t very patient. In my teen-age (years) and young 20s, I was pretty impulsive and not incredibly focused. I’m far more patient now.

What surprised you the most about becoming a father?

Bean: I expected to get far less sleep. Two weeks in, our kids were sleeping through the night. It wasn’t as taxing as I thought it would be.