The Last Of The Mississippi Bluesmen

David "Honeyboy" Edwards died today.

He was the last of the great old Mississippi bluesmen, and you haven't heard the Delta blues played like this, ever. Here he is, in his 90s, still giving it his all:



This is the kind of blues that sits in your belly like a hungry wolfcub, taking bites straight out of your heart. Blues like showers of rain.

Thank you, Mr. Edwards. May your memory and your music live forever.

Happy Birthday, Anne Lamott

photo from the PRX website (http://www.prx.org/pieces/19657)

From today's Writer's Almanac ...

It's the birthday of the writer Anne Lamott, born in San Francisco (1954). She had already written three novels when she got pregnant and decided to keep the baby, even though the baby's father left when she told him that. Her book Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year (1993) was about her struggles with motherhood and her Christianity. It got rave reviews.

Her book Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life (1994) is often quoted and referenced by writers both beginning and seasoned. The title is from her father's advice to her 10-year-old brother, who was struggling with a report on birds that had to be completed in one evening.

She wrote, "[He] put his arm around my brother's shoulder, and said, 'Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.'"


Happy Birthday, Anne. You are a treasure ... a true treasure in this world.

Dog Photos by K. Smokey Cormier

I was invited to participate in the "Dogs on Camera" photo exhibit sponsored by the Frank Bette Center for the Arts in Alameda, Ca. We were supposed to go and photograph dogs at the specified dog parks in Alameda during the weekend of February 5 & 6. Then pick one of the photographs to submit and then see if it was selected for the show. We could submit only one photo! I showed the one that I submitted. You can see it here. But I thought I should also show you readers the other ones that I thought were good. Here they are ...

Howdy.

The Queen

All photos (c) 2011 K. Smokey Cormier

Best in Show at "Dogs on Camera"

"Please move, you're killing my groove." (c) 2011 K. Smokey Cormier

Winning entry in the "Dogs on Camera" show sponsored by The Frank Bette Arts Center of Alameda. It was held at the satellite gallery at Urban Island Home Furnishings.

Actor to watch: Anne-Marie Duff

(April 29, 2009Photo by Tim Whitby/Getty Images Europe)

Actor to watch out for: Anne-Marie Duff. She's really really good. Just finished watching Nowhere Boy. She plays Julia, John Lennon's birth mum.

[No one ever calls Aunt Mimi John's adoptive mum ... but that's what she was.]

Egyptians, We Send Our Love and Hope

Have you seen the photos from Egypt at the New York Times web site?

No!!! Better go now.

They will make you weep for joy.

Pixar Movies in Chronological Order

A while ago my daughters and I went to the Pixar exhibit at the Oakland Museum and now we're watching all the full-length Pixar movies in chronological order. Below is the list -- if you're interested.

Tonight we watched Cars. Paul Newman is the voice of Doc in the movie. So, I went poking around on the 'net about Paul Newman and found a photo of him when he was in the Navy -- I posted it in my previous post.

now the list:

Toy Story
Bugs Life
Toy Story 2
Monsters, Inc.
Finding Nemo
The Incredibles
Cars
Ratatouille
WALL-E
Up
Toy Story 3


Someone asked me what was my favorite so far. Very hard to answer. Toy Story, methinks. But, to tell you the truth, I'm really enjoying all of them. Which doesn't mean I'm not critical of them ... you know, the usual -- too much testosterone poisoning -- fighting, weapons, explosions. Other than that stuff -- very creative, lots of humor. That's what I enjoy.

Paul Newman in the Navy

Photographer: Navy photographer, unknown

What a beautiful lad!

Book List 2011

Imagine that! A whole year gone!

2010 really flew by, and all I could manage was 60 books. This year's list is much longer. No time to waste.

This is the list for 01/01/2011:

Book List 2010

1. A Concise History of Indian Art - Roy C. Craven
   
2. A History of Cambodia - David Chandler
   
3. A History of India 1 - Romila Thapar
   
4. A History of India 2 - Percival Spear
   
5. A House in Gross Disorder - Cynthia B. Herrup
   
6. A Journalist, A General, and An Army in Burma - U Thaung
   
7. A New History of India - Stanley Wolpert
   
8. A Spy's Revenge - Richard V. Hall
   
9. A Tale Of Millions: Bangladesh Liberation War - M. Rafiqul Islam
   
10. Agnes Smedley - J.R. & S.R. MacKinnon
    
11. Alexander The Great - W.W. Tarn
    
12. Among the White Moonfaces - Shirley Lim Geok-lin
    
13. An Advanced History of India - Majumdar, Raychaudhuri & Dutta
    
14. Asian Dragons & Green Trade - Simon Tay & Daniel Esty
    
15. Bangladesh From Mujib to Ershad, an interpretive study - Lawrence Ziring
    
16. Beating the Blues - Thase & Lang
    
17. Before Kampuchea - Milton Osborne
    
18. Bird by Bird - Anne Lamott
    
19. Black Dog of Fate - Peter Balakian
    
20. Buddhism in Vietnam - Minh Chi, Ha Van Tan, Nguyen Tai Thu
    
21. Cambodia Silenced: The Press Under Six Regimes - Harish Mehta
    
22. Captains of Consciousness - Stuart Ewen
    
23. Ceylon - S. Arasaratnam
    
24. China's Second Revolution - Harry Harding
    
25. Chinese Carving - Craig Clunas
    
26. Chinese Customs - Henri Dore
    
27. Chinese Warlord - The Career of Feng Yu Hsiang - James E. Sheridan
    
28. Colonial Masculinity - Mrinalini Sinha
    
29. Decolonizing the Mind - Ngugi wa Thiong'o
    
30. Desis in the House - Sunaina Maira
    
31. Discos and Democracy - Orville Schell
    
32. Dread - The Rastafarians of Jamaica - Joseph Owens
    
33. Enemies of the People - Anne F. Thurston
    
34. Extraordinary Popular Delusions - Charles Mackay
    
35. Facets of Taoism - Holmes Welch & Anna Seidel
    
36. Finnegan's Wake - James Joyce
    
37. Fire in the Lake - Frances Fitzgerald
    
38. First Person Singular - Joyce Carol Oates
    
39. Flashbacks - Morley Safer
    
40. Flower of the Dragon - Richard Boyle
    
41. Folklore From Contemporary Jamaicans - Daryl C. Dance
    
42. Folklore of Tamil Nadu - S.M.L. Lakshman Chettiar
    
43. Gandhi - Louis Fischer
    
44. Gandhi's Truth — On the Origins of Militant Nonviolence - Erik H. Erikson
    
45. Gangsters and Revolutionaries - Robert Cribb
    
46. Grasshoppers & Elephants - Wilfred Burchett
    
47. Heritage of China - Contemporary Perspectives on Chinese Civilization - Ed. Paul S. Ropp
    
48. Hero And Deity - Pham Quynh Phuong
    
49. Hinduism - Its Historical Development - Troy Wilson Organ
    
50. In One's Own Shadow - Xin Liu
    
51. Incursion: From America's Chokehold on the NVA Lifelines to the Sacking of the Cambodian Sanctuaries - J.D. Coleman
    
52. India Wins Freedom - Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
    
53. Indian Art - Philip Rawson
    
54. Indonesian Confrontation - Gabriel Tan
    
55. Into Cambodia - Keith William Nolan
    
56. IsvarChandra Vidyasagar -
    
57. Khmers Stand Up! - Justin Corfield
    
58. Laogai - The Chinese Gulag - Harry Wu Hong da
    
59. Leviathan - Hobbes
    
60. Life - Keith Richards
    
61. Lo t'o Hsiang Tzu (Rickshaw) - Lao She
    
62. Mandarins, Jews, and Missionaries - Michael Pollak
    
63. Mandate of Heaven - Orville Schell
    
64. May 13 - Kua Kia Soong
    
65. Meena, Heroine of Afghanistan - Melody Ermachild Chavis
    
66. Microeconomic Theory - Gould & Ferguson
    
67. Minorities of the Sino-Vietnamese Borderland - Maurice Abadie
    
68. Murder and Mayhem in 17th Century Cambodia - Alfons van der Kraan
    
69. Myths About The Ethnic Chinese "Economic Miracle" - Go Bon Juan & Joaquim Sy
    
70. Nakshi Kantha of Bengal - Sila Basak
    
71. Offerings: The Ritual Art of Bali -
    
72. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
    
73. One Blood — The Jamaican Body - Elisa Janine Sobo
    
74. Orientalism - Edward W. Said
    
75. Outwitting the Gestapo - Lucie Aubrac
    
76. Painting Islam as the New Enemy -
    
77. Pearl S. Buck, A Cultural Biography - Peter Conn
    
78. People's War, People's Army - Vo Nguyen Giap
    
79. Personal Voices - Chinese Women in the '80s - Emily Honig & Gail Hershatter
    
80. Physics and Philosophy - Werner Heisenberg
    
81. Physiology of the Human Body - Guyton
    
82. Pol Pot - Philip Short
    
83. Popular Songs and Ballads of Han China - Anne Birrele
    
84. Porcelain From The VungTao Wreck -
    
85. Primitive Art - Frank Boas
    
86. Prometheus Rising - Robert Anton Wilson
    
87. Punjabi Century 1857-1947 - Prakash Tandon
    
88. Rasta & Resistance - Horace Campbell
    
89. Rastafari Roots & Ideology - Barry Chevannes
    
90. Rastafarian Theology - Imani Nyah
    
91. Reading Lolita In Teheran - Azar Nafisi
    
92. Red China Blues - Jan Wong
    
93. Reeducating Chinese Anti-Communists - J.A. Fyfield
    
94. Resistance and Reform in Tibet -
    
95. Revolution Postponed - Margery Wolf
    
96. Rickshaw Coolie: A People's History - J. Francis Warren
    
97. Roots of Rastafari - Virginia Lee Jacobs
    
98. Rosie - Anne Lamott
    
99. Rural Development in China - Fei Hsiao Tung
    
100. Sandakan: A Conspiracy of Silence - Lynette Ramsay Silver
     
101. Satyajit Ray: The Inner Eye (The Biography Of A Master Film-Maker - Andrew Robinson
     
102. Screenwriting 434 - Lew Hunter
     
103. Self Censorship: Singapore's Shame - James Gomez
     
104. Sexual Behaviour of Women in Singapore - V. Aputharajah
     
105. Shanghai Refuge, A Memoir of the WWII Jewish Ghetto - Ernest G. Heppner
     
106. Sherpas Through Their Rituals - Sherry B. Ortner
     
107. Shirin Fozdar: Asia's Foremost Feminist - Rose Ong
     
108. Singapore:Journey Into Nationhood
     
109. Singapore The Air-Conditioned Nation - Cherian George
     
110. Singapore & The Many-Headed Monster - Joe Conceicao
     
111. Singapore Women Re-presented - Constance Singam and Audrey Chin
     
112. Singapore's People's Action Party: Its History, Organization and Leadership - Pang Cheng Lian
     
113. Sisters in the Resistance - Margaret Collins Weitz
     
114. Sisters of Heaven - Patti Gully
     
115. Son of the Revolution - Liang Heng & Judith Shapiro
     
116. Stories of Your Life - Ted Chiang
     
117. Strangers Always A Jewish Family in Wartime Shanghai - Rena Krasno
     
118. Stress and Mental Health in Malaysian Society - Tan Chee Khuan
     
119. Stuff on My Cat -
     
120. The Adventures of Wu - H.Y. Lowe
     
121. The Argumentative Indian - Amartya Sen
     
122. The Art of the Novel - Milan Kundera
     
123. The Audacity of Hope - Barack Obama
     
124. The Autobiography of An Unknown Indian - Nirad C. Chaudhary
     
125. The Bengal Muslims 1871 - 1906 - Ahmed
     
126. The Birth of Vietnam - Keith Weller Taylor
     
127. The British Humiliation of Burma - Terence R. Blackburn
     
128. The Canterbury Tales - Chaucer
     
129. The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence - Victor Marchetti & John D. Marks
     
130. The Devil Finds Work - James Baldwin
     
131. The Discovery of India - Jawaharlal Nehru
     
132. The Dragon Empress - Marina Warner
     
133. The Emergence of Modern Turkey - Bernard Lewis
     
134. The Fajar Generation - Poh Soo Kai, ed.
     
135. The Forgotten Army (Indian Mutiny) - Peter Ward Fay
     
136. The Gene Hunters Biotechnology and the scramble for seeds - Calestous Juma
     
137. The Gift - Lewis Hyde
     
138. The Great Hedge of India - Roy Moxham
     
139. The Hatchet Man of Singapore - J.B. Jeyaretnam
     
140. The Journey to the West, Vol. 1 - Anthony Yu
     
141. The Last Emperor - Edward Behr
     
142. The Lives of Agnes Smedley - Ruth Price
     
143. The March of Folly From Troy To Vietnam - Barbara W. Tuchman
     
144. The Men Who Ruled India Vol. I The Founders - Philip Woodruff
     
145. The Men Who Ruled India, Vol. II The Guardians - Philip Woodruff
     
146. The Mind's I - Hofstadter & Dennett
     
147. The Mother Tongue - Bill Bryson
     
148. The New China - Alvin Rabushika
     
149. The Opium War Through Chinese Eyes - Arthur Waley
     
150. The Penang Po Leung Kuk -
     
151. The Political Economy of Social Control in Singapore - Christopher Tremewan
     
152. The Politics of Sri Lanka - Robert N. Kearney
     
153. The Politics of the Chinese Cultural Revolution - Lee Hong Yung
     
154. The Rape of Bangladesh - Mascarenhas
     
155. The Rastafarians - Leonard E. Barrett, Sr.
     
156. The Remembered Village - M.N. Srinivasan
     
157. The Rice Birds: Folktales from Thailand - C. & K. Velder
     
158. The Rig Veda - Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty, transl
     
159. The Rise & Fall of the Knights Templar - Gordon Napier
     
160. The Singapore Council of Women and The Women's Movement - Phyllis Ghim Lian Chew
     
161. The Singapore House - Norman Edwards
     
162. The Sinkiang Story - Jack Chen
     
163. The Soong Dynasty - Sterling Seagrave
     
164. The Spirit of Chinese Politics - Lucian Pye
     
165. The Syonan Years I - Lee Geok Boi
     
166. The Syonan Years II - Lee Geok Boi
     
167. The Tragedy of Wanit -
     
168. The Ugly Chinaman - Bo Yang
     
169. The Unmaking of Malaysia - Ahmad Mustapha Hassan
     
170. The Wha Chi -
     
171. The Wilting of the Hundred Flowers - Mu Fu Sheng
     
172. This Is Not Civilization - Robert Rosenberg
     
173. Time Bombs in Malaysia - Lim Kit Siang
     
174. Transition to Neo-Confucianism - Anne D. Birdwhistell
     
175. Unmasking Najib - Lim Kit Siang
     
176. Victims and Perpetrators - Ea Meng-try & Sorya Sim
     
177. Vietnam & America: The Most Comprehensive Documented History of the Vietnam War - Gettleman, et al
     
178. Vietnam Cultural Window
     
179. Wanted: Equality and Justice -
     
180. Warsaw of Asia: The Rape of Manila - Boni Escoda
     
181. Western Birds - Roger Tory Peterson
     
182. Wild Swans - Jung Chang
     
183. Witness to an Era - Frank Moraes
     
184. West Indians And Their Language - Peter A. Roberts
     
185. Who Killed Aung San? - Kin Oung
     
186. Women in the Holocaust - Dalia Ofer, Lenore J. Weitzman, Eds.
     
187. Writers' Workshop in a Book - Cheuse and Alvarez
     
188. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
     
189. Your Memory: A User's Guide - Alan Baddeley

Welp, I really overdid it this year.

Yes, I've been reading. Book review to follow.

My LinkedIn profile photo

(c) 2010 K. Smokey Cormier

What do you think? Would employers go for this? Young, blond, and you can get her to say what you want?

2010 Book Review

Yes, we actually did read some of the books on that interminable fucking list. So it's not a whole lot.

Besides, the excuse is, ve haff bin ketchingk up on ze past six years' backlog of Science News.

Srsly. We're all, like, up to 2010 January or something now.

So here's the review so far.

Book List 2010

1. A Ceremonial Death***- B.J. Oliphant
   
2. A Mercy***** - Toni Morrison
   
3. A Novel Bookstore***** - Laurence Cousse
   
4. A Point of Light*** - Zhou Mei
   
5. Ancient Roman Feasts & Recipes - Jon Solomon
   
6. Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman***** - Ernest J. Gaines
   
7. Blood Lust* - Alex Josey
   
8. Catch A Fire*** - Timothy White
   
9. Chinese Snuff Bottles*** - Vanessa Holden
   
10. Cities Of The Red Night - William Burroughs
    
11. Christmas Island
    
12. Daniel Deronda***** - George Eliot
    
13. Death for Old Times' Sake - A.J. Orde
    
14. Death Served Up Cold - B.J. Oliphant
    
15. Dreams From My Father***** - Barack Obama
    
16. Hotel Iris***** - Yoko Ogawa
    
17. Images of America - Oakland Hills - Erika Mailman
    
18. In Pursuit of Mountain Rats - Anthony Short
    
19. In The Woods** - Tana French
    
20. Juliet, Naked**** - Nick Hornby
    
21. Looking for the Aardvark*** - A.J. Orde
    
22. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand**** - Helen Simonson
    
23. My Side of History***** - Chin Peng
    
24. Memory: A Very Short Introduction*** - Jonathan Foster
    
25. No Country For Old Men*** - Cormac McCarthy
    
26. No Cowardly Past*** - James Puthucheary
    
27. No More Daddy's Little Girl - Karen Lee
    
28. Nonsense***** - Robert J. Gula
    
29. Pham Xuan An, General of the Secret Service**** - Hoang Hai Van & Tan Thu
    
30. Sapphires & Garlic**** - Ruth Reichl
    
31. Shantaram*** - Gregory David Roberts
    
32. Shirley**** - Charlotte Bronte
    
33. Square Foot Gardening - Mel Bartholomew
    
34. Still Life*** - E.E. Horlak
    
35. The Elegance of the Hedgehog***** - Muriel Barberry
    
36. The Emperor***** - Ryszard Kapuscinski
    
37. The Enchantress of Florence - Salman Rushdie
    
38. The Enthusiast - Charlie Haas
    
39. The First Third - Neal Cassady
    
40. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson
    
41. The Girl Who Played With Fire - Stieg Larsson
    
42. The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest - Stieg Larsson
    
43. The Great Indian Novel*** - Shashi Tharoor
    
44. The Hungry Tide**** - Amitav Ghosh
    
45. The Likeness - Tana French
    
46. The Moor's Last Sigh***** - Salman Rushdie
    
47. The Narrow Strip of Land**** - Tran Mai Nam
    
48. The Pantropheon**** - Alexis Soyer
    
49. The Plague***** - Albert Camus
    
50. The Rottweiler - Ruth Rendell
    
51. The Tin Drum***** - Gunther Grass
    
52. The Triads in Singapore and Malaya**** - Leon Comber
    
53. The Unexpected Corpse - B.J. Oliphant
    
54. The Waiting Earth**** - Punyakante Wijenaike
    
55. The Way of All Flesh***** - Samuel Butler
    
56. There are Ghosts Everywhere in Singapore
    
57. True Singapore Ghost Stories 2 - Russell Lee
    
58. True Singapore Ghost Stories 9 - Russell Lee
    
59. Wedding Song***** - Naguib Mahfouz
    
60. Yogini Cult & Temples***** - Vidya Dehejia

Not too shabby, eh? The ones I thought worth reading are starred. Number of stars indicates rank of book. Limit: 5. Anything over 3 stars is pretty much recommended reading, although some of it might be a bit arcane for the average reader's taste. Or as Gabriel Garcia Marquez' translators like to say, recondite.

Incidentally, we here at La Casa de Los Gatos are changing our reading policy. We're reminded, as all our loved ones and friends exit the planet, that time is not necessarily on our side, as avid readers. No more lengthy reviews. It's not like anybody's reading them anyway, right? And no more trashy reading. Only the stuff that will blow my socks off. Anything else goes out the door.