Photograph for today

opening

(c) 2008 K. Smokey Cormier

I took this photo at the Berkeley Rose Garden in Berkeley, California. It's a treasure. If you visit Berkeley, you should try to visit it. Hundreds of roses. Plus, I love to read their names. Sorry, don't know the name of this one.

I then modified it in PhotoShop using the Colored Pencil filter.

Lorraine Hansberry, Rest in Peace

Gorgeous photo by David Moses Attie (c) 1960.

Today would have been her 78th birthday. May she rest in peace.

Last year I read A Raisin in the Sun and loved it. It remains an extremely powerful play. Highly recommended.

Here are some quotes from Lorraine Hansberry:

• There is always something left to love. And if you ain't learned that, you ain't learned nothing. Have you cried for that boy today? I don't mean for yourself and for the family 'cause we lost the money. I mean for him; what he's been through and what it done to him. Child, when do you think is the time to love somebody the most; when they done good and made things easy for everybody? Well then, you ain't through learning -- because that ain't the time at all. It's when he's at his lowest and can't believe in hisself 'cause the world done whipped him so. When you starts measuring somebody, measure him right child, measure him right. Make sure you done taken into account what hills and valleys he come through before he got to wherever he is. [from Raisin in the Sun]


More quotes from Lorraine Hansberry ...

"Do I remain a revolutionary? Intellectually -- without a doubt. But am I prepared to give my body to the struggle or even my comforts? This is what I puzzle about."


• "The thing that makes you exceptional, if you are at all, is inevitably that which must also make you lonely." [This quote really struck me. I'm gonna think on this all day ..]


• "Some scholars have estimated that in the three centuries that the European slave trade flourished, the African continent has lost one hundred million of its people. No one, to my knowledge, has ever paid reparations to the descendants of black men; indeed, they have not yet really acknowledged the fact of the crime against humanity, which was the conquest of Africa. But then -- history has not yet been concluded -- has it?"

And I must include a quote from the poet, educator, and activist -- Nikky Finney. She wrote this dedication for her book of extraordinary poems The World is Round:

For the tender-hearted insurgent Lorraine Hansberry, who "finished my thoughts" long before I had them.

And let's end with this one:

Let your motto be resistance.

From a photographer I like ...

(c) 2008 K Smokey Cormier

Oakland Scrapbook

Some photos I took around town today ...



Here's a beautiful image (silk screen?) at the corner of 53rd Street and Martin Luther King, Jr. Way in our dear grieving city of Oakland. Wish I knew the artist ... so I could give a credit here. It looks like there's a tag that says BIP GARY. Did I get that right? Well, whoever you are, this image is a beautiful heart-wrenching work! The text says: THE CHILDREN OF OAKLAND NEED JUSTICE



and others






(c) 2008 K Smokey Cormier

Warming Hut Reopens!

Yesterday, a friend and I went out to the newly-reopened Warming Hut which is part of Crissy Field and the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. The Conservancy includes places in the San Francisco bay area like Crissy Field, Point Bonita, Alcatraz, Baker Beach, Fort Funston, Fort Mason, Marin Headlands, Muir Woods, Point Reyes National Seashore, Tennessee Valley, Olema Valley, Mt. Tamapalais, Stinson Beach -- some of my most favorite places in the bay area.

To me, the Warming Hut is very special. The views are incredible. At the hut, you get a breathtaking view of the Golden Gate Bridge.



You can easily walk to the bridge's base on the San Francisco side. And, you can recreate that scene where Kim Novak jumps into the water (dangerous thing to do, not recommended) in Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. You can see Alcatraz straight out in the Bay.



And, on a day like yesterday, the water and sky are beautiful and you’re likely to see lots of sailboats. Off to the right, is the city. The city by the bay per Herb Caen. Everything looked clean and vibrant yesterday. It was a glorious day to be out and about in San Francisco.


The Warming Hut had been closed because of a fire last January. The staff worked extra hard to get it back open. There’s a new kitchen, coffee and food prep area. We stayed and had brunch there. The food was scrumptious! Kudos to the chef. I indulged with a cup of café mocha. Yum!




The Warming Hut also has a wonderful gift shop ... lots of interesting and unique gifts. I got a seashore bird mobile, a couple of children’s books, and some uniquely packaged chocolate from Charles Chocolates.

I thoroughly enjoyed going to the Warming Hut yesterday! It was like those old coffee commercials used to say: perks you up while it calms you down.

All photos (c) 2007 K Smokey Cormier.

Oakland's Lake Merritt at dusk

(c) 2007 K Smokey Cormier

Oakland. I've loved it for many years.

Autumn, lookin' good

(c) 2007 K Smokey Cormier

Just wanted to put a couple of nice photos up here. These were taken at The Edible Schoolyard in Berkeley, California.

This is your state of mind during the Bush years

(c) 2005 K Smokey Cormier

Happy Halloween ... Día de los Muertos ... Oíche Shamhna ... the fire festival ...

To read a fascinating history of this holiday, click here.

They Walk Among Us

(c) 2007 K Smokey Cormier

Halloween - Dead Kennedys

So it's halloween
And you feel like dancin'
And you feel like shinin'
And you feel like letting loose

Whatcha gonna be
Babe, you better know
And you better plan
Better plan all day

Better plan all week
Better plan all month
Better plan all year

You're dressed up like a clown
Putting on your act
It's the only time all year
You'll ever admit that

I can see your eyes
I can see your brain
Baby, nothing's changed

You're still hiding in a mask
You take your fun seriously
No, don't blow this year's chance
Tomorrow your mold goes back on

After halloween

You go to work today
You'll go to work tomorrow
Shitfaced tonight
You'll brag about it for months

Remember what I did
Remember what I was
Back on halloween

But what's in between
Where are your ideas
You sit around and dream
For next halloween

Why not everyday
Are you so afraid
What will people say

After halloween

Because your role is planned for you
There's nothing you can do
But stop and think it through
But what will the boss say to you

And what will your girlfriend say to you
And the people out on the street they might glare at you
And whadya know you're pretty self-conscious too

So you run back and stuff yourselves in rigid business costumes
Only at night to score is your leather uniform exhumed
Why don't you take your social regulations
And shove 'em up your ass

Halloween ... closer and closer

photo by K Smokey Cormier

Diesel Dyke

(c) 2007 K. Smokey Cormier

Remember the old phrase "diesel dyke"?