Oakland: Morcom Rose Garden

Oakland Municipal Rose Garden, c. 1932 (courtesy of Oakland Heritage Association)

"A rose is a rose is a rose." Sistah Gertrude said.

A beauty of a rose at the Oakland Rose Garden
photo by K. Smokey Cormier

Today I visited the WPA-created Morcom Rose Garden here in wonderful Oakland, California. I had never heard of it before but recently saw it on the list of places visited by the author of "36 hours in Oakland, Calif." in the NYTimes. I first moved to the San Francisco Bay Area ... holey-moley!... 36 years ago and I have lived in Oakland two other times before now. And, nope, never heard about this gem of a park. It's gorgeous and smells great. It's not completely surrounded by tall trees ... but it has a lot of them on both sides. They provide fresh air and quiet.

Tall trees are on both sides of the Oakland Rose Garden
(all photos copyright 2009 K. Smokey Cormier)

Double-click on photos to zoom in

One of the other visitors there today told me that this park wasn't always a good place to visit. It was ruined by people who messed up the plants, threw garbage around, and hung out there shooting up. I was one of four people there this morning. So few visitors because it had just rained and it was cold, wet, foggy, overcast. But it was also lovely. The other visitor told me that volunteers worked and worked on this park and brought it back. There are still work parties almost every Saturday.

The Oakland Rose Garden also called the Morcom Rose Garden,
named for former Oakland Mayor Fred Morcom

I noticed all these names embedded in the concrete path. This is the Mother of the Year Walk, displaying names of all the women chosen as Oakland's Mother of the Year since 1954. The things you learn when you read voraciously and go snooping about in the world!

From the City of Oakland Parks and Recreation Department's website:

Morcom Rose Garden
Located near Grand Avenue
700 Jean Street, Oakland, California 94610

Morcom Municipal Rose Garden, also referred to as the Morcom Amphitheater of Roses, is a fantasyland of a thousand fragrant roses. The garden which features a large Italian-style pavilion (which only facilitates the restrooms), a reflective pool and terraces overflowing with gorgeous roses. The first roses bloomed in 1932 at Morcom Rose Garden, today the Gardens feature 6,000 plants and 300 varities of rose bushes throughout the garden's eight-acres.

A peaceful oasis in the middle of the City, hidden amongst endless beds of roses. The garden is conveniently situated just off Grand Avenue, not far from Lake Merritt, the treasured jewel of the city. The gardens are available for reservation Mother's Day through October 31.

In 1959, the Morcom Amphitheater located in the Oakland Municipal Rose Garden was officially dedicated, where it became a favorite location for weddings. It remains as a resplendent back drop for brides and grooms preparing to tie the knot in matrimonial bliss [also brides and brides, grooms and grooms -- Ms. Manitoba must add]. Along the garden is a serene 10-tier waterfall on the western hillside gently shaded by towering trees, with delicate pink Pride of Oakland polyantha shrubs resting on both sides. Four varieties of Peace fill the center bed of the rear terrace, where old garden roses rescued from around California clamber up the rock retaining walls. Rose bushes bloom May through September annually.

This rose had the most wonderful fragrance

I can't wait to go on a sunny day when these roses have opened up.

The reflective pool

I love these bushy types

And here is the 10-tiered waterfall

Happy 90th Birthday, Dear Pete Seeger

From the Writer's Almanac ...

It's the birthday of folk singer Pete Seeger, born in New York City (1919). His mother was a violinist and his father was a musicologist. As a teenager, he rebelled against his parents' love of music and decided he wanted to be a painter. But the first time he heard the sound of a banjo at the Folk Song and Dance Festival in Asheville, North Carolina, he fell in love with folk music. He dropped out of Harvard and rode the rails across America in the middle of the Great Depression, picking up folk songs and learning banjo techniques from farmers, workers, and mountaineers. He wrote:

Where have all the flowers gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the flowers gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the flowers gone?
Girls have picked them every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?

Where have all the young girls gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the young girls gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the young girls gone?
Taken husbands every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?

Where have all the young men gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the young men gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the young men gone?
Gone for soldiers every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?

Where have all the soldiers gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Gone to graveyards every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?

Where have all the graveyards gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the graveyards gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the graveyards gone?
Covered with flowers every one
When will we ever learn?
When will we ever learn?

©1961 (Renewed) Fall River Music Inc
All Rights Reserved.

Eiffel Tower: 360 degree view

C'est magnifique! Go here.

Was it hemmorrhoids?

Why was Jay Leno in the hospital? Was it hemmorrhoids? Ahhhhhhhhhh, I'm just being silly. If I were him, I wouldn't tell people no matter what the problem was. And, I don't really want to know. Why do people care? Why is this a big story?

You go, Jay. Heal well.

Million Dollar Thieves

Uptown on Lenox Avenue
Where a nickel costs a dime,
In these lush and thieving days
When million-dollar thieves
Glorify their million-dollar ways
In the press and on the radio and TV-
But won't let me
Skim even a dime-

Langston Hughes

In Memoriam and With Profound Respect

From today's Writer's Almanac ...

April 19 It was on this day in 1943 that an uprising began in the Warsaw ghetto. There were about 300,000 Jews in Warsaw, and thousands more refugees streamed in from smaller towns. In 1940, the Nazis built a wall around a small section of the city and forced all the Jews into it. Conditions were horrible. In the winter, there were fuel shortages, and people succumbed to influenza. A small resistance movement began to organize. Then, in 1942, the Nazis deported more than 300,000 Jews from the Warsaw ghetto to the concentration camp in Treblinka. Reports of mass murder leaked back to the ghetto, and the resistance movement gained momentum. And on this day in 1943, the first day of Passover, hundreds of German soldiers entered the ghetto in rows of tanks, planning to destroy the ghetto in three days. But resistance fighters fought back, and they held on for almost a month.





And one of my favorite poems ... printed in the March 25, 1991 issue of The New Yorker ...



The Yellow Star That Goes With Me

Sometimes when I’m really thirsty, I mean really dying of thirst
For five minutes
Sometimes when I board a train
Sometimes in December when I’m absolutely freezing

For five minutes
Sometimes when I take a shower
Sometimes in December when I’m absolutely freezing
Sometimes when I reach from steam to towel, when the bed has soft, blue sheets

Sometimes when I take a shower
For twenty minutes, the white tiles dripping with water
Sometimes when I reach from steam to towel, when the bed has soft, blue sheets
Sometimes when I split an apple, or when I’m hungry, painfully hungry

For twenty minutes, the white tiles dripping with water
As the train passes Chambers Street. We’re all crammed in like laundry
Sometimes when I split an apple, or when I’m hungry, painfully hungry
For half an hour, sometimes when I’m on a train

As it passes Chambers Street. We’re all crammed in like laundry
It’s August. The only thing to breathe is everybody’s stains
For half an hour, sometimes when I’m on a train
Or just stand along the empty platform

It’s August. The only thing to breathe is everybody’s stains
Sometimes when I board a train
Or just stand along the empty platform―
Sometimes when I’m really thirsty, I mean really dying of thirst

-- Jessica Greenbaum

Jessica Greenbaum was born in Brooklyn, where she now lives with her husband and two daughters. She is the poetry editor for upstreet (www.upstreet-mag.org).

What about Oakland?

What happened to Oakland during the 1906 earthquake? Well, a visit to the Oakland Museum's website tells you some of the story. In 2006, the Oakland Museum had an exhibit called Aftershock! which showed in a variety of ways how the Bay Area residents coped with the huge earthquake. In fact, the exhibit dug a little deeper and documented how certain San Franciscans tried to downplay the severity of the disaster and protect their commercial future. (By the way, the Oakland Museum is a great place to visit. Very interesting exhibits plus it has great food -- mostly organic -- in the cafe. On weekends, there is live jazz in the cafe.)

Here's what the Oakland Museum website says:

Oakland to the Rescue!, a companion exhibit (through December 31), shows how Oakland, largely undamaged by the quake and fire, with a busy port and railroad lines, served as the base for San Francisco’s recovery efforts. Gov. George C. Pardee and San Francisco businessmen temporarily moved their offices to Oakland. Many refugees took shelter across the Bay; Oakland’s Chinatown population boomed during the influx.

At the turn of the century, Oakland was California’ssecond largest city, with a population of 67,000. When the 1906 earthquake struck, Oakland suffered considerable damage, but it avoided the devastating fires that crippled San Francisco. Oakland’s residents responded quickly to the disaster and welcomed almost 200,000 San Franciscans who sought refuge. Oakland’s Chinatown boomed during the influx. Overnight Oakland, with its port and railroad lines, banks, and communication lines, became the base for the relief effort.

Oakland. I love it.

Anniversary of the San Francisco Earthquake

I get the Writer's Almanac emailed to me each day. Today it has a description of the 1906 earthquake that happened right here in the San Francisco Bay Area. I've read many accounts about it ... but this one had so many shocking bits to it. Read it and see if you don't learn some new things. Kinda reminded me of Katrina in New Orleans.

It was on this day in 1906 that one of the worst natural disasters in the history of the United States occurred: the San Francisco earthquake. The shaking started at 5:12 a.m. on a Wednesday, and lasted just over a minute, with the main shock 42 seconds long. It erupted along the San Andreas fault, which runs the length of California. The epicenter was two miles off the coast of San Francisco. It was probably about a 7.8 on the modern Richter scale.

In 1906, San Francisco had a population of 410,000 people. The earthquake and resulting fires left about two out of every three residents of the city homeless. The earthquake ruined many buildings, but historians estimate that 90 percent of the destruction to the city came from fires that followed the earthquake, rather than the earthquake itself. The initial fires were caused by ruptured gas lines, and then firefighters decided to blow up buildings with dynamite, hoping that they would create firebreaks. It didn't work, and it's estimated that half of the buildings blown up by dynamite would have otherwise survived. On top of that, since insurance covered fire damage but not earthquake damage, people started setting their own homes and businesses on fire. But as it turned out, insurance companies could not cover the massive disaster, so people didn't get their money anyway. About 500 people were shot and killed by police and federal troops who had been called in to keep order. Some of the people who were killed weren't actually looting — they were trying to rescue their own possessions.

The city of San Francisco hurried to rebuild in time for the Panama Pacific International Exposition in 1915. In the rush, many building codes and regulations were ignored, and buildings built after the 1906 earthquake were actually less seismically safe than those built before.

Some pretty awful stuff ...

• "The earthquake and resulting fires left about two out of every three residents of the city homeless."
• "... insurance companies could not cover the massive disaster, so people didn't get their money anyway."
• "About 500 people were shot and killed by police and federal troops who had been called in to keep order. Some of the people who were killed weren't actually looting — they were trying to rescue their own possessions."
• "... and buildings built after the 1906 earthquake were actually less seismically safe than those built before."

Would we fare any better now?

[To receive the Writer's Almanac yourself each day in email, go here.]

Poetry and Books: Let's Read!!!

The Edible Schoolyard
(c) 2006 K. Smokey Cormier

Hi, everybody!

I am reading two books right now ... vaguely complimentary ... neither one on my yearly booklist. But I'm enjoying each one thoroughly:

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian - Sherman Alexie. It's a novel with graphics. Meant for young adults. Alexie is very good. I've enjoyed his short stories in the New Yorker. I loved Smoke Signals -- movie based on one of his short stories in The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. And he now has a book of poetry out ... one of them is below. The thing I like about him is that he's got a great sense of humor and he's irreverent. Breaks stereotypes about First Nation peoples.

1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus - Charles C. Mann. It's nonfiction and dense with stories and facts. I'm reading it AND listening to it on CD in my car to and fro wherever. Wow, so much interesting stuff. Another book that challenges the myths we all learned about First Nation peoples. For example, we think of the Americas before European invasion as "untrammeled by man." Here's an excerpt about The Beni -- a Bolivian province:

The Beni is a case in point. In addition to building roads, causeways, canals, dikes, reservoirs, mounds, raised agricultural fields, and possibly ball courts, Erickson has argued, the Indians who lived there before Columbus trapped fish in the seasonally flooded grassland. The trapping was not a matter of a few isolated natives with nets, but a society-wide effort in which hundreds or thousands of people fashioned dense, zigzagging networks of earthen fish weirs (fish-corralling fences) among the causeways.

Stopping
by Sherman Alexie

Wait,
Whose
Woods
Are
These?
Mr.
Frost,
Please.

Haven't
You
Heard
Of
Broken
Treaties?

Of
Course,
You
Still
Have
Promises
To
Keep.

Your
Pastoral
Horse
Shit
Is
Deep.


Today ... a few more poems ... these two from The Writer's Almanac ...

In Early Spring
by Larry Smith


Road catkins, russet and tan, let the
wind sweep over them as dusk
seeps in along the lake,
and I pass road puddles
swelling to ponds, mirroring
the sky's own silveriness.
At the railroad tracks seven geese
veer off and set down in a field
so that only their necks
speak for them, telling us all
to go on while they rest
by the barn. Today a man
asked me if I were depressed,
and I looked up and smiled.
No more than these geese or catkins
as light falls around them, no
more than those pine boughs
lifting in the wind—just so,
life goes on.





April Prayer

by Stuart Kestenbaum

Just before the green begins there is the hint of green
a blush of color, and the red buds thicken
the ends of the maple's branches and everything
is poised before the start of a new world,
which is really the same world
just moving forward from bud
to flower to blossom to fruit
to harvest to sweet sleep, and the roots
await the next signal, every signal
every call a miracle and the switchboard
is lighting up and the operators are
standing by in the pledge drive we've
all been listening to: Go make the call.

"In Early Spring" by Larry Smith, from A River Remains. © WordTech Editions, 2006, and "April Prayer" by Stuart Kestenbaum, from Prayers & Run-on Sentences. © Deerbrook Editions, 2007.


Hey, it's Poetry Month ... here's another from Poetry Daily:

Fog

That dense fog I'd been groping through, cursing
at every tentative step I took, lifted
at least for an instant so that I could glimpse
on every side the dangerous chasms, worse

than anything I had imagined. Then, at some slight
shift in the wind, it closed in again, thick
as ever and leaving me worse off than before.
It was no dream but the waking truth of aging,

common to everyone, the depressing secret
nobody tells us, not even our parents—
out of kindness, perhaps, for they know that sooner or later
we each come to this place and learn for ourselves.

David R. Slavitt

The Seven Deadly Sins and Other Poems
Louisiana State University Press



And, no, I'm not finished yet.

Here are several books I want to add to my reading list. The list of books below and the comments are taken from last Sunday's SFChronicle/Examiner book section):

Shakespeare Wrote for Money by Nick Hornby: The author chronicles his battle between "books bought" versus "books read." Brilliant. In paperback. [Ms. Manitoba L-O-V-E-S Nick Hornby. His sense of humor just has me rolling.]

The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments by George Johnson: Johnson illustrates how science, art and beauty can occasionally be the same thing. In paperback.

Edible Schoolyard: A Universal Idea by Alice Waters: A chronicle of the transformation of one abandoned plot of land at a Berkeley public school into the Edible Schoolyard - a model for institutions everywhere. [Folks, I photograph there all the time. See my post in July 2008 and the one in November 2007.]

Book List 2009 - Preliminary

Finally!

Here we are at the end of the first quarter and we've finally completed our 2009 list of books to read. Book List 2009

1. 20th Century Chinese Stories - C.T. Hsia, Ed.
   
2. A Dictionary of Common Trinidad Hindi - Kumar Mahabir
   
3. A History of Cambodia - David Chandler
   
4. A History of Modern Indonesia - M.C. Ricklefs
   
5. A House in Gross Disorder - Cynthia B. Herrup
   
6. A Mercy - Toni Morrison
   
7. A Patchwork Shawl: Chronicles of South Asian Women in America - Ed: Shamita Das Dasgupta
   
8. A Point of Light - Zhou Mei
   
9. A Spy's Revenge - Richard V. Hall
   
10. A Tiger In Red Weather - John Wyllie
    
11. A Will For Freedom - Romen Bose
    
12. Agnes Smedley - J.R. & S.R. MacKinnon
    
13. Anathem - Neal Stephenson
    
14. Armed Communist Movements in Southeast Asia - Lim Joo Jock, Vani S., Eds.
    
15. Arms and The Women - Reginald Hill
    
16. Asian Labour In The Japanese Wartime Empire - Paul Kratosha, Ed.
    
17. Baumgartner's Bombay - Anita Desai
    
18. Beating the Blues - Thase & Lang
    
19. Between Two Oceans - Murkett, Miskic, Farrell, & Chiang
    
20. Bird by Bird - Anne Lamott
    
21. Bitter Lemons - Lawrence Durrell
    
22. Blanche Among The Talented Tenth - Barbara Neely
    
23. Blanche Cleans Up - Barbara Neely
    
24. Blanche On The Lam - Barbara Neely
    
25. Blanche Passes Go - Barbara Neely
    
26. Blood On The Golden Sands - Lim Kean Siew
    
27. Eye Over The Golden Sands - Lim Kean Siew
    
28. Captains of Consciousness - Stuart Ewen
    
29. Chandranath - Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay
    
30. Chinese Customs - Henri Dore
    
31. Clay Walls - Kim Ronyoung
    
32. Colonial Masculinity - Mrinalini Sinha
    
33. Daniel Deronda - George Eliot
    
34. Death and The Dogwalker - (A.J. Orde) Sherri S. Tepper
    
35. Death Comes For The Fat Man - Reginald Hill
    
36. Death's Jest-Book - Reginald Hill
    
37. Dena-Paona - Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay
    
38. Devdas - Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay
    
39. Dialogues of the Dead - Reginald Hill
    
40. Dictionary of the Khazars - Milorad Pavic
    
41. Extraordinary Popular Delusions - Charles Mackay
    
42. Finnegan's Wake - James Joyce
    
43. First Person Singular - Joyce Carol Oates
    
44. Folklore of Tamil Nadu - S.M.L. Lakshman Chettiar
    
45. Force 136:Story of A Resistance Fighter in WWII - Tan Chong Tee
    
46. From Pacific War to Merdeka - James Wong Wing On
    
47. Gaijin - James Clavell
    
48. Gandhi's Truth — On the Origins of Militant Nonviolence - Erik H. Erikson
    
49. Heart Politics - Fran Peavey
    
50. How I Adore You - Mark Pritchard
    
51. In Pursuit of Mountain Rats - Anthony Short
    
52. In The Grip of a Crisis - Rudy Mosbergen
    
53. Kempeitai:The Japanese Secret Service Then And Now - Richard Deacon
    
54. Kempeitai - Raymond Lamont Brown
    
55. Krait:The Fishing Boat That Went To War - Lynette Ramsay Silver
    
56. Kranji - Romen Bose
    
57. Labour Unrest in Malaya - Tai Yuen
    
58. Lest We Forget - Alice M. Coleman & Joyce E. Williams
    
59. Life As The River Flows - Agnes Khoo
    
60. Living Hell - Goh Chor Boon
    
61. Malay Folk Beliefs - Mohd Taib Osman
    
62. Malaya and Singapore During the Japanese Occupation - Paul H. Kratoska, Ed.
    
63. Marianne, The Madame, and The Momentary Gods - Sherri S. Tepper
    
64. Marianne, The Magus, and The Manticore - Sherri S. Tepper
    
65. Meena, Heroine of Afghanistan - Melody Ermachild Chavis
    
66. Memory in Mind and Brain - Morton F. Reiser
    
67. Modern Japan, A Historical Survey - Hane Mikiso
    
68. Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf
    
69. Murder on the Verandah - Eric Lawlor
    
70. My Island in the Sun - Khor Cheang Kee
    
71. Niels Lyhne - Jens Peter Jacobsen
    
72. Niskriti - Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay
    
73. Nonsense - Robert J. Gula
    
74. No Cowardly Past - James Puthucheary
    
75. Operation Matador - Ong Chit Chung
    
76. Orientalism - Edward W. Said
    
77. Orlando - Virginia Woolf
    
78. Outwitting the Gestapo - Lucie Aubrac
    
79. Over Tumbled Graves - Jess Walter
    
80. Padma River Boatman - Manik Bandhopadhyay
    
81. Palli Samaj (The Homecoming) - Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay
    
82. Pandit Moshai - Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay
    
83. Pearl S. Buck, A Cultural Biography - Peter Conn
    
84. People's War, People's Army - Vo Nguyen Giap
    
85. Power Politics - Arundhati Roy
    
86. Primitive Art - Frank Boas
    
87. Prometheus Rising - Robert Anton Wilson
    
88. Purple Cane Road - James Lee Burke
    
89. Raffles - Maurice Collins
    
90. Reading Lolita In Teheran - Azar Nafisi
    
91. Recalled To Life - Reginald Hill
    
92. Red Star Over Malaya - Cheah Boon Kheng
    
93. Rehearsal for War - Ban Kah Choon & Yap Hong Kuan
    
94. Rethinking Raffles - Syed Muhd. Khairudin Aljunied
    
95. Revolt in Paradise - K'tut Tantri
    
96. Rosie - Anne Lamott
    
97. Satyajit Ray: The Inner Eye (The Biography Of A Master Film-Maker - Andrew Robinson
    
98. Screenwriting 434 - Lew Hunter
    
99. Shanghai Refuge, A Memoir of the WWII Jewish Ghetto - Ernest G. Heppner
    
100. Sherpas Through Their Rituals - Sherry B. Ortner
     
101. Shut Up, I'm Talking - Gregory Levey
     
102. Singapore & The Many-Headed Monster - Joe Conceicao
     
103. Singapore The Air-Conditioned Nation - Cherian George
     
104. Singapore The Pregnable Fortress - Peter Elphick
     
105. Sisters in the Resistance - Margaret Collins Weitz
     
106. Skull Still Bone - John Wyllie
     
107. Soldiers Alive - Ishikawa Tatsuzo
     
108. Soon I Will be Invincible - Austin Grossman
     
109. Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce Vol. I - Anthony Reid
110. Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce Vol. II - Anthony Reid
     
111. Strangers Always A Jewish Family in Wartime Shanghai - Rena Krasno
     
112. Stress and Mental Health in Malaysian Society - Tan Chee Khuan
     
113. Sunset Limited - James Lee Burke
     
114. Taming the Wind of Desire - Carol Laderman
     
115. The Art of Detection - Laurie R. King
     
116. The Art of the Novel - Milan Kundera
     
117. The Autobiography of An Unknown Indian - Nirad C. Chaudhary
     
118. The Bengal Muslims 1871 - 1906 - Ahmed
     
119. The Birth of Vietnam - Keith Weller Taylor
     
120. The British Humiliation of Burma - Terence R. Blackburn
     
121. The Bones - Sherri S. Tepper
     
122. The Demon-Haunted World - Carl Sagan
     
123. The Devil Finds Work - James Baldwin
     
124. The Double Tenth Trial - C. Sleeman, S.C. Sillein, Eds.
     
125. The Dutch Seaborne Empire 1600 - 1800 - C.R. Boxer
     
126. The Emergence of Modern Turkey - Bernard Lewis
     
127. The End of the War - Romen Bose
     
128. The Eye Over The Golden Sands - Lim Kean Siew
     
129. The Gift - Lewis Hyde
     
130. The Gravedigger's Daughter - Joyce Carol Oates
     
131. The Jungle is Neutral - F. Spencer Chapman
     
132. The Killer Breath - John Wyllie
     
133. The Lincoln Lawyer - Michael Conolly
     
134. The Lives of Agnes Smedley - Ruth Price
     
135. The Long, Dark Night of Baron Samedi - John Wyllie
     
136. The Malayan Union Controversy 1942-1948 - Albert Lau
     
137. The Mak Nyahs Malaysian Male to Female Transexuals - Teh Yik Koon
     
138. The March of Folly From Troy To Vietnam - Barbara W. Tuchman
     
139. The Companions - Sherri S. Tepper
140. The Margarets - Sherri S. Tepper
     
141. The Mind's I - Hofstadter & Dennett
     
142. The Nanjing Massacre - Honda Katsuichi
     
143. The Origins of The Second World War in Asia and the Pacific - Iriye Akira
     
144. The Pacific War - Ienaga Saburo
     
145. The Phor Tor Festival In Penang:Deities, Ghosts, and Chinese Ethnicity - Tan Sooi Beng
     
146. The Physics of Star Trek - Lawrence Krauss
     
147. The Plague - Albert Camus
     
148. The Political Economy of Social Control in Singapore - Christopher Tremewan
     
149. The Price of Peace - Foong Choon Hon, Ed.
     
150. The Prince and The Discourses - Niccolo Machiavelli
     
151. The Rape of Nanking - Iris Chang
     
152. The Remembered Village - M.N. Srinivasan
     
153. The Right To Die - Humphry-Wickett
     
154. The Rise & Fall of the Knights Templar - Gordon Napier
     
155. The Scents of Eden, A History of the Spice Trade - Charles Corn
     
156. The Tin Drum - Gunther Grass
     
157. The Tin Roof Blowdown - James Lee Burke
     
158. The Ugly Chinaman - Bo Yang
     
159. The Vintage Book of Indian Writing - Salman Rushdie, Elizabeth West, Eds.
     
160. The War in Malaya - A.E. Percival
     
161. The Way of All Flesh - Samuel Butler
     
162. Three Came Home - Agnes Newton Keith
     
163. To The Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf
     
164. The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga
     
165. Till Morning Comes - Han Suyin
     
166. Time Bombs in Malaysia - Lim Kit Siang
     
167. To Catch A Viper - John Wyllie
     
168. Tokyo Rose - Masayo Duus
     
169. Tumbuna Stories 1, The Creation of Animal Life/As Bilong Animal - Thomas H. Slone and Jada Wilson
     
170. Tumbuna Stories 2,The Origin of People and Society/As Bilong Manmeri Na Sosaiti - Thomas H. Slone and Peter Leo Ella
     
171. Virtual Reality - Howard Rheingold
     
172. War & Memory in Malaysia & Singapore - P. Lim Pui Huen, Diana Wong, Eds.
     
173. Who Won The Malayan Emergency - Herbert Andrew
     
174. Witness to an Era - Frank Moraes
     
175. Women in the Holocaust - Dalia Ofer, Lenore J. Weitzman, Eds.
     
176. Women, Outcastes, Peasants & Rebels - Kalpana Bardhan
     
177. Writers' Workshop in a Book - Cheuse and Alvarez
     
178. You'll Die in Singapore - Charles McCormac
     
179. You'll Never Get Off This Island - Keith Wilson
     
180. Your Memory: A User's Guide - Alan Baddeley
     

And before y'awl start yawping about how ambitious I'm being, two things:

1. I already read some of these. After all, this list has been in prep since January, fer cryin' out.

2. It's all the fault of those people who shall remain, as my Primary Three teacher, Mr. Robert Tan, used to say, "nameless and shameless." You know who you are who keep lending/buying/giving me books!

3. Oh, yeah, thanks for the books.

4. I can't count worth shit.

Ms. Manitoba's right. Read the fiction first, it's easier than all those skull-thumpers.

For you, my interested audience (all three of you, c'mon now!) - some of these books have been on the list a mighty long time and still haven't been read. Should I hang on to them, or just let go?

Examples: A Spy's Revenge, Extraordinary Popular Delusions, Heart Politics, Virginia Woolf's work.

Most of these books are about WWII - is this good, for someone still recovering from major surgery? Vote, you get a chance to actually say what I'm gonna kick off my list.

Many of these books have been read and are being reread. Some of them (e.g., Robert Gula's Nonsense) are well worth rereading, repeatedly. Others? I ask you.

Examples: Revolt in Paradise, The Jungle is Neutral, The Mind's Eye (Hofstader, really boring), Howard Rheingold's Virtual Reality (dated), Machiavelli's Prince, The Physics of Star Trek (nerdy nerd nerd!) - really, why reread these? I can understand Camus, I've reread the Plague at least twice in this life AFAICR, but Hofstader? OK, vote already. I'll take your comments into account.

FYI, if you're interested in getting any of these books, they're linked to Amazon, so click and throw a few coins into my wallet, won'tcha? First review coming right up.

From the album of K. Smokey Cormier

All images below are (c) 2009 by K. Smokey Cormier

Tentative title of series: "I just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in"

Book Review 2008

Final. I swear. Enough of 2008, already. End of teh shrub error. So there.

Earlier reviews available here.

Here go:

• A History of Malaysia - Barbara Watson Andaya & Leonard Andaya
  
  Borrowed? No.
  Recommended? For readers interested in a comprehensive and detailed history of Malaysia from its beginnings through the 20th century.
  Reread? As time permits.
  
  
  
• A History of Selangor - J. M. Gullick
  
  Borrowed? No.
  Recommended? Only for those interested in the history of the state of Selangor. For an overall look at the history and politics of current Malaysia, there are much better alternatives. This book is excellent, but somewhat dated and limited in scope.
  Reread? Probably not.
  
  
• A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
  
  Borrowed? No.
  Recommended? This is the second novel of Vikram Seth's that I have read. He is beyond doubt an excellent writer; however, this book lacks the appeal of his first, Golden Gate. A good read, nonetheless.
  Reread? No.
  
  
• Baba Nonnie Goes To War - Ron Mitchell
  
  Borrowed? No.
  Recommended? Interesting book for those interested in a personal recounting of WWII as it occurred on the Pacific front. The author is sometimes bitter and unhappy, understandable when you consider that, like most little boys, he was raised on the glory and romance of war. Poor preparation indeed for the revolting blood-and-guts farce that it really is. In the end, Mr. Mitchell experienced his own epiphany, and that saves the book from the possibility of floppitude. However, it's not a pretty story, so be warned.
  Reread? No.
  
  
• Broca's Brain - Carl Sagan
  Borrowed? No.
  Recommended? Carl Sagan's collection of essays titled Broca's Brain deals with science and pseudo-science, and how they affect our lives. His fact-based, lucid approach to pseudo-science is utterly delightful. Each chapter posits one or more questions regarding science and its application to life. This book will leave you thrilled by the philosophy of science, and eager to read more.
  Reread? Probably, after the next X books are finally dispatched.
  
  
• Famous People of PNG: Bishop Sir Louis Vangeke - Eric Johns
  
• Famous People of PNG: Lady Carol Kidu - Eric Johns
  
• Famous People of PNG: Dame Alice Wedega - Eric Johns
  
• Famous People of PNG: Dame Rose Kekedo - Eric Johns
  
• Famous People of PNG: Tui of Gorendu - Eric Johns
  
• Famous People of PNG: Maino of Moata - Eric Johns
  
• Famous People of PNG: Pipi Gari of Elevala - Eric Johns
  
• Famous People of PNG: Ligeremaluoga of Kono - Eric Johns
  
  Borrowed? Yes.
  Recommended? Highly. This series of booklets describes the lives of prominent Papua-Niuginians. Not much is known by anyone outside PNG about this fascinating country, home to the largest number of languages in the world.
  Reread? Afraid not.
  
  
• Grass- Sherri Tepper
  
  Borrowed? No.
  Recommended? Highly. I think Grass is probably the best of Sherri Tepper's work (or it might share that spot with Plague of Angels or Family Tree or both of them). This must be the fourth time I've read it in as many years, and it never grows tired or old.
  Reread? About once a year, I reckon.
  
  
• Golden Gate - Vikram Seth
  
  Borrowed? No.
  Recommended? Highly. The author's debut is utterly delightful, brilliant, witty, and well worth reading.
  Reread? I wish! Someday.
  
  
• In The Time Of Butterflies - Julia Alvarez
  
  Borrowed? No. Someone gave it to me, damn their eyeballs.
  Recommended? This is an interesting book, although it's rather slow getting off the ground. I daresay if one doesn't know much about the Dominican Republic and the (mis)rule of the dictator Trujillo, it's interesting. The writer is an academic and I'm not sure I like the writing and the style. Still, it's informative.
  Reread? Nope. Gave it away already.
  
  
• Kim - Rudyard Kipling
  
  Borrowed? No.
  Recommended? I've read many things by Kipling, in that tooth-grinding cross between annoyance at doggerel, jingoism, glorification of racism and Empire and that shabby lot, and plain poor writing that, unfortunately occupies too large a niche in world literature for various reasons. Quite honestly, much as I hate to say this, this is the best thing Kipling ever wrote. Unlike the rest of his work, which I honestly believe is only read because it provides an important background for the times in which he lived, this is a beautiful piece of work. Marred by his innate racism, yet allowing a glimpse of a great story to peek through.
  Reread? Quite possibly.
  
  
• Malaysia - R. Emerson
  
  Borrowed? No.
  Recommended? Dated, though a useful introduction to an earlier period of Malaysian history and politics. Regrettably, it is marred by the viewpoint that the writer and his ilk are somehow (for reasons unclear) superior to those about whom he writes. Worth reading only if your interest lies in the subject.
  Reread?
  
  
• Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Vols. 1-4
  
  Borrowed? Fortunately, I was able to borrow this fine piece of work and return it fairly swiftly.
  Recommended?Miyazaki is just excellent, and the story is just excellent, and I just loved this so much. I tend to think of comic books or graphic novels as quick "skim" type reads, but the book is actually very dense with, like, 2-pt type or something. Anyway, it took much longer to go through these four books than I would have thought. Part of it is, of course, the suspension of disbelief as one enters a world of the creator's imagination.
  Reread? No, but it did make me fervently wish Studio Ghibli would make the whole series into films! The film Nausicaa really only covers a tiny bit of the story.
  
  
• Night Butterfly - Tan Guan Heng
  
  Borrowed? No.
  Recommended? Mr. Tan really ought to consider a different line of work. Ballroom dancing or something. Or possibly hiring a ghost writer. This dreadful piece of drivel was read in the hope that I could somehow absorb some of the flavour of that era. Unfortunately, the flavour left much to be desired and required quantities of strong drink to wash down.
  Reread? Good grief, no.
  
  
• Prehistory of the Indo-Malayan Archipelago - Peter Bellwood
  
  Borrowed? No.
  Recommended? Highly. This is a fine scholarly piece of work spanning the prehistory of the territories today known as Malaysia, Philippines, and Indonesia, and includes fascinating information about the tribal communities of the areas and the subsequent migrations from other areas that led to the intermingling of the various groups and development of the languages of the region. Absolutely delightful. Considering the weightiness of the subject the author is gifted in making it not just readable but wonderfully enjoyable.
  Reread? Good heavens, yes, if only there were more time, I'd do it now.
  
  
• Raising the Stones- Sherri Tepper
  
  Borrowed? No. But it was a re-read.
  Recommended? Highly. Another wonderful piece of fiction by Sherri S. Tepper, who is an excellent writer with visionary power unrivalled by any but, possibly, Philip K. Dick.
  Reread?
  
  
• Rhymes of Li Yu Tsai - Chao Shu Li
  
  Borrowed? No.
  Recommended? Yes. Although set in the late 40s through the 50s, this charming little book embodies the spirit of the teaching tales found throughout Asia, one of the best examples of which is the collection known as the Tales of the Mullah Nasruddin. Although dealing with more practical and less spiritual matter, it is, nevertheless, enjoyable.
  Reread? Yes.
  
  
• The Crippled Tree - Han Suyin
  
  Borrowed? No.
  Recommended? Highly, especially to those interested in China, its history and culture, from the rare viewpoint of one who stands in the middle. Though Han Suyin herself was part Belgian, her sympathies clearly lay with her Chinese ancestors, and her ability to relate clearly the incredible exploitation of China and her empathy for the suffering Chinese people will give you rare insight into the events of the period. It's not easy reading, but well worth the effort.
  Reread? Someday.
  
  
• The Family: They Fuck You Up - Granta
  
  Borrowed? No.
  Recommended? Especially for those whose family has fucked them up.
  Reread? Um,no. Enough with the suffering.
  
  
• The Malay Archipelago - Alfred Russell Wallace
  
  Borrowed? No.
  Recommended? Highly, but only to enthusiasts of a particular type of writing once known as "naturalism." Wallace was Darwin's contemporary and quite the enthusiast of the natural world, especially that to be found far from his own home. Unlike most other Englishmen of the period, he appears to have a genuine love and respect for the other cultures he encountered, and other than displaying a regrettable tendency to kill lots of creatures in order to learn about them, is a thoroughly enjoyable writer. Sort of Gerald Durrell in a previous century.
  Reread? If I ever find the time.
  
  
• The Rabbi's Cat - Joann Sfar
  
  Borrowed? Yes.
  Recommended? Highly. Sfar is a Moroccan Jew (I believe), a very talented artist, and owned by a cat rather like our own Gojira, all of which makes this wonderful book well worth reading. Personally, I liked the Rabbi and his cat best of all the many colourful characters herein.
  Reread? Someday!
  
  
• The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd
  
  Borrowed? Yes. Well, it's all Ms. Manitoba's fault, y'know.
  Recommended? Er. Um. It's not a bad book, as books go, as H.H. Munro might've said, and, any road, it went, of which I'm glad. Let's just say that this is the world of white people's views of nonwhite people. Or something. Not a bad book, just not my cuppa tea.
  Reread? No.
  
  
• The Secret Life of Syrian Lingerie - Malu Halasa & Rana Salam
  
  Borrowed? Yes.
  Recommended? Utterly fascinating look at the intimate life of Syrian women, and women in that part of the Muslim world. Given that these women are veiled, mysterious, and unknown to those of us who don't share their culture, their taste in underpantment is, shall we say, revealing. How interesting this book is, I leave you to discover. There is a certain sweet innocence to the pictures, especially to one who is more used to the Victoria's Secret models, who look more like expensive horses than real people.
  Reread? If only for the photographs, I mean, the anecdotes. Srsly, though, this book is recommended.
  
  
• The Unabomber Manifesto - Ted Kaczynski
  
  Borrowed? Found.
  Recommended? No. I was fascinated (though not approving) of this man, expecting to find a genius, possibly a mentally ill one. He might well be one or more of such, but the tone of this book is one long whine against the society wot hath wronged 'im. Geez. Hates women, hates people, hates small furry things. I could barely plough through the drivel, and I don't recommend you do unless you're planning to write a book on the bastid. Though why anyone would want to is utterly beyond me. What a sniveling wretch!
  Reread?

Feck, no!

So I read a lot, but not all the books I'd planned to read, and a lot of what I read ended up being lifesaving entertainment, but so what? The whole purpose of creating an annual list is to have a guideline for getting some of these fecking things off the floor, out of their boxes, and, hopefully out of mah house. I feel good. So there.

Irish Me

irish me
i need irishing
it's that time of year
but i don't want
leprechauns promising pots of gold
shiny shamrocks
kiss me pins
green beer

in my blood
both ancient and new
the bodhrán beats

tell me about
the Picts, Gaels, and Druids
Bridget, the Book of Kells, and the Tara Brooch
the Viking tyranny fought by Mahon and Brian Boru
and, from the time of the Normans,
tell me about Gaelic Ireland
home of the wild Irish
oh, yes, tell me of them,
defiant, from which I come

tell me about how
the Irish saved civilization
but couldn't save themselves

the bodhrán
in the center of my chest
beats the blood around

and can you explain so I understand:
how did the Great Famine happen?
didn’t the English have any food to share?
I’ve heard rumors about those English warehouses …
full of food

talk to me of the Black and Tans,
the Ku Klux Klan of Eire
brought into Ireland
by the British government
to make Ireland
a hell

tell me about my grandfather
born in Galway
buried in Mayo
didn't like him much
but eventually I had a tribal respect
he ran the village's
cooperative grocery
living above it with my grandmother

tell the true true story
about how the Black and Tans
held him at gunpoint many times
to steal gasoline, coffee, sugar
then, as they got desperate
from losing
they gasolined and torched his home
my mother, a baby at the time


(c) k. smokey cormier


bodhrán = ancient Irish drum still used by musicians; pronounced BOW-RAN;

Portola Branch Library Opens Today

The ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Portola Branch Library in San Francisco
(c) all photos by K. Smokey Cormier

Ms. Manitoba talks like she’s an introverted shut-in ... but really I get out more often than you think. And, once shoehorned out of my house, I’m quite gregarious. Today, my kids and I celebrated my oldest daughter’s family birthday at Mifune’s in Japantown in San Francisco. Delicious, scrumptious, and nutritious Tori Udon!

Then we went to the opening of the new Portola Branch of the San Francisco Library. And, folks, there was a big crowd there! This event makes liars out of those Hollywood sitcom writers that make working class folks look uneducated and uninterested in reading or being educated. We’ve always been interested in learning -- as long as we had the leisure time. Hollywood: quit lying about us.

Of course, leisure time is hard to come by these days. Working two or more jobs to keep from going homeless ... or salaried workers working unpaid overtime to appease bosses so they don’t lay you off ...

I don’t know everyone from the activist or city hall crowd who was at the ribbon-cutting ceremony. But here are three who I know were there: Jewelle Gomez, Mark Leno, and Mayor Gavin Newsom. And I actually got a chance to shake Mayor Newsom’s hand and tell him that he is a hero to me. I thanked him for helping make gay marriages legal. And also said: “I know you took some risks.” The guy looked sincerely grateful for my words. Okay, maybe it’s not as much risk as the risk those beautiful LesbigayTransGender people at Stonewall took. But still. He deserves credit.

(Although I must admit I agree with Lamar Van Dyke quoted in The New Yorker this week: “Gays in the military and gay marriage? This is what you guys have come up with?” The other side of that, of course, is that I strongly support equal rights for everyone. I’m of two minds. Libra rising ... it’s a curse.)

There was also a Dragon Dance group that were great ... but, sorry, I don't know their name.

The crowd watches the Dragon dancing. Well, at this point it was slithering on the ground, acting cute and cuddly.

There were a few short speeches, the ribbon was cut, and then we all crammed in (really, there were a lot of people there!) and ate cake.

Mayor Newsom is popular and mixed and mingled, signed autographs, and posed for photos. Hmmm ... he could be our governor one day. I heard more than one person say that.

As you can see, he's a tall guy.

Want to read more about the opening? Go here.

The Van Dykes in The New Yorker !!!!!

I am gobsmacked. Thoroughly. Mightily. The New Yorker has finally acknowledged that lesbian separatists existed in this here country in the '70s.

R-E-A-L-L-Y.

They printed an article by Ariel Levy about this roving gang of lesbian separatists in the 70's who called themselves the "Van Dykes" 'cause they all drove vans.

I must admit I was prepared to be irritated but the article was interesting and I was tickled that they printed it. Hey, you boys at The New Yorker -- you're growin' up!

Of course, now we're going to have to deal with those stereotypes again. But, what the hell, we dealt with them before.

You can't yet read the article online. But you can listen to an interview with Ariel Levy about the article. Go here. [Hmmmm ... you like to be told what to do, eh?]

Thirsty plants

In this neck of the woods, our plants are thirstily drinking up the recent rain water ...

(c) all photos K. Smokey Cormier

Presidio of San Francisco Pet Cemetery

A visit in February, 2009 ...

all photos (c) K. Smokey Cormier

I love cemeteries. I often visit them. They're often quiet and very green. I love to look at the tombstones and other markers. I feel the pull of history too when I'm in a cemetery. My favorite human one is the one in St. Laurent, Manitoba. It's so quiet and is surrounded by the prairies and a swamp. Filled with history too. Lots of Metis people buried there. It's a cemetery from my childhood.

But here we have one for pets -- the Pet Cemetery at the Presidio. I'd never been to one before. And, what a view for these owners when (if?) they come to visit! The base of the Golden Gate Bridge right nearby.

There's a sign at the cemetery that says: Military personnel stationed at the Presidio once buried their deceased pets in this burial plot. Grave markers were provided by the pet owners. The cemetery is operated by the post veternarian and is maintained by private funds and local scouts.

However, this cemetery is threatened by the Doyle Drive Replacement Project. Will the pets be moved? Dunno.

(Update, 12 Dec 2009: The Pet Cemetery will be protected during the Doyle Drive Replacement Project. For details, see this article in the San Francisco Chronicle: "Presidio pet cemetery protected."

Can you read the small print on this one? It says, "He was no trouble"

As we were walking by this one, my friend Rob said: "Not too frisky anymore."

for Bun-Bun

A Visit to Fort Point, San Francisco in February 2009

View from Fort Point towards San Francisco
You can see the refinished roof of the rotunda of the Palace of Fine Arts

all photos (c) K. Smokey Cormier

Fort Point, from the inside

Here's what the web site says about Fort Point:

Fort Point has stood guard at the narrows of the Golden Gate for nearly 150 years. It has been called “the pride of the Pacific,” “the Gibraltar of the West Coast,” and “one of the most perfect models of masonry in America.” When construction began during the height of the California Gold Rush, Fort Point was planned as the most formidable deterrence America could offer to a naval attack on California. Although its guns never fired a shot in anger, the “Fort at Fort Point” as it was originally named has witnessed Civil War, obsolescence, earthquake, bridge construction, reuse for World War II, and preservation as a National Historic Site.

I was impressed with the masonry -- especially the spiral stairs going up to the towers.

There are several canons for you to look at

You can literally stand underneath a part of the Golden Gate Bridge.

And, even though it is often very cold there, you almost always see a surfer or two.